Chapter 23
Chapter
Twenty-Three
“Your Highness!” The relief in Captain Mitchell’s voice was palpable as the other man grabbed Xavier’s shoulder. “We’ve been looking for you for half an hour! Didn’t you hear me calling?”
Xavier looked up, his vision a little hazy. He was still standing behind the crates, right where Alina had left him.
Alina had left him. Again.
“Nothing’s changed, Mitchell,” he murmured. “None of it’s real to her. I’m not real to her. I’m…”
Words failed him, and it was just as well. Better not to say aloud to a captain under his command that he was a ridiculous, substance-less fool, good for nothing but sweet-talking pretty girls and making people laugh.
He’d thought his heart was shattered when Alina turned him down at fourteen.
But this…this was true agony. When she’d invited him to kiss her, when she’d spoken about yielding…
he’d thought he’d won her. He’d thought she was agreeing, not just to give up her wild plan of risking her life and instead stay safely with him, but to stay with him forever.
That kiss had been absolute bliss, her touch burning like fire, engulfing his senses.
For the first time in ten years, he’d meant it. He’d held nothing back.
Then she’d smiled in that cheerful way, and complimented his skill in kissing. It had been meaningless flirtation to her, a temptation she was usually too sensible to give in to, but had decided she may as well enjoy since she was about to put her life on the line.
It had cut him open all over again, and this time he couldn’t comprehend the wound ever healing.
So he’d stood there, incapacitated by silent agony for what felt like a lifetime.
Apparently it had been half an hour.
“What are you talking about, Your Highness?” Captain Mitchell was concerned. “Do you mean Alina? Where is she?”
Xavier stirred. It was an excellent question. Where had she gone when she left?
“I think…I think she went home,” he said uncertainly. “We should check.”
“The other girl, Lilah, is still at the inn,” Captain Mitchell said. “I told her to wait until someone can escort her home. If it will set your mind at ease, we can accompany her and check that Alina reached home safely.”
Xavier gave a terse nod, and the two of them moved out of the alley.
“Why did you allow it, Captain?” The words were wrenched from Xavier.
“Were you really so desperate to get rid of her? I know you think the old accusations you discovered about her father cast her intentions into doubt, but you’re wrong.
None of that has anything to do with her.
She was never implicated in any of it—she doesn’t even know about it.
And the man who was implicated has been dead for eight years. ”
“I wasn’t motivated by any desire to see her come to harm,” Captain Mitchell insisted, as they crossed the road toward the inn. “I still have my concerns, but I don’t believe she would be involved in harming Benji. I truly thought her idea more viable than anything else we’ve tried.”
“The cost is too high.” Xavier’s voice was an anguished croak. “I can’t allow it to proceed.”
They’d reached the inn, and the captain waited for Xavier to go ahead of him.
It took only a moment to collect a pale-faced Lilah, and soon Xavier and the captain—along with half a dozen guards—were escorting her home.
When they reached the dressmaker’s shop, Lilah stopped, her eyes fearful as she glanced up.
“There’s no light on,” she said.
“Could Alina already be asleep?” Captain Mitchell asked.
She shook her head, swallowing. “She would wait up for me. After what happened tonight…she would wait.”
Fear spiked in Xavier’s throat, threatening to choke him.
“What’s that?” The sharp question came from one of the guards. Following his pointing finger, Xavier knelt down to look more closely at a potted plant that had been knocked askew across the porch. Reaching down, he lifted up a ribbon lying alongside it. A green ribbon.
“That was in her hair,” Lilah whispered.
It was unnecessary information. Xavier had noticed every detail of Alina the moment he’d laid eyes on her. He couldn’t help it.
“It worked.” The guard who spoke sounded elated. “So quickly!”
Horror spread through Xavier’s body, too potent to allow even for anger at the hapless guard.
Alina had been taken? And mere minutes after what had passed between them.
