Page 9 of Princess of Bael

On any other day, I’d consider him good-looking: olive skin, almond-shaped dark eyes, black hair, tall and athletic… Except for the whole stalker syndrome.

What the hell?I thought, gaping at him.

Ezra started moving toward the Tracker demon, sword raised, expression grim. But his movements were… off. He appeared to be in slow motion, like he was trying to run underwater rather than on a normal street in Virginia. It was as if everything around us was passing in fractions of time, his speed hampered and belittled by whatever had just occurred.

While Ezra seemed to be trying with all his might to run toward the Tracker, the Tracker appeared to be moving with ease.

I lifted my hand, startled when, instead of moving in slow motion like Ezra, my arm rose as normal.

Whatever was affecting the Archangel hadn’t touched me.

I didn’t waste any more time. I reached into the holster hanging beneath my jacket and drew a knife. The blade went airborne.

In the same instant, however, the Tracker reached out for the closest Divinity member to him—Kristina. He latched on to her, yanking her against his strange armor. She didn’t even have a chance to react. A Portal Dweller appeared right next to them, and then the three of them disappeared.

With my blade embedded in the Tracker’s chest.

Ezra, Johanna, and Lucía were still stuck in slow motion, the explosion clearly meant for them and not for me.

Yet the Tracker had obviously followed me here.

He’d tailed me mercilessly all day before finally finding me. But his focus had been on thesky, not on me.

In fact, he hadn’t tried to grab me at all. It was as though I didn’t even exist.

His excitement upon arrival had been about the fracture in the sky.

Then he’d looked at the Divinity and picked the female closest to him. Taking her with him without once looking at me—which was what had allowed me to hit him with the knife.

He wasn’t tracking me, I realized.He… he must have been tracking my device.

My eyes widened.

That could only mean one thing.

Someone knew my purpose here, and that person had sent the Tracker to follow me… to take a member of the Divinity.

Ezra

Fuck!

I fought the enchantment encasing my limbs, cursing inwardly at my idiocy.

Seeing Kayla had fried my damn brain, causing me to drop my guard and lose sight of my purpose.

A Tracker, I thought, furious.I let a Tracker capture Kristina.

Never in my worst nightmares could I have imagined something so simplistic.A Tracker. I wanted to laugh and scream at the same time.

All because of Kayla.

Fuck, I hadn’t even recognized her at first. She’d… she’d grown up. Like, really grown up. With long, dark waves of hair that framed her delicate curves and nearly reached her ass. Beautiful, caramel-colored eyes. Full, luscious lips that I’d secretly dreamt about for decades. Athletic legs encased in tight black fabric.

Forty-one years.

It’d beenforty-one years.

And the first thing she’d done was try to stab me.