Ascension Saga (Interstellar Brides): Book 3

Without his help, Trinity would have died before I ever met her—and I would have killed Nix, an innocent male. An honorable warrior. He’d sacrificed and killed during the Hive war, just as I had. Now that I knew he was not trying to murder my mate, I found I had a deep and abiding respect for him. “This is a mess. And my mate is in danger. Is there anything else I need to know? Tell me now. Right now.”

“I ordered Nix to back off when I learned of your mating,” my father said. “I knew you would stay at your mate’s side. And I needed him to help me root out the informant inside the Jax household while you kept Trinity safe.”

Slowly, I put my weapon back in the holster knowing I wouldn’t use it on Nix. The guard I’d spoken to inside the ballroom ran up behind my father, the consort—who’d slipped naked into Trinity’s bed—right behind him.

The consort took one look at me and came to a sudden stop. He swallowed hard, glanced at my father, the weapon at my side, and Nix’s frozen features and stumbled back, hands going to protect his groin. All color drained from his face. “My apologies, my lord. I think I’ll just—“

“Don’t fucking move or I’ll shoot you in the back.” I sounded like a psychotic killer, but I didn’t have time to argue with him. The consort froze in place.

“There is one more thing you should know, Leo,” my father said as I stared down the consort. I’d threatened to cut off his balls so he had to wonder why I’d specifically requested him.

“Explain,” I said, not glancing away.

“I was with Queen Celene on the night of her escape.”

One sentence stopped me cold and I did ignore the consort now. “What?” Even the consort stopped fidgeting and stood, riveted.

“I was a young man then,” he said. “The captain and I helped her sneak through the streets to the citadel because of the attack. She was covered in blood. Her mate had been killed right in front of her. But she was strong, Leo. So strong. Before she entered the citadel and disappeared, I vowed to her that I would remain and protect her kingdom and her throne until her return. And I kept my word.”

“The queen’s guard?” I asked. “That’s what he was talking about?”

The young guard—the one who’d first mentioned the term—stood next to my father and nodded fervently.

I pointed at him. “There is no queen’s guard. Never has been.”

Nix tilted his head, his arms crossed. “On the contrary, I’ve been in the queen’s guard for most of my life. As has every guard on duty tonight.”

A feeling of confusion, or betrayal, burst through my chest as I looked at my father in a new light. “You? You’re their captain?” He was retired. An older man. Not the leader of an elite unit of guards that didn’t exist.

“Yes, son. For twenty years. Since the death of the former captain, Balkan. He and I alone escorted the queen to the citadel, knew of the child she carried. Trinity.”

“Why? Why didn’t you tell me?” What I wanted to ask was why he’d left me out, why he hadn’t made me a queen’s guard. But that would reveal too much pain. Still he seemed to know what I was truly asking, because he answered the question.

“You came back from the Hive wars changed, son. You lost faith. Even with the queen’s spire lighting the sky, you gave up hope of her return.” My father glanced off into the night, toward the citadel where, even from this distance, the bright light of four spires could be seen clearly, like glowing white needles on a black canvas. “The queen’s guard is a secret. Always has been. It requires total devotion. And faith.”

“And before Trinity, I had none.” I took a step back. My father was right not to have tried to convince me to serve in his secret queen’s guard. Before my mate, I’d been existing day to day, with no hope or faith that anything would change. The night of Prime Nial’s call for help, I’d been contemplating the fall of the great, mythical city of Mytikas itself, a city that had been home to the ancients, and then the royal bloodline for thousands of years. “I was a fool, Father.”

&n

bsp; “Now he understands.” Nix lifted an arm in an impatient gesture, swinging it around. “Save the male bonding for later. We must find the princess.”

“I don’t know where she is exactly. But I know who is going to help us find her.” I turned my glare to the consort, who’d remained as still as a statue the entire conversation. Perhaps hoping against hope that I would forget he was present, that his balls would remain intact.

“Me?” He took a step back, but the young guard I’d spoken to in the hall pressed an ion blaster to his back with a grin.

I was really starting to like that young male.

“Yes. You.” I took a step toward him. “You know every secret passage in this fortress, or so you claimed when you used them to climb into my mate’s bed to fuck her.”

He had the decency to flush and look at the floor.

“The princess was seen being led up the grand staircase,” I continued. “Into the palace. It would be stupid of her attacker to take himself deeper into a place with no escape. Do you know of any passages that lead to the outside? Escape routes?”

He blinked, confused for a heartbeat, but his eyes cleared and filled with purpose. He stood straighter with understanding. “Yes. There are three.”

“Do any of them lead to the private chambers upstairs?”

He nodded. “Yes.”