by Renee Carr
Christine tried to think rationally. Who should she call? Cory was his own person, and if he decided to show them up, there was technically nothing she could do.
But what if something had happened? He hadn’t responded to messages for several days. She couldn't exactly go against the queen’s orders and demand they contact him.
The minutes ticked by and Christine’s heart rate rose with each one. He wasn’t there, he wasn’t coming.
She waited until almost intermission before she made a decision. Pulling out her phone, she called Leah because it seemed like a better idea than calling Joshua.
“He WHAT?” Leah said when she answered. Christine couldn’t tell where she was, but it was somewhere noisy. “When did you notice this?”
“He hasn’t been answering the queen’s messages for about five days,” Christine stammered. “I just thought... I thought that he was being... aloof. The queen didn’t seem concerned.”
“Christine,” Leah’s voice was sharp. “Listen to me. Hang up and put yourself as close to Ivy as possible.”
“She’s on stage,” Christine said. “She wouldn’t let me...”
“Then stand in the damn wings,” Leah said. “Wait for orders.”
The deputy captain hung up and Christine took a deep breath. This was not the way her first assignment was supposed to go.
She managed to find her way back through the darkened hallways to the backstage area. Ivy was in her dressing room, frantically changing her costume. From the look on her face, Christine could see she was completely focused. As far as the young guard knew, Ivy was not even aware of Cory’s absence.
“Can you just tie this up?” Ivy asked, giving Christine her corset strings.
“Of course, “Christine said, trying to stop her voice from shaking. She wasn’t sure what to say to the queen. Did she alert her of potential danger? Or did she allow her to finish her show in peace?
“Did you get Cory to his seat alright?” Ivy asked.
“I uh...” Christine didn’t want to out and out lie to the queen. “He’s not here.”
“What?” Ivy spun around in shook. “What are you talking about? Where is he?”
“I don’t know,” Christine said. “I was hoping that you’d know. I waited for him...”
“Why didn’t you tell me?” Ivy almost exploded at the guard, grabbing her phone.
“I uh... I didn’t want to... I should have told you, I’m sorry,” Christine said. “I know you have a break so...”
“Did you tell anyone else?” Ivy asked and Christine nodded.
“I called my deputy captain. She said to wait in the wings for you and await further orders from the guard unit.”
“For Creator’s sake,” Ivy said and dialed a number. She waited a few moments and then spoke to the person on the other end. “Nathan, your idiot brother is missing. I need to make sure he’s not in some sort of complete disaster trouble.”
She waited a few more minutes.
“No, I have the second act to do,” she said. “We’ll figure it out.”
With that, she hung up, leaving Christine to stare in shock.
“What?” Ivy asked.
“It’s just... he’s the king,” Christine said, and Ivy shrugged.
“Yep,” she said. “He’s also my husband and that is how we work so well together. Now, I have to get out on stage.”
Christine was a bundle of nerves the entire second half of the performance. She kept a close eye on Ivy, who took up the entire stage with her presence. Christine was nervous that Ivy being in front of so many eyes would lead to danger, but the queen managed to walk offstage unharmed after several encores.
“Any news?” Ivy asked as soon as she got offstage. Christine shook her head.
“No one has said anything to me. I need you to get back to the hotel, just in case something isn't... right.”
“He’s probably just gotten into mischief somewhere,” Ivy said but grabbed her things. She didn’t even bother to say goodbye to her friends, which Christine took as a sign of trouble.
They were only back in the room for a few minutes when Ivy’s phone rang. She answered it and put it on speaker-phone for Christine’s benefit.
“Hello?” she said.
“No one has seen him for 5 days,” Joshua’s voice was on the other end. “He didn’t show up for the ribbon cutting.”
“What?” Ivy asked in shock. “But... he was there, wasn't he? I mean, he was messaging me.”
“He did arrive,” Joshua said. “He had gotten there a few days early. However, when it came time for the ceremony, he was nowhere to be found. You haven’t had more recent communication with him, have you?”
