Auric and I had been close, once upon a time. But playing the role of my Royal Guard had possessed an entirely different meaning back then. His absence had changed me, had changed us both.
To see him again like this… I bit my lip. This wasn’tmyAuric—the one I’d fantasized about for years—but a stranger.
When I’d hugged him earlier, there’d been no familiarity. No kindness. No emotion.
He wasn’t my guard anymore but a warden assigned to fix the broken princess.
And now he hates me,I thought, my stomach twisting as I gazed out the tiny porthole window.
My reflection didn’t match my new role as prisoner—aside from the black wings strangled by the leather straps that cut into my feathers. The secured ends wrapped around my shoulders, digging into my exposed skin in a pointless effort to keep me flightless.
Like I had anywhere to go inside this tin can.
The plane heaved as we took a turn, mocking me as the motion sent Auric’s intoxicating wintergreen scent rolling over me. I inhaled, finding a sliver of comfort in what his presence used to mean to me. If I didn’t look at his stoic, perfect face, I could pretend he still respected me. I could imagine we were back home in the castle, talking and laughing like we used to.
This was all a dream. A nightmare.
A guard shoved his way to the cockpit, conversing through the plume of white feathers with the pilots, then straightened. His gaze landed on me as he ambled up the aisle, stopping right next to Auric.
“Yeah?” Auric sounded bored, his eyes having fallen closed at some point in the last few minutes. Maybe he didn’t want to look at me either.
“Ten minutes ’til we reach the reformatory,” the guard said gruffly. His gray gaze slid to me. “We’re a thousand miles from the nearest landmass. I’d suggest you follow orders once we remove your bindings, Princess Layla.”
I glowered, then fought off a shiver as his eyes drifted down to my cleavage. Because yeah, I wasn’t dressed in prisoner garb like the others. Instead, I wore an outfit meant for the court—a gauzy white top, gold shorts, and high-heeled sandals with bands that laced all the way up my calves. I’d selected that outfit before realizing today’s itinerary included a plane full of male Nora Guards.
Including the one in front of me, who still hadn’t removed his gaze from my breasts.
Great. Just flippin’ great.
“Message received and understood.” Auric didn’t open his eyes, but he slid his dagger half an inch from its sheath, causing the steel to glint in the low light beaming down from overhead. “Now move it along, Hawk. Don’t make me draw blood before we even land.”
I envied his ability to be so in command like that. All muscular grace with not a hint that he felt threatened or incapable, even while seated with his feathers up against a wall.
I wasn’t sure I’d ever be able to close my eyes again.
The guard grunted and stalked off with a sour look on his face, presumably to bark orders at the rest of the cabin to overcompensate for his insignificant status. No matter the color of my wings, I still outranked his sorry ass.
I wrapped my arms around my middle and slouched in my seat. “You’d think they’d never seen a woman before.”
“Many of them haven’t,” Auric replied, though he still didn’t open his eyes. “At least not for a very long time. It’s incredibly rare for one of the female Nora toFall.” He uttered that last part with a sneer, making me flinch.
“Don’t talk to me like that,” I said, my voice strained. “I didn’t do anything wrong, Auric. I swear. There’s been some sort of mistake.”
He snorted and said nothing else.
A tear threatened my eye, but I forced it away with a blink.
Feeling sorry for myself wasn’t going to fix this. And obviously, talking to Auric wouldn’t either.
Because no one believed me, not even my childhood friend.
After years of being the perfect princess, of doing everything I was told, learning all my royal duties, and spending endless time indulging the suitors my father had chosen for me, my parents tossed me away like trash. They hadn’t even given me the courtesy of a goodbye. No, they’d sent my former guard to my quarters to whisk me away like some dismissed servant.
Huffing a breath, I glanced out the window and frowned as we began our descent at a rather sharp angle. “Um, Auric? Are we supposed to—”
The plane shuddered, cutting me off. Then our world began to turn… turn…turn...
I grabbed the armrests on either side of me, tensing at the wrongness of being trapped inside a flying tin can with my wings handicapped behind me.
