“You… knocked out… my partner?” I repeat the words slowly, then their meaning dawns on me. “Why the hell would you do that? Oh, my goddess! Is he all right? I’ve seen the size of your hands. They’re like freaking spades!”
Alaric waves a hand dismissively. “He’s fine, he’s fine. He just lost his shit when he came through the portal and saw you in my bed, covered in blood.” He cocks his head and rubs his chin. “He got real possessive over you, almost like a mate would.”
I stare down at the floor, my cheeks heating. “He’s not… we’re not… We’re just partners.”
A low, deep chuckle carries to my ears, and I lift my gaze.
“So you are. Anyway, I only knocked him out a bit.”
“As opposed to knocking him out a lot?” I snap, my heart thrashing against my ribs. Caspian freaked out over me? Sure, I’m his best friend’s little sister, yet a part of me can’t help but hope Alaric is right and that Caspian was jealous. An even bigger part of me is glad. Now he’ll know how I felt in Paris when he flirted with the receptionist. “I better get go—”
The door smashes open, sending splinters of wood pinging across the dark wooden floor. A gust of smoke envelopes the entrance, and then Eziel appears, his expression murderous like a man intent on killing. His features soften when he looks at me, and the red fire glowing within them dims.
“Autumn, you—” He marches over but stops short, casting a grimace at Alaric. “You brought her here?”
Alaric inclines his head. “Indeed I did, Your Graceful Lord Eminence. Healed her, too. No more injuries from the building when she fell. She’s as right as rain now.”
The muscle in Eziel’s jaw moves in his irritation. Not only did Alaric use a title but the completely wrong ones to boot. Something tells me he did it on purpose.
The prince turns narrowed, steely eyes on me. “And are you? Healed?”
I swallow my unexpected nerves. “Y-yeah. I’m fine now, thanks.”
He nods once. “Then report to my study in fifteen minutes.”
He marches back over to the door, pausing by it for a second. “I’ll replace that.” And then he’s gone.
Alaric chuckles again, watching me from the corner of my eye. “Looks like you’re ‘just partners’ with the prince, too, huh?”
Chapter 14
Lilith Thornblood
The literal Prince of Hell, sole heir to the Stormfire Pack, is not someone I want to get on the bad side of. I haven’t forgotten our first meeting, or how he told Caspian to watch out for me. The look the prince gave before he left Alaric’s room sends another shiver through me. I knock on the future alpha’s door.
“Come in,” he calls out curtly.
I turn the metal door knob and push the heavy wooden door open. I shut the door behind me before turning around to glance at Eziel’s private study. It’s a cosy room with thick red curtains lining the three windows and a massive desk that takes up most of the space. The desk is empty other than a spinning red crystal that doesn’t stop moving and a pile of books in a straight line.
In fact, I don’t see any dust anywhere or a single stain on the dark-wood floors.
“Sit down,” he commands from his throne-like seat behind the desk.
The only other seat is opposite him and just a simple plastic chair that seems like it’s seen better days.
It squeaks when I sit, and an awkward noise fills the room. I clear my throat and smile at him. “I want to apologise for what happened with the wendigo. I made a mistake.”
“Yes, you did,” he states, linking his fingers as he rests his elbows on the desk. “Why did you jump off that roof?”
I look up and meet his sharp green eyes. Sharp and passionate eyes. I just wonder if it’s a passion for violence or death. It’s not romance, that’s for sure. “Because I knew the wendigo would escape, and I wanted to capture it.”
“It?” He leans back. “Do you not think demons are real people? They are not ‘its’.”
“That wasn’t what I meant,” I counter. I need to clear this up. “I believe demons, like every creature in the world, have the choice between being evil and good. That wendigo was evil.”
He tilts his head to the side. “For demons, the choice is much harder. The demonic blood is like an addiction. An addiction begging to be freed, no matter what the cost is to humans or their morals. Demons who choose to be good, as you put it, are fighting a battle within themselves every single day.”
“That’s why they are free and not hunted,” I reply.
“The job of hunters is to capture demons who leave Hell to kill humans. Every pack has its promises it made to the Crescent Mother when they were created hundreds of years ago. And our hunters must be the best. The very best. Or humans would soon be dead and wolves not long after them. It’s a careful balance.”
“It has been for many years. It’s why I wanted to be a demon hunter.”
“But you cannot fight well enough to beat a wendigo, a simple level-three demon. You have no basic knowledge of demons, from what I’ve seen, and overall, you are failing,” he tells me, his words cutting deep because he is right. “You’re almost as bad at being in a team as Caspian is.”
“I’m well aware our team-building needs work,” I reply.
He laughs and stands up off his seat. Eziel walks around his desk as my heart pounds. “That is an understatement. “I’m half tempted to kick you both out of the trials.”
Panic flares through me. “Kick me out. Not Caspian. It’s not his fault I’m shit at fighting and following orders,” I
