Page 199 of Settle Down, Princess

I didn’t stop for any more questions, but the chatter that spread as I walked did the job for me. Soldiers from the army we’d brought with us rushed forward, then went still, moving aside to let us pass. Smiles faded, swords dropped as they watched us. Millie got far more attention in death than she ever had in life.

“Roan, I can take her…” more than one man said, stepping forth, but I shook my head. Every step I took away from the palace, away from Jessalyn and my pack, reinforced this feeling. I needed to bear this burden, right up until I came to the main garrison gates. The sun had risen now, the rosy fingers of dawn caressing her face, turning her skin an even more ghastly shade of mauve.

“Who goes there?” a soldier called from the gate. “If you’re from the camp—”

“Bring me Mark,” I said, staring into the man’s eyes from where he was perched on the parapet.

“Who?”

“Mark, son of…” My mind struggled to remember. “Mark. He’s a petty officer. Came up through the ranks due to his performance at—”

“The Battle of Heathsfield,” another soldier said with a nod. “I know who you mean. I’ll get him.” His eyes dropped to the girl in my arms. “I’ll get him right now.”

Time seemed to stand still, my body shifting with the breeze, my eyes staring at the fields beyond the garrison, making the way the rising sun cast each stalk gold, but sure enough, the gate opened and many soldiers greeted me from behind it, though none were Mark.

“I need to see—” I started to say.

“Mark.” Someone clapped me on the shoulder. “And you’re Roan, one of the Bastard Prince’s band and she’s…” The soldier’s voice trailed away as he stared at Millie.

“That’s Mark’s—” one man said.

“Who did that to a lass?”

“What kind of monster—?”

“Why would anyone—?”

They had questions, so many questions, as I’d had when we were reassigned to be guards at the palace, but just as I stayed silent now, so had many of the guards. Because our silence had a power to it. When good men were silent, bad men flourished and they were all learning that lesson now. Instead of allowing myself to be interrogated, I walked through the garrison, remembering the layout of the place well, having been stationed here for a while. I knew where the barracks were, the wash house, but most importantly, the mess room and that was where I stepped in now.

“I cannot join the war right now,” the general said to the men sitting around him. “At the moment I’m doing all I can leaving the raven’s messages unread. If the Bastard triumphs…”

He fell silent when he saw me, especially when I laid Millie’s body on the table. Men sent plates and cups flying, the clang of metal filling the room as they clattered all over the floor. They were clearing a space for her to be laid in state. Men jerked up, including the general, who came marching over.

“What is the meaning of this?” he asked, command ringing in his voice. “Why have you brought a dead girl in our midst?”

“Mark…” I croaked out. “I need Mark.”

“Mark who?” someone said. “Mark McGilvray? Mark Jennings? Mark—”

“Me.”

My eyes swung sideways, the pain in his voice a perfect expression of my own. When tears slid down his cheeks, mine were finally free to do the same, the aching, hot feeling in my skull easing, but not for long. I caught the way his face screwed up, flushed bright red as his mouth twisted. I heard the ugly sound he made, and my chest worked, my vocal chords, wanting to let out something similar. Instead, my whole body was wracked with sobs that I hadn’t earned, that I didn’t deserve, because in refusing to stand up to the king, I’d allowed this to happen.

“Millie…” His hand fluttered through the air like a butterfly as he reached for her. “Millie, no… Millie—”

“This is his Millie?” A gruff man asked me. “Sir, this is his sister.”

“His sister?” The general cleared a path, then jerked backwards instinctively when he caught sight of the girl. “What in all the hells happened to her?”

“You. Know.” I was bonded to a wolf shifter, and in the early days part of me had hoped I’d have a wolf form as well. It’d be damn fine, bringing that kind of power to the battlefield, but it was only now I felt the shadow of it. Something with fangs and claws writhed inside me. It slashed my insides and then turned its eyes on him. “You know who did this and you know why.” Men started to chatter in earnest, looking at me then the general as we stared at each other. “Millie bore the cost this time, but so many girls have died before. Princesses and bar maids, runaways and whores, he doesn’t care much, just needs to hear that little click when he snaps their necks.”

“Who?” Mark jerked his sword from his scabbard and thrust it at me. “Who? What bastard did this to my sister? Who would do such a thing?” Pain and anger warred inside him, I saw it in the way his sword shook. “WHO!”

“The king.” My lips moved to say those words, but the general was the one that said them. “We’ve been aware of his… activities before this but have been powerless to do much about it. Any of his advisors who tried to talk to him about the situation ended up swinging on the wrong end of a noose.”

“Powerless?” a big man wearing the insignia of a colonel stood tall. “Powerless? We’re the fucking royal army of Khean.” He looked around him and many of the other men here started to stir. “There’s an army out there, fighting their way to the palace and to what? Kill that bastard Magnus, who wouldn’t allow us to send what troops we had to the borders to guard our fucking country, because…” His eyes went wide. “He knew. He was facing attack.” The general nodded sharply. “He’d rather protect his own hide inside the capital, amuse himself by…”

The air seemed to leak out of him as he considered Millie’s beaten form.

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