Two days had passed. Two long, painful days of hiding out in an above-ground bunker while the capital’s security team continued to report back that the missing rebels had yet to be apprehended. Cas spent most of his time in front of the TV, or at least near enough to catch a glimpse of the reports on the news, unhealthily fixated on the things his people were saying about him while he was stuck in the safe house. He hated feeling so helpless, and he wanted to yell back at the reporter on the screen that he [i]would[/i] be doing something about the rebels if his guards would just let him out to confront them.

As the hours crawled by, what had started as shock and despair had morphed into anger. The Scourge had taken too much from him. They’d abducted him from the capital, attempted to have him killed multiple times, caused strife between him and his dying father, bombed the home he’d grown up in, and murdered the woman he loved. He was done letting them walk all over him. Aspiria was [i]his[/i] kingdom, and the rebels needed to learn to accept him as its ruler or he was going to make them.

On his second day in hiding, he said as much to Jacob, who was glad to see a new fire in the king’s eyes but (wisely) advised him to draft his speech before he returned to face the public eye. Raine offered to help as well, mentioning that her father had hired a professional to train her in the art of diplomacy. Like the security head, she was supportive of a heavy-handed response to the terrorists after her father had nearly lost his life in the attack, and she insisted that she would be able to help him craft a response that would instill confidence in Aspiria’s allies while also sending a clear message to the Scourge that the monarchy would be ending its leniency toward their tantrums.

With time to spare and nothing else to do to kill it, Cas agreed and they sat down at the dining table to pen a draft while the guards on site milled about by the kitchen, occasionally communicating into their comm devices with the rest of the team that was out and about in the city as they attempted to track down the missing rebels. Supposedly the two were still somewhere in the capital, since the border patrol hadn’t found traces that anyone had tried to escape from inside.

While the search dragged on, the guards in the safe house had set up a pair of laptops on the island counter, connected to the security cameras in the immediate vicinity to monitor the area for any unauthorized activity. That afternoon, a few of them were watching the screens idly when the sound of shouting voices suddenly projected from the computer speakers and made nearly everyone in the room jump. It was the first time they’d gotten anything other than general background noise since they’d set up the system, and all the guards who hadn’t been standing beside the counter, Jacob included, circled up to see what was going on.

“Burglar?” one muttered the guess with a glance at the security head, who was staring at the screen with a pinched expression. Crime rates had been low in the capital for the last ten years, and the fact that this had happened so close to the safe house didn’t feel like a coincidence to him.

[color=#b97703]“What’s going on?”[/color] Cas called over from the dining room. He and Raine had heard the commotion too, and he’d slid his chair back to join the group in the kitchen. [color=#b97703]“Did they find the rebels?”[/color]

“We aren’t sure just yet, your majesty,” Jacob responded without looking away from the computer. On one of the cameras, three tiny figures had just come into view. He pressed a hand on the shoulder of the nearest guard. “There, Stevens. Zoom in on camera six.”

“Yes, sir.”

[color=#b97703]“Let me see,”[/color] Cas ordered, pushing his way between two of the other men to get a view of the screen. After forty-eight hours of being pent up, he hoped the guards had found the guys they were after. Holding his breath, he watched as the camera that had caught the action was brought to full-screen and zoomed in on three people in a skirmish. He leaned in to get a better look and recognized two uniform that belonged to capital soldiers. They were wrestling to apprehend… a girl?

Wait.

[color=#b97703]“[i]Iris[/i]?”[/color] he breathed, his eyes widening as he stared at her familiar face, pinned to the ground beneath a guard. The details were slightly distorted by pixilation, but he recognized her anywhere. He pressed his palms flat against the counter, suddenly dizzy. How the hell was this happening? He’d watched Ethan kill her, and his own team had confirmed she was dead, yet now here she was, alive and kicking in the capital? He didn’t understand how it was possible, but as he listened to the soldier’s voice on the radio, phoning in his capture to Jacob, he whipped around to the security head without a second thought.

[color=#b97703]“That’s Iris,”[/color] he snapped. [color=#b97703]“Tell him to bring her here.”[/color]

Jacob blinked, snapping himself out of his stupor. Like Caspian, he had recognized Iris immediately and had sworn under his breath the moment her face had appeared in any clarity on the screen. Having been in the safe house to make sure his king didn’t leave for the last two days, he hadn’t checked in on her recently, but he was shocked to see her outside of his condo, committing petty theft. It was entirely foolish of her to slip out on her own—especially while every soldier in the vicinity was on high alert for intruders. He didn’t know how she could have been so stupid. And now Caspian knew she was still alive. He winced. This was not going to end well.

[color=#b97703]“Jacob!”[/color] Cas barked when the guard didn’t immediately respond.

“Yes, sir,” he acquiesced reluctantly, bringing his hand up to his ear. He knew the king was going to put the pieces together eventually—he wasn’t stupid—but at the moment, Caspian seemed too fixated on the fact that Iris was still alive to put any thought toward the fact that he had said she was dead and had even claimed to have buried her, himself. There was no hiding his lies now that the truth had come out, and he swallowed hard, not looking forward to what was going to come when the king realized what he’d done.

“I can see you both on the camera now,” he responded to the soldier outside. “Bring her to the safe house. The king would like to speak with her, personally.”