by Tori Smith
“I take it you’re a guardian,” she said, pushing her glasses up the bridge of her nose. “I expected more of you, but I guess there’s no need with well, you.”
It was my turn today to think she didn’t know the half, smiling a little with my thoughts, which garnered her attention.
She did something crazy after that, her curtsy incredibly low in my direction and I questioned if she could even get back up off the floor.
“Tell her she doesn’t have to do that,” I mumbled to Lucas actually making him smile. He said nothing. I’d say enjoying the spectacle.
“It’s an honor to be in the presence of Her Eminence,” she said, rising. “The prime minster indeed regrets his absence. Especially upon seeing for myself how radiant and lovely Her Majesty is in person.”
I think I could grow to like this woman, but Lucas wasn’t impressed. Once again emphasizing where her boss was when he asked about his whereabouts again.
“He had to return home,” she said.
“To the UK?” Lucas asked.
The woman nodded. “But he requests Her Majesty the queen to join him at his home in Edenbrook. He’s already preparing for her stay at Windamere Castle as well as for yourself and the rest of her guardians.”
My mouth dropped open.
“It’s the least he can do,” she concluded, nodding. “I’m prepared to escort you immediately with the use of his private jet.”
Lucas’s lips moved, his jaw working. “I suppose it is the least he could do,” he said. “But I must speak with my fellow guardians as this hadn’t been expected.”
Really none of it had, us being here or any of it, but I supposed it had turned out all right…
Hadn’t it?
I watched as the woman bowed to me again, getting up before leaving Lucas and me in the room we’d been waiting in. Taking out his phone, he started a call and I held his hand.
“Are we going?” I asked and he merely looked at me before manifesting what I could only define as Supernatural FaceTime, the faces of the rest of the men forming above us in a magnificent glow of blue and violet.
Wesley let in on us first.
“What the entire fuck, Lucas?” he charged, the others behind him and both Derek and Elia tossing their own obscenities into the bubble.
“Where’s Arden?” Elia pushed his way through the man cluster. “I swear to God if you let her get hurt—”
“I’m here,” I pushed from behind Lucas into clear view of the circle and visibly watched my presence transform the expressions of three angered men into something completely opposite. I could almost feel their calm from here. Though, that was obviously impossible with my distance from them. Lucas and I traveled for hours.
Wesley breathed. “Thank God. Are you okay?”
“Yeah, are you?”
Derek and Elia had been conjoined with their question. Whereas Elia stuck around for the answer, Derek stood back a little.
“I’m fine,” I told them, admitting nothing but the truth. “And don’t be mad at Lucas. I made him take me to see the prime minister.”
Three sets of eyes widened in my direction, Lucas pushing his hand behind his neck.
“She knows everything,” he said, gripping his big arms. “She was listening in as we were discussing next moves.”
“Everything?” Elia nearly sounded chilled. “And you went to see—”
“Is he taking her? I mean,” Wesley wrestled his red hair around, “is she going with the prime minister? What’s happening? And why did you take her to him without us?”
“Because I wanted him to,” I cut in before Lucas could. “I was tired of you guys sneaking around and deciding things for me. I wanted to know the truth and I’m glad I came out here.”
My words lost them to silence and Lucas stepped in.
“He’s ready to receiver her,” he said. “He wasn’t here, had to leave for political reasons back in the UK, but he was here and he’s ready for her.”
“He said that?” Wesley’s eyebrows pinched together.
Lucas nodded. “His representative did, yes. He’s left his plane for her even. He’s ready for her to depart and come to Windamere Castle.”
The location was obviously familiar to them all the way they panned to each other, but it was Derek who stepped forward.
“Well, she’s not going without us,” he said. “You’ll wait for us and we’ll rendezvous.”
“They’re ready for us to leave right away,” Lucas said. “Like I said, he left his plane for her. Nothing feels weird here and they were even expecting all four of us to be with her. They invited us all to come with her, no confusion here regarding our queen.”
Meaning, how I came to him. This man was clearly aware of my guards and had no problem with them all coming, something Lucas got as clearly as I had. My boys were a package deal.
My boys…
When had they become mine? I didn’t know, but they really were and long before this call.
They obviously all knew that too, looking at one another and Elia tilted his head in the magical viewing glass.
“And you want to go with him, Arden?” he asked a visible jump in his throat. “You know what this means going with him?”
“I know this means I get to open up more of this world you’re telling me I’m a huge part of,” I said, my lips moving. I pushed my hand through my hair. “I do know that, but I also know that destiny consists of you. I want to go, but not unless you all are in this with me.”
“Forever.”
Lucas had been the one to say it, his hand coming down on my arm. I noticed he stayed clear of my mark though. I was wearing three-quarter-inch sleeves with my suit and I wasn’t sure if his miss of my skin had been deliberate or not. Either way, he was in this with me, the other guys nodding through the screen.
“We’ll come to you by the traditional means then,” Wesley said, once again stepping up for the group. He looked around at the others. “We can’t open a portal without the four of us together, but we’ll take the next plane out to the UK. Lucas, you take care of her in the meantime then.”
