Chapter 51

FELIX

I had been sitting on the couch, reading a new book by an up-and-coming Fresonian author, when a bolt of fear ran through me. My heart was pounding, and there was a burning sensation in my lungs, as if I was running.

Suddenly, my knee stung with a sharp pain, like I had slammed it on the ground. Despair flooded my senses, followed by a cold, sick dread. I sat up straight. Mila. Something was wrong with Mila.

I was halfway out the door with a team of security guards behind me in about two seconds flat. I called Mila’s phone over and over again, but it kept going to voicemail. I had not felt any of Mila’s emotions in minutes. They had been turned off–like she was sleeping.

I would not allow myself to consider the “or worse.”

My guards panted behind me as we ran through the streets, retracing the path Mila took on her way home from the restaurant. As we rounded the corner, I saw something glowing from the sidewalk: a shattered cell phone, lighting up with an incoming call.

Mila’s phone.

My heart stopped when I saw the horrific sight on the sidewalk just a few feet beyond the phone: the unconscious bodies of Mila’s guards.

I was vaguely aware of security placing calls around me, of one of my guards escorting me into a nearby car. All I could think about was Mila. She had been taken.

The Head of Royal Security, Lionel, instructed that I stay in the castle until Mila was found, claiming that it was far safer than my city apartment. There was zero information about where Mila had gone or who had taken her. Her guards were unable to provide any useful information–only that they were walking home at night when they were attacked from behind.

I had once thought that the curse was the worst thing to ever happen to me. Now, faced with the possibility of losing Mila, I knew that to be far from true.

I paced the length of the security room, combing through camera footage from the surrounding buildings of the night. We caught a glimpse of Mila walking calmly in the direction of home, guards ever diligent behind her, and then nothing else.

It was as if whoever attacked her knew where the cameras were.

“There is good news,” Lionel told me. “We are able to pinpoint about where she was kidnapped by seeing where she disappears from the cameras and where her phone was dropped. We’ve narrowed it down to a two-block stretch. You say you think she fell at some point?”

“Yes,” I said, my own knee painfully throbbing in response.

“We’ll find her, son,” Lionel said, clapping a hand on my shoulder. “We have all our best men on it.”

I was sent out in the hall to continue my pacing–apparently I was making the security team nervous.

Joseph, my assistant, approached me in the hallway.

“Felix,” he said by way of greeting. “I heard the news. I’m so sorry, man.”

I looked at him, knowing the desperation in my eyes.

“They’re not sure where she is,” I managed. “Lionel’s team is scouring the city.”

“Have they considered that she might have been taken out of the city?” Joseph asked.

“Oh, god,” I exhaled, burying my head in my hands.

Joseph disappeared into the security room to talk to Lionel. I took a deep breath, attempting to clear my head.

By the time Joseph got back to me, I had a plan.

“I’m going to head to the aviary and get Ignatius,” I told him. “I want you to take a team–your most trusted men–and spread out across the city. Someone must have seen or heard something, and you’re able to use methods that Lionel cannot.”

Joseph caught my meaning: use force if necessary.

I felt a twinge of fear deep in my abdomen–faint, far away, but clear and steady. Mila.

“She’s far away,” I exclaimed, not even caring what I was saying out loud at this point. “I can feel it.”

Joseph nodded once, then leaned in to whisper: “Prepare the dragons. I’ll cover the ground.”

We stalked off in different directions. Purpose surged through my body. I no longer felt hopeless now that I was doing something, anything, to track down my fiancée.

I was not surprised to see Esmeralda waiting by Ignatius when I arrived at the aviary.

“The castle is in an uproar,” she said. “You look like a mess>

I ran my hands through my hair. “Yeah, well, Mila’s missing. It’s a bit hard to focus on what I look like right now.”

“Do you have any idea where she is?” she asked.

I shook my head. “None. I can feel her, but very faintly. I think whoever took her drugged her. She seems… out of it.”

Esmeralda nodded thoughtfully. “I’m sure that’s correct.”

“I’m going to take to the skies with Ignatius and see what I can see,” I told her, preparing a saddle bag. “The sooner I find her, the better.”

“Have you realized it yet?” Esmeralda called after me.

I turned back to her. “Realized what?”

“Why you’re in such a panic?”

I looked at her. “My fiancée is missing. Not to mention, she’s my Destined Bride, so if she dies… I’m certain I’m going with her.”

Esmeralda sighed heavily, giving me a pointed look.

“You’re in love with her, Felix,” she said gently. “It’s written all over your face, and your heart. I understand that you sought her out for a reason, but you would be feeling this way even if she wasn’t your Destined Bride. You love her. You have for quite some time.

Somehow, her words hit harder than the realization Mila was missing.

“That can’t be,” I started, but Esmeralda cut me off.

“It is. Look inside yourself, and you will see the truth.”

Thoughts of Mila flashed through my mind–Mila jumping on couches in the furniture store, Mila cooking dinner, Mila bent over the counter, Mila laughing while swimming in the sea.

My heart skidded and stumbled in my chest. It wasn’t just lust or a magical connection tying us together–it was love. I loved her. I was in love with her.

I had to find her and tell her. I had to let her know how I felt.

Esmeralda studied my shocked face for a moment before saying, “Love comes to us at the most unexpected times, Felix. It is up to us whether we seize the chance at happiness or let it fade.”

“I want to be with her,” I whispered. “Forever.”

Esmeralda placed a hand on the side of my face. “Find her, Felix.”

I mounted Ignatius and set off. I had just taken flight when I got a call from Joseph.

“We found something,” he said, short of breath. “One of the men hired to kidnap Mila dropped out at the last minute due to an ankle injury. He was willing to talk with some, ah, persuasion.”

“What do you mean, hired? Who’s behind this? Does he know where they took her?” I demanded to know. “And where are you? Ignatius and I will come pick you up.”

“Still in the city,” Joseph said. “He doesn’t know who hired them, only that they had a lot of money and knew all about Mila’s schedule and the whereabouts of the cameras. He says she’s in a forest deep in the Dragon’s Teeth mountains. Felix… it’s the gang that Derek belonged to.”

I gritted my teeth. “I’m on my way.”

“We’ll bring her home, Felix,” Joseph assured me.

“We better.”