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With a squeeze of his legs, Lachlan urged his mount to go a touch faster. They hurried through the forest, crossed the river, and backtracked until they reached the canoe. By this time, the sun was shining, and the warmth of the day was rising. Sure enough, there were bloody tracks easy enough to follow through the woods.

Captain Johesha with Jessamine and Mattias’s council pushed their party quickly. It was less than an hour later that Johesha pulled them all to a stop, his hand raised, and dismounted. They followed his lead, and Lachlan searched the woods to see what Johesha had seen. He caught sight of movement several hundred yards ahead of them. Johesha signaled Jude and Brendsen forward, and Lachlan watched them move through the forest in the opposite direction, to scout.

“Your Highness, I’d like you to say here, with”— Johesha cleared his throat—“Jessamine.”

“No,” Lachlan said at the same time as Jessamine answered, their fierce whispers a matching set. Their gazes collided, and Lachlan noticed the stubborn set of her dark eyes, so different from Tarley’s but the same stubborn streak.

He understood her emphatic refusal. “I won’t sit by.”

“I can’t protect you and attempt to rescue her.”

“You won’t need to. Protect–”

“Lachlan,” Johesha snapped, dropping any pretense of propriety between them. “You are the future of Jast—the future king. Think on that for once and allow me to do my fucking job!”

Jessamine cleared her throat, and Johesha glanced at her, then back at Lachlan “I failed you once, failed Jast. Never again. We lost you.”

“I wasn’t lost, Jo.” Lachlan’s gaze skimmed the stubborn-set features of his guard, his friend, begging for his understanding. “I love her.”

Johesha’s dark eyes studied him. “On me, then,” he relented. “But you do as I say.”

After securing the horses, they pressed quietly through the woods on foot until they reached the edge of a clearing. The first thing that hit him was the awful stench. He held his arm up to his nose and mouth. Jessamine and Mattias were doing the same. It made his eyes water. The second thing he saw was Tarley. Alive. Her nose pressed against her shoulder as she limped across the clearing, her hands were tied. She was being led by a horribly, filthy man, dressed as if he were wearing the forest. That, Lachlan decided, was probably a Northman.

He looked a mess.

So did Tarley, though despite dark stains on her haphazard attire, missing shoes, and the mess of her hair, she looked unharmed. But then she turned to look around, he saw blood streaked along the skin of her face and neck.

Lachlan lurched only to be dragged down into the brush. “She’s hurt,” he snapped at whoever had him.

“Lachlan. Think!” Johesha. “Impulsivity isn’t going to get Tarley to safety.”

He looked at Johesha, then.

“Focus on the end, not the now.” Johesha nodded at him, his eyes wide and waiting for Lachlan’s acquiescence. When the tension in him eased, Johesha’s grip did as well. “First things first. We’re waiting on Jude and Brendsen to bring back their report.”

Lachlan knew this. He’d learned it. He took a deep breath. They needed to know the numbers, weapons, guards, orientation. To get Tarley, Lachlan knew they needed to know what they were up against to counter with the appropriate move. But his emotions weren’t letting him think clearly. He took another breath and turned back to watch Tarley. The man escorting her stopped as another man appeared. The Northman moved behind Tarley, blocking her from Lachlan’s view.

Then a mountain of a man appeared from inside the tent and started toward Tarley.

Movement in his periphery caught his eye. Two men from the camp moved along the tree line toward their hiding spot. Suddenly, they dropped and were dragged into the underbrush. It happened quickly, silently.

“I’ve seen him before. At the inn,” Mattias said.

Lachlan looked back across the camp. The man spoke but was too far away to hear what was said.

“Who is he?”

“I don’t know him. Just know he’s been around Sevens.”

“He seems to know Tarley,” Jessamine whispered.

The large man’s laugh drifted across the clearing. It wasn’t a comforting sound.

“But he hasn’t freed her,” Johesha said. “Not sure she’s out of danger yet.”

The large man took the rope from her first captor and led her into the tent.

“Shit,” Lachlan said, the tension to move bursting through his limbs.