Chapter 18

18

Hank

"Either the princess is a magnet for trouble or the combination of the both of you spells disaster. What the fuck, B?"

Garrison was on video chat. He wouldn't take my call and insisted he needed to see my ugly mug and yell at me to my face, especially after Thala's bareback ride on Edgar into the forest had gone viral. I gave up trying to take those down, and Garrison also told me it was futile.

"You want me to answer that?"

"Fuck you. Do you know how bad this looks? I assured the queen her sister was in good hands. Then, not forty-eight hours later, I had to tell her the princess got shot, had a black eye, and a possible concussion. Not only that, she's made a spectacle of herself at the state fair."

"Correction. It's the Valley Fall Festival, and she kicked ass."

Garrison narrowed his eyes, warning me he had no patience for any of my flippant replies. I glanced over at Thala, who was pretending not to listen. She didn't want to go to the hospital, but I insisted I wouldn't be at peace until a doctor looked her and my uncle over. I could patch up her wound, but she needed a CT scan.

"I should send you to Siberia."

"Contractor here. You have no control over where I want to go."

"I could make that happen. Trust me."

This was simply Garrison working out his frustrations. I could go on and on with this one-upmanship banter, but I didn't want to belittle what Thala had done. She was a badass. She saved Jim. Thala was lying down and icing her cheek and eye that caught Bruno's fist. Suppressed aggression simmered inside me, which I tried to work off by trying to out-smartass Garrison, but it wasn't working. I blamed myself. There was guilt, but there was also something else. My awe at the odd luck.

"If it wasn't for Thala, my uncle would be dead."

"You can't be certain of that."

"No? According to Thala, Bruno was about to throw my uncle off a cliff and he had his bases covered. Bruno drugged him, G. Found a way to have Jim ingest a hallucinogenic drug. Made him act strangely and wander into the forest. I'm having the hospital run a tox screen." Jim was staying with Jill right now where a patrol car was keeping a 24-hour watch. Fisker had a lot to answer for but one thing was for sure, their deal with the land was kaput.

"They'd use murder to own the property?"

"Yeah. They have connections to the mob. You know how far down the rabbit hole that goes?"

"All the more reason for Thala to return to Venusstea," Garrison said casually. "You have your hands full."

Garrison was right, but fuck if I wanted Thala to leave me right now. I glanced at her again, and she was watching me. She'd lowered the ice pack and sat up on the couch. No extended staring at computer screens for her until her headache had passed.

"By the way," Garrison said. "After this last escapade, the queen finally came clean on what their assassins might be after."

"She was keeping information from you? From Thala?"

"You might have found out sooner if your mind wasn't elsewhere," he shot back. "You're slacking, B. I don't like it when I'm caught flat-footed. We should be one step ahead of everyone."

Garrison looked to his side and addressed someone before looking back at me. "The queen wants to talk to Thala. She doesn't want me telling you anything until she has informed her sister."

Which she should have done in the beginning and spared us all the drama. But then again, I wouldn't have had this time with Thala.

The queen's face filled the screen. Her beauty differed from Thala's. Her face was rounder, but she had the same grayish-silver eyes and chestnut-brown hair. Right now, despite her makeup and red lipstick, the shadows under her eyes showed she hadn't slept in days.

Either she was worried about her sister or Ramsay or both.

"Mr. Bristow," she said. "Thank you for taking care of my sister." Her smile was tight and I was sure she was just being polite given Thala's condition. She sighed heavily. "I know she can be…difficult."

"I'm right here and I can hear you, Amadea," Thala called from the couch.

"May I please speak to her privately," the queen asked. "There are things I should have shared with her and Petros that could have saved us all these problems." Her eyes probed mine, and even through the filter of the screen, they pierced into me. "I should have trusted her."

"You should have."

"But then, this adventure might also be good for her."

"Don't tell him that," Garrison groaned from the side. "Your Majesty," he added.

It took all my willpower to keep a straight face, but the corners of the queen's lips twitched and her piercing eyes warmed. Thala shimmied on the couch to get more comfortable as I handed her the laptop.

"I'll be outside checking on Edgar." While Jim stayed with Jill, I offered to look after his mule. The trailer was still attached to my SUV. I left the doors open and added hay for Edgar to lie in. But he had a mind of his own and would hang out at the back of the house, where he nibbled on patchy grass.

"Call me when you get there," G put in.

Guess he wasn't done lecturing me.

Thala

"I look worse than I hurt," I told my sister.

With her role as queen, Amadea had learned to mask her emotions. We were a stoic society, but as the monarch of our country, she also had to balance it with compassion. When it was just the two of us and Petros, we lowered our guards more.

The bags under her eyes were a testament to her difficulties with the situation. The attempt on our lives, my absence, and I'd dare say her relationship with Ramsay, were all taking a toll on her.

"Your face is bruised, and might I remind you, you have a hole in your stomach."

"Remember when Goran's club hit me in the face by mistake? That was worse." It was a wonder it didn't fracture my cheekbone. "The bullet tore through muscle." I didn't add that I was lucky it missed vital organs. Even I knew gut shots were the worst to recover from with the threat of sepsis.

"Are you sleeping well?" I commented on the tiredness on Amadea's face if only to apologize in case I was the cause of her sleeplessness.

