Amos smirked. “I love it when you’re vicious.”
“Don’t flirt with my daughter when I’m in the room,” Marcus grumbled.
Clover rolled her eyes. “I’ll go to the North Oasis and speak with their Hydra leader.” Her eyes slid to Amos, daring him to argue.
He wasn’t a complete idiot. “I think that’d be best. We’ll leave in the morning.”
“We need one of you here,” Lester said, and Amos considered hitting the older man. “Rainer should be here tonight or tomorrow and we need to debrief and plan our next move.”
Amos’ jaw tensed. “That can wait until we’re back. We’ll only be gone a few days at most.”
Lester shook his head. “We don’t have a few days. The rebels are escalating. Their attacks on the smaller villages are pointless. My guess is a loyalist is using them as puppets to run you in circles so they can take over.”
“You stay,” Clover told Amos. “I’ll take a few Hydra with me to the North Oasis.”
They’d backed Amos into a corner, and they knew it. “Good plan.” The words tasted like ash in his mouth.
The next night, Amos sat at his desk, drafting notices to the other oases about readying for attacks. He’d also send patrols to smaller villages until they got the rebels under control.
He’d expected Rainer back today—after all, that’d been the entire reason he hadn’t gone with Clover—but his cousin had yet to show. Roland spoke with Ember, who said Rainer and Isabella were fine, but that they were at least another day out.
It only took a few hours to get to the North Oasis, and Amos briefly considered riding out and returning the next afternoon. Clover might kill him if he did, so he decided against it.
Someone knocked frantically on his door. “Amos!”
He shot out of his chair and crossed his sitting room, throwing open the door. Lucy looked terrified, holding a piece of paper in her trembling hands. “I know I’m not supposed to be here, but I think something happened to Jennifer.”
She thrust the paper into his hands. “I-I went to clean her room this afternoon and found this on her pillow.”
Amos scanned the note, rage and dread battling inside him.
Come get your mate.
You have four days.
That was all it said, along with an address in East Oasis.Fuck.
“When was the last time you saw Jennifer?” he asked Lucy, who was now crying.
“Y-yesterday.”
Amos and Clover saw her at dinner last night, but he’d not heard from her today. Had they taken her last night or thismorning? They couldn’t have gotten far. The East Oasis was a three-day ride, at least. If he rode hard, he could catch them.
Amos folded the letter and put it in his pocket, grabbing his sword and strapping it to his belt. “When will Alice return home?” She’d gone to the North Oasis to see her sister again.
“I’m not sure,” Lucy sniffled. “Her sister has been really sick off and on for a while. Sometimes she stays for a couple of weeks.”
“Check Jennifer’s room for anything that might tell us who took her,” he instructed. “Report back to Ruth Ambrose.”
“Yes, Your Grace.” She disappeared into the hall, running toward Jennifer’s rooms.
Fuck. He couldn’t wait for Clover and Rainer to return, not when he only had a few days to get Jennifer back.
“I’ll go with you,” Sariah volunteered. “You can’t go alone.”
Marcus rubbed his jaw. “I still think you should wait for Rainer.”
“Anything could happen that would slow him down, and I can’t risk it. I’m a royal. I’ll glamour myself invisible, get in and get out.” Amos hung his hands on his hips and stared at the table. “She’s in this fucked up mess because of my lies.”
