Page 85 of Princess For All

Inez glanced around and relief filled her eyes, guessing what it was about given who was missing from my party. She nodded and led the way, rambling about eating and whatever I needed, apologizing that they weren’t at the castle and asking if we had the latest updates.

She really was too precious, and I loved her to bits.

I frowned when I saw Inez flinch almost as if someone smacked her upside the head, but there was no hand. I turned to find Kristof because she always found comfort in him. Fear raced through me when I saw the worry in his eyes. Something was wrong.

Something was very wrong.

I could feel it in my bones and the extra powers I had as a princess. I turned back to Inez to grab her and get out of there, but she wasn’t standing where she’d been. Looking in the different directions, I saw her down the hallway almost to the front door.

I raced after her, but she turned to me after she was outside and gave me a sad smile as she held up her hand towards me. I felt the barrier just before I hit it, falling back anyways as if I’d bounced off of it.

“Inez, we must leave,” I yelled. “I can get you out of here!”

“Everyone can’t evacuate in time, and I won’t be saved just because I’m Aether’s champion and matter,” she mumbled as she held up her hands. “I got this.”

I felt the charge of her power in two different forms—one visible to see like lightning almost… And then my power—the power that warned me of danger that princesses had—stopped. The danger was gone. I was so shocked that I didn’t even realize someone was holding me, having caught me when I’d started to fall.

“Don’t come out yet,” Inez said as she stepped towards us. “They might hurt from that distance.” She moved under the overhang of the building but was still looking up.

I waved my hand and felt the barrier gone. I motioned for everyone to stand back and moved next to her and hugged her to me. “What could hurt, love?”

“The energy beads. We have a traitor, Matilda. I don’t know what to do about that. I never wanted that, and I don’t want this to cause division with the humans. I’m not a bad leader.”

“No, no, you’re not, poppet,” I whispered, kissing her hair. I might have said more, but energy beads landed all around where she’d been standing and some on the roof from what I could hear.

“I heard a jet but ignored it because we hear them all the time now, but I can’t hear one anymore,” someone muttered behind me. “Did she just disintegrate it while in the air?”

“And the bombs they tried to drop on us because they know we’re here,” Inez said sadly. “Someone we took in can’t stand having me as a leader and a future without the real United States of America, so they went to the people we left at Fort Knox. They snuck in and stole a jet with help. It hurts when Aether sends me warnings like that.”

“I would bet,” I mumbled, hugging her again. “You did well, poppet. I will handle it from here. You rest.”

“Thanks for wanting to save me. You’re the mom I wish I’d had,” she rasped before fainting against me.

She wouldn’t have turned out as she had if she’d been my second daughter and grown up in my coven. She was the darling she was because of the life she’d had and we needed her to be that way.

But I swore to Aether that I would give her all the love I could now as my daughter because I did love her as one. I might not have given birth to her, but I did love her as one.

20

Nora

“What the bloody fuck did you just say?” I demanded of Sebastian. I’d been surprised to see him, happy that we could maybe spend some time together and that meant things were going well as they had been.

Instead, he came with news that sounded too crazy to believe, and we’d had a lot of crazy that I’d had to believe. For years now even.

He nodded, looking frazzled. “Aether gave Inez a warning and—she kept us safe in the building and walked outside to turn thebombsand jet into energy beads. She also sent an electrical charge to kill the guy. I guess he ejected because he knew someone would go for the jet. They found him dead sitting in the parachute chair thing.”

“How the bloody…” I simply blinked at him.

He snorted. “You should have been there. We were already reeling from the fucked of the earthquakes and what she put together about the mines. Then she’s—whatever she saw at the castle terrified her, Nora. It was like her seeing her mother and brother again and hurt my heart she was so scared.

“She can’t even really explain it. Matilda shows up without Lloyd and that’s finally good news and something is going right. But then it was like she was hit upside the head. I saw her head move and the pain. That’s Aether’s warning burning into her brain to help. It’s—she suffers too much and it kills me to see. How Jaxon deals with it…”

I blinked back tears as Sebastian wiped some as well. “What is being done now?” I swore up a storm when he gave me a look that it wasn’t good. “What did she order?”

“She passed out from—pick any one thing. Right now, Matilda is in charge and trying to figure out what the fuck happened.”

“How it happened even,” I seethed.

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