“On march the banners of the King of Hell.”
― Dante Alighieri, Inferno
“Maxine, it’s so good to see you. How are you feeling?” Emma squealed as I walked into the office a couple of days later. I smiled, kind of glad that she was still with us. I heard that she wanted to visit me so many times, but Ricky didn’t want her to see me in the state that I was in. We both needed to spare her any further stress.
“Fine, I’m good, healed and ready to rock the next case,” I said, sending a wink to Ricky, who was talking to a mongrel in his room. Emma came from behind her working station and hugged me. I was still stunned with her sudden affection.
“I’m so glad. Ricky kept saying that you needed time to recover,” she mumbled. “My daughter and I made you biscuits. We were both really worried.”
I smiled, happy that someone cared if I was dead or alive. In some ways, she reminded me of my mum. It was an odd nostalgic feeling, and I really needed to get a grip. The past was the past.
“Cool, well, it’s all good. You don’t have to worry anymore. Have you got any files for me?” I asked, taking a bite of the chocolate biscuit that tasted awesome.
“Of course, a few. Let me get them for you.”
I went to my room and sat in my chair, closing my eyes for a second. I felt good, being back. Rodriguez hadn’t heard anything from hell. Apparently Alexis had never gotten down to the pits and I had no idea how that was even possible. A lot of demons were currently searching for her.
Every day I hoped that she was securely locked up in the underworld. She knew what I was hiding and, since destroying her dream, I became her number one enemy. It’s not like I didn’t piss off people on a regular basis, but this was more serious than anything that I’d ever done. She could easily use her knowledge against me.
“Flower?”
I opened my eyes to see Arthur in front of me. I wanted to smile to myself. He wasn’t real. I was most likely hallucinating, but this time around I was completely sober. I glanced at Emma, who stood behind him, holding a pile of files in her arms. Her mouth was hanging open and she was staring at the prince, completely startled.
“Your Highness!” I shouted, jumping off the chair, like I just realised that this wasn’t a mirage. “What are you doing here?”
“It’s the prince… the real prince,” Emma kept whispering. Ricky walked out of his room and shot Arthur an unfriendly look. Yeah, he didn’t like the fact that Arthur was here. He started pushing Emma back to her desk.
I rubbed my brow, thinking that he looked bloody gorgeous as usual, wearing a casual cream blazer. His hair was longer than a few weeks ago, just the way I liked it.
“I needed to check on you, just to make sure you were all right. Can we talk, Flower? I don’t have much time,” he insisted and then shut the door behind him. The warmth drifted over my skin, reminding me of our times together. I fought hard with myself to keep away from any royal news and him. I thought a lot about the past, and I couldn’t let him ruin the fact that I put everything behind me.
“There is nothing to talk about, Arthur. You’re okay, your brother is going to be fine and you shouldn’t be here,” I told him with my cold tone of voice.
“You saved my life. I came here to thank you. Rodriguez told me everything, Maxine,” he said, squatting down on his knees in front of me. I backed away to the wall, panicking.
“Arthur? What the hell are you doing? Get up!” I hissed, ready to use my abilities to tell him that he was making a big mistake. He smiled wolfishly.
“Don’t worry, I’m not proposing. I’m only thanking you. Give me your hand, Maxine,” he said. I rolled my eyes, annoyed, but my heart was pounding in my chest. I did what he asked, and the warmth scorched over me like a sudden storm. This looked a lot like a marriage proposal. “You saved my skin and nearly died. That was brave and stupid. Now I want you to come back and work for me again.”
I had to go over a few times what he said before his sentence made sense. His eyes turned into a mossy shade of green, drifting down to my lips. God, the images of both of us from two years ago were so real. He was asking me to come back and continue doing what I loved most. To protect others.
It took me only five seconds to get it together and pull away from him.
“We both know that’s not possible. I can’t work for royals. Nothing has changed,” I said firmly, trying to breathe at the same time.
