CHAPTER 10
Astern
My hands are shaking as Harlow leads us out of one of the back exits, and as Sterling talks with Theo about what happened, all I can hear is the deafening silence of the ballroom after we found Quinn’s body.
She’s dead.
And it’s my fault.
To make matters worse, Sterling continues to glare at me whenever he gets a chance, so between him and Lachlan hating me, dread begins to curdle inside of me.
Perhaps this was a bad idea.
Maybe I’m not cut out for this.
I failed the first mission, and Quinn is dead.
Someonediedbecause of me.
As we get back to the car, I realize that Quinn left her handbag sitting on the passenger seat, and that causes a fresh wave of tears to leak from my eyes.
“I’m sorry about your friend,” Prince Alexander says, hands in the pockets of his trousers.
I huff a laugh. Suddenly this all feels so fucking absurd. I’m walking back to the car with Prince Fucking Alexander—someone I used to drool over in those awful teen magazines. He’s a couple of years older than me, and he’s lived his life in the spotlight. It feels like I know him, and that thought is so surreal and ironic.
Now, he’s a Lord of Darkness.
Like me.
“Thanks,” I tell him glumly.
When I look up at him, he’s watching me with veiled concern. His brows are furrowed, and he’s frowning. Despite that, I feel my heart skip a beat.
He’s so bloody handsome, and even more so in person.
We all load into the car in the same order we came, and Alexander takes the front seat.
“So, uh, where are we headed?” he asks as Alaric gets into the driver’s seat.
“Blackwell,” Alaric tells him, and I hardly hear him begin to explain how it all works.
How absurd for him… hiding out in one of the back rooms to now being driven away as a Lord of Darkness. That has to be a record for quickest acquisition of a new Lord in the history of the Lords.
Otto’s arms come around me as we drive out of London, and I let the tears fall without bothering to wipe them away, leaning against his warm chest. I hate myself for thinking it, but his warm body is comforting. And he seems to be the only one who doesn’t hate me.
Guilt claws through me, and my stomach rolls any time I think back to what happened.
It could’ve been me.
Itshould’vebeen me.
Quinn was with Target Number One, and I was going after Target Number Three. He’d started walking away, and I’d followed him to the back room, leaving Quinn alone–leaving Quinnexposed.Iknewnot to leave her. We’d come as a pair, and we were meant to stay together. But… I panicked. And then I ran into Target Number Two, and we’d all stumbled into the room with the Lords–
I never should’ve left Quinn alone.
At some point, I must fall asleep, because Otto is nudging me awake a bit later. I gasp as I sit straight, looking around and realizing we’re parked in front of the manor.
It all comes crashing back, and that black, inky feeling of guilt returns.
