“Not that I knew of, but I wasn’t with you.” Dimitri shook his head. “I was tied up on assignment. I couldn’t believe it when I’d learned the next day you’d taken off.” By unspoken agreement they’d started walking through the ballroom, the area a little clearer now that so many people were on the dance floor. “I didn’t think I’d ever forgive you,” Dimitri said. “I certainly did not forgive myself.”
“You did nothing wrong,” Ari said, for easily the twentieth time. “You said yourself, you weren’t with me that night.”
“I should have been,” Dimitri said gruffly. “I should have.”
They reached the girls a minute later, and within thirty seconds of Ari giving his halting request, Lauren and Nicki headed out. Emmaline stood with her hand half-raised to her face a moment longer. “There are only two bathrooms she could have used,” she said. “I need to tell Kristos.”
“No—” Ari began, but Emmaline shook her head.
“He’d want to know,” she insisted. “You’d want to know. Stefan too.” She gestured. “Not your mother, not yet. But the rest of you have worked too long together to stop now. Stefan will be able to tell us if anyone else is missing from the ballroom too.”
Ari blinked. He hadn’t thought of that, but she was right. “Go,” he said, as Dimitri touched his arm.
“Through there,” he pointed. “Corridors to the interior courtyard, but could as easily be someplace Francesca would have wandered by mistake. She’s not as familiar with this palace.”
They strode quickly through the room and entered the hallway, immediately struck with the silence of it. “No one would have seen her leave or come back from here, too many people focused on the center of the room.”
“And the music dims quickly. Still, she could hear it. She wouldn’t have gotten that lost.”
“Dimitri!” Lauren emerged from another door at the end of the long hallway that ran alongside the interior wall of the ballroom. “No and no on the ladies’ rooms. Nicki is going after Stefan. What can I do?”
“Tell Emmaline and connect with Stefan.” Dimitri tapped his ear. “I have him on closed circuit mic, but he’s with the US ambassador. I don’t want to interrupt that if Francesca is simply out for a stroll. But once he gets clear, Emmaline is going to ask him to see if anyone’s left or anyone’s shown up that we didn’t expect. Have him hail me.”
“Right.” Lauren strode up to him and, standing on her tip toes, placed both of her hands on his face, then kissed him fast and hard on the lips. “Go save people. You’re good at it,” she said.
Then she swiveled on her heel and was gone.
Ari stared for a moment after her, then turned in time to see Dimitri staring too. “You are never going to get over her, are you?” he asked as they headed deeper into the Visitors’ Palace.
“Never in my lifetime,” Dimitri sighed.
They strode through the hallways, unconsciously picking up speed as each new corridor yielded no Francesca. Ari was ready to start shouting her name when Dimitri held up a hand. “Something’s wrong here,” he said, frowning at the empty hallway. Two doors flanked the hallway, both of them shut tight. The corridor was empty except for a stand of flowers, molting onto the floor. “Those leaves aren’t right, on the floor like that.”
Ari stared at him. “You’re kidding me, right?”
Dimitiri shook his head. “You haven’t been with the queen in the year since you’ve been gone. The palace is only so big, and she spent entire months of her life pacing it and this one as well. Anything out of place, anything askew, she fixed. It became the standard. Those leaves—that would have been caught, no matter how deep we are in the Visitors’ Palace.”
“I’ll go one further,” Ari said, as his gaze landed on something that glistened about twenty feet beyond the stand, next to another set of facing doors. He strode forward quickly and bent down, scooping it up in one motion.
He tossed the earring to Dimitri. “Francesca was wearing that. She was here.” The two of them stared at each other a long moment, then started moving.
“Courtyard,” Dimitri said.
“Has to be,” Ari agreed. Their strides picked up as Dimitri’s earpiece crackled, and the captain put his hand to his head.
“Dimitri,” he barked. He pulled out the earpiece so Ari could hear as well.
Stefan’s cool voice sounded over the device. “Everyone accounted for, save one,” he said steadily, but there was no denying the cold anger in his voice. “Silas Saleri.”
21
Fran sat in the corner of the room, her skirts pulled around her like a heavy blanket, her hands shaking so hard that she couldn’t even form them into fists.
Think, I have to think!
She should get up, she knew she should get up. Get up and rage and scream and pound on the door and stomp. She couldn’t be far from the grand ballroom. Someone would hear her, surely!
That was the problem though. Someonewouldhear her. The same someones who’d thrown her in here, who’d told her to stay quiet.
