Page 198 of Settle Down, Princess

Not Jessalyn, because that was not this girl’s name. She was a maid, no, a chambermaid at the palace. Her name was… Millie, that was right, because her brother was Mark, one of the petty officers we’d served under in the army. She had a mother at home that was sickly, because Mark sent her all of the coin he made serving in the army for medicine.

But not anymore.

I dropped down so hard on my knees I felt the impact all the way through my thighs, down to my very bones. My body swayed as I surveyed the mess they’d made of her.

That Magnus had made of her.

“That’s—” Arik said, frowning as he stared at the girl, his whole body vibrating with barely repressed tension.

“Millie.” I turned to Silas, then Creed. “Mark’s sister. She got a job up at the palace, remember? He spoke to it when the letters from home arrived at the border garrison we were stationed at. Her mother is sick, and she…” I swallowed, forcing my eyes down to take in Millie’s fallen form, to absorb every cruelty done to her, because somewhere in my heart, I felt responsible for each one of them. We knew what Magnus was, what he did and yet… “She worked here so she could afford medicine to keep her mother well.”

“Jessalyn…” Creed-Wolf’s growl vibrated in his chest, getting louder by the second. “Jessalyn!” If force of will was enough to produce her, our princess would’ve dropped from the sky in this moment, but instead we were greeted by a deafening silence. “He’s got her, and he’ll…”

We knew exactly what. We’d seen bodies, heard tales. Not as many as the other guards because Magnus knew we could not be trusted to stand by and let things happen, but it resulted in us being assigned to a task that took us beyond the city and brought with it a growing horror because we knew what it meant. A woman would die. She would be used, discarded like little more than rubbish, the guards learning not to joke about that in front of us. Enough punches to the face made clear that it wasn’t wise, but…

That didn’t help Millie.

She had suffered the same fate, her death just another meaningless moment in so many others. Someone would remove her, a bloodless term if ever there was one, and her mother and brother would be notified. Not of the true nature of her death though. A carefully concocted story would be delivered, concealing what had really happened, because no one was allowed to know the truth of things.

Only those that were complicit in this brutality.

“In here!” Creed snapped, slamming a claw into the wall and revealing yet another tunnel, but as soon as I looked at it, I knew. I wouldn’t be going down there, wouldn’t be running through that rat maze to find Jessalyn, because I…

“I need to go.”

“What?” Silas stared at me then frowned when it appeared I was serious.

“I need to go,” I said again. “Arik is the prince, you’re the prince of thieves and Creed will tear the world to pieces to get to Jessalyn. You don’t need me in this fight.”

“I’ve needed you in every fight, Roan,” Arik said. “There is no one I want by my side more—”

“You have to kill the king. You’ll do that, right?” I searched my commander’s face, needing to see it. Arik nodded slowly, a frown forming. “You’ll bring that fucker to justice and you’ll make it hurt.”

“With or without your blessing, that’s how it would go,” Arik said. “I’ve wanted to lop that stupid head of his off his shoulders for most of the years I’ve been alive, but now…” He considered Millie’s still form and then shook his head. “We should’ve stopped him years ago and damn the consequences, because the peace we bought? Women have had to pay that price over and over. Sacrificial offerings to a sadistic god, but no more.”

“No more,” I agreed, moving slowly to scoop Millie’s body into my arms. She was so cold, so stiff, so still. My flesh rebelled, crawling on my bones, but I held her against my chest like she was precious to me.

Because to her friends and family, she was.

“You go and get our princess. You make sure they don’t even leave a scratch on her. You bring her back to me whole, happy, protected, but most of all safe and I’ll…”

“What will you do, Roan?” Arik asked, eyeing Millie. “Return her to her family?”

“She deserves that.”

It wasn’t due to a close bond. I didn’t know Millie well, my memories a pitifully small collection of bright smiles and her gracefully going about her business at the palace. There were Mark’s fond words, though little else to add to them, but as I strode out of the palace, any remaining guards shrank back at the sight of her. They felt as I did, I was sure of it, pangs of guilt they’d managed to keep stuffed right now rising now, twice as vicious. We were responsible for Millie’s death.

“What’s going on inside?” a self important man in fine silk pyjamas asked as I walked free of the palace. “There’s soldiers and wolf shifters…” His voice trailed away as he caught sight of Millie, his arm instantly going out to push his wife and daughters back.

“The king killed this woman,” I told him. “One of his chamber maids. Not because she did a poor job, though even if she did, that wouldn’t be enough to earn her a death sentence.”

More people from the rich houses closest to the palace started to draw near. I wanted to shield Millie from their prying eyes, shut her ears to their hissing whispers, but they wouldn’t bother her again.

Only me.

“He killed her because this is what he does.”

Women made little sounds of distress, but the men? Lords they probably were, or maybe rich merchants, I didn’t know as they all looked the same to me. Their eyes met each other’s gazes then mine, and I saw it there. The knowledge, the thing that went unvoiced, yet coloured all of their actions. It determined when and if they allowed their womenfolk to enter the palace and how closely they stood to their wives and daughters, thinking they could be walls between them and the king’s unholy lusts. But Millie… Her brother fought his way up through the ranks through performance alone, and he couldn’t afford to jeopardise that when his superiors all bought their places in army hierarchy. She had no one in life willing to step up and protect her, so I did what I could now.

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