“You beast!” she snarled, lunging for him even while secured. “I hate you!”
He gently pushed her back down to a seated position. “Save your breath, your highness. You’ll strain yourself.”
Her gaze moved frantically around. “Where are you taking me?”
“Home sweet home.”
“Why have you done this?”
“Desperate times, princess.”
“You overestimate my worth to Prince Magnus and his father. Whatever you’ve asked for will be denied!”
“I asked him to stop construction on his road.”
Her brows shot up. “That was a stupid request! There are a million more important things for a rebel to demand from a king. You’re not very good at this, are you?”
Jonas leveled a dark look at her. Sometimes he forgot just how sharp her tongue could be. “Do you even know what that road is doing? How much Paelsian blood has soaked the ground at the construction camps? How many have died in the last month?”
Her mouth fell open. “No. If such horrors are true . . . I’m so sorry.”
It was not the first she’d ever heard of such atrocities—he’d mentioned it before, thought not in detail, when he’d visited her chambers. But she would not have seen any proof. Despite her lofty betrothal to the prince, Jonas still believed her to be very much a prisoner of war told little of what happened outside the palace walls.
“The King of Blood does not have a gentle hand in dealing with slave labor. He may have lulled the majority of your Auranians into a false sense of security, but I assure you, the same cannot be said for my people. I saw for myself what his guards have full permission to do without penalty or opposition. And it must be stopped at any cost.”
The high color in her cheeks drained away. “Of course it must be stopped.”
Her words were unexpected and full of sincerity. It took him a moment to find his voice. “Looks like we do agree on a few things after all. How shocking.”
“You want to paint me with the same brush you paint the Damoras. I’m not like them. But if you wanted to kidnap someone with influence in that family, it shouldn’t have been me. My death at the hands of a rebel would ultimately be a gift to the king, not a hardship.”
In the dress shop he’d told her he’d meant her no harm, but he couldn’t blame her for thinking the worst. This was the second time he’d kidnapped her. He must seem truly beastly to this girl. Jonas leaned toward her, ignoring her automatic flinch, and began to untie her bindings so her hands would be free.
“I guess we’ll have to wait and see about that, won’t we, princess?” Once they reached the edge of the Wildlands, thirty miles from Hawk’s Brow, Jonas thanked the driver of the cart—an Auranian sympathetic to the rebel cause he’d met during his previous visit to the city, at the same time he recruited Nerissa as a helper—and guided Cleo into the darkness of the thick forest.
She didn’t run from him or fight. It took very little pressure on her arm to keep her at his side as they moved across the tangled terrain.
“Murderous thieves make their home here.” She failed to keep the tremble from her voice.
“Absolutely,” Jonas replied.
“Dangerous animals, too.”
“Without a doubt.”
She slanted a look toward him. “Perfect place for you.”
He repressed a snort. “Oh, such compliments, your highness. You’re going to make me blush.”
“If you took that as a compliment, you’re even more stupid than I thought you were.”
This time he couldn’t hold back his grin. “I’ve been called worse than stupid.”
A royal like her would never normally have journeyed past the tree line to see how dark the forest could get, especially this close to dusk. The thick leaves on the tall, imposing trees blocked out any sunlight, casting a soulless darkness all around them, as if this were the middle of the night. Cleo stumbled on the twisting roots of the trees, nearly falling. Jonas gripped her arm tighter. “No time to stop, princess. Not much farther now.”
Even he didn’t like to tarry long in such a place without the protection of a larger group.
She yanked at her skirts to keep them out of the muck and weeds and gave him a dirty look.