Royal On The Run (unedited)

Chapter Ten

Deacon

Hearing my sister talk about balls as if this would all blow over soon had me in a confusing state between fantasy and reality. I'd always been an opportunistic person and was glad to see Naomi finally adapt some of that for herself but a part of me wanted to yell at her and tell her that this wasn't the time to talk about dresses and balls that we used to have hundreds of years ago.

We had bigger problems to deal with at the moment.

Experiencing having a guard you once trusted with your life trying to end your life would mess with you. It certainly was messing with me. Especially knowing that Curtis had tried to kill my personal bodyguard Natalie who, to everyone, was best friends with Curtis. Also, what happened with Stephanie? Curtis had been talking about taking the girl out on a date for so long you'd think it'd never happen. I hoped no harm would come to the girl just for being spoken of in the same sentence as that traitor. Or perhaps she was in on this too? Would she now come for us now that Curtis was dead?

Nothing was certain anymore and that perhaps was what troubled me the most.

Voices blurred around me. I'd tuned out of whatever it was Naomi and Sebastian were talking about. The voices grew more persistent, were they talking to me?

I lifted my head. Naomi was snapping her fingers in front of my eyes. I stepped back, out of reach from those fingers. An inch closer and I'd be tempted to bite them off. She knew I didn't like things in my face.

"What?" I snapped. It didn't come out as strong as I'd wanted, and it didn't seem to phase Naomi in the slightest.

"What do you think?" Her face held a smile that didn't seem to fit the timeframe. Just the day before our home was blown up and our parents were killed. Naomi's emotions were everywhere, and I couldn't keep up. From the look on Sebastian's face, he was thinking the same thing but neither wanted to dampen her spirits. A pissed off Naomi wasn't someone we needed right now, so dealing with her roller coaster of emotions was how the unforeseen future was going to go.

"About?"

She huffed in annoyance. "You really haven't been paying attention, have you?"

"No, I haven't!" I stated. "And I'm not going to if that's what you plan on talking about." I took a deep breath, "Look, we were just over this. I'm not sure how to deal with this. Your emotions are everywhere and so are mine. What we think right now may not be how we think in two minutes." I locked eyes with her. "When you first started talking about the balls and whatnot and throwing me into a dungeon for crying, I laughed and was happy. Now," I motioned around the room. "I'm thinking we're getting ahead of ourselves. I know you want to think happy thoughts, Nai, I want to as well, but I can't."

Naomi's face fell. A look of defeat crossed her face. Finally, admission. She turned to Sebastian who gave a solemn nod. She released a breath. "You're right. Sorry. I'm trying not to think about it."

I understood, I really did. "About what happened or the fact that you're now unofficially officially the Queen."

She squeezed her eyes shut at the words. "Both." She gritted out.  Her eyes slowly opened a minute later, drowning in sadness. "I'm not ready to be Queen."

Sebastian put a hand on her shoulder, she seemed to calm down the instant he touched her, all the anger and confusion evaporating into the air. I wanted that kind of connection with someone. Someone who could calm me down when I was about to have an episode, someone who didn't need to speak to do it, just touch. The touch of comfort seemed to be enough for Naomi. A soft breath left her as she nodded at me.