He stood behind me as he placed his hands on my shoulders, nodding. The others reacted in an interesting way to that. It was like when they first noticed me in their viewing glass, relief at my presence and with Lucas’s hands on me now, they had that same relief in their eyes. They trusted him. They wanted him with me.
We truly were bonded.
Fifteen
Arden
We hadn’t been traveling very long before I fell asleep, the legs of the journey so far catching up with me. The prime minister’s private jet made that even easier with its plush seats and gentle flight and when I woke up Lucas was there beside me. He hadn’t been when I initially fell asleep, doing another rotation of the plane to make sure everything was on the up-and-up. I wasn’t quite sure what he was looking for, but took it as his continued duty to take care of me. I supposed palace guards did the same in the movies. Either way, he was with me when I woke up and he had his hands in his lap, a fine specimen of a man when he gazed out into the night which had sometime turned to day.
He really was gorgeous, a Grecian warrior with his hair spilled out over his broad shoulders. He’d taken his suit jacket off, folded underneath his hands with his dress shirt rolled up at the sleeves. He looked at me and when he noticed I was awake he smiled, lifting his arm and inviting me to lie on him.
I didn’t know why he did this just as much as I didn’t know why I automatically came over to him, inviting his warmth and attention, as he dropped his arm over my shoulders. His hold was as comforting as it was home and I realized as soon as his fingers danced along the skin of my arm why he’d done what he had.
“It’s what we do.”
I got it now. Especially with what Wesley had said about my relationship with Lucas. This was just what we did, exchanged comfort between the other.
Giving into it, I closed my eyes and noticed when his fingers drew casu
ally through my hair.
“Do you think I am who you say? I mean,” I sat up a little, looking into his blue eyes. “I know I’m your queen. But do you believe I am?”
Meaning, did he find me capable? Did he still believe it to be my destiny beyond what I’d showed him thus far? I knew what he said I used to be, but did he believe that to be the truth now?
With the soft crease of his eyes, I knew my answer before he even lowered my head and pressed his forehead to my crown.
“You are my queen,” he said, lifting his head. “Now you just need to believe it yourself.”
But was it that simple? Me simply believing it as true and manifesting it? I supposed I just had to take his word for it, my hand lying on his chest.
“Why did Wesley mention making a portal?” I asked him after a while. “Like traveling between spaces through them? You guys can just do that?”
“Generally,” he said nodding. “But at the present, not possible unless we’re all together.”
“Why is that?”
He shrugged a little. “We have our abilities to an extent, but we’re more powerful together. That’s not traditionally how it is, but it is with us. A powerful witch once cast a spell on us, which caused us to rely on each other for the majority of our power.”
“My mother,” I said thinking about the bond, but to my surprise he shook his head, smiling.
“Actually, it was Her Majesty herself, you, that casted such a spell,” he said, causing my eyes to widen. He shook me. “You look surprised.”
“Well, I am,” I said, sitting up. “Why would I do such a cruel thing?”
“It wasn’t cruel, Highness,” he said, dropping his arm behind my back. “You did so before coming here to make it easier for all of us to blend into society. It actually proved to be beneficial to us in a world of non magic. We could have exposed ourselves many times, but the spell keeps us in check. It doesn’t lessen our ability to protect you. We awaken to full potential like you did when needed. Again, your spell.”
I still didn’t like the sound of that, shaking my head.
“Well, I’m going to learn to get rid of it,” I said, sure I could figure that out… one day. “I’ll remove the restriction and set you free.”
Though, I may need help with that. Even still, I’d find a way and promised him.
His eyes crinkled even harder at the sound, and crooking his finger, he touched it under my chin.
“You speak of bonding with my brothers more of a curse instead of the gift it is, Your Majesty,” he said, his thumb skating along the side of my jaw and causing my heart to move from its very center. He smiled. “But if it displeases Your Majesty I will tell you the incantation. You can only do it when my military brothers and myself are together and only Her Majesty herself can remove it as it was her spell cast.”
“Then it’s decided then,” I said breathing still hard with him touching me the way he was. I swallowed when his hand moved down to cup my shoulder. “And it’s Arden. I told you that, guardian.”
His eyes flashed at the regard. Like it… maybe even turned him on to be acknowledged in such a way. I highly doubted that but as he dampened his lips he did move forward. He only backed away and let go of me completely when the air changed, physically our bodies moving downward. We were descending and sitting up, the action seemed to confuse Lucas. Turning, he shifted toward the window.
“What’s going—?”
“We shouldn’t be landing,” he said, shaking his head. “It’s too soon. We couldn’t be there yet.”
But the air went thick the moment he said it, actual clouds of something potent and heavy pushing through the vents where oxygen usually pushed out. It made the air incredibly hard to breathe and I gasped, watching as Lucas waved his hands in a frenzy and pushed a cloud of energy around my face.
He yelled, “Breathe!” at me and I did, allowing myself to and whatever energy cloud he placed around me gave me the means.
But he did not create one for himself.
Me safe, Lucas attempted to work something up for himself, but before I knew it, his eyes were rolling back.
I grabbed his shirt, screaming at him before someone’s hands came around my throat. Something sharp was shot into my neck after that, and soon, Lucas disappeared into darkness behind my very eyes.
