Latvala Royals: Sacrifices

by Danielle Bourdon

  “So the attackers had planned a full-scale event. They’re trying to wipe out the whole line at once.”

  “It looks that way. Chey, Emily, Erick, and Eliana are safe for now.”

  Mattias stepped outside. “There’s no one in there. No signs they were in there at all.”

  “Erick and Eliana discovered the traitors. They’re guards, and they’d been planning an attack to take out the family. Two are dead, two are about to be questioned,” Leander said. “Which means all this was planned out ahead of time. They wanted to separate us, divide the ranks. And they did a good job of it.”

  Leander stood, bringing Elias with him.

  “But that doesn’t answer why no one is here, waiting for me,” Elias said once he was on his feet. He holstered the weapon, unease sitting heavy on his spine. Something still felt wrong, off. He couldn’t put his finger on what it was.

  “Maybe they were, and retreated after they saw us arrive. Despite the fact we were stealthy about the deployment, they could have had scouts farther out who saw us land,” Jeremiah said.

  “Or the guards with Erick and the others overheard our plans and called their comrades to pull out,” Leander added.

  “It could have been that, but it could be something else,” Mattias said. “I agree with Elias. Something feels wrong here. I think we should gather our men and return to Ahtissari Castle, see where the questioning goes.”

  “So if they did show up here and they saw the backup, do you think they still killed Sander?” Elias asked.

  “I don’t know, Elias. I just don’t know,” Leander said.

  “It’s a good bet they didn’t. I still think they need him as leverage,” Mattias said. A new thread of tension entered his voice. “Until the members of the coup get word of the turnout, they’ll keep him alive in case they have to regroup and start over.”

  Troops exited the ruins and took up positions around the inner group. Elias paid little attention to the coming and going of the others, too busy wondering what was eluding him. They were all missing something major, he was sure of it.

  He found out a moment later when one of the guards turned, raised a gun at his head, and pulled the trigger.

  Chapter 28

  Some people in the world had split-second reflexes.

  Jeremiah Morgan turned out to be one of them.

  No sooner had the guard aimed the gun than Jeremiah lashed a hand out to chop the man’s arm.

  The gun fired. The bullet missed.

  Elias ducked, his body acting on instinct.

  Chaos broke out among the men; the guard who’d fired the weapon was taken down with brute force, his gun stripped away. Leander, who had tried to throw himself between a bullet and Elias, barked orders for the men to take the traitor back to the family seat for questioning.

  Mattias worriedly checked Elias over for new injuries.

  “I’m fine, I’m all right,” Elias assured Mattias. He didn’t think twice about the throb of a headache behind his eyes or the ache in his wrist.

  “I should have realized that if the men weren’t waiting here inside the ruins, that there was a killer among the ranks,” Leander said, sounding disgusted with himself.

  “That was a big leap to make,” Mattias replied. “None of us came to the right conclusion in time.”

  “I knew I was overlooking something, but I wouldn’t have guessed the enemy was hiding in plain sight.” Elias watched the guards escort the would-be assassin away.

  To say it had been a close call was understating things.

  “All of us missed it,” Mattias said. “Even your old self probably wouldn’t have come to the right conclusion in time.”

  Elias couldn’t disagree. “Any news on Sander?”

  “Not yet. Let’s get back to the castle. Maybe Erick and Eliana will have broken through with interrogations by then.” Mattias led the way across the clearing.

  Elias fell into step at his uncle’s flank. He was a mess of conflicting emotions.

  Halfway across the clearing to the tree line, Mattias received a call. Elias understood immediately that the news was not good.

  Mattias faced the group. “Erick has discovered where they are keeping Dare. The guard said that word had gone out just before we began our operation here at Macor. Orders were given to kill the king of Latvala in an old barn just west of our location. It’s possible we’ll arrive to find him already dead.”

  Elias sat behind Mattias as the SUV made its way over a rough, bumpy road. Leander was beside him, silent and brooding.

  He understood the silence and brooding well.

  Ever since Mattias’s grim announcement, Elias had been a pit of anxiety and despair. He could not fathom that Sander might be dead, couldn’t imagine what his life would be like if he regained his memory months after the fact.

  He wished he knew more about Sander’s habits and skills so that he might feel better about the possibility of arriving to find the man alive. Elias refused to give up all hope because the alternative was too devastating.

  As the sun crested the horizon, casting peach and orange rays into a dark blue-gray sky, the caravan of SUVs arrived at the property. A column of black smoke rose above the treetops in the distance and, for a reason Elias did not want to contemplate, his blood ran cold. That smoke was the most ominous thing about the entire day, even surpassing his brief stare into the barrel of a gun. And he knew by Mattias and Leander’s stunned expressions that it was ominous for them, too.

  “Drive to the fire,” Mattias ordered the man behind the wheel.

  The SUV sped down a dirt drive that was little better than the bumpy road had been, blew past a dilapidated two-story farmhouse, and veered in the direction of a structure that had once been a barn.

  It was a smoking ruin, the roof half collapsed, the walls crumbling down. Scorched shards of wood sat at odd angles like the decaying silhouette of razor-sharp teeth.