“Nada,” Ivy confirmed. “I was hoping that he was just being a dick. But...”
“I think you two should come home,” Joshua said.
“Out of the question,” Ivy said. “Just because Cory is missing, which I am very concerned about, does not mean I’m in danger.”
“Sister,” Joshua’s voice was sharp. “You can’t just assume that you are safe on Earth.”
“I am safe on Earth,” she said. “And I always have been. It’s only when the dragons got involved that there started to be trouble.”
“Ivy,” Nathan’s voice was suddenly on the other end of the line. “This is serious.”
Ivy softened at the sound of her husband’s voice.
“How do you know he’s not just being himself?” she asked. “Cory likes to get away for a few days.”
‘Not like this,” Nathan said. “He’s a mischievous little shit, but he’s not irresponsible.”
“I suppose,” Ivy sighed and looked at her watch. “Everyone has left the theater, likely. Anyone of consequence, anyways. They’ve sold tickets with my name on them, in any case. I can’t just march in and decide to leave.”
“You are not deciding,” Nathan said.
“No,” she replied. “This is part of the deal. I don’t get called away from my career unless I choose to.”
“We actually could use your help,” Leah was suddenly on the line as well. She sounded out of breath as if she had run for the phone.
“My help?” Ivy asked. “Why?”
“Because it appears whoever took Cory left something behind,” Leah said. “It’s a cell phone, from Earth. The owner can be tracked down, can’t they?”
“Possibly,” Ivy said. “If it’s not a burner phone. Let me stay here and I’ll investigate it.”
“Ivy...” Nathan said.
“I don’t care, send me the entire guard unit,” Ivy responded bitterly. “I'm not going to give up this gig, at least not yet.”
“Christine,” Joshua said quietly.
“You think I should come home,” Christine felt tears fill up her eyes. “I failed. I’m sorry...”
“Christine, you didn’t fail,” Joshua said. “The queen is safe, for now. And your skills are more useful here. I’ll send in a SWAT unit.”
“You will send the best,” Nathan said.
“Not unless you want Leah and me to go,” Joshua answered. “She’ll be safe, don’t worry.”
“Send the phone,” Ivy said. “I’ll find who took him and kill them. Do you know how difficult it was to get a ticket for him? The show has been oversold forever.”
“I appreciate that is your main concern,” Nathan said and Ivy shrugged.
“Let's just bring Cory home,” she said. “Race you.”
Chapter 9
“It’s registered to a wolf shifter,” Joshua said, when Ivy got him the information the next day. He wasn’t sure how she did it without hacking into the security systems of Earth or getting any other information from them. She had assured him that all she needed was the phone and she was apparently right. “Remy something. Wolf shifter.”
Leah, on her first day back on duty, looked ready to strangle someone.
“Okay, so just because he’s a wolf shifter doesn’t mean we can track him,” she said. “They trav
el everywhere, you know that.”
“We could call Devon,” Joshua suggested. Devon was the werewolf Alpha, and he had been an amazing asset the last few years. It used to be that wolves and dragons were in an all-out war. In fact, it was the dragon-wolf feud that had made John lose his mind in the end. The pressure was too much, and Nathan had made it a priority to end the feud, once and for all. He and Devon, who had come up as Betas together, were now the best of friends. Joshua didn’t quite understand their friendship, considering they were so different, but he never questioned it. After all, there were so many people who didn’t understand Leah’s friendship with him, and he didn’t want to become one of those people. Instead, he sighed.
“Poor Devon,” he said. “It’s not his fault one of his people is crazy.”
“So you don’t think there is any chance that Devon is behind this?” Leah asked.
“I really don’t think so,” Joshua replied. Leah sat on the table, trying to think about whether or not there was a way to find out more information about this wolf. She didn’t like to get other shifter clans involved because she didn’t know what their inner motivations were. “Let’s just ask Devon.”
