There was no sign of Meg as Galen followed the group of nobles down the hall to the throne room, but he hadn’t really expected it. He slowed his pace, idly walking along and flipping through his phone as if he couldn’t care less about the goings-on of this event.

It was the truth, albeit for different reasons than most of the attending people would expect.

None of them peeled off to follow Meg, but Galen hadn’t really expected them to. In such a small gathering, a Head of Family or an heir coming up missing would be a giant smoking gun. He might not have a high opinion of nobles, but none of them were stupid enough to try something tonight.

No, they’d wait until they felt Theo’s attention lay elsewhere, and then they’d move.

It meant keeping up the appearances of a fight for a while, maybe even for setting Meg up in different rooms, but they’d handle that as things fell out. In the meantime, Kozlov was interrogating Huxley, and his people were keeping an eye on Meg.

Galen’s phone buzzed, and he stopped short. There wasn’t a single goddamn reason for Kozlov to be calling him right now. He waited a few seconds, letting the group of nobles slip farther away, and then answered. “Yeah?”

“We have a problem.”

Adrenaline kicked him in the stomach, but he forced himself to hold still, to not jump to conclusions. Kozlov was the head of security. A problem could be anything. It didn’t have to mean Meg.

Yeah, he didn’t believe that shit for a minute. “Tell me.”

“I just got a call. Some asshole decided to ram the front gates. My men took care of him, but they didn’t realize someone had slipped in a back door to the security system.”

“What? That’s not supposed to be possible.”

“No shit. I don’t know how they did it, but the fact remains that they did do it. I’m headed there now to ensure we shut them out. Do you know where the other Consort is?”

Galen’s stomach dropped. “What the fuck do you mean, do I know where she is? You know the plan. Your people were supposed to be watching her.”

“Fuck, fuck, fuck.” He moved away from the phone, but his voice still came through the line clearly. “Find the Consort. Find her right fucking now and escort her back to the private suites, and get a goddamn detail on her.” And then he was back. “Where are you? I’m coming.”

Galen’s thoughts went terrifyingly blank. They hadn’t been lax in security tonight. It was the one night they could have extra people involved without raising any eyebrows since every single Head of Family was here. There should have been no damn way for Meg to disappear. He looked around. The group of nobles following Theo had turned the corner, but he could still hear them talking softly as they headed for the throne room. Meg had barely left ten minutes ago. She couldn’t have gotten far. “No, fuck that. Go to the security hub and get our eyes up and going again. We can’t find anyone if we can’t see them. I’ll start searching.”

“Yes, sir. Keep your phone on you.”

“Find her, Kozlov.” He hung up and sprinted after the nobles. A breach in decorum, but Galen didn’t give a fuck. Every instinct he had screamed that something had gone wrong, that they’d been outmaneuvered. That Meg was in danger and there wasn’t a damn thing he could do to stop it. He bypassed the group easily and caught Theo’s arm. “It’s Meg.”

Theo took him in between one breath and the next. His blue eyes went wide and he turned to the people behind him. “I’m sorry, but there’s an emergency. We’re going to have to reschedule.”

Several people in the back of the group muttered, but Noemi stepped forward before anyone could really start shit. “Of course. Is there anything we can do to help?”

“Go back to your suites. There will be activity in the halls and the fewer people out, the better,” Galen said.

More grumbling, but Noemi nodded. “I think it’s time for a nightcap. Shall we?” She moved quickly, guiding the nobles away without seeming to herd them. A dangerous woman, to be sure, but she was in their corner so he had to be satisfied with that.

Theo barely waited for them to disappear to turn on Galen. “Tell me.”

“Someone hacked the security cameras and set up a distraction so the team wouldn’t realize they’d been put on a loop. We don’t know where Meg is.” Saying the words aloud made the whole situation that much realer. Meg was gone. Kozlov might not be sure of that fact, but Galen knew it beyond a shadow of a doubt. If he was more into woo-woo shit, he’d say the palace felt different without her in it, but that was impossible.

Her disappearing so quickly should have been impossible, too.

Theo closed his eyes and took a slow breath. “We’re sure she didn’t make it back to the suite?”

“Kozlov had a team check, but it was empty.” Galen paced a tight circle. “They wouldn’t have taken her through the front or out the side entrance. Too many people, even at this time of night. The risk of being seen would be too high.”

Theo snapped his fingers. “The loading dock.”

The only time anyone used that entrance was when they had shipments come in—or the staff snuck off for smoke breaks. Easy enough to time it right, a car driving up, someone ducking out, and then they’d be gone. Plus, it was actually the closest to their current position if a person went through the interior staff halls. Galen nodded. “Let’s go.”

They took off at a run.

Galen fished his phone from his pocket and dialed Kozlov. “Have your men checked the loading dock?”

“No. They were checking the most logical places and it didn’t make the list.” Kozlov cursed under his breath. “I’m working on getting the system purged now. I’ll send some guys your way.”

“Good.” Galen hung up. He picked up his pace, edging out ahead of Theo. If they hit a dangerous situation, better for him to be the first one through the door.

