Tensionfloatedthroughtheair as Angus poked his head into the war room, eyeing the queen bent over a stack of letters at the long mahogany table. A map of Everstal was carved into its center and in the middle of that, there was a lifelike replication of Roskide, the rose-colored-and-covered castle which was the crown jewel of the kingdom. She ran a hand through her iridescent black hair releasing a sigh. Stomach clenching in response, Angus cleared his throat. He hated delivering unwelcome news to his queen. Especially following the most recent discovery of the whereabouts of her former lover, Felix, and the condition of his new bride.
Caroline looked up from the papers she was studying to her commander. She blinked as if trying to flutter away the strain from long hours of sorting through the correspondences. Inquisitive silver eyes studied him, waiting. Few men met the queen and weren’t taken aback by her beauty. It wasn’t that Angus didn’t find her visually appealing. Romance and all it entailed wasn’t something he was interested in.
He’d seen the consequences firsthand with his parents and enjoyed their relationship as it was. Besides, they’d grown up together. They were the only family each other had, and that suited Angus fine.
When they met at fourteen, they’d both been gangly teens, not grown into their adult bodies. Now, Caroline stood taller than most women and had lithe curves, long limbs, and the smoothest alabaster skin he’d ever seen. She typically wore her hair loose, a long sheet of black ice which reflected the light gleaming blue. But it was her intelligent silver eyes, hooded and slightly upturned, which always discerned too much that set her apart.
”Is now a good time?” Angus shifted on his feet feeling small in her presence.
The man standing before the queen was no longer the wiry boy she’d met, either, only days after all hell had broken loose in Roskide. And on the heels of the former king and queen’s assassination. It had taken them five years to rebuild the guard, staff the castle, and reorganize the armies, but they’d done it growing up together. Then another five to become the smoothly operating unit they were now.
Angus understood he’d become an imposing figure, like his father, Torac, her father’s own commander. Tall, broad shouldered, a stubborn square jaw that jutted out like an anvil, and intimidating deep gold eyes that could pin a person to a spot. But none of that mattered when he was standing before her. It didn’t matter who you were—Queen Caroline Dallimore had molded herself into a figure many respected and even more feared.
“Where’s Evran?” she asked, brow furrowing in concern.
Gripping the documents in a clammy hand, he ran his other across his cropped tight curls and down his tawny face, the gesture betraying his anxious energy. Caroline narrowed her eyes. She was fully aware of his nonverbal communication.
“He didn’t report for duty this morning. I sent a courier to his family’s home, and he wasn’t there either.” Angus pressed his lips into a hard line and dropped the documents on the table before her.
“He’s gone… like the others, isn’t he?” It was more a statement than a question. She knew.
Angus nodded. “That makes him the third guard this year to vanish.”
“Gods,” Caroline swore, chucking a fountain pen across the room. It struck the wall, ink splattering. People went missing, but herpersonal guards…That was enough to make the hair on the back of her neck stand on end. “I don’t like this.”
“Neither do I,” Angus said. “We’re working on getting to the bottom of it, but so far, we don’t have a viable lead. He was in the barracks last night, confirmed by several other guards. He must have disappeared in the night. His bed looked like he slept in it, but his boots were still under it. You need to choose an immediate replacement. Those are the top three candidates.”
Caroline groaned and reached for the papers Angus pointed to, their ominous presence something she could no longer ignore. She scanned the first one and set it aside. She went through the next two and tossed them on the table and shrugged at Angus, who was waiting with his hands linked behind his back. “Does it matter? They all seem equally proficient.” The poor condemned soul she selected was going to disappear anyway, like the others—if they didn’t uncover what was happening to them first.
“They’re outside the room if you’d like to meet them,” he said.
“Very well, show them in.” Caroline reclined back in her chair, gripping the armrests as if she could channel all the tension gripping her shoulders into the wood.
Angus poked his head out into the hallway, murmured something, then three guards followed him in and lined up as he directed for her inspection. As Caroline placed the papers beside each other, Angus reached down and shuffled the middle document to the outside. He waved a thick hand toward the guards. “Cole Harris, Brock Holzman and Johnneth Althorpe.”
The men knelt before her, diverting their eyes to the floor. “Rise,” she said.
The queen studied the three men Angus had brought before her. Caroline’s instinct was always so keen when it came to these matters and, often, she made the decision he would have. The queen and her commander were a formidable duo that way.
Caroline’s face remained impassive, yet he caught the subtlest tick of her jaw as she ran her gaze over the three guards. That slight tell was the reason this choice would be one of the rare times they disagreed. Specialist Brock Holzman was senior to the other two men by a few months and a little gruffer and more direct, which would suit Caroline’s temperament best. He was a square barrel of a man, with ruddy brown hair cropped close to his skull and a dense arrangement of freckles dappling his tan skin. But the documents outlined each of their personalities, strengths, weaknesses, and she had studied them.
“Johnneth is an unusual name,” Caroline said, her voice taking on a decidedly smoother tone than it had when it had been the two of them.
“A family name, Your Majesty,” Johnneth responded, his stare floating up from the floor to meet her gaze.
Angus did not miss the subtle glint in the man’s eye, and he scolded himself for including him in the selection, having believed Holzman the obvious choice. Specialist Althorpe had been with the guard for five years this month, however, technically making him eligible and he’d been insistent on being presented as a candidate today. Serving as the queen’s personal guard was his sole life ambition Althorpe claimed, which chipped at his normally sensible resolve.
Angus could only understand the sentiment all too well, so he’d given the man what he’d wanted thinking he would only be appeasing him. He didn’t believe his queen would make such an impractical choice. While Althorpe was strong, skilled in all manner of weaponry, and unusually quick-witted, the man was a little too overconfident—too green—eager even, despite his qualifications, and her interest brought with it no small measure of concern. Granted, Caroline could take care of herself. She had proven that much.
Still, he needed to encourage his queen to find a new lover soon, so she wouldn’t distract her fledgling guard out of boredom. Or better yet, they could finalize one of thereturn blowsthey’d been concocting against Veetula now that they’d stabilized the kingdom.
“Specialist Althorpe, you may stay. The rest of you report back to your stations,” Angus commanded, wishing to get this over before his agitation seeped beneath Caroline’s notice. Harris and Holzman shuffled toward the door, shoulders slumped—dejected.
Caroline whipped her body in his direction, and he mirrored her motion. “But I—”
Angus nodded at the table, and the queen stopped short as her eyes landed on Althorpe’s dossier in her grip. Caroline sneered at him, and he raised his brows in athat’s what I thoughtexpression, the look exchanged between them blocked from the new guard’s view. The last thing Angus needed was for the green specialist to think he could get away with such casual behavior toward the queen.
“If that is all, I’ll leave you. I plan to leave tonight to personally fetch Felix and his bride. You sure you want them alive?” he asked, shooting her a conspiratorial grin over his shoulder as he turned to leave the room.
