Page 88 of Princess For All

“You know forsurethat someone didn’t just walk up to one of the locations and fly a jet off?” I checked, glad when Trisha had anger flaring in her eyes not to insult her that they’d be that lax.

“Yes, we know for sure, and there are no humans with that kind of access. Do we have them fully locked up like we should on bases and checking IDs at the stations of every vamp and shifter like we should? No. Fuck no, and we can’t. But this guy was a human. None of them are active inourdefenses, and we don’t have a jet missing.”

And I didn’t know enough about jets to know how hard it would be to switch out anything to fix it. Some of the cars were minor to get running again.

“I’m certainly not going to blame the victim here or put this back on Inez,” she said under her breath.

“But?” I pushed.

“But our leader doesn’t always tell us everything, and there aremanytimes that she’s fixed more than she’s intended to. Many. Times.”

Damnit, she was right. I lost the rest of my upset then. “Alright, you’ve made your point, lass.”

“Good because there is nothing you could say to make my brother feel worse than he already does right now, and weneed himto get it together so he can fix this and figure out what we do next.”

I looked past her, and sure enough James looked crushed and was staring at Inez looking how Sebastian did when I’d had a scare of miscarrying one of our children. Anytime I’d come too close or been hurt or betrayed by someone I shouldn’t have been. That look only someone in love could give.

Poor lad.

I went over to Inez and knelt down in front of her, smiling and tucking some of her hair behind her ear. I opened my mouth to greet her, but she talked first.

“I’m not a bad leader, Nora. I’m not. There’s no reason for them to want me dead. I’ve doneeverythingand more to help everyone I can. So many times, even when it bit me in the ass or hurt me physically. It always hurts, but I still do it. I’ve not been mean to anyone or treated them poorly. I don’t understand what I did wrong.”

“Not a damn thing, lass,” I whispered. “You are kind and loving and perfect. You arebetterthan I am, but being the leader means someone will always hate you because they cannot be the leader. They will blame you for things that they won’t take responsibility for. You are their scapegoat.”

She bobbed her head, a few tears falling on one of the shifter cats on her lap, Simon I recognized for sure. “I was willing to be the one they blamed for bad things or yelled at sometimes even if it wasn’t my fault. I get that. I can’t make things perfect or have to prioritize other things. But killing me? That’s a level of taking out someone bad.”

Sometimes she was dark because she’d seen and been through so much—even more than I had.

But other times, Inez truly was innocent and pure like her name.

“No, lass, it just means this time that the person behind it was bad. And we’re going to get you answers. Your mums are, okay? Matilda and I are going to handle this and make it so this doesn’t happen again.”

She sniffled and looked like a lost little lass when she met my gaze. “I was getting better. I felt better and strong. Why can’t I just ever stay that way? I don’t know what to do again, Nora. The ghosts are all over my home—my first real home. And now—I can’t—Aether wants me to protect the humans, and Kristof wants them all dead now. I don’t know what to do.”

“I do. At least on the last part. The ghosts—rest up and pray to Aether now that they’re not blocking you from Her. She’ll help. I know She will.”

Her eyes filled with relief. “Thanks for coming again, Mom.”

“Always, my beautiful, perfect daughter.” I kissed her hair and told her to rest before going to find Kristof. “She needs you.”

“She needs me to take out this threat to her, Nora,” he bellowed, clearly pushed too far this time. He didn’t even give a shit more than normal about who he was speaking to. “She kept me insideagain. I couldn’t protect heragain, Nora! She took bombs and a fucking plane out of the sky. How can I protect her from that?”

Kristof let out a bellow that hurt my soul and sank to his knees in pain.

I moved closer and rubbed his shoulder. “You can’t. You just have to accept that she can protect herself just like the men who love me do too. The rest I’m going to go handle so she can keep loving you because she needs you to keep breathing. Don’t let your monster win. Let her mothers be mothers and protect her.”

“Please, I beg you. Don’t let them take her from me. I cannot—I will burn this world to ash if she is not in it, Nora. I swear it.”

I believed him. I fully believed him.

And when I glanced up and saw the pain in Jaxon’s eyes, I knew my son was right there with Kristof. I went over to him and gave him a quick hug. “I will handle the people side of this to start. Give us the power and we will. Think of a plan for the security side so this can’t happen again.”

“I can’t think past they almost dropped a bomb on her,” he whispered, sounding destroyed. “All she suffers isn’t worth it.”

No, it wasn’t, but that was life no matter our station and birth. I wasn’t going to remind him of that right now when he was grieving.

“Inez gave me full control of the coven to do what I think is best,” Matilda told me as she moved up next to me. “Shall we?”

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