Rogue Sloth

Amnesia [Suki & Summer]

“I don’t need repayment for following orders,” Jacob said simply, folding his arms across the t-shirt he was wearing. “My king asked me to rescue you, so I did. That’s all there is to it.” Technically. Caspian had been the one to assemble the strike team and assign him to lead it, but seeing the video from Ethan and watching her nearly die in the house had been the deciding factors in the rest of his actions. In fact, he was disobeying his liege by harboring her in his condo, risking the loss of his job and even a potential prison sentence for keeping this secret from the Aspirian ruler. He never would have asked or expected a common girl from the districts to repay him for that though. She had nothing while he had everything he wanted out of life as a respected capital citizen and leader of the monarchy’s elite security team.

The anger in Iris’s voice didn’t faze the guard when she reacted to his announcement that Caspian thought she was dead. Holding her gaze unflinchingly, he just stayed where he was, leaving her to process the news however she needed to until she asked him why he was going to so much trouble for her sake. “Honestly? Spite,” he replied with a half-smirk on his lips. “I didn’t want to give Ethan the satisfaction of taking you with him when he died, and…” he trailed off, averting his gaze to look out the window with a shrug of his shoulders. “I suppose you could also say that I care when I see someone get hurt who didn’t deserve to be.”

He didn’t care to elaborate more than that though, so he turned back to her again when she mentioned telling Caspian she was still alive. “I know you won’t, because you know just as well as I do that it’s for the best that you two never see each other again.” Once again, he was blunt with her, but he’d never been the type to beat around the bush. Holding her eyes without wavering, he watched the emotions flicker across her face as the initial burst of anger faded. She might not have been capital-born, but he could tell she was a smart girl. Given time to think and process, he trusted her to make the right decision. She had been a brief chapter in the king’s life that needed to come to a close, both for their sakes and for that of the country. He wouldn’t be changing his mind about that.

Their conversation seemed to be draining on her, and he wanted her to recover as quickly as possible, so when she requested to get some more rest, he nodded. “Please do.” Turning to the door, he took a few steps away from her and only glanced over his shoulder once more as he took the knob in his hand. “I need to check in with my men at the palace, but I left a sheet with a number you can call if you need something. First aid supplies are in the washroom, and food is in the kitchen if you have an appetite. Just try not to move around too much while I’m gone.”

Amnesia [Suki & Summer]

At Iris’s quiet objection to Caspian’s role in her rescue, Jacob stood beside the bed with pursed lips. “No, he shouldn’t have,” he agreed after a moment, though there was no anger in his voice. The statement was made just as calmly as if he’d agreed that chocolate cake was better than vanilla. Maybe it was harsh to say so, but she wasn’t wrong in her assessment. Ethan had used her to bait the king out and exploit his weaknesses, and his plan had worked. Now, as the head of security, he was going to have to double down on his efforts to ensure it didn’t happen again, and there was a chance that Caspian had lost favor in the eyes of the military members who knew about the strike team to rescue one politically unimportant girl. The whole campaign had been a mistake.

“But he did.”

Sliding his hands into his pockets, Jacob concluded his thought in the same casual manner with which he’d spoken the first half. No matter what he thought about it all, he knew his king wouldn’t have had it any other way. Plus, he had seen the video Ethan had sent for himself. He’d only gotten a taste of the rage Caspian must have felt, and it had been enough to push him over the edge to obey the order to assemble the soldiers. “And I don’t regret saving you,” he added with a frown. “What Ethan did to you just to provoke King Caspian… it was abhorrent. I’m glad you’re away from him now.”

Watching Iris inspect the wound in her side, he hovered for a little while longer. She didn’t look like she was going to lay back down yet, and he didn’t want to walk out and leave her alone to hurt herself unintentionally. When she whispered, he shook his head. “There is nowhere else for you to stay in the capital, and I’m not going to release you back into the districts in that condition,” he said firmly. “Until you’re well enough to be on your own and no longer at risk of infection, you need to stay here.”

The question she asked next was a touchier subject, and the guard shifted his weight slightly as he considered how best to answer it. “No,” he said after another pause, lifting his gaze from the corner of the bed to the former rebel’s eyes. “The king believes Ethan kidnapped you from the capital. He isn’t aware you left of your own volition, which is part of the reason why he organized a rescue team. However… he also doesn’t know you’re still alive.”

