The Beauty In Love And Murder

Chapter Thirty Seven - Adrienne

Tobias and I stand on opposing sides of the room in shock. "Tobias." I repeat his name again, feeling the weight in the word as memories flood my senses. When you turn nineteen, I'll marry you. I'll keep you safe and protect you for the rest of your life. Those were his words to me, the promise he left with me before I was dragged away to become a killer.

I walk around the desk shakily, seeing Theodore step towards me with a hand out to steady me. I don't look at him— I keep my eyes fixed on Tobias' face, tears welling in my eyes for the first time after months of feeling numb to the world. I stop when I am half a pace in front of him and look up at him. He's grown— the schoolboy I used to love has grown to six feet and now I have to tilt my head back to look at him. His blonde hair is longer now, and he wears it tied back. He looks so much older, but I can clearly see the face that I used to long so much to see one last time.

He stares at me, our gazes locked on one another. I drink in his features as I feel a tear roll down my face. I don't know what I want him to say— I never dreamed that I'd ever see him again. I thought he was dead, or had left the country at the very least. What is he doing in the palace? As the captain of the guard? And serving under Theodore— the beautiful prince, to whom I'm bound by a contract.

Slowly, Tobias raises a hand to cup my cheek and I exhale shakily. "Adrienne."

"Yes," I breathe.

"Is that really you?" He searches my eyes and finds the answer himself.

"Oh, my goddesses. It is you." Tobias pulls me into his chest and I choke on a sob in his shirt, clinging to him as I pretend I'm eleven again and crying with him in our old treehouse.

His hand cups the back of my head and he shushes me the way he used to. "Shh. It's alright, it's okay. You found me, after all this time, you found me." I feel his kiss my hair like he did all those years ago and look up at Theodore. Belatedly, Tobias remembers that he is in the presence of the Crown Prince. Tobias releases me quickly and I stumble, but Theodore catches me and eases me into the sofa at our sides, studying Tobias coolly as he does.

"Captain Greenwood." Theodore looks him up and down as he stands in front of Tobias, hands clasped behind him. For the first time, I see him as a prince— not as a faceless man with a price on his head, not a friend, not the man I can feel myself falling for, but the Crown Prince of the Isle of Wind.

Tobias stands at attention stiffly before Theodore. "Ready for orders, Your Majesty." Theodore nods a single time and Tobias relaxes slightly. I hold my breath, realizing the power Theodore actually holds as the only son of the king.

"As you know, there is movement along the eastern coast. Ships. Not ours— according to your men, we have no idea who they belong to. Ambassador Nestille was found—" Theodore pauses. "—Dead on the the border." His voice drops an octave. "What else do you know." It isn't a question— it is phrased as one, but it's simply a disguised order, and Tobias obeys.

"The ships could number from between six and ten, Your Majesty. With the amount that we've seen so far this is almost definitely a preparation for an attack on us." Tobias swallows, his eyes flitting to me for a moment. Theodore's eyes narrow dangerously as he looks between us and Tobias continues as if nothing happened.

"Ambassador Nestille was retrieved just within our borders, sir. He appears to have been tortured— gruesomely. Or, my scouts described him as such. Most of his face had been sliced off in strips until the bone beneath his flesh was visible, and some of his fingers had been hacked off. His limbs showed signs of burns by pure fire— not brands. The flesh appears to have been so severely burned that bubbles began to rise from beneath his skin. Also, most of his limbs had been broken, very deliberately in multiple places. We believe that he died mere hours before we found him."