Page 40 of The Prince's Curse

Her mind was spinning as she headed back through the labyrinth of sidewalks and skywalks to get back to her hotel. But instead of going upstairs to her room to sleep, she walked straight to the parking garage and got into the sleek black hybrid she’d borrowed from Kova.

She knew what she was doing, but her rational mind was turned away, covering its eyes and ears so she didn’t have to acknowledge it. Quickly swiping through Kova’s GPS brought up a series of addresses he’d recently visited. Three in Midnight Springs, Georgia, a twenty-five-minute drive from here. She tapped the first address, cranked the ignition, and pulled out into the street before she could change her mind.

Thirty minutes later, Scarlett was parked at a chain hotel advertising continental breakfast and free wi-fi. This didn’t seem useful, but she could imagine it was where Kova had stayed on his visit. The second address was for a drugstore, and the third was a street address another few miles outside of town.

Her heart pounded as she followed the directions to a side road, then to a private drive with a sign marked No Trespassing.

Past a brick fence and an ornate wrought iron gate stood a beautiful two-story house. A mansion, by any account. It was older, but well-kept, with immaculately manicured hedges and flowers around the front.

This was where the witch lived. And she had to laugh, because her instinct was to think this doesn’t look like a witch’s home, but her aunt and her apprentices lived in a sprawling mansion of their own with a swimming pool and a home theater.

Come home to me.

She was about to leave the car at the gate and jump right out when the tiniest bit of self-preservation broke through her insanity. Instead, she kept driving, took a U-turn a half mile away, drove past the house, and back to a gas station nearby.

When she got out, she breathed deep and found the usual smells; old gasoline, exhaust, moldering food in trash cans. But there was the chilling scent of vampires here, and it was fresh.

That made sense; if Shoshanna lived out here, then it stood to reason that other vampires had passed through.

Before leaving the car, she holstered her gun under her arm and covered it with an oversized jacket. She checked her appearance in the mirror; she looked tired, her bright eyes ringed in shadow. “This is insane,” she told her reflection, as if the other Scarlett might have a better suggestion.

The other woman just stared back at her.

“I could kill the witch. Kova failed, but I won’t,” she said. Then she raised an eyebrow at her reflection, making it clear they both knew she was full of it.

She had to know if the dreams meant anything. She had to know why Shoshanna’s magic felt so light and warm. And she had to know what Kova meant when he said she could make things better.

And if she failed, then she would kill the witch and put an end to the confusion either way.

Chapter 10

SHOSHANNA

It was one thing for Armina Voss to send Kova to kill her. Since getting involved with the Auberon vampires, she’d been threatened and kidnapped and run out of her own house multiple times. At this point, it was becoming a bit passé.

And of course, she’d been quite concerned for Alistair’s wounds, from which he was recovering thanks to Rhys Collins’ excellent care, one of Misha’s high-octane potions, and a few loving bites from her neck.

But Kova had made an absolute mess of their beautiful home. Allie’s blood had soaked into one of their luxurious plush rugs, and several pieces of antique furniture were smashed to pieces. Several windows shattered, which had let in rain and bugs. And poor Magneto was still hiding under the bed in his downstairs room, jumping at every little sound.

Since the attack, she’d asked Elijah and her mother to be careful, even offering to pay for private security or to have them move down here. Both had declined, saying they would take their own measures. They’d lived for years with her father, who had worked for the Casteron vampires. And she hated to admit that Elijah was right when he scoffed and asked if it was really safer for him to walk right into the lion’s den with her rather than keeping his distance.

She was concerned by how Kova had walked right through her powerful protections. Then he’d broken a glass globe that wreaked havoc on her magic, like it was reflecting her own power back on her. Amidst the shattered glass she’d found a fine gray residue that she’d scooped into a vial. Even without her arcane sight, looking at it made her stomach turn. It reeked of Night Weaver magic, the same she’d sensed when they approached the boundary around Carrigan Shea’s court, and the same that had slithered over her skin when she reached across the veil to find Scarlett Ward through a tenuous soulmate bond. That was Armina Voss’s power, and it was terrifying to realize that she was as formidable as Shoshanna had always feared…and now she was gunning for her. Now it was personal.

Alistair had told her not to worry about cleaning the house; they could hire contractors to do the repairs and deep clean. But with him still recovering and Armina Voss out there plotting, this gave her the tiniest bit of control. She was wrestling back the fear with elbow grease and wood polish, restoring the shine and peace to her home.

Thankfully the piano had suffered only cosmetic damage, with a few scratches on the lid. They needed a new bench; there was no recovering the one that had been crushed under Alistair’s weight. She carefully straightened the stack of music that had been stored inside, alphabetizing by composer.

When she was done, she slipped downstairs to peek in on him. Even with the thin wedge of light spilling from the bedroom door, he was sound asleep, his skin still too pale after his tangle with Kova.

He could have died. And there was nothing she could have done to bring him back.

She stared at him, the ferocious, loyal man that she loved, and tried not to rattle apart at the thought of it. After getting over his fury at Kova’s invasion, he’d assured her that he was fine; that if Kova had meant to kill him, he would be dead.

But that didn’t sink in. Her mind still couldn’t wrap itself around the sight of him lying there, blood bubbling over the lips that kissed her, his neck broken, body twisted in a way that she should never have witnessed. The sheer fury of it had nearly overwhelmed her.

While she waited for Paris and Sasha, she’d seriously considered going down to the well-stocked armory, picking out the particularly heavy, wickedly sharp axe from Alistair’s collection, and ending the Kova problem while he lay unconscious and defenseless on her kitchen floor. He had to be punished for such a soulless, cruel act.

And then Lucia would feel the same anguish she did. The thought of that woman—her friend—had stopped her dead in her tracks.She owed Lucia the chance to see her lover again, even if he had made some seriously questionable choices since they parted.

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