by Lola Gabriel
She began to take her school stuff out of her backpack and put it on the table.
“Well,” said Carlie, quietly enough so that only Kaia and Layla would hear her, “at least the king sent you some eye candy.”
Kaia let her Magic History book fall onto the table’s surface as hard as it could so that it made both Carlie and Layla jump. Hearing Carlie say that Sebastian was ‘eye candy’ made the blood boil in Kaia’s veins. It made her want to scratch her nails against wood, curl her fingers, and grind her teeth. A little ugly voice inside her head whispered, He’s MY personal guard!
What did that matter? It wasn’t like Carlie was going to make a move on Sebastian. And even if she was, that made no difference to Kaia whatsoever! This was a free country—Carlie could compliment whatever fae she damn well pleased, regardless of Kaia’s opinion on the matter.
Her friends were staring at her, surprised at her outburst.
“Kaia?” Carlie prompted.
Kaia wasn’t sure of what she could say in response. How could she explain that she’d had a random jealous lapse over a silly, completely normal comment? She’d never had any reason to be jealous. She might’ve had a crush on Sebastian when she was a little girl, but she was a grown woman now.
Besides, Sebastian wasn’t even that good-looking.
“Dude,” Kaia said at last. “Can you please not talk about him like he’s a mannequin?”
“Yeah, Carlie,” Layla said. “You should have more respect for the princess’s personal guard.”
Kaia gave her an unamused look.
“What, he’s hot!” Carlie cried. “Come on, Layla, back me up here.”
“Eh, he’s not really my type,” Layla muttered, and that ugly little voice inside Kaia’s head made itself known again.
You should be so lucky to be his type, it said, with so much venom in its tone that Kaia had to shake her head and tell herself to get a goddamn grip.
What the hell is wrong with you? Why this sudden possessiveness about Sebastian? Just because he’s going to be around you day and night now? No. Kaia wouldn’t let Sebastian’s presence ruin her time at EMU, especially not because of petty, childish concepts like jealousy. What did she even have to be jealous about? Nothing!
“Okay, yeah, I know your type is girls and not guys, but you’re not blind, are you?” Carlie went on. “Even if he isn’t, you can still notice he’s, like, really sexy, right?”
“Carlie,” Kaia stopped her. “Seriously, can you not?”
For a moment, she chided herself for letting her friend’s words upset her so much. It was just a comment. Nothing more. Kaia had no right to snap at Carlie like that.
Carlie, though, didn’t seem to take it too seriously. She raised her hands in surrender with a mischievous smile on her face.
“Fine, fine, I’ll stop,” she said. “But you both know I’m right.”
Did Kaia know, though? Did she think Carlie was right?
She glanced back at Sebastian at the same time Sebastian turned his head to the side, probably scanning the library for any danger amongst the students sitting at the tables, and she caught the view of his profile.
Okay, fine, she supposed that he wasn’t ugly. She could see where Carlie was coming from, but her reaction was still a little bit over the top for Kaia. His blond hair had grown a bit since the last time she had seen him back home, and it was just long enough for him to pull it back into the tiniest of ponytails. A few hairs were too short, so they fell around his intense green eyes.
Wow. when had his eyes gotten so intense? And when had his cheekbones gotten so sharp, perfectly complementing his jawline? His arms, folded behind his back, showcased his broad shoulders, and yet his waist and hips were slim. She hadn’t ever really noticed his physical features, given that the uniform for the fae warriors was slightly loose in order to facilitate movement in combat, but now that he was wearing regular clothes, a black shirt and black pants that perfectly molded to his strong body—
Sebastian turned his head to look directly at Kaia, and she immediately turned back to her books on the table, feeling her cheeks flush.
All right. Okay. So she could definitely see where Carlie was coming from. Sebastian hadn’t been this attractive the last time Kaia had bumped into him. And his eyes… Kaia still couldn’t believe how intense they were, as though they were staring at her very soul. She was already going to be closely under his gaze, but she didn’t think she could handle him looking straight at her for long periods of time. Even that nanosecond in which their eyes had locked had made her heart pound loudly inside her chest.
