AllFreeNovel
Share Us
He needed the others to leave before the nagging desire to annihilate these idiots overtook his common sense. “Ischenzi,” he said in a soft voice full of menace, of violent promise.Get lost.
The boys ran as though hunted by hellhounds.
The entire conversation in Russian had taken two minutes tops, but he couldn’t settle his need to chase them so they could never bother her again. “Assholes,” he muttered in English through clenched teeth. Flipping over the book they’d taken from the girl, he checked out the battered cover.
Scratched letters and banged-up binding announced it to includeSpells to Locate the Lost. Heavy reading, but she’d fought for the book the same as his sister would’ve slammed pain magic into someone for touching her chemistry texts. He held out the book to the girl.
She raised her face to his, blinking sky blue eyes so big that they seemed like she’d walked out of some cartoon princess movie. A smile spread over her mouth, curving the edges into a slice of sunshine. Something twisted in Alexei’s gut, a strange need to keep her smiling.
His mother’s voice echoed in his head, her warning when he’d signed the contract to marry Yulia Sidorich, the most beautiful and coldest of demon princesses, for the good of his kingdom.Once our demon side recognizes the person we’re meant to be with at first sight, and that’s it. You’ll want nothing more than to make your mate happy, to protect her, to care for her. There’s no fighting the call.
But destiny would’ve chosen a mate closer to his own age, someone else a couple of years from college and beginning their adult life—not some kid, right? Except his father had over a decade on his mother.
“Thank you,” the girl said in English, pure and clear, a tinkling bell against the background of honking horns and a street musician’s haunting violin. Her voice soothed his magic, took the fire out of his rage. She tipped her head, taking him in with those innocent eyes. “They were scared of you. Why?”
He switched languages but didn’t answer her question. If she didn’t know who he was, he wouldn’t tell her. He wouldn’t give her a single piece of information ammo to make her run. Glancing at the cheap spell primer she cradled, he instead asked, “Whythatbook?”
“To find lost things.” She paused. “Or maybe so that the lost can find their way home.”
Studying her mittens dotted with holes, her scuffed boots, her shabby coat, and her lack of hat or scarf, he wondered where she’d misplaced the last two. Maybe they’d come off in the scuffle except he didn’t see any splashes of color in the snow other than the yellow from the pisser. Yet she stood in a sunken spot where the ice and snow had been displaced, pushed away from the bare ground beneath as if she’d fallen. Or had been shoved. His magic flared. No, he wouldn’t think about her being hurt.
“What’d you lose?” he asked.
“My parents.”
Her answer hit him like a supercharged punch to the gut. “I’m sorry for—”
“They’re not dead. Or at least I don’t think they are.” She pushed her chapped lips into a thoughtful pout. “I’m more of the lost one.”
He didn’t know what to say. She sounded way older than she looked. As though she’d crammed ababushka’s grandma spirit into a child’s body. “Do you want me to take you home?”
“No.” She clutched the book to her chest, a tremble in her thin arms that he wouldn’t have noticed if she’d had a proper coat like his. In an instant, she’d gone from talkative and animated to shutting down again.
He hated the change as much as he hated this weird need he had to look out for her. Thousands of poverty-stricken kids roamed the streets. Why should he worry about this one? Yet he did. Tugging off his hat, he plopped it on her head where it fell to the chill-pinked tip of her nose in an instant. The black fur brushed against her snow-slicked skin and hair.
She laughed, a musical ringing of joy that wound through the cold wind to warm him. Hearing her happiness eased his magic and the scorching hurt within him. Sure, he had agreed to marry the only child of his father’s sole rival, but he’d done so for the good of his people. He didn’t love Yulia. Hell, he didn’t even like her. Her voice hadn’t wrapped around him like this girl’s giggle.
Pushing his hat up with one raggedy mitten, she grinned and held the book tighter against her skinny body. The warmth in his chest spread, a feeling different than the love he had for his parents, his sister, his cousin. Like a common shifter instead of the Maronov crown prince, he wanted to feed her, to keep her warm, to make her laugh again.
“My hat too big?” he asked. Everything about him had become huge the last few years. He’d always been tall for his age, but he’d become a giant among his classmates. All the better to instill fear.
“No.” She made the lie sound almost believable.
The scent of meatpirozhkiteased his nose. “You hungry?”
“No.” That fib fell flat. Her skin stretched so tight over her cheekbones and along the pointed jaw of her heart-shaped face.
“Hmm.” He didn’t push, didn’t give her a reason to leave him. Not when she quieted his magic. Studying the ground again, he recognized the same pattern his sister and cousin had made in the snow so many times. “Making a snow angel?” That would explain the dampness of her hair, her coat, her mittens.
In a heartbeat, her eyes sparkled with excitement. “Yes. More than anything, I want wings so I can fly away any time I like.”
Shewantedwings which meant she didn’t have them as he and the other demon hybrid royals and high-ranking horde members did. Not that he would show her his. What could she be? She didn’t smell of demon, shifter, or witch—the three big supernatural species. Yet, she read a book with enchanted wards which wouldn’t be legible to a human. He needed more time with her. No, he corrected, hismagicneeded more time with her.
“My favorite street vendor sells pastries by the ice skating rink. Come on.” He tipped his head and walked away, hoping she would follow and unsettled to find someone who wouldn’t immediately do as he suggested. “I can’t eat them alone.” He could devour the entire cart, but she didn’t know that. His magic pulsed a dangerous beat the further he got from her and didn’t settle until her quick footsteps crunched behind him.
They didn’t speak again until he had bought enoughpirozhkito fill both their stomachs and found a bench for them to sit near the ice skaters. The rich scents had his mouth watering. Stuffed with spiced beef or tangy berries, the fried dough melted in his mouth and tasted delicious, yet he watched the girl’s reactions more than he concentrated on his own.
Her eyes went wide, and she hesitated until he pushed enough pastries at her that she relented and bit into one. Nervous as a sparrow about to be dive-bombed by hawks, she quickly finished the first. He nudged the next into her hand, not giving her a chance to refuse.
