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Alex raised her eyebrows, wondering how Kaiden knew about William. But he continued before she could ask.

“Swords, on the other hand, are the field agents; the Wardens who deal directly with anything the Shields uncover. Swords actively seek out the threats to the kingdom and swiftly neutralise—or eradicate—them.”

Alex couldn’t help automatically imagining the Medoran equivalent of James Bond. In place of a tux and a gun, her invented figure wore a cape and held a sword. Strangely—or not so strangely, considering—he looked an awful lot like Hunter.

“Other than the obvious, the main difference between the two is that only Akarnae graduates can ever hold positions as Swords—and specifically those who have stayed on as apprentices in Combat or SAS.” Kaiden sent her a wry smile as he added, “I’m sure you can figure out how both of those classes are high up on selection criteria for Sword applicants.”

Alex returned his expression, understanding completely.

“So you can see how highly trained, combat-ready, stealthy Swords who all have gifts might not take too well to being referred to as ‘glorified guards’, right?” Kaiden said. “And while Shields might not mindasmuch, they both wear the same uniform, so it’s better to be safe than sorry since you may never know which one you’re talking to.”

Alex quickly nodded her agreement. Then she asked, “Warden Jeera—you and Declan seemed to recognise her name when I mentioned her after the SAS trip. Is she a Sword or a Shield?”

Kaiden laughed softly as he grabbed a new, softer brush and moved to stroke it down Eclipse’s face while Alex reached for a comb to untangle his mane.

“Jeera’s a Sword,” Kaiden answered. “One of the best.”

“And, um…” Alex wasn’t sure why—orif—she wanted to know, but she still pressed. “Do you know her well?”

“You could say that.” Kaiden laughed again. At Alex’s questioning look, he said, “She’s my sister.”

“Yoursister?” Alex wasn’t able to mask her surprise. “But—but—”

She thought back over the interactions she’d had with the Warden, from first seeing her while locked in the royal dungeon, to having Jeera follow her and D.C. on their day trip through Tryllin and then finally after the mess with General Drock and Alex’s Bubbledoor delivery to the palace. She tried to make sense of the events, but all she could do was tilt her head and stare at Kaiden’s face, trying to find some resemblance between them. True, they shared the same dark hair and bright blue eyes, and Jeera’s features were just as striking, but… Nope, there were no buts about it. Now that Alex was looking for it, she couldn’t miss it. However, without having been told, she never would have picked it on her own.

“That’s really cool,” she said, just for something to say—and as a means to not feel like such an idiot for staring at Kaiden longer than was appropriate. “I like your sister. She’s helped me out a few times now.”

“I know she has,” Kaiden responded with an amused gleam in his eyes that told Alex he knew more than he was letting on.

“What—”

“To answer the rest of your questions,” he interrupted, “because of everything I just mentioned, Wardensdorank higher than military. They’re technically a separate entity but sometimes their assignments overlap, and when that happens, they outrank the General. Their word is law.”

“Got it,” Alex said, having seen first-hand that Drock had afforded a level of deference to Jeera.

“What were the other things you wanted to know?” Kaiden asked. “Why there’s a military and what weapons they have?”

“Said like that, you make me sound like I’m gathering intel against them or something,” Alex murmured, untangling thefinal knot in Eclipse’s mane and dropping the comb back in with the other grooming tools.

“I guess I’m just going to have to hope that you won’t use this information for evil,” Kaiden said with a smirk. “I’m trusting you here, Alex. Don’t make me regret it.”

Before she could think of a response, he reached for Eclipse’s halter and untied the now gleaming horse, leading him into a stall and locking him in for the night.

“Come on, I’ll tell you how to overthrow the monarchy on the walk back,” Kaiden said, pressing his hand gently to the curve of Alex’s spine and guiding her down the aisle past the other stalls of curious-looking equines. She tried to ignore the pleasant warmth she felt through her clothes where his hand was—and failed abysmally at doing so. Only when they were outside again did he drop his hand, allowing her to focus on his words rather than his presence beside her.

“Weapons I can’t tell you much about,” Kaiden said as they headed up through the grassy fields towards the campus proper. “You have to admit, that’s a strange question for you to ask me.”

Alex felt him looking at her but she kept her head forward, shrugging slightly. “You seemed to know a lot more about the Stabilisers than anyone else. I figured you were the best person to ask.”

“And not your royal best friend?”

Alex shrugged again, having no answer for that.

“Well, as I said,” Kaiden picked up, letting Alex’s lack of answer slide, “I don’t know much, but from what I’ve… heard… Stabilisers are about as lethal as it gets. There’s been peace amongst humans in the kingdom for thousands of years so there hasn’t been a need to develop anything more than the basics, especially since a sword or arrow can kill just as easily— if not more so.”

“No weapons of mass destruction, then?” Kaiden cocked his head at her terminology and she explained, “You know, bombs. Explosive devices that blow large areas up at a time, killing lots of people at once.”

“Why would we have something like that?” he asked, looking appalled by the idea. “Who would we want to kill?”