The King never deigns to see us, at least not that afternoon. That means Bruno and I waste an entire afternoon, sitting around, waiting for an audience with him that doesn’t come.

It’s obvious we’re going to need another strategy. We tried to do this the right way — well, sort of — but the right way just isn’t going to work.

Time to get creative.

When we arrive at dinner, the Princess isn’t there, and then the meal begins without her. She doesn’t even have a place set, which is strange, to say the least.

I look around the enormous formal dining room, and something dawns on me: Sven’s not there either.

Alarm bells scream in my head. I turn to Bruno, ready to point out the two missing people, but he nods like he already knows.

There are plenty of reasons that two people could be absent from a meal, but I have a bad, bad feeling about this.

I clear my throat and address the King.

“Your Majesty,” I start. “Is the Crown Princess not joining us tonight?”

He gives me a long, slow, considering look. Katarina definitely has his eyes.

“My daughter is dining with Prince Sven of Norograv,” he says. “They have a private matter to discuss.”

I nod once, the only polite thing I can manage to do, because I feel like I might throw up.

Katarina. Our princess, alone with him.

It isn’t that I don’t trust her. I trust her completely.

Him, on the other hand? Fuck no.

“I don’t like this,” Bruno murmurs to me.

“I don’t either,” I respond.

* * *

We eat as fast as we can and excuse ourselves. We don’t know where we’re going, only that we’re looking for Katarina and Sven. I don’t know that she’s in danger, but the unsettling feeling I have won’t go away, the feeling that something bad is happening, and it’s up to us to protect her.

That’s what we’re supposed to do. Protect her, the woman we both love.

And I think we might be failing. The thought is sickening, and we tear through the palace at a run, looking everywhere we can think of, but there’s no sign of either of them.

“If we were Sven, where would be take Katarina?” Bruno asks.

I exhale, pacing in a tight circle. Our search so far as has been completely useless.

“We don’t know that he’s doing something wrong,” I point out. “They could be having dinner together, somewhere perfectly innocent...”

“Do you really think that?” Bruno asks quietly.

“No,” I admit.

“This really bugs me out,” he admits.

That just makes me feel worse. Since being in the military for years, he’s got a pretty good sense about these things — when there’s danger, when there’s not. And if Bruno thinks she’s in danger...

“He wouldn’t take her back to Norograv, would he?” I ask. “If he could get the Princess out of the country, it would be a lot harder for anyone to rescue her.”

Bruno considers this, but shakes his head.

“If he did, he’d be caught at the border,” he says. “And he’d have taken her during full daylight, which is pretty hard. No, I think they’re still here, somewhere.”

I sigh again, pushing one hand through my hair, the way I do when I’m stressed, anxious, or angry, or when I’m all three, like I am right now.

“Okay,” I say. “If I were at home, at the palace in San Javier, where would I take a girl I wanted to...”

I swallow.

“...Hide?” I finish.

Bruno looks at the ground, thinking.

“That might be the wrong question,” he says.

I look up at him, raising my eyebrows.

“Your palace is on a sea cliff, so it hasn’t got a proper basement,” he says. “But in Materbourg, we’re very proud of our dungeons.”

Of course. Of fucking course. The dungeons in pretty much every palace are long out of use, a spooky place that mostly stores old furniture and gardening equipment.

It’s a great place to hide someone you don’t want found.

“Come on,” Bruno says, already speed-walking. “They showed us the door the first day of the Council.”