I applied some makeup, trying to cover the fading scar. Two months ago a mythological A’rea had ripped my cheek to shreds. I was nearly killed, but that scar reminded me that there were other beings on this earth, and scars like that wouldn’t just fade away. I had to use magic, but nothing seemed to be working so far, most probably because the bitch’s tissue was still in the skin.
The demon named Alexis was my enemy. I’d ruined her master plan and tossed her down to the hell pits. No one could ever get back from there, but I had a feeling that Alexis had other cards up her sleeve and would probably manage to do it. I had to have eyes on the back of my head. Deep down I knew that she wasn’t done with me yet.
I left my flat at twelve, feeling weak, very much hungover and angry. I had no idea what had gotten into me all those months ago when I was staying with Ronan. Why did I have to write a love letter to Arthur?
The overbearing guilt began rippling through me, making me want to throw everything away and just escape to the other side of the world. That way I wouldn’t have to worry about anything; I could simply start over somewhere else.
I had ditched tequila before, took responsibility for my actions. This time my own life was threatened. Ricky knew a private rehab facility somewhere up north. I could commit myself, but at the same time I had to find Nameless before he ruined everything.
No one interrupted my pleasant walk to the office this time around, but my head was hurting. I felt like I had taken part in a boxing match the night before and lost. When I checked my mobile, I realised that my hands were trembling. Lucky for me no one had left any messages, so presumably Ricky was in a good mood.
Outside our building some human girl was having an argument with her boyfriend. She was trying to beat him up with her handbag. Some teenagers were standing behind the wall laughing their heads off. I shook my head, imagining myself and Arthur in such a simple, every day scene. Yeah, I needed to stop daydreaming. This wasn’t good, and Arthur was with Natalie.
After climbing the stairs and turning up at the office out of breath, I collapsed on the chair in front of Emma, knowing that Ricky needed to know that we were taking on a new case—plus a new zooming trouble that suddenly hung over my head.
“Hey, Ems, how is it going?” I asked, wondering why I couldn’t just stop shoving more and more tequila into my wrecked body. Maybe I was trying to hush the screams from my nightmares, that instinct that kept telling me I needed to go back and fix the past.
“Hey, Maxine. Sorry. I was in my own world,” Emma replied, finally noticing me past the stack of papers on her desk. “Good … everything is fine. Have you retrieved that package for Mr. Louise?”
I widened my eyes at her, realising that I was still supposed to be doing something important this afternoon. One of the clients, a warlock, had lost his suitcase filled with magical formulas in one of the underground platforms. Apparently he’d fallen asleep and walked away without it. It was a small case, nothing serious, but the problem was that the same underground was vandalised by convicted mongrels that were causing havoc amongst humans, and I couldn’t go down there to retrieve it. The whole area was controlled by Watchers, and I had to wait for the right opportunity. It was a small, dirty job that could bring some needed cash into the business, but as usual I’d forgotten about it.
Emma’s face dropped when I shook my head. She was great, being on my case constantly, making sure that I was getting on with my tasks.
Unfortunately, my failed evening in the Broken Shoe had thrown me off my game a little.
“I’ll take care of it. Don’t worry,” I said, and rushed to Ricky, before she could give me something else to do.
His room was even smaller than mine; it was almost like a cupboard. Recently I had really good days at poker, so I was hoping that maybe we could rent something much bigger, but after last night I didn’t think that I could afford it anyway.
Rick was staring at his mobile phone, and he didn’t even sense me standing in front of him until I cleared my throat. His demonic energy was circulating in the room, stinging lightly, telling me to stay away from his head. Something was going on with him lately, and I suspected that he was seeing someone new.
“What’s up, kitty cat? I hope you have the relief licence with you?” he asked, grinning. I flopped back on the chair opposite him, rubbing my face. I didn’t like ruining his good moods with bad news, but he needed to know what was going on.
“Yes, that’s all sorted. We can talk to her about it today,” I said. “But that’s beside the point. I have bad news and very bad news. Which one do you want to hear first?”
