The tension in the air was thick and tight enough it could snap. I understood why Karim was acting this way. I’d have been
the same if it were Talia who needed my help. I’d sacrifice the entire world if it meant keeping her and my loved ones safe.
“I can’t leave her,” Karim muttered as he pushed his hand closer to my face.
“Please, Karim, we have been friends for too long for this to end this way. Ornella is the key to stopping all of this. Please,
let her go so we can finish this once and for all.”
Marcus lowered his sword and sheathed it, before getting down on his knees to beg. Beg for my life. The guard I always
thought as grumpy, annoying, and a pain in my backside was begging to save me. My eyes widened at the realisation. He’d been
my guard since I was a child, but did he know of what Dorian did during the night when everyone slept? Kathlyn knew, so did
that mean Marcus also did?
“Do you know what Dorian did to me?” I asked him directly.
He didn’t flinch at my question. His brows knit in confusion.
“Did you know when you would guard my door at night, he would somehow make his way into my bedroom and do
unspeakable, horrible things to me?”
Karim loosened his grip as my words sank into him. Marcus stared up at me with a look of horror on his face then lowered
his eyes, in shame.
“I found out after you left. Your lady’s maid, Kathlyn, told myself and a few of the other servants who only served you. She
also wished to tell your father, but then she was sent away to get you back.”
“Who sent her to find me, Marcus?”
I never thought to ask Kathlyn or Hector who sent them. I had assumed it was my father, but from Marcus’s words, it didn’t
seem likely. My heart raced in my ears as Karim finally released his grip and dropped his hand, stepping away I heard him
suck in a cry. A sob for his sister and my past.
“Who sent them?” Kneeling down in front of Marcus, I gently lifted up his face only to see shame clouded his eyes.
“I didn’t protect you, princess, when I should have. It is my sworn duty to serve and protect you.”
“You are doing that right now, Marcus, but please tell me. Who sent them?”
“The queen sent them. With that bitch of a whore,” he spat as he mentioned Nora, clearly there was some very bad blood
there.
“Your mother knew. She knew of what her brother did, and she still did nothing.”
Heaving in a breath of cold air, the world came crashing down around me. It felt almost as if the floor below me
disappeared entirely. All the noises suddenly went muffled. My chest hurt, I couldn't breathe, and my vision darkened around
the edges. Marcus’s large arms wrapped around me tightly as I tried to breathe, desperately trying to make sense of what he’d
