Kyle blinked and opened his eyes. The white, carved ceiling was covered in greyish light. His fists clenched as his mind fought to jog itself and pinpoint where he was. It took a fraction of a second for the mystery to clear. A huge grin filled his face.

He couldn’t believe he’d forgotten where he was, why he was there. He couldn’t believe he’d fallen asleep. After three rounds and overtime, he’d been so filled with adrenaline, he was sure he’d never need rest in his life. Then he’d completely blacked out.

God, why hadn’t they done that before? If he’d known it would be like that, he would’ve skipped everything after hello and jumped straight to the point. Kay was beyond amazing in every possible way. Just watching her sleep filled up his life.

Just major afterglow. And hell, he never wanted to come down. But she was so beautiful, sleeping with her face half-tucked in the pillow, her upper body exposed. Yeah, about that… He pulled the cover over her shoulder and just watched her for a few seconds.

Breakfast. He needed to get her breakfast. So he rolled out of bed, pulled his pants on, slipped on his boots and headed for the door that led to the hallway as opposed to the luggage room. He’d unlocked it and was halfway through pushing down the handle when he froze.

The fuck was he doing? He couldn’t cook to save his life. And setting an ancient French castle on fire didn’t seem like the best way to celebrate. Maybe Jerry could help. But since it was seven thirty and given the workout he’d put them through the previous day, he doubted anyone was up yet.

Next best thing. Get back into bed. So he walked back, kicked his boots off and slipped under the cover next to Kay. She groaned a little at the movement of the mattress, but continued her peaceful slumber. So adorable. He could get used to waking up to this for the rest of his life.

“No, it’s not too early,” Jerry suddenly said from somewhere out on the hall. “Since Kyle is up, it’s obviously time for everyone else to be as well. He’s probably enjoying a brisk morning jog around the grounds.”

Kyle sat up, his fingers clenching against the sheets. Kyle was not up and was definitely not enjoying a brisk morning jog. It was not time for everyone to be up as well, and it was not the time for poor unsuspecting Jerry to walk in through the door he’d completely forgotten to lock again.

But, as fate would have it, that was exactly what happened. He didn’t even get to make a move before Jerry charged in, a satisfied smirk on his face. Then his eyes widened, moving from Kyle to Kay who at that moment chose to roll over and let out a moan.

With a dread he’d never felt before, Kyle raised his hands to stop any potential word from escaping his brother’s mouth. Jerry’s attention moved from Kay’s bare back to him. Kyle pulled the cover off himself and hopped out of bed, but Jerry beat him to it. Before he could touch the floor, Jerry crumpled into a lifeless mass.

Kyle froze, overtaken by a sudden desire to start laughing. Hysterically because holy hell he couldn’t believe Jerry just fainted. But safety measures were in order. There was no way he was letting Kay wake up to this. So he locked the door, picked Jerry up and exited through the other door, into the luggage room. At least this room would’ve given Jerry a clue since his clothes were still on the floor.

He deposited Jerry on one of the couches, pulled on his Uncaged t-shirt and started gathering up everything. He was just done when Sam, Jimmy  and Tom came in.

“Huh, he was yelling at us to get up and look at him taking a nap,” Tom said.

“What happened?” Sam asked, his voice somewhere between disbelief and lack of patience towards more dumbass stuff.

“He just fainted,” Kyle answered with a shrug.

“Just fainted?” Jimmy asked, his eyes narrowed because he knew very well what had happened, the slimeball. He was one second from laughing and Kyle prayed he wouldn’t because then he wouldn’t be able to keep himself from joining in. Too much noise.

“Maybe he wasn’t up for the brisk morning jog.” He couldn’t do it. Couldn’t keep a straight face. Not when he was so happy and the situation was beyond hilarious.

“So I take it that you weren’t out jogging either,” Jimmy concluded.

“Not exactly. I’ve been engaged in other activities.” He should shut up. He really should before he let something slip, but damn it, he was so euphoric it was hard.

Sam narrowed his eyes at him. Tom probably did too, but it was hard to tell with the sunglasses. Jimmy continued smirking like the brat he was, then focused on his twin.

“Let’s wake Jerry up.” He knelt next to his rucksack and started searching inside. “How much did he see?”