I just need to focus on my schoolwork and pretend he’s not here, Kaia told herself. She had never looked twice at Sebastian in her life; she didn’t see why she should start now.
---
“I’m telling you, I’m gonna fail the stupid test,” Layla groaned, grabbing her head with her hands and ruffling her hair.
Kaia couldn’t help smiling at her friend’s antics. The three of them were sitting at the cafeteria, having a late dinner after one of the final tests of the semester, while Sebastian stood guard his usual five feet away from them. Kaia had sort of gotten used to his presence now, though that didn’t mean she was completely okay with it. She still had her reservations about him basically being her bodyguard, especially with him having to sleep on a futon on the floor of her room—which the school had provided for him, under petition from the king—but at least she had grown past the comments she had gotten when people had started seeing Sebastian following her around. The dragons, especially, had had a lot of fun hissing words at her.
“Hey, Fae Princess,” one of them had snarled at her. “Your daddy convinced the school to let you bring your boytoy?”
Sebastian had almost gotten in a fight with them, saying that he wouldn’t let them disrespect the Fae King or his daughter, but Kaia had managed to hold him back, which had only caused them to cackle louder. They would’ve kept going at it if the Dragon Prince hadn’t intervened and told his lackeys to quit being idiots.
Fae and dragons didn’t really get along all that much, but they did respect each other, and Kaia had nodded thankfully at the Dragon Prince before dragging Sebastian away.
On the upside, Carlie had stopped mentioning how hot she thought Sebastian was. Kaia had believed that the sudden…feelings she was having would lessen when she no longer heard her friend refer to him as ‘eye candy’, but to her absolute despair, she felt like they had grown stronger. She could only hold his arm and tug him forward for so long before she had to let him go because her fingers started tingling, as if she had electricity coursing through her veins instead of blood.
It was like Sebastian was not watching out for her, but watching her all the time, and whenever their gazes accidentally met, Kaia felt… trapped, like she could literally not look away from his intense green eyes. It was… unsettling, to say the least, and she wasn’t sure how to feel about it.
“Why do they need to teach us fae about hiding ourselves amongst the mortals?!” Layla continued. “We look exactly like them!”
“You could make that argument for all of us immortals,” Carlie said.
“Not a really solid argument for vampires, though,” Kaia added. Then again, she knew her father had met humans that were much paler than the oldest of vampires, so she supposed Carlie was right.
“You know what I mean!” said Layla.
“And I am telling you that you’re being overly dramatic,” Carlie sighed. “Seriously, I’m sure you did fine.”
Kaia was going to agree with Carlie—in both of her statements—when someone cleared their throat somewhere close to the three of them.
“Excuse me,” said a guy wearing a jacket from the wolf varsity team. “Um, you’re Kaia, right?”
“Back off, pretty boy, she doesn’t give autographs,” said Layla, leaning on the table and over Kaia as if to protect her. Kaia almost laughed; that was what Sebastian was supposedly for.
&
nbsp; “What?” The wolf shifter frowned. “No, no, I—I don’t want an autograph.”
“She doesn’t give away pictures, either,” said Carlie. “Not for free, anyway.”
“Guys!” Kaia playfully slapped her friends’ arms and turned to the wolf. “Yes, I’m Kaia. What can I do for you?”
“I, um…” He glanced at Carlie and Layla, still posed like Kaia’s personal escorts. “D-do you think we could talk?” He raised his hands in front of him. “I mean you no harm, I promise.”
Without needing to look at Sebastian, Kaia knew he was closely watching the exchange. She could feel his eyes on her, and the hairs on the back of her neck stood up for an entirely different reason than they usually did.
“It’s okay, you guys,” she told her friends, patting their arms. “I can handle this.”
As if to check that he was still there, both Carlie and Layla glanced back at Sebastian. Then they glared at the wolf shifter and stood up from the table before walking away.
“Are you always accompanied by your guards?” the wolf asked, and Kaia chuckled in response.
