I tossed the blankets off me. Shivering, I stood and went to him. I couldn’t hug him with my wrists shackled, so I laid my hands against his chest. “You couldn’t have known. Even my father didn’t know until his memory came back.”
He wrapped his arms tightly around me, and it broke the damn of emotions inside me. I cried for him, our family, and everything we’d lost. It wasn’t until I felt him shake that I realized he was crying, too.
“I have a sister,” he said hoarsely, and my chest expanded with bittersweet joy.
We were still holding each other when the door opened. I lifted my head as Bayard entered and eyed us impatiently.
“This is no time for a tryst, Rhys,” he growled. “Donan says Bauchan will come for her within the hour.”
I shuddered as the reality of my situation came crashing down on me once more. How could I have forgotten, even for a second, what was waiting for me?
“I will not let them hurt you again,” Rhys said fiercely. “We will get you out of here.”
“We?” Bayard glared at him. “You want us to help a prisoner of the queen escape? That is treason.”
“It is not treason if the crown prince commands you to do it.” Rhys released me and scowled at his head of security.
Bayard raised an eyebrow, and I got the impression Rhys rarely issued commands to him. It was confirmed when his mouth twisted into a wry smile. “Of course, Your Highness. How are we to smuggle your little friend out of the palace? She does not exactly blend in, and Bauchan has strengthened the wards. We cannot even create a portal inside the palace.”
Rhys thought for a moment. “We could take her to the door in the servants’ wing that we used to sneak out as children.”
My breath bottled up in my chest as I dared to hope for the first time in days.
Bayard was quick to squash it. “It’s on the other end of the palace. We’d never make it without being caught.”
“Perhaps we could hide her,” Kaelen said, joining the conversation. “She would fit in one of those large baskets used to collect bed linens.”
“We would not look at all suspicious carrying a linen basket,” Bayard retorted. He turned to Rhys. “Anything we try will be risky. Is she worth incurring the queen’s wrath?”
“Yes,” Rhys answered without hesitation.
Bayard’s surprised gaze flicked to me. “Why?”
Rhys laid an arm over my shoulders. “Shut the door, Kaelen.”
Kaelen obeyed. He and Bayard stood together watching us expectantly. Rhys didn’t make them wait long.
“Because Jesse is my sister.”
“What?” The two guards exclaimed at the same time.
Bayard pointed an accusing finger at me. “That is impossible. What lies did you tell him to make him believe such a ludicrous claim?”
“Do not speak to her that way,” Rhys ordered in a hard voice.
“You cannot believe this.” Bayard shot him an incredulous look. “She is using you to help her escape.”
Rhys looked at me, and I nodded. The truth had to come out eventually, and we might as well start with the people he trusted the most. I needed them if I had any hope of getting out of here alive.
Ten minutes later, Bayard and Kaelen were staring at me like they’d never seen me before. Bayard wasn’t one hundred percent convinced by my story, but he admitted that Aibel and Conard had been acting strange that night at the Ralston. And Bauchan had told him multiple times to keep Rhys away from the James family. The reason given had been the queen’s disapproval of her son associating with bounty hunters.
“You have the same eyes,” Kaelen declared, looking from me to Rhys. “How did I never see it?”
I smiled at Rhys. “We have our father’s eyes and our mother’s hair. Yours was as red as mine once.”
Bayard held up a hand. “We still need to address the why and how of this?”
“The how is pretty obvious,” I said. “The queen’s guards stole Caleb and put a dead baby in his place. They glamoured the medical examiner to cover it up. Then Queen Anwyn secretly went to my world and did the conversion herself.”
“You are forgetting one important detail,” Bayard said. “Queen Anwyn delivered a son. I know this because my mother was present at Rhys’s birth. After the queen lost her first baby, all of Seelie followed her second pregnancy closely.”
“The queen lost a baby?” I asked, surprised.
Rhys nodded seriously. “It was a stillbirth, fifteen years before I was born.”
“My mother has told me how all of Seelie celebrated for days when Rhys was born,” Bayard said. “How do you explain that?”
I shook my head. “I can’t.”
He looked at Rhys. “We also need to remember the queen’s dislike of humans. She has made no secret of the fact she considers them weak and inferior. Would she take one of them to pass off as her own child? Her heir?”
“He’s right,” I said deflated. “When you think about it that way, it sounds insane.”
Rhys faced me. “Do you believe I am your brother?”
“Without a doubt. If you could talk to my parents and see the pictures of my dad when he was your age, you wouldn’t have to ask me that.”
He nodded firmly. “Then we will go to your parents. First, we have to get you out of Seelie.”
My relief was so strong it made my legs wobble, and he had to reach out to steady me.
Bayard let out a harsh breath and looked at Kaelen. “Tell Donan, Ash, and Mitah to meet us at the bottom of the tower and to bring a weapons bag from the training room.”
Kaelen left, and Rhys smiled broadly. “Brilliant. No one will question you carrying a weapons bag.”
I almost spoke up and said I could create a glamour to hide me, but I remembered my failed attempt before they arrived. I bit my lip. I felt like I could confide in Rhys, but could I trust Bayard with my secret? What would he do if he found out I had a goddess stone? Would he still help me or turn me over to the queen? If I showed them the stone and I couldn’t create a glamour, I would have risked it all for nothing.
“What is it, Jesse?” Rhys asked. He and Bayard gave me questioning looks.
“Nothing. I think the bag is a great idea.”
“We should head down now,” Bayard said. “We need to get out of here before Bauchan comes for her.”
I held up my shackled hands. “Would it be possible to remove these?” I would have done it myself, but there hadn’t been a thing in the tower I could use to pick the lock.
Bayard frowned. “Only Bauchan has the keys to his shackles. We will have to wait until we get away to free you from them.”
We left the room with Bayard in the lead and Rhys taking up the rear. There was a sense of urgency in our steps as we descended the stairs, and I sent up a silent prayer that we got out of here before Bauchan came for me.
The door at the base of the tower opened as we reached the bottom, and I fell backward into Rhys when Bauchan appeared in the doorway. Queen Anwyn’s head of security looked more furious than surprised to see us.
“This explains why the guards I stationed here are nowhere to be seen,” he snarled at Bayard. “Where do you think you are going with our prisoner?”