Page 53 of Maid for the Alien Prince

I fell back into my chair, suddenly exhausted. I had done it. I had forced him from the palace. I felt a great weight lift from my shoulders. I realized then that he had always been an anchor, hanging around my neck, dragging me down.

He had taken advantage of my deepest negative inclinations towards revenge and passive-aggressive actions against the royal family. All the while, he had known it was not them I was really damaging, but myself.

I had been a blind fool. But no longer.

The door opened and Camila stepped in, her eyes brimming with tears. She raced across the room and hurled herself at my feet in the chair before wrapping her arms around my waist.

“You did it! You really did it!” she cried.

I ran my fingers through her hair. “I did. Thanks to you. Thanks to you being brave enough to share with me what no one else would.” I leaned down and kissed her on the forehead.

“Things are going to change now,” she said. “Change for the better.”

“Yes.”

“Have you looked around your estate since you got here?” she asked.

I grinned at her. “No. Would you be my guide?”

She beamed at me. “With pleasure.”

It would be a great deal of pleasure, but it wouldn’t be hers. It was mine.

7

CAMILA

After a nice hot shower, a change of clothes, and a fresh mask of makeup to conceal the worst of the bruises, Emma looked almost as good as new. That is, if you ignored the broken, lost look in her eyes.

I couldn’t help but feel responsible for what had happened to her. After all, Ges had come for me, not her, and it was only thanks to Rayaw that I managed to escape her fate.

She didn’t have a blue-skinned hero to come to her rescue and that, perhaps, was the worst part of it all. She was all alone in the palace, where not a single one of her co-workers had lifted a finger to help her—nothing like the former workers who’d operated under my father’s leadership.

The majority of them were gone now, having moved back to the local town looking for work. The palace was the biggest employer in the area and they weren’t likely to have much luck.

Others would have already moved away, looking for better opportunities elsewhere. They had amassed a lot of experience that ought to hold them in good stead and my father would always give them a good reference—no matter how hard Ges tried to tarnish their reputation.

I had gone to Ges’ suite myself and knocked on the door. I only felt scared right before he opened the door as I realized I might have been setting myself up for the same treatment Emma had endured.

But as the handle depressed and the door began to swing open, I straightened my back, and raised my chin.

“What?” he’d growled, running a hand over his dry and dimpled face. “What do you want?”

“Rayaw wants to see you.”

“Who?”

“Rayaw. The Prince.”

Ges blinked against the early morning light filtering through the large windows behind me. I wasn’t entirely sure he had registered who I was, as his brain was only firing a handful of cylinders.

He picked up a glass of water—at least, I thought it was water—and downed it with a single chug. “It’s still morning.”

I bit back the smartass retort on my lips and instead said, “The Prince needs you. It’s urgent.”

Urgent that we kick your ass out of here! I thought with a wry grin that I made sure did not show on my face.

Ges stretched his arms, popped his back and neck, shook himself off, and waved me aside. “Duty calls, it seems.”

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