“No, no, they’re not my guards,” she said. With a gesture to Sebastian, she added, “He is, but he’s not going to question you or anything, don’t worry.” In any case, she hoped he wouldn’t. She held out her hand. “So, you wanted to talk to me?”
“Connor,” the wolf said, shaking it. “My name is Connor.”
Kaia gestured with her hand for him to sit down. He was pretty cute for a wolf. Not that she had met many of them to compare him to, but she still thought he was. Thick black hair, pretty brown eyes, soft cheekbones. His smile was really nice, too.
“Hi, Connor,” Kaia said. “It’s nice to meet you. What did you want to talk to me about?”
Connor chuckled in what sounded like nervousness. Kaia strongly held back the urge to aww at him. He was definitely cute. “I, uh… the truth is I wanted to ask you out on a date.”
Kaia’s eyes widened. No one had ever been so direct with her in her entire life, and it was a cute guy who wanted to ask her out?
Sign me up! she thought to herself, opening her mouth to say that yes, she would absolutely love to.
But before she could utter a word, Sebastian was suddenly standing beside her, slamming his hand on the table, in the space between Kaia and Connor.
“I’m going to have to ask you to leave,” he said, and Kaia immediately stood up from her chair.
“You’re not asking him anything!” she said. Then she turned back to Connor. “Please forgive the unbelievable rudeness from my guard here—”
“The princess doesn’t know you,” Sebastian went on, like Kaia hadn’t spoken at all. “I don’t know you. I don’t know if you’re dangerous to her.”
“Um,” Connor muttered, “I said that I meant her no harm—”
“I can’t trust you on your word alone when the princess’s life is at stake.”
“I wouldn’t lie to a fae, man!” he argued.
“Sebastian, shut the hell up!” Kaia cried.
Rather than closing his mouth and keeping it shut, Sebastian pulled a dagger from his belt and held it so that the tip was pointing at Connor.
“HEY!” Kaia screamed at the same time that Connor leapt out of his chair and staggered back.
“Whoa, whoa, hey, dude!” He started to slowly walk back, his eyes set straight on the dagger in Sebastian’s hand. “I’m leaving, put that thing away! I’m sorry, Kaia, I won’t bother you!”
“No, no,” Kaia stammered, “please don’t listen to him, he’s out of his mind—”
But Connor was already gone, too far away from Kaia for him to hear her pleas.
She spun around to face Sebastian, who was putting his dagger back into its sheath like he hadn’t just completely ignored her and disregarded her orders.
“What the hell is your problem?!” she yelled.
“Princess—”
Kaia assumed he was about to make up some bullshit excuse about why he’d just ruined her chance to have a date for the first time in her life with a guy she’d found really cute, but then Sebastian glanced around, reminding Kaia that they were still in the cafeteria, which wasn’t empty yet, despite the late hour.
Fine. If Sebastian wanted to be yelled at in private, Kaia had no problem adapting.
She swirled toward the exit of the cafeteria and instantly headed in the direction of her dorm room. She didn’t have to look over her shoulder to ensure that Sebastian was behind her. Regardless of what had just happened, she hadn’t stopped feeling his intense gaze upon her.
5
Sebastian knew, with absolute certainty, that he had screwed up. The princess wasn’t just angry, she was rightfully pissed the hell off, and Sebastian could feel her fury emanating from her as he walked behind her.
He couldn’t blame her, not after the way he’d acted toward the wolf shifter who had tried asking her out on a date. It wasn’t even that he’d thought he’d looked suspicious, or that he’d truly believed he would hurt her. Connor seemed like a perfectly trustworthy student, and he had outright stated he meant Kaia no harm.
The princess, Sebastian corrected himself. To you, she’s the princess, not Kaia. Never Kaia.
