He called after me, but I ignored him. As soon as I knew I was out of his sight, I broke into a run, desperate to get away. To leave him and Lady Vera behind. Tears blinded me as I tripped over roots and weeds. My toe caught on a broken stone and I nearly fell. I stumbled to a halt, gasping for air past the horrible, burning pain that clawed at my chest. I was nearly out of the gardens, and I couldn’t allow anyone to see me like this.
With a deep, shuddering breath, I straightened my spine and wiped at my face. I had asked for this — I’d told him no, more than once. But I supposed, in some deep corner of my heart, I’d always hoped that somehow, some way, he would know the truth of my feelings and find a way for us to be together.
Pulling back my shoulders, I stepped out of the gardens to see Rylan hurrying toward me from the other direction.
“Did you find him?” he asked, his expression panicked.
“Yes.” My voice broke, and I cleared my throat and repeated myself, louder. “Yes, I found him.”
“Where is he? What happened?” Rylan ground to a halt in front of me. “Have you been crying? Alexa — what’s wrong?”
“No, I wasn’t watching where I was going, and I got hit in the eye by a branch,” I lied. “The king is fine. He gave us permission to go, but we have to be back tonight to report.” I strode away from him, toward the closest gate that would release us from the palace grounds and out into the untamed jungle of Antion.
“Alexa, are you sure —”
“I’m fine!” I practically shouted. “Let’s go before we waste any more time. Jax needs us, all right?”
I didn’t look back to see if Rylan followed me as I left the gardens — and my shattered heart — behind us.
THOUGH THE TRACKS were few and far between, we managed to continue to find traces of the abductors’ passing, along with one or two smaller prints that I was now absolutely certain belonged to Jax. The kidnappers seemed to be avoiding civilization — staying far away from the small towns and roads that had been painstakingly carved out of the underbrush, vines, and trees, keeping to the deep, lush jungle instead. As we made our slow progress through the tangled vegetation, I tried to force my mind to stay focused on tracking Jax. But over and over, the scene of Damian holding Lady Vera in his arms, his head bent forward, his lips on her skin, replayed. Despite the oppressive heat, a cold chill had taken hold of my heart, sending icy regret deep into my body. Maybe I’d been wrong to think I wasn’t worthy of being his queen — surely I was a better option than Vera.
“Alexa, look,” Rylan called out, startling me. We’d been trekking through the jungle for more than an hour already.
I stopped and turned to look back at him. Even in the shade of the canopy overhead, perspiration coated my skin and made my hairline damp. Rylan’s tunic was dark with sweat along the collar, in between his shoulder blades and underneath the leather straps that crossed over his chest and fastened a quiver of arrows to his back. He gestured for me to look at a tree a few feet away from him. A tiny scrap of fabric hung from a branch. I stepped forward, careful to avoid a hole in the ground that was probably some creature’s home, and pulled the fabric free.
It was the same material and color as one of Damian’s tunics — definitely something from the palace.
“Do you think it’s Jax’s?”
I nodded. “It has to be. It’s too big to just be an accidental snag. Maybe he tore off a piece and tossed it when they weren’t paying attention, to give us a clue of where to go.” Smart boy, I thought.
“Well, at least we know we’re on the right track.”
I replaced the fabric, just in case we needed help finding our way back to the palace.
For the next hour, the signs grew fewer and farther apart. The random boot prints all but disappeared, and there were no more pieces of fabric to guide us. The canopy overhead wasn’t as thick here, which made it possible for the rain to have washed away all traces of their passing. I was continuing forward on instinct more than anything, and a determination not to go back to the palace without Jax. The poor boy was probably terrified. And I knew Damian was frantic with worry for his brother.
Unless Vera was doing too good a job distracting him.
“Alex, maybe you should slow down. We might miss something,” Rylan said from behind me, but I ignored him and kept pressing forward. My stomach was churning and my eyes burned. I was glad Rylan was behind me, where he couldn’t see my struggle.
