My family and I all lived in mansions, but Grayson Darke's home was on an entirely different level. It was more like a small, very flashy luxury hotel. All four of the demon royals lived there, smack in the middle of the Shadow District. There had been constant drama between the four of them for the last eleven years.
Unlike my family, they weren't keeping the city alive, safe, and functioning, so they only had two seats on the Cabinet.
Hence the drama.
It was a constant power struggle, one I didn't envy in the slightest. My life was enough of a struggle.
I stepped inside the mansion.
I only left my house when I had to. It was too difficult for me, given the overwhelm I faced on a daily basis. Hell, on a constant basis. The best I could hope for was an hour or two of clarity every day. On the best days, I felt okay for a solid four hours.
So, I'd never seen the interior of the mansion before. But Ihadlooked up pictures.
A life with Grayson in this battleground of a mansion sounded even worse than what I dealt with because of my magic. Which was part of the reason why I'd be making an agreement with him and returning to my own home.
I wasn't entirely sure what he wanted from me, but I'd been warned by his assassin that he was planning to abduct me.
I wouldn't handle an unscheduled abduction well.
Not that I would handle ascheduledabduction any better.
My emotions could overwhelm me just as easily as anything else, if I wasn't careful.
I was careful, though. Usually.
I looked up and down a hallway, far too overwhelmed to notice the wayeverythingwas white. The tile. The walls. The furniture, too. It was an excessive amount of white.
My heartbeat was somehow still picking up.
New places were difficult for me. The pictures I'd looked up, along with a copy of the floorplan my assistant had managed to get her hands on, made me slightly more comfortable. But not much.
I walked down the hallway, keeping my feet fixed on the space in front of me. I heard sounds from a few people who must've noticed me, but I ignored them. Greeting them was an impossibility. It would take everything I had just to reach the bedroom without losing my shit.
No one tried to stop me, of course. I protected women too violently for my reputation not to precede me, particularly in a house full of demon royals.
I put one foot after another, and forced myself to keep walking. My phone was in my hand, but I'd spent enough time holding it that it didn't overstimulate me the way most things did.
It felt like a lifetime passed before I found the massive staircase.
Staring up at it, I let out a slow, soft breath.
There were alotof stairs.
How the fuck was I going to make it to the top?
I looked down at the plan on my phone.
There was no strategy, despite the shaking in my legs and the nausea in my stomach and the invisible bugs still crawling on my skin. Just me, and the stairs.
Why did everything have to feel so impossible?
I put my foot on the bottom step, and?—
A pair of hands grabbed my waist.
I made a sound of surprise as someone hauled me into the air, spun me around, and draped me over their shoulder.
Shadows danced around us as my world continued spinning, my stomach clenching violently as nausea rose with a fiery vengeance, and?—
