They died.

Only her younger sister, Sorche, seemed immune to that curse.

Gods, the pain of his loss was so unbearable. It was like her heart was being clawed out of her chest and swallowed whole by some unrelenting beast. Why couldn’t the world explode and end her suffering?

I just want him back. She’d sell her soul for it.

Tightening her grip on the link, she stared at his name in the short list of people she trusted. Damn you, call me!

Someone knocked on her door.

Wiping her tears away, she drew a ragged breath and tried to get a hold of herself. Because of the way she’d been raised, she didn’t share personal pain with others.

Ever. Especially not those who served beneath her. Being Caronese, the men of the Resistance were already predisposed to thinking of women as lesser beings. The only reason she’d been allowed to lead was out of respect and loyalty to her father. If they saw her crying, they would refuse to follow her.

Only Kere had ever seen her weak or vulnerable. Never had he thought less of her for it. And for that reason, he was the only man alive she’d ever trusted with her real thoughts and fears.

With her heart.

Where are you, Kere?

Taking a deep breath and forcing herself not to think about that right now, she pressed her hands to her face and put on a smile she didn’t feel. “Come in.”

The door slid open to show her Pip who had a disdainful twist to his lips. With furious strides, he came into the room and tossed a small plastic bag down on the desk in front of her.

“I don’t get it,” he said, putting his hands on his hips.

She scowled. “Get what?”

He jerked his chin toward the bag. “Out of everything we confiscated from our royal prisoner, that was the only thing the bastard put up a fight to keep. Only that. I figured it had to be worth a fortune given the rest of his shit and how much it cost, so I took it home and gave it to my wife. Last night, we decided we’d rather sell it and buy something we both could enjoy. So I ran it over to a jeweler to be appraised this morning, and the damn thing is as fake as it can be. He said it wasn’t worth the price of the appraisal. Can you believe it?”

That was strange. Why would a prince have a fake piece of jewelry?

But more to the point…

“The prince is still here?”

“Uh, yeah… like we were going to free him and make all of them happy after everything we’ve suffered?”

That was an entirely different story than Clarion had told her. Unmitigated fury tore through her that they’d have kept the prince here all this time.

Why hadn’t she checked on that?

The answer didn’t make her feel any better. As preoccupied as she’d been, she still should have asked Clarion about it.