He’d vowed he wouldn’t let her put herself at risk, then he’d immediately let his heartbreak overcome him and done nothing as she disappeared alone into the night.
A quiet sob from Lilah broke through his paralysis. His face swung toward her, their gazes locking in silent acknowledgment of the disaster of the moment.
They were the only ones. The rest of the group were murmuring excitedly, examining the area for any further evidence of what had happened.
“We should get back to the inn,” one said. “See if the guild craftsman can track her!”
“Yes!” Xavier clutched at the reminder like a drowning man. “Come on.”
He sprinted back across the town, his guards hastening to keep up with him. When they burst into the parlor at the inn, it was to a scene that was much too calm for the situation.
“Can you feel her?” Xavier demanded, striding around the table to the craftsman.
“I…what?” The man stared at him blankly.
“Alina is gone,” Xavier said. “Signs of a struggle. Can you feel her?”
The man looked aghast, his eyes glazing over as he appeared to search himself.
“I…I don’t know,” he admitted. “There’s a tug. Very faint. I could feel it when she left the inn. It’s gotten fainter since then. I thought maybe it was because she was sleeping. But it’s possible she’s further than such a weak link can handle.”
“Can you follow the direction of it?” Xavier asked desperately.
He stood, moving to the door, his face lined with worry. “I can try,” he said.
Xavier groaned. “That’s not good enough! You said it would work!”
“I said it might,” the man said, sounding wretched. “I said there were risks.”
He glanced at the guard who’d been the original subject of the enchantment, the one who’d failed to get himself abducted. Alina had really put him to shame in that area, Xavier reflected bitterly.
“The trouble is, Your Highness,” the craftsman went on, “the link has been weakened not just by the act of transferring it, but by what that transfer means. One factor in its strength is the connection that naturally exists between the parties. I was selected to be the one on this end of the link because I know the subject. He and I grew up in the same neighborhood. We played together as children.”
The guard nodded solemnly.
“It’s not a strong connection,” the craftsman went on. “And it doesn’t need to be with a full-strength linking enchantment. But it helps. And the trouble is, I don’t know Alina at all. I have no connection to her. And now that we’re working with a weakened link, that matters.”
Xavier’s mind was going at double speed, panic making everything urgent.
“Can you transfer your end?” he demanded. “Like you did for the other end?”
“I…probably,” the man said helplessly. “But we don’t have anyone else with skill in magic craft.”
“Is that necessary?” Xavier asked.
“Well,” he hesitated, “not strictly. As long as there’s the basic ability to sense Dust, someone should be able to sense the tug of the link.
But I have to warn you, if all three of the components—dilution of strength by modification, magical skill of those involved, and personal connection between the parties—are weakened… ” He trailed off.
“You need at least one of those to be strong,” Xavier clarified.
“As a minimum,” the man confirmed.
“Great.” Xavier rolled up his sleeves. “We’ll be fine. Transfer your end of the link to me.”
“Absolutely not, Your Highness.” Captain Mitchell appeared at Xavier’s side.
“I wasn’t asking your permission.” Xavier held out his arm to the craftsman. “We need to link arms, right?”
“Your Highness, I’m reluctant.” The craftsman looked alarmed.
“Your reluctance is noted,” Xavier said impatiently. “We’re losing time, let’s get on with it. Every minute we delay is another minute they gain on us.”
“Prince Xavier.” Captain Mitchell stepped between Xavier and the craftsman. “This plan is foolhardy in the extreme. There is no way I’ll approve it.”
Xavier drew himself up, staring down the other man. “It’s already been approved. Am I in charge of the investigation or not, Captain?”
“With all respect, Your Highness,” the captain said through a tight jaw, “I believe your judgment is impaired.”
“I don’t care what you or anyone else believes,” Xavier said simply. “I know what the truth is, and I know what I’m doing.” He turned to the craftsman. “Make the transfer. That’s an order with the full force of the crown.”