Page 9 of Their Princess

I rolled my eyes. “I don’t even call my parents that. Please, get over yourself. You’re not that special.”

His brows furrowed. “I shall enjoy cutting your head from your body and displaying it from the castle.”

My mates growled.

Smiling, I said, “You can try, John.”

His furrowed brows loosened a second before furrowing again. “John?”

“You won’t give me your name, so I figured it must be a basic name, like John.” I shrugged. “Seems fitting.”

He snarled and magic crackled around his body. “My name is Valentino and soon you will all refer to me as King Valentino!” He weaved a pattern with his hands, a movement I hadn’t ever seen done before. “Good thing I’ve still got an ace up my sleeve or all of these years of work dealing with the pitiful demons would have been for naught.” He pulled out the stone I’d given him with my magic and drew it out, absorbing it into his body.

Despite knowing that the magic had a curse within it that would eventually weaken him, I was scared because I didn’t know how long the curse would take to go into effect.

“Ready?” Kayden asked calmly behind me and used his thumbs to dig into a knot on my upper shoulder.

I nodded once. “Ready.”

The worst part was waiting for Valentino to make his move first. I hated waiting.

Trey reached over and squeezed my hand. “Patience, Princess. I know that’s something you’ve never excelled at.”

“Waiting sucks,” I whispered.

“Good things come to those who wait, or at least that’s what your parents always told us,” Mason muttered.

“Any word on the other siren?” I asked.

Dad teleported next to me and whispered, “Leona’s found the accomplice, a siren like you thought. We’re going to wait until they make their next move before attacking.”

I nodded. “Understood.”

He teleported away again.

“I need that power,” I whispered.

“No, then we would never find you,” Mason grumbled. “You’d teleport all over to visit people and places and it’d be like finding a needle in a haystack.”

Kayden sighed softly. “Don’t even mention her having that kind of ability, it stresses me out thinking about it.”

Rolling my eyes was the only response they got out of me.

Dhun and Jol jogged up to us from behind and I bent over to hug Dhun. “You’re even bigger than when I last saw you!”

He yipped and his tongue lolled out of his mouth.

“He won’t stop growing for at least a year,” Jol explained. “He’s actually quite large already for a hound, so I think he’s going to be the largest one yet.”

“Probably Lily’s fault,” Kayden whispered.

I elbowed him in the stomach. “Rude!”

All of the men laughed, including Dhun.

“I’m weaving your deaths and you’re chattering and laughing?” Valentino asked, his hands still moving through the air, reminding me of martial arts movements my grandpas practiced sometimes. Though, their practice of those movements was for calming and centering yourself, which I highly doubted was Valentino’s plan.

“It’s hard to take someone playing with the wind seriously,” I said and shrugged, acting unconcerned despite the fear coursing through me. I had to believe that the visions were true and we would win. I had to. The moon rose closer to its zenith and I knew the time was coming. The time for the prophecy to be enacted.

---