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Leo looked very handsome. There were some signs of aging on his face, highlighted in the slight lines framing his severe eyes. There was no longer that invincible air about him. Leo Winthrop towered over me. His left cheek had a faded scar that was new to me, although it seemed to have been there for quite some time. His long, dirty blond hair was tied in a bun on top of his head, and his green eyes scanned the length of my body with their sparkling gaze.
I whispered, “Leo.” I hadn’t seen him since the night I left. “What are you doing here?” I was shocked to see his stoic face. Before I left, Leo Winthrop was a young guard assigned to August and me. In his early years after graduating from the royal academy, he had that hopeful spirit about him, as if he was always searching for an adrenaline rush. He looked burdened by his job now. As I stared deep into his fierce eyes, I tried to find traces of the guy I once knew.
“The queen asked me to follow you. Not sure your presence warrants the fuss, though.” His voice was smooth like dark chocolate but twice as bitter.
I wasn’t expecting the hostility. The last time I’d seen him, Leo had saved my life. I still remembered the way he cradled me to his chest and stripped me out of my bloody clothes.
“There’s nothing for you in Aldrich, Christine. Don’t get any funny ideas about staying,” he said before clearing his throat.
I peered into his eyes. “I’d like to be alone.” My voice was strong despite the pain behind it. Being this close to Leo was difficult for me. It caused waves of shame to crash into my soul.
He knew the slopes of my curves, the face I made after the intrusion on my body.
He’d heard the slapping of weathered skin against my soft childhood.
He knew that I’d killed the lord the king wanted me to marry.
“I’ve been ordered to watch you.” He gritted his words like they pained him. “They think you feel more comfortable with me, you know. We should always follow orders, right, Christine?”
I nodded. Of course he was forced into being here. I was too embarrassed. After all, he was the one who found me. The pity in his expression still haunted me to this day. It was one of those defining moments that changed us both forever.
We were friends once. Maybe even more.
Back before I was sent away, Leo was always surprising me with treats—my favorite flavor of ice cream or cheap beaded necklaces he bought at the market. He was somewhat of an older brother to me, but not quite. We were friendly, but I’d be lying if I didn’t admit that my gaze lingered on him during our quiet moments alone. He saw me as a young girl he was sworn to protect, a stepping stone to rising in the ranks of the royal guard.
I saw him as…more…
But that was before.
“I don’t want to talk,” I murmured.
He ignored my request. “It’s strange seeing you without splatters of blood in your hair. That image has been burned into my brain for the last three years.”
A sob suffocated me, lodged in my throat. I replied with a cough. “Fuck you, Leo.”
“You’re all grown up. Using curse words like a man, now. Careful, I hear the nobility don’t like filthy mouths to suck their cocks.”
I choked out a bitter laugh, surprising him. “I should have spent more time cultivating my filthy mouth instead of learning how to curtsy.”
“You never fit in here. You should just leave.”
“I will,” I replied, looking at him. There was a noticeable increase in his size. With scruff covering his jaw, he had a pale complexion but rugged features. “You grew into your muscles.”
“I’ve been working out,” he replied in his clipped tone. “With you absent, there wasn’t much else to do, considering I was demoted and everything.”
I shook my head in confusion. “Demoted?”
He laughed and stepped closer to me. For some reason, I found myself terrified of Leo. I knew physically he wouldn’t hurt me. But emotionally, he could destroy what remaining sanity I had left. “You didn’t think that what happened only affected you, did you? After the queen shipped you off, I was left patrolling abandoned castles in the countryside. The only reason I’m here now is because I’m one of the few people who know why you walked away. You know how the royal family is about their secrets.”
It was impossible not to gape at him. His banishment shocked me. Leo was ambitious and intelligent. He was highly skilled and capable of running the royal guard. It was a waste of his talents to live in the countryside.
“I didn’t realize…”
“I didn’t want you to know,” he snapped. “One minute the king was calling you to his royal bedchamber, and the next thing I knew, Queen Isabelle was ordering me to dispose of Lord Geralt’s body.” His crass words made me flinch, a parade of memories stalking through my mind.
“It’s my right as a king to demand your body for whomever I choose. Your father wanted you to marry Lord Geralt. You’re eighteen now.”
I sobbed and shook. “But…I can’t…”
