Page 64 of The Stolen Kingdom

“I don’t want you to get hurt…” Melvian sighed one last time before rubbing her large, round belly and letting out a soft, pained hiss.

“Is everything all right?” Maris asked, her hands flying to touch her swollen stomach, feeling the babies.

“It’s not the babies,” Melvian said, and her hand shifted from her stomach to her chest. She let out a strangled gasp before looking up at Maris. “It’s Isen.”

Maris narrowed her eyes. “What’s wrong with Isen?”

“He is petrified and desperate…” She rubbed her chest again. “Something is not right.”

Maris’s chest tightened, and she frowned at the sharp tug. She touched her chest and stood from her chair, turning her back away from her friend.

“Do you feel something? Is it Valda?”

Maris nodded. “I think it is. Maybe it is just my intuition. But something is not right.”

Melvian pursed her lips and pushed herself away from the table before unlocking the door of House of Arago. “Something is not right at all.”

Maris made it to the door and opened it for Melvian. The settlement was buzzing with activity, as it always was, but Maris couldn’t pinpoint the horrible feeling in her gut.

“Your Highness!”

Maris turned right away. Coral ran to her, her child in her arms, visibly agitated and distraught. Maris placed her hands over her shoulder to calm her, but Coral’s eyes shook with every sob she took. “Calm down. What is it?”

“Beck! I— I think something happened to him!”

“What happened to your mate?”

“I don’t know! I— I… He left for Ophelia two days ago, to gather some provisions we needed for the baby, and he hasn’t come back. I can’t—“ Coral closed her eyes tightly and pressed her wet cheek to her baby’s forehead.

Behind Maris, Melvian looked from the house’s deck, both hands falling on her swollen stomach.

“I can’t feel him— Something happened to him!”

Melvian released a shaky breath before walking down the stairs and grabbing Maris’s elbow. “Maris…”

“I know,” she whispered back to her best friend. “I will send a group of guards to look for him, Coral. Do you know of any place he stayed over at Ophelia?”

“No! He was supposed to come back the same day! I thought he decided to stay for a while. The last thing I felt from him was fear. He was afraid, and he could only think about the baby and me.” Coral looked down at the gorgeous infant with blue locks. “He was also angry, like when you do something you don’t want to.”

“We will find him…” Maris muttered, brushing the back of her knuckles against the young woman’s cheek and sending her off with a promise she might not keep. She pivoted to face Melvian before raising her gaze to the guard by the door. “I want Eyphah Hurley here this instant, and I want guards around the entire settlement on the lookout. I don’t want a single edge of this place unguarded. No one comes in!”

“Yes, Your Highness!” The guard bowed low and ran to perform her orders.

“Maris! What are you thinking?” Melvian asked, following her friend as best as she could as she made her way back into the cottage.

Once inside, Maris picked up her trident from beside the door and clenched it. Its weight wasn’t a problem now, but the idea of having to use it sent a chill down her spine.

In the beginning, when she realized she was the heir to the throne, the idea of ruling with an iron fist, of spilling blood, never crossed her mind. But if her suspicions were true, there would be bloodshed sooner than she thought.

“I think Arwin’s men were waiting for one of us to head to Ophelia. I think they captured Coral’s mate for interrogation. Of course, they didn’t have the audacity to come back here since they kept finding nothing…” She rubbed her thumb over the cold metal of the trident. “I think they tortured him until he told the truth, and they killed him.” Tightening her jaw, she looked at her best friend. Her brow furrowed and her grip tightened. “I think we have been discovered.”

13

“Beck? He is gone?” Eyphah stared at Maris in disbelief.

“Coral says she felt a cut in the connection. She is distraught and in pain, and she thinks something happened to him. I believe she is right.” Maris ignored the awkwardness emanating from them. Talking to her seemed to be a task now. “I think he was captured back at Ophelia.”

Eyphah rubbed her chin silently, then nodded. “Fuck!”

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