Alone in the woods, Kaylee began to wind her way through the thick forest in the direction the man who’d saved her had pointed. They couldn’t go very fast because of how dense the forest was and how the darkness settled around them. With every noise in the distance, Storm grew more and more timid until Kaylee decided she would be better off on foot, leading the horse.
It was a mistake. As soon as she got out of the saddle, she realized that many of these trees were covered with vines that had thorns on them. It was no wonder Storm was being so careful as he picked his way between them. More than once, Kaylee felt one poke through her clothes, stabbing into her skin. The horse’s hide was thicker than hers, but it still had to hurt.
Just as she was contemplating getting back on her horse, she started hearing those noises again in the distance, the same haunting calls she’d heard the last two times before she was attacked. She didn’t think they were as close by this time as they were before, but they were getting closer.
Feeling that she’d be safer on the horse, Kaylee put a boot in her stirrup, planning to climb back aboard, but just as she went to pull herself up, an arm came out of the bushes behind her, pulling her back to the ground.
She started to scream, but then a hand came around her mouth, clamping it shut. “Don’t scream!”
Kaylee thought she recognized the voice but couldn’t be sure. As Storm took off running at full speed through the darkness, the man pulled her back into a small space between two large trees, keeping his hand around her mouth as the sounds grew closer and closer.
Kaylee’s heart hammered in her chest, her breath caught in her throat. Yet, it sounded like she was inhaling and exhaling so loudly, they could hear her all the way back in Arteria as she did her best to be quiet.
Eventually, the sounds faded away again. She wondered if the men who had attacked her earlier were following her horse now. Would Storm be okay? She prayed he would be. There wasn’t a finer horse in all of the land than Storm.
The grip on her loosened, and Kaylee turned to see it was the man she’d been talking to earlier, the one who seemed to be the leader of the group that had rescued her. “Thank you,” she said, doing her best to look him in the eyes, though it was dark. “I thought you’d decided to leave me be.”
“I had,” he said with a shrug. “But I felt bad about it and decided to come back and help you anyway, even though you don’t deserve it.”
Her mouth dropped open, a protest on the tip of her tongue, but he was right. She’d been very rude. “I apologize,” she said. “I am grateful for your help. Both times.”
He nodded. “Think nothing of it.” He took a few steps backward, and Kaylee realized he was about to walk away. Her hand jutted out and she caught him by the sleeve of his shirt, her fingers grazing the corded muscles beneath and sending a chill down her spine like nothing she’d ever experienced before.
His eyes went to her hand and then back to her face. “What is it now, Princess?”
“Please, don’t leave me alone in here. They’ll be back. They’ll find me. I don’t stand a chance, do I?”
“Probably not,” he admitted. “But I don’t want you to go where I’m going. You need to go back to… wherever the hell you came from.”
“Arteria,” she said. “I’m Princess Kaylee of Arteria.”
His eyes widened slightly. “You’re King Caleb and Queen Katherine’s daughter?”
She nodded. “How do you know of my parents?”
“Everyone knows about your parents. Their story is legendary. So your cousin who is missing, that’s the Princess of Gradenia? Jennifer?”
Just thinking of Jenna made Kaylee’s eyes well up with tears. “Yes. Her parents are King James and Queen Helena.”
The man slowly shook his head. “I’ll be damned. Well, I shall do my best to help you get out of the woods, Princess Kaylee, but I can’t return you to your home, and I’m certainly not going after Princess Jennifer to save her from her captors.”
Kaylee swallowed hard, willing the tears to go away before even one of them could run down her face. “I know this isn’t your fight, sir. And I respect that. If you could just… get me away from here, I would accept your help. I was with my other cousin, Prince Marcus, and a friend… Gregory. I have no idea what has happened to them either. This is all my fault.”
Even in the dim light, she could see the sympathetic, yet inquisitive look on his handsome face. “How is it your fault?” he asked her.
Shaking her head, Kaylee deflected, not wanting to get into all of that. “It was my idea to go for a ride outside of the castle gates, which got Jenna taken, and then it was my idea to go look for her instead of waiting for my father.”
“Waiting?” he repeated. “So King Caleb knows that Princess Jennifer has been taken?”
With a nod, Kaylee said, “My lady went back to tell him. Why do you ask?”
“Because that’s the only way she has a chance of surviving. And if Arteria and Gradenia get involved with the missing princesses, there’s a chance they might all be rescued.”
There was a hint of something in his eyes that made Kaylee want to ask more questions, particularly about the other missing princesses, but she bit her tongue, thinking it was best to keep her questions at a minimum until they were out of the woods. “Which way should we go?”
“I’ll get you out of Ketchel and into Norterly, but from there, you’ll have to get your own passage back around to the east and south to Arteria,” he explained, beginning to make his way through the dense woods, holding the plants back for her to pass behind him. He walked like a man assured of his path, not like someone stumbling around in the dark as she was.
Still, his words alarmed her. “Norterly?” she asked. “I’m not sure I want to go there either.”
“Why not?” he asked, offense obvious in his voice. She got the impression that it might be his home kingdom. “Do you have something against Norterly?”
“No,” she said quickly, trying not to offend him. “It’s just… I’ve heard that they aren’t too fond of women either. That’s all.”
He shook his head. “That’s not the case. That was the old king, but he’s dead now.”
“He is?” Kaylee had heard rumors that King Richard had passed away, but she didn’t know for certain. Not a lot of information left Norterly and reached Arteria, at least, not information that she was privy to. “Who is king now?”
The man she was with cleared his throat and said, “No one. Queen Isbell is ruling on her own for the time being.”
“Oh.” Kaylee hadn’t heard that either. Her understanding was that there was a prince, Queen Isbell’s son, who would become king upon his father’s death. But now it seemed Isbell was queen instead of her son taking over. “What happened to her son?” she asked.
“The prince left the kingdom soon after the king passed,” he said, his tone very matter-of-fact. “Now, we should be quiet so as not to attract any undue attention.”
Kaylee nodded in agreement, but it wasn’t just the men from Ketchel possibly finding them that kept her mouth still. She was worried about this man as well. He didn’t seem to want to talk anymore about his homeland, and she didn’t want to push him or else she just might find herself alone again.
She did have one more important question, though. Tugging on his arm, she stepped in close to him and asked quietly, “What is your name?”
He turned to look at her, his lips almost brushing hers, they were so close together. Kaylee felt a tingle trace all the way down her spine. “You can call me Rafe,” he whispered before turning back around and continuing on his way.
Letting go of his sleeve, Kaylee wondered if that was truly his name or if it was just something he wanted to be called. Something told her that Rafe was a man of many secrets, secrets it would be difficult to uncover, even for someone as skilled at collecting information as the princess. That wouldn’t stop her from trying, but for now, she just wanted to get out of the forest alive.