Not So Innocent (A Dark Fantasy Novel)

The Secret Legion

It started with her guard, a buff soldier named Garrison.

In the weeks passing that night with Will, Cleo had been so demanding of Lexa, with a threat on her lips every step of the way. Cleo had replaced Adelaide's entire court, placing the positions with people that she could trust- and were loyal to her alone. Bennie had betrayed her, and Lexa refused to converse with him out of pure spite. He had reached out numerous times, and Lexa could tell that he was truly suffering without her. Glances of grief and looks of longing followed her strides when she passed him in the hallways. But it served him right. A little bit of heartbreak would put him back in his place.

She supposed that he could transport to her any time he choose, but he kept his distance as well, knowing all too well how Lexa would feel about such an act.

To anyone else, Lexa's recent misfortune would have been devastating. But she had found a way to turn it into a blessing.

Garrison was a man with a copious amount of strength, but for what he seemed to have in brute power he lacked in intelligence.

Lexa's favorite kind of person.

Being her guard, Garrison had to always be around her, no matter what. Especially after the whole incident with the real Adelaide, Will had made sure that her guards were consistently astute. So when her all of the maids in the castle came down with a mysterious strain of nasty food poisoning, someone had to help the fragile Adelaide when she "accidentally" fell out of the bath. She had screamed, he had rushed in, and after large amounts of flaming red cheeks and a hopelessly small towel, he had returned to his post. He had probably thought that would have been the end of their communication, but with showering him in thanks the next morning, he soon found himself wrapped around the finger of a princess.

Days had passed then. She had whispered numerous lies to feed his need for her. "I love you," Adelaide would say with the innocent, troubled eyes of a doe. "I wish that it was you that I was being wed to." Each lie was like fuel to his fire of infatuation. She could see it in his eyes, just how much he would give for her. Anything, they seemed to say. I'd give you anything.

And with those carefully woven tales, the soldier fell hard into a hole that he would not climb out of alive. Though she doubted that he would ever want to.

And the best part of all, he kept his mouth shut. Unlike another man she knew.

Lexa had shoved away the thoughts bordering the edges of her mind, that perhaps Bennie wasn't just any man. That maybe after 7 years of plotting together he meant a bit more.

But Bennie wasn't around, and she sure as hell wasn't going to go looking for him.

She needed more. Lexa coveted more than just one simple soldier to do her bidding. Then she set her greed upon a small legion of guards in the castle. She had listened to the laughter of the superior guards, guffawing at the weak and pathetic group. They should go back home so that they could beg their mothers to kiss their wounds, one would say. Another guard would laugh, adding that they might as well start making legions of woman if they were going to have this group.

The misfit legion. Where all of the barely passable soldiers went to watch their careers die in front of their eyes.

There were seven guards to the group, ranging from the ten year old twins to the twenty five year old man without a right arm. Anyone after that age soldiers were worthless to the kingdom if they had not already gained their places.

People saw nothing in them, so they were nothing.

But not for long. They were hers now, each and every one of them.