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Noah pulls onto the shoulder of the road. “What did she say?”

“Just my name, and then the man she was with yanked the phone away from her.”

“Are you sure it wasn’t an AI recording?” Noah demands.

“I don’t know.”

“What did they want?”

“They told me I’m going to be announced amongst the nominees and warned me to turn it down. They said they’ll kill her if I accept it.”

Noah growls, closing his eyes like he doesn’t want to deal with all this right now.

The thing is, Noah thinks Sophia double-crossed Cassian—and he has a good reason. She and her guard disappeared right after she obtained her signed house pardon. But Cassian and I? We suspect there was foul play.

And maybe we’re right.

“For all you know, she’s in on this,” Noah reminds his friend.

“But what if she’s not?”

“You’re going to turn down the nomination anyway.”

The line goes suspiciously quiet.

Noah’s frown deepens. “Aren’t you?”

“I was.”

Was—past tense.

“Are you thinking of running for archduke?” I ask, my voice an exaggerated whisper.

“Someone is bent on manipulating this, and they’re not above extortion to accomplish it. If I let them, who knows what kind of leader we’re going to end up with? I’ve worked too hard to let someone destroy everything good that’s been established in the last century.”

Noah’s expression becomes grim, but there’s approval in his eyes—like maybe he’s wanted this all along. “We have just under a week before the announcements are made. We’ll find her. Did they give you any information?”

“Nothing. I don’t suppose you have someone tracking my phone, do you?”

“I didn’t know we needed to.”

Cassian curses in a foreign language, frustrated.

“Do you have the number they called from?” Noah asks.

“Yes, but you know they were using a burner phone.”

“Text it to me anyway. I’ll see what Daniel can do.”

I don’t really know Daniel, but Noah talks about him. He works in the administration office, doing who knows what. Tracking kidnapped vampires, maybe.

“We’ll find her,” Noah vows, sounding determined.

They end the call, and a text from Cassian pops up on Noah’s phone almost immediately.

“I need to send this phone number to Daniel,” Noah says to me, already moving it to another text.

“Do you think they’ll call again?”