Page 75 of Maid for the Alien Prince

I descended the stairs and got halfway down before I became aware of movement. At this time of night, it could be the kitchen staff preparing breakfast… but all movement was happening away from the kitchens and towards one of the drawing rooms.

I descended the final few steps like a Ulsen walking towards his own death.

The staff were gathered in bunches, quietly murmuring to each other. One caught sight of me, quietened, and placed a hand on his conversation partner’s arm. His partner was a senior member of the staff and I had seen him many times before.

“My Prince,” the staff member said, blinking with surprise. “I just sent someone to wake you…”

I felt chagrined that I didn’t know his name—that I didn’t know any of the staff’s names. They worked for me. I was their master. The very least I could do was know their damn names!

“I was already awake,” I said. “Tell me. What happened?”

“We… We’re not sure yet, Your Highness. But it appears… Well, it seems that…”

I growled and pulled back the powerful muscles at my neck to snap at him with a bark that would soon get him to focus and pay attention, when the anger died on my lips and the blood drained from my face.

A foot lay turned up, the rich red of the fabric of its sole peering up at the ceiling. A figure lay on the floor just inside the east drawing room.

My heart stopped beating; my lungs stopped breathing.

No, it can’t be…

My nose itched and I felt the tears sting my eyes.

It can’t be her… It can’t be…

“My Prince,” the servant said. “Perhaps you shouldn’t look—”

I moved through him, shoving him aside as I made a b-line for the body lying face down in the room.

I had to see for myself. I knew it would burn an imprint into the forefront of my mind, would haunt me for the rest of my days… but I had to see.

I simply had to.

My eyes widened and my pupils dilated to take in every element of the horrific scene I was about to witness.

The other staff stopped and stared, watching me and moving aside as I floated past them. They were no more there than the turning of the planets.

It was just me and the body. The dead body.

If I had been thinking clearly, I would have noticed the legs were too large and muscular, the uniform clearly belonged to a guardsman, that the weapons still housed in their scabbards were nothing Camila would wear…

But I wasn’t thinking clearly.

I feared I already knew what I was going to see when I rounded that corner, and nothing was going to stop me from seeing it, least of all the obvious evidence.

When I finally came to him and saw the body lying twisted at an unnatural angle, it took a moment for the truth to register…

This wasn’t Camila. It was a guardsman.

A chief staff member appeared at my shoulder. “It is a night officer, third unit,” he said. “He came here to perform a routine check when someone attacked him.”

“Who?” I said.

“We don’t know yet, Your Highness. But we will find out.”

If a guard had been murdered… what else might have happened?

“Camila,” I said, voice dry and scratchy. “Where is she?”

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