“Get Nathan to ask him,” Leah said. “Whatever the two of them have, I don’t think Devon will lie to Nathan.”
“He probably won’t,” Joshua said, and sent a message to his brother over the inter-palace communication system. Leah noticed another window up and pointed to it.
“What are you saying to Christine?” she asked.
“Nothing,” Joshua said. “She’s just upset, so I’m reassuring her. It wasn’t her fault.”
“But it sort of was,” Leah said. “I mean, if they knew that Cory wasn’t answering, then they could have let us know sooner.”
“Perhaps,” Joshua said. “Or nothing would have come of it.”
“Why are you so calm about this?” Leah demanded. “Your brother is missing, there is no sign of him, and he has possibly been kidnapped by a wolf shifter.”
“I understand all of that,” Joshua said. “But Cory is strong, and he won’t go down without a fight. If anything has happened to him that has left him wounded, I promise we would not have found the room in such order. This is a royal kidnapping, which means that they are likely going to ask for a ransom note very soon. And when they do, I will be able to track him better.”
“Always the confident one,” Leah replied and Joshua grinned.
“I try,” he said. “Besides, Cory has been known to mess with the wolves a bit. Even with Devon’s Betas, he isn’t the kindest. He’s fine. I would know if he wasn’t.”
“Would you?” Leah held his gaze.
“I knew when John wasn’t alright,” Joshua said quietly. Leah placed a hand on his arm, and the two of them sat in silence for a moment, looking at the information on the screen.
They were interrupted by a knock on the door. Joshua looked up to see one of his guards, looking tired but standing at attention.
“Change of the guards, sir,” he said. “We are going to march through the south route, just to change it. Do you want to supervise it?”
“I do,” Joshua said and stood up. “Leah?”
“Yeah, I’ll come,” she said, looking reluctantly at the computer screen. “The king just messaged back; he’ll call Devon this afternoon.”
“Then all is well in the world,” Joshua said. “At least, for the moment. As much as is possible.”
The changing of the guards was a routine operation. There were always guards at the palace door, and they marched through their shifts every four hours, on average. When Joshua didn’t feel like the palace was in danger, they fell in a bit more of a routine. When there was danger, the guards themselves set a random and secret schedule every day, to keep people guessing.
Joshua and Leah took their place at the side of the door, watching as the guards performed their maneuvers. They didn’t say a word, eyes completely on the guards and then the surrounding areas. Joshua’s mind drifted slightly, trying to reach through his magic to check on Cory. He couldn’t quite use telepathy, but usually he could feel if his younger brother was in some sort of distress. He didn’t feel distress, but he did feel that Cory was somewhere in the universe, which reassured him.
“ATTACK!”
Suddenly, Leah’s voice screamed through the air, jerking him out of his daze. He jolted back to reality in order to ascertain the problem. To his absolute horror, there were dragons swooping out of the sky, breathing fire at his guards, who were still in human form.
“Transform!” he screamed, pushing his own transformation. He had been looking for wolves, not dragons. This was not an attack he expected.
Beside him, Leah transformed as well, swooping up to the sky.
Fighting with Leah came naturally to him. He could connect to her mind like no one else’s. He knew how to anticipate every swoop, every breath. He moved in tandem with her, trying to simultaneously figure out who exactly these rogue dragons were.
It only took the guard unit a few minutes to take the rebels down. There weren’t enough of them for two guard units to even really feel threatened.
Joshua forced his transformation back to human, screaming orders as they tackled the last rebel to the ground.
“LEAVE HIM ALIVE!” he screamed. “LEAVE HIM ALIVE!”
His guards were well trained and they followed orders immediately. Instead of delivering a killing blow to the rebel in question, they pinned him down. Beside him, Leah swooped back to human, panting. She seemed out of breath, something that normally didn’t happen to the seasoned warrior. However, Joshua noted that she was standing on her own two feet, and so he didn’t question her. He knew it would annoy her if he checked that she was alright every few minutes.
