not?” Isabelle pulled back from him.
“We don’t know who would answer your call, and we can’t risk the wrong people finding out where you are. For the same reason, I have no intention of using my phone until we reach a safe location. If Alfred was working for the insurgents, anyone could be.” He urged her on. “The best thing we can do right now is get you out of here.”
The princess took several deep breaths but made no move to head forward.
“You still don’t trust me?” he asked.
“I trusted Alfred.”
Levi nodded. “Perhaps you are wise not to trust me.” Her long hair, which had been piled high in an artful arrangement for the state dinner, had come loose, and a thick strand brushed his hand. “Can you open the light?”
She clicked her phone open, and her wide brown eyes stared fearfully up at him in its thin glow. Gently he pushed the loose hair back from her eyes.
“Your hands were burned,” she accused him as his fingers passed through her line of vision.
“I hadn’t meant for you to notice,” he apologized. “There is nothing we can do for them here.”
The princess straightened, as though drawing from a well of courage only a royal could tap. “Then we must get to a first aid kit. Let’s hurry.”
Levi took her cue and turned them down the next tunnel, which would lead under the centuries-old Cathedral where many Lydian saints were buried. The church had been built upon the rumored burial place of the original Lydia, an early leader in the Christian church whose conversion by the Apostle Paul was detailed in the sixteenth chapter of the Book of Acts in the Bible. The nation of Lydia had been named for her house church, and the royal family, including Isabelle herself, could trace their roots back to Lydia’s family.
It was a reminder to Levi of the amazing lineage of the woman who held their only light as they walked through the darkness of the catacombs. Though he had long respected Isabelle from afar as he’d read about her humanitarian efforts as a princess, he was even more impressed with her in person. And she was even more beautiful than the newspaper photos he’d seen.
“Which way?” Isabelle asked when they arrived at the next fork in the tunnel.
It was a good question. Levi had studied hand-drawn maps of the tunnels, which were known only to a select few. Because King Philip had supplied the maps, Levi had assumed the whole royal family would be familiar with the layout of the catacombs. It surprised him that Isabelle was unaware of their very existence. Now he tried to recall the detailed twists and turns of the elaborate underground labyrinth.
The light from Isabelle’s phone dimmed. “Do you know which way it is?”
Finally able to picture he map in his head, Levi pulled her a little closer to him as they headed down the left-hand passageway. “This way, but let’s leave the light off if we can. We might need it more later.”
To his relief, Isabelle didn’t argue with him but shuffled along beside him as they made their way down the tunnel in dizzying darkness. He could only hope she would cooperate with him for as long as it might take to get her to safety. Their situation was difficult enough, and Levi desperately needed the mission to be successful.
Not only did he care about his mother’s home country and feel allegiance toward the Royal House of Lydia, but he also had a very personal reason why the mission could not fail. His father didn’t just work for Sanctuary International, he was its president. And he’d be retiring in another year. Everyone expected Nicolas Grenaldo to appoint one of his two sons to be president after him.
And that was just the trouble. Although Levi had spent four years in the Lydian army before going on to law school, he didn’t have any battle experience. He’d studied international law, thinking at the time it would give him the best possible background for leading an organization that helped people throughout the world. Too late he’d realized no amount of studying would earn him the respect and admiration of his peers within Sanctuary.
His little brother, Joe, however, had spent six years in the United States Marine Corps, followed by several successful and high-profile operations with Sanctuary. Joe had saved the lives of dozens of missionaries, political figures and refugees over the years.
Levi had saved no one. As the older brother, he should have been the natural choice to follow in his father’s footsteps. But as of right now, Joe was everyone’s favorite. Joe was a hero. Levi desperately needed this mission to go well if he wanted his father to see him as anything other than a scholar. And for that to happen, he’d have to have Isabelle’s cooperation.
The darkness was so complete it made his eyes hurt. Levi had almost begun to wonder if he’d missed the stairs when a gap in the wall left him grasping into the open air.
He stopped.
Isabelle snapped her light on just long enough to display a twisting set of stone stairs that curled upward and out of sight. Then she let the light die again before stepping forward onto the first stair.
“Wait,” Levi whispered, tugging her back. “We need to discuss our next step.”
As he pulled her back, she brushed near him, and this time, with her standing one step higher on the stone stairs, he felt her lose hair brush past his cheek and smelled her flowery fragrance, so different from the dank catacombs. He swallowed, refusing to allow himself to think about how close she was to him.
Levi had always known Isabelle was a beautiful woman, but he was in her life for a short time only, to fulfill a specific mission. He would behave with absolute decorum. She was, after all, a princess. And he’d been briefed privately by her father about the horrors of her failed engagement. Sympathy and respect stifled his otherwise-strong sense of attraction toward her.
She must have realized how close she’d gotten to him in the darkness because he felt her back away. He doubted she felt anything near the kind of attraction he did, but then, she’d already said she didn’t trust him. Perhaps it was best that way.
“What is your plan?” Isabelle asked.
He could feel the warmth of her breath on his cheek and realized she hadn’t backed too far away from him after all. Still holding her arm with one hand, he analyzed their options.
“We don’t know if the insurgents are aware of the catacombs or of the opening below the cathedral. I would assume not, but—” He hesitated.
“I would assume nothing, under the circumstances.”
Levi agreed. “We’ll make our way up the stairs in silence. I’ve never been through this way so I don’t know what we’ll find at the end.”
“Is it even passable?”
“Yes. Your father wouldn’t have allowed it to be marked as an exit if it wasn’t passable. But because we don’t know if it’s a sealed door or if your light will show—”
“I’ll keep my light off.”
“Good. Given the possibility of danger ahead, we can’t risk giving away our presence.”
“Extreme caution.” Isabelle concurred, and he could feel her head nod in the darkness.