Studying her carefully, he explained: “When my team found you, you were barely clinging to life. I wasn’t even sure if you would last the next hour. If King Caspian found out the condition you were in, I knew he would do everything in his power to bring you back to health... but he would also be so worried about keeping you alive that he would lose sight of his other duties as the ruler of Aspiria, so I made the decision to bring you back here quietly—without his knowledge.”

Amnesia [Suki & Summer]

At the rasp in Iris’s voice, Jacob picked up a glass of water he’d left on the nightstand and offered it to her once she’d calmed down enough that she wouldn’t knock it out of his hand. All the while, he eyed the shirt she was wearing—intentionally white—for any blood spots, making sure she hadn’t reopened her wound in the midst of her thrashing. Fortunately, he didn’t see anything concerning, so he settled on the edge of the mattress and lifted his gaze to meet hers when she asked about Caspian.

“He is safe, but he isn’t here. You’re in my condo,” he answered succinctly, rolling his shoulders in a mindless stretch. He hadn’t realized how long he’d been sitting on the living room sofa, and he’d gotten a little stiff. He was also hesitant to tell Iris much more than he just had, since he didn’t want to argue with her if she insisted on being moved to see the king in the palace. Right now, all he cared about was seeing that she recovered properly and then returning her to the districts where she belonged. Caspian couldn’t know she had ever been here.

He was less secretive about the fate of her abductor though, so when she asked about Ethan next, he nodded in confirmation. “Yes, dead. I watched him take a bullet between the eyes when my strike team found his hiding place.” Technically, he was the one who had fired the shot, but he wasn’t looking to take credit, so he left that part of the explanation ambiguous. “You won’t have to worry about him ever again. He’s gone for good.” As he spoke, his eyes wandered to the room they were in. White paint, old motel-like artwork on the walls and a ceiling fan spinning lazy circles above their heads. He probably should have been more invested in a conversation about a man’s gruesome death, but his years in service to his country had made him numb to the harsher side of war. Instead, he had noticed how vacant his old bedroom felt.

As he turned back to Iris, he caught the grimace on her face and furrowed his brows. “You should lie back down. It’s only been a day since I moved you here, and you’ve barely started to heal. Some rest will do you good.” He got up from the edge of the bed again, readying himself to leave if she took him up on the suggestion. “Is there anything else you need from me?”

Match Up in Malibu [Bee & Summer]

“Oh, what if they match us with the person we try to get rid of, if that person doesn’t leave the show?” Jett arched his brows as the idea crossed his mind. On a reality show like this, he wouldn’t have put it past the production team to try a move like that. If they did, he really hoped Madison didn’t make it past the first round of voting—or whatever it was they were going to be doing—since he already knew he wanted her gone.

When they got to the fire pit, and the next event was announced, he wasn’t at all surprised to find out their guess about eliminating another player had been right. With his hands in the pockets of his swim trunks, he listened to the host explain that one person was going to be leaving the cast, and they had ten minutes to pitch their votes—and he and Anna were exempt from being kicked off because they’d won the first challenge. At that, he turned to catch her gaze with a grin, offering up a hand in a high-five. “For real. Good job out there, partner.”

Over the next few minutes, the cast members took their turns scribbling down names on slips of paper to add to a box by the center of the fire pit. For dramatic effect, they had to hold up their votes in front of the cameramen, so they could capture who had voted for whom. Jett took his turn when there was space, since he and Anna were still part of the elimination process even though they couldn’t be eliminated. Naturally, he picked Madison, tired of listening to her complain about the non-celebrity contestants, and headed back to join the others until everyone was done making their choices.

“This is gonna be heated,” Bella leaned over to whisper to him and a couple others with a smirk. “If you-know-who leaves the show, how much you wanna bet the producers are gonna get sued for defamation?”

Amnesia [Suki & Summer]

Jacob had never been specifically trained to treat wounds, but the combination of fighting in a civil war and working closely with an ailing king had lent him the skills he needed to keep Iris from succumbing to her injuries. He worked tirelessly in the house where he’d found her, using what little equipment and resources he had available until he felt like she was stable enough to move. The open wound in her midriff had been staunched, her broken bones had been set, and he finally picked her up, carefully, off the floor to bring her down to the first working car he could find on the street down below.

