When a soldier was assigned to protect Queen Skylar Grace, it often led them to wondering what they had done to deserve it.

In the past, protecting the king or queen of Mevailea was considered a very important and noteworthy task. It was more for show than for purpose, for Mevailea had been a peaceful kingdom for almost two hundred years, so there were often more than enough soldiers volunteering or training for the task. Nowadays, however, it was a very different story and absolutely no one wanted the responsibility.

The young queen was not in danger from outside attackers. The palace in which she resided was often considered to be one of the safest places in the entirety of Mevailea and it would be a kingdom-wide shock to find out about an assassination or a kidnapping plot.

However, it would not be as surprising to hear that the Queen had nearly been run over by her own carriage while trying to escape her guards. The last time this had happened, it was met with a frustrated sigh, an order to reduce the Queen’s public engagements, and a press release to explain why the Queen was caught trying to run away from her bodyguards. 

This made guarding the Queen’s quarters a very stressful time for any soldier that was assigned to protect her. 

A soldier on shift outside her quarters, Adonis Selverspun, didn’t take his eyes off the moon the entire time he was outside of the queen’s quarters as he prayed for the sun to rise without any complications. A few feet away, another guard whose name he didn’t know was doing the same. Their superior officer had warned them that Skylar Grace might try to leave again that night and if she did and succeeded, then the two of them would be in more trouble than their life was worth.

It would only be a few hours before the sun rose. Only a few hours before their shift was over. Adonis closed his eyes momentarily, relishing the thought of when the night was over.

Suddenly, he heard the shattering of glass.

He jerked his head up and locked eyes with the other guard, who stared back in alarm. Then, they heard a young woman mutter, “First Spirits…”

They looked at the shut door and then at each other again before Adonis forced the door open and they charged in, only to see Skylar Grace climbing out of her window, the glass pane in shards on the ground. Her eyes briefly met theirs with alarm before her head disappeared from view.

Adonis rushed to the window to find Skylar Grace climbing down the tower – the tower that must have been hundreds to thousands of feet tall – guided by a thick rope that was attached to a metal latch in the window frame. She was fast – as if she had been preparing this for a while. Before he knew it, she was already out of arms reach.

“Cut the rope!” the other guard exclaimed, panicking. He already had out a dagger, but Adonis grabbed his arm.

“Are you crazy? She would fall to her death!” Adonis shouted. The queen’s disappearance was already close to being his fault – he didn’t want to be responsible for her death! He grabbed the rope, trying to pull the young queen back up.

She looked up, her grey eyes alarmed and annoyed. She loosened her grip around the rope and took her foot off the wall of the tower, letting herself carefully fall further. The other guard began hollering for assistance, but Adonis knew that it wouldn’t get there in time.

“Help me!” Adonis struggled with the rope, not strong enough to pull the queen up himself. The other guard grabbed the rope and together, they managed to raise it a few inches at a time. The queen looked up at them as they pulled the rope up, frustrated. Quickly but carefully, she twisted her body in rope so it was supporting her and took one hand off it, pulling something out of the pocket of her cloak. In the darkness and from far away, it was hard to see, but Adonis spotted something glowing in her hands as they pulled her up a foot or so. He was terrified that she’d fall by accident and they’d be responsible for killing Queen Skylar Grace, but he was just as scared that she’d escape.

“Faster!” Adonis grunted as the glowing of whatever she was holding intensified. He didn’t know what it was, but it couldn’t be good.

To his shock, she suddenly let go of the rope! He nearly screamed as he saw her fall when all of a sudden, gravity withdrew its claim on her. He stared, stunned, as she began glowing in the air. The other guard began calling for help again but Adonis couldn’t say a thing.

This time, assistance came and a dozen other guards came running through the door and Adonis froze upon hearing Drecaun Zasali’s voice shout above the noise.

“Out of the way! NOW!” he shouted, pushing his way through the crowd of guards and running to the window. He ran up to the window, slamming into the window frame, only to see the Queen look up at him and smile very slightly, before disappearing in a flash of gold.