For a man who had been dodging the Aspirian military successfully for years, Regis was surprisingly talkative. Jacob holstered his gun and folded his arms over his broad chest, listening with downturned lips as the rebel leader not only told the team that he’d killed Prince Caspian but also [i]how [/i]he had gone about doing so. He marveled that they hadn’t been able to take down such a disorganized man sooner. Although, the stench of whiskey on his breath was a helpful hint. The guard wrinkled his nose in disgust while one of the soldiers struck Nox-Fleuret across the jaw. He’d never captured a prisoner who could be so frustrating and useful at the same time.

That Regis was willing to give away his daughter as an accomplice to his crimes was somewhat surprising. Jacob drummed his fingers against his bicep in thought until he realized the girl Caspian had brought back to the palace was the same person the rebel leader was talking about now. She hadn’t just been a member of the Scourge; she had been a blood relative of the rebellion’s leader. He ground his teeth in vexation. If the intelligence team had been quicker at labeling the identities of their enemies, this whole mess could have been avoided. It was because they had been too slow to identify the members of the Scourge that their prince had gone missing—and was likely dead.

As Regis went on to describe the brutal way he’d murdered the future king, Jacob glowered at him venomously. He didn’t need or want to know such details. Prince Caspian may have been his charge to protect, but the guard had been fond of him personally as well. If they’d had the chance to get to know each other better, they may have even become friends. So, hearing that the prince had been battered to death in the basement of a bloodthirsty sadist twisted his stomach into knots. Despite the breach in protocol, he was silently pleased when the solider who’d punched the rebel the first time hit him again.

“That’s enough,” he said, forcing himself to act calmly even though he wanted to shoot Regis while he was down. He strode over to the rest of his team and curled his lip in a sneer of disdain as his eyes landed on the unconscious rebel leader. [i]What a pathetic bastard.[/i] It was almost shameful that the monarchy had been tormented by a lunatic like this for so long, but at least they’d caught him now. He glanced over his shoulder at the bloodstained cell, feeling a wave of sadness wash over him. If Nox-Fleuret really had taken the life of their prince, the boy deserved to have a proper funeral.

“Take him with us,” he ordered the soldiers, turning back to face them. “We need to find out what he did with the body.”

--

That night, Caspian didn’t sleep any better than he had in Regis’s basement. He dozed in short bursts, waking up intermittently with a racing heart as he feared his escape had just been a dream. Each time, he sat up on the bed with a start, staring at the void of darkness as he scrambled to determine if he was still in his cell or if he had actually gotten away. The sensation of the mattress beneath him was what grounded him and coaxed him to lay back down to keep resting. There hadn’t been a bed in his prison.

By the time morning rolled around—or what he guessed was morning, since there were no windows in the bomb shelter he could use to check—he was feeling a little better than he had the night before, but he was still exhausted from his sporadic sleep. He rolled from his back to his right side, shivering slightly against the cold. The hoodie Iris had given him to keep warm had helped, but without a blanket to cover him, he could still feel the cool air creep through the fleece fabric and cause gooseflesh to rise on his skin.

[color=#b97703][i]At least it’s cold air in a shelter and not in a cell,[/i][/color] he thought, trying to be optimistic as his arm pained him again. Squeezing his eyes shut, he clutched the limb in his right hand and waited for the ache to subside. In addition to the stab wound, the bruises that had formed from the beating he’d taken yesterday made the rest of his body hurt as well. He had a feeling he was going to be sore for quite a while.