He picked the door open, hotwired it to get it running, and laid Iris’s limp body across the backseat with a blanket spread over her both for warmth and to conceal her identity when he drove back to the capital. There was no getting inside the city without passing through a security checkpoint equipped with infrared cameras. There, he leveraged his status as the head of capital security to avoid having the car searched. When the border patrol questioned him about the second body in the vehicle, he explained it away as a captured, unconscious prisoner from the rebellion that he was bringing in for interrogation.

The guards took him at his word, and he was permitted to pass through, driving along the highway that would take him to his condo on the north side of the capital. When he’d accepted the job as head of security for King Atlas, he’d moved into a room in the palace to stay close to his monarch. However, he had never stopped making payments on the other unit, just in case he ever needed it. Until now, nothing else had come up, but with Iris barely clinging to life in his backseat, he was glad he’d had the foresight to continue renewing his lease.

He pulled the borrowed car around the back side of the building, where there was less foot traffic and witnesses to worry about, and gingerly lifted the unconscious girl to carry her up the back stairs to his condo. Unlocking the door was a little tricky, but he managed to get it open by using the wall as a brace for his shoulder while he fished in his pocket. Once they were safely inside, he finally set her down on the bed and set about tending to her wounds more properly than he had when they were in the districts.

The bloodstained clothing was exchanged for an old t-shirt and basketball shorts—though he left her undergarments in place, uncomfortable with the thought of removing them when she was someone important to Caspian—and he scrubbed the dried blood from her skin. The stab wound was stitched with his own kit, the makeshift brace on her arm was replaced with a sturdier binding, and when he was confident that she would start recovering on her own, he finally returned to the palace to check on his king, stifling the guilt he felt about telling the other man that she was dead when she was really locked up in his condo only a few miles away.

When he got back, he found the palace in the exact state he expected. All function had ceased. The halls were quiet, visiting representatives had been sent away, and two guards stood posted outside the doors to the king’s bedroom with orders not to let anyone inside until told otherwise. He could tell that many of the other security workers were confused about Caspian’s reaction to the raid, since none of them had known how close their monarch had been to the woman they’d been trying to rescue, but he also knew it wouldn’t take long for them to put the pieces together and figure out why he was so devastated—if they hadn’t already.

In that way, Jacob was glad he’d made the decision that he had to keep her survival a secret. If there was to be any blemish on the fledgling king’s reputation because of his affection for a rebel, it would quickly pass. That relationship was over and done with, so there would be no reason for concern among the Aspirian people that their leader’s allegiance was divided with the Scourge.

He spent the night in his room in the palace, just in case Caspian needed him for anything before the morning. However, when the sun rose and nothing changed while the other man continued to grieve his loss, he decided to return to the condo to see how Iris was doing since he’d left her the day before. He took his own car this time to make the drive back, but still parked behind the building. Inside again, he found the former rebel passed out where he’d left her, so he settled in the living room and flipped through channels on the TV to catch up on the local news, leaving her to rest in the bedroom.

An hour passed quietly while he lounged on the couch with a beer. In a way, it felt like a vacation, since he was usually busy at the palace seven days a week with security work and management, but the peace was eventually broken when he heard a faint, muffled voice cry out behind the door. He got up right away and turned the TV off, heading back into the bedroom where he saw that Iris was awake and struggling to climb out of the bed.

“Iris.” With a tone both firm and soft, Jacob stepped over to lay a hand on her shoulder. “Lay still or you’ll reopen your wound. You’re safe now. Ethan is dead.”

Amnesia [Suki & Summer]

“Sick fuck,” Jacob curled his lip in disgust as he watched Ethan’s lifeless body crumple to the floor. While his team filed into the room to investigate it for anything useful, he lifted a hand to, finally, respond to Caspian, who had been verbally barraging him since the drone had been destroyed. “The obstacle is clear now, Your Majesty. Harry is checking for signs of life.” As he spoke, he watched the other man kneel at Iris’s side, slipping two fingers under her chin in search of a pulse.

“And?” Cas pressed immediately, his heartbeat pounding in his ears. He wished Ethan hadn’t destroyed the drone. He couldn’t see anything, and the last thing on his screen had been Iris with a knife sticking out of her middle. His hands were shaking as he waited, hoping against hope that the other man hadn’t killed her—that they weren’t too late to bring her back to the palace. He didn’t know what he would do if she was dead.

