“Hey, Ellie,” Adam called over casually.“You see any revolutionary activity here?”
The question was audacious.Adam delivered it with an air of complete, unflinching confidence.
Ellie’s heart burst with pride.
“None at all,” she replied with a perfectly straight face as a ring of arrows pointed down from above.
Singh Rao muttered a prayer under his breath in strained tones of exasperation—then waved his hand.
With an uneven, tentative series of clicks, his men lowered their weapons.
Adam turned to Subhas, waiting.
“Ittadu,” Subhas ordered, and the Adrija relaxed.
Vanika popped into view at her cousin’s side, beaming with smug triumph.“I told you that I would free them!”she called down.
Adam’s lip tugged with the urge to smile.“And I thought I said to keep safe.”
Vanika rolled her eyes.“Why do you think I did not come to the edge while you were all trying to shoot each other?”
A new voice cut in, distinctly cultured and ringing with mischief.“Tell me that I haven’t missedallthe fun!”
Constance darted out to join Adam under the opening of the sinkhole.“Uncle Vijay?!”
Her royal relative strode into view, beaming down at her.Vijay was a sight.He wore an elegant white sherwani with a gold-embroidered purple sash around his waist, his head wrapped in a turban secured with a jeweled pin.A curved sword hung from his belt alongside a wicked-looking dagger.
“There you are, you mad thing!”he exclaimed happily.
“What on earth are you doing here?”Constance demanded.
“Looking for you, of course,” Vijay returned.
“But how could you possibly have found us?”she pushed back.
“I just followed the dog.”
“The dog?”Ellie echoed with a lurch of surprise.
Kalb skidded to a stop at the edge of the drop, his tail wagging furiously.
“He found me in the forest and insisted on leading me back here.”Vijay gave the happily panting animal a rub on his head.
Adam tossed Ellie a smirk.“Told you he was lucky.”
Kalb replied with a happy bark.
Singh Rao studied the glittering figure of Constance’s uncle.“You’re the lord of Nandapur.”
“Heard of me, have you?”Vijay’s words were deceptively light.
“My commanding officer might have mentioned you,” Singh Rao returned dryly.
Vijay’s eyes twinkled with dark amusement.“Did he?And where is your colonel now?”
Ellie instinctively looked to a pile of pale ash in a charred circle of grass.
“No idea,” Adam replied with a suspiciously straight face.
