Balthazar stopped. Turned slowly. His red eyes narrowed.
"Protect her."
The way he said it—flat, dangerous, like a snake coiling before it strikes—made bile roll up my throat.
Meaning we just signed our own death warrants.
But we'd come this far. No turning back now.
"Someone stole theLapis Umbraeshard from me," I said, bracing my shoulders and forcing myself to meet those hellfire eyes. "I need to find it."
Balthazar's head tilted, a predator assessing its prey. "And what were you doing with that? Dracula possessed it."
"I stole it from him." The words tasted bitter. "Angelo Santi wants it to protect his daughter."
Balthazar’s expression shifted—barely, just for an instant. Something almost... human.
"Doesn't trust his own daughter?" He let out a dark laugh. "Such an arrogant fool. I would never let anything happen to her."
The possessiveness in his voice made my skin crawl. What was his obsession with Noelle? Why did a demon—one of the most powerful in existence—care about a vampire's infant daughter?
I took the bait. "Why?"
He strolled over to me, closing the distance until we were almost nose to nose. The heat radiating off him was suffocating. The smell of sulfur and something ancient filled my nostrils.
"That's my business." His red eyes bored into mine, daring me to push further.
I held my ground, even though every nerve in my body screamed to run.
Selena stepped out from behind me, her chin lifted despite the fear I could still sense. If I could sense it, so could Balthazar.
“We’re not here to play games,” she said. “The shard was stolen. We need to know if a demon took it. If you care about Noelle at all, you’ll help us.”
“And who is this? She’s a beauty.” His smile turned predatory as he circled like a shark scenting blood. “Ah. Your mate you rejected? The one who still crawls for you?”
Selena winced as if he struck her.
“Shut up, Balthazar. Leave her alone.”
“Or what, Prince?” He laughed, and the sound scraped against my spine. “You’ll stop me? We both know how that ended last time.”
Selena’s hand found mine again, and her strength flowed through me. The trembling had stopped. She wasn’t hiding behind me anymore—she was standing beside me. And that small act of defiance, that refusal to cower, straightened something in my spine that Balthazar’s words had tried to bend.
"We need to know who stole the shard," Rose said, cutting through the tension. "If Noelle leaves Crescent Manor, she’ll be vulnerable."
Balthazar turned to face her, and every muscle in my body coiled tight. I shifted closer to Selena, my arm pressing against hers, ready to pull her behind me the second he made a wrong move.
"No, she wouldn't," he said, his voice dropping to something almost soft. Almost protective. "No one would dare hurt her."
I folded my arms across my chest. “What about a demon? Otherwise Angelo wouldn’t need the shard.”
Balthazar went still.
The temperature in the room dropped another ten degrees. The flames in Rose's bowl sputtered once and went dark. For a long, terrible moment, no one moved. No one breathed.
Balthazar's red eyes flared brighter, the flames in them dancing with barely contained rage. His hands curled into fists at his sides.
When he spoke again, his voice was cold. Deadly.