  But it was the charred outline of a man on the ground that snagged and held Elias’s attention. He saw the body before the SUV came to a sliding stop. It appeared the person had attempted to flee the structure but had already been on fire and succumbed to the flames two steps past the doors. One outstretched arm seemed to reach for sanctuary, the burnt fingers curled into claws.

  A squeezing sensation gripped Elias’s chest and cut off his air.

  No.

  That couldn’t be Sander.

  Mattias all but flew from the SUV, shouting Dare’s name.

  Leander erupted from the back seat, chanting, “No, no, no!”

  Two more SUVs skidded to a stop behind theirs and men poured out. Mattias shouted orders to anyone and everyone.

  Elias couldn’t seem to move. He stared out the window, gaze locked on the burn victim. The shape looked too big and broad to be a woman, even in its black, withered condition. He couldn’t tell what kind of clothing the man had worn, what color the hair, nor any other identifying clue. Which was what made the entire scene so agonizing. Knowing Sander’s death had been ordered, and that he’d been kept in a barn, did not help combat the fear that the victim was indeed the king of Latvala.

  “Hey, man. You okay? I know this is rough,” Jeremiah said from the back seat. He climbed forward until he sat next to Elias.

  Elias didn’t know what to say. Just a few days ago he’d not wanted to see any of his family again. Now here he was, faced with the possibility that the man who had given him life was lying ten yards away burnt to a crisp. The situation was the cruelest of ironies. Worse, Elias couldn’t grieve the way a son with normal memories would. There was still that damnable distance, the undeniable detachment. Yes, he’d begun to care for Sander, but it just wasn’t the same.

  He dreaded to think of his reaction when he did remember his past and all the knowledge that would come rushing back of this horrible time.

  “No. I’m not all right,” Elias said.

  He wasn’t sure anything would ever be all right again.

  Chapt
er 29

  The atmosphere at Kallaster Castle was as black as a funeral shroud. Ten hours had passed since they’d all flown back from the mainland to Pallan Island, a span of time in which Elias attempted to come to terms with the situation. Only the immediate family and those directly involved with the mission to Macor knew that a charred body had been taken to a lab in Kalev and was even then undergoing forensic testing. Mattias had demanded utmost secrecy until the results came back either way.

  Chey, Erick, Emily, and Eliana had taken the news hard. Elias had spent those first hours in a closed parlor with Chey and the others, but had finally drifted upstairs to his suite. He’d paced and agonized and wondered. For a while, he’d sifted through old pictures of his life, methodically turning the pages of a photo album until dread and remorse forced him from the room.

  Everyone not in the know at Kallaster whispered behind their hands. What was going on? Why was everyone so tense? Where was the king? Elias ignored any speculative looks and headed back to the parlor.

  Leander was there, as was Jeremiah. Chey paced relentlessly, arms crossed over her chest, her face a mask of stubborn determination. Of everyone who knew about Sander, she had been the one to steadfastly deny he was dead.

  Mattias stood at the end of the parlor with Emily, speaking in low tones while she occasionally dabbed at her eyes with a tissue.

  If Sander was dead, she was now queen. Mattias was likely explaining how things would proceed should that event come to pass.

  Ten minutes after he perched on the arm of an overstuffed chair, Erick and Eliana entered the room. Elias pushed to a stand, alert for news.

  “We’re done with our interrogations,” Erick said to the room at large. He looked drawn, tired, and disgusted. “Turns out that one of the nurses at the hospital is the wife of one of the men in the group. So right from the very beginning, directly after the accident, news went out that Elias had lost his memory. That’s how they were able to get the jump on us so fast.”

  “It’s how they found out you’d gone to the cabin so fast, too,” Eliana added. “The nurse’s husband is, or was, a guard here at Kallaster.”

  “Good work,” Mattias said as he drew closer. “Do you think you have all the members’ names?”

  “We think so. A few are still missing. We’ll have to rout them out as we go,” Eliana replied.

  “If there is any good news to come of all this it’s that the group was not working for the Russians. They were hoping to attract the Russians to invade Latvala if they’d been successful disrupting the monarchy. So we don’t have to worry about an invasion on our doorstep while we’re waiting for the forensic results,” Erick said.

  “Not yet, at least,” Mattias added.

  “Speaking of the forensics team, they need to hurry up.” Eliana frowned as she made her way to a side bar and removed a cold bottle of water from a mini fridge.

  Elias absorbed all the information in snatches. He was still wildly out of the loop of most things regarding the running of the castle and lands, but liked to think he gleaned quite a lot by listening and watching. Knowing no imminent invasion was planned helped ease a little of the tension, if not the grief.

  “How much longer?” Erick asked of the room in general.

  Elias knew Erick was referring to the return of evidence, but had no answer to give.

  “No one knows. Soon, if we’re lucky,” Mattias replied.

  Elias paced the circumference of the parlor. The waiting was more difficult by the minute. And he wasn’t the only one pacing. Chey, Leander, and Jeremiah were all on the move. Too restless to sit, much too upset to try and relax.

  The door opened.

