Page 58 of A Heart of Crimson Flames
I was still wobbly on my feet as her black boots clicked across the floors. The place seemed frozen in time, like the stillness after a hurricane.
“You think Tadei is the only survivor? They can’tallbe gone,” I murmured. “The whole pack? They didn’t leave anyone behind to guard their King? Surely some survived.”
Maez’s eyes roved the walls. “Where do you think the King of these ruins is now? My guess would be hiding in a tower,” she said, not really listening to me.
My trailing footsteps paused. “Are you going to kill him?”
“I’m debating it,” she replied coolly. “It would certainly help the Golden Court for him to be gone.”
“It would help the Golden Court more if we joined them in their fight,” I pushed. The urgency of the looming battle ofHighwick made my nerves spike. “Let’s kill Nero first. And once we win,thenI will happily watch you gut Tadei.” Maez shot me a look, clearly annoyed we were having this argument again. “If not for that, then why did you bring me here?”
“You said you’ve always wanted to see Rikesh.” She flourished a hand down the dusty hallway. “Welcome to Rikesh, Princess.”
We wandered the vacant halls, spilling into an atrium. The doors to the gallery beyond were thrown open, the walls bare and the pedestals empty. Shattered glass covered the floor, the place clearly looted. The eerie stillness made the hairs on my arms raise.
“I’m glad the humans got to take some part of this place,” Maez mused, staring up at a splintering hole in the trellis that looked like a rock had been thrown through it.
“I’m surprised they haven’t taken up residence here,” I said. “There must be dozens of rooms—”
Maez swept her foot through a pool of dried blood, smearing the burgundy stain across the tiles. “Why would they want to live in the location of a massacre?” Maez asked. She spoke of it as if the massacre were a long time ago, as if it didn’t happen recentlyby her hand. “This palace is cursed. Better to level it, I think.” She flicked her wrist, and her emerald magic appeared. “Do you think I should help them?”
“Wait!” I said, holding my hand up to her. “Listen.”
I tipped my head to the far hallway where I heard the scuffle of sandals. Maez and I followed the sound to a dead end with only a single door beside it, buckets and crates stacked on either side. Probably a closet.
Maez moved toward it first, but I grabbed her by the shoulder and pulled her back.
“Let me handle this,” I whispered. “I’d like to get some answers without anyone pissing themselves.”
She looked absolutely smug, her static magic crackling around her as she said, “Am I really that scary?”
I rolled my eyes. “That wasn’t meant to be a compliment.”
“I’ll still take it as one.”
I held a hand to her stomach, trying to hold her back. Maez scoffed and took another step, my sandals skidding across the tiles as she easily moved me just to prove that she could.
“Okay, you’re a very scary sorceress,” I said mockingly. “What if I promise to let you murder them if they’re an enemy? Then will you stay put?”
“I have a lot of ideas running through my head right now about ways to change that tone,” she said, her eyes hooding with lust. She nodded to the door behind me. “But go be the diplomat first, Princess. Then I’m going to pile together every last bit of treasure in this abandoned palace and fuck you atop it.”
My mouth went bone-dry, my cheeks burned as my body filled with heat at that promise, one I was suddenly desperate to fulfill. She made me ravenous and wild. It took me several moments to regroup enough to turn back toward the door and my original mission. Maez snickered at me as I smoothed down my dress. Gods, she loved to rattle me. I put an extra swish in my hips to make sure she felt equally as rattled and was rewarded by a little groaning sound lodging in Maez’s throat.
I turned and sauntered to the door, trying to contain the wild version of myself that Maez pulled out of me.
The second I opened the door a human woman appeared on her knees, her hands clasped and pleading. “Please, please don’t hurt me,” she begged. Ice doused my libido at that. “I will take you to the pups. Please.”
I held up a gentle hand and lowered it, moving extra slowly so she knew I meant no harm. “I’m not going to hurt you.”
Her wide saucer eyes darted over my shoulder and then back to me, my blue eyes, my red hair. “Are you... the Crimson Princess?”
“Wow, that name has really stuck, huh?” Maez muttered from behind me. “Tell her what it means now, love.”
I offered the woman a gentle smile, ignoring the comment. “I am,” I said. “Please stand. I won’t hurt you.”
I would probably need to say it at least a dozen more timesbefore she started to believe me. Then I remembered something else she said.
“The pups?” I asked. “Where are they?”