“Next to nothing,” Kyle answered. “Which makes this even harder not to laugh at.”

“What exactly did he see?” Sam asked.

“Take a wild guess,” Jimmy answered, finally pulling out a small tube of industrial strength adhesive. Without further ado, he unscrewed the tube’s lid and shoved it under Jerry’s nose.

For a fraction of a second nothing happened, then Jerry’s nose twitched and he woke up in a panicked cough. Jimmy pulled the tube back, his grin pure evil.

“Glad you could join us sleepy head.”

Jerry ignored him. Jerry ignored everybody, his eyes fixed on Kyle with muted rage and fear and embarrassment. Kyle tried to look sorry for him, but the smile seemed to be plastered on his face.  

“Oh, you look so proud of yourself,” Jerry spat out.

“That’s because I am.”

“How could you? I mean I… I can’t even... Couldn’t you at least wait until we got home?”

Ha! Yeah, right! “Nope.” He couldn’t believe he’d waited this long. And he also couldn’t believe how amusing he found Jerry’s poor attempt at a lecture.

“Don’t you feel the slightest bit embarrassed? Don’t you feel as if you’ve done something wrong?” Jerry insisted, obviously not getting how relationships between people went.

“Something wrong…” Kyle drummed his fingers on his chin. “Yes. I left that door unlocked. That was wrong. Though this should be a lesson to you. This is what you get if you poke around too much, Jer’, you find stuff.”

“What exactly happened?” Sam asked warily, distracting Jerry from Kyle for a moment.

“He… He…” Jerry pointed at Kyle but seemed unable to come up with anything else.

“Waaaait a minute,” Tom said, his grin rivaling Jimmy’s in impishness. “I got it. You fainted?” He started laughing and Kyle had to bite the insides of his cheeks not to join him.

“What…?” Sam asked looking from one brother to the next, way too innocent for the situation.

“Serves you right, Jerry. Jessie was right,” Tom said, still laughing. “Stop looking if you don’t want to see.”

“How was I supposed to know anyone was in there!” Jerry raged.

“Keep it down, will ya?” Kyle glanced over his shoulder, because this was getting too loud. “If you wake her up, I’ll kill the lot of you.”

Sam’s jaw dropped as he finally did the oh-so-obvious-math. He stared from Kyle, to Jerry, to the door, then smirked, a look of satisfaction on his face.

Fortunately, everyone settled down, including Jerry who put his hands on his forehead.

“Oh, God, I can’t believe you broke the ice.”

Kyle couldn’t believe it either, and at that moment, he felt a little sorry for Jerry. Because even if he was bossy and mature and tended to act like a parent, he was also the one clinging to the innocence of childhood the most. This wasn’t about propriety, not really. It was mostly about them staying children as long as possible.

“I hate change,” Jerry mumbled to himself. It took him a few more seconds to shake off the sadness. “Anyway, we should get back to business. Kyle, wake Kay up too so we can start searching this castle. I feel a mad desire to finish this quest and go home. I need a looong vacation.”

Hear, hear. An exotic vacation in pairs if possible. He was calling dibs on Kay. And speaking of which...

“Yeah, sure. Um, Jerry, I want to ask for a favor.”

“A favor?” he raised his eyebrows. “After all this you want a favor?”

“Yeah… Could you cook breakfast for Kay? I sort of want to surprise her. Pretty please with sugar on top?”

Jerry glared at him for a second. Then maybe it was proof that their relationship had changed so much that he actually smiled. “I should be saying no, but I can’t stay mad at you. And I don’t know why. You made me faint.”

Kyle grinned and practically skipped after his brother. Jerry was awesome in every single way.

❄

They had started searching the castle as soon as they’d all managed to eat and gather up their things. But it hadn’t taken long and the search had been less than fruitful. Little past noon, when they had managed to search about half of the castle, Sam stopped them and called them for a meeting in the luggage room.

There had been several alarms signs for him all day, but once the snowstorm stopped, he decided continuing the search was a waste of time. The castle, though beautiful and welcoming, was too new to hold the jewel and had always belonged to the same family. Not the royal family. Not some hidden lover of one of the kings. Chances the jewel would be there? Zero to none.