  Two guards entered single file, both dressed in terrain-colored camouflage, baseball caps on their heads.

  Elias snapped a look across the room at the same time as everyone else.

  The first guard held up his hands as if to deflect questions or comments. The guards themselves knew nothing about the ongoing forensic evaluation, which made their presence all but useless.

  Elias rubbed the back of his neck with his good hand. Someone else muttered a curse.

  “Don’t all rush over to say hello at once.” Sander stepped out from behind the first guard and swept the baseball cap from his head.

  The sudden outcry and bombardment caught Sander by surprise. One moment he was removing the cap from his head and the next he got bowled over by his friends and family.

  Chey, somehow, got there first. She threw herself into his arms as if she hadn’t seen him in a decade, and Mattias enveloped him in an unusually tight embrace. His kids swarmed him like flies.

  Emily’s tears and Eliana’s fervent cheek kisses alerted him that something was going on, something he was not aware of.

  “All right, why is everyone stuck to me like glue?” he asked. Elias was the only person besides the other guard who had not attacked him. Given Elias’s situation, Sander wasn’t put off by the distance.

  “Do you really not know?”

  “The burnt body. We thought it was you.”

  “How did you get out alive?”

  The questions and comments flew at him like arrows. Sander frowned, unsure what they were talking about. Of course his first thought was the barn—but no one had known he was there. Unless they had arrived after his escape.

  “No, no. I got out of the barn. One of the last guards came in to finish me off after starting the fire, but I’d loosened the ropes enough to get free. We grappled over his rifle and I punched him twice before running into the open,” Sander said. “Otherwise, I don’t know what burnt body you’re talking about.”

  “We found a body a few steps from what remained of the barn doors,” Mattias said, his voice thick with relief.

  “We’d gotten a confession from one of the traitors that you were being held there and that the order had been given to kill you,” Erick added, slapping his hand into Sander’s for a handshake.

  “I escaped once, but didn’t make it far enough. They caught me, drugged me, and brought me back to the barn. The second time was the fire. I disappeared into the forest because I knew there was still one more guard out there somewhere. They hunted me with dogs the first time I escaped, so I stayed low and quiet while I worked my way through the trees and came up on a ranch. The owner and his wife were kind enough to help me get back to civilization.” Sander kissed the top of Chey’s head and shook Leander’s hand before engaging his best friend in a one-armed hug. Now he understood better why his entrance had caused such a stir.

  They’d all thought he’d died.

  “Why didn’t you call when you’d reached safety?” Emily asked.

  “I didn’t know who I could trust at that point or what was going on. I figured it was wiser to return on my own than send out a signal I was alone in the wilderness. I didn’t know if we were being invaded or what,” Sander said.

  “No, but we do have answers, finally,” Mattias said.

  As he settled and accepted a cold bottle of water from Eliana, Sander listened while Mattias explained all that had happened.

  The news of the trip to Macor shocked him more than anything. He glanced at Elias several times during the telling but couldn’t get a bead on his reaction or thoughts. Elias appeared deep in thought or preoccupied with something else.

  “I’m glad it worked out, though it sounds like it was a seriously close call. That was a big risk you all took,” Sander said, draining the last of the water. He was proud that his family had stepped up in a time of crisis. Erick and Eliana had done interrogations, Chey and Emily had held the advisors at bay, and Mattias had taken Elias to Macor. Leander and Jeremiah had been indispensable as accessories and allies.

  Sander refused to allow himself to think about what if. None of his intimate circle had died, no matter how treacherous or dangerous the situation had been, and for that he was eternally grateful.

  “We’ve kept the news as contained as possible,” Mattias said. “There will h
ave to be a statement, of course, but I think we should skip over entirely the abduction and the trip to Macor. There are just some things the public doesn’t need to know.”

  “I agree,” Sander said. “As far as everyone else is concerned, we’re still dealing with Elias’s recovery. We’ll just leave it at that.”

  Sander made eye contact with Elias across the room. Something seemed off. He couldn’t tell if Elias was suffering from the barn fire and the dead body, or if he was having thoughts of leaving again. “Everything all right?”

  All eyes turned in Elias’s direction.

  “Actually, no. Everything is not all right. I’m glad you’re well, Sander, but if you’ll all excuse me.” Elias crossed to the door and exited the parlor without another word.

  Chapter 30

  It had started when Sander removed the ball cap.

  A flash of something blitzed through Elias’s mind, too fast to hold onto.

  He sought desperately to retrieve it.

  Sander.

  The cap.

  A whisk of the cap off his head.

  Think, think, think.

  Elias could not join in the celebration of Sander’s return, not while his head ached with almost memories. He felt discombobulated, dizzy. Confused.

  He was in a parlor in Kallaster Castle and these people were his family and friends.

  A flash of Emily’s features brought another strike.

  Dark hair, a thick brush. Long strokes. Laughter. Teasing.

  The way Chey stared adoringly up at Sander as they embraced triggered the sensation again.

  Lights, music, banter. Chey staring at Sander with love in her eyes.

  While the others traded information, Elias hovered on the cusp of enlightenment. It seemed as if all he had to do was open a door and let the memories in.