Clover tried not to laugh. Gaudy didn’t even begin to describe this place.
Rennick dropped a steel bar across the door to lock it. “It’s a soundproof safe room for the royal family.”
“I really need a map of the palace,” Amelia muttered under her breath and turned to Amos. “Why are we in here?”
“I sent Clover to watch over you,” he said, still staring at Clover.
Amelia blinked. “What do you mean?”
Rennick went to his mate’s side and placed a hand on her lower back.
Clover hadn’t planned on telling Amelia right away, but Amos threw her to the wolves. She took a deep breath. “My father trained me to fight as well as any warrior from the time I could walk. Your brother found me when I was thirteen and sent me to protect you.”
Amelia looked between Clover and Amos. “I don’t understand. You’re a human, and he couldn’t leave the Desert Kingdom until he was twenty-five.”
Clover pushed her hair behind her pointed ear. “Glamour. I’m from the Desert Kingdom.”
Amelia gaped at her. “What about your family?” she asked. “Did they die?”
Clover glanced at Amos. “They’re alive. They came to visit as often as they could.”
Clover had seen Amelia frustrated, but she’d never seen her mad until now. Amelia whirled on Amos and slapped him across the face. Clover flinched and tried not to laugh at the look of shock on Amos’ face. They both deserved to be slapped, if Clover were being honest.
Rennick pushed Amelia behind him, and Amos stood open-mouthed, holding the side of his face.
“You forced a thirteen-year-old girl to leave her kingdom?” Amelia shouted, lunging at her brother. Rennick held her back, and Clover’s jaw dropped. Well, if there was any question whether Amos and Amelia were related, that cleared it up. She was a little terrifying.
“How dare you? She was a child,” Amelia snarled.
“It’s okay,” Clover insisted, trying to calm her friend down and failing miserably.
Amelia stopped struggling in her mate’s hold and stared at Clover. “Did you want to leave your family?”
Clover opened her mouth, then clamped it shut. She wouldn’t lie to her more than she had to, but neither would she throw Amos under the carriage.
Amelia bent over, removed one of her slippers, and launched it at her brother’s head.
Clover slapped her hand over her mouth to keep from laughing as Amos deflected the blow with his forearms.
“Enough!” Amos yelled, clenching his fists.
“Yell at her again, Desert King, and you won’t have a voice box to yell with,” Rennick warned.
Amos threw his hands up. “You don’t think I know what I’ve done?” The pain in his voice and devastation down the bond had Clover moving closer.
“I didn’t seek her out to send her away,” Amos told his sister. “She was training when I found her, and she was more skilled than I was at the time. So, I had a stupid idea to send her to you.”
“Why?” Amelia demanded. “I’d been fine up until that point.”
Clover had asked him not to tell them about duping her into going. It was humiliating.
Amos stepped toward Amelia. “Because when your mate came looking for you, I knew you’d have a bigger target on yourback if anyone found out who you were to not only the Desert throne, but to him.” He ran a hand through his messy hair. “Clover was talented and young; no one would suspect her.” He looked crushed beneath his guilt, and Clover wanted to wrap her arms around him. “I was a kid, and I made a foolish decision.”
“And when you wised up?” Amelia asked. “Why didn’t you tell her she could go home?”
Clover couldn’t let him continue to take the brunt of this. “He did,” she interjected. “When we were sixteen, he asked me to come back, but I told him no.”
Amelia rubbed her forehead. “And you were okay with that?” she asked Clover. “You didn’t stay because you thought you owed something to the future king?”
