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on the Monrova-Severene border along the Aberglast pass. And deploy a ground team, too. Also, get in touch with the authorities in Monrova. We need to coordinate our efforts.’
‘Your Majesty?’ André sounded confused.
‘You heard me. Princess Juno has run away and we need to find her.’
‘Princess Juno, sire? Surely you mean Queen Jade?’
‘No, I mean Princess Juno.’
‘But, Your Majesty—’
‘Juno has been posing as her twin sister for two weeks,’ he interrupted the man’s conversation. He didn’t have time to explain this mess. None of that mattered now, if it ever had. ‘Inform all the relevant parties of her true identity,’ he said, his head starting to explode with the logistics of finding her.
‘What about the media, Your Majesty?’ the man said.
How ironic, Leo thought, that averting a scandal had once been his main concern. When it was the last damn thing he cared about now.
‘I don’t want them informed, yet,’ he said. ‘They’ll only get in the way. The important thing right now is that we find her. She’s pregnant with my child.’
But even as he said the words he knew the child was an abstract concept at this point. He had been overjoyed at the news of Juno’s pregnancy less than an hour ago.
But suddenly, the child, its future, the monarchy’s future didn’t seem all that significant. None of that mattered any more. What mattered was Juno. And getting her back. Safe.
Didn’t I pass this clearing an hour ago?
Juno brought the snowmobile to a juddering halt and assessed the terrain. The trees had all begun to look the same hours ago, but as she stared at the long shadows falling over the snow, she knew she’d been through this section of forest before.
Her hands ached and her arms were so heavy they felt like lead weights attached to her shoulders. She fisted her fingers, the cramps making the numbness painful. The cold had seeped into her bones hours ago.
The goggles began to mist from her body heat, so she thrust them up. The freezing air hit her chapped cheeks, increasing the pain.
She shouldn’t have run. She should have stayed—Leo had been right to call her selfish.
Thoughts of Leo battered her tired brain—his face, so harsh, so handsome; his body, sculpted muscles, firm skin so beautiful she could feel its softness under her frozen fingertips; his scent, man and musk and sandalwood, invading her nostrils; his voice, low and husky and so confident about everything...
Why did I run? Why did I leave him?
He was safe, secure, strong. So much stronger than she had ever been. And warm; he could give her the warmth she yearned for. Except...
‘We can’t have any more than this week. I thought you understood.’
‘If you can’t behave yourself in a manner befitting your status, I will have you returned to your mother in New York immediately.’
The emotionless words—from so long ago, and only hours before—echoed in her head, becoming one voice, one man, one brutal reality that chilled her heart.
Leo didn’t want her for herself. He wanted an heir, a queen.
Her father hadn’t wanted her either. He’d wanted to protect the monarchy and to free himself of any scandal she might cause too.
The buzzing in her head became louder and she looked to the skies, to see a large black bird hovering overhead. She squinted into the setting sun, the frozen skin on her face prickling in the wind as the bird became wider, louder, its outline changing into something mechanical. Not a bird, a helicopter.
Snow flew up from the earth as she watched the mechanical beast set down at the far end of the clearing. The trees shuddered and shook, the bladed wings lifting the drift into a maelstrom.
Her mind blurred. Her heart pounded so hard the pain became one in her body, as the wings stopped spinning and a figure jumped out of the cockpit.
It ran towards her, a voice carrying across the frozen air. But the words made no sense, her mind too numb, too confused, too dazed to decipher what they meant.
‘Juno, stay where you are. Don’t move. I’ve come to take you home.’
