Page 63 of Eternal Captive

There were so many things at stake.

For me. For Tate. For my entire family.

“I said stop her,” Cedar growled, her side brushing across mine. I didn’t realize what she was doing until heat spread across my side, where her body met mine. Painful spots burst across my skin as a warning.

Panic ran through me, and I froze against her.Could vampires smell magic?

The place was packed, but there were so many in here at once, it was possible that the scents mingled together in a way that would hide it.

But it wasn’t guaranteed.

“If you let her leave, you’ll need to find yourself another contract,” she said, her voice low. Finally, I met her gaze. Her face was cold and her eyes clear.

What the fuck?Was she saying what I th?—

“What do you know?” I said in a harsh whisper, my hand shooting out to grip the side of her uniform. Now was not the time for this cryptic bullshit.

“Remember what I said in our room,” she said in a low voice, her eyes traveling over my face.

If someone like yourself made it in here, what makes you think there aren’t more?

Impossible. I had been here far too long not to catch anyone else, unless…she isn’t one, is she?

It was all the push I needed. She had made the decision for me.I needed to be the one to kill the princess.And my chance was about to slip through my fingers.

I jerked away from her and rushed after the princess. She was nearing the exit far faster than I was, but she was constantlyslowed by the vampires around her, all trying to chat as she passed.

Luckily, one grabbed her attention for a bit too long, and I was able to slip my arm around her waist. She shot me a look and tried to push me off, but I ignored her.

“Excuse us,” I said, sending a smile to the vampire she was talking to. “But isn’t it a crime that the princess hasn’t danced to a single song yet?”

He merely laughed and waved us off, but as I tried to drag her to the dance floor, the princess pulled us to a standstill.

“What do you think you’re doing?” she hissed. “I’m trying to leave this godforsaken party.”

“Because of the prince?” I asked her. “Did he say anything? Is he the one pushing you to leave?”

All the impatience seemed to leave her body at my questions, and she looked up at me with a raised brow. There was a tenseness to her I’d never seen before.

Almost like she’d seen a ghost.

“What’s happening?” she asked. Slowly, her eyes started to move around the crowd until they fell on the vampire in question. My eyes followed hers. He was staring at us, and next to him were Aurelia’s handmaiden and her stepsister.

That doesn’t look right.

I leaned down to whisper in her ear. “Something feels off. Stay with me for a bit. Somewhere visible.”

I looked back to where Cedar had been standing guard, but she was gone, and a new person was in her place.

Alarm bells went off in my head.It couldn’t be her, could it? If so, why would she give me a heads-up?

There was no time to waste. Aurelia was getting more and more impatient by the second, and the more I looked around us, the more it felt like everyone was staring. And there was no waythat I could make out which stares were the ones of a true enemy or of just another curious onlooker.

You should leave her,a voice in my head said as Aurelia tugged at my hand in a poor excuse to get free. She could have distanced herself from me with minimal effort, but there was something about the situation that rang differently to her as well.

If I left her and something bad happened, I would be absolved of my duty. I could leave and never look back, see my little brother, and then…what?

Father would no doubt hear about how she was murdered and sooner or later would find out what I knew. He wouldn’t be happy if I showed up at the house after that. Better a runaway than a child who failed her mission.

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