Page 39 of The Desert Prince's Jewel
“He can and he will,” Ranbir rages and then hisses so hard that my ears feel like they’re bleeding.
The logical part of my brain knows he’s right, that expert thieves will be in and out without a trace in no time. But the other part of my brain, the lizard part wanting only to survive another day, reaches out and grabs the wheel.
“Slow down!” I shout as we turn a corner too hard.
“You can get out if you’re not all in. It’s safer,” Ranbir grunts as he speeds up, not down.
“I’m completely locked in. You’re the one who’s checked the fuck out!” I suck my teeth sharply to silence Ranbir before he can get another word in. “I didn’t say I would die foryourhonor, for fuck’s sake. We haven’t even gotten to them yet, and you’re about to kill us before we can complete the mission.”
I slip my hand into his without warning, and I’m shocked when Ranbir doesn’t pull away. Far from it, he grips mine tighter and rests it in his lap as he ignores me, and the traffic signals.
He shoots me a rueful smile, the dimple on his cheek, that sinful slight indent, on full display. Finally, he tones it down to eighty-five miles per hour, not hundred.
“Fine,” he says with a grimance.
“Now drive like you have some damn sense so we can catch these bastards in the act,” I say with a matching smile.
I text Cy that I’m here once we make it to the club. Kunal and Rohan fan out, and Ranbir stays just far away so he won’t be noticed. We hope, anyway, while I search for Cy.
I’ve made a shitton of mistakes in my short life, being born at the top of the list. I’ve picked a slew of shitty boyfriends, too. But nothing, and I mean nothing, compares to how much I’ve fucked up the second I stepped into this club with my mate.
I groan as I watch Ranbir sway side to side on the dance floor. The feral, possessive look in his eyes is intoxicating and hypnotizing. He’s pretending to dance, to blend in, and then I remember I’m a decoy. I can’t jump his bones. This isn’t a date.
“Mateo! Mateo!” Cy shouts from above.
I look up and gasp, Jaideep wrapped around his shoulder while Cy clings to him. Even from this distance, his eyes look strange, like he’s under hypnosis. I walk up the steps, slowly, smiling, trying to remain calm. And Jaideep just grins as the music thumps, and the drinks flow. That’s until smoke fills the room.
I shout, falling back as Jaideep flings a confused Cy to the ground. He charges me as the room goes dark and someone screams, “Fire!”
But this isn’t a fire. It’s an illusion. A magic one. The smoke is flowing from Jaideep’s open mouth. I fall down the steps, almost crushed by the stampeding guests. I see Rohan and Kunal in the frey before I fling myself behind a curtain. I feel in the dark, and find a handle. A room.
I fling open the door, which was way too easy to open. I figure it’s a trap but I have to put my faith in Ranbir here. Jaideep is on some wizard shit. I don’t stand a chance again him.
Running into the dimly lit room, I stop as I look up, and up, and see a massive painting.
The Ascension of Vikram I, the Conqueror. Oil on Canvas. By Queen Neha Vikram.
The painting depicts a massively bloody battlefield, as the limbs of fallen soldiers create a mountain on which a naga king sits on a throne of bloody skulls. It’s gruesome, but befitting of a bloodthirsty warlord’s portrait when we rose to the rank of King. Beside it is a smaller painting, that of a naga mother holding an infinite the seems to be drowning in jewels.
“Ranbir? Baby Ranbir you were so cute,” I say, as I reach for it.
In the center of the women’s pendant is a multi-jeweled stone that looks 3D. It’s small, about the size of my fist, compared to how big the painting is. It’s smaller than the other one, but still two-times my size.
I reach for it, pull, gasp—
“Whoa!” I shout, dodging what sounds like bullets whistling by my ears as the stone dislodges from the pendant on the viper queen’s neck.
“No!” I hear my man shout. He’s close. But if he’s close.
“Oh no,” I think, having enough sense of mind to fling the stone as I turn around.
“Yessss,” Jaideep purrs, before he plunges his fangs into my neck. “You will pay for ratting us out on your family’s behalf. But to think you’d deliver my cousin to me too? Ah, how useful you have been for my revenge.
Posion burns through my veins, or maybe it’s benign venom, if that’s a thing.
Doesn’t matter,I think, as everything fades to black, as I catch a glimpse of Ranbir’s golden gaze filled with fear…
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
