Huntress

by Susan Copperfield

Anyone with a pair of eyes would recognize the family resemblance between him and Eva, and the instant Nevada’s king caught sight of her on the stairs behind me, his eyes widened.

  “Prince Kelvin. You’re looking well,” His Royal Majesty of Nevada greeted, his gaze locked on my wife.

  “Your Majesty,” I greeted.

  “Evangeline,” King Jacques greeted.

  Eva stumbled on the last step behind me and collided with my back, and I turned on the step, offered my arm to support her, and waited until she regained her balance. “Your Majesty.”

  For the first time since meeting her, Eva kept her eyes on the ground, and she stood tense.

  “I see there’s a lot more to discuss than I initially thought. If you’d like to join me, Your Highness? Evangeline?”

  My wife gulped but jerked her head in a nod.

  I stepped away from the staircase and kept a hold on Eva until certain she wouldn’t hit the ground. While hesitant to relinquish my hold on her, I released her and tailed after Nevada’s king while the rest of my relatives joined Nevada’s queen heading to a second vehicle.

  Meredith flanked me, and she held my most potent weapon, my first and last resort, in a silver briefcase.

  King Jacques’s RPS agents held open the limo’s back door, and I slid inside after the king. When Eva joined us, I snagged her hand and directed her to sit beside me with a single tug, which put her directly across from her uncle. “Thank you for seeing us on such short notice.”

  “I’ll admit, you’ve gotten my attention. What’s going on that’d have your father itching for a meeting?”

  “I have reason to believe that my ex-girlfriend has paid someone in Nevada to deal with Evangeline, and as this could cause you substantial problems, I wanted to give you adequate warning.”

  “You have my attention.”

  “The papers, Meredith?”

  The head of my detail sat beside King Jacques, buckled in, and put the briefcase on her lap, popping it open. Without fanfare, she handed Nevada’s king a single sheet of paper.

  He read it, his eyebrows inching upwards. “I understand how this could cause me problems should there be a plot. I also see congratulations are in store. You’ve picked well for yourself, Evangeline.”

  My wife’s face flushed red, and she spluttered something incomprehensible. To spare her from further embarrassment, I reached across her, snagged the seatbelt, and buckled her in before doing the same for myself. “I may have underestimated how flustered she’d become.”

  “No doubt. It puts everyone in an awkward position,” King Jacques replied. “Seeing this was issued in Montana and witnessed by His and Her Royal Majesty along with a few other interesting choices, your marriage is a secret?”

  “For now. We’ve already set a wedding date, but I wasn’t taking any chances with her, not when there are potential concerns with the matter of her disowning.”

  “I may have gotten a rather stern letter from His Royal Majesty of Montana advising me what I’d do if I had any integrity. I was rather annoyed with you for putting me in that position, I’ll confess, but considering the latest developments, I see the reasons behind it. Were the severity of your injuries overplayed in the media?”

  “Want to field this one, Meredith?”

  “Of course, Your Highness. The media reports are accurate. It took Dr. Thorton of Montana four hours to reconstruct the damaged parts of his skull. His Highness’s familial talent spared him from death, but when he transformed to preserve his life, his skull was essentially reshaped to account for the swelling in his brain. Prior medical procedures had left enough latent magic in the brain, meant to protect it from the transfusion process, to prevent lethal damage from the blow. His assailant meant to kill him, of that we have no doubt.”

  “When it takes Dr. Thorton four hours of work, I think that counts as serious. Do you have any impairment?”

  I walked on thin ice, as I had no doubt King Jacques would spread word around the Royal States the instant I headed home. “I have no memory of shortly before the attack, and my memory is patchy in places up until Dr. Thorton did his work,” I replied.

  That would cover me for the important bits and hopefully keep curious people off my back for a while.

  “I certainly wouldn’t remember much if I’d gotten hit in the head like that. If you don’t mind me asking, how extensive were the injuries, really?”

