Page 155 of Underground Prince

“Here’s the thing I’ve started to learn,” I said at last. “We all have our reasons. Even if you don’t want to voice yours. I’ll try not to be selfish anymore, and pretend my grief is the only thing that matters in every situation.”

“Then you’ll still help me?” Kai asked.

I thought hard before I answered. “Theo is not Trace. He hates the association with his father and Trace and would gladly take personal punishment for their sins. But that’s not what his family does. They go after those he cares about, those most important, and for so long, he made sure he had nothing they could grab.”

Kai nodded. “We can put you in witness protection. The both of you.”

“They’d find us.” It didn’t seem so final until the moment I said it. Conclusive fact. “And I could never—will never—leave my parents.”

“Then what? Scarlet, we need Trace. He’s now a fugitive. He shot you. We can’t…I’ll never stop. You hear what I’m saying?”

“You’re in danger too,” I said. “He knows what you’ve done, how you infiltrated.”

“Even so. My papers were airtight. They know nothing about who I really am.”

“But you just told me…”

“They don’t know how to find the real me. And they never will.” His eyes turned rough as wood. “But you still have to find him.”

I shook my head, because I knew who he was referring to. “You know as well as I do that if Theo doesn’t want to be found, he won’t be.”

“Scarlet.” Kai dragged his chair closer. “It’s you. He’d do anything for—”

“No. I’m not bringing him here.”

“But don’t you want to know where he’s gone?”

“Are you kidding me?” My shout made a nurse pause at my curtain. I motioned to let her know I was safe and she kept walking. “I want to blast through concrete, run through fire, slam people into walls if that means seeing him again. He hollowed me out when he left. He took everything with him.”

Kai started to speak.

“But I’d be shallow to think he did it to hurt me,” I said. “He’s keeping us safe by staying away. If he comes back…I don’t know what will happen. But he does. And that’s why he can’t.”

“Theo can lead us to Trace.”

“You’ll have to find some other way,” I said.

“There is no other way.” Kai found my hand, holding hard. “I wouldn’t be asking this after what you’ve been through if it weren’t vital. The Saxon sons are scattered. Trace is out there. You know what he’s done. He’s a monster. You have to do this, and not only for yourself, who’s lying here after almost dying at his hand, but for your Theo. And for every other person out there who hasn’t yet met Trace but whose fatal destiny is written. We’ve got to stop him.”

Morality. A damaging thing when it’s made to fight against love.

“I can’t,” I said.

“You must.”

I met Kai’s eyes over our entwined hands.

“Prepare yourself, Scarlet, because you and I are gonna find him,” he said. “And he’ll be reaaally pissed when we do.”

* * *

Scarlet and Theo’s journey continues in JADED PRINCESS.

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