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Page 3 of Night’s Fall (The Four Realms #1)

Even when I went on holiday, I found a cottage or cabin somewhere and did all the stuff I preferred to do at home. I just did it without it having to be interrupted by work.

I wasn’t ethereality and utter perfection.

I also wasn’t fire.

I was just… me .

“She’s probably been crying in her meditation studio or isolation aquarium for the past month,” Catla surmised gleefully, as a female was wont to do when another female, especially one born with more than you had, was brought down a peg.

I couldn’t say Princess Anna was more attractive than Cat . Their looks were very different.

But she was Princess Royal of a peaceful, affluent realm. She had magic (seeing as she was a witch) and natural beauty, nothing enhanced. She was rolling in family money. And she was, well…ethereality and utter perfection.

Hard not to hold some jealousy for a chick like that.

“Wouldn’t you be, if you lost all the lusciousness that is Prince Aleksei ?” Gayliliel asked.

“She was picced cavorting with Dolph Windstalker on the beach on Tyball’s Gate . I saw the images on the social tapes this morning,” I told them. I then added, “ Oh , and she decided against donning the top of her bikini. And yes, her breasts are as perfect as everything else about her.”

“She… what ?” Cat was aghast.

“I’d say she isn’t utter perfection, considering how richly petty that is,” I declared, loyal, as ever, to the prince.

“ Aleksei has barely been seen in public since the break. And she’s topless, on the beach on a party island off Land’s End with a hunky screen star who usually dates shifters who are barely majority. Blech .”

Cat’s eyes narrowed on me. “ Have you met Windstalker ?”

Like I wouldn’t tell her if I met Dolph Windstalker while working one of my gigs.

I shook my head. “ Never . But I haven’t heard good things.”

“Men that handsome tend not to promote people hearing good things about them,” Cat muttered.

“Well, if Anna ever thought they’d make up, she killed that fantasy,” Gayle noted. “ Not that Aleksei’s the kind of guy to change his mind. Outside realizing the female he asked to marry him wasn’t the female for him, that is.”

“That was so out of character,” Cat put in. “ I think I was more surprised he changed his mind at all, much less that he changed it about her.”

“Seems he dodged a bullet,” Gayle remarked.

“He totally did,” I declared. “ It’s obvious, as he got to know her, as it came closer to the wedding actually happening and her hooks were sinking deeper into him, she thought he couldn’t get away, or at least not change his mind, since that’s not his style.

And both realms would want to avoid the scandal.

Maybe because of all that, she let the mask drop.

Maybe who she pretended to be was all about the Starknight and Dayrise houses unifying, and once that seemed a foregone conclusion, he got a sense of the real her and wanted nothing to do with it.

You should have seen the comments on those pics with Windstalker . She was not faring well,” I shared.

“That’s pretty out of character too,” Gayle mumbled.

“Or maybe it’s not,” I stated.

“Well, Aleksei isn’t a waffler,” Cat said.

“ This is a PR fiasco for Anna , and it was before those pics were put on the tapes. This means the stupidity of the Windstalker move is undeniable. Everyone was already speculating it was something about her or something she did that made Aleksei beg off. Now , they’ll be certain of it. ”

“It’s always the female’s fault,” Gayle griped.

“Yeah, so I either champion her for saying, ‘fuck it, instead of licking my wounds, I’m gonna lick this hot wolf shifter,’ or I think she’s an idiot, for the same reason,” Cat replied.

The craft stopped, and we all turned our heads to peer out the window.

What we saw was the glistening black facade, including the equally glistening black double doors, and a line of people down the pavement, queued along a black velvet rope attached to shiny black posts.

No sign.

None needed.

Such was the allure of the Pink and Black Club .

“We’re here,” Cat whispered with excitement.

The instant she did, my stomach performed an odd, and profound, drop.

I blinked at the strength of the sensation but put it down to breaking the seal of going out and being in the world for the first time since my attack.

The first time after my beast was murdered.

The first time since the nightmare any shifter feared the worst happened to me.

I drew in a deep breath and let it out, much preferring the idea of simply gliding on and continuing to gab with my gals, perhaps going through a flyby to get something fried and awful for us while we did it.

But I told myself it wasn’t going to be that bad. A few drinks. More girl talk. Once they started flirting, I could start people watching.

Then I could be at home with my cats, wearing my pajamas, with a tub of stem ginger frozen custard, a cup of tea, and maybe a Dolph Windstalker flick (he was a terrible actor, and possibly a terrible person, but he wasn’t hard on the eyes).

A couple of hours.

Maybe three.

And then I could be out of these uncomfortable shoes, and equally uncomfortable dress, and this would be over.

I could do it.

Cat’s dad’s pilot opened the door, and that sensation in my stomach happened again, this time deeper, almost painful, but also curiously, maybe even impossibly… pleasurable .

What in the realms was that?

Cat got out. Gayle got out.

I sat in the craft.

They turned to look in at me.

Dang.

I guess I had no choice.

Time to do it.

I got out too.