“Everything has changed, Flower. I want you back. I told Rodriquez that no one could replace you. This is going to work, trust me.”
I sighed, pulling my hair away from my face.
“I’m dating someone now, and I have a full-time business to run, Arthur. Even if I came back, things wouldn’t be the same,” I said, knowing that lies were only making everything worse, but who cared. Arthur was off limits, and I wasn’t going to drag myself down the same road of destruction again.
He looked shocked, angry at first, but he smiled after a moment.
“We both know that you don’t date,” he responded coldly.
“Well, things have changed. I’m dating Zachary Quinton now and I’m happy, Arthur, so please don’t ruin this for me.”
He took a sharp breath, staring at me in complete disbelief. He always broadcasted his emotions so strongly, and I knew that he still loved me, but too much had happened between us. We were from different worlds and it was time for him to let me go.
“You’re dating that arsehole—”
“And you’re engaged to Natalie, Your Highness, so let’s leave it at that,” I cut him off, pissed off that he dared to mock my choices, insulting Zach. That whole thing was beneath him.
“Flower, please. You don’t have any future with that guy. Come back to me.”
“I don’t have any future with you either. This has to stop. Yes, I did save your life, but I was doing my job. Nothing has changed, Arthur, so stop tearing me apart. We are done,” I pressed, raising my voice.
We were so far apart, like we had never been before. Even if I could turn into a human somehow, Arthur couldn’t change a thing. His future was already laid out for him.
“So that’s it then, you’re just going to ignore how you feel?” he asked, when I turned my back to him. I took a deep breath, knowing that there was no point dwelling on our past feelings, or this absurd proposition.
“Yes, I am, and we both know that I can’t come back. Go back to your palace, to your fiancée and forget about me, because I have forgotten about you.”
My words hurt him, but he needed to hear this in order to move on, to forget. I didn’t need to turn around to know that he was gone a few seconds later. My heart pounded insanely fast, my soul filling with black dots of pain, but this was for the best. He couldn’t expect me to change my whole life for him.
“A prince, a real prince? Was I dreaming?” Emma shouted, barging into my room a moment later, flustered and pounding with excitement. I smiled, wiping away the last and only tear that I would waste on him.
“Yes, that was Arthur, the future king,” I muttered, flopping back on the chair and thinking that I needed a strong drink.
I was staring at my reflection in the mirror, telling myself that this time things were going to be different. My new and only dress was in the trash. After the confrontation with the A’rea, I had decided to stick to wearing jeans. The girly clothes weren’t for me.
I looked good. My hair was styled nicely. Recently I’d paid a visit to the hairdresser. She used the foils to emphasise my colourful highlights a bit more. This time around I put on dark jeans and a navy top that showcased my cleavage. I threw a leather jacket over my shoulder and then went out.
He was waiting for me outside, smoking in his car. Several hours earlier Ricky asked why Arthur had come over. He couldn’t believe that the prince had the nerve to ask me back, to actually think that I would say yes. We were both done with royals, so I told him that he didn’t need to worry. It took us a while to calm Emma down though. She was having some kind of asthma attack, and I told myself that in the future, she had to be kept away from any demonic business. I still needed an assistant.
“Hmm, Maxine, you look good … so good that I’m thinking that we should skip this bullshit dinner and go straight to my place,” Zachary said when he saw me. He threw his cigarette out on the pavement, eyeing me from head to toe.
I rolled my eyes, feeling extremely sexy. Zach was hot, mouthy and convinced that he could get me to bed in no time.
There were other pending issues, but I didn’t want to think about what if. Life was too short.
“Still so sure of yourself, huh?”
“Always. We both know you want me, Flower.” He switched on the engine.
“Maybe, but things have changed. I won’t jump into bed with you straight away. I’m not that kind of a girl.” I laughed, remembering our last steamy encounter.
“Liar. That’s all you’ve been thinking about from the moment we met, Flower.”
The end of book 1