Page 80 of Maid for the Alien Prince

“I need you to think carefully,” I said. “How many routes are there from this spot? Where does it lead? Does it lead outside somewhere on the estate grounds? Is there a way for the kidnapper to slip past our defenses?”

“No,” Emma said. “The other end opens up onto a boulder on the other side of the lake.”

“Do you think you could take some of the staff here? Take two guards too. They will apprehend the kidnapper in case he comes through.”

Emma gave a stout nod.

“And how many routes are there from here? Is it a single tunnel or does it lead to lots of other tunnels?”

“It’s like a maze down there. As they rebuilt and extended the palace, some of the tunnel exits were cut off. We weren’t strong enough to get them open as kids but maybe the… kidnapper could.”

She hesitated over the term ‘kidnapper’ for the same reason I had avoided naming who I thought was responsible—in case it triggered Emma and I couldn’t get the information I needed from her.

“Thank you for your help,” I said.

She beamed and led a small party of staff and guardsmen out of the room. That would prevent Ges from escaping, if he made the attempt.

I nodded to the others. “I’m heading down into the tunnel. Who else is coming?”

“Me,” the chief staff member said.

“I’ll go,” another with a terrible haircut said.

“And me.”

Soon, we had another half dozen to go down into the tunnel with me.

“What about the rest of us?” a young waiter said.

“I need you to guard this passageway in case he doubles back. If he does, jump on him and pin him to the ground. Don’t let him escape. If you hurt him, so be it. I will answer for any harm you do to him.”

Their expressions of excitement made me a little nervous that I would re-emerge from the tunnel to be greeted by nothing but Ges’ limbs after he’d been torn apart.

“Just… try not to kill him,” I added.

“I make no promises,” one of the older staff members said in what I took to be in jest… although, judging by his expression, I wasn’t sure I should be convinced about that.

I squeezed into the passageway. It was a tight fit for me, and I had to bend down to keep my horns from scraping the low ceiling inside.

I waited for the first volunteer to come in after me and told him to divide everyone else into pairs and send them down different tunnels.

“I’m not sure you should go down there by yourself, My Lord,” he said nervously.

“I’ll be all right,” I said. “If someone else discovers him, yell, and the rest of us will come running. Do nothing that might put Camila in harm’s way.”

“As you wish, Your Highness.”

He bowed but almost lost his footing as another volunteer joined him.

I turned and entered the dark.

* * *

It was a deep and encompassing darkness, pressing on me as if it had real weight. I reached out with my hands, making slow movements as if I were swimming through it.

I heard the mutters from the other volunteers behind me, but the darkness quickly stole their voices, smothering them. Soon, I couldn’t make them out at all.

There were a few small tunnels I had to choose from and immediately regretted that I had decided to come in alone… until I checked each one and realized that what Emma had told me was correct—they all ended with dead ends from where the palace had been renewed and extended over the years.

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