Book 14: Your Home Now

Maeve

The next person who enters the suite is familiar, and it’s a relief. Patton, only half an hour after Jane left to start spreading the word to those we trust, arrives in a hurry, his face washed in concern, then frustration, when he races down the hallway with Niall hot on his heels.

Niall, tall and muscular, with dark hair and brown eyes, his skin a rich golden brown against the deep crimson of his guard uniform, skids to a stop when he sees me on the floor in nothing but a nightgown and robe with a stranger’s head in my lap–a stranger who broke into the castle, no doubt, sliding past my guards, and my shields, for Goddess’s sake.

“Maeve,” Patton rushes out, trapped between what he feels is duty to me as a friend, as Soren’s friend, and being in the presence of a royal. A queen. He gives me a weak, awkward bow before giving Niall an unsure glance and moving closer to us.

Niall, unaware of the situation and what he was walking into, grab