“I didn’t expect them to hit tonight.” Despite nearly all-out sprinting, Theo was barely out of breath. But he had a wild look in his blue eyes that was twin to the panic pressing hard against Galen’s chest.

“Neither did I.” He shoved open the door to the kitchen and bolted through. “We fucked up.”

Fewer than three minutes later, they hit the exterior door to the loading dock. Galen threw out a hand and stopped Theo short. “We go through slowly.” Kozlov’s men would be there at any minute, but charging into an unknown situation was a good way to get shot. It shouldn’t have been a risk on palace grounds, but someone shouldn’t have been able to snatch Meg and walk out, either.

They might not have proof that that’s exactly what happened, but Galen knew it to be true.

Just like he knew that this situation had his old man’s fingerprints all over it.

He edged through the door and then motioned Theo to follow. Even though part of him had hoped for different, they found the loading dock eerily empty. Theo cursed long and hard. “She’s gone.”

“We don’t know that yet.”

“She’s gone, Galen. You know it, and I know it. Just like I know it’s our fault.”

A glint of metal against concrete caught his eye. He picked up one of the silver earnings Meg had worn earlier in the night. “We know she came this way.” He was no tracker, but he still scoured the area, looking for signs.

Theo had his phone out. “Isaac? We know this is the way they got her out. Check the traffic cameras and see if you can narrow down the vehicle and a direction.” He hung up.

Galen pocketed the earring. “It will take time for Kozlov to narrow down the results into something we can use.”

“I know.”

“You can’t honestly expect us to sit on our hands in the meantime.”

“I don’t expect anything of the sort.” Theo smoothed back his hair and straightened his tux jacket. “We’re going to interrogate the nobles.”

Fear morphed into fury with every step Theo took toward the room where the nobles had gathered for the second time that night. Whether or not the responsible party lay within the palace walls, they were all partially responsible for this nightmare.

So was he.

He stopped outside the door and turned to Galen. “Go to Kozlov and oversee things there. I’ll call you when I’m done.”

Galen’s dark eye flicked to the door and back to Theo. “You sure you want to face them alone?”

“I have it handled.” The worst had already come to pass. His actions, his place in the world, had put someone he loved directly in the line of danger. If they didn’t move quickly… But no, that line of thought only ended in madness. He had to believe they’d recover Meg, had to believe that no permanent harm would be done to her, had to believe that they’d get through this just like they’d gotten through every other challenge up to this point. To do anything else would leave him on his knees and utterly useless.

Galen pulled him into a rough hug. “We’ll get her back.”

“I know.” No time for doubt now. They had to move. “Go. I have this handled.”

“Love you.”

“Love you, too.” He stood there and watched Galen walk away and allowed himself three beats of despair.

One. Meg was in danger.

Two. She might be hurting and scared.

Three. If they didn’t pull this off, they might never see her again.

Fear washed over him in a crippling wave and he closed his eyes and embraced it. Three. Two. One. Theo opened his eyes and shoved every single feeling into a little box inside him. Deeper and deeper, until cold logic encased every part of him. He couldn’t hold this distance indefinitely, but he could manage for the time required to accomplish this particular goal.

He walked through the door, every inch the King of Thalania. Lord Bakaj saw him first and moved to intercept. “What is the meaning of this?”

“Sit.”

“You can’t just—”

“Sit.” Theo turned his attention across the room. “All of you will sit down and you will listen. To do anything else is tantamount to treason.”

They sat. Some of them—Lady Vann, Lord Popov—looked more nervous than others, but he could care less about their petty schemes and conniving bullshit. “I will ask you this once, and once only—who in this room has had contact with Dorian Mikos?”

Blanks stares from several of the nobles, shock from others. The only one who flinched was Lady Vann. Sickness threatened, but Theo held it at bay. He strode to her. “Where is he?”

“I don’t know.”

“Answer the question, Lady Vann.”

She clutched her hands to her chest as if making herself into a smaller target would save her. “I don’t see how it’s any of your business.”

“Dorian Mikos and his wife were convicted of treason not once, but twice. Anything to do with them inside Thalania is my business.” He towered over her, using his size to intimidate. “Tell me here or tell me in one of the interrogation rooms. It’s your choice, Hollis.”

Her whole body shuddered. “You shouldn’t have brought that girl here. You shouldn’t have tried to change things.”

Lord Bakaj was the closest noble to her, and he took several large steps back, as if her treason was contagious. Theo barely spared him a glance. “This is the last time I’ll ask nicely—where is he?”

She laughed, short and harsh. “I’m just one of the many players in this game, Your Majesty. Do you really think that there isn’t anyone in this room who would pick up a knife if you turned your back? Don’t be naive.”

Theo turned a slow circle, meeting every set of eyes present. Lady Vann’s heir looked sick to her stomach, but she would be investigated and tried on her own merits—or lack thereof—rather than on her mother’s. Everyone else made an effort to hold their heads high and act innocent. Time would tell, but if the network was really as extensive as Lady Vann claimed, she wouldn’t need to brag about it.

