The Princess's Guard ✔️

48

"I know nothing," he says carefully.

"There isn't a single royal family that hasn't profited from it, who hasn't partaken in it." Ark sounds angry, but not in an explosive way.

No...His anger is calm and deadly. This goes far deeper than Ark's resentment for me marrying Caspian, and how the Prince has treated me. There is a deeper history that connects the two in a way that is far beyond me.

"My father may have, but I never!" Caspian raises his voice so loud it makes me wince. He's desperate.

Ark circles Caspian. There's a flare of panic in the Prince's eyes as Ark disappears from his eye line.

"Your father will pay." He adjusts his jacket, reminding me of the knife hidden from my view. "You, Caspian, are young and stupid. The money you received to marry Kiva was blood money and you knew that. Yet you married her anyway."

"My father deals with that...I don't-"

Caspian is cut off as Ark grabs him by the collar of his shirt and punches him.

I cry out as blood splatters against the marble floor from the sheer force of Ark's punch. He pulls away, Caspian's head bowed as he spits out more blood, groaning.

Ark grabs the light coloured hair on the back of Caspian's head, pulling it back so he is forced to look into his eyes.

"Who died for that money?" He demands harshly.

Caspian starts desperately pulling at his binds, although it's not use. "I don't know!"

"Tell me!" Ark growls.

He removes his hand from Caspian's hair, pulling out the knife. Horror paints itself over Caspian's face as Ark moves behind him again, pressing the knife to his neck.

"I don't know! I never knew their names," Caspian insists, squeezing his eyes shut.

It's obvious to everyone in this room that Caspian knows what is being demanded out of him. I am utterly speechless, watching this painful exchange.

Something terrible is happening, and has been happening, and I'm completely in the dark.

"But you knew of them. How young they were, where they came from," Ark seethes.

"I just knew they were girls. Women. That's it."

Ark presses the knife closer to Caspian's neck. "They were taken from small villages, from families who couldn't fight back. They were lured in and then killed for the pleasure and amusement of royals like you."

A cold feeling of dread begins to culminate in the pit of my stomach.

"I swear to you, I never participated. I knew only what I heard and I never asked questions. If I did, I would be killed."

Caspian sounds beyond desperate now. He sounds guilty, and practically on the verge of tears. This is no light subject to be discussing when a knife is being pressed against his neck, ready to enact Ark's revenge.

"My sister is dead because you're a coward," Ark shouts.

My breath catches in my throat. His sister, the one he claimed went missing. He said he didn't know where she was, and now...he knows she is dead, and my father and Caspian are somehow involved.

"I...I didn't know, I'm sorry," Caspian exclaims hysterically.

"You're only sorry because there's a knife to your neck," Ark growls.

He hasn't looked at me once. I feel like a faraway spectator who can do nothing but witness the horror of this moment. I don't want to intervene anyway - I want to hear Ark elaborate on what happened to his sister, and how Caspian and my father are involved.