The Dark Princess (The Balance Series Book 3)

by Janelle Stalder

  Still, he saw how miserable it made the other man; how he yearned to have her near. But true to his promise to her, he had kept his distance, always waiting - hoping - for her to come back to him on her own.

  Hope was a dangerous thing, he thought. Hope could kill just as cruelly as surrender.

  Clearing his throat, he met Caleb’s stare. “Speaking of which,” he started, bracing himself for what he knew was to come. “There was a situation today with your daughter.”

  Blue eyes quickly deepened into pools of red. “What kind of situation? Is Hope hurt?”

  Cillian knew Caleb’s anger would come quick and fiercely. Even when not directed at him, it made him uneasy.

  “She’s fine, I was able to reach her before anything major happened.”

  Caleb stood abruptly. “She saw you?” He bit out.

  “It was unavoidable, I’m afraid. She was being chased...”

  “Chased?” The warmth in the room rose with his ire. Cillian could already feel sweat drip down his back between his shoulders blades. “By who?”

  “Not so much a ‘who’, as a ‘what’,” he corrected. “One of the hounds was let loose from the seventh plain.”

  When Caleb spoke again, he sounded barely human. “A demon hound was sent to attack my daughter?”

  Although there was no proof that it had been sent to kill her, it was the most obvious conclusion. Cillian knew they’d all come to the same deduction. Had someone wanted her captured, the hounds would not have been the logical choice. They had little intelligence and were known to be driven by their basic needs. Had the one sent to Hope gotten a hold of her, there was no doubt it would have ravaged her until she was dead.

  “Who would dare?” Caleb turned to his brother.

  “Someone who clearly doesn’t want to attack you head-on,” Collin said thoughtfully.

  “Maverick and his deserters? Is it a war they seek? Because that is what they will get from me if they succeed in harming her.”

  “This doesn’t feel like something he would do,” his brother replied.

  “Perhaps it is someone else who wishes to enrage you, hoping that you will take it out on the humans,” Cain said, his gravelly voice filling the room.

  “There’s a thought,” Collin said.

  Cillian nodded, adding, “If it is someone else who would like to see things to go back to the harsher times of your father, it might make them do something foolish in an attempt to force your hand and blame the humans.”

  “Then they should have gone after her with something human!” he shouted. “You send a hound, and there is no doubt it is one of my own who betrays me.”

  “No one ever said all demons were smart,” Collin muttered.

  Cain grunted in agreement. Cillian almost pointed out that statement could have been applied to the horned demon himself, considering he had dared to get between Caleb and his mate back when they’d first fallen in love. He didn’t feel like starting a fight though, which was unusual for him. He wondered about that, deciding he wasn’t acting like himself because he hadn’t slept in almost two days.

  After having shifted across the ocean to check on Caleb and Collin’s mother before taking care of an issue they’d been having with imps in the Irish countryside, he’d flown back and gone straight to Vivian and Hope’s home to check on the women. He needed to rest. Even though he didn’t need sleep like a mortal would, he had pushed himself beyond even his physical limits in the past two days.

  “Cillian.”

  Caleb’s address brought his mind back to focus.

  “I want you to watch over the house for the next week, and let me know immediately if anything else occurs.”

  Seriously? He was on full-time babysitting duty?

  Pouty lips and a fiery spirit engulfed his thoughts again. He physically shook his head to get them out.

  How was he supposed to stand being around her all the time now?

  “Is there no one else?” He dared to ask.

  “I want my best on it,” Caleb said. “And that would be you.”

  Cillian sensed Cain tense at those words, but didn’t bother gloating. This time, being the best was not going to work to Cillian’s advantage.

  “You said she saw you,” Collin said. “Does that mean she saw the hound as well?”

  “Considering it was chasing her, and she was running from it, yes, she saw it. Again, I had no option other than to fly her out of its reach.”

  Caleb rubbed an agitated hand over his mouth. “Great. If she tells her mother, Vivian is going to lose it. She’s not supposed to know we exist.”

  This was what made Cillian the most nervous.

  “I might have tweaked her memories a bit,” he said.

  Caleb’s body stiffened. “You did what?”

  Collin stood. “Caleb, think before you get mad. We all know you don’t agree with anyone invading either of their minds, but in this case, what would have been the alternative?”

  Cillian breathed a sigh of relief that Collin was seeing it his way.

  Caleb flexed his hands, looking at them both before finally nodding. “Fine. You’re right. This time. After seventeen years, I wouldn’t want her to suddenly know about everything now. Not after we’ve done all we could to keep her away from our world.”

  “What will she think happened?” Collin asked, turning to Cillian.

