Chapter 22

Ember

I am lost in thought as I head toward my station to begin my patrol. So much has happened since I arrived at the palace and I can’t help but feel a little out of my depth with this new assignment. The Queen might be connected to the assassination attempt, and I am supposed to lead the investigation.

Her potential involvement means danger. Whether the assassin was truthful about the queen’s involvement remains to be seen but if she learns that I am investigating her it won’t matter what the truth is. I will be in big trouble.

I continue my patrol, my mind going over other possible explanations when Robert approaches. “I fucking knew it,” he spits.

My eyebrows shoot up. “Knew what?” Robert and I had our differences, but I thought we had reached some kind of understanding while coordinating for the engagement banquet.

“I’m in charge of scheduling, remember? I was wondering why a request was put in to cut your training hours in half, and I find out that you were put in charge of the investigation for the Crown Prince’s assassination attempt.”

Understanding overtakes my expression. He thinks that I am underqualified. “I know that I am still relatively new, but I’ve been working hard Robert. If Prince Kaine trusts me with this then we have to trust his judgement. He’s had more experience than either one of us.”

“Right, he trusts you…” Robert sneers.

“I- what are you implying?”

“I just think it’s odd that the only female guard was assigned to such an important assignment despite still being a trainee. I’m sure that means you’ll be spending plenty of one-on-one time with the prince.”

My mouth falls open as I catch Roberts meaning, my gaze cooling as I look into his eyes. “I am a professional and frankly my relationship with anyone is none of your business.”

“A professional? You act as if I haven’t heard the rumors. You really think the prince would choose a female for this assignment on her merit? You can’t be that naïve.”

I know Robert’s view on female guards, but haven’t I proven myself thus far? I try not to care what Robert thinks but I thought I had finally started to gain some respect in my unit. I see now I was wrong.

I turn to walk away but Robert grabs my wrist. I let out a snarl as Nara responds to the threat. “If you don’t let go of my wrist right now, I will have you on your ass before the next sexist thought even has an opportunity to pop into your head.”

He drops my hand, and I stalk away without sparing Robert another glance. I was stupid to think that he was changing, given our history. He would never be the same kid I grew up with. He made that clear when he chose Bianca over me.

I hear his voice ring out from behind me, “You don’t belong here, Ember.” I keep walking.

Later, as I finish my patrol, I hear the sound of Bianca’s laughter as I near the door to Prince Kaine’s office. I feel my cheeks heat but do my best to shake it off. The mate bond is making me irrational.

I resolve to pass quickly but can’t help but pause when I see that his door is open. Bianca is leaning against Prince Kaine’s desk trailing her hands up and down his arms as she chats. My mark burns as my focus lingers on the place where her hand touches him.

My eyes drift upward and the heat in my face doubles as I meet Prince Kaine’s gaze. He caught me staring. I know I should lower my eyes and keep walking but something about the look in his eyes holds me in place.

His posture is uncomfortable as Bianca runs her hands over him. Logic tells me that he’s tense that I happened upon their intimate moment, but the look in his eyes…

I feel my heart pounding in my chest as we continue to lock eyes, neither of us willing to look away first. Nara recognizes the quiet before I do, alerting me that something’s not right. I finally tear my gaze away from Prince Kaine and see Bianca looking between us, danger flashing in her eyes.

My focus quickly shifts away from the pair, and I hurry past Prince Kaine’s office. I round the corner and slide down the wall. How could I have been so careless?

I need more potion and soon. Even at that distance I found myself drawn into the prince’s orbit. I won’t be able to hide my mate bond for much longer. I manage to pull myself together and hurry to my room.

“Mine.” I feel Prince Kaine’s arms wrap around me as I’m drawn against his hard frame. I consider trying to pull away but my body hums, relishing the contact between us. He slides his left hand under my shirt, and I gasp as his rough hand grazes the sensitive skin of my stomach.

I take a deep breath and the smell of pine and leather, strange and familiar all at once, overwhelms me. My body moves of its own accord, and I arch my back eliciting a groan from the prince. At my encouragement his hand begins to work its way upward, moving to cup my breast and drawing another gasp from my lips.

Pain flares from the mark on my shoulder and I am catapulted back to reality as I jolt awake. I wait for a moment hoping the pain will subside, but the intensity of the pain only seems to increase. I writhe on the bed as the pain begins to reach unbearable levels and my thoughts hone in one thing. Prince Kaine.

I grit my teeth as the urge to seek him out—to end this pain overwhelms me. I can’t. Revealing myself to him will cost me everything.

Nara howls as the pain continues to swell, the intensity of her emotions adding to the onslaught of sensation. My cries echo around the room as I break and call out for him. “Kaine!”

Hours pass and the pain subsides to a dull throb. I realize there is less time than I thought before the potion is rendered useless. Eventually, I fall back into a fitful sleep.

A few hours later I lumber into the sparring gym for Luna training with Bianca. She narrows her eyes as I approach. “You look like shit.”

I sigh, knowing she’s right. “Gee, thanks.”

Bianca simply rolls her eyes and moves to the sparring mat, surprisingly eager to start today’s session. When I take a few minutes to join her, she speaks. “Hurry up, I thought you got off on being a brute.”

“I need to stretch.” I reply moving to the mat beside Bianca to begin my warmup. Bianca doesn’t say anything, so I start my routine. After a few minutes I bend down to properly stretch one of my legs out and I fall onto stomach as a foot kicks my legs out from beneath me.

I roll onto my back and see Bianca standing over me, glaring. “What the hell, Bianca?”

“You love to fight so fight.”

I stand up and move to the other mat. “Fine.” If she is so eager to train, we’ll train.

As we spar, palpable hostility emanates from my sister. She hits hard, going for cheap shots and trickery to try to gain the upper hand. She’s fighting to win.

After the third time she strikes me when I’ve already called time, I get fed up. Instead of slowing my moves to teach her, I speed up, attacking like I do when sparring with a member of the guard. I’m about to land a hit when the door opens and a Jake walks in. “Ember you are to report to Kaine’s office.”

Bianca seethes.

I ignore her and make my way toward Prince Kaine’s office. When I enter, he forgoes greetings, his face troubled. “Shut the door behind you,” he says gesturing for me to sit.

The prince pulls out a stack of papers and hands them to me explaining, “My stepmother reinstated a minor noblewoman, Lady Chantarelle, to court a week before the assassination attempt without consulting my father.”

I nod. “It may be unrelated, but it’s worth looking into.” Together we go through pages of documents stopping to mark anything that might seem like a red flag.

As we work, I can’t help but admire the prince’s focus and attention to detail. He’s not a just spoiled prince. He’s smart and notices things not many others would pick up on.

Hours pass quickly as we work and before we know it the sun has set. Our work has revealed one key discovery. Lady Chantarelle’s father was exiled by the king, and we need to find out why.