Once the room filled with the rest of the team, he stopped his nervous pacing and turned to them. He could tell from the looks on their faces that they suspected the reason for the summons and a sense of pride overwhelmed him. They worked together so well.

“We’re stopping because it stopped snowing, aren’t we?” Billy asked. “Stopping because stopped stopping stop.”

Sam bit back a laugh. “Yes, that’s exactly why I’m stop, stopped, stopping you. I doubt that we’ll find anything in this place. So we should get going before it suddenly decides to rain hellfire or something.”

“But where would we go?” Jerry asked. “Still Chenonceau?”

“Definitely,” Jimmy answered unexpectedly. “Sorry for the impromptu intervention, but I believe I have the answer.” He pulled out an ancient looking booklet and opened it at random. “According to this, there was a bit of trouble with the crown jewels in the middle of the 16th century.”

“What’s that?” Sam asked surprised, heading towards Jimmy and looking over his shoulder.

“Tina and I found that in Blois,” Jerry said on a tone that clearly indicated that he’d forgotten all about it.

“It’s Catherine de Medici’s diary,” Jimmy mumbled, following the text with one finger.

A proverbial light bulb turned on in Sam’s head. “I should’ve seen this one coming. If something stinks in the history of France, then Catherine de Medici is surely involved.”

“As far as I’ve read, she had a pretty nasty brawl with Diane de Poitiers,” Jimmy said. “Royal mistress and everything. King Henry the second gave her the crown jewels.”

“And the castle of Chenonceau,” Tina said suddenly.

They all turned to her in shock as she rushed to her rucksack. She rummaged inside for a while and pulled out a guide book on the Loire Valley castles. She sat on one of the tables and opened the book the the entry on Chenonceau.

“It says here that Henry gave Diane the castle and domains of Chenonceau and the crown jewels. Upon his death in 1559, Catherine became regent to her son Francis the second, the new king, and drove Diane out, taking back the castle and the crown jewels.”

“So this is the moment in history we’ve been searching for,” Jessie said, her tone filled with excitement. “This is when the crown jewels were moved and when the stone might have disappeared.”

“I’m certain it did,” Jimmy supplied. “Catherine says so in her diary. She doesn’t say what went missing, but she does specify that the greedy wench made way with her royal jewels.”

Sam’s mind spun as excitement surged through him. Deciphering historical mysteries made his world go round and this was as good as it got. “It’s a sapphire. The rest of the jewels are, so it’s normal to assume that this was just another big ole sapphire.” He took the booklet from Jimmy and stared at it longingly. “I can’t believe this. The diary of history’s biggest psycho-bitch and I can’t read it.”

“Sam, language,” Jerry said instantly.

“Come on! Psycho’s not such a bad word,” Sam answered with a grin.

“The question is which of the two took the stone?” Tom said, back to business. “Who hid the jewels worse?”

“Either way, the jewel can only be in two places,” Tina said reading on from her book. “It says here that after she expelled Diane, Catherine turned Chenonceau into her favorite residence while Diane took to her castle of Chaumont. So my guess is that it’s one of those two.”

“So did Diane take the jewel with her to Chaumont or did Catherine hide it in Chenonceau?” Angie asked no one in particular.

“I can’t believe I suggested skipping Chaumont,” Jerry mumbled.

“Well, I find it more plausible for Diane to have stolen the lone jewel instead of the entire ensemble of crown jewels, so I would vote for Chaumont,” Sam said, giving up on the notebook and turning his attention on Tina’s book next.

“Yeah, and it’s closest, too,” Billy said excitedly. “We’ll be there in about a half an hour. Except we’re snowed in so we can’t go anywhere.”

“I have another theory,” Kyle said, his tone careful. “Not about the historical facts. I agree with you on that. The thing is, we’ve met Snitch Gravel’s men in Chambord. They’re not the kind of people who search for something and then put it back nicely, so it’s obvious that we’re just one step ahead of them.” He paused for a moment. “So, they either already searched Chaumont and come out empty handed or skipped it just like we did. If we turn back now, they will get to Chenonceau before us and find the jewel if it’s there. So I would suggest going to Chenonceau first. If there’s nothing there, we’d still be one step ahead of them.”

