Page 99 of Princess Claimed

“You think I don’t fucking know that?” I shove Crusher, and he hits the wall, dangerously close to one of my bomb storage cabinets. “That’s why I don’t want Ana anywhere near me.”

I promised her, promised myself, that I would never leave her side. I broke that promise to protect her, but it’s killing me.

Crusher draws a long breath, then rakes his fingers through his hair. “Good call.”

I nod. “Heard from Blade?”

He shakes his head. “You?”

“Nope.” Looking down, I kick one of the fallen crossbows. When their plane landed in Romania, Ana messaged us both, and Crusher messaged Blade, but normal cell phones don’t work inside the palace compound, so we can’t contact them again for a while.

Ana has a way to communicate with the outside world though and assured us that she’d be in touch the second Blade finds anything helpful.

Crusher told Blade that Rasputin’s body and the dagger were gone but made him promise not to tell Ana. Not yet. While the information might be relevant to Blade’s research, there’s no sense in needlessly scaring her.

We could fucking use some good news. And in the meantime, I need to come clean with Crusher.

In that bar, Diederik’s beady, ice-cold eyes were boring into me like I was dinner. “Do you think the demon could have moved from Rasputin to Diederik?”

Crusher’s attention snaps toward me. “Why do you think that?”

“My pain got worse when he came into the bar.”

“Fuck.” Crusher paces across the armory and back. “Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.”

“Not right now, but thanks for the offer.” I grin, but Crusher’s not impressed by my attempt to lighten the mood. And my lame joke didn’t lighten anything for me either. I should have kept my mouth shut.

“Okay.” Crusher turns toward me, clearly having made a decision. “Are you still game to lure the demon?”

“Lure it, then fucking destroy it.”

“Good.” Crusher folds his arms over his chest. “If your theory about Diederik is right, it could be why he showed up at the bar. He might have tracked you there. And why your side hurt when he showed.”

I nod sharply. I already came to that conclusion, even if Elsbeth thought it was her fault her boss came. “Fucking demon probably knows where I am right now.”

“Not this deep underground.” Crusher looks to the side, clearly worried.

We’ve got several stories of solid granite between us and the surface, but we have no real knowledge of how this demon’s powers work. Only a few theories.

“Assuming the demon is now in Diederik…” I pick up the fallen crossbows. “Why didn’t he come after us at that Art Museum thing? Or at Delirium?” I release some of the questions aching inside my brain.

“Maybe it wasn’t ready to act.” Crusher frowns. “Or maybe the demon invaded Diederik after that? Or hasn’t at all? Maybe his possession has something to do with the body disappearing? Shit. We should have asked Elsbeth exactly when that happened. I hate how little we know.”

“If the demon still wants Ana—” my stomach twists “—it can use me to find her.”

Crusher nods.

I grab a long leather coat and start gathering weapons. “So, we wait for the fucker to find me, and then kill it.”

“Sounds like a plan.” Crusher nods. “Not a great plan, but the only plan we’ve got.”

Chapter

Thirty-Nine

Ana

Iquickly fill in Selina on my time with the brothers—how I ended up with them, the demon, what happened to Timur—rushing through most of it.

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