Protector of the Crown

Chapter Five

Chapter Five

Jackson was escorted away when we walked in, likely to be looked over by the palace's physician. I walked by myself to the throne room.

The King sat on his chair, his face gray and sinister, "My son could have died."

I knelt and bowed my head, "Your Majesty, please know I would give my life to protect Prince Jackson."

"I meant my Crowned Prince," he hissed standing, his voice loud and shrill.

I stood and looked to the King, "My King, Grant never left Prince Marcus's side. He would die before he let harm come to our future King. I do believe the target of the attack was Prince Jacks-"

"Enough!" he hissed, waving his hand. He took a breath and turned around, "You did well, Luther. You will not be punished today, but someone will be."

"Your Majesty?"

"Bring them in!" he screamed, his voice abnormally high pitched. Three protectors were shuffled in, hands tied behind their backs. I could easily see what he was planning. The Protectors' faces were neutral, like we practiced, but I could tell they knew too.

"My King!"

"Silence! These men could have gotten my sons killed. They are of no use to me," he nodded at the Protectors behind them. In a swift motion, the "guilty" Protectors were shot in the back of the head and fell to the ground.

I stood, my body frozen. It wasn't until I felt icy cold hands touch my wounded arm that I moved. I jumped and turned. The King was behind me, his head just level with mine.

"As long as you continue to do your job as well as you did today, Ms. Luther, you will never have to worry about this fate, the same fate of your family."

My blood turned to ice in my veins, "Yes, Your Majesty," I whispered. The King squeezed my wound once and then turned and walked away.

As soon as I was free I rushed to my room and ripped off my blood soaked blazer, still trying to understand what I had just seen. The intercom in my room turned on. A Protector alerted me that the Prince was on the move, to the east wing. After a moment there was a knock on my door.

I rushed to the door and ripped it open. Jackson stood there, the top of his shirt buttons undone. He stood politely at my door, but his face looked pained.

"This is very inappropriate, sir," I said, suddenly feeling tired.

"I wanted to make sure you were ok," his gray eyes bore into mine and his body leaned towards me.

I fought my body's urge to lean towards him, instead I pulled back, "I'll survive; it was just an arm shot," I smiled, "Thank you for checking on me though."

"It's odd," he said, looking at me, "I left the military only a year ago, but this was the first time I couldn't act on my instinct to save and ended up being the one being saved.

I understood that, I didn't know what I would do if after all that time learning to protect others, someone tried to step in front of me, "It's my job, plain and simple. I'm not saying it to be modest either. This is literally what I was trained to do."

"Well thank you. I guess I should have started with that, huh?" he said, running his hand through his unruly hair, messing it up further. I wanted to run my fingers through his hair and see if it was as soft as it looked....

"Anytime," I smiled, and then I slowly shut the door, with him standing there. I wanted to talk to him more. I suddenly craved learning more about him, more than the official information I was trained to know, but I knew I couldn't. It would kill us both.