Page 16 of Princess Redeemed
I gasp in a breath as a knife slices my heart open.
At least that’s what it feels like.
God, my baby!
“You heal quickly,” a voice says above me.“More quickly than some full-blooded vamps I’ve seen.”
I shoot my eyes open, but I can’t make out the face hovering above me.
“She’s awake, my king.”
Great.My father is here.Except I don’t sense his nearness.Perhaps that truly was all in my head.Perhaps I was never bound to him.Perhaps it was all a twisted mind game.My father is the king—no pun intended—of mind games.He’s always been a manipulative bastard, but even I never imagined he could manipulate Rogan and me into believing that we’re fated mates.
A figure looms forward, casting a shadow over me.
“Oh, shit,” I manage to croak.
It’s not my father, the vampire king.It’s Richard, my stepfather.
The demon king.
“I apologize for your injury,” he says, his voice low and grating.“You were never supposed to be harmed.”
What did you think would happen when you sent your minions out with those fucking flaming arrows?
The words don’t make it out of my throat, though.Only a grunt.
“The person who did this to you will be dealt with,” Richard says.“In the meantime, you need to rest.I’m going to inform your mother that you’ll make it.”
I shoot up into a sitting position.My mother knows I’m here?Why would she know about any of that?Does she know about the baby?
I can’t let them know about the baby.I can’t let them?—
“Lie down.”He pushes me back onto whatever I’m lying on.
“Fuck that,” I grit out.“Tell me.Tell me now what my mother knows.”
“She knows you’ve been injured.Nothing about the war here.Nothing about anything else.”
“How does she—” I launch into a coughing fit.My throat is parched, and it hurts, as if small blades are cutting into the flesh.
“Quiet,” he says.“I’ve told you I won’t harm you out of respect to your mother.”
“Resp—”
Another coughing fit takes hold, and someone holds a straw to my mouth.I willingly suck the liquid, knowing full well I could be poisoning myself.
Rogan will come for me.He still thinks we’re mates.
My father will come for me.He doesn’t harbor anything close to love for me, but he won’t leave me in the clutches of the demon king.I’m still heir to his throne.I always was, for he knew Rogan wasn’t my mate.He knew he’d never have to turn to my sister, Larissa.Now Larissa won’t have to marry Rousseau.
Once I’m done drinking, Richard hovers above me once more.“Sleep, Hannah.We have a lot to discuss once you’re up for it.”
“I have noth?—”
Damn it!The coughing starts again.
“We have alotto discuss, I assure you,” he says.“Beginning with who your father really is, and what he’s done to you.”
