Page 169 of Firestorm
“Truthfully? I imagine he’ll be dipping into your mind the moment you drop your shields,” Raaz said simply, stunning the fuck out of me. “He seems to be after information, though the Princess hasn’t managed to figure out what that could be.”
I blinked stupidly for a few moments as alarm flushed through me. “He’s gotten into her mind?”
Raaz shook his head. “He can’t. I reckon he thinks you’re not quite as strong as your mother.”
“Idiot,” I muttered.
“Indeed,” Raaz said in agreement. “I’m assuming your Key won’t be joining us this evening?”
I snorted. No, Skye was not joining shit tonight. I’d intercepted the awful dress my father had sent to her as soon as she’d told Aiden she wasn’t coming. I shared Aiden’s anger toward my father, though mine was much more…visceral.
“He’s lucky I don’t kill him,” I muttered.
“I agree,” Raaz said, surprising me again. “I assume your father doesn’t yet know this?”
I grinned slowly. “No, he doesn’t know.” I replied. “She decided all on her own not to come here. My hands are clean.”
Raaz smirked in response, and I followed his gaze across theballroom, noticing Harper seemed to be alone as she dipped in and out of the crowd.
“Odd,” I said, nodding toward Harper. “I’d expected Lucille to come dig her claws into me since my mother wouldn’t be here.” Raaz only nodded in agreement.
I was much stronger than my mother, but she already held an incredible amount of power over her affinities. Not many people knew for certain which affinities she held, but telepathy was the main rumor. If this business associate thought he could get into her mind…
“How is Alexander allowing this?” I growled, shooting a glare at Raaz. “If the Princess is in danger, you should be doing something about it.”
He held my stare without fidgeting. “My prince, you know your father very well. Do you believe he’d have allowed such a thing if he were aware of it? Do you believe I would allow this to continue if Her Grace was truly in danger?”
“Trick question,” I shot back. “You give my father too much credit. He is not as intelligent as he pretends to be.”
“And his affinity is so weak he’s hardly considered an affinate,” Raaz added on. “He isn’t aware of how dangerous his new ally is. You need to keep your head–”
“Fucking Lucille, always where she shouldn’t be.” My father cursed from somewhere close by.
I whirled around to face him, stopping short when I saw the man next to him. He was taller than my father by a few inches, eye-level with me. His broad shoulders fit perfectly into his tailored, bespoke suit. His hair was dark like mine, nearly black, slicked back to bring attention to the silver threading through his temples. His high cheekbones and pale blue eyes stirred something in the back of my mind, but mostly he just looked like some wannabe mafioso.
Getting involved with the mafia was low even for my father.
Just as I’d looked the strange man over, he did the same to me, his jaw clenching slightly as if my appearance alone pissed him off. Or…maybe it was the tattoo peeking up from under my royal collar. It was hard to tell what exactly pissed off older people, sometimes.
“Son,” Alejandro said, beaming at me and ignoring the staring contest in front of him. “This is someone very important I’d like you to meet. You may have heard of him, his followers refer to him as–”
“The Crusader,” the man said, offering me his hand without dipping his head to bow first.
I almost snorted. Why couldn’t it have been the mafia? Alejandro justhadto get involved with a cult leader.
How utterly unsurprising, though. Of course the man responsible for leading rich families across the world searching for some enlightened bullshit would be a guest at a royal gala while wearing a thousand-dollar suit. His people were probably starving back in the compound of sheds he kept them locked in.
I raised an eyebrow at him before shooting my father a look.
“Crusader,” Alejandro said tightly. “This is my son, His Royal Highness, the Prince Rafael.”
“Pleasure to meet you,” the Crusader said, not even offering me a smile.
“Where are you from,Crusader?” I asked, looking down my nose at him even as we stood at the same height.
His jaw clenched again, and I was about to have so much fun with this fucking weirdo.
“Everywhere, really.” He folded his hands behind his back, though his shoulders were still rigid, his feet a shoulders’ width apart.