Meanwhile, Jacob arched a brow when Harry said his name. He’d expected the other man to pronounce her gone, so when Harry acted like he might have noticed something, the security head stepped over to see for himself what was going on. “Stand back,” he ordered, dropping low to the ground to press two fingers against Iris’s throat. He stayed still for a few seconds with eyes narrowed in focus. Just as he was about to agree with the other man that he’d imagined a pulse, he felt a faint thump underneath his fingertips. She was still alive.

He almost parted his lips to tell Caspian, but before the words could leave his mouth, he hesitated. Iris was alive, but there had been a reason why he’d separated her from the fledgling king. Instead of reaching for his comm device, he considered the situation. Iris wasn’t going to last much longer without immediate medical attention, and he wasn’t cold-blooded enough to leave her to die. However, he also knew that bringing her back to his ruler would just put them back at square one—perhaps even lower, since he imagined Caspian would be ten times as protective of her after everything that had just happened. Even though the part of his that was bound to serving his king squirmed at the thought, he knew deep down that it was better for the people of Aspiria if their current liege moved on. He was going to have to pull some treasonous strings.

An idea formed, and he touched his device, taking a deep breath before he finally answered Caspian’s question.

“I’m sorry, Your Majesty.”

“No way.” The color drained from Cas’s face, and he collapsed backwards into the seat he’d earlier abandoned. “A-Are you sure? She can’t be dead. There’s no way.”

“She no longer has a pulse,” Jacob lied. “I truly am sorry for your loss… If you’d like, I can stay behind to give her a proper burial.”

Cas pressed a hand down over his face. He didn’t want Jacob to bury her. He didn’t want anyone to bury her. He wanted to bring her back to the palace to be by his side, where she would be safe and they wouldn’t have to worry about these kinds of sick attacks by the rebellion. In the time they’d been together, she had become more important to him than anyone else, and now she was just gone? He bit down on his lower lip as it started to quiver. “This is my fault,” he whispered, unable to raise his voice any louder without breaking it. “I shouldn’t have left her all alone in that place, without anyone to protect her. If I’d just ignored the people who would protest, I could have brought her into the palace with me sooner, and she wouldn’t have ended up with him again—”

“It isn’t your fault,” Jacob interrupted his spiraling. “You didn’t know he was looking for her. No one did. The way this ended was regrettable, but you did everything you could, you hear me?”

For a few beats, Cas didn’t respond. At that moment, he couldn’t bring himself to agree with the guard. He felt like he could have done more—should have done more—to prevent Ethan from doing this. He’d let Iris down again, and this time, there was nothing he could do to fix it. “Bury her in the capital cemetery. Please,” he murmured, his voice cracking on the last word as the emotions finally spilled over along with his tears.

“Of course, Your Majesty.”

With their assignment over and the house cleared as vacant, the soldiers filed back out to the crafts they’d taken to return to the capital. On their way out, one of the men stopped by the top floor to get Jacob. “Are you coming, sir?” he asked, pointing down the stairs toward the front door.

“Go on without me. I just have a few more things to wrap up here before I leave,” Jacob shook his head. “I’ll take another vehicle back.”

“If you say so,” the soldier shrugged, turning to leave him to his business.

The security head watched him go for a few seconds. As soon as the other man was out of earshot, he spun around and took the sleeve of his shirt between his teeth, giving it a sharp tug to tear and pressing it down against Iris’s midriff, where the blood was pooling around the blade of the knife. “Come on,” he muttered as he worked to staunch the wound. “Stay with me, Iris. You just need to hang on a little longer now…”

Amnesia [Suki & Summer]

The instant the first gunshot had been fired, every soldier in the building had changed course to sprint upstairs. Meanwhile, Jacob clenched his jaw as he watched his target’s hand fly to his leg where the bullet had made contact. It was satisfying, in a way, to hurt the man who had tortured Iris, but it still didn’t make up for everything he’d done to her. One wound wasn’t vengeance for a life lost. His eyes flicked to her unmoving, bloodstained body on the floor just as the security team’s drone hovered into the line of sight. He didn’t need to see his king to know what the scene in this room was going to do to him. That was a situation for the men in the palace to deal with.

And they did. When Iris came into view on Caspian’s screen, he had jumped up from his seat with a shouted ‘no,’ only to be restrained by the shoulder immediately by the nearest guard. All the color drained from his face, and his eyes were as round as disks as he stared at her crumpled form on the screen, the knife protruding sinisterly from her middle and the blood that had pooled around her on the floorboards. This couldn’t be real. There was no way. He refused to believe she was dead, even as Ethan grinned and said so on the other side of the drone.

