His Unwanted Princess

Chapter 32

So apparently, no one can find my husband.

I'm not sure what kind of hide-and-seek games Emmet played when he was younger, but he was a pretty good hider, I would say. No one has seen Prince Emmet since the time he brought me back to the place and went up to my room. After the nurses left our room, no one saw him. I'm definitely no use in any of this because I had been blacked out right after Emmet had cleaned me up and tucked me in bed. I think I may have said thank you to him with a kiss on his cheek, but I'm not sure. My mind was very groggy yesterday.

After I'm done eating breakfast, which I shamelessly clean up my plate from, Valec shows up next to me. He says, "Prince Emmet would want for you to be accompanied by me."

"And have we found my husband?" I asked, nodding nonetheless at what he had proposed. Valec shakes his head and must see the initial reaction on my face that bordered on confusion and a hint of worry because he holds a hand up and says, "But don't worry. We will have the prince found in no time."

"It's almost been an hour," I tell him without using a harsh tone, but it comes out that way anyway. Valec only nods at that and says, "Sorry, Miss. Everyone has been working hard to find him."

"And he is not on palace grounds?" I ask, a little confused as to where everyone was going to be searching for him in the first place.

"Don't you think if he was on palace grounds, he would come out upon hearing that his wife is searching for him?" Valec answers back, and the sentiment of the question is sweet. It really is, but it isn't like that. I could be worried about Emmet, and he wouldn't care. The thing was, though, if he was worried about me, then it was different. It seems that Emmet kept me at arm's length, where he only showed care for me and not anything else that came with that. It was a very annoying thing because, even though I was essentially angry at him for it, a part of me wondered if that would develop into something more.

I settled on a little nod in agreement, though I didn't feel that way. I stand up from my chair and turn to Valec. "Am I needed somewhere?"

"Yes," the solider answered back quickly, which I knew was the answer anyway. He had come out with a purpose, and I knew it wasn't to escort me to my room. Speaking of, I couldn't tell when Emmet had left my room or why he had locked it behind him. Did he do it to not let anyone come into my room or to keep me from getting out? Or was it just a habit? I couldn't tell which one it was, and frankly, neither of them mattered. The only thing that remotely mattered would have been me finding out when he left. But I had been passed out for fifteen hours straight due to the pain in my arm and all the crying.

I move toward the soldier and say, "Who are we seeing?"

"The king would like a word with you," Valec answers back, and my eyebrows shoot up at that. I have never spoken to the king without Emmet there, and even if we did speak, it was usually short and simple. Nothing showed me that he had wanted to talk to me. With the way the sentence was spoken it worried me as well. What did that mean? He wanted to have a word with me. Oh my god, he probably wanted to speak to me about what happened when we were out there.

The thing was, I don't know what happened. All I knew was that I had gotten shot at, that he had been insanely protective, and that I had come back to the palace with a new wound I'd never thought I'd get. What happened—and why it happened—never came to me. I didn't know why someone had shot at me. See, I was going to talk to my husband, Emmet, who seemed to have more of a clear mind during it, and figure out what had happened. That was the only reason I was looking for him, but he wasn't here.

We get to the throne room a little while later, and Valec opens the door for me. He pulls the double door open so I can walk in, and I do so with my head bowed and my nerves settling into my body. As I walked over to where the king would be sitting, I was vaguely aware of what I was wearing. I was in a pant suit, and even though they had matched, it was something I ever wore when presented in front of the king. That made me a little nervous to be less presented in front of him.