Chapter 94

Logan

“We need to find her.”

Alex looked up at me, his brow creased in confusion. I had burst in without announcement, so quickly that not even the prince’s herald had time to precede my entrance.

The prince set aside the letter he had been working on before leaning back in his chair. “I assume you mean Emma,” he said.

I nodded once curtly. My fists were clenched at my sides. I needed this. It was a distraction, a way to occupy my mind from the swirling feelings that had plagued me with confusion over Evelyn. This would give me something to focus on that wasn’t her. And Alex was the best hunter and tracker in the palace besides me, so there was no one better to join the search.

Alex sighed as he pushed himself to his feet. “Let me get my horse saddled then.”

In no time, we had our horses prepped and ready for the hunt. We set out in the early morning and began to comb through our surroundings.

Fortunately, we had packed enough to accommodate the days it turned into. With two stoic and silent palace guards trailing behind us to oversee the prince’s safety and provide backup, the four of us set out to thoroughly investigate the surrounding area.

Quickly, the days had started to blur together. While the city guard focused on door-to-door investigations miles back, we scoped out the endless rolling countryside, which soon began to all look the same.

Green and gold fields crested and sprawled under a pale, largely overcast sky that reflected my mood. Around us, the fields of tall grass were dotted with stone walls and weathered estates that we approached in our search, but without luck, always leaving empty-handed.

Every time I thought we might be close to finding her, the trail would vanish again. And every time I thought I might have put enough distance between the palace and me, thoughts of Evelyn would surface again.

I couldn’t escape the memory of her devastated face as she endured my horrified reaction to learning she was the princess. And I wasn’t able to replace my swirling concerns for her with those of Emma and her whereabouts, no matter how hard I tried.

It didn’t help that Alex kept glancing at me with a pensive, questioning look as though waiting for me to reveal what was truly on my mind. But I didn’t. I couldn’t.

So the days stretched on in mostly silence, fruitless and exhausting. Emma was a ghost, always one step ahead, as evasive as smoke, and it was starting to gnaw at me.

As dusk settled in on our third night on the hunt, the air turned sharp with the promise of night, and we decided to make camp near a creek that whispered over smooth stones. The sound of the water was soothing as the fire crackled low, throwing orange light over Alex’s face as he pulled out a flask.

I raised my brows at the sight of the little container. I hadn’t known he had been carrying it.

“Come on,” Alex said, rolling his eyes. “Don’t tell me you’re too good for it. I was saving it for when things began to feel dire, and I’d say we’re well past that.”

He took a long swig before holding the flask out to me. I hesitated for only a moment before taking it. He was right. The hunt was looking dire, and perhaps a few strong pulls of liquor would quell the thoughts of Evelyn that haunted me.

The burn in my throat felt good as the strong drink seared down to my stomach. It felt like something real in the middle of all this chasing shadows.

We didn’t talk at first. There was just the sound of the fire and the occasional creak of leather from our gear. The horses whinnied at the fringes of our camp as the guards tended to them, watering and hobbling them for the evening. Then the flask came around again. And again. And again.

Whatever was in the flask must have been a good, rich palace drink that immediately blurred the racing thoughts in my head. The words started to slip out before I could stop them, breaking the silence in the worst way possible as I admitted the one thing that I had been thinking again ceaselessly since the start of our search.

“I still love her,” I said, staring into the flames. My voice sounded low and rough. I couldn’t tell if it was from disuse or from the raw truth of the words. “Even after everything. Even after she lied. Even after what happened with my mother. I can’t shake it, and I wish I could, but I just… can’t.”

Alex didn’t look at me right away. He took the flask, drank, and then leaned back against a fallen, moss-covered tree.

“I know,” he said simply. “Frankly, it’s obvious. But I also know I can’t forgive you for how you treated her. Not yet.”

The truth of it stung worse than the drink. I dragged a hand down my face. “I didn’t… I didn’t mean for things to go that way. But you have to understand where I’m coming from. She withheld the most important piece of information from me, and it’s a lot to take in. And then the stuff with my mother… it was convenient.”

“Maybe,” Alex allowed. “But it’s also true. Evelyn is the most honest person I know. She withheld that information from you because it was for the best. You have to know she would never have done it to hurt you.”

I looked down at the dirt between my feet. My throat felt tight, and I clenched my hands to the point of pain. “I know,” I said.

“You broke her trust,” Alex continued. “You think I don’t know what it feels like? Our father used to do stuff like this all the time, but it was always for our safety or for the safety of our people. It’s the same here with Evelyn. I promise.”

I could almost see the palace halls again: the cold stone floors, the echo of boots, the calculating looks. It must have been a tiresome upbringing, not knowing what the full truth was. Always being weighed or considered. Words minced not for your best interest, but for the peace of mind of someone else.

“What was she like?” I asked. “As a girl.”

Alex swallowed another mouthful of liquor before passing the flask back to me. “The same way she is now. Fearless. Truthful. Too caring for her own good.”

I downed what was left of the flask’s contents in a long, fiery swallow. “Yeah,” I said, gazing into the orange flames before us. “That sounds about right.”

Silence settled over us after that. There was nothing else to say. There was too much to discuss at the same time. But for now, we had settled into a kind of stalemate, lost in our own thoughts.

As the quiet moments passed, the fire burned low, and the cold air pressed in. Alex’s head started to loll forward.

“I’m going to get some sleep,” the prince said. “I want to be well rested for yet another long day of staring at grass ahead of us.”

He turned over without another word, the drink pulling him into sleep quickly, leaving me alone as the guards settled down for the evening as well. It seemed that I would be taking up the first watch.

I was fine to stay awake anyway. Despite the drink blurring my thoughts, my mind was restless. I doubted I could have slept even if I had tried.

Around us, the trees came to life with the insects of the night, and the rolling creek was a soft, lulling noise. It was the kind of quiet that makes you too comfortable and gives you a false sense of security.

I had almost been tricked by its tranquility when I heard it. There was a faint, almost inaudible rustle in the woods. But I heard it.

I immediately knew that it was not the wind. Nor was it an animal.

Someone was out there.

And as I turned in the direction of the sound, I had a sinking feeling I knew exactly who it was.