CHAPTER FIVE ISI #2
“Oh, I’m sure I can handle your daughter.” There it was again, the sneer I’d come to know and despise not long after I met him.
Trew gestured toward the door. “After you, Princess.”
I walked past him on trembling legs, feeling my father’s gaze on my back until the door closed behind us.
Victor stood outside my father’s office. He straightened when we stepped out, his expression remaining neutral.
“Blain Torreth,” Trew said in a dry voice. “I’ll be supervising the princess from now on.”
Victor shot a look between us before dipping forward in a bow. “The king wants her watched at all times.” His voice carried a warning.
“Understood.” Trew’s voice came out flat, professional. “I don’t anticipate any trouble from this one.”
As if I were a problem to be managed rather than—
Victor’s smirk made me curl my hands into fists. “She’s a timid thing. She won’t make you lose any sleep, though I’ll be happy to take over when you need a break. Send word and I’ll be there.” He curled his lip as his gaze traveled across my body.
Trew’s low growl rang out. He angled his body between Victor and me.
The movement would appear casual to any observer, yet I read the claim written in every line of his stance.
A wall of flesh and bone, placing himself between danger and what he treasured.
His shoulders broadened, his jaw hardened.
Though he wore another man’s face, he was the king who’d vowed to shield me from harm.
With a snort, Victor walked past us, his footsteps echoing in the corridor. He disappeared around the corner.
I didn’t dare look back at Trew as I started walking toward my rooms, but his presence loomed, charged with unspoken fury. His growl lingered in my mind, shifting the air between us from threat to promise as we moved through the fortified halls.
Trew leaned close and kept his voice low.
“Your escort will be comprehensive, Your Majesty. I’ll be monitoring your sleep schedule very carefully.
If you can’t rest, I have methods to ensure exhaustion.
I’m particularly skilled at repetitive exercises.
I’ll work you until you can’t stand, until you’re trembling and boneless and completely spent.
” He paused, then lifted his voice for any servants within earshot.
“The king wants you well-rested and compliant.”
My legs trembled from his comments. His smirk told me he was well aware of what he was doing to me. He fell back behind me at the proper distance for a guard, not too close but not so far he couldn’t snap out a hand and latch onto my arm.
I was aware of everything about him. The cadence of his footsteps, different from his usual gait.
Shorter strides, heavier on the heel. Disguised, like everything else about him.
The sound of his breathing, controlled and measured.
Nothing like the way he breathed when he held me, when he kissed me, or when he whispered my name in the dark.
The space between us filled with unspoken words. His presence pulled at me, a tide I fought not to turn toward. My skin prickled with awareness of exactly how many paces separated us. Too many and yet not nearly enough distance to cool the heat building beneath my calm facade.
The air felt different with him near, charged with something that had nothing to do with magic and everything to do with the invisible cord that had tied us together from the moment we’d met.
We passed servants who bowed, guards who nodded our way, their eyes sharp in the heightened security.
Every single one of them saw their princess and her new bodyguard.
None of them saw the two people who’d found each other in a foreign land, who were now forced to behave like they were strangers.
A passing patrol forced us to step aside, their gazes lingering, a reminder that privacy here was an illusion we couldn’t afford to shatter.
The hallway seemed to stretch forever. Each step was torture, carrying us away from public spaces and closer to the privacy of my chambers. Closer to being alone with him.
When we reached my door, Trew eased around me and placed his hand on the handle. Such a simple gesture, ordinary and meaningless to anyone watching. But I could feel the tension in his shoulders, see the way his fingers gripped the metal too hard.
He opened the door and stepped back, gesturing for me to enter first.
I walked past him, so close our clothing brushed. So close I could feel the heat and rage radiating off him.
No Pherin, but perhaps that was for the best.
I could sense her flying with Gavelle. Of course. She’d missed him.
Trew entered behind me, stepping near as he closed the door. Clicking the lock.
Magic charged through the air as Trew warded the door, layering spells of silence and privacy with brutal efficiency.
Then his hand was on my shoulder, spinning me around to face him.
He thrust me back against the door, his body caging mine, his hands braced on either side of my shoulders. “Do you have any idea what you did to me, Minx?”
His voice had become his own again, rough and raw and shaking with barely controlled emotion.
I looked up into those gold-rimmed eyes and found fury and fear and desperate relief and love there. So much love it stole what remained of my breath.
“Trew—”
“I woke up and you were gone.” Each word came out precise and controlled. “Just a note. You left me only four lines, Isi. A fucking note with four lines and my entire world ended.”
His forehead dropped to meet mine, seeking contact. His hair was still the wrong color, his face still marked with a false scar, but his eyes shone with the soul I knew as well as my own.
“I thought you’d been taken,” he said, his voice dropping low and raspy. “I thought I’d lost you.”
“I’m sorry.”
“I tracked you for days.” One hand left the door to cup my face, his fingertip brushing across my cheekbone.
“Gavelle followed you from a distance. I watched you limp for two days on blisters and couldn’t help you.
I watched you sleep in a ditch and couldn’t hold you.
I couldn’t go to you without giving away that I was following. Do you know what that did to me?”
Tears burned in my eyes. “I had no choice.”
“There’s always a choice.”