  Eva glanced my way, and I nodded to her. “Go ahead. Say what you want, Eva.”

  “The fuckers shattered his skull like an egg tossed out a window at highway speed.”

  I flinched at her description. “That’s graphic.”

  “You said I could say what I wanted.”

  “That I did. Next time, I’ll remember you’re more creative than I’ll likely anticipate.”

  “And the procedure was for what?”

  Meredith retrieved several more sheets of paper from her briefcase and handed them over. “This should explain the situation nicely. This is the initial medical report along with a handwritten note from Dr. Thorton.”

  King Jacques read it, and his eyes widened. “Have you looked at this, Agent Scarson?”

  “I have.”

  “And you, Prince Kelvin?”

  “When I wasn’t having the pieces of my skull put back together in the proper order, I was sleeping.”

  Granted, some of that sleep wasn’t exactly restful, but it’d done me a world of good.

  “Dr. Thorton wrote a letter informing me he’d rather work on jigsaw puzzles in the future.”

  “I expect having to reshape someone’s skull isn’t exactly easy.”

  “From fragments.”

  Eva grunted, and I wondered how long it would be until the edge wore off of my close brush with death. “I got exceptionally lucky.”

  “I think this is going to put to rest any doubts about Illinois’s talent line.” King Jacques flipped through the papers. “No, it definitely does. This is impressive and horrifying.”

  “I’ve been told to misplace those documents in Nevada in a safe location,” Meredith announced. “His Royal Majesty of Montana thought it best you be the one to handle this small issue with Evangeline’s status.”

  “Well, there’s only one thing I can do, and in light of the situation, I have no trouble doing it. I doubt I’ll have any difficulty passing it through my congress. Evangeline, reinstatement to the royal family will mean a full and official disowning from your mother and father, I hope you’re aware.”

  “I’m already disowned.”

  “Not officially. I’ve looked into the matter. The paperwork wasn’t submitted correctly. I believe it was done so intentionally, too, likely to coerce you into something you didn’t want to do.”

  Evangeline tensed. “Yes, a marriage.”

  “They attempted to forge your signature, but it will be easy to override, as Montana has already submitted legalized documentation confirming you have only entered into one marriage, the one with His Royal Highness of Illinois. Officially, you’ll have to be brought in as my daughter, but as you’re of the royal bloodline to begin with through my sister, that won’t be an issue. It’s a matter of willful disowning and adoption into my family. It’s unusual, but it’s legal. As an added benefit, His Royal Highness will get to wed the princess he rightfully deserves.”

  “I’ll make a terrible princess,” Eva muttered.

  “You’ll make a lovely princess and an even better queen, Evangeline. I’ve seen parts of your file, courtesy of the Illinois RPS.”

  Meredith closed her briefcase and stared out the window, the faintest of smirks gracing her lips.

  “That was very sneaky of you, Meredith.”

  She smiled in earnest. “The wellbeing of my principal is my top priority, and my job is to manipulate the situation however needed to ensure the best outcome for my principal.”

  The women in my life were tricky, and I wondered when my mother would start meddling again. I gave it sever
al hours before I needed to start worrying about her, too. “How long will it take to handle this? Without knowing who is coming after Eva, I want to get as many protections on her as possible.”

  “Of course. It can be taken care of today. I’ll call an emergency session of the congress to ratify my decision and get the necessary signatures. I’ll also deal with your parents, Evangeline. I’ll make it clear if they are involved in a plot dealing with you that it’s in their best interest to abandon it. I’ll also have a warning issued that any outfit found to be attacking Illinois’s interests at this time will be met with lethal force. Nevada is an execution kingdom for attempted regicide, and I have no problems putting out a kill order to protect members of my family.”

  If it came to that, I expected a bloodbath. “Is there any chance we can find out who accepted the payment from my ex-girlfriend?”

  “Do you have the financial paper trail?”

  Meredith popped open her briefcase and handed over a few more papers. “We do, Your Majesty. These are all of the account numbers we’ve found so far.”

