Page 72 of Façade

Guard Silas straightened and, after seeking permission with his gaze, he settled on the bench beside me. While I knew him to be a guard my parents highly trusted, I couldn’t help but stiffen and cast him a suspicious sidelong glance; I still felt there was a possibility that he could be the threat to my life.

He eyed my rigid posture. “I know your experiences have made you wary, but you can trust me…Nymph.” He extended his hand to showcase the royal insignia adorning his finger.

My breath hooked. Both the ring and the nickname were a code my parents and I had decided upon at a very young age as a means for me to discern my allies. I hadn’t heard their tender nickname for me since the day my life forever changed. Hearing it again reminded me of all the affection my mother and father had given me in my free-spirit ways, which I’d never questioned until my identity had been ripped away from me. Yet hearing it again brought it all rushing back.

Tears burned my eyes, but I hastily blinked them away. “I’m grateful to have an ally. Is there a reason you’ve remained in the shadows until now?” Hopefully the topic would provide a much-needed distraction from my melancholy.

He bowed his head in remorse. “It was never my intention to cause you fear. My job was to watch you without being detected and eliminate each threat against you. I’ve been able to take care of most of the…problemsbefore they could even get near you. The close call from the assassin who attacked you in your room several nights ago worked in a pair—one distracted me while the other attacked you. I’m so relieved I made it just in time.”

“You’re the one who pulled my attacker off.”

He nodded. “Me and another of the Estorian guards that accompanied me infiltrated Brimoire’s guard and was the one tasked with searching the grounds for the intruder. I lied about finding nothing—in truth the body wasn’t far, just outside on your balcony—but I waited to take care of it so as not to draw attention to the attempt on your life, considering I wasn’t sure who in that palace I could trust.”

“And the arrow near the stream along with poisonous berries?”

His mouth thinned. “I didn’t see either attempt, leading me to believe one of your attending guards might be an undercover assassin. I’ve kept as close to you as I’ve dared ever since.”

It was a relief to finally receive answers to some of the mysteries surrounding me, yet many more questions burned my tongue, yearning to be quenched. “Why have you chosen to reveal yourself now?”

“Because there’s no longer any need for secrecy. I’ve only remained hidden to honor Their Majesties’ wishes to do all in my power to keep you from suspecting your true identity, but that order is unnecessary now that you know the truth.” At my shock, he hastened to explain. “This place is filled with magic, which my position as an Estorian Royal Guard has granted me some understanding of. The moment I saw you enter the Hall of Prophecies, I knew the time had for the truth to be revealed.”

Yet even with the truth, I felt more lost than ever. “I’m the true crown princess of Estoria, despite all my parents led me to believe.” Saying the words out loud strengthened my claim to them.

“Only to protect you.”

I knew that, truly I did…yet somehow I still feltempty, as if all my emotions had been wrung out, leaving me exhausted. Though I retained enough feeling to experience relief that my entire life hadn’t been a lie after all and that the love I cherished from my parents was genuine, the insecurities that had haunted me my entire life, which had only grown with the façade, still lingered.

“How can I be the true princess when I don’t measure up?”

“Nothing will alter the fact that you were born a princess,” Guard Silas said. “That identity didn’t change even when you believed you were only a decoy, and it won’t change no matter how you view yourself or your capabilities.”

Despite my lingering doubts, I managed a nod. I still had several questions, many of which part of me was afraid to voice…except for one. “Can I go home?”

My constant longing for my family swelled, so acute it filled me to bursting. I wanted nothing more than to quench it—to see my parents, feel their tender arms around me, bask in their love—all of which I’d fiercely missed when I feared it’d been forever taken from me.

But he shook his head. “It’s far too dangerous. We must wait for the threat to pass.”

At the expense of the one who’d been charged to take my place. “How can I in good conscience allow another to serve as my decoy midst circumstances fraught with so much danger?”

“She’s a young woman on death row, spared the noose so she could masquerade as the princess in exchange for her freedom. You have no reason to concern yourself with her, especially when we have more pressing matters.” His expression grew solemn. “I admit that when I accepted the charge to protect you, I never imagined the challenge that would come after you willingly embraced one of the gravest threats against you.”

His gaze drifted towards the monastery, where my husband likely still remained unconscious. My settling heart roused back to life just thinking of him. “You mean Ryland?”

Guard Silas nodded gravely. “There are many threats still conspiring against you—in the Estorian palace, the assassins following you.”

I startled. “The threat is in the palace itself? Who—”

“We don’t know beyond what the prophecy informed us, but the decoy’s purpose is to uncover the assassin by smoking them out with her own life. Yet after all this, you willingly married one of the men Their Majesties worked to protect you from: he’s after Estoria’s magic, Princess.”

My heart prickled at the accusation, despite knowing it was justified. “I assure you my actions weren’t so foolhardy; I only wished to protect who I thought was the real princess.” How was I to know that person wasme?I lowered my gaze. “I also wanted to prove myself, especially during a moment when I felt like a nobody.” Only for everything to go so terribly wrong.

He was silent a beat before he released a weary sigh. “I suspected as much. I would have stopped you, but I admittedly didn’t understand the extent of your plan until it was too late. If only I could have prevented this.”

I worriedly gnawed my lip. “Is Ryland really a threat?” Though I knew his intentions against Estoria’s magic, part of me still yearned to deny them, especially with how close we’d become and all I was beginning to feel towards him.

Guard Silas’s expression hardened. “There is no mistaking his intentions. You’re fortunate your powers were delayed in arriving, that he mistakes you for a decoy and seeks to annul your marriage. You must allow him to without further delay.”

Deep down Iknewthat…yet my heart wrenched all the same, every part of me resisting the thought of separating myself from the man I’d grown to care for.

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