Page 92 of Royal Guard

I stepped forward and looked right into the camera Aleksander had been talking to. “I need to speak to you,” I said to millions of viewers. “I need to tell you—”

I broke off.

Silvas Lukin had just burst into the studio, behind the cameras. He was holding a bruised and battered Garrett in front of him, and had a knife pressed against Garrett’s throat.

Aleksander stepped close to me and whispered in my ear, too low for even the microphones to pick it up. I froze and listened, still staring into the camera. “This would have been tidier if you’d just been killed,” he said. “I don’t want a trial and an execution. So I’m going to make you an offer, one that lets you fixeverything.”

I kept staring at the camera listening, my breathing tight.

“I’ll let you and the American live and exile you,” Aleksander told me. “You can go to Carlonia and be with your parents.”

I drew in a slow, shuddering breath of hope.

“... all you have to do is tell the people that you were deceived by the Garmanians,” said Aleksander. “Say you’re handing power over to me and renouncing the throne.”

It felt as if my insides had turned to ice.No!

“Or you can watch him die right in front of you,” Aleksander whispered.

73

KRISTINA

I knew,straight away, what Garrett would want me to do. He’d want me to do the heroic thing. The brave thing. Therightthing. He’d want me to sacrifice him.

But I just wantedhim!I wanted the one man who made me feel safe, who wrapped me up in his strong arms and made the nightmares stop. The man I could trust, who’d stuck with me right to the end. Who’d never let me go. He’d saved me so many times. I couldn’t abandon him now.

I looked at him. Our eyes locked.

And he nodded.

This went beyond love. He’d followed me because he believed in me. He believed I was a good leader. He’d trusted me and he was asking me to trust him, that he knew what he was doing.

I took a deep breath and looked into the camera. I still didn’t know what I was going to say.

Then I saw my own reflection in the camera lens.My hair was matted and filthy. I was dressed in military fatigues, I was bruised and scraped. I’d never looked less like a royal.

But I still was one. And my father’s words rang in my head one last time.Being royal isn’t about doing what you want. It’s about doing what your people need.

I knew what I had to do.

“You have been lied to,” I told the cameras.

Silvas Lukin’s face went wild with fury. He looked right into my eyes and I saw his forearm tense, about to slash Garrett’s throat.

Garrett’s hand flashed up under Lukin’s armpit. The knife clattered to the floor and Lukin looked down in shock at his suddenly numb arm.

Lukin looked up just in time to get Garrett’s fist in his face. A good, old-fashioned, meaty punch that had the full force of Garrett’s anger behind it. Lukin crashed to the floor, out cold.

General Novak reached for his rifle, but Garrett snatched up Lukin’s knife and held the tip to the General’s throat. “Don’t,”he growled.

The soldiers around him all swung their rifles to point right at Garrett. My heart nearly stopped.

I stabbed my finger at Aleksander. “This man has conspired with General Novak to assassinate my father and me, to overthrow our country and to start a war with Garmania.” I wasn’t looking at the cameras, anymore. I was looking right into the eyes of the soldiers. This wasn’t about leaders and politicians now. It was about them: the grunts, as Garrett called them. It was what they did in the next few seconds that would decide everyone’s fate. “He’s willing to sacrifice you, and your wives and your children. He’sgoing towipe out a nation, but Garmania is not our enemy, not anymore.” I took a deep breath. “There’s still time to shut this thing off. But I need your help. I need you to arrest these two men and put me back in charge!”

“Shoot her!” snapped General Novak. “She’s a traitor! Garmania’s launched its bombers, they’re already on their way!”

“I can save us,” I told them. “I can save our country. But I can’t do it alone.”