  “I’ll have a warrant issued and get these numbers run as soon as we arrive at the castle. Mercenary outfits don’t tend to target royals in Nevada, as the punishments are exceptionally harsh, so I expect the payments are to individuals. It could also be a payment to Eva’s family trying to secure her in Nevada. That wouldn’t surprise me.”

  “That’s what I’m afraid of,” I admitted.

  “Now, all that said, if you don’t mind, I’d like to have one of my royal physicians have a look at you, Prince Kelvin. I’d rather make certain the flight didn’t create any unexpected problems.”

  “Of course. What’s one more doctor in my collection of them?”

  “Have you found a permanent physician yet?”

  “No, not yet. Dr. Hampford of Montana has been on call.”

  “Well, I might be able to help with that. We have several new royal physicians, so some of the more senior of our staff are looking to try new waters. They’ve served Nevada well over the years, and Illinois would make an excellent place for them to prepare for retirement while training new doctors. If you’d like to meet them, we can make that part of your visit.”

  “I recommend you accept his offer, Your Highness,” Meredith ordered, and her tone allowed no argument.

  “I’d greatly appreciate that, Your Majesty.”

  “Excellent.” King Jacques glanced at Evangeline. “Dr. Pemland is one of them.”

  Eva’s eyes widened. “She is?”

  “She is.”

  “Who is Dr. Pemland?”

  “She’s a royal pediatrician, and while I removed my sister from the family for her crimes, I pulled some strings to make certain Evangeline was seen by Dr. Pemland when she was little.”

  “I last saw her right before I ran,” she admitted. “She’d come to my school and pretended she was the school nurse so my parents wouldn’t find out about it.”

  “At the risk of bringing up a sore point, what were the charges against Eva’s mother?”

  “The official charge is conspiracy to take the throne and planned regicide. I’d ordered a stay of execution on grounds of Evangeline’s birth, with strict conditions for her parole.”

  “I take that to mean Eva’s mother might work with mercenaries to retrieve her?”

  “I have no doubt of it. I have connections with the underground network. I’ll put out a notice that any outfit cooperating will find itself on the wrong end of the regicide laws in Nevada, and we have extradition treaties with most of the Royal States.”

  I wanted a lot more, but it would have to do until I had some time to find a better way to protect Eva. “All right. Thank you, Your Majesty.”

  “Now, if you don’t mind me asking, how on Earth did you two meet? Evangeline, you’re an incredibly difficult young woman to find; your parents have been trying to retrieve you since you wisely ran away. You could’ve come to me. All you needed to do was tell Dr. Pemland about the situation. She would’ve made arrangements.”

  “I didn’t think I could,” Eva admitted. “As for the rest, I found a wild animal, and I decided I liked him. I branded his ass so he couldn’t escape me. The fucker escaped me anyway, so I had to hunt his ass down again. That’s when things got weird.”

  King Jacques chuckled. “It sounds weird from the start. Also, we’re obviously going to talk about the appropriate branding of people.”

  “I appropriately branded him. Permanently. He’s mine.”

  I smiled, shrugged, and said, “I’m certainly not going to argue with her about that.”

  “Yes, but I doubt your mother warned you about the consequences of our brands. You’re better off sticking with the basic flameweaver portion of our talent, Evangeline.”

  Meredith chuckled. “I wish you the best of luck convincing her to remove her brand from His Highness. The fastest way to stir her ire is to suggest it be removed, and when someone disrupted the original brand, let’s just say her reaction was not positive. They’re already bonded for life, Your Majesty, courtesy of His Highness’s talent. They’re also both suspected leeches, and in the unlikely event that bond hasn’t already taken, the additional bond from Agent Evangeline’s brand won’t hurt either of them. We’re going to be monitoring the development of their talents and nurturing any fledgling bonds. All things considered, it’s easiest to let her use her talent and keep monitoring him. It proved useful when he was taken. Her ability to pinpoint his location on a map through her brand is spectacular. At distance, she has a quarter to half a mile accuracy.”

