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“Fuck,” Toren cursed, his voice ringing in Mehl’s ears. Mehl swayed, and his husband grabbed his waist to steady him. “I’m sorry.”

“Don’t.” Mehl took a deep breath through his nose. “Just summon the healer. And think of how Ria disappeared.”

The command felt as muddled as his thoughts, but Toren nodded. Then his husband helped him over to the nearby sofa.

The healer better hurry.

* * *

A tinny,musty scent slid through the darkness, bringing a touch of awareness in its wake. Long-formed instinct had Ria springing fully awake at that hint, and she braced for another blow. Pain was her inevitable reward. It bounced and skittered through her skull like a bobbin of thread clattering its way down a shelf. What…?

She sucked in a breath, and dust tickled her nose until she couldn’t hold back a sneeze. The bobbin tumbling in her head turned into a pin cushion, poking and stabbing. She couldn’t help but moan, though she did her best to hold it in. More noise only meant more pain. If the neighbors heard…

“Don’t move,” a kind, soft voice said from somewhere beside her.

Wait. That wasn’t her father. “Who?”

“Call me Tes,” the person said.

How had she ended up with someone named Tes? That name didn’t sound—

Memory hit, and she gasped. She’d been in her room, working on altering the pattern on that fabric. Then something had struck her. Quickly, she took stock of her body. The back of her head felt sticky with wetness. Blood? And she was stretched out on her side with her hands bound behind her back.

Someone had captured her and taken her…somewhere. Not a well-frequented place if the dust and the musty smell were things to go by. Finally, she cracked her eyes open the barest amount, but the light was so dim she could barely make out the shape of a person beside her. Small and slim, but she couldn’t discern more than that.

“You’re the spy,” Ria said before she could think better of it.

A soft chuckle met her ears. “I am not, but I imagine that’s what your kings have told you.”

The words made no sense. “You’re hardly a friend.”

“I can see why you think that, too,” the person said. “For what it’s worth, I hit you harder than I intended. Ber will be furious if I’ve caused you harm.”

Ria attempted to process that statement, but it didn’t provide greater clarity. Prince Ber was known to be cruel, harsh to his servants and reckless with the soldiers he’d once had under his command. There were even whispers that he might have murdered his mother, the previous queen. No official word had ever been passed down about that, but Ber had been banished just after her death.

Yet Ria’s captor sounded rather fond of the man—and quite familiar, too. What was going on? “I don’t understand,” she whispered.

The person lifted their hand, and a pale light sparked above their palm, giving Ria her first clear view of her captor. Thin, delicate face, pinned up hair, serviceable dress—it was the maid. The woman who’d been standing in her bedroom door when she’d returned with the fabric. Too bad Ria had been foolish enough to believe the woman’s lies.

“So much for the comforting tea,” Ria muttered.

Surprisingly, the woman winced. “I’ve never actually been a lady’s maid, but my own used to offer such a thing. It seemed like a good cover while I reevaluated my plan.”

Was the ache in her head causing delusions, or had she heard her captor correctly? Because a spy with her own lady’s maid didn’t exactly make sense. And what had been the previous plan if the alternative was clocking her over the head?

Ria wrinkled her nose. “I don’t think I want to know your first idea.”

“Oh, it was much nicer,” Tes said in a rush. “Had you been abed, I could have used magic to send you into a deeper sleep.”

But she couldn’t have done that while Ria was awake? Something was off about this, and she didn’t think it was her own muddled brain. A spy skilled enough to blend in with the servants, evade Mehl and the guards, and blend in again as a maid didn’t exactly match Tes, a cheerful woman who didn’t seem particularly adept at using magic. Or altering plans.

“Why are you doing this?” Ria asked.

Tes shrugged. “To save you, of course. Ber told me that if his brother had found a woman to force into carrying his heir, I was to bring her to safety. Whatever Toren has over you, we’ll get around it. But I’ll need to get you home first.”

Ria tried to roll onto her back, but the bite of rope around her wrists reminded her of her current position. Not to mention the woman’s hypocrisy. “You’re the only one using force,” Ria grumbled.

“Well, I didn’t want you to flail around and make noise.” Tes leaned over Ria and studied the rope before shrugging again. “Doesn’t look too tight. Once we’re out of here, I’ll unbind you, though, I promise. I just don’t want anything to go wrong.”