Page 60 of The Devil's Waltz

“I’ll kill him myself,” she says in a dangerously quiet voice, and my throat dries up.

“Mom, no,” I croak.

“You’d defend that monster?” she demands.

“He’s not—” I stop myself.

“His father was human,” Harper speaks up. “Xander isn’t a pure-blooded demon.”

“That information isn’t in our profile,” Dad offers tightly.

“We didn’t know the queen had a son until recently either,” Harper points out. “I think we need to recognize the possibility of new developments when it comes to this particular situation.”

Dad sighs on the other end of the phone. “You’re right, Harper.”

Mom lowers her gaze as she leans against the side of her desk. “This has gone too far already,” she says without looking up. “I’m putting a protective detail on you immediately.”

My stomach drops. “Uh, no. I don’t need—”

Her gaze snaps up. “I wasn’t asking, Camille.”

I gape at her. “I have Harper.”

“Harper hasn’t graduated yet,” Dad says.

“So move up her graduation. You both know she’s worked her ass off and proved herself more times than any other trainee.”

“We’re impressed with Harper’s skills, but this is non-negotiable.”

“Then who?” Harper asks the question I’m dreading.

There’s a beat of silence before Dad clears his throat. “I’ll speak to Noah when we hang up and get him on the next flight to Seattle.”

“No,” I say immediately. “Absolutely not.” The thought of him being assigned to essentially become my shadow makes the hair on the back of my neck tingle as my chest tightens.

Harper nudges me. “It’s not the worst idea,” she offers under her breath.

I turn to her. “Uh, yeah it is.” Looking back at my mom, I add, “I understand why you want to do this, and I won’t fight you on it, so long as you find someone other than Noah.”

My mom exhales a heavy sigh, pushing away from her desk and walking around it to sit back down. “Scott?”

“I’ll handle it. Keep me posted on everything there.” His voice softens before he adds, “I love you, Camille.”

Relief flickers through me. This situation is far from ideal, but at least I escaped getting stuck with Noah.

“Love you too, Dad.”

“We’ll talk soon,” Mom says before ending the call and leaning back in her chair.

Each breath I take feels shorter. My lungs refuse to fill with air and the room starts closing in on me, cranking the temperature of my body up as I glance between my mom and Harper.

“Camille—” Mom starts.

I get to my feet and blurt, “I have class.” I walk to the door as Harper jumps up to follow me. “Please stay.” I tell her. “Fill my mom in on anything I missed. I-I need to get out of here.”

Mom stands behind her desk. “You need to go straight home after class. There’s enough of a hunter presence on campus to be safe there, but I don’t want you going anywhere else without a detail.”

I bite my tongue to keep from reminding her I’m not a child and she doesn’t get to decide what I do. It won’t do any good to argue, and I suppose I should just take the win that she hasn’t used this whole thing to strong-arm me back into training.

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