Stolen by the Rebel King
Chapter 329: The Hideout I

Chapter 329: The Hideout I

Atticus’s bad day had rapidly gotten worse when the search party returned frantically without Jonah. Apparently, his best friend had been trapped in a tunnel cave in and none of the men wanted to risk digging him out with their swords in case it caused a complete collapse of the tunnels.

How did everything get so complicated? Atticus cursed bitterly under his breath as he heard their brief report.

According to them, Alistair’s entire estate was deserted save for several dead bodies of blonde women. There wasn’t even a servant in sight. That very thought made Atticus gnash his teeth in anger and disbelief― maybe that snake was hiding all this while to ambush him?

He couldn’t leave Jonah to die in the tunnels, but he also didn’t want to leave Daphne. In the end, it was Sirona who chased him away.

"You can’t do anything for Daphne now. Even that fool Prince Nathaniel would be more useful than you in a healing room," she said firmly.

Atticus tried very hard not to be offended by the implication.

"Go and pick up that blond idiot before he runs out of air," Sirona instructed, ignoring the way Atticus’s eyebrows ticked. "And then pick up the Prince as well. We need all the help we can get."

"Fine, I’ll be delivering two blond idiots then," Atticus growled out, sensing the wisdom in Sirona’s suggestions but not liking it one bit.

Before he stormed out, he ordered the guards to stand guard outside the healers’ room.

"No one is to enter or exit the room."

"But what about the royals? They’ll want to see their family member," a guard asked hesitantly, and Atticus’s face darkened.

"Did I stutter?" Atticus asked rhetorically, and the poor guard frantically shook his head.

"No sir! We’ll keep the royals out of the healing quarters."

They might die if they tried to stop any members of the Molinero family, but then if Atticus found out they failed at their duties, they would die anyway. If it came to that, they would much prefer death by fire.

"Keep everyone out of the quarters," Atticus corrected. "If I find out anyone snuck in, it’ll be on all your heads. Have I made things clear?"

The guards solemnly nodded, and Atticus turned to the other Reawethen healers. "From now on, no one is allowed out of this room. If my wife doesn’t wake, be prepared to walk out a corpse."

The healers paled and nodded. With that ominous pronouncement, Atticus whirled off to fetch his best friend, but his mind was still filled with thoughts about Daphne’s condition.

She had to wake up soon. Atticus had ordered his men to keep people out and kept the healers in the ward to keep Daphne’s condition a secret for as long as possible, but he knew that it was only a temporary measure. There was no way news of such magnitude could be concealed for long, but Atticus would be damned if he didn’t try his best.

He didn’t trust Daphne’s opportunistic family to not stab her in the back — and quite literally at that — when she was weakened to make a bid for the throne. After all, their ancestors had a history of being throne-robbers.

Atticus had no doubt they would eagerly continue said family tradition.

***

In no time at all, Atticus had arrived at what remained of Alistair’s estate. He tied the two horses to the nearby trees and made his way to the destroyed room where his soldiers claimed the tunnel was.

Atticus focused his magic, his ring glowing ominously, and the rocks easily parted to make a path for him. He made sure to keep them plastered to the walls to prevent further cave-ins and to keep himself nice and dry before making his way down.

On the way, he saw many similar cave-ins, but thankfully, Jonah’s broken body wasn’t huddled underneath the rocks. Or at least, if it was, Atticus had yet to come across it. He wanted to yell for Jonah, but knowing Jonah’s terrible luck, his yell would echo through the tunnels and probably cause yet another avalanche and whack Jonah on his head.

Atticus wasn’t looking forward to hauling Jonah’s prone body back to Vramid, so he jogged quickly through the tunnels, keeping an eye out for blond heads.

To his surprise, he stumbled upon a blonde head.

To his bigger surprise, said head wasn’t attached to a body!

"Bloody fuck," Atticus cursed as he gingerly kicked the head, only to see Daphne’s face staring back at him, face splattered with blood.

The surprise of seeing such an eerily familiar face caused Atticus to reel back in shock, his heart running a thousand miles an hour. It took a couple of seconds for him to notice the differences― the hair was the wrong color, this woman’s eyes were a little smaller than Daphne’s, and her lips were just slightly thinner.

It was only then did Atticus’s breathing calmed down, slowing back down to normal.

Goddamn it. The memory of Drusilla wearing Daphne’s face resurfaced in his memory. No doubt, Alistair must’ve had plenty of different experiments and test subjects before he eventually gave Drusilla the dose. She was, after all, practically identical.

These women must’ve been the failed tests.

He wanted nothing more than to kick it away, but since it was one of Alistair’s experiments, Atticus grabbed it by the hair as evidence.

Maybe he’ll throw it at Jonah for daring to make him worry.

Eventually, he found Jonah, who was sitting idly on a sofa as he stared at an arrangement of rows of identical bottles in front of him with an intense look on his face. The malachite pendant that dangled on his belt was pulsing, its sedate green light illuminating the room ominously.

The nerve! Here Atticus was worried about him being flattened like a pancake, but Jonah was seated on a cushy chair like he had all the time in the world.

When the knight heard the footsteps echoing, he had been wary for a moment. However, it was unlikely that Alistair would return to this hideout when there was quite literally nothing left for him to return to. Additionally, one glance up and Jonah came face to face with the person he had grown up with.

His king, his best friend, Atticus Heinvres stood there with a face as black as coal. Jonah’s eyes narrowed as he caught sight of something in his hand. Atticus was holding onto an unknown yellowish object, something Jonah couldn’t quite make out clearly in both the dark and due to the distance.

Of course, he didn’t care too much about that. His rescue party had finally arrived after waiting for so long.

"Atticus!" Jonah called out. He stood to his feet, relief washing over his face. "You’re here!"

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