The carriage wheels slowed as we reached the outer courtyard of the palace. I stepped down without waiting for assistance, smoothing the dark fabric of my gloves. Two days. That was all the time that had passed since I had taken her, and already the capital was beginning to stir.
The crown prince was waiting in the east solar, exactly where his message had said he would be. Afternoon light fell across the polished floor. He turned when I entered, and for a moment I saw the strain around his eyes before he arranged his face into something more suitable for company.
“Lady Seraphine,” he said. “Thank you for coming so quickly.”
I inclined my head. “You said it was urgent.”
“It is.” He gestured toward the chairs near the window, but neither of us sat. “Elira Veyne has been missing for two days. She was expected at my birthday celebration and never arrived. Her carriage was found along the north road with no sign of her or her driver. Her family is demanding a full investigation. They believe she was taken on the way to the palace.”
I kept my expression carefully neutral. Inside, a quiet satisfaction settled in my chest. Of course they were searching. Of course they had not found her. I had chosen the moment and the location with care.
“That is troubling,” I said. “Have there been any signs at all?”
“Very few.” He paced a short line across the carpet. “The carriage showed no clear signs of a struggle. The horses were still harnessed. Her belongings were untouched. It is as if she simply stepped out and vanished. We have searched the road, the surrounding woods, and every estate within half a day’s ride. Nothing.”
I let a small frown touch my brow, the kind that suggested concern without committing me to anything. “The north road passes near several older properties. Some of them have been empty for years. If someone wished to move a person quickly and without notice, those places would serve better than anywhere closer to the capital.”
He stopped pacing and looked at me. “You think she was taken to one of the abandoned estates?”
“I think it is possible.” I chose the next words with precision. “A public abduction on the main road would have left more evidence. This feels quieter. More deliberate. Whoever took her did not want immediate attention.”
The prince’s jaw tightened. “Her parents are convinced she is being held somewhere. They want the city guard expanded and every road watched.”
“A reasonable request.” I moved to the window and looked out over the formal gardens, giving him my profile instead of my full face. “But if the goal was to hide her, a wide and noisy search may only push her captors further into silence. Have you considered the old river routes south of the north road? Or the lesser hunting lodges that no longer appear on most maps? Places a person could be kept without drawing notice.”
He was quiet for several seconds. I could feel him turning the suggestions over.
“The river routes,” he repeated. “And the old lodges.”
“Exactly. They see little traffic. If someone wished to disappear a young woman of her standing, those would be practical choices.” I turned back to him then, letting a measured amount of helpfulness enter my voice. “I would begin there. Quietly. If nothing turns up, the search can still be widened.”
He studied me for a long moment. I held his gaze without difficulty. There was nothing in my face for him to find. The part of me that had taken her from the road, the part that had locked the door and listened to her call my name, remained perfectly still beneath the surface.
“You always did see things clearly,” he said at last. “Very well. I will redirect the search toward the river routes and the older lodges. If nothing surfaces in the next day or two, we will expand again.”
“A wise course.”
He exhaled, some of the tension leaving his shoulders. “Her family will not be satisfied, but it is better than scattering our efforts across half the kingdom.”
I allowed a small, polite smile. “If I hear anything, I will send word at once.”
“Thank you, Seraphine.” He hesitated, then added, “You knew her since childhood. If she were in trouble, do you think she would try to reach you?”
The question was idle on the surface. Underneath it, I heard the faint edge of something closer to residual attachment from the attention he had shown her in recent months. I met it with the same calm I had worn since entering the room.
“If Elira needed help, she knows where to find me,” I said. “But she has not come. That alone suggests she either cannot, or is being prevented from doing so.”
He nodded slowly. The answer seemed to settle something for him. We spoke for a few minutes more about the practical details of the redirected search. I offered two additional names of lesser-known paths and one old stone lodge that had stood empty since the last border skirmish. Each suggestion pulled the net further from the true location. Each one was accepted with gratitude.
When at last he dismissed me, I left the solar with measured steps and did not allow my pace to quicken until I was back inside my own carriage.
The city slid past the windows in a blur of stone and afternoon light. I sat with my hands folded in my lap and let the public face fall away. Two days. She had been mine for two days, and already the world was rearranging itself around her absence. The prince would chase shadows along the river routes. Her family would wait for news that would not come. And in a plain room far from both of them, Elira was wearing the blue dress I had chosen and the stone I had placed at her throat.
The memory of her in the bath surfaced without permission. The way her breath had caught when my hands moved across her skin. The small sound she had not meant to make. The rigid stillness she had held while I washed her, as if endurance itself were a form of defiance. She still did not understand what she was to me. That would take time. I had time now.
The carriage turned toward the quieter streets that led out of the capital. I watched the light change across the floorboards and felt the familiar, sharp pull in my chest. Somewhere behind locked doors, she was waiting. She might be angry. She might be afraid. She might still be trying to make sense of the necklace and the dress and the hands that had refused to let her wash herself.
None of that mattered.
She was there.
And I was going back to her.