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“He is not your man. None of them are.” He had clearly said it as a comfort, but I already knew that. Besides, I had bigger questions. Starting with the light that had exploded from us when he touched me.
“I know they aren’t him.” I was firm as I stepped forward, keeping my jaw squared as I glared into his ominous scowl, his face speckled with blood that was far too dark even in the night of the forest. “Now tell me–”
“Don’t let her know that you know that,” he whispered, cutting me off as he moved his cloak around him, hiding his long swords from view.
“Don’t let who know?” I asked, the thunderous roar of feet sounding from everywhere. Shouts and screams ripping through what had previously been a deafening silence, that roar of feet growing closer.
“Dalyah,” the stranger said as he stepped around me, clearly taking a more protective stance. “If you value your life, and mine, you will only tell her what is needed.”
“I don’t even know who you are.” Not that I wouldn’t save him, he saved me after all, but I didn’t know him.
“My name is Caspyn.” His focus was through the trees as those thundering footsteps reached us, at least a dozen of the Ramal’s army breaking through the forest with swords drawn. They paused at seeing me, my dress torn and singed, the splatters of blood covering me, before their swords all turned to the stranger.
Caspyn.
The name on the wall. The lilies. That girl telling me to take care of him.
Him.
This man who had saved me.
He didn’t so much as flinch as the guards rushed him. He just stood there as two guards grabbed his hands and shoved them behind his back, two more keeping their swords on him.
“Wait! Stop!” I rushed them, my mind still whirling around what had happened and what he said. I already knew I had to save him, even without his name. Whatever that name meant.
“Get back! This monster will kill you!” The guards howled, even as the stranger glared into the darkness of the trees as Mother stepped into the clearing.
She still wore that icy dress from the wedding, her crown a spiked circlet of knives atop her head. All of that love and joy I had seen on her face before was gone, replaced by the usual scowl as she looked over the clearing, her lip curling even as she feigned disgust.
“What in the world has happened?” She spoke in a high whine, as though she was appalled. Or, rather, as if she was trying to sound worried. I couldn’t tell which. I had never heard that tone from her before. Her voice carried as some of the royals and pilgrims filtered through the trees after her, clearly drawn to the noise. They all wore bed clothes, or were in different stages of undress, not that they would let that keep them from what was sure to be entertainment. The crazy princess, at it again.
“We found this man and his band attacking the princess. They clearly dragged her from the ceremony to kill her,” the guard who held a sword to the stranger's neck announced, his strangled voice loud and flat as he let it carry to those who were still arriving. There was something off about the way he spoke, as though he had said those exact words before, or he was reading them off a piece of parchment.
The corner of the stranger's lips twitched; he had noticed it as well.
“Thank goodness you caught him! Thank goodness she is safe!” My mother was forcing so much concern into her voice she was choking on it. Mock horror lined her eyes as she rushed toward me, hands out to gather me into her arms in some elaborate show.
I didn’t know what she was playing at but I wanted no part of it. I stepped back, wishing my Boy was there, and not all the fake ones that were on the ground. Dead. The moment I stepped away her eyes went to Caspyn, to the man who stood and scowled at her with more hatred than I had ever seen in a person. It was as though he would destroy her with just that look.
I had felt that emotion towards her before, but I had never shown it. I had never risked so much to look at her as though I would be the one to destroy her.
Caspyn did.
I saw that look, I saw every emotion I felt in myself reflected back at me. I should have been scared, but it was too familiar for me to have fear.
The queen smiled back at him, her lips spreading thin as she licked them. She looked at him as if she wanted to eat him. That smile spread further before she schooled her features into that same calm hatred as before.
“Lock him up!” My mother was decisive. “Lock him up for attempting the life of the princess!”
“No! Stop!” I screamed, rushing between him and the guards who were now using their swords like the prods I had seen them use on the cattle in the fields. They barely stopped as I stepped between them, one of the sharp points pressing against my hip.
“He wasn’t trying to kill me! He saved me!”
“Saved you?” My mother laughed, the mockery traveling through the crowd as if they were trained to laugh on cue at the poor princess. It was hard to ignore the way that realization knotted in my gut. I balled my fists, burying them in the singed and torn edges of my skirt as I stepped closer to her, still keeping myself between the guards and Caspyn.
He had saved me, I would save him. But it was more than that, there was something about him. Something I needed to save. I didn’t know how to explain it.
“Yes. These imposters,” I gestured to the bodies that littered the forest floor, “they attacked me. He came and saved me.”
