“Tell me everything. Now.” Bran kept pace as I tracked my way around the perimeter of the palace.
“I don’t know what it is you want to know.” Of course I knew. He wanted to know every detail of my conversations with Coral. If he only knew our interactions went beyond words.
“Come off of that. You well know it.” He punched my arm. “Don’t forget we are together in all of this.”
“I will not hurt your advancement, although I trust you know how precarious our positions are right now.” We had agreed to spy on the Royals. We’d had no choice but to accept, but that didn’t make our situation any better.
“I do.” He glanced over his shoulder. “How do you think Henderson is going to contact us?”
“Henderson, eh?” I ribbed. “Dropping the captain?”
“At least I wasn’t talking back to the heir.” Bran grinned.
“I didn’t upset her.” At least not in the way he was worried about. Based on the kiss we shared, I’d set off something in her, and she might not be happy about. Yet maybe she was. Maybe even if she shared the intense desire and need I experienced, she enjoyed it. I did. The problem was I knew I would never be satisfied until I had more.
“What did you two talk about?”
“I told her some about what Preston told us. About Energo.” That had been the core part of it.
“And?”
“She needs some time.” I didn’t want to hide anything from Bran, but Coral’s worry about her father’s involvement wasn’t off-base. The king had a lot to lose and might make things far more complicated for all of us involved. I was already over the assignment. I wouldn’t betray Coral’s confidence unless the fate of the Court lay in the balance.
“Any indication of how she feels about us being on her guard?” He stopped by a large tree with thick branches that were braided together.
I followed his gaze to see a large bird's nest. “She knows she’s strong and doesn’t want to need extra protection, but the news about the other heir does have her rattled.”
“There is something going on with the king.” Bran slowly stepped closer to the tree.
“More than usual?” I watched as he knelt down and scooped up something. I looked closer. It was a tiny bird.
He placed the tiny bird back in the nest. “Yes. I heard whispers of it today.” He walked away from the tree.
“You are incredibly good at that.” I glanced back at the tree and then at Bran. “You are perceptive.” I meant both with the baby bird and with picking up on what was going on. It was often easier to focus on someone’s shortcomings than on their strengths.
“It’s easy enough to do.”
“Or so you say.” I refused to sit around and stroke his ego, but Bran had skills. “What did you hear about the king?”
“There’s a baby coming,” Bran lowered his voice to a whisper. “Not his wife’s.”
I wasn’t shocked. There had been rumors circulating about the king’s wandering eye for years. But a baby? This was serious news. “When? When is this baby coming?”
“Soon I’d suspect if people know.” Bran swatted at a bug.
“Who is the mother?” I wondered if this tied into the greater issues at all. Everything was usually connected in one way or another.
“That I don’t know.”
“Yet.” I smiled. Bran would find out. I was sure of it.
“True. If we stay around here long enough, I’ll find out.” He frowned. “But I don’t get it.”
“Get what? Where babies come from?” I ribbed.
“Yes, that’s exactly what I’m asking.” He shook his head. “Why would a man do such a thing? Risk everything?”
“Because it’s sex.” I shrugged. “Sex does strange things to people.” It was a lazy answer, but in some ways it was the truth. However, generally it was more than that. People were incredibly stupid sometimes and did things against their best interests.
“It’s dishonorable.”
“Of course it is, but it happens a lot.” Once you’ve been cheated on by someone you thought loved you, you never forget it. “Unfortunately. And it does take two. Whoever the mother is knew what she was doing. Unless she didn’t. I suppose we can’t rule that out, but was there any talk of force?”
“Oh no.” He picked up a branch and broke it in half. “It’s a mistress. He provides her with a home.” He handed me one half of the stick. “These branches make the best makeshift walking sticks.”
“I feel for Coral.” She absolutely had to know what her father had done.
“You mean the heir.” He used the stick as he walked.
“She asked me to call her Coral. I will abide by her wishes.” Not to mention I wasn’t going to call a woman I shared that kind of kiss with by a formal title.
“What if she changes her mind?” He stopped as we reached the end of the official palace grounds perimeter.
“Then I’ll follow her wishes and return to using the title.” I stepped around the poles delineating the boundary line.
“You like her.” Bran followed. “Don’t deny it.”
“She is a beautiful woman.” There was so much more than beauty to her though. “No one can deny that.”
“No. That’s for sure.” Bran let out a low, slow, whistle. “But she is different than I expected.”
“Oh?” I was legitimately curious. I’d come in without many expectations, but Coral had been sure everyone had her pegged a certain way.
“I don’t even know how to explain it.” He shrugged. “I just expected something different.”
