The Princess Guard

Chapter Thirteen

The Moon

I stared irritably at the work in front of me. I was supposed to take today off, but I didn't. I needed to distract myself at any cost.

Victoria entered my office and gave me a bewildered look.

"Ummm where is that cute guard?" She questioned as she sat down and I stayed quiet, sliding her a paper.

"It was an E.coli outbreak. The food distributors are doing a recall and doing a thorough investigation." I crossed my arms and sighed, feeling good that we figured out the issue. She rolled her eyes and pushed the papers away, snapping her fingers at me.

"Hello!? I asked you a question" she demanded and I leaned back, staring at the desk.

"I don't know, okay? He's gone." I snapped back and her eyes softened.

"What happened yesterday?" Her voice was gentle and I rubbed my eyes, leaning my elbows on the table.

I reluctantly dove into the story of the events that had unfolded. She gasped and growled at all of the right moments.

"First of all screw Aiden and Emma! I can't believe that. And I can't believe she dated Salem! That's crazy how everything turned out..." she trailed off, looking thoughtfully at me.

"Thank god for Salem finding you. If I had known..." she trailed off, doing just what I feared. She was probably blaming herself for me trying to run away.

"Don't think you could've stopped me, Vic. You know how I am" I muttered and she nodded sadly.

"I just wish I could've helped. You can always talk to me or ask me for help..." she trailed off sadly and I grabbed her hand and smiled reassuringly.

"It was a stupid, irrational moment. Don't blame yourself." Trying to cheer her up was easy enough.

"Did you ask your dad where he is?" I shrugged at this, drumming my fingers on the table.

I had to pretend like it wasn't driving me crazy.

"Don't act like you don't care. He's the first one you've somewhat accepted. You guys seemed to get on well and I saw you dancing together. You looked happy. I know you. He was different.." She gave me a motherly look and I rolled my eyes, smiling slightly. She was right she did know me. And if anyone was going to see through my walls it was her.

"He was gone when I woke up. I asked the stand in where he was and all he said was he was back in the Westard kingdom. I didn't ask anything else." The feeling of guilt washed over me again. If I hadn't done that last night he wouldn't have left.

It didn't matter. He had to leave eventually. It was what I wanted anyways.

I tucked my hair behind my ear and sighed, clapping my hands together.

"Can we focus on work, please?" I begged and she shook her head and stood stood up.

"No we're going to go shopping instead. It's supposed to be our day off, we've never been so lucky to have a few days in a row. Let's take advantage of it and get out of here." She looked at me excitedly and I groaned, letting her pull me out of the room.

It was gonna be a long day.

We spent all day wandering one of the nearby cities, I bought new clothes that Victoria talked me into and practically forced upon me. I couldn't help but feel like something was missing the entire time.

Of course I knew it was the absence of my guard. His sarcastic comments and rebuttals weren't there to drive me crazy. The stand in stayed quiet the entire time.

We were annoyingly noticed of course and it wasn't long before the reporters showed up.

I clenched my jaw at the things that were shouted. They all immediately noticed my change in guards.

We arrived back at the castle around nighttime and I returned to my room. For some stupid reason I had hoped he would be in here. He wasn't.

I paced in my room for awhile before quietly leaving and wandering down the hall.

I stopped outside of his door, I was informed that it was next to mine.

I tried the doorknob and paused when it turned. It was unlocked.

I walked in wearily. I knew no one was in here and I felt kind of bad for intruding but if he no longer lived here what did it even matter...

His bed wasn't made. The curtains were open and a stack of papers on the nightstand caught my eye. He snooped through my things... it's only fair...right?

I looked down in shock and picked up an article. It was from that conference we were at. A picture of the moment I had looked to him when Serena had insulted me.

I stared at it for awhile and my mind went over everything that he done for me in my defense. I looked so small next to him. The look on my face in this photograph was one of vulnerability. I crumbled it up and my chest ached suddenly.

I threw it in the waste basket and turned my attention to the rest of the room. He had nothing. There were no books, no electronics. When would he even have the time? His every moment was dedicated to guarding me. And I was so damn selfish. I didn't care. I didn't care.

I don't care. He was just another person chosen to work here.

My phone chimed, it was Victoria. She wanted to go out to the club tonight. For the first time in a long time, I said no.

I didn't feel safe. It dawned on me that this was the first day in weeks that I didn't truly feel safe. It wasn't because he wasn't here..

My phone chimed again and I stared blankly at her newest message.

Don't beat yourself up over Salem.

Salem. She used his name, she never referred to him as my guard. I never used his name.. I stripped that from him. My chest tightened again. I was.. I was really terrible.

I shut my phone off and walked to the door. This room smelled like him and it was affecting me in ways that I wasn't used to.

I stopped with my hand on the doorknob, glancing back at the waste basket.

I walked silently over and picked up the crumbled article. I smoothed it out and shook my head to myself as I folded it up and left the room.

I relieved the stand in for the night and locked my door.

I walked to my window and stared at the full moon, thinking back to what Salem had said that night.

At least I had the moon to keep me company.