Of the Beautiful and Haunted (The Royal Guardian #1)

Chapter 1

T here was blood everywhere.

Aza found herself in a small hut. The old wood flooring beneath her feet was covered in blood.

At the start of the blood trail lay a motionless body.

It looked like a young woman. What had once been a white nightgown was drenched in the darkest red she had ever seen.

Aza wanted to scream, to cry, but nothing came.

She squeezed her eyes shut, willing it away, but when she looked again, the scene was still there.

Aza could feel her heart pounding against her chest and the lightheadedness settling in.

Her breath hitched, and her heart skipped a beat when the body began to stir and lifted off the ground.

A flicker of hope sparked—maybe the woman wasn’t dead.

But it died just as quickly when the body turned to face her and stumbled forward.

A hatchet jutted from the center of her chest, buried almost to the hilt.

“Help me!” the bloody woman shrieked. “I tried to stop them! I tried to explain, but they didn’t listen! I don’t know what to do!”

The woman started wailing, burying her face in her hands. Then she looked up at Aza, fear in her eyes, and dashed towards her. Aza threw up her arms to cover her face instinctively as the woman vanished through her.

Aza shot up in bed, her body convulsing with terror and sobs. She looked around her room, but the scene was gone. She clutched her blanket close to her chest, tears soaking her swollen eyes and cheeks. Her guards burst through the bedroom doors, hands already on their weapons.

“Princess Amiaza! What’s wrong? Is someone here? Are you hurt?” Colby, a young guard with dirty blonde hair and brown eyes, asks frantically.

Aza, gulping in breaths, answered “N-No. Nightmare. I… I’m sorry.” She uses the backs of her hands to wipe her tears as her body rattles with sobs.

Colby sighs and drops his hand from his side. “It’s alright, Princess. Is there anything we can do?”

Aza looks up at Colby and then over to her other guard, Killian Neith, an older man with peppered gray and black hair, a long beard, and hazel eyes.

He had been one of her guards since she was a child.

He was reserved, but she trusted him. Each time a nightmare happened while he was on duty, her embarrassment deepened.

He’d been dealing with her nightmares for nearly all fifteen years he’d been assigned to her.

She was sure he was over it by now. But as she shook her head no and Colby left the room, Killian placed a gentle hand on hers, gave her a small smile, then followed Colby out.

Her guards never stayed long after they learned she was safe.

Well, physically, just not safe in her own head.

But there was nothing they could do to protect her from that.

They couldn’t protect her from something that wasn’t there, or something that wasn’t real.

So they’d leave and take up their positions guarding her door once more.

Well, all but one guard.

Jahar.

Jaharis Almasir.

But he wasn’t here right now. At least not yet.

Shaking herself out of her daze, she strode into her bathing chambers, trying to clear the lingering fear and memories from her nightmare as she readied herself for the day.

A short while later, she stood on the balcony that led out from her bedroom.

Her hands rested on the railing as she stared out over her kingdom.

The sun had almost fully risen, saturated with shades of yellow, orange, and hints of purple.

While she was preparing herself, she kept having flashbacks of her nightmare, the woman with the hatchet buried in her chest, how scared and helpless she had felt.

She had to pull herself out of the darkness each time, and it was becoming increasingly harder each time, especially since the nightmares and visions were getting worse and more frequent.

She didn’t want anyone to know that, though.

She tried to keep it hidden as best as she could.

Nonetheless, she wished Jahar had been on duty for the night shift when she had her nightmare, for he would have helped her so much more.

He had time off for the past week, and she had missed him more than she cared to admit.

But now that she was feeling better, she was waiting on her balcony excitedly for him.

He was on a day shift and she couldn’t wait to see him.

Her guards rotated through various shifts.

Most days, her assigned guards alternated between day and night shifts.

Jahar’s shift began at sunrise. Others filled in when needed.