Her response surprised me. "Migraines."

I frowned. "I don't remember you ever getting them." Despite my sister taking part in the less physical aspect of training, she had the same sturdy constitution that had blessed the women in the House of Targen.

"It just started the other day. It's probably the jet lag." She made a careless wave of the hand. "It'll go away, but what's important is…I need you back here, Thala."

"You miss me already?"

"I don't like how we left things."

"There was a threat to your life, and Ramsay thought I was involved. You trusted him over me. What did you expect?"

"He's in isolation."

"Not prison?"

"Garrison is very persuasive that he's innocent. My trust in Ramsay is absolute, but our brother is angry that he put you on a plane hijacked by bad actors."

"Do you have a lead on who these bad actors may be?"

She gave a resigned breath. "Not yet. But it's not Ramsay." She let it hang.

"I hope you're not suggesting it's Petros!" I winced. My whole cheek throbbed. I put a hand to my face.

"Calm down," Amadea said. "Our brother is not directly involved, but he admits he might have opened the door for less than savory individuals to infiltrate the running of our country."

"How so?"

"Contracts. Like the energy contracts, and he let his friendship with them influence decisions."

"I guess you're going to trust me now with what's going on?"

The queen looked to her side. "Garrison is filling in Hank Bristow, but we put the pieces together."

"From what I've heard, we could have figured it out sooner if you'd been forthcoming with me and Petros."

"It's a power play right now."

"And I'm waiting for you to enlighten me."

"You and Petros wanted that deal with the stean ore basin."

"We don't understand your pushback. Nothing grows in that isolated stretch of valley. The proposal had undergone an environmental health check, and it had passed with flying colors."

"They're not after the stean ore."

I sat back in my chair, my whole body stilled. "There's something underneath it?"

My sister nodded. "Two years ago, I received secure correspondence from one of our German allies. It's a corporation known for renewable energy." Amadea stared at me. "White hydrogen."

I gasped. White hydrogen had been touted as the energy of the future. Unlike fossil fuel which could take millions of years to replenish, natural hydrogen's replenishment was continuous. And it was readily usable, unlike the other types of hydrogen, which used coal to produce, making it an expensive alternative. "Are you saying…Venusstea is sitting on a reserve of white hydrogen?"

Amadea nodded her head vigorously. An expression of excitement, one I hadn't seen since we were kids, flashed across her face. "The company did initial exploration from a borehole."

"Wait, was this the company that did another survey of stean ore? The one that made Petros annoyed at you because you wanted a second opinion."

"Yes. The company estimates around twenty million tons of white hydrogen."

"That sounds like a lot."

"It's almost a quarter of what the world produces right now."

"Hela's hell. So Petros's cronies are involved because they want to block the discovery?"

"Yes. Venusstea is fully dependent on imported energy. They stand to lose billions. And they'll lose more once we export white hydrogen."

"Does that mean I don't have to perform like a monkey anymore?"

"You really hate that, don't you?"

There was so much insinuation in my sister's tone that another thought occurred to me. "You wanted me to hate it."

"I couldn't use you as my security any longer and I think you needed to find out what you want to do on your own."

"So your answer is to consign me to a circus act with Prince. It's an insult!"

"Let's not do this over video chat."

"Why? Because you can't pat my head and say it's going to be fine?"

"When have I ever patted your head? It's time we discuss your future."

"What do you mean?" A strange feeling came over me. One of doubt. One of uncertainty. Seeing Amadea again transported me back to the reality of my situation. But when I looked up, past the screen, all I saw was the cabin that had become my home for the past three days. How content I was. How I was so free. I saw Hank passing by the window. The sun was about to set, but I could still see him and Edgar. Hank was making funny faces at me and Edgar pressed his nose against the window, fogging it up.

My heart clenched.

"You'll still keep your title of general, of course."

I shook my head to clear the daydreaming haze. "What?"

"You don't want the title anymore?"

"Oh." I finally registered what my sister said and deep down, I didn't care, but I didn't want to dismiss it immediately. "I don't know yet."

"Thala…" My sister's voice gentled, and I knew she wasn't about to speak to me as my queen. "It might take me a day or two to arrange for your safe return."

"I know." I wasn't rushing.

"Garrison assured me that men are on their way for added security, but he also has resources I can use."

"Sure. No rush."

Her gaze dropped as a teasing smile tipped her lips. Then she looked at me. "Hank is a handsome man."

"What?" My voice pitched higher. "I don't know how this relates…"

"I'm your sister. I understand your situation." There was a tinge of sadness on her face that gripped me in a sudden chokehold.

I was thankful that Hank took that opportunity to walk in because I wasn't ready to discuss our situation. Amadea was in love with Ramsay. I didn't know what I felt for Hank. I wasn't na?ve. I was in the rush of a new relationship. Even if I hadn't experienced such a rush before, I had hoped and dreamed of it when I was a teenager. Before responsibilities made me look at a potential partner with the future of my role in Venusstea in mind. With Hank, I forgot about responsibilities and simply wanted to live.

"Just let me know what the plans are and…uh, we'll talk," I said, then quickly ended the chat.

"You didn't have to hurry on my account," Hank said.

I handed his laptop back to him. "Yes. I did."