He strode to the door and leaned out long enough to motioned Isaac’s two men forward. “Escort Lady Vann to the room next to Lord Huxley.”

Everyone stood in silence as the screaming woman was dragged from the room. Theo gave them all one last long look. “If any of you have information about Dorian Mikos’s whereabouts, coming forward now will result in a lenient punishment if my Consort is returned unharmed.” No one moved. “If you have information and don’t share it now, the truth will out eventually and the penalty will be death.” A sentence of death for the crime of treason hadn’t been used since his grandfather’s time, but with Meg’s life on the line, Theo wasn’t capable of playing this carefully. He needed her safe, and he needed her safe now.

Silence reigned.

“So be it.” He turned and left without another word.

Theo headed for the stairs leading down to where they kept the prisoners. He pulled out his phone and dialed Galen. The man barely had a chance to answer before he cut in. “Any news?”

“Nothing yet. Kozlov’s got them out of the system, but they wiped the security feed for the fifteen minutes we need. He’s doing the best he can, but it’s not going to get us anywhere.”

Damn it, he’d hoped there would be a simple solution for this. “Lady Vann is involved. I’m going to question her.”

Silence. Finally, Galen took a deep breath. “Do you need me?”

Yes. He didn’t say it. Galen had enough scars on both body and soul. Theo wouldn’t add to them if he had any choice in the matter. Extracting information was the stuff of nightmares when it escalated past simple questions, but he was capable of doing it. His father ensured that he’d never give a command he wasn’t capable of doing himself. Better for him to carry that price than anyone else. “I’m got it covered.”

“Be safe.”

There was no safety in this. Only danger and the kind of wounds that didn’t weep blood. “Call if you find something.”

“You, too.”

Theo slipped his phone into his pocket and moved down the stairs. Once upon a time, there had been a true dungeon in the palace, but one of his distant ancestors had removed it during a restructuring overhaul of the building. Prisoners and the like were relocated to a secondary location on the outskirts of Ranei, away from the general population and away from the nobles and their sensitive disposition.

He’d never found that change to be problematic. Until now.

A plain white room was too good for both Huxley and Vann. They had information he needed, and every minute they spent withholding it decreased the chance of Theo and Galen recovering Meg.

No, he couldn’t think like that. They would get her back.

They had to.

He spotted the two men stationed outside the doors and strode to them. “O’Carroll. Bradshaw.” Theo made a point of learning the names of those who staffed the palace regularly, and the habit paid off now. Both men offered him tight smiles.

O’Carroll was the elder, somewhere around his mid-forties, though he hadn’t softened with age. He gave a short bow. “Your Majesty. We have Lady Vann secured to the table. What do you require?”

“Nothing for the moment.” He slipped through the door and set eyes on Lady Vann. Her cuffs were looped through a metal ring in the center of the table, and the position left her slightly hunched forward. She tried and failed to look down her nose at him. Theo shut the door with a quiet click. “Lady Vann.”

“You’ll regret this, Theodore.”

He smiled sadly. “You’re under the mistaken impression that someone is coming to save you. Dorian isn’t in the city. He took my Consort, and he left you to hang for it.” He walked over and sank into the chair across from her. “You will, by the way. Hang, that is. We’re not equipped for an electric chair, and I’ve always found it rather inhumane. Though I suppose that’s part of what made it such an attractive option. People are less likely to commit killing offenses if they think they might be strapped down and hooked up to a machine meant to fry their brain.”

She blinked big brown eyes at him. Fear finally slithered through their depths. “Exile is the punishment for treason.”

“Exile was the punishment for treason. Unfortunately for you, it’s no longer quite the deterrent it used to be. You, my dear, are to be an example to all who come after.” He sat back and considered her. “I suppose I could have someone rig up a guillotine. It worked for the French.”

“That’s not funny.”

“Who’s laughing?” He shrugged. “I don’t have all night, Hollis. Either tell me what I need to know or tell me who has the information I need to know. Those are your options, full stop.”

“You’ll really kill me. Me. Lady Vann. Head of the Vann Family.”’

Theo lowered his voice, a confidence between just the two of them. “I would happily execute you and every other Head of Family if it meant my Meg would be returned safely. All seven of your lives don’t begin to measure against hers. Yours alone? Don’t make me laugh.” He reached over and covered her shaking hands with his. “Tell me where Dorian’s taken her.”

“What’s to stop you from killing me if I do?”

“Nothing. You’re the villain of this piece, but I have no problem picking up the mantle in the meantime. Final chance, Hollis, or I go next door and talk to Huxley. He might not be a main player in the game, but I wager he knows enough to give me a direction.”

She gave a laugh, but not like anything was funny. “Dorian is in Williamshire.” A small estate in Vann territory that edged up against the border of Greece.

Theo was already moving. He shoved out of his chair, ignoring Hollis’s demand for assurances, and charged out of the room. He had his phone to his ear as he took the stairs two at a time. “Galen, she’s in Williamshire. Meet me on the roof.”