“Christ.” Spotting a chamber pot by the door, I dove toward it, landing on my knees and vomiting everything inside me.
What the hell was happening? Something felt wrong. Inside me. There was this cryptic emptiness I couldn’t explain.
It scared me.
The door opened as I wiped my mouth with the back of my hand.
A male silhouette loomed in the entrance. “Indy,” a solemn voice greeted before Prince Erick stepped into the room. “How’re you feeling?”
“I…” I shook my head, beyond confused. “What…?”
Then it all came back to me: Erick’s men capturing me after I tried to take them on a wild goose chase so Quilla could escape.
“Quilla!” I gasped, surging to my feet and then slapping my hand against the wall to brace myself when dizziness assaulted me.
What the fuck?
“Whoa. Steady there,” Erick told me, catching my arm. “Your body’s still trying to adjust to the change.”
“What change?” I asked, shaking my head and trying to swallow down the nausea as more rose. I let him lead me to the bed, where I sat and tried to collect my thoughts.
The first thing I needed to do was find out if Quilla was okay. She’d been in so much pain that last time I’d—
Blinking, I realized I couldn’t feel her at all. No echo of emotion, not even a signal from my mark telling which direction to go to get to her. It felt as if I didn’t have a mark at all.
Since the moment I’d first sensed her, my mark had always been locked on to her in some way or another. It had been my own personal security system, letting me know she was well and still alive out there, and it always directed me to where she was.
But for some reason, there was nothing.
Lifting my hand to the mark, hoping she was still alive, I realized the same temple where my head was bandaged was the same side the mark was on.
The first hint of panic stirred. I lifted my gaze to Erick.
His eyes filled with regret even before he rasped the words, “I’m so sorry.”
I shook my head, not understanding.
Refusing to understand.
“Sorry about what?” Fumbling, I gripped the edge of the bandage and yanked it off.
“You have no idea how hard I had to beg the king to convince him to spare your life at all after he found out you were mated to a Graykey. Jesus, Indy. He wanted you executed on sight. But I was able to talk him out of that, at least. You could be dead right now. This, though…” His gaze filled with regret as I gently prodded the area where my mark was supposed to be, only to find an open wound.
“This I couldn’t get him to budge on.”
My love mark was gone.
“He ordered it to be cut off you,” Erick explained.
A sob exploded from my chest. “What?” I whispered. No!
No, no, no, no.
Without my mark, I wouldn’t be able to find Quilla. I wouldn’t know if she was in pain. I wouldn’t even know if she was still alive.
“NOOOOOOO!”
Erick was no help at all about having an idea where his father might’ve taken Quilla to complete the tracking ritual.
“Do you know if there’s a specific place that was planned for it, or can they just do it anywhere? What does it even entail?” I asked.
He shook his head. “I don’t know.”
“Well, how long does it take? An hour? A day? Weeks?”
“I couldn’t say.” His gaze lifted solemnly to me.
“Then what kind of supplies are needed for it? A lot of water? Should we head toward a coast? Mountains? Desert?”
“That’s a good question.”
“Dammit,” I shouted, clutching my head, and wincing when my palm came too close to the unbandaged area of my temple, where I no longer had a mark.
“What can you tell me? Certainly, your father told you something. Or you overheard—”
But the crown prince was already shaking his head. “The king’s grown smart enough not to trust me with too many confidences. He only discloses state secrets to a very select few, which I’m not a part of.”
“Why the hell not?” I demanded. “You’re the next in line. Shouldn’t he tell you more than anyone else?”
Erick released a long breath. “You’d think so,” he admitted ruefully. “But I fear I’ve disagreed with him on too many points and policies. He cannot get me to blindly follow his will. Apparently, I’ve disobeyed direct orders far too often for his taste, and so…” He shrugged helplessly. “He likes to keep me in the dark as much as possible.”
“Do you know who he would confide in? Maybe if we got hold of one of those people and—”
“Indigo,” Erick cut in, rubbing his head as if he were getting a headache. “Being his son or even the next in line wouldn’t exonerate me from treasonous punishment if I were caught helping you. We’d both be swinging from the end of a rope if he knew we were still looking for your mate regardless of his orders. So, no, we’re not going to just capture and interrogate the king’s top advisor for the information we need.”
“But—”
“Oh my God. You’re giving me a headache. If we’re going to find your true love, we have to be discreet.”
Air hissed from between my teeth. But then relief filled my lungs. “So you are going to help me find her, at least?”
Blinking at me as if I were insane, he sputtered, “Of course. Your true love was just taken. If I didn’t step in to assist, you’d no doubt tear down half this realm looking for her and probably get yourself killed in the process. And I already went through too many annoyances to keep you alive; I’m not going to just stand aside and watch you leap right back into mortal danger again.”
Anticipation and hope bloated in my chest. “Does this mean you already have a plan to get the information we need?”
He rolled his eyes. “How could I rightly call myself the next King of High Cliff if I didn’t?”
Thank God. “Then what’s the plan?”
“Well, I’m going to have to step back for the next leg of this journey. The king monitors what I do and where I go too closely. He believes I’m sending you back to the queen in Far Shore right now, as he commanded, so I’ll need to return home alone as if that’s exactly what I’ve done. Don’t worry, though, I’m going to pass you off to someone who can help you better than I could.”
“But—” I started, unable to put my confidence in anyone else. I was already risking a lot to trust Erick’s claim that he would help me save a Graykey woman. How could I believe someone new would be so enlightened and accepting of my mission?
Erick held up a hand, silencing me. “Besides,” he went on, lifting his voice. “I think you secretly like this scholar more than you do me, anyway.”
My eyes widened. “You mean Vander?” Also known as the scholarly prince of High Cliff.
I sighed in instant relief. I might have served under Erick’s youngest brother, Urban, in the army, but it was his middle brother, Olivander, that I’d always had the most in common with.
Olivander Bjorn was the caretaker of the only library in the kingdom—and maybe in all of the Outer Realms. Everything I’d learned about researching I’d learned from him.