Even though being the Princess meant she couldn’t do much and didn’t exactly live an action-filled life, she was sure that half a day of guarding a door, following around a princess, or listening to her shrill cries when her nightmares or visions came could get tiresome.

She hated the times when Jahar wasn’t around, though.

She knew he deserved rest and sleep, and as much of a life as he could get despite being an exclusively stationed guard of the Princess, she still dreaded those times.

On the days he was off duty, she would sometimes see him in the market buying bread, fruit, or new clothes.

In her love-filled heart, she hoped that was just an excuse for him to see her outside his duty, but deep down, she knew he was a living being with needs as well. Still, a girl could hope and dream.

And he was her biggest dream. He was her best friend.

He was the person who helped her out of her darkness, and his smile was her light.

That was her favorite thing to look at. Nothing unraveled her quite like his smile.

But she couldn’t tell him that. She couldn’t proclaim her love to him, even though she had been in love with him since the beginning.

Three agonizing years it had been. Holding onto the little moments she got with him.

The little moments that he stepped out of his professional duties, and she was more than just the Princess.

But that was just it. She was the Princess. He was her personal guard.

When she had first met him, he had worked in the palace kitchens.

She would run into him frequently, whether by accident or on purpose, and they would sneak in conversations and smiles.

But even then, he never overstepped boundaries.

He respected that she was the Princess and that he was nearly fifteen years her senior and didn’t want to be improper.

At twenty, when she first met him, she feared that he just saw her as a young, naive girl, so she did her best to be proper, well spoken, and educated, which wasn’t exactly an act.

She very much was. She had been trained her entire life to be the perfect princess and never had the luxury of having fun like other girls her age.

That being said, she hated feeling insecure about her young age, especially when it came to him.

Courtships began at seventeen in her kingdom, but none with a gap like theirs.

That alone made it forbidden. Regardless, a princess had to marry a prince or king, not a servant or guard.

But when she wasn’t having terrifying nightmares or seeing and hearing things that weren’t there, he was what filled her mind.

The triple knock on her front door made her heart leap.

It was Jahar’s signal to let her know that the change of shift was occurring and that he was now here.

She took a couple of deep breaths to pass the moments of the guard swap before she raced to her door.

She stopped just before it, taking one steadying breath before she opened the door to find Jahar standing with his arms folded behind him and his expression neutral, until it softened at the sight of her.

Bennu stood to the left of her door, a middle-aged man with blackish brown hair, a short beard, and green eyes, standing at attention.

Bennu had worked for her for a while, and she believed he was a good guard.

He and Jahar seemed to be good friends, although they tended to hide it as best they could when they were on duty.

“Good day, gentlemen. Ready for a day of adventure?” Aza said with a chipper voice.

“Good morning, Princess” Jahar greeted in his silky voice, and Bennu nodded his hello.

Jahar was by far the most handsome man Aza had ever seen.

He had perfect golden skin that covered a muscle-sculpted frame standing over six feet tall.

His dark brown hair fell in loose waves just shy of his shoulders, framing bright brown eyes flecked with hazel, full lips, and a sharp jawline.

He kept his beard a perfect short length that defined the bottom portion of his face.

This face, this body, this wonderful man lived in all of her fantasies.

The ones she definitely shouldn’t be having or entertaining, but despite being the Princess, she was still a living being, too, and had her weaknesses.

She wanted so badly to touch him, to feel him, just once.

Despite all the time they had known each other and the time they had spent together, they had never once touched, well, not when she wasn’t dreaming.

Her body ached when he was near, but never close enough.

Of course, she couldn’t be seen cozying up next to her guard in public, but even in private moments with him, it still didn’t happen.

Aza assumed it was a way for Jahar to keep some kind of professional boundary since they were closer than a guard should be with the Princess.

Aza loved to talk, and they shared more with each other than was probably appropriate.

Still, she didn’t care; she wanted to know everything about him, and she wanted to share everything with him.

Well, almost everything, there were probably a few things or moments she would leave out.