The truth, if he had to admit it, was that he’d gotten… jealous, which was an unbelievably ugly and unpleasant feeling, not to mention that it was completely inappropriate, and it had festered inside him as soon as he’d first seen Connor approaching the table where the princess and her friends sat. It was ridiculous, honestly, the way his blood had boiled at the sight of the wolf shifter smiling and chuckling alongside Her Highness, and there had been this horrible, incessant little voice in Sebastian’s head screaming that the princess was his to protect, she didn’t need anyone else in her life, thank you very much, good day to you, sir.
And then… then he had ruined everything, hadn’t he? His relationship with the princess, as well as her chance to have a date, at the very least. She would not forget about this.
The princess stomped inside her dorm room, slamming the door behind her, even though Sebastian hadn’t walked inside yet. He was barely able to stop the door from hitting him in the face.
“Okay, yes, I deserve that,” he said, trying to alleviate the situation.
The princess turned to face him, her glare a raging fire about to consume him.
“You deserve so much worse for what you did,” she snarled.
“Your Highness—”
“No, no, you’re going to shut up and listen to me.” Sebastian did. “Did my father ask you to ruin my life as a college student? Did he ask you to keep me away from having any potential dates? From making friends? From getting to know people outside of my own species?”
“No,” he answered.
“Then what is your problem?!” the princess exclaimed. “What is wrong with you?!”
“I was looking out for you,” he said, fully knowing that that had been the least of his worries in that moment. “You’re under my protection—”
“From actual danger, Sebastian! Not from people who want to talk to me or ask me out on a date!”
Sebastian gritted his teeth together. Just the memory of Connor sitting in front of the princess, shaking her hand, made his fingers tighten into fists. He didn’t want anyone else touching her.
Why? the rational part of him questioned. It’s not like you can.
He shook his head once. What was wrong with him? He was the princess’s personal guard, not a potential suitor. He shouldn’t even be having these thoughts! Since when had he wanted to be the one to take her hand and hold her close and caress her hair and kiss her—
Stop it! he ordered himself with another shake of his head. You are her personal guard. That’s it. Nothing more. Thank the gods you get to have this chance and shut the hell up.
But now that he had begun thinking it, he couldn’t stop the images swirling in his mind, and he felt his hands burning, aching to reach out to her and pull her into his a
rms.
Without conscious input from his brain, Sebastian’s legs began to close the distance between him and the princess, one slow, hopeful step at a time.
“You don’t get to decide who is or isn’t a part of my life!” the princess continued. “You might be my personal guard, but you don’t own me, Sebastian! I’m my own person! And if I want to go out with a wolf shifter or a dragon or a vampire or even a goddamn angel, that’s not up to you, it’s up to—”
Sebastian didn’t hear the rest of her sentence, because by the time he was finally less than a foot in front of the princess, he had cupped his hands around the back of her neck, pulled her to him, and kissed her.
Something ignited inside of him at the first touch of his lips against hers. His entire body burned, his soul was on fire, and the incessant voice that had been screaming earlier at him was quiet. It sighed in contentment, and that metaphorical exhale of breath sounded a lot like, Finally.
The princess remained still for a moment, but she soon recovered and kissed him back, and the flames inside Sebastian turned into a roaring fire, ravaging his rational thoughts and replacing them with the instinct to pull Kaia even closer, his thumbs caressing the skin behind her ears, his fingers stroking the strands of hair they could reach.
Kaia gasped against his mouth, and the sound was enough to snap him back to reality, back to the fact that he…he was kissing her, he was kissing the princess, what the hell was he doing?
Sebastian broke away and stepped back, keeping his arms behind him so that they wouldn’t betray him and reach out to touch the princess again. His mouth was open, trying to say something to explain himself and his behavior, but his vocal cords were not cooperating. The princess gaped at him, her lips still parted slightly and her eyes wide in shock.
“Princess,” Sebastian said, his voice hoarse from the kiss. “I—I’m so sorry, I was way out of line. That was…completely inappropriate of me. I—” He cleared his throat and looked at the ground. If he kept staring at the princess, he didn’t know what he would do. “I’m afraid I’ve been compromised,” he muttered. “I’ll call His Majesty and ask him to send another guard to replace m—”