He lost his smile and narrowed his eyes at me.
“Oh no, Max, you can’t do this to me. I had a very eventful evening last night with my new lady friend, so nothing will ruin my good mood. Not even the fact that I can smell tequila on you,” he said, putting his hands in the back of his head. My damn headache was distracting, and I was ready to run to the bathroom and throw up.
“Ronan showed up when I was on my way back to the flat,” I blurted out, looking straight into his eyes. Ricky flinched, and nearly fell off the chair. He knew who Ronan was, so I just needed to carry on. “Apparently he had some documents from the time when Princess Catherine was alive, her private letters addressed to some lover.”
“Letters? I thought he left that life behind?” Ricky asked, growing anxious.
“I don’t know, the letters were given to him. He meant to look after them, but his son broke the protective wards and stole the letters.” I completed my tale, knowing that my next sentence was going to cause an explosion.
“And the—”
“Oh my God … Max … Ricky, you have to see this, quickly,” Emma shouted, barging into the office a second later. She had her laptop in her hands and when she turned the screen towards me, I thought this had to be some kind of joke. There was a huge red headline beaming at me.
Prince Arthur breaks engagement with Duchess Morgan. The royal wedding is off!
Chapter 4
“Being by such a noble lover kissed, This one, who ne'er from me shall be divided, Kissed me upon the mouth all palpitating.” ― Dante Alighieri, The Inferno
My mind couldn’t quite grasp the fact that Arthur had broken off his engagement. Emma was holding the laptop in her hands, streaming live BBC news, and my head was suddenly spinning. I wanted to pick it up and toss it across the room so I didn’t have to hear the thrill of excitement in the reporter’s voice. Arthur couldn’t have been that stupid. He was committed to Natalie, and our affair was long forgotten. There was no way that the royals would let such significant news leak out. This whole thing was either a hoax or a shameful truth.
This has nothing to do with you, Max. He just wasn’t ready to transform his whole life.
“Ricky, please tell me this isn’t happening for real,” I said, sitting on the chair, completely paralysed. Emma walked into the room and placed the laptop on Ricky’s table, increasing the volume. For a long, uncomfortable moment the three of us listened to the reporter that stood outside Buckingham Palace, looking slightly flustered. Prince Arthur had called off the wedding. The source of BBC confirmed that the wedding was supposed to take place sometime in the end of the year. My demonic energy rose, and I felt warmth spreading through me, the fire in the pit of my stomach. Things were getting out of control. I couldn’t afford to lose my temper in front of Emma.
“The prince, Maxine, do you think that this has something to do with us, with the agency?” Emma asked, looking directly at me. Of course she would have come to that conclusion. After all, Arthur paid me a visit, and Emma wasn’t stupid. I brushed my hair away from my face, as nausea rolled through me.
“I think Maxine needs a strong cup of tea, Emma. Would you mind making one for her?” Ricky asked, looking like he was ready to explode himself. There were videos of Natalie getting to the car alone, then some images of Arthur in a restaurant, talking to his father. There were big questions on the s
creen too, like—What went wrong? Is there someone else behind the scenes?
There was no doubt that this story was real. Arthur must have done this to get back at me, to let me know that he wasn’t done with me yet. The timing couldn’t be any worse. Now that I had to head over to the palace, to discuss Ronan’s case with him.
Ricky was staring back at me, and I already knew what he was thinking. Things were going to get difficult for us. Sooner or later someone was going to leak my name.
“This isn’t good, Max.”
“That’s not it, Ricky. There is more to these damn letters, to Ronan’s son,” I said, my voice vibrating. I was falling apart, thinking hard about the consequences of my actions, about the innocent soul that I was forced to leave behind. This whole thing with Ronan and now news like that, the fates really must hate my guts for some reason. I took a deep breath and closed the laptop, knowing that I had to deal with one thing at the time.
