by Katee Robert
Galen took a turn onto a wider road. They still had a good thirty minutes of driving ahead of them, so Theo leaned forward and clicked the radio on, picking up on one of the local channels. His German was just as rusty as Galen’s, but the station played Top 40 hits, and that was good enough for now.
To one side, the road fell away into a ravine, dark and twisted with old growth. It made the hair stand up on the back of his neck. Theo straightened. “Galen—” He never got the rest out.
One second they were cruising along, and the next they were airborne. Up was down. Down was up. Theo hung suspended in his seatbelt as the world rushed by for one breathless second.
Then they hit and everything went dark.
Meg must have lost consciousness. The last thing she remembered was looking out the window and now she was upside down and blinking blood from her eyes. She touched the bright spot of pain on her arm and cried out at the feeling of something big and sharp protruding from her skin. Glass, her mind so helpfully supplied. She knew better than to yank it out, so she swiped the blood from her face and tried to figure out what happened.
Theo hung from his seatbelt, his body limp. Unconscious. That was all. He’d passed out. He wasn’t dead. He couldn’t possibly be dead. Theo’s life shone too brightly to be doused like this. It had to.
You’re going into shock, Meg.
Galen’s seat sat empty, door closed. The windshield was gone, but she couldn’t tell if it had happened during the crash or afterward. It didn’t matter. The only thing that mattered was getting out of this car and then getting Theo out as well. Cars didn’t really explode as easily as the movies made it look, right?
Oh god, what if they did?
She fumbled for her belt clasp, her movements slow and uncoordinated. Must have gotten knocked on the head…or it’s blood loss. The roof of the car over her head was stained a wet red that made her stomach lurch. How long had she been unconscious?
Too long.
She pushed on the latch, but it resisted. Jammed. “Oh, fuck.”
Footsteps outside her door. Meg blinked, but she didn’t get a chance to react before someone wrenched her door open and then Galen was there. He looked just as shitty as she felt, small cuts peppering his face. It didn’t seem to bother him, though. He touched her head and then cursed as the sight of the glass shard in her arm. “Hang in there, baby.”
“Theo.”
“He’s breathing. He just knocked his head really good. He’s not bleeding out.” He pulled a knife from somewhere, a viciously long serrated blade that had her heart leaping into her throat. Galen guided her uninjured hand over her head to brace on the ceiling. “I’m going to cut you out of your seatbelt.”
“Okay,” she whispered.
“Try not to crack your head.”
This was right about the time she should fire off a snappy reply, but Meg didn’t have anything. She just nodded and locked her elbow as best she could. Galen sliced through her seatbelt and her arm went out. He must have expected it, though, because he caught her around the chest and helped ease her down. “Almost there, baby. You’re doing great. We need to get out of the car and then I can get a better look at your arm.”
“Theo,” she insisted.
“I know.” Galen dragged her out of the car and propped her against a nearby tree. He paused, staring up the embankment where they’d been driving not too long ago. She couldn’t see the road from her position, couldn’t hear anything that might be a car driving past. Galen turned back to her. “Are you going to pass out again?”
She shook her head slowly, not liking the way the world swam around her at the movement. “I don’t think so.”
“Good. Don’t.” He pointed at the embankment. “If something moves up there, you say my name.”
Meg nodded carefully. “Okay.” She watched Galen fight open Theo’s door and give him the same treatment he’d given her. Theo murmured something, the sound of his voice washing over her. Theo was okay. Galen was okay. Things would be okay.
She shivered, cold despite the relative warmth of the day. Definitely shock. Nothing moved except Galen and Theo, and her thoughts drifted in lazy swirls as she contemplated that. Galen thinks someone did this to us and might finish the job. Meg blinked and blinked again, the scene in front of her moving in stop-motion snapshots.
Galen checking Theo for injuries.
Blink.
Theo and Galen going still, their gaze trained on something she couldn’t see.
Blink.
Theo crouching in front of her, his blue eyes worried. Galen nowhere in sight.
Blink.
“Meg. Meg, stay with me.” He said it with the quiet patience of someone who’d been talking to her for some time with no response.
Her body flashed hot and cold and she looked down in time to see him extract a six-inch shard of glass from her arm with a pair of tweezer looking things. Where did he get those? Theo held her arm braced between his big hands and she belatedly realized she was struggling to get away from him. “I know, I know, I’m sorry,” he murmured. “It’s going to get worse before it gets better.” He prodded the wound, sending agony searing through her. “I have to make sure there’s no more glass in here or we run the risk of shredding something important when the bandage puts pressure on it.
“Theo.” She gasped, a buzzing in her ears nearly drowning out his steady voice. “Theo, it hurts.”
“I know, princess. I’ve got you. Trust me.” He cursed softly and pulled another shard from her arm. “That’s the worst of it. We’ll clean it when we get somewhere safe.” He used one hand to dig through a white box with a distinctive red cross on the front and then set to work bandaging her up. “It didn’t nick an artery, which is a fucking miracle. You would have bled out before Galen had a chance to get you out of the car.”
Meg gave into the dizziness and closed her eyes. It was easier to breathe without seeing his ministrations. “Your bedside manner leaves something to be desired.”
“There she is.” Pressure on her arm as he wound some kind of flexible tape stuff around it. “You scared the shit out of me.”
“That makes two of us.”
He stroked a hand over her cheek. “You can open your eyes now. I’m done.”
The light had changed overhead, but she couldn’t tell if it was because she’d lost time or because there was a storm coming. “How long have we been out here?”
“Too long.”
She looked around, cautious of too-quick movements. “Galen?”
“He’s doing what he does best.”
That wasn’t any kind of answer at all. She shuddered. “Shouldn’t we call for help?”
