Page 33 of Trust the Fall

River stands unwaveringly tall, staring down Nolda with the fortitude of any king I’ve ever seen. It makes sense that the queen would want him by her side.

The room remains silent with the revelation. My eyes flick from River to Nolda, whose face is somehow sallower than it was before.

“You’re to marry Queen Camille?”

“No,” River shakes his head. “Not the queen. The princess.”

Turning back toward River, my eyes narrow. He hadn’t mentioned a princess before. How would that make him king?

“The princess? She … she’s been found?”

My head volleys back and forth between the demon and the reaper, frustrated that I’m missing key details that would help make this picture clearer.

“It’s why I’m still here,” River explains. “The queen believes she might know something about the princess,” he says, nodding his head to indicate me.

“Me? I … don’t,” I admit.

“Spit it out, reaper. What makes Queen Camille think she knows anything?” Nolda snaps, seemingly as aggravated as I am.

River glances at me for a moment before turning back to Nolda. “Your guess is as good as mine. I’m to bring her to the reaper kingdom. Only then will Queen Camille give you her aid.”

GOLD

My head jerks back. “What? I’m not going to the reaper kingdom.”

“Sorry princess, but you are. No way around it,” he says, sparing me one quick glance before turning his entire body away from me. “I’ll need to leave with her by nightfall,” River continues, and I have the urge to shake him.

“I don’t know anything. I already told you that.” My voice pitches from both frustration and a growing sense of panic.

I don’t want to be in Hell, but at least here, Luke will be able to get to me. If I’m taken to whatever otherworld the reaper queen hides out in, it will be nearly impossible for him to find me.

“She’s not going anywhere. If Queen Camille wants an audience with her, she shall come here. I, for one, would like to know what this angel could possibly know that the queen wishes to uncover.”

“That makes two of us,” I say curtly.

River takes a threatening step toward Nolda, and the wolf-like beast bares his teeth.

“If the queen learns that you’ve kept someone she deems special locked up here in a cage, you can be sure you’ll never wear the crown.”

Nolda blinks rapidly, looking between the two demons at his side. The wolf dips his chin as if to say let her go. Or he could be giving the approval to end River’s life. Either is a possibility.

“Fine,” he snarls, looking none too happy to have to kowtow to anyone’s wishes. “Go to the queen. Take her with you as a sign of good faith that when you return, I’ll have your allegiance for allowing her the audience she’s requested.”

Nolda’s tight-lipped smile belies his shaking hands. He’s good and pissed, all right. And worse, he’s not sure this is the right move. But he knows not to cross the reaper queen. “I must say, congratulations are in order, if she’s the key to uncovering where your future wife has been hiding out all this time.”

Future wife?

“Yes well, she seems to believe Victoria is the key to uncovering her whereabouts.”

“Are you all insane? I’ve told you already, I know nothing about this missing princess. I hardly knew a thing about reapers before today.”

I level River with a glare that promises harm. “If you’re counting on me, your future is bleak. And for the last time, I’m not going anywhere.”

His lip curls into a grin that boils my already scalding blood. “Sorry to disappoint, princess, but you are. I’m sure of it.”

Disgust is too small a word for what I feel in the moment. Rage. Hatred. All of it bubbles to the surface, and before I know it, my fists are slamming into a solid wall of muscle.

I might not have my full power here in Hell, but I’m strong, and that truth is evidenced by the way River’s brows tilt inward with every smack to the chest I deliver. He’s taking me away right before Luke can get to me.