Fuck. I was hard in the hallway while admiring a tapestry of my bald uncle-so-and-so.
Where the fuck was dear Alex?
“My Prince.”
I turned, raising my eyebrows in surprise. There stood my mother’s personal guard, Raaz. His dark, wavy hair was the same as I’d last seen him, down to his collar with the top half pulled back into a knot. He wore a relaxed version of the official uniform, simple deep green cargo pants and a matching fitted top under his useless bulletproof vest.
I found myself a bit irritated at that. My grandfather had kept the guard in black, but my mother had quickly changed the official color to green, her well-known favorite color.
So, she hadn’t spoken on the dead students at the academy, but she’d changed the entire guard’s uniform. I stifled a groan of frustration.
“Raaz,” I said. “Interesting you’re my mother’s personal guard and I’ve yet to see you…guarding her.”
Raaz gave me a bored stare in response. “What brings you home?”
“That’s hardly any of your business,” I said lightly, looking back at the bald fucker on the wall. “This is my home. I can return whenever I like.”
“Your father may be a while,” Raaz said.
“Yes, I know his tactics.” I replied without taking my eyes off the tapestry. I’d just noticed my unnamed uncle had mismatched medalson his lapel.What a phony. I’d have Aiden burn this as soon as we moved in.
Wow. One sexy encounter with Skye and I was already imagining the rest of our lives, other Links included. Would she even want to live in the Palace? I’d have to find a way to ask without spooking her. The woman was a runner.
“He’s with a certain business associate,” Raaz went on, his voice dropping in volume. I’d almost forgotten he was here.
I paused, remembering the cult leader my father had forced me to meet with. He’d been so…smug. I’d be thankful I got to leave that meeting in a hurry if the reason for leaving hadn’t been Aiden almost fucking dying.
Wait a minute…
“He’s with the associatenow?” I asked in disbelief. “That asshole.”
He was going to try getting me in a room with the Crusader again. Iknewthere was a shifty reason behind my being summoned. Even if I did have some questions for the cult leader regarding Skye and how he’d allegedly been in the islands with a terrorist, I didn’t have enough info for that game yet.
Raaz cleared his throat. “The Crown Princess is in residence.”
“Is she?” I asked, already heading up the hall toward him. “Well, let’s go pay her a visit, then.”
Anything to get me out of a meeting with that creepy fuck.
Raaz hadan ulterior motive for stealing me away from the meeting with my father, of course.
My mother was in one of her famous moods.
I sat on her chaise, as far from the fire as possible, where Hugo was lounging in an armchair, skimming through a magazine like my mother wasn’t on the edge of a manic breakdown. We were in the sitting room in her private apartment while she paced from here, into her bedroom, then back.
“How is itmyfault an academy was attacked?” My mom hissed.She was a little disheveled. She wore one of her chiffon dressing gowns over a silk night dress even though it was the afternoon. Her hair wasn’t styled, pulled into a messy braid she must have worn to bed.
I glanced at the clock. It was nearly time for her dinner.
“Why iseverythingmy fault to the lesser? I hardly know all of the laws I’m meant to enforce!”
I almost hissed through my teeth.
‘The lesser’?
Thiswas one of the reasons she got so much backlash.
“You don’t enforce the laws, muffin.” Hugo said, turning a page in his magazine. “You’re just the head of state.”
