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 have 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.