Page 36 of Princess Avenged

Zuben shakes his head, his eyes showing his reluctance to answer.

“Tell me!”

The image on the screen shifts.

The camera angle widens, adjusting to movement somewhere else in the room.

Phil steps into view.

Shooting to my feet, I leap toward the screen as if I can hug him over the thousands of miles between us. Seeing my love fills me with so much warmth and joy I can barely breathe.

“I knew it.” My heart is thumping out of control, and I press my hands against my chest to keep it contained. “I knew you were alive. I felt it in every part of my being.” My joy is even more overpowering than my grief has been.

“Yes, I am alive,” Phil says, but he doesn’t seem as happy about it as I am.

“How soon can you get here?” I ask, unable to wipe the wide grin off my face. “Why aren’t you already on a plane?”

He shakes his head. “The demon will use me to find you.”

“Who cares?” I ask. “We’re both marked by that demon. It can’t find us underground. You’ll be safer here at the palace than you are at DEFTA.” My heart is singing, my body humming with the anticipation of being in Phil’s arms. No matter whether it’s day or night in Philadelphia, DEFTA has ways to get him safely onto a plane. I’ll see him in under eight hours. “Come right away, before the demon finds you again.”

“I’m sorry.” Phil looks away. “I would give anything to be with you, but it’s not safe.”

“Why?” I resist the urge to stomp my foot, like a belligerent child.

“There are things about this demon you don’t understand,” Blade says coming up beside me.

“Then tell me!” I glare at him. “I am sick and tired of you holding back information. All of you. No more lying. It’s clear I can’t trust any of you.”

On the screen, Phil flinches.

“Darlin’.” Flame draws my attention toward him. “We’re trying to give you the information. We brought you here to see Phil, but also to hear everything Blade and Zuben have discovered. Will you let them?”

I shake out my body, trying to get all the parts of me synced. My mind, body, and emotions have been tossed back and forth too many times—between good and bad news, between grief and elation, between anger and joy. “Please. Whatever it is, tell me.”

Blade glances back toward the hallway. “I should get the relevant texts?—”

“Blade. Just tell me.”

“Hey.” Flame runs his arm over my back. “He’s trying his best.”

I glance into Flame’s bright blue eyes, and my rage shatters. He’s right. Everyone here is trying to help me. And my anger—my confused emotions are the main thing holding back their progress.

“I apologize,” I say to Blade. “It’s clear that whatever you’ve learned has been difficult for you too.”

He nods, his silver eyes brimming with fear that chills me, adding another conflicting emotion to the confusing mix already swirling inside me.

“Why don’t we sit?” Flame’s hand slides up to my shoulder, and he guides me down to the sofa, leaving his arm over my shoulder.

Blade shifts closer to the screen that still shows Phil, alongside Ember and Zuben, with a smaller image of me, Blade and Flame in the bottom corner.

“Based on everything we’ve learned.” Blade glances toward Zuben on the screen, then back to me and Flame. “The demon that possessed Rasputin for a hundred years was a Pain Monger. On its own, this kind of demon holds few powers on earth. That’s probably how it managed to remain undetected after most demons were banished to their proper realm.”

“If it has so little power…” I stop myself. Clearly there’s more to hear. I should let Blade finish.

“To take possession of a soul,” Blade says, “the demon strikes deals with its host. Deals which escalate over time. And the more hosts it uses, the deals it strikes, the more power it gains, and the more it can torture its host and control their actions.”

I nod. Clearly it made deals with Rasputin to keep him alive. Deals that involved me. My stomach flips, as I remember the horrible things Rasputin did and said when he held me captive in that house.

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