Page 156 of The Prince's Curse

I’m coming in. Just hold on.

“I tried to do the right thing. I was protecting people. I told him that it was foolish to risk himself over the bloody Auberon. How few Eduardo took back then, especially compared to the Rubrum or the Vespillo back in the day,” she said, almost talking to herself. “We lost more hunters in that fucking war than your court ever killed. But he was a passionate man. Believed he was on a mission from God. You couldn’t help but love him. I wanted to believe in what he saw.”

“I’m sorry,” he said again, and he was surprised at how much he meant it. “If you have to take me, then do it. But let the rest of them go.”

“Let my people go,” she mocked. “You have no power to ask for me for anything.”

Quiet steps shuffled in the hallway, and he raised his voice. “What more can I offer you? What else do you want from me?”

Thick, unnatural darkness burst through the room like smoke. Biting cold and searing heat swirled around him, and he shuddered as the tendrils tightened around him. Through the smoke, barely visible, those amber eyes bore into him.

Then the sweetest smell washed over him. Scarlett, kneeling on the ground with her hands on his face. “Let him go,” she said, her voice echoing in his skull. Searing heat burst from her hands, and a thousand little tendrils snapped like broken rubber bands against his skin.

“What are you…” Armina marveled. “Scarlett?” Light flared in her eyes, and she took a step back. “What happened to you?”

“I loved you like a mother,” Scarlett said, holding Julian’s arm as he stood. “And you were ready to kill me to punish him.”

The witch shook her head. “You don’t understand what he is.”

“He’s a flawed man. I’m a flawed woman,” she said. “And no matter what you did to him, he didn’t start killing innocent people to make himself feel better. You turned yourself into a monster.”

Armina’s expression twisted into a scowl, and she raised her hand, fingers already moving. Scarlett’s eyes followed, and her hand flew up. Light burst from her fingers, and Armina screamed in surprise as the sparks tangled around her arm.

“What did you do?” she marveled.

“The spirit you bound to me wasn’t happy about being forced to kill me over and over,” Scarlett said. “She gave me something. She gave me what you stole from Brigitte and Rebekkah and Sarah and all the others.”

Armina recoiled, and Julian felt like he’d been punched in the gut. How did she know their names?

Scarlett strode toward her, hand still extended. “What would your Tobias think if he saw what you have become? If he saw you murdering innocent people? Twisting hunters to your will? Keeping vampires prisoner and torturing them? Would he still love you?”

The room trembled beneath them, and Armina surged to her feet. Deafening thunder cracked as the room went dark. “You speak of things you don’t understand,” she bellowed. Throwing both hands out, a shockwave of power burst through the room, throwing Scarlett back into Julian.

He caught her around the waist, planting his feet to stay standing.

“You cocky little bitch,” Armina said with a laugh. “You get a spark of power that you don’t know how to use, and you think you can best me?”

Scarlett’s eyes cut to the left, and she smiled. “No, I don’t.” Lightning fast, she hurled a knife at Armina.

As the witch dodged the blade, a quiet voice whispered, “Disintegrate.”

The tile floor erupted in fault lines around them, and Armina fell back with a terrible scream. Barbed tendrils of shadow surged up from the cracks, wrapping around the witch as she cried out.

Walking neatly over the cracks came Stella, her fingers dripping with blood. “I’ve got it,” she said.

But Julian closed on them, taking up his blade. “Let me. I’ll make it quick,” he said. Swallowing his fury, he bent over the witch and sliced her throat. As the blood surged over his blade, the room shook violently.

“The curse,” Stella said. “Motherfucker. I told you to let me handle it!”

The younger witch shot him a glare and grabbed the witch. “Get out!” And with trembling hands, she yanked Armina’s head around. Cracking bone rang out, and that final sound seemed to echo forever.

Scarlett let out a banshee wail, and he grabbed her around the waist. A sound like a massive gong rang out, impossibly loud and deep, rattling down to his bones, down into the bowels of the earth. His belly threatened to turn out, and all he could do was huddle in a ball as the sheer force of it blew over them.

You have to go, a cold voice told him.

Looking back, he saw Stella’s body hovering in the air, strange tendrils of black and white arcing all around her. Julian gritted his teeth, hauled Paris to his feet, and staggered toward the door.Misha was limping down the hall with Rhys hanging over his shoulder.

“The others are clear,” Misha said. “Couldn’t find Kristina, though.”

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