Page 46 of House of Lilith

It makes a pang of regret shoot through me, but it’s at the very next second that I sense someone else’s presence.

“Step away from her,” I hear my fiance’s voice even before my head snaps to my left to see him standing an arm-length away.

“Whoa, mate,” Howe protests as he puts distance between us, “what’s going on?”

“Get over here, Anastasya,” Max snaps at me.

And I do, throwing a glance at Howe, who’s frowning. “You’re being rude, Max.”

“Rude?” he demands with bitterness in his voice. “I was in a very important meeting tonight, when I got summoned to the Pied Piper’s office.” He pauses for a second, watching my eyebrows pull down. “Do you know what I learned there?”

I shake my head.

“I learned that there’s been a fucking murder.”

What the… My eyes dart to Howe, who takes a step closer to us, his frown growing deeper.

“But do you know what makes it even more interesting?” my fiance asks.

“What?”

He points at Howe. “That they have one ofthemlocked up. Caught red-handed, both literally and figuratively.”

“Ricky?” I hear Howe ask in a tense, commanding voice that sends shivers running up my spine. “The one they have locked up, is his name Eryndor?”

“I neither know nor care what his name is,” Max snaps as he turns to him, “but mark my words, therewillbe repercussions. Right now, you’re wanted in the Grimm Tower.” And he shifts his focus onto me, grabbing my upper arm. “Come on, Anastasya, we’re leaving.”

It makes my cheeks burn with embarrassment. “I should take him where he has to go,” I protest.

He shoots me a warning look. “No fiance of mine will ever find herself in the same room as a common criminal.”

I hesitate for a second, my eyes darting back to Howe only to find him already looking, standing there, his eyes piercing holes in me. Fuck. “Hilde,” I tell him, apologetically. “Hilde will take you there.”

“I can go myself,” he replies flatly but through gritted teeth. And he looks at me for a second longer before he adds, mockingly, “Your Highness.”

And with that, he pushes past us and starts climbing up the slope and straight for Grimm Tower.

“Anastasya,” Max calls out, impatience in his voice, but I keep my eyes fixed on the alpha’s back for a second longer. It makes my heart sink deep into my stomach, watching the now solitary shadow getting swallowed by the tower’s silhouette piercing the starless night sky.

Chapter 10 - Dahrian

LocalAuthorityOffice,sentencing,common criminal…The words keep echoing through my mind and I have to fight not to snarl at the guard to make him go faster. I’m fuming, barely keeping my fox contained. Whenever one of our own is threatened, he gets even less reasonable than usual. And right now, if I let him do what he wanted, we’d all end up in pools of our own blood.

So I grit my teeth and I just keep following the guard, step by step, down from the Pied Piper’s office at the top of somber, minimalist Grimm Tower. In my head, I’m going through the conversation I just had with her assistant. Apparently, the forensics have already done their jobs and the Academy knows exactly what happened and how.

And sometime tomorrow, they’ll be sending Ricky to the local Authority Office.

Ricky, the gentle nerd who wouldn’t hurt a fly, let alonemurdersomeone in cold blood.

“Be sure to keep in mind,” the assistant told me in her mousy voice, “that this visit has only been granted because of your impeccable reputation.”

It makes me grit my teeth, how heartless all the people here are. But that only gets an image of a certain Romanov flashing through my head.

I shake it off and I blow out an angry breath, turning my attention back to the guard. “Where exactly are you keeping him? In the fucking dungeon?”

And the guard stops right when we land on floor number five, at least judging by the gold digit to the left of the Elevator.

He turns to me, frowning. “Exactly where we found him,mate,” he says, mocking me.

---