The Princess's Servant

75. Bachelorette's

The sky had long gone dark by the time Holden gave up on waiting. He hadn't been waiting waiting, he'd told himself — just concerned for the princess's safety. After all, she was a stranger in a foreign land. Who knew what sort of trouble she could find herself in.

Holden pulled on his cotton pajamas and tucked himself into bed. She'd be alright, wouldn't she? She seemed like she could take care of herself. Certainly she could. There was no way a marauding gang of bandits or a cloak-and-dagger assassin could stand a chance against her. Right? And what if they could? What if something did happen to Sybil and that had been the last time he'd ever seen her? Would that be a good thing? A bad thing? The best thing? The worst thing?

The prince tossed in his bed. Now he wished he hadn't let her go. Of course, he couldn't have stopped her (holding people against their will was her thing, not his) but he at least could have sent her out with a lantern. Of course, he couldn't have expected her to be out so long. Why had she been out so long?

Holden couldn't close his eyes. Gods. How did she torment him even when away? The prince felt a pang of anger. He wanted to sleep. In his bed. In his cottage. Alone. As it had always been. Yet here he was, wide awake, thinking of her.

Holden shut his eyes. For awhile, he did nothing more than wait in the total dark. And just when he felt as though he'd never sleep, without realizing it, he finally did.

Holden only knew he'd fallen asleep when he awoke to the sound of crashing and banging. It sounded as though those marauding bandits he'd  worried so much about had broken into his abode. Holden awoke with a fury great enough to match his fear.

He crept out of bed and tried not to make a sound. He lit his bedside candle and grabbed a book for self-defense. It wasn't much, he knew, but it was the most dangerous thing he had in the room.

The prince snuck over to the door and laid his hand on the handle. He gently pressed down... and then...

All at once he tore open the door. The gust from the motion nearly blew out his flame, but it shuttered and revived to reveal...

Two stunned faces, both alike and both familiar. After a beat, they grinned and laughed as though something was funny.

Holden stood there in his jam jams more surprised than they were. "Nara?" Nara smiled. Holden looked to the princess and then back to her sister. "What the hell is going on?" His eye caught sight of the flasks. "Have you two been drinking?" He didn't know why, but Holden hadn't taken Sybil as the drinking type. "I thought you two hated each other."

That earned another burst of laughter from the huntress. "Ah, what's hate but love's own sister?"

"Yeah, 'Wardian,'" Sybil chided with a smile. "You obviously don't know anything about siblings."

Holden wanted to correct her initially. but he realized that maybe he didn't know as much about siblings as he thought. After all, he and Thomas had a strained relationship too, but they'd never do whatever this was together.

"Oh, and if you look behind that stone, that's where he keeps his secret diary," Sybil told Nara, and Nara approached the fireplace. Holden let go of a breath and just watched as she removed the rock.

"Yep," he said. "Back to bed." Holden turned foot to leave.

This seemed to capture the older sister's attention more-so than the journal. Nara set the book aside to address the prince.

"You can't go to bed! We were just about to play!" Nara whined. "You have to join us."

"'Us?'" Holden looked to Sybil, who tilted her head innocently. "I'll pass," he said, and he took another step towards his bedroom.