64. Garrett

64

GARRETT

The secret passage took me into the dungeons, just as Kristina had said it would. It was part of the palace I’d never been in and the first part I came to was full-on medieval, the stone walls worn smooth with age and the iron bars crumbling. But further in, the cells had been restored. I crept through the hallways, keeping to the shadows. Praying that in one of them, I’d find—

There.

They were asleep, but there was no mistaking the huge, squat silhouette on one bunk, or the way the other occupant lay ramrod straight on his back, his hands folded neatly on his chest. I ducked around the corner and waited until a soldier passed by. I crept up behind him and slammed him into the bars, hard enough to knock him out. The two men inside the cell woke up fast.

“Where’s The Queen?” asked Emerik immediately.

“Trying to rescue her parents,” I told him, unlocking the door. “She needs your help.” I looked between them. “ I need your help.”

Jakov bent, picked up the soldier’s rifle and handed it to Emerik, then took the handgun for himself. He motioned me to lead the way. But halfway down the hallway, a voice stopped us. “Hey!”

I turned. A slender guy in a suit was gripping the bars of his cell. “Is Caroline okay?”

Sebastian. The poor bastard who’d been framed as a traitor.

He was shaking his head. “I swear, I’m not working for Garmania. Please, just tell her I love her.”

“You can tell her yourself,” I said, and unlocked his cell.

Together, we moved off through the hallway. We were vastly, comically outnumbered. But in a weird way... it felt as if I had my squad back.

I just hoped it was enough to save her.