Page 7 of Royally Hacked Belle & Flame
I scowl as Kastian leads Connell out of the room and shuts the door behind him, leaving Alix and me alone with the elderly man. I turn to face him. “Our apologies for that.”
The man shakes his head vigorously. “No, not at all, your majesties,” he breathes, bowing. “My name is Nikolas. Thank you for meeting with me.”
I want to point out that we don’t exactly have a choice, but I hold it together. Instead, I ask: “What can we do for you?”
The man’s face crumples with anguish, making the wrinkles on his old face all the more pronounced. He must be very old indeed to look like that. Fae do age eventually, but it takes centuries. Nikolas must be well over a thousand, and therefore shouldn’t be underestimated no matter how weak he looks. Still, there’s a moment where I think Nikolas might actually collapse, so I gesture at the nearest chair—which happens to be my throne. He doesn’t sit. Instead, he clasps his hands together in front of his chest like someone about to pray or beg.
“I wouldn’t be here if I had any other options,” he whispers, and even the acoustics of our domed, half-constructed ceiling can’t bounce his words loud enough to make them seem less desperate. “I need help.”
I try to keep my face expressionless, but Alix immediately softens. She shifts her weight onto one leg and cocks her head. “With what?”
“My grandchildren are missing,” Nikolas says, looking down at his boots.
I wait, but he doesn’t elaborate, so I clear my throat. “When did you last see them?”
He blinks, as if surprised by the question’s simplicity. “Yesterday, just after supper. They’d finished their lessons and were playing in the alley behind my shop. I closed early, like I always do, to walk them home, but when I came out, they were gone.” His voice cracks on the word “gone.”
“Did you check with their friends? Sometimes kids run off—” Alix starts.
“They would not run,” Nikolas insists, voice rising. “They wouldn’t have anywhere to go. Their parents died two years ago, and I’m the only family they have left.”
“If they disappeared last night, why are you just coming to see us now?” I ask, glancing at the sky outside the neareststained-glass window. It’s midafternoon. If he’s being truthful, the children have been missing now for close to 24 hours.
Nikolas swallows thickly. “I went to the local guards first. They helped look, but we didn’t find anything. Finally, one of your soldiers sent me to speak with his commander.”
“Fox?” I ask. He’s the only commander we have, aside from me.
Nikolas nods. “Yes. He told me to come see you directly.”
I frown slightly. Fox is one of my four closest friends in the world, but he’s not exactly a warm man. I wouldn’t have expected him to take pity on this old man to the point of sending him to Alix and me. I’ll have to ask him about it.
“What are the children’s names?” Alix asks.
“Archer and Gwen,” he answers. “Archer is twelve and Gwen is eight.” His gaze flicks between us, equal parts hope and terror. “Please. You have to help me find them.”
Alix reaches out and puts a hand on Nikolas’s shoulder. “We’ll look into it,” she says, and I swear the man’s knees buckle a little as he sighs in relief. “Aside from you, who was the last person who might have seen them?”
He thinks about it for a moment. “Their teacher, I suppose. They attend school at the new schoolhouse in the center of the village. Their teacher’s name is Madam Merriweather.”
“Alight. Just give us one moment; we’ll be right back.” I jerk my head to the side for Alix to follow me.
She gives Nikolas another pat on the shoulder, then follows me toward the only patch of privacy the “throne room” has to offer—a half-finished alcove behind a crooked tapestry.
“I know what you’re going to say,” Alix whispers, beating me to it. “We don’t have time for this.”
I shake my head. “That’s not what I was going to say. Of course we have to help him, both because it’s an official requestduring the wishing time and because I’m not going to ignore two missing kids.”
She smiles slightly. “Oh. Okay, good. Then what’s wrong?”
“I was going to ask if we can get out of visiting your mother. We don’t have long until the wedding, and the longer those kids are missing, the more likely it is they’re going to get hurt. We can’t waste time traveling to the human realm.”
Alix scowls. “Fuck, I keep forgetting. I swear to God, I’m subconsciously blocking out this trip.”
“So we don’t have to go?”
She gnaws on her lip. “No…we do. Or, I do, at least. It’s not just about visiting my mother for Christmas, I’m also going to bring my nana back here with me for the wedding, and she can’t travel through the portal without me.”
She reaches up and runs her fingers over the necklace that both keeps her from aging and gives her enough of a magical signature to open portals between worlds any time she wants. It’s the only good thing my brother ever invented.
