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De Froulay considered me. “The American accent could be a problem. We’ll say you went to boarding school in America, that it was your mother’s wish.”
Zaq’s arms were still around me. He stroked the side of my hip. “Gabriel’s right. It could work. And it means we could be together,” he added in an undertone. “If that’s what you want.”
I blinked rapidly. Of course I wanted to be with Zaq. Didn’t he know that?
Then I realized that he didn’t know. I hadn’t agreed to mate with him. I hadn’t even told him I loved him.
My chest squeezed. What was wrong with me?
I could’ve died here tonight. Zaq could’ve died.
How sad and terrible would it have been if he’d died without my ever having told him?
I moistened my lips. Gods, I’d been such a coward. Sure, I was brave when it came to physical things, but I was a freaking coward when it came to my emotions.
“What about my colleagues?” I asked. “There are people—slayers—who know what I look like.”
“Who?” asked de Froulay.
I chewed my upper lip. Actually, there weren’t that many. I’d been undercover for close to a decade, with so many aliases that even my lieutenant didn’t know what I really looked like.
That left Crow, and probably Twilight, although I trusted Twilight not to rat me out.
“Two or three,” I said.
“We can take care of them,” said de Froulay.
I narrowed my eyes. I knew what “take care” of them meant. “No. Absolutely not. If I do this—and I haven’t said I will yet—no one dies because of me. And I’ll choose my own name.”
And why was I objecting to such an insignificant detail when the real issue was Leo de Froulay claiming me as his spawn?
De Froulay stunned me by saying, “It was your original name. The one Charlotte gave you. My people tracked down the record of your birth. You were born in Montreal, actually. I believe Philippe may have arranged for Charlotte to shelter there. Maybe he had a plan for you, a plan she found out, because she left Canada a few weeks after your birth.”
“Renata?” I tried it out, but it sounded foreign to me. I was Ridley. “I didn’t know. She changed my name when I was too young to remember.”
De Froulay’s expression softened. “Still, it is your name.”
Zaq rubbed a soothing circle on my stomach. “You don’t have to decide anything right now.”
“No, it’s okay.” I drew in a breath and stepped away from Zaq. It was important to me that Leo de Froulay knew I could stand on my own. “A syndicate princess—me? I don’t know.”
De Froulay raised one of the dark brows that were so like mine. “You have a better idea?”
My mind raced. But I had nothing. Hell, if it weren’t me they were talking about, I might even have agreed it was the best solution.
But it was me, and I couldn’t wrap my mind around the idea of Ridley Crawford as Princess Renata.
Gabriel spoke again. “Think of it as another alias. You’re used to taking on new personas. This will simply be another one.”
My gaze flashed to him.
“And you could be with Zaq—”
Zaq interrupted. “Let her think, would you?” He pulled me to the side. “What do you want to do?”
My throat hurt with unshed tears. I looked from Zaq to Leo de Froulay and back to Zaq.
I could have Zaq. An ache blossomed in my heart. My throat felt sore.