Normally I’d have pushed for more of an explanation, but I noticed something in the distance. “What’s that?” The speck was moving, and fast, by the looks of it. I strained my eyes and saw more behind it. “Are those horses?”
“That’s the best I can tell.” Bran used his hand to shield his face from the sun. “But I don’t see any riders. Are they wild?”
We continued forward as the horses raced toward us. “I see saddles. Empty saddles.”
“We need to move faster. Let’s shift.” Bran stripped out of his clothes, tossed them in the nearby brush, and shifted into his wolf.
I followed suit, reaching out for my wolf and letting it take over. I caught up with Bran, and we ran toward the horses. There were dozens of them. They were all brown horses, and all with empty saddles. It seemed highly unlikely they all got out together while still saddled.
We moved around the horses, watching as a few more stragglers followed. These horses had no saddles.
Without a word we continued running. Although we hadn’t been tasked with going this far away from the palace, we were still in the palace region and had the authority, even if the authority was only temporary.
We continued forward, running in the direction the fleeing horses had come from, waiting for a sign of something. Anything that could explain what had them moving in fear.
We entered a forest so thick with trees it was dark aside from the faintest stream of light making its way through the canopy. At the end of the forest, we emerged into a small village. A circle of huts surrounded a central green space dusted with something dark. Other buildings and barns were spotted along further beyond the huts.
We remained as our wolves and ran around the circle of the huts, going in opposite directions. With no sign of anyone, we moved out further toward the buildings and acres of farmland that also were covered with the dark substance. Nowhere did we see a single soul, or even an animal.
I ran back toward the huts, shifted back to my human form, and grabbed a towel from a clothesline to cover myself. With the towel covering enough, I knocked on the door of one of the small huts. There was no answer. I tried the next hut. And the next.
I grabbed a second towel and went in search of Bran. As expected, he’d shifted back and most definitely needed the towel.
He wrapped the towel around his waist. “Either there is no one here, or they are hiding.”
“It’s so quiet. They must be really good at hiding if it’s the latter.”
“Technically we have no authority here. I believe the end of the palace realm ended in that forest. But, given the circumstances, this is close enough to the palace to be within the Royal Guard’s purview.”
“It is close, and within our authority or not, we can’t just leave. We have to make sure the villagers are okay.”
“I guess we should push our way into one of these houses and ask for permission later.”
“Sounds like a plan.” I had a bad feeling about the quiet and lack of people. Something was going on here, and it wasn’t good. We went to the nearest hut. I knocked loudly. We waited, and I knocked again.
“Go for it.” Bran gestured toward the door handle.
I tried the door, and the handle turned. It wasn’t even locked. “Hello?” I walked inside with Bran right behind. “Hello?”
There was no answer. There were plates and glasses set out on the table as if the inhabitants were getting ready to eat, but there was no one there. We walked around the small home. Every room was empty.
“Should we try another house?”
“I guess so.” We moved next door. This door was also unlocked, and we went inside. The table was half set this time, with plates still piled up.
“What do you think that dust stuff was outside?” Bran’s brain was heading in the same direction as mine.
“I don’t know, but we need to find out.” I closed the door to the house we’d just left.
We stayed in our human form so we could talk, and we made our way over to the grassy central area.
“Soot.” I ran a finger through the dust. “It’s soot. But did you see any evidence of a fire?”
“No.” Bran scooped up some of the soot himself. “Strange. Perhaps there was a fire nearby?”
“And it only deposited the soot in certain places?” It didn’t add up. Much like the empty homes didn’t make sense.
“Do we call it for now and get reinforcements?” Bran stared down into the black streak that still remained on his hand even after brushing off the rest. “Something is very off here.”
“I absolutely agree something is off. Let’s do a full check of the area and make sure there is no one around. If the village is truly empty, taking the time to head back for reinforcements makes sense.”
“Turns out this new position is exciting.” Bran adjusted the towel around his waist. “Huh? Better than you expected?”
“I don’t know if I’d call this better. It’s alarming, but it sure beats swamp patrols.” Those were monotonous.
“Did you hear that?” Bran inclined his head to the side.
I listened. I heard a light shuffling sound. “Yes. That’s something.”
Wordlessly, we left the grassy area and moved in the direction we’d detected the noise. The sound stopped when we were behind the circle of huts, but there were multiple barns and outbuildings around us.
“Think it’s an animal?” Bran asked.
“Impossible to know.” But whatever it was would be the first living thing we had discovered since arriving in the deserted village.
There was another sound. A sob.
I pointed at the barn. It was coming from there.