“Doing that just ensures that we’re bringing civilians into this, and paves the way for them to separate us into ambulances and finish the work they started.”
She tried and failed to make sense of that. Galen had seemed to think this wasn’t an accident, but how could someone possibly attack them and then pose as a paramedic? Things like that only happened in fiction, didn’t they? “Theo, what’s going on?”
“We’ll talk about it when we get out of here. I’ve got your wound stabilized. It’s time to move.”
She started to climb to her feet, but he didn’t give her a chance to fail. He scooped her into his arms and started through the trees in the opposite direction of the road. Meg bit her lip to avoid asking him more questions. He was right. Answers could wait. She tucked her face against his neck and tried to keep her shivers contained. There was no telling how much blood she’d lost. What if she needed a transfusion? How would they know or even accomplish it if they were too paranoid to go to a hospital?
I thought I knew the stakes. I had no idea.
“I’ve got you, princess. You’ll be safe.” He murmured against her head as he picked his way through the thick trees.
Germany seemed like such a small country on a map—smaller than many US states—but it might as well have stretched for hundreds o
f miles in all directions. The forest felt vast and ancient, even though part of Meg’s brain pointed out that the trees couldn’t possibly be as old as her imagination wanted to believe. The danger, she couldn’t write off as easily. “Are there wolves in Germany?”
“I won’t let you turn into a real life Little Red Riding Hood.”
“Oh god. There are totally wolves in Germany,” she whispered. “You know, when I put a pin in this country, I thought for sure that it would be a trip filled with schnitzel and amazing beer and cruising the Rhine and dancing all night with some blond guy named Hans.”
“Hans isn’t a German name, and he sounds like an asshole.”
She smiled against his skin, letting their low conversation distract her from the steady pulse of pain in her arm and the danger all around them. “He was nice in my dream.”
Theo walked for several minutes without saying anything. Just holding her close and watching everything around them. “Why a pin?”
Maybe it was blood loss or maybe it was the terror bleating in the back of her mind, but Meg didn’t even think of lying. “I grew up poor and miserable—things that don’t have to go hand in hand, but they did in my family. It was… ugly. Really ugly. I spent a lot of time fantasizing about running away, but even when I was young and stupid, I knew better. Nothing good happens to runaways. I stayed. I kept my head down as much as I could. And the only thing that got me through it was my map filled with places that I’d someday go. My escape.”
Theo hugged her closer. “When we’re through this, Galen and I will take you on a Rhine river cruise. Fuck, we’ll take you anywhere you want to go.”
“When we’re through this, you’ll be King of Thalania again.” Her eyes were getting heavy, the weights of them pulling her toward the darkness. “I’m really tired, Theo.”
“I know, princess. We’re almost there.”
Almost where?
Light played across the backs of her eyelids and Meg opened them to find them on the edge of a hill. The forest lay behind them and fields upon fields rolled out at their feet over the gentle hills. Theo hitched her higher and readjusted his grip. “See that village?”
She squinted against the weak sunlight, barely making out a little cluster of buildings camped out three hills over. They were some kind of brick or mortar or whatever buildings had been made out of back in the day, and they looked almost as if she and Theo had stepped into a time warp into the past. The steep roofs were a charming red and even at this distance, she could see flower boxes blooming in many of the windows. “I see it.”
“Galen is going to meet us there. And then we’re out of here.”
Out of here. She clutched his shoulder. “What? No. You need that birth certificate.”
“Phillip’s not going to stop coming or sending Dorian and his men after us. If he’s taking these measures before the coronation, then he’s desperate. The whole reason I brought you with us was that I thought our presence would protect you.” Theo gave a sharp laugh. “I should have known better.”
She’d never seen him like this before. Laughing Theo. Sexy Theo. Infuriating Theo.
Never Bitter and Despairing Theo.
“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 and fought 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 this country, 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 was all he 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—”
“You would keep going.” Galen took a turn and entered the village. It was larger than the last one, more of a town really, sprawling at twice the size of the place where he’d picked them up. “You are more important than any one part, Theo. If you fall, then Phillip wins. Edward becomes puppet king to your uncle, and Phillip twists him into a man of his own making. He’ll marry Camilla off to some douchebag who will break her spirit, because he can’t afford for anyone to rise up against him.” Not that Galen could see sweet Cami leading a rebellion, but stranger things had happened.
Theo was silent for several breaths. “Stop throwing my role in my face like it makes me special. I have a job to do, same as anyone. Just because you’re not a Fitzcharles doesn’t mean you’re expendable. You are not fucking expendable, Galen. If something happens to you…”
“It won’t.” He had no business making promises, and he knew better than to try. “And even if it did, you’d finish this. You’d connect with the other people loyal to you and you’d see this plan through.” He parked and turned to meet Theo’s gaze. His blue eyes were filled with anger and something like despair. Galen leaned forward and lowered his voice. “You are going to be the motherfucking King of Thalania, Theo. Every single person can be sacrificed except you. Every. Single. One.”
For a long moment, he thought Theo would argue with him. But he finally gave a short nod and sat back. “Let’s get this over with.”
It wasn’t a win, not by a long shot. In fact, this whole day was a mark in the loss column. They were down and hurt and Phillip had obviously decided to stop pussyfooting around and take out Theo directly. All of that translated to one undeniable fact.
Things were about to get a whole lot worse.
Meg woke up as Theo tried to carry her out of the car. She shook her head. “I can walk. Just hold me up.” A girl could only handle being carted around so much, and his arms had to be exhausted after their earlier trek. She caught sight of Galen and went still, running a critical eye over his body. No outward signs of injury and he was moving okay as he rounded the front of the car. “You made it.”