I just didn’t understand how Damian could do this. Why now? Why her? Women had thrown themselves at him for years, and he’d never reciprocated. He’d claimed the reason was because of me — because he’d known my secret from the beginning and had fallen for me. But it seemed foolish of me to have believed him. If he truly loved me —
“Alex!” Rylan cried out from behind me, and before I even knew what was happening, he’d grabbed my arm and pulled me backward just as a massive snake dropped from a branch above where I’d been standing only a split second earlier. I screamed and jumped even farther back as Rylan drew his sword, ready to slice the snake open. The snake coiled its body, its head lifted, flicking its tongue out and back, over and over again. As I slowly stepped away, it lifted its head higher, preparing to strike.
“Rylan, back away,” I whispered, and he inched backward along with me. I reached for the bow that was slung across my chest, pulled it over my head along with an arrow, swiftly nocked the arrow, and then let it fly. The arrow struck the snake through the mouth and out the back of its skull. It flung its head back with a horrible, strangled, hissing sound. Rylan leaped forward and finished the job with his sword, chopping the head clean off the body, and the snake fell into a lifeless heap on the ground.
My heart racing, I lowered my bow and glanced at Rylan.
“Are you all right?” My voice came out shaky. My last encounter with a snake in the jungle rose up unbidden. That time I hadn’t been so lucky; the snake had taken me unaware and wrapped around my body before I’d had a chance to react. Marcel had been the one to save me then, rushing up and cutting the snake off me before it could squeeze me to death.
“I’m fine.” Rylan stepped toward me, resheathing his sword. “Are you?”
I shook my head, and he reached out to take my shoulders in his hands. The tears I’d been fighting abruptly broke free, spilling over onto my cheeks. Rylan put his arms around me and held me as I cried. And I let him. I hadn’t felt this weak in a long time, but I couldn’t hold back the sobs.
I was so alone. My entire family was gone, and right then I missed them so much it was a physical pain, lodged in my chest. Rylan held me tightly as I cried out my hurt, my frustration, my loneliness. He ran his hand over my hair, cupping my head and holding it to his chest. The feel of his arms around me was comforting, but nothing more. I wanted to be held by Damian. I wanted him to look at me the way he had this morning before I’d told him to stop — again.
But I’d made my choice. And now he’d moved on from me.
“Alexa.” Rylan’s voice was quiet and low.
I lifted my head to look up at him. The gold flecks in his earnest brown eyes were more prominent today for some reason. Or maybe it was because I was standing so close to him, with our bodies touching and his arms around me, that I could see them so well.
“Thank you,” I said quietly.
“Just keeping my promise.”
Yet another reminder of my brother — Rylan’s promise to Marcel to watch out for me and to protect me. I smiled sadly. The sudden grief on his face echoed my own. We’d both lost our brothers. We were both completely alone in this world.
Unless … I gave in to what he wanted and let him into my heart. We could have each other — if I let it happen. I knew how Rylan felt. As he stared down into my eyes, I could see the need that he struggled to hide from me. He wanted to kiss me — I could feel it. I knew it, even without looking at him.
But I couldn’t do it.
Despite what I’d seen today, my heart wa
s Damian’s. Kissing Rylan would be a lie. It would only hurt him in the end. Unless there came a day when I no longer loved the king we served, nothing could happen between us. Rylan was my only true friend, and I couldn’t let anything ruin that.
I gently pulled away from him, and he let go without a word.
“We’d better keep going” was all I said.
Rylan nodded, his expression guarded, but I could see the resignation in his eyes before I turned away.
We walked carefully around the dead snake, and I suppressed a shudder. Rylan stayed closer behind me now, and I didn’t complain.
At least half an hour passed before I found another boot print. Reassured that my instincts were correct — that we were on the right path — we kept pressing forward. And then finally, finally, we heard it: the sound of voices ahead of us.
I GESTURED SILENTLY AT Rylan to flank me on the left, and we crept forward slowly, eyes and ears alert for any sign of an outer watchman who would warn the abductors of our presence. But as we made our way closer to what seemed to be a hastily set up camp, there was no sign of anyone keeping guard. They were a cocky group, if they assumed no one could track them through the jungle.
