Page 39 of Guarding the Princess
“We can get you a new one. Don’t worry,älslking.” Mother eyebrows are nearly in her hairline.
I squeeze my eyes shut and will my heart rate to slow down. I need to calm down enough to logically lay things out so they understand the importance of what I’m trying to share.
“No, no. My phone worked fine until today. Or maybe yesterday, I don’t know. Ryker disappeared yesterday. I don’t believe it to be a coincidence.”
They look at each other in that way couples do when they’ve been together for decades. I have about five more seconds of patience before I run out of here and find my own help.
“There must be some other reason he left. Did you two have a fight? Or perhaps he needed to get home to his family after that phone call from his brother?” Mother, logical to a fault, isn’t getting it.
“No, Mother. We had no fight. He would never have left me without a note, or a phone call, or something. I can’t get ahold of him and calls can’t get through to me. Something is very wrong and I have a feeling Ryker is in danger. I need your help.”
“Of course, darling,” Father says soothingly.
“I don’t understand. Magnus told me Ryker left during dinner. It should be easy enough to get the camera feed so you can see for yourself.”
Mother’s determined that Ryker just left me, which would be easier for her to deal with than face something happening under her own nose. Plus it fits her narrative that Ryker and I are just faking this relationship.
“Let’s head to the security office right now. I called them this morning for the tapes, but no one has gotten back to me. That’s strange too, wouldn’t you agree?” I move to the door and hear them following me.
We march down hallways to the security office on the far end of the palace in silence. I’m under no illusion they believe me. They probably just want to get the tapes to mollify me so I’ll calm down, but that’s fine. Either way, I’ll find out what happened.
Mother doesn’t bother knocking, just barges into the office and two officers lounging by a bank of monitors jump to their feet when they see who it is.
“Can I help you, Your Majesty?” The older one takes the lead while the younger one turns pale.
“I’d like to see recordings for the palace exits from last night.”
“You got it. Would you like to take a seat while I pull them up?” He offers her his own chair, which under different circumstances would make me giggle. If she sits there, what’s he going to do? Stand and work around her? I guess they don’t get enough visitors to their office to necessitate extra chairs.
“I’m fine, thank you.” She nods her head and he jumps to get to work.
Mother and Father murmur to themselves huddled against the back wall. I walk up behind the officer and watch him work. It occurs to me we might see footage of me sneaking out, so even though I’m an adult, capable of making my own decisions, I don’t want to get into that argument right now.
“Between seven and ten in the evening,” I whisper to the security guard.
He nods and clacks away at his keyboard. A moment later, half the screens go black and then footage from the night before is flashed before our eyes.
He points to the bank of screens. “Top screen is the front drive. I’ll fast-forward and you let me know if you want me to pause.”
I can feel Mother and Father behind me, now curious as well. My heart feels like it’s in my throat. Any second now we’ll discover if anything happened to Ryker. Any second now I’ll know for sure if he left me of his own accord or if he was forced.
Several minutes of an empty front drive go by and my jaw hurts from clenching.
“That’s it for the front, ma’am.”
I knew it. Ryker didn’t leave through the front, which can only mean something is very wrong.
“Maybe we should look at the back exits. There are only a few. If something happened, you would expect it to have gone down in the back.”
Mother tsks at me, probably dismayed by my accusation and how vehemently I defend it. Too bad. Now is not the time to back down. If I’m to be Queen, there are far fiercer opponents than my own mother. I should get used to exuding confidence now.
The security officer clicks a few more keys and three more screens light up. The footage rolls and I bounce from one screen to the next, looking for anything out of the ordinary.
“There!” I point to the middle screen, where a shadowy figure is barely discernible.
The security officer pounds away at the keyboard and the footage rewinds and starts again, slower this time. The man, dressed in a black suit, walks up to the door, looks around, and then puts his hand to his ear while his lips move.
“Who is that?” My father’s voice held an edge to it that hadn’t been there previously.
