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She cocked her head at this.

“We will have to do something about that,” she added in a teasing tone.

And then, quicker than I could react, her lanky hand reached out and brushed across my neck. Heat hit me right where the tattoo was.Magic.Pure, powerful magic.

I had never felt anything like it before. Everything I had encountered up until that point had been a watered-down version of what she possessed.

But that alone wasn’t enough of a red flag to quell the anger her touch had ignited.

My hands snapped out, grabbing her shirt and pulling her to me.

“Don’t you fucking mess with me li?—”

“Or what?” she asked, cocking her head. “You’ll tell on me?”

Her blasé attitude caused my brain to short-circuit.

What could I do?I just entered the castle, I couldn’t kill her just yet.

A better question was,What would she do?Her eyes had a fucking twinkle in them. Like she was just daring me to do something to her.

I pushed her away, trying to put some space between us before I did something I’d regret.

“I didn’t know the family accepted witches in here,” I grumbled, my hand coming up to rub where the magic had hit me.

She let out a chuckle and placed her hands on her hips. My entire body was ready for attack, but hers seemed right at home. “And I didn’t know they let vampire hunters in here.”

Vampire hunters.We hadn’t been referred to by that name in decades, according to our history. Maybe that was once how my family’s organization started, but those days were long gone, and the meaning of thehuntershad been sullied by some of the atrocities committed by the previous organization.

Another reason for the secrecy of the leaders and the families involved.

“My family handles contracts that are not limited to vampires.” The defensiveness in my tone was hard to mistake.

Shit.The smile on her face widened, and I knew I had fucked up.

“And is the Castle family a part of these…contracts?”

She brushed past me and went straight to my bed as if to find evidence to prove that I was here for that sole reason. Just as her hand reached out to touch my bag, I slapped it away, but instead of looking at me like she was offended…she looked amused.

“If I can sense magic, then you should be careful what you have hiding in there,” she said, moving away from my bag. “If you slip up, some rogue vampire may just…sniff it out.”

“Are you threatening me?” I asked, my spine straightening and my blood rushing through my veins.

Could I really get away with killing her now?My hands itched as the urge to reach for my magically forged knife I kept hidden in the bag shot through me. It would do some damage before her magic could get to me, but there was no guarantee that I would win.

Normally, in this scenario, I would have had weeks, if not months, to make a decision, but not here. I had just these few moments between us.

But she seemed not at all affected. She seemed…calm. Comfortable.

“I had us put together because I saw what you were hiding on your neck,” she admitted, her eyes trailing back to my tattoo. “If you’re hiding something, there’s less chance that you’ll rat me out for doing the same.”

The stiffness in my body was replaced with curiosity.So I’m not the only one who decided to take on a job in the family.

This job was the thing I had been created for. All my life led up to this moment. But instead of feeling like this was a threat, I couldn’t help but be curious about the type of people who came here with me.

Did they, too, have a prophecy that controlled their lives?

Then a semi-panicked yet relieved thought flashed through my mind:Would they get to the princess before me?No, she didn’t seem like she was after the same thing I was.