Page 85 of Prince of Demons
He scoffed softly. “You know why. He was inside you, Georgia. For a lord—especially someone like Kesh—there's no coming back from that. It’d be easier for him to live without his lungs than to let you go.”
The words hit her like a physical blow. Something behind her ribs cracked open—painful hope, too sharp and too sudden. Her breath caught, and she pressed a hand to her chest, as if she could hold the broken pieces of herself together long enough to almost believe him. “He… couldn’t let me go? But… everything he said… about his family being his priority? He invited all these lords here to court me.”
“He had to pretend to comply—his father wouldn’t stand for anyone or anything getting in the way of protecting Kain and his family. Not even Kesh. So this is the way it’s going to have to be. He will take you somewhere safe and hide you until the war is settled and no one can force you apart.” Mallorn turned back around toward her, now with a silky bundle of fabric in his hands retrieved from the old filing cabinet. He shook it out, revealing a gorgeous, smoky-silvered cape that looked like it’d been plucked straight out of a fairytale. “Here, put this on. It’s laced with invisibility runes, but it will only last a few hours. We need to be far away once the magic wears off. Come, Breeder. Let’s not dawdle.”
Kesh had planned this. He… he had chosen her over his family, after all. Her broken heart ached as something deep behind her ribs began to mend.
But as she stepped forward to reach for the cape, a whisper of guilt made her pull her hands back. “If he leaves and takes me with him… what will happen to them? The king and the queen? Will the other lords abandon them? And if Kesh isn't here to help?—?”
“You really are a soft soul,” he cut her off, but his voice was quiet, almost gentle. He held the cape out toward her. “They won’t know he took you. Once you are safe, he will return. And he will blame me, in league with the Europeans, for your disappearance. The other lords won’t know of his betrayal, and another instance of European treachery will only serve to strengthen American alliances. Once the war is won and the threat to the king has been eliminated, he will pretend to find and ‘rescue’ you, claiming to have needed to mate you to save your life. No one will suspect the truth.”
Her knees felt weak. This… this was real. Despite his pretenses not to, Kesh had felt it, too. The powerful pull between them. He’d broken her heart, but only to save them both, and his family, too. Breathing shakily, she let Mallorn put the cape around her shoulders and pulled the hood over her head. His finger brushed against her cheek, unnaturally warm despite his human disguise.
“And you… you are okay with taking the blame? What will happen to you?”
Mallorn exhaled, a joyless smile pulling on his lip. “My first loyalty, my first responsibility, is to my prince. The… dust-up we had yesterday may have looked serious, but it was only a moment of my instincts getting the better of me. Kesh knows that, and this is what he needs from me, and so this is what will be done. Don’t worry for me, Georgia. I will be fine. Now, come. Let’s get you out of here. I have a car waiting. Follow me and be as quiet as you can. If anyone sees me trying to steal you away, I will be executed on the spot, and you—you will be given to someone other than Kesh.”
They passed several guards on their way through the corridors toward the back exit. Georgia clung to the inside of the cape, her heart beating so hard against her ribs she feared one of the demons might hear, but while they acknowledged Mallorn, no one even glanced in her direction.
They made it unaccosted to the back exit tucked behind a loading bay area. Mallorn nodded at the two guards stationed there, but when he reached for the door, one of the guards stepped forward and placed a hand on his shoulder. “Halt. You know we are in lockdown until the Courting is over. Kesh’s orders.”
Mallorn paused. One eyebrow crept up as he slowly looked down on the guard’s hand on him, then back up to his face. “Bold of you to presume you get to command me, Girak. Do not get in my way. You won’t like the consequences.”
Girak lowered his hand from Mallorn’s shoulder, but he didn’t step out of the way. “The prince was clear. No one leaves without his explicit directive to us. If he confirms, of course we will let you be on your way, Mallorn. But until then, it’s our hides if we let anyone pass. Even you. And you know he’s fucking literal about it. He’s been a complete ball ache since the Breeder arrived.”
Mallorn narrowed his eyes slightly. “My orders are urgent—and from Kirigan, not Kesh. So either you move, now, or I will make you step aside. Once I return, I will tell Kirigan that his pressing and time-critical business was delayed because of you. And trust me—once I do, you will long for the time before he learned your name.”
There was a moment’s tense silence. Then, without another word, Girak moved back to the side of the door with a short nod.
“Wise choice.” Mallorn pushed open the door and stepped through. He held it open just long enough that Georgia managed to dart through behind him.
She followed him around the corner at the back of the old casino and into an alley, where a sleek, black car with tinted windows was parked.
“The backseat doors are open. Keep the cape on and the hood up until I tell you otherwise,” Mallorn said softly.
She did as she was told, sliding into the leather seat and tugging the cloak tighter around her body, hood shadowing her face.
Once the door closed behind her, Mallorn slipped into the driver's side and switched the engine on. “Make sure you stay down until we’re there. The runes won’t last much longer, and I can’t risk anyone catching a glimpse of you.”
“Okay.” Georgia slid down on her side, curling up against the backrest. Her heart still thumped unevenly in her chest, but when he pulled out of the alley and out onto the busy street, the first threads of relief started threading through her nervous system. They were going to make it. He was taking her to Kesh—Kesh, who had chosen that unnamed, unrelenting pull between them over honor, over duty. Over everything.
However confusing and horrible the past twenty-four hours had been, regardless of the hurt and betrayal she’d felt in his hands, it was worth it. Would be worth it. Because the one thing that had been brutally clear as she allowed the forty-nine lords to court her, the one inescapable fact she had refused to acknowledge, was that he was her only shot at happiness. Of a genuine connection—frail and fraught, but real.
Her one chance at true love.
Neither she nor Mallorn spoke for the next twenty minutes as he drove them through the city’s streets. She couldn’t see much from her low perch on the backseat, only the sides of indistinguishable buildings and occasional flashes of the sky, darkened by the window tint.
When the car finally slowed, then stopped, he pulled the handbrake and looked over his shoulder in her general direction. “You can remove the cloak now, Georgia.”
Finally.
She pushed off the seat to sit upright so she could undo the cape and pull it off her body. “Are we there?”
“Yes.” Mallorn plucked the silky fabric from her hand, folding it away in the glove compartment.
The car was parked in what looked like some sort of industrial car park, but from the backseat she couldn’t see much apart from a tall chain link fence and broken concrete.
Mallorn opened the driver's side door and slipped out of the car, then came around to the back and opened her door. It was only then she realized he’d had the child locks on.