He parted his lips to demand that Jacob check her for a pulse, but before he could get the words out, there was a second bang, and suddenly the screen went black. “Wait. No. What happened!?” Tearing his arm out of the guard’s grip, the king lunged at the monitor, checking it over as if he would find a loose cord that he could plug back into place to fix the issue.

“It looked like he shot the drone, Your Majesty.” Behind him, the guard frowned as he watched his ruler obsess over the darkened screen. “It wasn’t built to withstand bullets.”

“Shit!” Cas, raked his fingers through his hair. He still needed to get ahold of Jacob even if he couldn’t see… He still had his comm device. It wasn’t the drone he’d been using to communicate with his security officer. He needed to focus. Gathering the pieces of his composure, he lifted his trembling hand to the earpiece he was still wearing to tap into the line. “Jacob, check to see if she’s still alive!” he ordered.

“I’m a little busy right now, Your Majesty,” the guard hissed back through gritted teeth. In the time it had taken the king to remember his comm device, the team’s target had started returning fire, and Jacob had ducked for cover just outside the bedroom door. Luckily, he was wearing the same standard bulletproof uniform as the rest of the soldiers, but he’d still taken a shot to the sternum that had winded him on his way to safety. He pressed a hand against the afflicted spot as he fought to catch his breath.

Unsurprisingly, Caspian had started arguing with him through his earpiece, demanding that he check on Iris right away to make sure that they could get her medical attention if she needed it. However, he ignored the shouting to focus on the more pressing issue at that moment: the man waving an automatic weapon around like a madman in the next room over.

He took a breath and leaned toward the door frame with his own gun. It was starting to seem like ‘nonlethal’ wasn’t an option here. He wasn’t going to sacrifice any of his men just to take an unruly hostage—especially one who didn’t appear to be in his right mind—so, raising the pistol in his hands, he braced himself to take another shot and whirled around to plant himself in the open doorway as he fired back, this time aiming at the other man’s head.

Two Dudes Sitting in a Hot Tub [MxM Search - Slow Burn Preference]

Update: Itching to find a partner to retry the arranged marriage plot: Prince x Prince(ss) pairing. PM me if interested!

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Hi, all! I'm back on the hunt for a couple cravings. I've been in the mood for a good slow burn romance lately, where the main characters start out as friends, enemies, acquaintances, coworkers, or any other platonic relationship, and the feelings/attraction develop over a long course of time. Sorry if this isn't your cup of tea, but if you're looking for quick romance, you'll have to find it elsewhere.

First, a few things about myself and what I’m looking for:

Rules and Preferences

I’m a long term writer. If we start a RP, chances are very good that I’ll be sticking around for the long haul. This is my favorite hobby, and I haven’t dropped an active RP in years unless I’ve had a problem with the other writer that we couldn’t resolve (which is rare). Most of my existing RPs here are 1-7 years old so, of course, this also means I’m looking for a partner who wants to keep a story going for a *long* time. To actually see through all the exciting things we plan for our characters in the beginning and to work through the trouble spots when our motivation loses steam in the slow scenes.

*As a note, I do understand that sometimes things fizzle or life gets in the way. If you have to drop or pause the RP for any reason, just let me know so I don’t keep checking a dead thread. I promise I won’t bite your head off!

I’m an advanced writer. This doesn’t mean I’ll slap you with a wall of text every time I reply to a post, but I care about describing important details and characters’ introspection when they come up. A typical post from me will fall in the range of 300-600 words, sometimes more and sometimes less. I don’t care about or expect my partners to match my post length, especially when it doesn’t make sense, but I do want to write with someone who can give me more than just a few sentences or a single paragraph to work with.

My posting speed will vary. Life happens, and I have a lot of other commitments outside of this website. For as much as I’d like to promise a post a day, I don’t always have the luxury. I do try my best to alert my partners when I need extra time to write back though, and I really appreciate it when they give me the same courtesy. I’m also looking for dedicated people who will be available to write back at least once a week, as that’s what I’ll try to offer you at a minimum.

I prefer to write on the website. Maybe I’m old school, but it’s just easier for me to keep all my stories in one place. Public threads (within the site’s guidelines) and PMs are both A-OK. I have a Discord available for OOC chatter though.

