Page 36 of Royal Guard

I’d been imprisoned for five months. Almost half a year of my life.

I went on TV and gave speeches, praising the brave soldiers who’d rescued me, celebrating our victory, reassuring the people that it was all over. I was okay, I told them, and we should all look to the future.

Except...inside, Iwasn’tokay. Something had broken inside me that went beyond just the nightmares. I’d been alone on some deep, indescribable level. And now, even in a room full of people, I was still alone. And I’d be alone forever.

I finished my story and opened my eyes. Garrett had been silent throughout but his arms, locked around me, had given me the strength to keep talking. I could feel the tension in his body. His pain, at what I’d gone through. I was spent, emotionally exhausted. But telling him had helped. The wounds had been re-opened but maybe they had a chance to heal, now. And however weak I was, there was something I had to tell him.

“I was alone until I met you,” I whispered.

And his arms cinched even tighter around me, a steel wall that nothing could penetrate. And we just sat there in the starlight and we knew. We didn’t have to say it. We knew how we felt about each other.

And we knew it was the cruelest trick fate could play. The one man who made me feel protected, who made me feel not alone: and it was someone I could never be with. Someone I’d be saying goodbye to within days or hours. The one man I ached for andhe’d never kiss me. But at least I could be not alone, just for a little while. I pressed myself back against his chest, letting his warmth soak into me.

“When I heard the assassin’s accent on the plane, I couldn’t believe it,” I said. “I thought it was all over. Now it could all start up again. It’s not just about what happened to me. It’s my whole country. All those people who died. We can’t let it happen again.”

I felt him nod. He was sick of war, too.

Something came out, then, that I’d never told anyone. “I told myself, after the war, that I didn’t hate them. I told myself we were all the same. I couldn't judge a whole country just by the actions of its leader, or what he ordered his troops to do. I told myself they weren't bad people. But...what if I was wrong?” I twisted around so that I could look into his eyes. “What do you think?”

He looked helplessly back at me. The anger and pain flared bright in his eyes. “I'm just a soldier, Your Highness.”

“You're a lot more than that. You've been to war. Did you hate them?”

“I want to say no,” he said at last. “Like you said, it's a minority, not the whole country. But I guess I did, at times.”

I hung my head. “After I was rescued, in those last few weeks of the war...sometimes, late at night when I was crying in bed...I wanted my father to just launch everything we had at them. Every plane, every missile. I wanted him towipe them out.Does that make me a bad person?”

“No,” he said. “That makes you human.” He pulled me even tighter to him and for a long time he just held me like that as silent tears rolled down my cheeks.

When he eventually broke the silence, his tone was lighter. “Got a little good news for you. Didn’t get a chance to tell you last night, but I got a plan to get you home. There’s a guy called Barney, in New York. A pilot. Met him in Iraq, he flew us on missions a whole bunch of times. Anyway, when he came home, he set up a cargo freight business, flying packages from the US to Europe. And...well, not everything he does is completely legit.”

Hope was slowly rising in me. “A smuggler?”

“He bends some laws,” Garrett allowed. “He’ll be able to sneak you onto a plane and make a stop in Lakovia. But we can’t risk going to him until we know we’ve got rid of the traitor. If the assassins get wind of this, they’ll just wait for us at Barney’s place. Hell, they could shoot the plane down. So we gotta deal with this first, but Iwillget you home.”

The last of my tears dried and I nodded. “Thank you,” I whispered. But even as I said it, my stomach twisted. Home. Back to Lakovia where I belonged.

Without him.

I decided something, in that moment. If we had to say goodbye soon, there was something I had to do first. I twisted around to look at him again. “You helped me,” I whispered. “You saved me. You make me feel not alone. I want to help you. Something happened to you, too, didn’t it? Something you can’t forget.”

He looked away.

“Tell me,” I begged. “Let me try and help.”

He still wouldn’t look at me. “Don’t deserve that,” he mumbled.

“You’re agood man!”

“Your Highness,” he said tightly. “You don’t knowwhat I am.”

“Thentell me!”

He finally looked at me. I could see the indecision on his face but this was more open than I’d ever seen him. “Please,Garrett!”

He opened his mouth to speak. And froze, listening. “Do you hear that?” he asked.

I listened. Ididhear it. A sound I’d heard before, in the war, but it made no sensehere.It was a whistle, rapidly descending through the scale. We stared at each other, eyes widening.

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