“All those months ago when I was away, staying with Ronan, I wrote a letter to Arthur, a letter that I had forgotten about,” I said, hanging on to Ricky’s energy to feel that my body was still in the room, to push away the numbness. Maxine Brodeur couldn’t break down now, not after what she had gone through in the past. She was too strong for this shit.
Ricky frowned and exhaled sharply, like he knew where my story was heading.
“That letter was stolen along with the others, and as far as I can recall, I told Arthur the truth, the whole truth. ”
“So Ronan’s son has the letter that holds your future together?” Ricky asked, his jaw tight. “Did Ronan say what he’s planning to do with it?”
I went through everything that Ronan had told me last night, about the fact that he wanted me to track Nameless down, to admit that he also made a mistake. Ricky knew that I had no other choice but to accept the assignment. I couldn’t risk Arthur getting his hands on the letter, learning that I betrayed him in the worst possible way. Emma walked in with the tea at some point, wondering loudly what happened and why the prince made such a hasty decision. After that, Ricky and I decided that we could tell her about the demonic world tomorrow. I wasn’t in the right frame of mind to tell someone that everything in her life wasn’t as straightforward as she’d always thought.
My mind was fried, and when Ronan showed up in the office half an hour later I was ready to head home.
“Have you heard?” I asked him, rubbing my sweaty palms over my thighs. Ricky was forced to take care of the lost luggage in the underground, so he’d left a few minutes earlier, telling me not to do anything rash.
Ronan had aged. Now that I was seeing him in broad daylight he had a lot more wrinkles under his eyes and more grey hair, the old black suit only making him look older than he was. He’d retired a couple of years ago and left London for good. He started making money on potions, selling love elixirs and other stuff to humans. That was the choice that he made. After working for a decade for royals he felt burned out. I wasn’t surprised. Working in the palace had messed with my life too.
“This story is all over London, Maxine, so yes, I did hear it,” he said. “Have you two spoken since you returned?”
Emma was eavesdropping. There was a lot that I needed to tell her, but right now wasn’t the time. Ronan had no idea what happened between me and Arthur. I’d been back for over a year now. My raw emotions turned my stomach upside down when I thought about the fact that I had to face my old love again. The palace was going to be crammed with press, filled with hungry paps that most likely were waiting to get a glimpse of the heartbroken prince.
“On several occasions,” I replied dismissively, grabbing my bag. “Come on, let’s go. The sooner we get this conversation over, the better. I really need to start tracking your son.”
Ronan nodded but didn’t say anymore. I told Emma to keep all the messages, feeling slightly guilty leaving her alone again. She was thinking about inviting me to her friend’s hen party next week. We had been getting along, sort of growing closer since she started working here.
“You have a human working for you?” Ronan asked when we were walking downstairs.
“Yes, but it’s a long story,” I muttered. “She’s great, very sweet and will handle the truth about our world. A relief licence was granted yesterday, so now we need to just find the right time to tell her about us.”
“Fair enough, Maxine. It looks like you have grown up a bit since the last time we saw each other,” Ronan said. I gave him a faint smile, aware that he had no idea that my life shifted a hundred eighty degrees since I came back.
He didn’t press this subject and somehow I was glad. Besides, Ronan wasn’t the kind of demon that liked wasting time on talking. He was worried about the letters and the fact that we were going to face his old employer. At least he hadn’t been fired like I was, but getting back to that life, to all the memories after so many years was most likely difficult enough.
Ronan, like me, much preferred public transport. He was a full-blooded demon, so he had no problem with blocking humans all around us. I was distracted, hungover and anxious, so for me the ride through the city felt like hell. Deep down, I knew that I should have stuck to my resolution. Zach was available and we could have been happy together, but I got scared. Intimacy was my biggest problem, and I wasn’t prepared to drag my wounded heart through another battlefield.
“There is a new head of Lucifer faction inside the palace: Rodriquez. Just so you’re aware,” I said, when we were getting our passes to get on the palace grounds. My stomach was filled with heavy bricks. Two months ago I wouldn’t have had a problem avoiding Arthur. Now I had no choice but to face him. The timing was so bad. He called off his engagement and suddenly I was showing up in the palace without an appointment. I just didn’t want him to think that there was still something between us.
