Carlos jumped onto the guard, putting his legs around the guard's neck as the shortest in the men's cell and the other men attacked the lone guard. The guard tried to fend them off but he was outnumbered and eventually was knocked out by Keith. Carlos jumped off before the guard fell face first onto the ground and grinned.

"That was fun." He said as Theo checked the unconscious body for a key before the other guards came to check what the noise was about. When he found the keys, he tried everyone of them on Katie's cell but none of them seemed to work.

"Theo!" Katie whispered as he kept trying the keys, "Stop it, I hear more of them coming."

Theo threw the useless keys down and prepared to attack with the other knights and Keith at his side. As expected, the guards came and they launched attack on them. Katie watched from her cell and winced as the guards, one by one, were knocked out.

The twins and Keith searched every fallen guard's body for the key while the other knights fought the men coming in. After multiple unconscious bodies were on the ground, Keith pulled a key from one of the bodies and unlocked her cell. She limped out on her own uninjured leg and tried not to step on the bodies with the helping arm of Keith.

"Will you be okay on your own?" He asked and she smiled.

"I'm still Pidge Gunderson. I can manage." She replied as she walked off on her own, limping only a little.

 Keith stared at her small body from behind. He was still worried but he didn't want her to feel helpless so he only watched from behind.

They walked back into the light and tried to find their way out of the palace. They hid from the maids and butlers there and followed the suspicious laid out red carpet.

"Doesn't this feel like a trap?" Katie said, looking down at the carpet they were following. "Can't we find a window or balcony to jump out of?"

They all looked at her and her injured leg. She noticed they were also in no condition to jump out like that. They didn't even know how high they were.

"Ah, right..." She mumbled sheepishly and continued walking.

Keith's head pounded as they went from hallway to hallway. This had been happening since they entered Emberlands.

'Leave!' The voices in his head told him but he ignored them from the beginning. Now it seemed like they were back.

As he went ahead, leading his men and Pidge, the voices came back and he felt his beast form emerging from him. Keith hid his face and groaned.

'Why didn't you come out when I needed you in the cell?!' Keith asked in his mind and the voice spoke out.

'Danger ahead! Danger!' It said and Keith turned his slitted transforming amber eyes to the Empress's men before him.

He cursed under his breath and got prepared to attack. They were able to take on a couple of men but Keith and his men were worn out and many of them were injured from the battle before so they had to run. Keith attacked the Empress's men in his beast form, allowing his men to run and only ran when he was sure everyone was already ahead of him.

He ran with his beastly abnormal speed and accidentally passed Pidge, who had trouble getting away with one injured leg. He looked ahead to see that the rest of his men were already out of the palace. He sighed in relief and ran back to help Pidge as the enemy knights were getting closer.

When he reached her, they were surrounded from all sides except one. He clenched his jaw and decided to go for it.

"My Prince?" She looked up at him with wide eyes at seeing his beast form again.

"No time for words."  He said and reached down to pick her up.

"Do you trust me?" He asked, remembering the only exit that wasn't blocked and she blinked.

"Of course Your Highness, you didn't even have to ask-" She said but he swiftly picked her up in his arms before she could finish her sentence.

"Good. I was just making sure." He said, a smile in his voice as he ran to the balcony room with the enemy close behind.

He kicked open the doors and she closed her eyes because she knew what was gonna happen. He jumped down 35 feet from the balcony to the ground with no injury. Keith seemed surprised from it but he didn't have any time to be surprised especially with someone injured in his arms.

He ran until he caught up a little with the rest of his men but the Empress quickly caught up with her famous magic staff and blocked him from getting to his men. She blocked his front and her men blocked his back.

"Well how nice." She said, the same smirk on her lips. "I had a feeling you inherited the beast blood and seems like I was right. I love being right." 

Keith couldn't suppress his beast growl as he glared fiercely at the Empress.

"Let us go now and Galraen will not go to war with Emberlands." Keith said, his voice lower but she laughed.

"By the time your kingdom declares war, the volcano would've erupted already and you wouldn't be able to find Emberlands." She said confidently, pointing her staff to the ground.

"If you had magic, why cant you protect yourself and Emberlands from the volcanic eruption?" He asked and he was sure he heard her sigh.

"My magic isn't pure and it's running out. If I had enough I wouldn't be here trying to capture you." She said, stretching her fingers. "Now capture him. His little knights will come for him if we get him first."

Keith looked down in his arms and saw how injured she was.

'I can't fight with her, it's too much of a risk.' He thought and jumped over all the men that were coming for them. They seemed surprised but quickly turned directions and chased him into the forest.

Keith's stamina, now that he was a beast, really helped him to get away into the forest but he knew it wouldn't last. He slowed down but kept running away from the enemy. They were a couple of blocks away so he decided to start fighting instead of fleeing. 

He set Pidge down against a tree behind him and cracked his knuckles ready to fight the men. The men came for him all at once. He beat them all one by one, finding their weak points through their armor and never left the tree. The remaining men were more scared of him this time so they approached one by one.

"Let me help." He heard her say from the back.

"No, it will do more harm than good." He said as he fought the men.

She didn't respond after that so he just kept on defending the tree. He used all his strength knocking out the men but he could see that more were coming from within the forest. 

As he was debating on a direction to run, he heard a whisk of a arrow pass by him by a few inches and saw it go through a man's chest. He looked back thinking it was Mark based on his archery skills but saw that it was a masked man instead.

His first instinct was to get out while the man was killing the Empress's men but he figured he wouldn't get far. He picked Pidge up from the ground, who still looked like she wanted to help, and hid behind the tree until the arrows stopped flying. Then he heard the stranger coming towards them.

Keith got ready to fight but it was difficult with Pidge in his arms.

"Let me down." She whispered but he shook his head.

The stranger came to them squinting his eyes and held his wrist to his mask that covered his mouth.

"Boss this one looks interesting." He said into the communication device on his wrist and Keith could hear noise coming from it.

"Okay, I got it." The man replied after a while and got out another object but this time it was familiar.

Keith didn't have a chance to react before the man tased him but he dropped Pidge quickly so she wouldn't be affected by the taser.

"Keith!" He heard her shout as he fell on the ground.

'Funny..Why does she sound a lot like someone?' He thought before he fell unconscious.

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A/N

Second chapter is done! 

Uh-oh, looks like Keith and Katie have gotten in trouble again. Who do you think is the man? Where did he come from? Who is the person he was talking to?

Comment your guesses here! It probably won't be right (no offense hehe) but I like seeing your comments. (Sorry, I'm kinda selfish too 😅)

Thank you for reading the second chapter of this book and I hope that you have a good weekend.

(Fall break for me, woohoo!!)

-Silver