Page 144 of My Dark Horse Prince

“That’s not good,” Aleksandr says. “Not good at all.”

27

Unlike the last time, when I leave the hospital this time, no one has died. No one shot at me, threatened me with a knife, or slit anyone’s throat. All in all, it’s a much bigger success.

And if my new-ish boyfriend insists on carrying me, well. I’m not going to complain about that.

The day I left the hospital last time, I was fleeing Grigoriy. He was protecting me, but I was too upset to see that. All I could see was how grotesque his form of protection was. I blamed the tiger for being a tiger, even if his reasons for mauling were solid.

Today, though, I need the tiger and his claws.

“I still don’t understand how this could have happened.” Kristiana’s understandably frazzled. She’s not someone who likes to impose on anyone, but hearing that my sister’s been taken by a horrible person who’s apparently controlling two shape-shifting mages has not been easy for her to process. “Why didn’t you just call me?”

“I knew you’d come,” I say.

“Isn’t that the point?” Kris leaps in front of Grigoriy and throws her hands up. “Listen.”

“I was listening.” I pat Grigoriy’s arm so he’ll release me.

He shakes his head.

“Put me down already. I’m not a baby.”

“You just had surgery on your leg,” he says. “You’re not going to start walking anywhere until we’re sure it won’t damage anything.”

I feel so stinking stupid, being held like I’m three years old. “Kris, I called Adriana because I didn’t want you to come save me.”

Kris blinks.

Aleksandr’s eyes widen.

And Grigoriy’s arms tighten around me.

We’re standing in a parking lot, staring at each other. This is stupid. “We need to go,” I say. “We should be looking into whether Adriana’s disappeared.”

“Maybe they let her go,” Aleksandr says. “They could have.”

Grigoriy starts walking again, moving faster than before.

But Kris is like a dog with her eye on a milk bone. “You didn’t want me to come? Why not? Because you thought I’d bring the guys and get us all killed?”

I shake my head.

“Because you. . . You’d rather die than risk me?” She scowls. “Is that it?”

“It’s a simple math problem,” I say. “I’m all broken and damaged and always have been. I’m poor and not well educated, and my family’s a mess. You just won the Grand National. You’re in love, and you’re beautiful, and you’re well educated and talented, and it did not make sense to call you. I knew what you’d do. It’s why I love you so much. But I couldn’t call myself a friend if I let you do something like that.”

“But you called your own sister,” she says.

“I knew that if I just died, you wouldn’t really know what had happened. I thought this way, she could tell you what I’d said. You’d know what had happened. You’d be able to look into things with one more piece of information. She and I had a code—I used it.” I swallow. “Only, she didn’t listen.”

“You expected your own sister to simply let you die?” Aleksandr asks.

“You don’t know my sister,” I say. “Not like Kristiana does. In her entire life, Adriana has always protected exactly one person above all others.”

“Herself,” Kris says. “That’s true. You can rely on that. When you’re born without a mother who will look out for you, you learn to fend for yourself better than most.” She tilts her head and sighs. “She’s not a bad sister, she’s just not a very good one.”

I feel pretty disloyal for confessing why it never occurred to me that Adriana might try to save me herself. She didn’t understand how high the stakes really were—although the guys did say they’d kill me, repeatedly—she might have thought it was a joke or that they were exaggerating.

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