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"Whoa, wait a second," the infuriating man said, his voice so gentle and pacifying that it made me want to punch his teeth in.
I spun to face him with my fangs bared, a growl so loud and threatening in the back of my throat that someone dropped a pot in the kitchen behind me.
The do-gooder currently testing my patience was the hybrid angel-demon I'd met in the gym—the pretty, long-haired redhead who was one of Queen Lili's men. I couldn't remember his name, or if he'd ever told me it.
"Get out of my way," I growled, ploughing past him and storming down the corridor. I had five places left to check before I lost my mind entirely.
I was relieved when I glanced behind myself and found the corridor empty, the irritating redhead gone. Good. I didn't need help; I needed to find the pink woman and get my dagger back. It wasmine.
I finally found her in a common room where a group of soldiers and guards were playing cards. The same game the alphas had played in Kalador before I killed them all.1
I stalked across the warm, busy room, not seeing the den-like decor or the demons lounging on plush green sofas, scrolling through their phones or reading books. I only sawher.She looked exactly how she had last time, but in a grey denim jacket this time.
I tore the black leather off my back and threw it down on the table, scattering the cards and money stacked on the polished wood.
"I need my dagger back," I snarled, too far gone to be friendly. My whole body vibrated, blood whooshing in my ears and thumping in my chest as my magic responded."Now."
The pink woman sat back in her seat, her mouth pressed in a flat line. "Fuck off. It's mine now; we traded for it, fair and square."
I'd liked her the last time we met. Now I just wanted her dead.
"I need it back," I repeated, my voice gravelly. A final warning.
She scoffed, rolling her eyes to her friends like I was being ridiculous.My mate was dead!
I grabbed hold of the magic boiling inside me and poured it into her heart, squeezing so hard that she shot out of her seat and grabbed her chest.
"Ineedit," I ground out, my hands shaking violently. Her heartbeat quickened, pulsing through my magic, filling my ears. "My mate gave it to me."
"Then why did you trade it?" a man at the table growled, grabbing his friend. Or girlfriend. I didn't care.
"Because I hated him then, but now he's—he's—gone." My whole body shuddered. Hot tears burned my eyes, spilling down my cheeks in a rapid flow even as rage pounded faster. I failed him.
I lost my grip on my blood power; her heart slid from my control and resumed beating rapidly. "Please."
"Did you say your mate died?" a woman breathed behind me, footsteps padding closer until I whipped a glare at her and she froze. This woman was small and birdlike, tawny and wide-eyed. "How are you still breathing?"
Killing them will kill me.
Not necessarily. You already died once; there's no telling the effect their deaths could have on you.
"Maybe I'm not," I replied, my anger rapidly forsaking me. I shuddered, cold replacing my fire.
"Daina," the birdlike woman said sharply, glaring past me at the table’s occupants. "Give the woman her knife back."
Daina made a throaty sound, and I turned back to face her when she dug the dagger from inside her denim jacket. She held it out to me with long pink fingers, looking pissy about it.
I launched back at the table and snatched the blade from her, my fingers trembling around it. It was exactly as I remembered, the scabbard covered in pewter forget-me-nots, each one lovingly cast. I squeezed my fingers around it, clutching it to my chest and half hoping it would cut me.
"I missed this jacket anyway," Daina huffed, saving face after obeying a petite, wide-eyed woman half her size. She threw me a vicious glare. "Now get the fuck out of our—your highness," she blurted, her eyes darting behind me and widening.
My shoulders slumped, a new weight crashing onto my chest. I had my dagger back, I'd undone that failure, but now I would be thrown in the dungeons for threatening half the palace. Maybe I'd have an adjoining cell with Bevan.
My mates would be furious and scared and stressed. Now, I’d failed them too.
"Everyone out," Lili's calm voice cut through the silence, and motion blurred around me, chairs scraping the floor as they were pushed back, sofas creaking as their occupants jumped out of them.
I turned slowly, my heart hammering fast, the numbness fully worn off. Andoh god,the pain it had been masking was enough to make my knees buckle. I grabbed the back of an overstuffed armchair to keep myself on my feet, and ignored the strange looks thrown my way by everyone rushing to leave the room.