  “She will think she was just dreaming,” he said. Hopefully, he thought privately. While he had wanted to muddle things for her, he also hadn’t want to erase himself completely from her mind. Why? He still wasn’t sure. He could have just taken those memories right from her mind instead of making her believe they were a dream. But he hadn’t.

  Something about her never knowing him again, after he had watched her for almost two decades, always from the shadows without ever letting her see him, hadn’t sat well with him. Damn it, it had made him outright furious for some reason. He had wanted his face, his true face, in her mind the way hers was always in his.

  “Watch over them then, but whatever you do,” Caleb said, looking at him with an expression that said there was no arguing this one, “do not let her see you again. Understood?”

  Cillian nodded. “Yes, boss.”

  Understood.

  The sound of the front screen door slamming shut had me jerking away. Sitting up, I looked around at the study, wondering what time it was.

  “Hey, were you sleeping?” Mom asked, poking her head around the corner.

  Even at almost thirty-five, my mom looked like she could be my sister instead of my parent. I didn’t know much about my father, but I prayed I got more of her genes than his, because the woman just never seemed to age. Her hair was piled in a messy bun, a few shades lighter than mine, her green eyes looking at me with curiosity.

  “Yeah,” I answered, clearing the sleep from my voice. “I must have conked out when I got home from school.”

  I barely remembered stumbling into the room, crashing on the worn leather sofa beneath me. My backpack was neatly propped against it, something I didn’t recall doing at all.

  “You don’t normally nap,” she said, coming fully into the room now. “Are you sick?”

  I shook my head, waving off her hand as it went for my forehead. “I’m fine,” I assured her. “I was just tired.”

  “Well, then I’m glad you rested up, because it’s release day, and you know what that means!”

  “Uh, you completely ignoring all of the release day sales and immersing yourself in some sort of binge watching so you can hide from the real world?”

  “Exactly! So, buckle up, buttercup, and get your TV watching game on.”

  Rolling my eyes, I swung my legs over the side of the sofa, stretching out the kink in my neck. “What will we be watching tonight?” I called after her as she headed to the kitchen.

  “I’m thinking some good old fashion Law and Order,” she yelled back.

  �
��Okay, but only if it’s Benjamin Bratt era.”

  She came back in the room, a hand placed over her heart. “I knew I raised you right.”

  “Sure, bringing home straight A’s doesn’t impress you, but insist on Benjamin Bratt and suddenly I’m the golden child.”

  She smiled. “It’s the important things in life, darling.” With a wink, she disappeared again around the corner. “I’m going to reheat some of the stuffed shells from last night. You grab snacks and get the TV ready.”

  “Yes, ma’am.” Standing, I went into the kitchen and grabbed whatever we had that was probably sure to give us a stomach ache, and then went to get the show started.

  As I sat in the dark, the light off the television the only thing illuminating the room, I couldn’t help but feel off. I had no idea why, but there were lingering tendrils of a dream I’d been having that was nagging at me. Not that there was anything odd about that. I’d been having strange dreams for months. Always disturbing ones of voices and things calling my name, leaving me a sweaty, shaky mess in the morning when I finally awoke. Whatever the dream I’d just been having, probably hadn’t been much different.

  I frowned. Maybe that was what was bugging me. Normally I could remember everything about the dream, but this one was foggy and muddled. Strange, I thought. It was probably because I didn’t normally take naps.

  “Why are all the lights off?” Mom said the second she walked in the room. “What have I told you about watching TV in the dark?”

  I shook my head as she switched on a lamp. Contrary to what my mother said, I doubted watching television with no lights on was going to ruin my eyes. Actually, I had impeccable eyesight in the dark.

  “I saw that,” she said.

  I looked up, mustering my most innocent expression. “What?”

  “Don’t what me, little girl,” she said with a laugh.

  She kept talking but I barely heard her, my mind stuck on those two words -

  Little girl.

  Why did that make my heart pick up its pace and my palms sweat?

  I murmured responses to her as she picked an episode and we settled down on the couch together. I tried to clear the fog clouding my mind, but couldn’t seem to shake it.

  “What’s the matter with you?”

  I turned to her with raised brows. “Hmm?”

  “Something’s wrong. What is it?”

  “What do you mean?” I sat up straighter, keeping my voice neutral.

  “Briscoe just laid down an epic one-liner, and you didn’t even crack a grin. Something must be wrong with you. Is it school? Did something happen at school?”

  “Mom,” I sighed.

  “I watched that Thirteen Reasons show, Hope. I know what kids are like these days.”

  “Dear God,” I muttered, shaking my head. “Let’s keep the melodrama to a minimum. It’s nothing. I’m just tired. Maybe I am getting sick.” I shrugged, praying she’d let it go. Mom was like a dog with a bone when she felt I was hiding something.

