Page 53 of Crowned for His Son

Her head moved independently of her fracturing thoughts.

Gaspar cleared his throat. ‘Every guard and staff member in the palace is out looking for him—’

‘Then w-we should go out there too—looking! We can’t just stand here doing nothing!’

She wanted to scream when Azar shook his head. ‘We will. Right after we talk to Nadia. We’ll find him,tesoro. And he’ll be fine. Do you hear me?’ he repeated.

Her nod was shaky at first, but the pulses of sheer resolute faith vibrating off him slowly seeped into her. She nodded more firmly, and when he lowered his head and pressed his lips to hers, in a hard, reassuring kiss, she felt another layer of panic recede.

‘Your Majesties…’

Nadia’s hesitant voice pulled them apart, but Azar didn’t release her completely. He kept an arm around her waist as they faced the nanny.

‘Have you found him?’ Eden blurted.

Even before the young girl shook her head Eden saw the truth in her stricken face.

Calm down. You’re no use to Max in full panic mode.

She sucked in a steady breath, shaking her hands free of tension before she clamped them tight again.

‘When did you notice he was gone?’ Azar asked.

‘I put him down an hour ago, and went to check on him fifteen minutes ago. H-he wasn’t there. I’ve looked everywhere I can think of.’

A broken moan wrested itself free from Eden’s throat. But, as much as she wanted to burrow into Azar’s chest and sob her terror, she forced herself to think.

‘Tell me what you were doing in the two hours before you put him to bed.’

At Azar’s questioning look, she met his gaze.

‘If he’s excited about something, it’s the first thing he does or talks about when he wakes up.’

The nanny swallowed and nodded. She was trained to maintain her composure, but Eden could see it fraying beneath Azar’s piercing regard.

Freeing herself from his hold, she grasped Nadia’s arm. ‘It’s okay. Just stay calm and tell me.’

Nadia’s gaze latched onto hers, her forehead faintly creasing. ‘He didn’t want to go to bed, so I made a list of all the fun things we would be doing tomorrow.’ Her eyes darted to Azar. ‘He was looking forward to swimming with you before breakfast.’

Azar’s nostrils pinched, and the skin around his mouth whitened briefly, but he didn’t speak.

Nadia’s eyes darted back to Eden. ‘I also promised him we would visit the mini maze tomorrow and play hide and seek with his toys.’

A jolt went through her. ‘Hide and seek is his favourite game. If he woke up thinking about it…’

Another sob threatened. The thought of her baby wandering the grounds at this time of the night…risking getting hurt. Or worse…

‘Let’s check his room again,’ Azar barked, already striding away.

She chased after him, catching up as he entered Max’s suite and crossed into the vast play room attached to the bedroom, searching for anywhere a toddler might hide.

For a cursed moment Eden wished they didn’t live in a palace—a place with hundreds of places for her son to play, blissfully unaware that his parents were tearing their hair out.

‘Max?’ she called. Her voice wobbled horribly.

Silence.

Three minutes later they’d searched every inch of his rooms, calling out with no success.

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