“I can’t believe all that reasoning came out of your mouth,” Billy said, shocked.

Sam could. Because when it came to thinking strategically, Kyle sometimes kicked his ass. “Kyle’s right. We’re doing it his way.” Sam took the book from Tina and started flipping through it. It was a little hard to compute that their historical research had been solved by a guidebook.

“We need to plow the snow,” Tom pointed out. “We’re still pretty much stuck here.”

“So you want me to find you a shovel or what?” Billy asked with a grin.

“Find everyone a shovel while you’re at it,” Sam mumbled, reading on Chaumont to gauge how much they were missing.

“Joy, more physical exercise,” Jerry said, exasperated. “Could we at least eat first?”

“Yeah, that’s a good idea. We should have lunch first, then take care of the snow, then head for Chenonceau,” Sam agreed.

Jerry took in a deep breath as if to prepare himself for what followed, then left towards the kitchen with Tina in his wake.

“I’m going out to see just how bad this whole snow situation is,” Billy said and he too left the room.

Sam grabbed the booklet and sat himself on the coffee table, trying to decipher any words that might resemble Spanish, while the others sat down on various couches and armchairs.

"I can't believe we're getting a break," Tom said, stretching and wincing the following moment.

Sam tensed a little though his nose was still buried in the diary. "I'm sure it's mostly for you benefit." Unlike Jimmy who seemed to have bounced back completely, Tom still moved carefully and seemed to hurt all over.

"Pfft." Tom waved his hand. "I'm fully functional and ready to beat your ass in fair combat."

Sam seriously doubted it, but he stuck his tongue out at his twin anyway.

"Mature," Kyle observed.

Sam wanted to flip him off, but the fact that Kay was curled up in his lap stopped him. Flipping Kay off even by accident seemed like a very poor life choice.

"Burnt out already?" Jimmy asked.

"Never!" Kyle shot back.

Kay elbowed him in the ribs, though she too looked amused. No one had said a word about what happened that morning, but Sam had a feeling Kay knew that they knew. It was hard to hide, what with how both Kyle and Kay seemed to literally glow. He was obviously missing something.

Tom and Jimmy seemed to be thinking the same thing because there was a bit of wistfulness on their faces. Sam couldn't really jump aboard that train because he was so very far away from that moment. Hell, he didn't even have his girlfriend at the moment.

The thought left a bitter taste in his mouth, so he focused back on the booklet, trying to distract himself. It became impossible to read as every name of every king and queen reminded him that someone was missing. And what if Christine was dead? Snitch Gravel surely knew where they were and that they'd all met up, all rules be damned. He technically had no need for Christine now. Except maybe to flaunt her in their faces and ask them to surrender.

The thought sent a chill down his spine as he imagined everyone laying down their weapons. That wasn't right. Christine's capture shouldn't bring about everyone else's. This was between him and Snitch Gravel. Just like it was supposed to be from the start. And look how well that turned out.

He really needed a different distraction. His eyes fell on the door that led to the bedroom and curiosity took hold of him. He didn't even remember what that room looked like.

"Can I go in?" Sam suddenly asked no one in particular.

"Since we're not actually in there, sure, knock yourself out," Kyle said with a grin, earning a shoulder slap from Kay.

"Kyle, I swear..."

"They're not idiots," he said with a shrug. "And is this really something we should hide? Not go spreading the word, sure, but hide?"

Kay pondered on this as Sam made his way to the door, grateful for the distraction. He pushed it open and his heart jumped into his throat.

A monster awaited on the other side.

❄❄❄

As an FYI, that last sentence is a lie. I just needed a better chapter break😅

I'm on a roll. I've fortunately once again found love for this story so I'm taking advantage of it while it lasts. In case you're wondering this is the last more peaceful chapter. We're going full speed ahead from here on out.

I had fun with poor Jerry. I also enjoyed the historical research that went into this (it's all accurate btw). Hope you enjoyed it too.

Where do you think the jewel is? Are they going to the right castle? Is it there? And where will Snitch Gravel go?

Next time: more fun in the snow.

Hit the star and leave me your thoughts 😁