Princess of Lust (For the Love of Evil) Read Free Page A

sand.
    “Oh, God,” she said and turned back to Gregor. “Get us out of here.”
    He backed up with her in his arms and growled, “We’re trying. The bubble has us trapped. The only way out is through the side of a brick house. Unfortunately, the brick has wards on it and breaking it down is taking precious time we don’t have.”
    Strength began to return to her, quicker than before, and she raised her head up to look. Raum, Kirin, Eline, and a half-dozen guards were tearing at the wall in a frenzy.
    “Why don’t they open up a portal?” she asked. A small hole appeared in the wall where it was being battered by the pommel of one of the guard’s swords.
    Gregor stared at the men, then said in a voice laced with distrust, “Raum said we don’t know if the Chaos can use portals, so he didn’t want to give it an opening to your father’s palace.”
    The thought of her new home being unmade caused a shudder to race through her. “No, that would be horrible.”
    “Bring the princess,” Kirin shouted, and her world lurched as Gregor sprinted with her in his arms.
    Eline went first, squeezing and pushing past the edges of the hole as the other guards worked to make it bigger. Sunlight streamed from the other side, and she barely had time to register what happened before she found herself pushed into Eline’s arms and past the shattered brick. They were in the abandoned kitchen of one of the homes. Broken plates and abandoned cutlery crunched beneath Eline’s boots as he shifted his hold on her.
    “I have you,” he said, and backed away from the hole in the wall.
    On the other side, darkness framed the remaining men as Raum ordered them through one by one. Kirin and Gregor were the last to come out into the kitchen and the bubble of Chaos seemed to be right on top of them. The last bit of earth disappeared from her view beyond the opening as Raum grasped the broken edges of the wall to pull himself into the home.
    An instant before he did, she got a clear mental picture from her bond with Gregor. In it, Gregor pushed Raum into the Chaos and a fierce joy tinged with regret and guilt raced across his thoughts. Time seemed to slow as Raum hung on the precipice, scrambling to get through the hole when he had nothing behind him to step on.
    Gregor held out his hand to Raum and Natalia tried to yell out a warning, but she was afraid if she did, Raum would lose his concentration and fall. With their bond still wide open, Gregor’s anger poured into her as he caught Kirin’s pleading gaze. With a muttered oath, Gregor hauled Raum through the opening hard enough that he landed on the floor with a thump .
    Profound relief took the little strength remaining in her legs, and she leaned her head against Eline’s hard breastplate. The tears she had been holding at bay coursed down her cheeks as she realized how close Gregor had come to killing Raum, and how badly she had misjudged his ability to share her with the other man.

 
     
    Chapter Three
     
     
    Natalia spent the ride back to the palace alone in her carriage, claiming exhaustion after the draining of the stone. In reality, she couldn’t stand the sight of either Raum or Gregor.
    For the past eight months she’d been in Hell, scrambling to learn as much as she could about being a demon princess and trying to help her father retain his power. The fight became more dire by the day, and as her father’s only living child, she had a vital role to play in protecting their people. The last thing she needed was two of the men she loved being a breath away from killing each other.
    What she’d thought were just some bad feelings between Raum and Gregor had changed into true hate. Even now, with her shields shut down as tight as she could get them between herself and Gregor, she could feel his seething anger at not killing Raum and his self-disgust for his momentary weakness. Her concubine truly, deeply loved her but he was human and had been raised and groomed to be a