“Do you recognize him?” he barked at his guards. “Does anybody recognize him?”
No one said a word and so Joshua approached the rebel, resisting the urge to kick him in the face.
“Who are you?” he demanded. “Do you know what is going to happen when I take you in front of the council? This is treason.”
The rebel didn’t answer, and Joshua growled. The others were alive but unconscious. As much as he wanted answers, he wasn’t going to get any out here on the ground.
“Where did you get that cut?” Leah demanded, pointing to his arm. The rebel still didn’t answer, and Leah got closer. “Those are wolf scrapes. Look, Joshua.”
Joshua hadn’t even noticed, but now that she pointed it out, it was obvious. They were wolf scrapes and they were fresh. Whoever this dragon was, he had been with the wolves recently.
“Answer her,” Joshua said. “Or your room in the dungeon will be infinitely less comfortable.”
The dragon still didn’t say a word, glaring at them. Joshua took a deep breath and turned to Leah.
“Take them to the dungeon,” he said. “I’ll get them in front of the council and they will answer questions or they will die.”
“We’re going to die anyways!” the rebel screamed out suddenly. Joshua spun around to see him struggling to get up. “Isn’t that right, my prince?” his tone was sarcastic and made the title sound like an insult. “The penalty for treason is death. We’re going to die no matter what, so why not kill us now? We will never talk!”
“Oh, won’t you?” Joshua got up in his face. “We have ways of making you talk that even your worst nightmare can’t imagine.”
“You will never make me talk,” the dragon scoffed. Joshua wasn’t going to take this insubordination any longer. He hit the dragon square in the face, and felt a satisfying crunch of bone. The dragon’s head hit the ground and he went limp.
“Yeah, I bet I can,” Joshua said, giving him a glare. “Alright, let’s take them all to the dungeons.”
“You know,” Leah said, “I bet we could swab that cut on his arm and run a DNA test. Or at least send it to Devon. Does their friendship extend that far?”
“I think it would,” Joshua said and turned
to the rest of the guards. “Is that clear?”
One of them nodded, and Joshua gave the orders to continue.
“I’ll get you the sample,” Leah said, although she looked like she might fall. He couldn't resist touching her arm.
“Are you sure that you...”
“Could you not?” she said. “Everyone has been on my case.”
“I know,” he said. “But you look...”
“Hello, I just saw battle,” she said. “Not all of us have super dragon blood like you do.”
“Okay, okay,” Joshua held up his hands. “Go ahead.”
“Thank you,” she answered and followed the others down the path. She was a bit unsteady and he watched her with a crushing sadness. Nothing could happen to Leah; it just couldn’t.
“Joshua!” Christine came running out of the palace then. She hadn’t been on guard duty, but she had been in the garrison, which no doubt had been alerted just a few minutes too late. “What’s happened?”
“Everything is fine,” Joshua assured her. “Want to see how to do an interrogation?”
“Yes, please,” she said with a smile. Joshua resisted the urge to take her arm in front of the other guards. At the very least, a teachable moment had come out of this.
“Was anybody hurt?” Christine asked. “There’s blood on the path.”
“I was the one who did the hurting,” he assured her.
“I’m sorry I missed it,” Christine answered. “That was action I’d like to see.”
“Don’t worry about it,” Joshua said grimly. “I have a feeling that there will be lots of action in the coming days.”
“I hope so,” Christine answered, a little too eagerly.
“No one died today,” he said to her. “But we are lucky. It could have easily been the case.”
“Of that I am grateful,” she said, looking deep into his eyes. “Especially that you are alright.”
He thought that it crossed the line a bit in front of his other guards, so he turned his head to make sure that the rebels were safely down the stairs and around the corner. He noted that Leah seemed to be alright, and then turned his attention back to Christine.
“Come on,” he said. “Let’s go inside.”
