XVIII
Murmurs filled the conference room as a majority of the palace guards were presently waiting for their Commander and King to arrive.
Word had spread quickly throughout the palace that an urgent meeting was to be held and their attendance was mandatory.
A few guards were still left guarding the palace.
"I have a bad feeling about this," Laurence whispered.
Kent, standing next to him at the back of the room, nodded his head with his gaze facing forward. "I can't recall the last time we held such a large impromptu meeting."
"No one you know has found the prince's mate, have they?" Laurence questioned.
"No, you?"
Laurence shook his head.
"Well, then I think we already know what we're here for."
The room quieted as the Commander and King entered, along with Prince Lennox, who was accompanied by two guards. As he walked to a chair in the front of the room, Lennox and Kent made direct eye contact, and he couldn't help but feel like the prince was sizing him up. What on earth?
Laurence also seemed to notice the stare his friend was getting and looked at him questioningly when Lennox averted his gaze. Kent shrugged his shoulders.
The commander cleared his throat. "First, I'd like to thank you all for your continued efforts throughout the night. Your efforts have been noted and are very appreciated."
Small smiles stretched across the entire room.
"However," tension filled the room. "As I'm sure you've heard from your peers, the search for Prince Lennox's mate remains ongoing."
Lennox's back was completely straightened. He had known when he was told that a meeting was going to be held that it likely meant bad news, but actually hearing it said out loud made his heart drop to his stomach.
"But that is not the only reason we have brought you all here. We believe we have found a lead that could potentially help us find her," the king declared.
The commander raised the picture of the symbol found outside the ballroom. "Does this symbol mean anything to you?"
A guard in the front raised his hand. "It is the royal symbol of Thovaria, sir."
The commander nodded his head. "Very good. This symbol was found painted outside the ballroom right after the explosion. It is unclear who it was painted by, but we do know for certain that the explosion was done by order of the Thovarian crown."
Gasps echoed across the room.
Kent and Laurence turned to look at each other in shock.
"King Cassian has declared war on Renetia. He believes we were somehow involved in the escape of his mate, and she is being hidden within our borders."
The commander tucked the photo back into his suit jacket.
"This, of course, is false. We have never had any contact with the lost queen and, in fact, have no idea what she looks like. No one does."
Kent furrowed his brows. Could this mean...?
Lennox looked at his father desperately. The king, however, avoided his gaze. "We believe there is a possibility she was kidnapped by Thovaria, as revenge on the royal family."
The room went completely quiet. You could hear a pin drop.
Lennox shot up from his seat, but hunched over from the pain. The two guards ran to his side to help him sit back down. "No. No! NO! THAT'S NOT POSSIBLE!"
The king finally turned to his son, and the sight of him left him shocked. Lennox's eyes were brimming with tears; he looked tired and withered from the last 24 hours, and his hair was dishevelled. But there was a look in his son's eyes that he had never seen before. Terror.
A chill ran up Edric's spine.
"Your Highness! Please, sit down," one of the guards pleaded.
"GET YOUR HANDS OFF OF ME! THAT'S AN ORDER!"
The guards immediately removed their hands and turned to face the king for further instructions. He merely shook his head, and the guards backed off.
Lennox turned to face the room. "You're telling me none of you have anything to report? Nothing at all!?"
Everyone averted their gazes.
Anger boiled within him. "What are you all even good for!?"
A guard hesitantly raised his hand. "I ran into the lady outside of the ballroom."
Everyone's attention snapped onto said guard. Lennox's eyes sharpened. "Tell me everything. Down to the last detail."
The guard nervously rose from his seat. "I can't remember exactly when, but it was sometime before 8 o'clock. I was patrolling around the palace when I noticed a young lady standing in the garden near the servant's quarters. I asked her if she was alright and needed help back to the ballroom,
but she insisted that she was fine and she just wanted some fresh air."
Kent's brows furrowed. That was quite a way away from the ballroom.
"I thought it suspicious, so I sent another guard to check on her, but when he arrived, she was gone."
"Did you notice anything else?" the king asked.
"Other than the fact she seemed nervous when I spoke to her, no. Our interaction was very short, as if she didn't want to speak to me."
Lennox stared intently at the guard, making him shift uncomfortably.
The king nodded his head, and the guard sat back down in his seat. "Does anyone else have information they would like to share? Even the most insignificant thing counts."
The room remained silent.
"Alright, well, now we must discuss where to go from here. Currently, we only have theories about what has happened to the prince's mate. We do not yet have any concrete proof that they have been kidnapped, but we are going to proceed as if it were the worst-case scenario.
I want all of you to be prepared if there are any future attacks. Thovaria is currently the biggest threat to our kingdom."
"You don't think we're preparing for war, do you?" Laurence asked, sounding concerned.
Kent had no response. This was a huge deal if Thovaria was involved with the disappearance of the prince's mate. It was absolutely grounds for war if they refused to return her.
"There are currently two possibilities. One, we try to make direct contact with Thovaria and ask them if this was their doing. If we get a response and they confirm that it was them, then this would turn into a much larger issue. But if this was not their doing,
then we would simply be alerting them to the fact that the prince's mate was somewhere we could not reach, and this could turn into a real kidnapping."
The commander folded his hands together.
"Or two, we simply wait and see if they try to make contact with us. Either they do and give this information to us by themselves, or we never hear a thing."
Lennox gritted his teeth. He had never felt so useless in his entire life.
His mate was Irene knew where, and here they all were, sitting around a room discussing hypothetical scenarios.
All he wanted at that moment was to pull that mysterious woman into his arms and never let her go.
The thought that she had stood right in front of him, so close he could smell her citrus scent, touched his sleeve, and looked into his eyes, and now she was just...
gone drove him insane. How badly he had wanted to remove her mask and see the woman beneath.
She was his, and he was hers. And he had lost her.
But not for long. He would find her no matter what. If Thovaria were involved in her disappearance, he would burn that kingdom to the ground. He would follow her to the ends of the earth because they were made for each other.
They were written in the stars.
———
In the dungeon of the palace, a servant was chained to the wall, with blood dripping down his nose. His left eye was beginning to turn purple, and the corner of his lip was swelling. All he could smell was damp and rusted metal.
Another punch to the stomach was sent his way, and he pathetically crumpled to the ground.
"I will ask you again, WHERE IS THE YOUNG LADY!?"
He spat blood onto the ground. "For the last time, I have no idea who you're talking about!"
His hair was grabbed into a fist, and he was forced to kneel. "You know exactly who I'm referring to, and if you don't want each of your fingers cut off, one by one, I suggest you start talking. Your pathetic King can't save you now."
The prisoner spat in the man's face. "The only pathetic people I know are the ones in front of me. Three against one, that's hardly fair. I thought you Renetians liked to play nice? Always running your mouths about love and equality, and yet you are the reason my King sits in his castle,
day after day, unable to eat, sleep, or breathe properly without our Queen."
Angered by the prisoner's insolence, the man threw him across the cell, his head smacking against the wall. Stars exploded in his vision, and he felt himself grow lightheaded. He watched as his cell door was locked shut and the men began to walk off.
"We'll see how long you can keep up this innocent act."
As he lay there, cold, dirty, and defeated, one thought floated around his head until darkness found him.
Who was this lady they were looking for?