Page 107 of Reign of Light
He only wanted to get to me.
He wouldn’t stop until he got to me.
“If he took you away from me, he would have had to kill me because I would not have stopped until it was his throat being crushed beneath my fingers.”
Fear tightens my chest as I think about Weston meeting the same fate, and I can’t imagine a world without him and all the good he does for anyone he meets.
“Thank the gods my father didn’t let either of us have to endure that.”
He nods solemnly. “I should have thanked him for it.” He presses another soft kiss to my lips, and I know it is still taking everything he has to hold himself back. He meets my eyes again when he pulls away, and the sadness has been pushed aside, as the First Guard slips back into place.
“I need to go take care of things downstairs. Do you give me permission to do that?”
My fingertips begin to tingle, and my breaths shorten.
“You’re leaving?” My voice comes out as a squeak, and I wince at the pain from exertion. “No, don’t leave.”
“Breathe,” he coos as his thumbs stroke my skin again, trying to soothe and calm me, but it doesn’t work. I can barely think. Every possible scenario depicting reasons he wouldn’t return to me runs through my mind, and the loneliness that accompanies them threatens to swallow me whole.
“Don’t go,” I sob, and wrap my hands around his wrists, squeezing so tight that my fingernails dig into his skin. “Please. Don’t leave me.”
“I’m not leaving you, my queen. I have to make sure the castle is safe, and that everyone who was involved is in the dungeon. I need it to be safe for you to be here. But I need your permission to do that.”
He needs my permission, because it isn’t just a term of endearment anymore. It’s a name and title that would one day come to fruition, and that day is today.
I am the queen.
This isn’t Captain Weston. This is First Guard Weston, and I am his queen.
While he acted without orders when I was in immediate danger, he still requires my command when there is no threat to my life, and I have to be strong enough to give it.
I have to be strong enough to watch him walk away and know he will come back, that I have nothing to fear, despite everything in my body and mind screaming at me that I do.
I shudder and force my hands to release his wrists to settle in my lap. Dipping my chin, I say the only thing I can.
“Yes.”
“Thank you,” he says, and presses a kiss to my forehead before finding my eyes again. His gaze is fierce as he puts all of his sincerity behind his next words. “I will come back, my queen. I’m not going anywhere.”
I give him a tentative nod, and the muscles in my neck spasm as I do. I taste blood on my tongue when I bite down, doing anything to try to hide the fact that the simple movement caused so much pain.
A loud knock reverberates through my rooms, and Weston glances over his shoulder. The door is bolted, so no one can enter, but I don’t want him to walk away. Not yet.
“You need a healer,” I say, trying to stall him as the knock pounds loudly again.
“I will see a healer.” He rises and runs his fingers through my hair, pushing it back away from my face before his hand settles gently at the nape of my neck. “I’ll make sure you are safe, and I will be back as soon as I can.”
I feel the absence of his touch the moment he disappears back into my chambers, but I don’t move. The high-pitched creak of the boltbeing removed from the door, followed by the turn of the handle, pulls all of my attention away from everything else.
“Someone needs to explain to me what is going on because I went to the queen’s room—” The sentence is interrupted by a loud gasp, followed by the rustle of a dress brushing the floors and the click of the latch falling back into place.
Tila.Weston told the guard to send her, but the memory vanished under all the rest until I heard her voice. And the gasp. I’d almost forgotten. TilaknowsWeston, and she was nowhere near the throne room this morning. Seeing him again for the first time in so long clearly took her by surprise.
“Tila,” he says, his voice urgent. “You’re the only one I can trust with her. I need you to take care of her while I figure things out.”
“Weston? My…how did you…what—” She stumbles over her words, likely trying to process what her mind knows but what her eyes are seeing.
“I can’t explain, but the king is dead. The princess is the queen now, and I need to make sure there is no further threat. Can I trust you?” There isn’t even a beat of silence before she’s spitting her answer back at him.