Ronan nodded, not saying a word. There were crowds of reporters outside, snapping pictures, shouting at anyone that was walking through the gate. My energy became hypersensitive to the camera flashes, and the wild emotions that surrounded the gates. We were directed to Rodriguez’s office. Ronan needed to go through him first, tell him about the stolen letters.
Once I sat down on the bench and started managing my head, an odd familiar sensation flickered through my body. Ronan was writing something on a thick notepad when the scent of very masculine cologne wafted in the air.
“Hmm … Flower, what a surprise. Things are really beginning to turn around for me,” said the deep, gut-wrenching voice. I lifted my eyes and found myself face-to-face with Detective Zachary Quinton, the man that I turned down a couple of months ago.
Heat scorched down my spine, reminding me that the spark between us hadn’t yet faded. Ronan glanced from his notes at the newcomer, but didn’t say anything. I was already drenched with sweat, but seeing him in such an unexpected circumstance only increased my anxiety.
“Hi, Zach, it’s nice to see you too,” I blurted out, wondering what the hell he was doing in here. We needed to stop meeting like this. The timing couldn’t be any worse and he was obviously here for a reason.
“You look fine, Maxine, much better with less clothes but still hot.” He chuckled, eyeing me up and down. He was probably thinking that I didn’t want to waste any time, showing up here straight after Arthur’s announcement.
I got up and grabbed his elbow. Ronan most probably was already sensing that my emotions were running wild and it was better if he didn’t know about my last crush. Zach looked hot, and his dark eyes told me that he still wanted me. After all this time our attraction hadn’t fizzled out.
“What are you doing here?” I asked.
Maybe I would never again be ready to experience the rollercoaster of emotions with Zach, whose fantasies were wild and very explicit.
“Police business, Maxine. Nothing that your pretty head should be worried about,” he muttered. “Who is the old dude that is eyeing me up?”
“He’s an old friend that has urgent business with th
e prince,” I explained, and a moment later we both heard the whistling coming from the corridor. My heart did a happy dance in my chest. Arthur was heading towards us. For a moment he was lost in his own thoughts, looking around, but then he must have sensed my energy because his eyes found mine instantly.
Zachary said something to me, but I ignored him. Suddenly the whole world didn’t matter anymore. My old feelings surfaced, rippling through me. Arthur stopped and looked back at me; his eyes flickered with excitement. Only two months had passed since he visited me in my office, but I knew that a lot of things must have changed. His love for me beamed like the sunrise. My heart ached for contact, pushing through the feelings from the past, remembering how much I regretted coming back to the city.
A huge smile broke over his face and my heart fluttered again. I really needed to stop being affected by the way my body reacted to his. Somewhere in the background Zach cleared his throat.
“Your Highness, it’s been a while. I heard that you wanted to see me urgently?” Zach said, with the hint of sarcasm in his voice, approaching the prince.
“Maxine, wow … I wasn’t expecting to see you here today. Is everything okay?” Arthur asked, ignoring the detective like he wasn’t standing right in front of him. A moment later he touched my arm, and the heat shot over my face. Zach glared at me like a hawk, releasing very violent vibes of jealousy. I stepped away from the prince, taking a deep breath. God, this conversation wasn’t going to be easy.
“My old friend Ronan needs to speak to you urgently. We are waiting for Rodriguez to give us clearance,” I said, thinking about goats on the trees. It was my method of distraction, which wasn’t working in this circumstance at all. “Sorry, Zach, we can wait. I think you were first anyway.”
Zach approached us, pissed off, and I nodded to Ronan to come forward.
“I have personally asked the detective to come over,” Arthur said, looking towards Zach. He had no idea that we weren’t really dating, well, not since we last went out, and the sudden tension between the two men escalated. “But Maxine’s business seems much more urgent.”
Doomed Cases Series (1-3) Demonic Triangle Diabolical Quest Infernal Initiation Page 27