Page 10 of Ash and Roses

“I’ll do you one better.” Porter’s gaze slides to Jade. “How would you like to be my apprentice?”

Jade shifts as if uncomfortable, and I wonder if it’s because he hasn’t been able to make a decision for himself since childhood. “What would that entail?”

Porter chuckles again. “Well, most of the time we just sit here and make sure no one attacks the palace. Occasionally, we let an adventurous princess back within the walls. You’re young, so if you’re not content to sit, you can train. I’m still handy with a sword, so I may have a few things to teach.”

“Yes,” Jade answers without hesitation. “Please, yes.”

“Well then, it’s settled. We can start by getting a certain princess back where she’s supposed to be.” Porter unlocks the heavy door behind him that leads into a narrow tunnel system. Normally, he’d wait by the door until I was safely inside, but instead he steps out of the small wooden building to give me a moment alone with Jade. I’m thankful for it, because the less he sees, the better. He could get into enough trouble if anyone knew he regularly helped me, but witnessing an interaction such as this would put him in substantial danger.

“Stay away from the Commander,” I tell Jade once we’re alone. “Don’t do anything to provoke him.”

“You don’t have to worry about me anymore. I’m a free man.”

“You’ve traded one form of service for another. There’s more food and clothes, but—”

He cuts me off with the soft press of his lips against mine. “I have everything I need right here.” His firm hands snake around my waist as he pulls me into him. It’s a cool night, but his skin feels as if he’s been standing in sunlight.

“I’ll try to visit again soon.”

“We have the rest of our lives.” He brushes a lock of my hair behind my ear and then trails the backs of his fingers down my cheek. “Don’t take unnecessary risks for me. I’m not going anywhere.”

“I’d come after you if you did.”

He smiles a crooked smile, and I realize then that this is the first time I’ve ever seen it. Marked don’t have much cause to smile, and we’ve had other things on our minds tonight. But now, with the soft backing of a moonlit sky, I can’t imagine anything I’d rather see.

CHAPTERFIVE

ABBY

Iwaste no time dashing back to my room. I’d explored every inch of these tunnels in childhood after running from my assigned caregivers and giving them attacks of the heart at my disappearance. There’s no time for childish exploration tonight, not that I feel the urge. Boredom and loneliness fuelled my childhood expeditions through the dark. I would talk to myself for hours down here, just to hear the echoes of my voice and pretend it was someone else. Sometimes, I could almost swear that someone really did answer back.

My stomach twists in on itself, and for the first time I wonder why people call this sensation ‘butterflies’ when it feels more like a swarm of tiny dragons setting my heart ablaze. Teagan will lose her mind when I tell her about this.

“Teagan!” I whisper-yell after throwing open my bedchamber door. The room is blanketed in darkness. Not a single candle is lit, so I have to take careful steps once the light of the torch-lit hall can no longer reach me.

Something soft trips me. I pick the item up and toss it gently in my hands, a sly smile creeping across my face when I realize it’s one of the many pillows from my bed. “What happened to using all the pillows?”

There’s no answer. Teagan must be in a deep sleep, cocooned in my blankets. I sprint the rest of the way to the bed, nearly tripping on another pillow in the process. I leap just before where I know the edge of the bed to be, and hope my muscle memory isn’t wrong. My eyes are adjusting to the darkness, but not quickly enough to see things clearly. When I land atop it, I find the bed to be empty. The blankets are tangled in a heap and pillows are strewn about as if there was a struggle.

“Teagan?” I call, a nervous quaver in my voice. This could be a joke. She’s probably hiding behind the curtains, meaning to frighten me. “This isn’t funny.”

A hand slips over my mouth from behind, and the grip is far too tight to be my friend. A scream rips through me, but what comes out is muffled. The arm around my waist is as strong as the scent of alcohol and body odour that wafts over me. “Where have you been, Princess?”

The Commander.He slurs his words, but I’m sure it’s him.

I struggle against his grasp and fight to get words around the gag of his hand. “What is the meaning of this?!” Either he can’t understand me or can’t be bothered to answer because he pulls me from the room and ushers me down the sparsely lit corridor.

My heart thunders in my chest. The joyous flight of tiny dragons becomes panicked, and the euphoria turns to nausea—though I suppose that could also be because of the smell of my captor. “Wait until my father hears about this,” I threaten into his gloved hand.

The threat proves meaningless when we come to a stop outside the throne room, and the Commander pounds a fist against the white stone door. The answer comes immediately, my father’s booming voice echoing through the hall. “Enter!”

The double doors swing wide seemingly on their own accord, though I know a Guardian will be behind each of them. When we enter the room, my eyes quickly find my father seated on his moonstone throne. Beside him, on a smaller throne that doesn’t glisten, is my stepmother with a small bundle in her arms. She looks uncomfortable, both physically and emotionally, as if she too had been dragged here against her will, and likely from her birthing bed given the exhaustion in her eyes.

So this is why the Commander dragged me here. It was bad timing on my part to sneak out of the palace on the very night my half-sibling was born. The Commander releases me with force as if he’d hoped I would fall to my knees. Unfortunately for him, scaling the wall for all these years has greatly improved my balance.

“If you wanted to bring me here to meet my new sibling, all you had to do was ask.” I scowl at the Commander, who has moved to stand at the king’s side.

“You were not in your room,” my father answers. “Tell me, why was your maid asleep in your bed?” His voice is calm and even, but there’s an edge to it. Sharper even than the Commander’s sword. There’s no telling how much he knows, but I’d be crazy to admit to anything involving the newest Guardian.

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