“Theo, you’re doing the best you can.”
“My best isn’t fucking good enough.” He started down the hill, and despite the anger in his voice, he held her gently and moved in a way that didn’t jar her. “I should have stayed andfought when Phillip first pulled this bullshit. I had leverage and power as the Crown Prince. If I’d stayed?—”
“What would have happened to Thalania? Answer me.” She fought against the fatigue seducing her eyes closed and grabbed the front of his shirt. “You know what would have happened. What always happens when two factions fight for power.”
“I wouldn’t have let it come to a civil war.”
“It wouldn’t have been your choice to make once you decided to fight. Phillip has a lot of support among the first circle of families. He wouldn’t have gone down easily, if it at all. You made the only choice you could have given the circumstances.”
He looked down at her, blue eyes filled with things she wasn’t willing to put a name to. “When did you become an expert on Thalanian politics?”
In for a penny, in for a pound. “After that night with you two, I was curious. I didn’t think you would call, but I wanted to know more about the place you two came from.” She forced herself to release her grip on his shirt. “You can’t leave Germany without what you came for, Theo. I won’t let you.”
“In that case, we’d better get a move on. Galen will kill us both if we’re late.”
12
Galen didn’t breathe until he saw Theo and Meg walk into town. Leaving them had been the hardest fucking thing he’d had to do, but with someone hunting them in the trees, Galen was the best equipped to handle the problem. He started the car he’d stolen from the guy and drove to them. Theo carefully set Meg in the backseat and followed her in. Good. She looked three seconds from passing out, though the patch job on her arm was well done.
Theo scrubbed a hand over his face. “Let’s go.”
“No.” Meg shifted on her seat like the car might explode around them. “Theo needs to get the birth certificate.”
Theo spun on her with a curse. “We talked about this. You need a fucking doctor and probably a blood transfusion.”
“Probably.” She sank back into the seat and closed her eyes. “But I’m just going to keep fighting with you until you do what you need to do, getting weaker all the while.”
It was a brilliant play.
Theo glared at Galen, but he just shrugged. The truth was they needed that damn birth certificate and as much as he wanted to gather up them both and get the fuck out of thiscountry, they’d come here for a reason. The cause was greater than all of them as individuals. But he knew his friend and he knew that Theo wouldn’t agree to shit without some kind of compromise. “We know a doctor.”
Theo’s jaw went tight, his thoughts obviously following the path Galen’s had taken. “Not her.”
“She’s all we have.”
“Fuck. Fine. Call her.” He turned back to Meg, pressing a hand to her forehead. “Hurry.”
Galen made the call, got the address. It was two villages over, which was the only silver lining in what had become a shitshow of a day.
“She’s asleep,” Theo murmured. “Tell me.”
“One man. He was trained too well to give up who sent him, and I didn’t have time to convince him to see things my way. He went for his knife. I got to mine faster.” He kept his voice monotone. Theo didn’t like the lengths Galen was willing to go for him—for them—but Galen had made his peace with his role a long time ago. No monarch made it through their reign without getting their hands bloody. He spared Theo as many of those hard decisions as he possibly could.
It was the least he could do after what Theo had done for him.
“It’s not safe to go back to the house.”
Galen checked the rearview and kept driving. “I’ll take care of it.” He didn’t trust this doctor, but he could bank on her hating Phillip enough that she wouldn’t turn over information about them. That wasallhe could bank on. After they dealt with the marriage certificate, Galen could stash them somewhere to rest and circle back to the house to get the things they needed.
They weren’t going to get far without their shit.
“No. No more risks. You’ve done more than enough. I’ll do it.”
He tightened his grip on the wheel. Theo wasn’t normally squeamish about letting him handle shit, but this morning had shaken all of them. When he’d wrestled himself out of the seatbelt and turned around to find Theo unconscious and Meg bleeding out from a huge gash in her arm… Galen hadn’t known fear like that in years. Not since they were nineteen and Theo’s horse had thrown him.
He shuddered at both memories. “We can’t risk you, and you damn well know it. Learn to delegate.”
“Don’t you dare talk to me about delegating. You would carry the whole fucking world if I let you, and it’s not right. If something happened to you?—”