We crouched behind a large bush in the shadow of a copse of trees and peered into the camp from our hidden vantage point.
They’d found a clearing of sorts and had haphazardly set up a smattering of small tents and one larger one. In the middle of the clearing was a makeshift fire pit. Several men sat on the ground around it, talking and laughing. They wore clothing common to Antionese villagers, but I didn’t recognize any of them — or their language. Though I didn’t speak Blevonese, I knew what it sounded like, and these men were not speaking the language in which the ransom note had been written.
Damian was right. The kidnappers weren’t Blevonese — it was a setup.
They had to be from Dansii, then. But why? What did King Armando have to gain by causing another war with Blevon? He obviously didn’t want the alliance, for which Damian had sacrificed so much, to last. But to what end?
Rylan grabbed my arm and pointed silently. I followed his finger and stiffened. Jax was sitting on the ground in the shade of a tent, tied up with rope. One of the men tossed something at him, and he stared down at the ground with dismay on his familiar face. It looked like food, but he couldn’t reach it with his hands tied behind his back. Anger pulsed hot through my blood as I watched Jax try to bend his body forward and eat the food off the ground like an animal. The men watching laughed and mocked him. When he finally bit into whatever it was, the closest man reached out and swiped the food from his mouth so that it rolled through the dirt and out of his reach. Jax sat back up, his shoulders sagging in defeat. Even from here, I could see how he clenched his jaw, but his thin body trembled as though he was trying to hold in sobs.
Fury strangled me, but when Rylan moved like he was about to jump up and charge into the clearing, I grabbed him and yanked him back down. He glanced at me, his eyes wide in surprise, but I shook my head and gestured for him to follow me back, away from the camp. We melted into the depths of the jungle, away from the clearing and Jax.
We had to think clearly. There were eight men visible and probably more in the tents. We were both talented fighters, but those were not the best odds, even for us. My bigger fear, though, was that Jax was in the middle of them — they could easily hurt or kill him if we tried to attack, using him as leverage to make us stop, and then they’d have captured us as well.
When we were quite a distance from the camp and well out of earshot, I whispered, “We need backup. There are too many of them to get to Jax.”
“We can fight them — it’s too big of a risk to leave him. They could keep going, and then we wouldn’t find them again in time,” Rylan argued.
“That isn’t a makeshift camp for a short break. They aren’t going anywhere until their demands are met — or their threat fulfilled. We have two more days. And yes, we could fight them, but what if they hurt Jax? What if they threaten him to make us stop? What then?”
Rylan stared at me in frustrated silence. “You’re right. We have to get back to the palace and report to Damian,” he said.
“You go.”
Rylan turned to me. “By myself? And what exactly are you planning on doing?”
“I’m going to watch over Jax.” I wasn’t thrilled about the idea of staying in the jungle alone, but I couldn’t leave the boy at the kidnappers’ mercy, completely without help or hope. If something happened to him now, I could never forgive myself.
Rylan looked like he wanted to argue with me, but he clenched his jaw instead and just looked at me wordlessly for a long moment.
A bird cried in the distance, a haunting sound that echoed across the thick foliage, and I shivered. But as I thought of Jax sitting on the hard, moist ground, his arms bound behind him, being forced to eat like a dog, my fear turned to resolve. “Tell Damian that we found him but we need help — enough men to surround them and get them to surrender without a fight. Bring them back to me by morning, and I’ll make sure Jax stays safe until you get back.”
Rylan shook his head. “I can’t let you stay here alone. It’s too dangerous.”
“We don’t have a choice! We’re outnumbered, and we’re running out of time before they follow through on their threats. We have to split up. It’s the only way to save him.”
“And you,” Rylan added.
