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I would never forget this…not ever.
He made one hundred and twelve calls. Some lasted only two or three minutes because those on the other side were too distraught to speak. Others took nearly a half-hour. But he didn’t rush them off. He didn’t allow himself to cut in. He listened to them cry or scream or both. He kept going and going. Even when the sun came up, he kept saying one more. It was only when we just didn’t have any more information did he finally allow everyone to take a break. He refused to go to his rooms to rest. He was waiting for more names. The queen refused to leave without him, so she was curled up on the couch.
It was nearly four a.m.
And even I couldn’t stop despite how blurred my vision was getting.
“Is there any news?” I asked when I walked into the Guard’s offices on the second level. Thelma was resting against the desk, while the others, now only seven in total, kept checking their phones or the computers.
“We can’t get anything on Layland’s condition; the hospital is overwhelmed, right now,” said Erkin Remington, who was number three in command, well now first in command, since Iskandar and Layland were gone. “I have security still doing sweeps of the palace every hour for now. Is the king still in his study?”
Before I could answer, a voice spoke out behind me.
“Why are you asking instead of being there yourself?”
I spun around so quickly I nearly fell on my ass. There he was dressed in his black uniform, shaved and polished like a brand-new soldier from the academy.
“Sir!”
All the guards stood to attention.
“You are in the way,” he said calmly to me, and I backed away, quickly moving to allow him to go forward. “What is our current threat status?” he asked them as if he hadn’t been gone for weeks!
What?
“I just put it at green,” Erkin said to him.
“Put it back at yellow,” he ordered and walked around the desk, Erkin moving as fast as he could out of the way. “Thelma, go find a place to sleep for at least five hours. Xavier, go to the security room and ask to review any footage for the last month with them. I need a report on any suspicious activity that may have happened. Silas, continue to monitor those in the palace. Everyone who either comes in or out will need to be thoroughly checked. I don’t care who it is; their IDs need to be with them and updated. No one checked me when I entered, even though my ID wasn’t up to date.”
“Of course, no one checked you. It’s you.” I finally found my voice to speak. “Everyone knows you.”
“The people who attacked parliament worked at parliament,” he said. How did he know that? I didn’t even know that. “We can assume it can happen here. Everyone needs to be alert. It’s still too early to know for sure. Go.”
They didn’t even argue with him, all gathering their things before marching out the door. I watched as he put his bag on the desk, pulling out his nametag as well as his academy class photo. “Do you really have time to just stand there?”
I frowned. “What happened to retiring? To sticking to your precious rules?”
“How are the king and queen?” he asked instead of answering my questions, putting his stuff down before walking back around his desk.
“Exhausted. Now answer me.”
“As you said…rules aren’t everything all the time,” was all he said to me before walking toward the door.
“Oh, so I’m right, now? I’m not a bother, now? You aren’t going to just vanish into thin air—Ah!” I winched, reaching to grab the back of my head. It had been so long since anyone had hit me that it actually hurt worse.
“Have some decorum; the country is mourning,” he reprimanded me.
Me. Who had been working nonstop while he was in the woods? Standing back up, I reached up, and he grabbed my wrist again.
“You were right. No need to hit me back.”
“Welcome back. If you leave again, you better not stop me from smacking you,” I grumbled, taking my wrist back and rubbing it.
“Deal.” He nodded, walking up the stairs.
I couldn’t believe him. Honestly, after all the trouble I went through…after all the preaching and protesting…he just waltzed back in here like he never really meant to leave.
And I was glad.
