I exhale slowly, and just as I’m about to take another step, a voice calls out to me from the shadows in the far corner.
“Don’t forget to lose the horns, Aries. Wouldn’t want to upset daddy dearest.” The mysterious voice is a scuttling sound, like cold wind slipping through cracks in a wall.
I’d recognize Sev’s tone with or without the darkness, though.
Krave steps toward the voice and the nothingness. A Shadow Guard isn’t likely to out himself, but I guess we always look after our own.
My hand lifts, and I stop Krave’s deadly stride before he can rip apart the shadows looking for an unseen threat.
I nod to Sev.
He’s right.
There’s a small tremble in my fingers as I lightly slide my fingertips up the long curve of the onyx horns. It’s odd but... I like them. They feel like I’ve had them all my life, and I’ve just now grown into them.
Just to be told to hide them away.
“Ari,” Krave whispers gently.
I peer at him out of the corner of my eye, and he’s entirely focused on the top of my head. Sadness shines in his inky gaze. My heart pulls. I’m more connected with him and with Damien and Ryke because of my new appearance. It isn’t just horns, though. I’ll glamour them, sure. But it won’t change how I feel.
It won’t change what I am.
That’s true,Catherine says, all too sweetly.
I don’t know why I can handle her better when she’s a cunt. I can’t even call her that now. Gods, I’ll have to start calling her Catherine the Kind.
Or just Catherine, she whispers.
My eyes close, and with a swift twirl of my glamour, the horns are gone. They’re there but they’re not. I feel them. I sense the weight of them, but it’s more like a phantom feeling.
They’re gone.
The sound of Krave clearing his throat just confirms what I already know.
“Sev, I’ll see you tonight.”
“I’m sorry, what?” Krave says as soon as the words leave my mouth.
“Oh, I look forward to it, Ari,” the unseen man says from the depths of the shadows.
I ignore them both and continue on. My gown sways over the glossy floorboards, and every step I take is like I’m walking back in time.
I’m the youngest Princess of the Kingdom of Roses once more.
And I still fucking hate it.
* * *
“You’re late,” my father says as Krave oddly pulls out my chair for me.
There’s a brief moment of awkwardness where I’m looking at the incubus, and he’s aloofly looking anywhere but at me. With a small smile to him, I gracefully slip into the cushioned red seat. He jars me forward hard until my ribs hit the table, and the wind is knocked out of me.
I have to strain to look over the high back of the chair and give him a good glare.
He doesn’t meet my eyes.
Because I’m his handler.