We were silent for a long moment, looking at each other. Fear beat in time with my heart, but also determination. This would work — it had to. Rylan would bring help, and we would save Jax. Damian would do what it took to save his brother. And this way, I didn’t have to go back to the palace yet. I didn’t have to see him and face the reality of his apparent infatuation with Vera.
“Be safe,” Rylan finally said, his voice so soft I could barely hear it.
“I’ll be fine, Ry,” I said, lifting my chin, hoping I looked braver than I felt. I couldn’t let myself think about what had happened the last time I’d been alone in the jungle. My shoulder suddenly ached, a reminder of the jaguar attack that should have killed me.
Rylan blinked at his nickname — which I hadn’t used in a long time — and then nodded. He reached up and let the back of his fingers trace down my cheek to my jaw. I didn’t speak or move.
“All right,” he said at last, letting his hand drop. “I’ll bring all the help I can at first light.”
“You be careful, too.”
He smiled wistfully at me. “I will be.”
Rylan turned and walked away from me, toward the palace. I watched him for a long moment and then squared my shoulders and plunged back into the jungle toward the camp — and Jax.
I moved as quickly as possible, leery of the unseen dangers of the jungle. No one was here this time to save me if a predator decided to make me its next meal. Suddenly, I heard a noise behind me and spun around, expecting death to be on my heels. Instead, I got smacked in the face with a low-hanging branch. There was a chattering in a tree a few feet back, drawing my attention upward, where I saw a small black-and-white monkey clinging to a branch, watching me with enormous eyes.
Heart still pounding, I turned my back on the monkey and continued on my way. I kept hearing sounds and glanced over my shoulder to see the monkey following me, swinging from tree to tree in my wake. When I looked at it, the creature would freeze and wait for me to keep going. I tried to ignore it, hoping it would lose interest soon, but as I got closer and closer to the camp, the monkey stayed on my trail, chattering and calling after me. Unless I turned around, in which case it would stop and watch me silently.
As the sun sank lower in the sky and the jungle began to settle into the indistinct shadow of twilight, I decided I was grateful for my unlikely companion. As long as the monkey was interested in following me, it was probably safe to assume no predators were nearby.
When I was close enough to the camp to hear the men’s voices, I slowed to a crawl, pull
ing out my sword — just in case — and melted from tree to tree, my eyes and ears tuned for any sign of a lookout. But just like last time, there was no one outside the camp keeping watch. I drew close enough to spy Jax still sitting on the ground, his head lolling to the side. The poor boy had fallen asleep sitting up. His dark hair was plastered to his forehead, damp with sweat, even though the temperature was finally cooling off with the lowering sun. The black-and-white monkey swung itself up higher into a tree near the camp, staring down at the men without a sound, his tiny face cocked to one side.
“Sure, now you’re quiet,” I muttered under my breath as I searched for a good spot to spend the night — somewhere safe, where I could keep an eye on Jax. I finally decided I would be safest in a tree as well, one with large branches and thick leaves, where I could sit down, hide, and maintain a good view of the camp. And as luck would have it, the best tree available was the one my furry companion had chosen. I silently sheathed my sword and crept over to the base. It was massive, with a thick trunk, branches wide enough for me to sit on, and large leaves and vines twining through it. It would be a little bit harder to see the camp through all the greenery, but it would also protect me from being spotted.
The bark scraped my hands as I grabbed the lowest limb and soundlessly pulled myself up. When I was a good twelve feet above the ground, I found a nice wide branch and decided to stop. I twisted my scabbard so that my sword hung next to me, and slung my bow across my chest, beside my quiver of arrows. I settled back against the trunk of the tree, extending my legs out in front of me. The monkey chittered softly at me from its perch a few branches up and then turned its attention back to the camp.
I did the same, searching for Jax. He was still sleeping, his chin against his chest now. A few men stood by him. I watched as they gestured to one another and at Jax, seemingly arguing about something. I could hear their voices but didn’t understand their language. One of the men threw his hands up in the air and then bent down and smacked Jax across the cheek. I stifled a gasp of outrage as the boy startled awake, his eyes wide with fear and pain.
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