In Caspian’s mind, Iris was anything but “nothing special,” no matter how many times she used words like that to describe herself. Even being objective, he was confident she had value to the rebellion too. Maybe a while ago, before they’d met and he’d fallen head over heels for her, the Scourge wouldn’t have seen her as useful to their operations. But now, she was back in his life; the girlfriend of Aspiria’s king. It wasn’t unrealistic for them to target her again if they ever thought they had the chance—which was why he was never going to give it to them.

For now, she was safe in the bunker with him and the others though, so it wasn’t something to linger on. As they rejoined the group in the common space, that safety was tangible. He casted her a flicker of a glance before his gaze settled on the head of his security team, and he narrowed his eyes. Jacob was about to have a lot of explaining to do.

He took a step in the other man’s direction, but before he could move further, he paused and glanced at Iris again with a frown. She was right that Jacob had saved her. He knew that. The problem was that the guy could have saved her a dozen different ways, and he’d chosen the path to send her back to the districts beyond the capital walls—where the civil war was still raging strong and anything could have happened to her. Where she was a hundred miles away, and he thought she was dead. He wasn’t going to let that slide.

[color=#b97703]“I know,”[/color] he muttered, turning his gaze back to the guard. [color=#b97703]“But I want to hear it from him.”[/color]

He gave her hand one more quick squeeze before letting it fall away, stepping away from her to get the other man’s attention. Jacob looked up from his phone as the king approached, his features as impassive as always. It was difficult to get a gauge on his thoughts, but Cas almost thought he saw the guy wince as he inclined his head toward the room he’d just left and beckoned him over with a subtly tense: [color=#b97703]“Hey, man. Let’s talk.”[/color]

Jacob studied him for a moment before he righted his posture and slipped his phone into his pocket with a nod. “Of course.”

The corner of Cas’s mouth twitched downward, but he held his tongue as he led the older man back to the bedroom and closed the door behind them, leaving Iris alone with the rest of the security team and Raine, who had turned around on the couch to quietly watch them over the back of it. As soon as Caspian and Jacob disappeared, her eyes settled on Iris, and she pursed her lips before calling over in an airy tone: “If it’s food you want, the frozen trays are better than the stuff in the pantry.”