Chapter 4 Keane
FOUR
KEANE
I’d heard many interesting things while standing guard over Lily.
Always things I’d never repeat, and some things I wished I’d never heard in the first place.
I got the feeling I was going to have to listen to a lot more chatter about prospective husbands in the days ahead.
Maybe even see them, meet them, and protect them as well. My stomach roiled at the thought.
Whenever Lily needed me, I’d be there. That was even more important now, after this morning’s attack.
I couldn’t be sure the fae behind it had deliberately targeted Lily—we’d been in the forest outside the castle, bordering the capital, after all.
But any attack on Talador was an attack on its queen—something I had both professional and personal responsibility to guard against.
As Lily and her sisters finished their meal and began saying their goodnights, I glanced around the room, automatically noting the window was secure for the night and a servant was standing by the only other exit from the room, the one that led to the backstairs to the kitchens.
Chairs screeched across against the stone as the princesses rose and pushed them back from the table.
“Goodnight, Lily. Sleep well.” Jasmine pressed a kiss to her sister’s cheek and squeezed her hand as she drew back. She looked meaningfully at her sister, and her brow creased. “And stay safe,” she added, as though she didn’t dare not issue the warning to take care.
My hand tightened on the hilt of my sword as I responded to Jasmine’s worry for her sister, a habit borne of having the lives of others under my care.
Lily watched her sisters file from the room before turning to me. She smiled, but it didn’t reach her eyes, and I longed to take her into my arms and reassure her. But that wasn’t my place.
“I think I’ll retire for the evening too,” Lily said, and I nodded.
It seemed for the best. The other guards and I could protect her better if she was in one room in the castle and didn’t move about too freely—at least until we’d neutralized the threat.
I tightened my jaw. I had to locate the source of the threat first.
I walked my usual pace behind her to her room, and she paused at the door, glancing at the guard already stationed there. He was so young he barely had a hair on his chin, with big brown eyes and an earnest face.
She turned toward me. “Are you finished for the day?”
I nodded. “Yes, but Caspar will be here through the night to ensure your safety.”
She did that same smile that left her eyes worried, and I reached out to touch her hand then abruptly stopped, letting my arm drop back to my side.
“I won’t let anything happen to you.” Those words didn’t seem enough to sum up just how much of a priority her safety was to me. “I promise,” I added.
“Thank you.” She pushed open the door to her room, before leaving me in the corridor, her sweet floral scent lingering in the air.
“Caspar.”
The guard straightened up, even though I’d said nothing more than his name.
I looked closer at one of my youngest recruits and held back my sigh.
I would rather have had an older, more experienced man on guard out here tonight, but what Caspar lacked in years, he usually made up for in enthusiasm and devotion to his task.
“Have you got this?” I asked the question in a low, urgent voice. “I need you to answer honestly. That’s the future Queen of Talador in that room.”
“Aye, Captain.” His eyes looked straight ahead.
“Good.” I stepped away, fighting my reluctance to leave Lily’s side.
Then I shook my head. I was being ridiculous.
I didn’t usually watch her as she slept, after all.
But since this morning’s attack I’d been doubly worried for her safety, and I wasn’t used to such uncertainty.
Frustration pushed through me at not knowing my enemy.
How could I guard against something I didn’t understand?
How could I protect Lily when I didn’t know our attacker?
My heart beat a fast rhythm as I tried to contain my strides as I marched away. I didn’t want to look panicked, no matter how much adrenaline I had racing around my system.
I strode to the perimeter wall, checking on guards stationed outside the main doors as I passed through.
Frost covered the lawns outside as they fell away to the walls, but the heavy wooden doors and thick stone of the castle kept out most of the chill.
Above me, stars twinkled and blinked in a black velvet sky, and I blew out a visible breath that spiraled lazily upward on the frigid air.
“Simeon.” I called the name of one of my most trusted officers in a low voice. Simeon was a sharp contrast to Caspar, with his thick black beard and tanned, lined skin.
He nodded as I approached. “Yes, Captain?”
“Anything unusual out here tonight?” I looked around as I spoke, and unusual anticipation crawled up my spine as awareness of hidden dangers prickled over me.
The atmosphere seemed charged with electricity, but I didn’t run my guards on instinct or gut feeling, so I tried to shove the feelings away.
I had to use facts and tactics, the same things I’d use to defeat any threat, in the way my father had taught me.
In short, I needed a clear head, and emotion wouldn’t help me.
“No, Captain,” Simeon said.
“Are the extra men at their posts?” I’d arranged additional guards to stand around the walls to limit an intruder sneaking into the grounds, but even with those precautions, unease niggled at me.
“Yes, Captain.”
“Good. Extra patrols around the perimeter too,” I reminded him before we saluted each other and I left to check the guard posts at the castle itself.
The unease still dogged me as I walked over the gravel paths, the small stones crunching under my feet, and I glanced to the sky again calling on the Moon and her children to protect Lily as she slept.
As if in answer to my hurried prayer, the moonlight seemed to flare, and I caught sight of a dark figure as it flew over the castle wall. It was too far away to discern what it was, and too high to reach with my sword.
“Intruder!” I yelled, but I didn’t spare more words than that before I broke into a run to toward the main doors. “Secure the perimeter!”
Simeon and the other guards burst into action, but we were all moving too slowly. I watched the shape the entire time, and it landed on a window ledge I recognized.
Lily’s window.
“No!” The shout wrenched from my throat.
The figure perched on the castle turned to look at me for a moment, although I couldn’t see any features.
I quickened my pace, terrified I would be too late.
Damn it all, I should have trusted my gut instinct that something wasn’t right, even after the measures I’d taken.
If I lost Lily because of my failure…I couldn’t even consider such a thing.
As the figure disappeared through Lily’s window, my heart plummeted through my chest and I dragged a breath into my lungs, the harsh air stinging my throat.
I avoided the main staircase, opting for a long corridor that led to an older spiral staircase that emerged close to Lily’s room.
I sprinted up the winding steps, my sword held at the ready the entire time.
An attacker would likely escape this way as there was less chance of being seen.
My heart thumped in my ears and I heard every breath I took, as I tried to listen for sounds of an alarm being raised, but there was nothing. Only the familiar noises of the castle and its inhabitants going to bed for the night.
I caught my breath and held it as fear wrapped an iron band around me. Maybe the worst had come to pass. Perhaps I was too late.
I only had one word, one face, in my mind.
Lily, please be alive.