Page 70 of Shelter Me

“You’d be surprised,” I murmur, thinking of the death threats my family and I have received over the years.

“Writing ‘Die Princess’ on a shower wall is not the same as actually taking on the job of assassinating the Crown Princess,” Marco says quietly, and I jerk.

He knew about the wall? He… But of course he did. He was hired as my bodyguard officially, after all. He was hired by the palace. He probably was talking to Hector the whole time, up to the point that we left. That’s why Hector let me leave with him, although he freaked out later. He must have felt something was off when he couldn’t reach either of us.

Damn, Hector. He must be losing his mind.

“It’s not an easy job to do a thing like that and then survive,” Marco concludes. “You’re marked for death anyway. But some manage to continue living after killing. To evade the law.”

“Why were you chosen?”

“Because I was the best,” Marco says calmly, without arrogance. That’s a first. “And also, because they had a good reason to force me to do it. Someone close to me was about to die if I refused. And no, they didn’t threaten to kill my mom or anything,” his voice breaks. “It was a different kind of situation. I needed them, and they needed me. I just didn’t know what they needed me for until it was too late.”

We both stay silent. An owl hoots outside. The rain pitter-patters on the wooden roof; it’s getting stronger again.

“Do you believe me?” he asks.

I shrug. Do I?

“I have proof,” he says immediately, and grabs his phone. So he didn’t get rid of his phone. Or he did, and this is a second phone.

“What is the proof?” I ask.

“I have been leaving voice mail to my mom for the past weeks,” he says, tapping his phone. “Everything is recorded here. I haven’t sent them yet, but I have scheduled them to go out as soon as I die. Which…” he looks at his watch, “could be any minute now.”

“That’s not funny,” I say and he smiles.

“I didn’t mean it to be, my queen,” he says. “But I didn’t mean to upset you either. Here, listen,” he hands me his phone.

His eyes are hooded, red-rimmed and wet. There are purple circles under them. He looks so vulnerable, so open, that my heart shatters.

I don’t take the phone. His hand stays like that, outstretched, his arm reaching out to me over the distance, for a while. Then he places his phone on the floor, between us.

“Take it,” he says. “I won’t need it any more. I might record one last thing before I… Before. If I have time. But I said all I had to say. I’m at peace.”

And he is. Somehow, he looks more broken than any human being I have ever seen, but there is an inner calmness radiating from his blue eyes that I haven’t seen there before.

“I’m not listening to that,” I say, suddenly afraid as I’ve never been before. This phone holds the truth. It holds his voice, his soul, his… It holds his heart. And he just gave it to me.

Up goes that sandy eyebrow.

“You don’t need the proof?” he asks.

“Haven’t made up my mind yet what I need” I say, gathering my knees to my chest. I press them close to my stomach, feeling the need to become a closed ball, to become so tight and so small and so hard that nothing could hurt me. But it’s not bullets that are killing me right now. The pain comes from inside.

The bullet-proof vest is making me too hot, but I love its tightness, its promise of security.

“You need to put on a vest too,” I tell him, and he immediately gets up and does that. “I shouldn’t need proof other than what you tell me,” I say, once he’s sitting back down. Away from me, of course. “Your word should be enough. Is it?”

“Is it?” He repeats, looking entirely lost. He still doesn’t get it: I don’t want him to persuade me. I want him to talk to me.

“Well, let’s hear it from your lips, and we’ll find out,” I reply. “No embellishments. No lies. Just… everything. Tell me everything. Can you do that?” He bites his lip. Closes his eyes. Rubs a hand over his cheeks. It comes out wet. Finally, he nods once. “Good,” I say. “Go.”

And he starts.

/we the rotten royals/

{text message to Crown Princess Olivia’s phone}

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