Dizziness has to be the cruelest symptom ever! Stop making the door spin, so I can get out of it!
Despite the twisting, swirling, vomit-inducing world my brain was plunging me into, I didn’t stop. Radu’s threat to rip away my glamour and expose me to all of hell would have to be dealt with when the time came. Right then, the only thing that mattered was getting out of this room, and finding Sabrina.
It was her who entered the room of the person behind it all that night. She was caught by the culprit and labeled the spy she was, then she was used as bait to take me down and silence me for good.
Too bad for that psycho murderer, Sabrina and I were still kicking. Once I found her, she’d tell me who was behind all of this, and I’d finally find Dora and get her home.
“Come on.” I knocked into a stack of books, bringing them crashing down on top of me. “Ah!”
If I were at full strength, I was sure it wouldn’t have hurt more than a stubbed toe. But as it was, it felt like someone just tried to club me to death.
“Ahhh,” I groaned, pain singing through my body.
The bastard sure did leave a treacherous maze between me and the door, but it wasn’t going to stop me. I kept going—taking the three books on my back with me. I was almost there, I wasfairly sure of it. The door kept spinning, but it wasn’t getting farther away. That had to be a good sign.
After what felt like an eternity, my fingertips brushed the bottom of the doorframe.
A smile stretched my lips. “Take that, bloodsucking bitch.”
The door flew open. “As you wish, my sweet one, and where would you like me to take it?”
Snapping my head up, I met Radu’s smug grin. My heart fell out of my butt.
“But— You—”
Radu picked me up. He let the books hit the ground, and carried me back to bed.
“But you never get back this early,” I cried, finally getting a word out past my shock. “You’re supposed to have class!”
“Mmm, so you weren’t quite as out of it the last few days as you made it seem.” He kissed my forehead, making me growl. “The whole time you were tracking my comings and goings. Good. It’s not fun playing with you when you’re lying there like a lump.”
“If you want a lump, all you have to do is get within punching distance.” That earned me another laugh. “Seriously,” I snapped. “What are you doing here? Do you have me under surveillance or something? Have you been watching me every time you left?”
“Nothing as convenient as that.” He propped himself up at the end of the bed, smiling back at me like the treasured little pet I was, and as always, my weak, traitorous pulse quickened at the sight of him.
Radu said the vampire noblewoman fell for him because he was sweet and innocent, but you only had to look at him and you’re in love. With his hard, broad jaw in perfect contrast to his soft, pouty lips. The prominence of his Roman nose, and the delicate lushness of his ebony waves.
Even then, as he reclined there in the simplest and plainest outfit, he excluded lust and sex like the Greek god of love.
“I’m back early because class was canceled,” he explained, “and it was canceled because of you.”
“Me? What are you talking about?”
He clicked his tongue. “There’s been quite an uproar these last few weeks, ever since it was announced that you died under questioning and your body had been disposed of. That explanation wasn’t good enough for the young fae prince,” Radu said. “And the boy definitely didn’t like hearing that you died denying Lucifer’s involvement with witches or murders.
“Ever since, he’s been shouting about coverups and broken treaties. He’s been saying all the demons in Abaddon are too chickenshit to bring an accusation against Lucifer, so they’re wetting their pants scrambling to cover up his crimes.” He inclined his head. “Which is true, but it’s one of those things you don’t say.
“Anyway, it’s like Hell War CCCXXIV out there. Fae against demons,” he said. “I had to end class early because another fight between the two groups broke out, and three students up and got themselves killed.”
I hissed, wincing. “That’s awful, but not surprising.” I recalled Iarla’s story, and the ninety years Lucifer made his father wait. “Ravenscar was never going to accept an ending where Lucifer gets off scot-free.”
“Maybe so, but he should’ve learned from the countless others who’ve gone up against him and failed. There is no greater enemy than—”
BOOM!
The whole room rattled, shaking the shelves on their hinges. I screamed when stacks of books dropped from the rafters.
Radu pounced on me, bodily shielding me from the missiles.
