“Shy, you’re going to want to see this.” Jacobi shoves his phone in my face. The Roundtable app is open. Anora’s staring back at me. She’s furious, her jaw set in a tight line. There’s a caption at the bottom of the photos that reads: Queen’s ransom is on. Come and get your princess, Nacoma Knight.

“No.”

So many thoughts pass through my head at once. At the forefront—can Anora contain her anger and keep the thread in check?

“Can you track her phone?”

“Already on it.” He takes his phone back, and his fingers fly over the small keyboard. “It’s at the cemetery.”

“Call Nat. We’re going to need help.”

Chapter Thirty-Three

Anora and the Beginning of the End

I recovered from the fall through the dead person pretty quick but not fast enough, because when I come to, I’m in the back seat of a stranger’s car. There are two boys in the front seat and one sitting beside me. He holds a bloodied, balled-up shirt to his nose. When he sees I’m awake, he scoots away, leaning against the door. I reach into my pocket for my phone so I can call someone—the police, Shy, my mom—but it’s not there.

“Where’s my phone?” I ask curtly.

“Glad you’re awake, princess.” The boy in the driver’s seat, who I recognize as Jeremy, looks at me through his rearview mirror.

“I asked you a question.”

“We left it behind in the cemetery. Don’t worry. We have a picture of the gravestone where you can find it after this is over.”

“Where am I?”

“Well, we can’t exactly answer you. That would take all the fun out of it.”

“You think this is fun?” I spit the words like venom.

“Well, yeah. Nacoma Knight might have cancelled queen’s ransom, but as far as we’re concerned, it’s still on.”

“I’m not a willing participant in your pissing contest, which means you’ve kidnapped me.”

The boy in the passenger seat looks at Jeremy, and I can tell he’s worried. “Man, I don’t want to go to jail.”

“No one’s going to jail!” Jeremy says and then glares at me in the mirror. “Don’t be fucking dramatic. Savior will be along to rescue you soon, and it’ll all be over.”

Jeremy takes a sharp turn onto a gravel road, driving like he’s trying to lose someone. After a couple of miles, he turns off the dirt road and cuts through a space in the trees, coming to a hard stop. He exits the car, leaving the engine running, and walks around the front. As he does, the boy sitting beside me and the one sitting in the passenger seat turn and look at me.

The door opens, and Jeremy offers a mock bow. “We’ve arrived, princess.”