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As a demon prince, did Alexei have a chosen mate who could fly alongside him and share the same magic? Joelle felt a sinking in her gut and a burning in her cheeks that stung worse than the wind whipping through the helicopter.
Jealousy.
Nonsense. She’d just met the man, and she owed him a debt. Forming an attachment to him wouldn’t serve either of them, especially the way Diego’s tone had gone fierce when saying he wasn’t a nice man. But he had been kind to her. She wouldn’t forget that. If Alexei knew her brother, she would see him again, right? Their paths would cross when she was free, and she could thank him then. Still, learning more about him now couldn’t hurt.
She tapped Diego’s shoulder and spoke into the squishy microphone. “Why don’t you like Alexei?”
“It’s not about liking or not liking the man. I don’t trust him, and you shouldn’t either. He aimed a gun at me once.”
She almost asked what he’d done to provoke the prince but tried another tactic. “You don’t trust him, yet you ventured into enemy territory with him? That makes no sense.” She didn’t allow him time to argue. “You let him carry me out of the Order’s stronghold, provided cover for him from the Order’s guards, and followed his command to get me to the helicopter.”
He blinked and stared as if she’d surprised him.Good. She preferred unsettling people. It kept them from knowing what to do with her—or worse,toher. Unless Noxx had given specific information about her powers, the humans in the Order maintained a low-level fear of her and what magic she might manifest. How she could manipulate or hurt them back. While she looked petite and weak, appearances could be deceiving. The guards had been trained that a shifter pup could turn from a skinny kid to a predator in an instant, a witch teenaged girl might convince them of any hallucination, and anything designated asotherrated as a threat from birth.
After a long, silent stare-off, Diego repeated slowly, “He’s a demon prince.”
“Yes, you mentioned that before.” She wouldn’t let him wriggle out of a reasonable explanation so easily. Not when she’d been fed hate for supernatural species her whole life.
“He runs a crime ring that dominates most of the West Coast, which means he’s a scary bad guy who controls other criminals to rule millions of people through fear. He’s a mafia boss.”
“I’ve studied human organized crime, but I thought demons established power through patriarchal family alliances organized under a king.” Yeah, she sounded like the nerd she was, but she didn’t care right now. More than defending Alexei no matter how much she liked the idea, she wanted to understand where this hostility toward him came from.
“Yeah, and?”
“If so, he’s serving his role as a prince by keeping other demons in check. Otherwise, they would have no boundaries, no rules, no order. They would expose themselves and other supernaturals to humans.” Noxx had tried to provoke the different species to turn on each other and reveal magic to the world for years without success. “If a single demon ruler lost command over his territory, think of the chaos that might result.”
“What demon-loving promo for Alexei Maronov have you been reading? Family, swearing allegiance, committing crimes for the patriarchy—that’smafiastuff. The man’s a mob boss.”
“He recruited you for this rescue?” She kept her tone mild, laying the trap one careful question at a time.
“No.” Diego scoffed. “I researched the possible spots, put together the mission, arranged the logistics, and brought him because his father rules the territory. Or most of it.”
“Why do you think he agreed to come?”
“He owed me a favor. I invited his cousin to help me with a prison break to save my girl, and Alexei tagged along. Turns out his little sister had been kidnapped and held in the same facility. Don’t trust her either. With her magic, she can deliver pain without touching you.”
Again, with the hatred of demon hybrids. She would circle back to that later, but for now, she needed to tie off this snare’s knot. “So Alexei came here with you?”
“Yeah.” Diego narrowed his eyes as if guessing where she might head next with her endless questions.
“You brought him as your only backup in unfamiliar hostile territory against an enemy who wouldn’t hesitate to kill you for being born something other than human, yes?”
He didn’t answer, whichwasan answer.
“So again, I wonder why you put so much faith in a man you say not to trust.” She paused, waited for the weight of her conclusions to sink in. Watching the resignation in his eyes, she changed subjects. “Why don’t you tell me about Josh? I haven’t seen my brother in months. Did he find his girlfriend who he insists on calling just his best friend?Please. He’s infatuated with her. She’s an elemental and the witch equivalent of royalty. Have you met her?”
“Mina? Uh, yeah. I’m in love with her older sister.”
“Congratulations.” She didn’t have to fake excitement. Love deserved to be celebrated. “Are you to be matched? I thought witches had to mate for power alliances. Your family must be very influential.”
Diego shook his head. “It’s more that my woman’s stubborn and knows how to get her way. But Mina’s the same. She loves your brother, and I’m happy for him. I can’t believe we got him back after he’s been gone from home for so long.”
Home?She re-played his words carefully in her head. Something connected her brother and this man. Something unspoken, something with deep roots and stretching vines like the ones that had grown in her last jail. “Who’s Josh to you?”
Diego didn’t say anything.
So she upped the stakes. “I need to figure out how to help Josh stop a prophecy that says he and his Mina are supposed to save the witch Senate and supernatural world. Wouldn’t it just be easier to share what you already know so I can concentrate on stopping that big end-of-times catastrophe?”
Slowly, the story spun from Diego. How Josh had been stolen from his family home at only four years old by Noxx. How their “guardian” had murdered his witch mother by burning her alive in her home. How her brother was this man’s biological nephew, the child of his older sister.