Sixteen
Arden
I was shoved into a room before I knew what was happening. I mean it was a nice room but I didn’t particularly want to be shoved into it. The walls and room bare aside from a few paintings and an oak desk, I landed on my knees with a sharpness that cut a curse into my throat, my wrists bound with metal braces that sent tiny electronic pulses into my skin. The zaps didn’t hurt but I wondered if the point had been something potentially more deadly to me than any kind of pain.
Testing it, I called for power from my mark, not something I’d done before but I figured it couldn’t hurt.
Forcing concentration into that area, I stared at my arm, but never having done this before the effort resulted as fruitful as I believed it would be. I couldn’t even get the raised skin to glow and I dropped my braces, falling back to my haunches. I had no idea if these braces had anything to do with my lack of ability, but my attention segued when I was no longer the only captive in the room.
“Lucas!”
They dragged him like an animal, two men in suits that had a metal chain around his neck. He wore a literal collar and one of the men jerked it every time Lucas fought against it.
Especially, when he saw me.
“Arden!”
The men tugged Lucas back, making him fall to his knees and he hadn’t been the way I left him. His chest and feet bare, all he had left of his suit was his pants, his lack of dress very purposeful judging by the visible welts that cut across his back and neck. He’d clearly been whipped and his lip bloodied, even assaulted.
He stared up at me from beneath his hair, a wild and angry mess on his shoulders that matched his current expression. I thought to crawl to him before smoke was suddenly being blown in my face. It was the same consistency as on the plane, but this was different.
I knew the smell of cigarette smoke just fine.
A man made me choke on his fumes, one who wore a pinstripe suit and fine leather shoes.
Hacking back the poisonous air, I sat back to my haunches again.
A growl came in my direction from Lucas.
“I wouldn’t get too close,” the man said striding through the room without a single glance Lucas’s way. Tossing his cigarette casually away, it turned out he didn’t have to look. The moment Lucas bit at him like an angry dog the men in suits dragged him back again, causing him to land on his side and groan in pain.
The man turned around, a faux frown on his face. I’d actually mistake him for handsome on any other day. Between his flaxen hair styled back and parted to the side and his handsome suit and shapely jawline, he was indeed anesthetically pleasing.
Pardon me for not noticing that aspect first when he was blowing smoke in my face.
Clicking his tongue, he approached Lucas. The two suited men from before added another chain to my guardian’s neck, which easily kept Lucas from moving. He couldn’t even touch the man in the pinstripe suit if he wanted to.
“I’m sorry, did that hurt before?” the blond man asked him, heading to Lucas’s level when he lowered in front of him. He scanned Lucas’s face, his accent thick and deep, an Englishman.
He tilted his head at Lucas. “Because I could make those chains less restrictive.”
Lucas hocked a wad of spit at the man’s face, and even though the man dodged it quickly, he took his pocket square out and patted his cheek.
He tapped Lucas’s cheek with it.
“I take that for a no then?” the man said tossing the square at my guardian. Lucas jerked at his restraints again, as the man stood up, rising above him.
“You people really are exciting,” the blond guy crooned. “I was told as such by
my people, but seeing up close.” This obviously delighted him, his shoulders doing a little dance when he placed his hands in front of himself.
Lucas lowered, snarling. “Get closer and I’ll show you how exciting I can be, mother fucker.”
The man pouted. “Idle threats,” he said sighing. “It’s a shame, as I’d like to take you up on that, but with those bindings you won’t be showing me anything—especially, her.”
He faced me then, appraising me in a way that did little to make me feel fully clothed. I wasn’t bound by the neck like Lucas, but I didn’t feel moving would be the best tactic for me anyway. At best, I’d get away, but at worst, they’d take it out on Lucas.
Approaching me, the man smiled, and in his periphery, a raging and foaming-at-the-mouth Lucas went wild at him, his effort as fruitless as mine had been when I attempted to call my power before.
“Stay away from her!”
“Shut up.” The man nearly sounded annoyed with Lucas and this whole situation. He raised his hand to his men. “Make him shut up.”
In a flash, two more men came at Lucas with plastic whips. Snapping them, they electrified, and soon, I discovered the reason for Lucas’s welts.
Lucas roared in a pain that, though I couldn’t actually feel, didn’t stop the physical reactions from running rogue in my chest. They got a bunch in on him before I lifted my hands.
“Stop! Please!” I urged. “I’m not going anywhere.”
They ignored me at first, still continuing to whip him until the Englishman raised his hand. He faced a huffing Lucas, his head tilted.
“Would you like to introduce us?” he asked of Lucas. “I mean, you should have done that the moment I walked in here. You are the link between us, are you not? Or did my whipping you before not acquaint us well?”
Lucas spat, the saliva laced with the blood I assumed from when he’d been punched. Nothing but a well-timed, “Fuck you” left my guardian’s lips, which only made the blond man smile.
“I meant my God-given name,” he said sighing heavily. Heading over to Lucas, the blond’s men prepared for his arrival, keeping my guardian from moving as the man with the accent got to his knees.