I do not write fandoms. Not even AUs or OCs. This is a hard no for me, and I won’t be convinced to change my mind. If we find out we’ve got some other interests in common, I’m always happy to chat about them, but I’ve tried to write in fandom worlds before, and I’ve never been able to stay interested. If that’s what you’re looking for, you’re better off giving your ideas a shot with someone else.

I’ve got a mad craving for MxM pairings lately. Right now, that’s the only kind I’m looking for. I want fluffy gay romances between two dudes with lots of depth and drama and character development along the way. Tropes can be fun in the right place, but I also like queer characters that deviate from stereotypes and traditional top/bottom dynamics. After all, people’s sexual preferences don’t have to define what they’re like outside the bedroom.

Which brings me to the mature content. I’m in my mid 20s, and I require my partners to be at least 18, if not older. I’m also comfortable writing out any kind of mature scenes from sailor language to gore to smut. However, smut loses its appeal to me very quickly if it takes over a RP, so I prefer to only write it out when it’s essential to the story or maybe we’ve been skipping those scenes for a while and feel like tapping back into that side of the characters’ relationship. I try to be flexible here to accommodate my partners’ preferences, so I’m always open to discussing it too if that’s something that’s important to you.

Lastly, I only use real face claims or detailed descriptions of characters’ appearances. Written stories play out like a movie in my head, so I can’t picture the characters as anything other than living, breathing people. Anime is a no-go. Sometimes realistic artwork will get a pass, but most of the time, I prefer that both I and my partners use photos or write out a paragraph or two about what our characters look like.

Now that the boring stuff is out of the way, here are a couple pairings and basic plots to get the ball rolling! As a note, I'd prefer to write in a modern setting for these. Any * means that’s a role I prefer to take. Bolded means I’m very interested.

Werewolf* x Human/Werewolf

[+]

Two ideas here. First, a human (MC) is turned toward the beginning of the RP and suddenly has to learn to navigate life as a werewolf. Preferably, I'd like to play this character against a werewolf who brings him into a pack or a human who was already an existing friend/coworker/roommate/etc in his life. Dark themes especially welcome in this plot, as it will likely include manslaughter and other horror-type situations.

The second idea I have is the crossing of paths between a werewolf (MC) and a human or other werewolf through some means that keeps them practically joined at the hip (not romantically). A roommate arrangement, police partners, even veterinarian coworkers or something along those lines could all work nicely. I'm open to other suggestions as well.

Note: The human character could be a werewolf hunter in either scenario for bonus taboo points. I like the idea of both mains living a sort of double life that the other is unaware of.

Roommates (Slice of Life)

[+]

Frenemies situation. Two guys who already knew each other are thrown into a situation where they suddenly have to live together - and neither one is particularly happy about it. This plot is most likely going to develop around the specific details of the characters' relationship, how they know each other, and whether there are other romantic partners involved. I imagine them to belong to families that have been close since before they were born (their living arrangement is partly to blame on their parents), but I'm open to other ideas.

Bonus here if neither family is aware the guys are gay, and placed them together without the expectation that feelings would ever spark between them.

Prince x Prince(ss)*

[+]

An arranged marriage is established between the prince of one country and the princess of another. However, unbeknownst to the prince, when his bride-to-be is summoned to meet him in his country, her twin brother takes her place instead, so she can elope with another man. Initially, the prince doesn't realize a swap has taken place, but when he eventually learns the truth, the two men work out their own arrangement in secret to benefit from their unusual situation.

Preferences here: the prince character is bisexual (may or may not be aware of his attraction to other men). I've tried this plot once before with a character who belongs to an elven kingdom, so he has naturally more androgynous features that help him pass as a woman when he disguises himself. I'm open to altering his background though.

If any of those ideas spark your interest, or if you have any MxM plots of your own that you'd like to suggest, shoot me a PM!

Amnesia [Suki & Summer]

“Keep close and stay alert. I have a feeling about this one.”

Jacob signaled to his team as they approached the door to the fourth house on the block. The first three they had investigated in Parkside had all been empty. Dusty rooms, splintered windows and empty cabinets were all that had greeted the men in their search for the rebel hideout. There weren’t even civilians around like the other team had reported on Hawthorn Circle. But that detail alone had convinced the security guard they were on the right track. Placing himself in the shoes of the people who lived in this district, he wouldn’t have wanted to be anywhere near the Scourge’s base of operations either.