  “That good?” King Jacques chuckled and held his hands up in surrender. “As long as they’re both aware of the risks.”

  “She’s already life bonded to him, Your Majesty. There’s nothing we could do to prevent it at this point. If her talent hadn’t bonded them, his would have. I have the appropriate paperwork if you need to see it; Dr. Hampford thought it would be wise to have their bond officiated in case of future incidents.”

  “At the castle,” he ordered. “Anything else I should know?”

  “She has a temper, and the fastest way to provoke her is to threaten him, so I’d be aware there might be incidents if anyone gets too close to him right now,” Meredith reported.

  “Understandable. I’ll make certain the RPS is aware of the situation and ensure things are kept as quiet as possible. Anything else?”

  “Should he develop a headache, we’re to contact Dr. Thorton and route him to the nearest hospital, but he believes His Highness is fully out of the danger. He doesn’t like taking any risks with his patients, but this was too important to delay.”

  “I’m seeing that. Securing a kingdom’s line of succession is critical, and Illinois has had a few uncomfortable years wondering what would happen with the succession. It’s rare for an heir to have as much support as you do.”

  “I’ve always taken my job seriously.”

  “And you have a knack for it, which your cousin doesn’t. With all due respect to your cousin, of course. But the real question is this: how will you pick your successor with the introduction of my family’s talent to your line?”

  “While I still need to discuss this with Eva, I expect we’ll ultimately decide on our heir’s ability to rule,” I replied. “Should we have more than one child, I’ll spit the duties between them and see who handles it the best. I’d rather not repeat the issues my father has had with Grégoire with my children. And Eva’s contribution to the family should ultimately allow Illinois to pick a boy or a girl, although I anticipate the congress will want to continue the tradition of naming an heir with the family talent. I look forward to watching Eva battle the congress over it.”

  “I’ll enjoy it.” My wife smiled. “They’re scared of me.”

  “That’s because they’re wise,” I muttered.

  Eva jabbed me with her elbow. “What does that make you?”

  “Happily married and prone to fits of jealousy. If they�
��re scared of you, they’re not getting too close to you.”

  With a laugh and toss of her head, Eva shrugged. “He’s still cranky the training RPS agents were tossing me around during scenarios. They were just doing their job.”

  Meredith joined in the general laughter. “I was honestly hoping that’d snap him during the stress tests. I’m not looking forward to repeating the stress test, although the training agents were starting to get a feel for you, Your Highness.”

  “Can we do the next stress test at the castle?”

  “We’ll discuss it in Illinois.”

  By discuss, she meant dictate, which meant I’d be back to the RPS training compound until I snapped like a twig and did my best to run for the border. “I’ll just accept that as a no and save you the trouble.”

  “It’s nice when the principals understand their place in the hierarchy.”

  Eva leaned close and whispered, “If we start planning our escape from the start of the stress test, we might be able to pull it off after the first week, but we’ll probably have to make use of some closets until we flee their clutches.”

  “It seems only fair we test every closet for security breaches,” I whispered back.

  “I don’t know what you two are whispering about over there, but the answer is no,” Meredith announced.

  I exchanged looks with Eva, and we burst into laughter.

  Chapter Nineteen

  Had I known I’d go from lively to lethargic without warning, I would’ve given myself at least a day before imposing on King Jacques. By the time we arrived at the castle, I wanted nothing more than to find somewhere to sleep.

  “Perhaps I should show His Highness to his suite and give him a chance to settle while I handle bringing you back into the main family, Evangeline. There’ll be paperwork you need to sign, but I can bring it to your suite. Agent Scarson, I’ll have the head of my detail assign a group to help with your duties, although I expect His and Her Majesty are sufficiently protected with the team you’ve brought in. While rather untraditional, only a fool would try to attack them under my roof.”

  “That would be appreciated, Your Majesty. Thank you.”