Chapter 1

Returning triumphantly from Aridwyn, I was stopped by my own guards outside the Princess's residence. "No one may enter without Lady Nielsen's orders!"

I smiled and commanded my soldiers. "Cut them down."

With two bloodied heads in hand, I stepped into the mansion. The gaudy pink and purple drapery burned my eyes.

A woman named Celia Nielsen blocked me, demanding I apologize and claiming she was the savior of this household and its new master.

I didn't waste words and had her bound.

Lucian finally arrived, his eyes filled with worry as he looked at Celia, bound and helpless. He begged me to spare her, scolding me for taking a life.

I looked at him and remembered the twelve-year-old boy I had found in the mountains, so emaciated that he barely looked human.

Since he had forgotten his own family name, I would help him remember.

In front of Celia, I dismembered his arms and stripped the flesh from his legs, down to the bone, one slice at a time.

*****

I was back.

The grit from Aridwyn still clung to my armor, and the smell of blood from the battlefield hadn't faded yet. I stood at the gates of the Princess Manor, and got stopped right there.

Two gatekeepers, wearing the uniforms and swords of my own household, stood with their chins so high that one would think they owned the place.

"Stop right there! What do you want?" one of them barked.

I didn't move.

My men behind me stayed perfectly still, too.

Six months in Aridwyn had drilled it into them. Nobody made a move unless I said so. But these two gatekeepers? They had no clue and didn't even realize who they were messing with.

"I'm talking to you!" The tall, skinny one on the left strode over, jabbing his knife hilt toward my horse. "You think you can just stop here? Get out of here before you dirty the road in front of the manor."

I lowered my gaze to my hands.

Blood still stained my armor, splattered there during the last battle three days ago. I hadn't had time to wipe it off. My knuckles were rough, and the calluses in the crook of my hand had grown even thicker.

"I'm talking to you!" The tall, skinny guy snapped, getting impatient. "Are you deaf or something?"

I looked up.

He was young, probably not even twenty, with that reckless arrogance you only see in someone who's never been knocked down a peg.

"So, you work for the Princess Manor?" I asked.

"Duh," he sneered. "Why else would I be standing here?"

"Who put you on gate duty?" I pressed.

He blinked, then his face twisted in annoyance. "Why do you care? Listen up, unless Miss Nielsen says so, nobody's getting past these gates today!"

Miss Nielsen?

I searched my memory, but the name didn't ring a bell.

"Who's Miss Nielsen?" I asked, raising an eyebrow.

"You seriously don't know Miss Nielsen?" He gave me a once-over like I was some kind of alien. "She's the top VIP in the Princess Manor, Lord Lucian's number one! Who the hell are you to even ask about Miss Nielsen?"

Lucian? Yeah, that name I knew.

Lucian was my man.

One winter, while hunting in the mountains, I found a boy nearly frozen to death. He was curled up in the snow, battered and barely breathing. I didn't know where he came from, and I didn't bother to ask.

I brought him back to the Princess Manor, got him a doctor, made sure he took his medicine, fed him, and nursed him back to health over three long months.

When he finally woke up, he didn't say a word and just watched me in silence.

I recognized that look. It was the look one would see in a stray dog, hoping for warmth, but always bracing for a kick.

The scrawny kid knelt before me, looking up with pleading eyes, asking me to give him a name.

So I called him Lucian.

I was twelve at the time.

After that, I taught him to read and trained him in combat. I even had the royal tutor give him some pointers now and then. He was a quick learner, picking up everything fast.

By the time he turned fifteen, he could go twenty rounds with me without losing. I made him my personal guard, and he knelt before me, swearing he'd never let me down, not in this life or the next.

I remember his eyes back then. They were still full of light.

Later, when I turned twenty, I marched off to Aridwyn. I entrusted Lucian with the Princess Manor, told him to guard it for me.

Six months later, I was back.

"Out of my way," I said.

The tall, skinny guy exchanged a look with his buddy, like he'd just heard a joke. "Did you hear that? She thinks she can just tell us to move."

The short, chubby one snickered too. "What's wrong with you? We already told you. Without Miss Nielsen's orders, nobody gets in."