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Her words were like a start to my heart.

“What do you mean?—”

“Don’t read too much into it, princess,” she said, raising a brow. “You wanna go get your plaything back, or what?”

Each word had her winding me up more and more. It had the hair on the back of my neck standing up and my skin feeling hot.What the fuck is her problem?Besides Vesper, this was the first time anyone had ever treated me with such an attitude.

Though I much preferred her roommate’s to hers.

“I don’t blindly agree to things,” I finally answered. There was no room for argument. I had no idea what she had up her sleeve, and I really didn’t fucking trust her.

What if she wanted me to kill someone? Ruin my reputation? Even go against my father?

“No? Too bad.” She turned around on the bed, giving me her back.

As annoying as the movement was, I was glad for it because at least then she couldn’t see how comically wide my jaw had dropped.

I let out a growl and dug my nails into the meaty part of my palm.

I needed her. At least I thought I did. She seemed to know much more than she let on, and was probably the only person in this palace who could point me in the right direction.

Compromise. I can compromise.

After dealing with Prince Icas, my near-death, and my almost-unwanted breeding, compromising was nothing.

“As long as it doesn’t hurt me or Vesper, put either of us in danger, or affect my status as princess,” I said and took a deep breath, “I will agree to it.”

She let out a laugh and turned back to me.Fuck,the satisfied look on her face when she knew she was getting her way was so annoying.

“You got it, princess,” she said and bounced off the bed, her sudden movement causing me to jerk back.

“Where do you think you’re going?” I asked as she sauntered right past me and left the room.

What the hell? Was I just bettered by a witch?

“You think I’d miss this?” she asked, looking over her shoulder with an amused grin. “I’ll take you, but I’m tagging along.”

It looked like any other human suburb.

The houses were well-kept. The grass was green. The neighbors were out and about, saying hello to whoever passed.

They seemed kind and not at all like the cold-hearted assassin who was sent to my palace. They seemed to be living happily in their own little human world, without any supernatural beings in sight.

It was so odd to be right in the middle of something seemingly so untouched by the rest of the creatures in the world.

If I were a normal vampire, it might have alarmed me. There weren’t many places that were human only, and even if there were, they definitely weren’t welcoming to our kind.

There was a shift in the air as soon as they caught sight of us. They would pause in their conversation, take in our state of dress, then abruptly try to get themselves back into the house as quickly as possible without making it look too obvious that they were running away from us.

It was amusing.

Was there something so scary about us that caused them to act that way?

“A word of advice, princess,” the witch said, coming close to my side. Too close for comfort. “Don’t get too close to any of the humans inside that house.”

I wanted to push her off. Ignore her because of her attitude about the place. But there was something about the house in front of us that gave me a bad feeling. It looked just like the others, but there was an aura about it. It smelled too clean. I gave her a nod.

Where there was one assassin, there would be others. It was unlikely that Vesper was working alone, and the next logical guess was that this was some type of family business.