I try to hide the pain his words stir in me. This is one of those times when I’m thankful that no one but the King’s personal guard and their family have the power to look into a soul. If the King could see into mine, he would see the revenge I took against him when he didn’t help me. He’d see how I allowed his daughter to be mistreated by Elias as a punishment for what happened to mine. My father would cast me out if he knew. It’s a good thing I haven’t been to the Fae world to see him in almost a decade.
“Your Majesty,” this time the word is full of the reverence that it deserves, “I understand why you made the choices you had to make at the time. As to your daughter … I’d be careful about telling her that she needs someone to protect her, it’s kind of a touchy subject. At least keep my name out of it if you do bring it up. I’ve told her that I’m not her bodyguard. It would probably piss her off to learn that a bodyguard is exactly what I am. ”
“She must be like her mother in that way then.” Aslem grins but it doesn’t last. His lips turn down as he says, “Stubborn woman. If only she wasn’t so insistent about protecting herself, she might still be alive now. No,” he shakes his head, “Ophelia needs someone to watch over her. It’s not about whether or not she can take care of herself; it’s about her being my heir. When I finally meet my daughter, I won’t tell her the place you hold in her life, but Spencer, just as your father was before you, you are part of the royal guard. You made the commitment and it’s a lifelong one. She’s going to find out eventually.”
He breathes another heavy sigh and gives me a look of determination. “This war with Annora is just in its planning stages, but with the way she’s moving in this world, I would say that it’s only a matter of months before the full scale movement begins. I need you, Spencer, now more than ever. I’m going to need someone with inside knowledge of this world to help with the planning, and I need you to keep Ophelia protected while I prepare for battle. I don’t know if Annora plans on trying to harm her again, but I can’t take the risk of her using Phee to get to me. I’ll come shortly before to claim her and take her back to our world where she’ll be safe during the conflict.”
I want to tell him that Ophelia wants nothing to do with me, that she walked away from me because I willfully kept the secret of who she is. When I finally tell her the truth, I’m sure the woman will be determined to hate me more. I don’t, however. I just look him in the eye and tell him what he wants to hear. “I can do both of those things for you, Aslem. Tell me what intelligence you need and Jinx will take care of it. As for Ophelia, don’t worry, she’ll be taken care of.”
“Thank you, Spencer,” the king says, placing his worn hand on my shoulder. “As always, any resources you need, just ask. Now, where is my daughter?” He gazes around the room apprehensively, as if she might pop out of a corner unexpectedly and force him to have a conversation he has been avoiding for twenty-seven years. “Is she here?”
“No, not at the moment,” I say airily, in hopes of making him believe that she’ll be back sometime soon. Not happening. The woman hates my guts. “I was just on my way out to collect her.”
Aslem has to go back to begin the preparations for war. I get the feeling that he isn’t prepared to deal with the fallout of meeting his daughter for the first time. Knowing Ophelia, I think he’s underestimating the amount of anxiety he should be having over the event. Ruling a kingdom is nothing compared to being leveled by one of her stares when she is calling you out. I know this, and yet, I get a thrill of excitement at the prospect of seeing her again.
I pull the set of keys from the pegs hanging in the ops room and tell Jinx I’ll be back in a while. I exit the elevator into the garage and jump into the PT Cruiser, her favorite. Willie Nelson sings about Pancho and Lefty as I pull out of the basement parking area. Duty calls. I’ve got a date with a princess and even though she’s not expecting it, I always arrive on time.
This book is a long time in the making. There are so many people who helped me during the process, but first and foremost, I want to thank Judy Espinoza who constantly told me that I needed to write something. Hopefully, I’ll finish the first story I sent you years ago and gave up on. You’re the reason I didn’t give up on this one.
Thanks to my wonderful and honest beta readers Stacia(the great), Crystal Fripp, Kristen Lopez, Tosha Khoury, Lori Sabin, Judy Espinoza, Ryan Ableman, and Amy Deschaine. Your help was invaluable while writing this book and your support motivated me to keep going on, even when I felt like everything I typed was garbage. A huge thanks and shout out to my favorite girls on Goodread Stacia, Crystal, Amanda, Joan, Carina, Lise, Megan, Nina, Rebecca, Ash Wednesday, Brenna, Nic, Janice, and Sara. I’m sure I’m forgetting someone, but all of my friends over there have been nothing but wonderful in providing me support and encouragement. I love every one of you. Thank you to Happy for inviting me into the BA where there are people as crazy about books as I am.
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, probably enough times that you’ll want to tell me to shut up, but Lori Sabin and Tosha Khoury have my undying love for life. Thank you Fairy Godmother Lori for getting my book ready for the ball and thank you Tosha for being excited about it enough to take the time to promote it. Love, love, love you both.
Thank you, Sarah Hansen for designing a beautiful cover. You took my idea and made it better than I ever imagined. I can’t wait to see what you come up with for the next one!
A huge shout out and hug goes to every blog that has supported me, posted my book cover, read or reviewed this book, and even those who didn’t. I love book bloggers, their enthusiasm for books and help to authors is the greatest gift imaginable. One gigantic thank you goes to Maryse of Maryse’s Book Blog for being her awesome self and introducing me to wonderful books and authors that I never would have found otherwise. If you haven’t already, please go check out her blog at Maryse.net.
I’ve been lucky enough to befriend several authors who have helped and given me encouragement along the way, but Calia Read, Katja Millay, Karina Halle, Willow Aster, and Tarryn Fisher have gone above and beyond with their words of kindness and reassurance. Tarryn, if you read this, I only hope that you will think I did better than that.
Thank you to our Army family. We’ve made some excellent friends throughout the past 10 years while we’ve been travelling around the country, getting sent wherever the Army tells us to go. I’m so thankful to each and every one of you. So many of you have encouraged me and promoted me to your friends and family. You rock!
And finally, thank you to my family. Mr. E, a pair of Hello Kitty PJs will be on their way to you soon. I bought you and D matching sets. I love you. Thank you for the idea. Rey Rey and Donovan, thank you for putting up with my mental absence while writing this book. You two are the best and most encouraging children ever, can’t wait until you’re old enough to read this so we can talk about it like we have with Harry Potter, Where the Red Fern Grows, The Graveyard Book and all of our other favorites. Sharing books with you is the highlight of my life. Watch out, Rey Four it’s your turn to be the bad guy next! To my husband Rey, thank you for taking the boys with you places and giving me the chance to have alone time while writing this. Thank you for encouraging me and telling me how proud you are of me all of the time, even when I’m being a moody brat. Thank you for all of the sacrifices you make every day so that I may stay home and have the time necessary to hang out with the characters in my head. I’m so happy that I fell in love with your humor that fateful day in Del Taco. I love you. Tang.
Rebecca Espinoza, an Army wife, has lived in 8 different houses and 5 different states in the past 10 years and she can’t wait for the next move. She is skilled in the arts of basket weaving, origami, and bullshitting. She is a book thief and likely to pilfer any she sees lying around in friends’ houses, so keep an eye out if you invite her in. She currently resides in beautiful Wahiawa, Hawaii (Army wives will get this joke) with her two sons and dog, Tosh.0 (her most favorite person in the w
orld…the dog, not the comedian), and her husband pops in from the field, missions, or deployment every now and then to say hello. She tends towards the sarcastic when referring to herself in third person. Rebecca is a Turtle, are you?
Follow Rebecca on Facebook to keep up with upcoming releases, teasers, and just to chat.
www.facebook.com/rebeccanespinoza.
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