Marin Alcroft
I eased myself down into the chair, only to be interrupted by a knock on the door. When I turned to face the entrance, it was Canaan's young guard friend, Calen.
"I hope I'm not intruding." He spoke softly with his gaze fixed on the cot.
"No, never, come in, please," I responded, waving away his words with my hand.
"Who is this?" The prince asked from the other corner of the room, leaning against the wall with his hands in his pockets. Calen quickly dropped to a knee.
"Uh-my prince, forgive me. I didn't know you'd be here." His head was still bowed. He shouldn't be too surprised, since we were in the royal family's wing of the Telenor City Hospital, inside one of their recovery rooms. I looked up and smiled briefly, taking note again of the tall ceiling and large rectangular windows from which the mid-afternoon sun's rays spilled in. There was something sweet about Canaan's little friends stopping by. I ran a hand through my dark brown hair and turned my attention back to the boys.
"My name is Calen Bryne, an officer in the Telenor city guard."
"No need to be so formal here. I-I was more curious about who you are to the Alcrofts." Calen lifted his head slightly, his expression darkening.
"I'm just the guard who let them down. Nothing more, nothing less." The muscles in Calen's face tensed.
"There was nothing you could have done, please stop blaming yourself," I responded, running a hand over my belly, my thoughts drifting to my unborn child. I motioned for him to stand.
"W-wait. This is the guard that allowed Canaan to be taken?" The words seethed through the prince's gritted teeth, his hand balling into a fist as he leaned off the wall. The temperature in the room slowly started to rise. Calen bit down on his lip and swallowed the words that were clearly bubbling up from within him.
"No one let anything happen, Prince Adonis," I cut in, letting out a sigh. "If you two are going to act like this, please take it out of this room." The tension in the air began to ease as they both stood motionless, awkwardly. Calen had been especially hard on himself the past few months, to the point where I feel there might be something else troubling him.
"You're right, I apologize, Lady Marin," Adonis said, unclenching his fist and turning towards the window. "I should be heading out anyway." The room cooled as he turned on his heel, heading towards the door. His eyes, sharp like knives, turned towards Calen as he left the room, scanning the young guard. The prince, understandably, was having a tough time. Having lost his mother and good friend so close together at a young age, it must be hard. I also heard he took quite a liking to my knuckle-headed husband.
How did you go and get yourself captured, Dean? And now of all times.
"Thank you for stopping by, little prince," I said, stretching my hand towards him. "I know it's hard now, and will likely continue to be so for a while, but remember one of the worst things about this life is sometimes things happen with no explanation." He took my hand and gave it a squeeze, wearing a strained smile.
"When I'm king, it won't be like that." He released my hand and went for the door.
Youths and their idealism. Joining Aleara Academy next year will be a nice change of pace for him.
"I'm sorry about that, Cal," I said a few moments after the prince left the room. I wish I could tell them Canaan was off with Reese in fates knows where.
"No, he's right to be angry." He responded quickly.
"You're right. He is right to be angry, but not at you. He's young, and you're foolish for trying to blame anyone. You did the best you could, and our real enemy is this slumber."
"How is she?"
"The doctors say she remains in good health like the others, but she has yet to wake up." I brushed a strand of Emry's hair from out of her face and straightened the covers.
"I don't know if you heard, but Nole released a statement saying while the explosion from that night did occur at his facility by the town hall, he does not believe it is to blame for the citizens falling unconscious." He grabbed the chair next to the sink and slid it over to the other side of the bed, accidentally bumping the stand with the tray of medical supplies and used rags. "I used to look up to Nole and what he did, but this? Blatantly lying to save face?" His hand curled over his thigh.
"Calen, you are going to grow into a great man," I paused and smiled at the young guard. "If you'll allow it. You should stop being so hard on yourself. You're young, your mistakes are what make you better, enjoy this time, where it's best to make them and learn from them." I let my eyes narrow into a squint and smirked. "So who's your moon?" I asked, pointing at his sun pendant. It's a custom for lovers to get each other a sun and moon pendant as a sort of promise to one another, but it's more for the religious type, which the young guard did not strike me as.
"Oh, this?" He responded, quickly grabbing the necklace and shoving it into his shirt.
"We aren't together anymore," He awkwardly drummed his fingers over his thigh, and peered over his shoulder. "But the one who gave me the pendant is Sara Raftle."
"The sweet librarian girl? No wonder you've been so willing to take Canaan to the library," I said, covering my lips with my hand and teasing the young guard with a giggle. He got flustered and his cheeks started to turn red.
"N-no, no… I-it's not that," His eyes darted around while he searched for words, then shortly after, his face returned to that darkened expression.
"Cane just reminds me of another old friend I let down."
"What did I just tell you?" I asked with a raised eyebrow. "So has Canaan's disappearance brought back some bad memories?" He gave himself a shake.
"Right, sorry," He responded, scratching the back of his head. "And I guess you could say that. I hadn't really thought about it like that, but yeah, I have been feeling exceptionally terrible about Cane and letting you down."
"You did your best, and that's all I could have asked for. You've only recently recovered from your injuries, young man." I dipped my fingers into the bucket of clean water they had by Emry's bedside and flicked my fingers at Calen. His head shot up as his body jerked, and he raised an arm, shielding his face. Then the realization of what happened kicked in.
"How can you be so…" He huffed, his frown lines wrinkling. "So calm in times like these?" I smiled softly at the conflicted guard.
"My sister and I used to live on the streets when we were kids. I'm no stranger to hard times."