Royal On The Run (unedited)

Chapter Three

Sebastian

I strolled through the palace doors with a familiar ease in my step. The suv that dropped me off was long forgotten already. I had something else on my mind. Or rather, someone. But before I could go see her, I had to make a small pit stop to check in with the King and Queen.

   Devin was waiting for me. We'd go over his reports on how Naomi had been in his care during my absence. We walked in silence as we walked down a few halls. It was nice to have him back, he knew where my mind was, knew it'd be useless to give me any information right now. Right now it'd go in one ear and out the other and none would stick. We'd talk in the morning. Once we got to the throne room, I walked right to the thrones and bowed politely to the King and Queen who sat in their thrones with such poise I almost felt like I shouldn't even be allowed in their presence. They each gave a polite nod in acknowledgement.

    The king smiled proudly at me.

    "It's good to see you standing again, Sebastian."

    I grinned at the king. "I couldn't agree more. I'd do it all again though if I had to."

    He of course was referring to the incident that had put me in the hospital in the first place. What had required me to receive a few surgeries and had taken weeks to recover. While it hadn't been my idea that had led to the incident, I couldn't place the blame on anyone but myself.

    I should have told Naomi that it was time to head back to the palace, but I didn't, I couldn't. Seeing her dance around in the fountains with the lights shining around her, the music playing that had her quickening her dances that made no sense to anyone but her, I couldn't rip away her happiness. What was the harm in letting her be a normal teenage girl for a few more minutes?

    The answer? Too much harm.

    It was lucky I was able to hear the uneven footsteps come running towards us. Towards Naomi. I let her out of my sight for two seconds while I set my eyes on the would-be attacker. He was pinned down mere feet from where Naomi had been dancing around in the fountains.

    I was holding the would-be attacker down, I spared Naomi a glance to see if she was alright. She was, so I turned back towards the man below my knee and that was a mistake.

    Naomi's scream pierced the night. Over the loud music, the colorful lights. Her scream shattered my heart. Shattered my soul, my everything, my very reason for living.

    I knocked the would-be attacker out with a nice little maneuver to the temple and then was on my way to the princess.

    When I got back to the fountain, I saw that the would-be attacker had a friend. The friend currently stood in the fountain next to Naomi, a knife flashed in the lights. That's where Naomi's eyes were glued. I saw fear in them. The one thing that was never supposed to be in her eyes when I was around was there, and it was because of me letting my guard down.

    I was the best in my squad at stealth. That had been the one thing I'd always managed to have in my twenty years of life. I'd always managed to evade the other kids on the playground, avoid the would be bullies who thought they could get the drop on me. It was always a delight to see them floundering like fish out of water when they'd noticed that I'd yet again disappeared on them.