They jogged quietly up to the front of the building, weapons drawn and eyes peeled as they watched out for any signs that the rebels knew they were coming. Nearby, the drone being operated from the palace’s security room hummed like a wasp in the air. Caspian was fixed on the screen from the same room, holding his breath as he hoped this house would turn out to be different than the last few. There were only three left in the part of the neighborhood his guard had pinpointed as a possible location, so they had to be getting close to Iris. In just a few more minutes, she could be on her way back to the palace, and he could keep her safe from the rebels that had been tormenting her. He could hear his heartbeat thudding in his ears with the anticipation.

Meanwhile on the ground, Jacob stood back to watch one of the men on his team pick the lock open on the door, then, once it was open, he led the way inside. Like the other houses they’d passed through, there was no immediate sign of life, but this building didn’t seem quite as desolate as the others. The dust in the living room was settled irregularly, as if there had been people standing and sitting and using the table space not that long ago. He even spotted a plastic wrapper wedged halfway under the couch and narrowed his eyes. This had to be it.

“Fan out in groups of two,” he said to the others under his breath. “Henry, you’re with me.”

His team dispersed at his order to search the ground level, while Jacob took his partner up the stairs to cover the top. Everything was quiet, so there was no telling if there was still anyone around. It was possible that the rebels had even gotten wind of their raids in the other neighborhood and had already fled the area. He clenched his jaw, wincing at the creak of a floorboard under his boot. For Iris’s sake, he hoped that wasn’t the case.

With another signal to the man behind him to watch his back, he approached the door at the top of the stairs, bracing himself for anything, and levied his pistol in one hand as he took the knob in the other. After a short pause, he pushed the door open and raised his weapon, only to find himself eye to eye with the same man he’d seen in the video on Caspian’s phone—alone in the same room, with the girl’s crumpled body at his feet.

In a fraction of a second, his old combat reflexes kicked in, and he fired a shot at the rebel’s leg without hesitation, attempting to incapacitate the other man before he could get up from the bed he was sitting on. It was tempting to shoot to kill, but hostages were always a benefit when they could be taken. Nonlethal force had to be the default unless he was pushed to escalate the situation.

Amnesia [Suki & Summer]

It was almost torturous to watch the raids from a distance. Caspian chewed anxiously on the inside of his lip as he watched the screens that had been set up for him in the palace’s security office. He wished he could have gone with Jacob to make sure they got Iris back unharmed. He may not have had experience with this particular kind of mission, but he’d been to the districts before and had survived practically on his own. Was it really so much worse to go back with a fully equipped military unit?

Team one is approaching the target.

The crackled sound of the team commander’s voice over the comm device pulled him out of his moping, and he sat up straighter, his eyes flicking to the live feed on his left. The drone was hovering over a row of dilapidated buildings at the end of a cul-de-sac, above which a transport vehicle was lowering itself to deposit seven armed men and women in the street. The king could feel his heart thudding in his chest, and he leaned forward in his seat, as if he could get closer to them if he only pressed himself nearer to the screen.

As he watched, the team jogged toward the first building and jimmied the door open—since they were small groups, they didn’t want to draw attention to themselves by being too loud—before they slipped inside with their guns in their hands. The soldier piloting the drone steered it lower to follow them at a distance, so Cas could see as they explored every part of the house and eventually declared it abandoned. From there, they did the same with the rest of the buildings on the street until they could confirm that there were no members of the rebellion hiding in the area. The only people around were poor civilian families, whom the team left alone.

Hawthorn Circle is clear, the commander reported as he led his team back to their hovercar.

Copy. Team two is descending on Parkside now.

This time, it was Jacob’s voice that Caspian could hear over his earpiece, and he turned to the other screen in the office. This one had to be it. If his security guard was right that Iris could only be in one of these two neighborhoods, then the houses the second team was approaching were the only possible places left. He felt a rush of nervousness and excitement, and he brought a hand to his comm device. “Make sure our target stays safe. That’s top priority. We’re bringing her back alive.”

Yes, sir, Jacob replied. His eyes flicked to the drone hovering beside the transport vehicle before turning back to the houses below. The image of Iris’s heavily wounded body was still ingrained in his mind, but he kept to himself his doubts that they would find her alive. He just wanted to bring her tormentor to justice, even if she was dead by the time they found her. With that plan in mind, he switched the safety off on his rifle and led the way down to the street once the craft was low enough that he could jump out, jogging quietly up to the first house on the block with the rest of his team close behind.