Page 56 of Vengeful Princess

“Milo, where did you go?” Kyril asked, no longer annoyed.

Our friend walked over, dried blood all over his shirt collar. Concern cut through the marijuana-induced fuzz in my head and I sat up.

“What happened?”

Milo shrugged and looked away. “Nothing. I’m fine.”

Kyril and I exchanged a glance that said, no, he’s not fine.

Something was going on with him, but it seemed he wasn’t ready to talk about it.

“Cassian says to head out to the maze. The party’s finally getting started.”

Sweet. I kinda wished the redhead who reminded me of Thea had stuck around, but since she’d blown me off, it was time to get drunk.

29

Thea

My night was going from bad to worse. The minute I’d attempted to walk around the side of the house toward the main entrance, I’d spotted Lucian Forsyth talking to Cassian. Or rather, engaged in aheated discussionthat looked seconds away from turning physical.

Since I didn’t want either of them seeing me, and heading back inside the house wasn’t an option in case I ran into Milo, I had no choice but to take a detour.

Only it was dark, and before I realized my mistake, I was lost in a hedge maze.

In my defense, a stupid hedge maze wouldn’t normally faze me, but my head was all over the place after watching Landon jerk off. It felt like my brain was temporarily offline and my hormones were running the show.

I was horny, half-drunk on champagne, and pissed off. Not a great combination. Lord help anyone who made the mistake of running into me in this stupid, ever-so-creepy maze. I was definitely in a kill-first, ask-questions-later kind of mood.

Some kind soul had placed lanterns at intervals, which helped guide my way. While I could have used my phone’s torch, the battery was low and I needed it to call the driver when I finally escaped this hell-hole.

On and on I wandered. Laughter filtered through the tall yew hedges, growing louder by the minute. When I finally turned a corner, I soon realized why it had gotten so noisy.

I’d somehow ended up at the center of the maze, which was now party central. Someone had lugged in a large keg of beer and umpteen bottles, which were set up on a table. In the middle stood a stone fountain, where a statue of Eros, draped in solar lights, watched over the revelers.

There were people everywhere. Some danced to songs blasting out from a phone. Others were making out in dark corners. Most of them had shed their masks and half of their clothing, with a few girls wearing little more than lingerie.

And in the middle of the debauchery sat Landon and Kyril, lounging in plastic chairs, drinking and smoking. Even Milo hovered nearby. I noted he looked none the worse for his ordeal earlier. He seemed remarkably unperturbed, considering.

I hung back, not wanting to be seen. While I watched, two girls sauntered over to Landon, and one of them straddled his lap. A nasty little emotion that felt a lot like jealousy brewed in my gut, but I squashed it down hard.

The girl wiggled her butt and shoved her tits in his face, but after a moment, he pushed her off and laughed when she shrieked with annoyance.Good. Served the thirsty bitch right.

I was about to leave when he turned in my direction. “Hey! Red, wait up!” he yelled, recognizing me despite the poor light.

Shit. I did not want to be caught by Landon!

Milo spun around too, but before he could say a word, I was gone, running flat out through the narrow corridors of yew likemy life depended on it. I had no clue which way the exit was. All I cared about was escaping my pursuers.

Left, then right, then left again. In the distance, music from the orchestra playing on the lawn at the rear of the manor house grew louder. Just as an opening in the hedge appeared, fireworks exploded in the sky, lighting up the maze as if it were the Fourth of July.

There was a yell from behind me and I put on a burst of speed, eager to melt away into the crowd watching the fireworks.

As I reached the edge of the lawn, I stumbled on an exposed root and nearly fell. My shoe came off, but I didn’t bother to retrieve it. Instead, I ran up the lawn, one foot bare, and pushed through a throng of people.

The sound of fireworks exploding into the night sky drowned out the shouts from behind me. By the time I reached the front of the house, my driver was already waiting for me in the queue. He said nothing as I dived into the back seat of the limousine, wearing only one shoe.

“Drive, now!”

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