Someone was in despair, but that didn’t mean they were friendly. We needed to be smart. I considered whether to shift. If this person was friendly would our wolves scare them more, or our mostly naked form?
I decided on staying in my human form to allow for easier communication. Bran and I exchanged glances. We were in agreement.
He pulled open the barn door while I readied myself for whatever waited.
I glanced inside the sunlit space. Hay filled lofts appeared empty from where I stood, so I looked around at the darkened corners. And then I saw it. Some subtle movement.
Bran took the lead, heading over to the furthest most corner.
There was another loud sob, and then a dog rushed out to us. He snarled.
“Hey now. We are friendly.” I kept my voice low and steady. “We came from the palace guard trying to figure out what happened here.” I wasn’t talking to the dog. I was talking to whoever the dog was guarding. Because that’s what this situation was.
There was a small sound of shuffling, and two children moved out of the corner. They were holding hands, and both were covered in soot.
“Hello.” Bran immediately knelt down beside them. “Are you okay? My name is Bran, and my friend there is Stafford.”
“Ana.” The taller child put a hand to her chest. “And this is my brother Todd.”
“Hi, Ana and Todd.” I made sure my towel was right. “What happened here?”
“We don’t know.” Ana shook her head. “We don’t even know where we are.”
Bran glanced back over at me.
“You don’t recognize this barn?”
“We fell asleep at home. With Mayo there.” She pointed to the dog. “And then we woke up here.” She put her arms around the smaller child. “Where are your clothes?”
“Oh.” I considered what to say.
“We are wolf shifters. We left our clothes when we shifted into wolves earlier,” Bran replied before I could.
“Wow.” Todd’s eyes widened. “For real?”
“Yes, for real.” Bran raised his chin.
“Uh… yeah. I’m sure.” Ana looked toward the entrance.
“What he says is true, but you don’t have to believe him.” I tried to come up with a way to put them at ease. “And we will retrieve our clothing as soon as possible.”
“What are you going to do to us?” Ana tightened her arms around her brother.
“We are going to take you to your home.” I didn’t want to break the news that we could probably find their house, but there was going to be nothing inside it. But still, we could get them some clean clothes and find some belongings if nothing else. They might also be able to give us more of an idea of what happened.
“Okay. I guess we have no other choice.” Ana bent over so she was eye level with the boy. “We are going to go with these men. They will help us find home.”
I hated that we were going to let them down. Mayo looked between us as if deciding whether to trust us or not. We may have been wolf shifters, but that didn’t mean we had special gifts to communicate with other animals.
We led the children and their loyal protector out from the barn.
I pointed to the circle of huts. “Which one is yours?”
“Ours?” Ana’s face was marred with confusion. “What do you mean?”
“Isn’t one of them your home?”
She shook her head. “No. I’ve never seen this place before.”
Mayo growled.
“Oh.” This changed things. If the child was to be believed, then they had been brought to this abandoned village? “When did you find yourself in the barn?”
“It’s been hours.” Ana put a hand to her forehead. “I think.”
“Did you hear anything at all before we came?”
“Not until very recently. That was probably you.”
Ana sounded very aware.
“How old are you?”
“Eleven.”
“Oh.”
“Oh?” She gave a small smile. “You don’t have much experience with children I see. But that’s okay. I have a sense about people. I trust the both of you.”
“If you truly are not from this village, there is no reason to stay here. There is nothing, or rather no one, to stay for.”
“What happened here?” Ana turned in a circle.
“We don’t know. We were hoping you could tell us.”
“I’ve told you all we know.” She wrapped her arms around herself. “We woke up here with absolutely no idea how it happened.”
“Did you venture out?” I didn’t want to press for too many details, but we needed something.
“Not beyond the door of the bar. We were waiting for nightfall.”
“You say you trust us. Does that mean you will let us take you back to the palace?”
“Which palace?”
“Summer Court.”
“Summer Court?” Ana scrunched up her face. “What’s that?”
“Where are you two from?” Bran asked.
I was already considering our options to get back. We couldn’t shift and run back as wolves, but we also couldn’t travel that sort of distance in just towels. We needed to borrow clothes.
“Georgia. Outside Atlanta.” Ana shared the name of places I had never heard of.
“Oh. I have no idea where either of those places are.”
“Great.” Ana sighed. “This is great.”
Mayo growled again.
“It’s okay, Mayo.” Ana pet the dog's head. “We will be okay.”
Todd curled up against Ana’s side.
“How old is your brother?” I asked.
She ruffled his hair. “He’s seven.”
Eleven and seven. These children were far too young to fend for themselves. We needed to make sure these children ended up in safe hands. There was only one person I knew we could trust. Coral.