Hidden Away

Nineteen: Love Me From A Distance

Hours after the guards cleared the entire palace and made sure there were no wolves left, I found myself wandering through the private part of the palace where the royal family resided in. I needed to make sure everyone was fine and I needed to know what exactly it was that happened tonight. There was no way this attack was a last-minute decision.

This part of the palace was definitely more fancy than the rest. I could tell more thought, and more importantly, money was put into the decorations of this part. I just knew that the portraits on the wall were original art pieces created by the royal family's most trusted artists they have. 

"Miss, you can't be up here." I turned around and was met with one of the family's personal maids. She wore the tacky uniform that I thought only maids on TV would use. "These are private quarters."

"Sorry," I said, giving her a small smile. She wasn't having it. She seemed tough, but if you paid as close attention to her behavior as I did, she was intimidated. The way she twirled the string of her apron, which flowed down the side of her attire, and ran her hand through the skirt to rid it of the excess sweat gave it away.

"You need to leave, now." I didn't like the way she was tapping her foot impatiently against the ground. Her hands were in her hips and her eyebrows were furrowed. She was flustered.

"I was just looking for the King. I need to talk to him—"

"I can get someone to schedule you a meeting with him, but you have to leave or I'll have to get the guards to personally remove you." She reached into the front pocket of her apron and took out a contraption that looked like an old, outdated cell phone.

"You don't get it. I don't have time to talk to him later. I need to see him now."

My ears started heating up with irritation when she brought the device to her lips, pressed a button on the side of it, and started speaking into it. "I'm going to need someone—"

"It's alright, Mandy. I'll take care of her." Bennett came up from behind me, startling the young woman. She quickly put the device back into the pocket of her skirt, bowed, and disappeared down the hallway. Perfect timing.

Bitch, I thought.

I turned on my heel. "I need to talk to you about what happened," I said urgently.

Bennett nodded and placed a hand on my shoulder. He began leading me down the hallway. "Not out here. It's better if we go to my office." We eventually made it into the same room that Levi had brought me to when we first arrived. Bennett made his way over to the desk and lent on it. The desk groaned under his weight.

"Do you know who was behind the attack tonight?" I asked, getting straight to the point.

"The Destroyers," he said nonchalantly. That was the same thing the guard had told me earlier today. It made me think that this was a common occurrence.

"The Destroyers?" I asked, intrigued. This counted as the second time I had heard that name and I wanted to know more.

"A group of ruthless, power-hungry rogues. They make it their mission to overthrow the royal family and take over the entire species. We nicknamed them that because they will destroy anything and anyone who gets in the way of their goal." The way he explained it to me made it seem like he wasn't alarmed or worried that these so-called Destroyers would attack again.

"You're not worried? They specifically attacked to bring you and your family down."

"This isn't the first time they've attacked, Norah. They've attacked before. Lucky for us, they've never succeeded." He lifted himself upright and walked all the way around the desk towards some filing cabinets that were neatly placed along the wall. He seemed to know exactly where what he was looking for was judging by the fact that he quickly opened one of them and took out a manila folder that was about a centimeter thick with papers. Closing the cabinet and turning around, he tossed the folder on the desk. The folder was labeled Destroyers in the top right corner where the tab was. I quickly took Bennett's invitation for me to open the folder. I spread the contents of the flimsy, bright yellow folder across the table.