  Her brows puckered. “Are you sure? You’d tell me if anything was wrong, right?”

  “Of course,” I replied, smiling. “I tell you everything.”

  Everything, except how big of an asshole kids were at school, and my night terrors. But other than that...

  She leaned over and touched my head, her eyes boring into mine in that way mothers look at you as though if they just stared hard enough the truth will appear, or you’ll break under the pressure. I gave her another smile, which seemed to placate her - for now.

  “You don’t feel hot.”

  I shrugged again.

  “Maybe we should call it an early night,” she suggested.

  I nodded. “Probably a good idea.”

  We went back to watching the show in silence, but I could feel her watching me out of the corner of her eye.

  This time, I made sure to laugh at all the right moments.

  Three

  The New Guy

  I dragged my feet toward my locker, not looking forward to this day - at all. Not only had I had terrible dreams again, this time about a whole pack of snarling animals chasing me while a male voice whispered to run faster, but I knew I was in for a real-life nightmare once Jessie and Aaron saw me.

  I grimaced, thinking about the damage I’d done to Jessie’s windshield. Both boys came from money, so I highly doubted getting it fixed was a problem. That didn’t erase the fact that they were surely never going to let me live it down, convinced it had somehow been my fault.

  Which was just ridiculous. I was a normal, seventeen-year-old girl. How could I possibly be responsible for something like that? It didn’t matter how farfetched it was though, the student body had always believed my mom and I were some kind of witches. I shook my head just thinking about it as I reached my locker and deftly entered the code.

  “Hey!”

  I jumped, looking over my shoulder at a grinning Emily. Her teeth seemed extra white against the black of her lips. “Why are you so chipper? Has something terrible happened to Lila?”

  She laughed. “I’m not that evil.”

  I snorted.

  “No, nothing like that, buuuut,” she said, leaning against the lockers so I could see her clearly as I switched out my books. “I did hear through the grapevine that the biatch in question is having a house party this weekend for the entire senior year.”

  I slammed the locker shut, turning to her with an incredulous look. “What grapevine did you hear this from? And why on earth would they tell you? We both know when they say the whole class, they don’t really mean it.”

  “Okay, maybe it wasn’t a grapevine so much as I just overheard some of the girls talking about it in the washroom while I was peeing. Minor details,” she said, waving me off. We both started down the hall. “However, they did say everyone was invited, and we, my dear, technically are included in that broad definition.”

  “Why would you want to go?” I asked, once again wondering if Emily didn’t secretly wish to be accepted by the same people she ridiculed on a daily basis. “Can you imagine how they’d react if we showed up? Because I can, and it’s not pretty.”

  “You always think the worst. There will be so many people there, I doubt they’ll even notice. Plus, knowing Lila, she’ll be too preoccupied with the new guy to notice much of anything. Girls like her love the scent of fresh meat.”

  My brows drew together in confusion as we walked into home room. I had no idea what she was talking about, but I didn’t ask since my attention was quickly taken by the sight of Aaron and Jessie sitting at the back of the class, heads close together as they talked quietly to each other. From the looks on their faces, it wasn’t good. I swallowed, my anxiety spiking as I considered all the things they could be discussing.

  My eyes went to my usual seat, instantly wondering if they had done something to it. My feet faltered as I stood beside it. Would it collapse under me? Or maybe there was glue on it, and I wouldn’t be able to get up once I sat down. I looked back over at them. Neither were even paying attention to me. Was I just being paranoid, or were they strategically acting inconspicuous so I wouldn’t suspect anything?

  Emily was watching me with a “What the hell is wrong with you” look.

  “Hey queen freak, want to get out of the way sometime this century?” Lila stood behind me, her arms crossed over her full chest as she snapped her gum obnoxiously in her mouth.

  “Sorry,” I mumbled, taking a seat. Nothing happened. I shifted. Nope, not stuck. Okay, maybe I was just being paranoid.

  “Oh my god, Li,” Brittany Smalls said as she entered the room, her voice a few octaves higher than normal. “Did you see the new guy?”

  They both started giggling and talking too fast for me to keep up with the conversation. I could only pick out bits and pieces. Turning in my seat, I looked at Emily questioningly.

  “What new guy?” I mouthed.

  She wiggled her eyebrows
at me, smiling. “Our distraction,” she mouthed back.

  I rolled my eyes. “I’m being serious,” I said, keeping our silent exchange going.

  “So am I.”

  I huffed in frustration, knowing I wasn’t going to get anywhere with her. Twisting around, I decided I’d nag her after class, getting my books out as the teacher walked in.

  “Dude, you girls are so desperate,” I heard Aaron say behind me.