Guarding You
A little late this week, but here I am! And before I serve you a delicious slice of story, I have exciting news.
Ready?
My story ‘Sometimes It’s Just Lovely and Simple’ was featured by Top in Fiction!
*cue bells and huzzahs and blushing*
It’s a little like having your parents hang your artwork on the fridge + receiving a medal.
Be sure to check out all the featured stories here 😊
Now onto this week’s enjoyment.
Finn is well-suited to be a bodyguard if you look at the fact that he’s highly observant and suspicious, excellent at picking pockets and locks, and really an uncannily brilliant marksman.
He’s less well-suited if you take into consideration his complete abhorrence of anything that requires him to stand still for long moments inside.
Which is why he’s spent the last fourteen minutes prowling across the roof of the Golden Palace while he let Theo and Ryla guard the door of their charge’s suite.
Convinced that there aren’t currently any snipers or hexers or doom witches hiding on the roof - nor are there any portals or hidden locks signaling an upcoming invasion - Finn orders himself back inside.
He takes the balcony and the window and casually deflects the dart Ryla sends for his jugular as he lands on insanely comfortable carpet.
“Pay up,” Theo says, holding out a hand.
Finn raises an eyebrow. “Did you bet that she could take me out?”
“No,” Ryla sniffs, “we bet on your chosen entryway. Could you have not picked the lock on the door this time?”
“I like to keep you on your toes,” Finn says. “I picked the lock last time. And the time before that, actually.” He scans the room. “I assume you have nothing to report?”
Theo and Ryla exchange a glance.
“Nothing security related,” Ryla offers.
Finn blinks. Then looks at the closed door leading to the bedroom. “Who did she see?”
“Number three,” Theo says.
“Right before number five,” Ryla adds.
Finn glares at them both. “I gave you that list for a reason. So you could keep them away, not treat it as a who’s-who-calling card.”
“We were keeping numbers one and two…entertained,” Theo says.
Finn pauses mid-stride. “How entertained?”
Ryla twirls her blowdart in her hand and smiles innocently. “Just entertained enough.”
Finn allows a smile. Better three and five than one and two, but still, no one should have gotten through at all.
“We’re running more drills,” he says. Before they say anything back, he knocks on the door, listens for the quiet “Okay,” and steps inside.
He notices many things all at once: the carpet in here is even more comfortable, the windows have already been tagged by his team with counter-locating spells, Mila has changed out of her traveling attire, she’s wearing two daggers under her new dress, and she’s holding a third in her hand.
Her balance is off.
He crosses to her and adjusts her grip.
“Hey,” he says.
Prompt that sparked the story
Image prompt from Story Shack (copied above)
Finn has been Mila’s chief bodyguard for seventeen months - ever since her nineteenth birthday. It took him two hours to make her laugh for the first time, but only five minutes to sneak her out of the Silver Castle when he realized the company she was forced to keep.
She’s twelfth in line for the throne. Seven of the people ahead of her and five of those immediately after her make up The List. Not in order of dynastic hierarchy, but in order of how much they bother Mila.
Not that Mila can’t retaliate. She can wield conversational barbs almost better than Finn can wield arrows and daggers and lances and spells.
But it only took Finn seconds of being around these people to realize part of his job as bodyguard had to be keeping them far away from Mila.
If not for her sake, then for theirs.
He’s far less forgiving.
Until next time,
Kimberly
Congrats, Kimberly! I love when people recgonize brilliance :-)