Page 58 of Princess Redeemed

I need to see him, find out the status of the war, because based on what I’ve seen here, it’s over…and no one won.

I also need him to level with me about my stepfather.Is it my destiny to kill him?Because if it is, I can’t.I won’t do that to my mother, no matter how satisfying it would be for me.

Only one thing is keeping me from doing this.

I’m in the fucking ether and I don’t know how to get out.

Rogan and his new mate run off through the rain, and when they’re no longer within my field of vision, I crawl back down into the bunker.

I pace over the dirt floor, yanking on my own hair as images of two wolves mating under the rain force themselves into my mind.

“No!”I say out loud.“No.I won’t go there.There’s nothing that can be done.”

“Are you sure about that?”

My heart races as I whip around toward the female voice.

The woman is beautiful in her age, her long hair a lustrous silver.Her eyes are a deep and piercing shade of amethyst, and they seem to hold the weight of countless untold secrets.Her skin is pale as moonlight, and when she opens her mouth, her fangs descend.

I back away, covering my abdomen.“Get the fuck out of here,” I demand.

“I’m of no danger to you,” she says, her voice louder now.She walks toward me and holds out one arm cloaked in black velvet.“I would never harm royal blood.”

I keep my guard up.“Who the hell are you?”

“I’m Lady Alara,” she says.

“And that’s supposed to mean something to me?”

“I’m the oldest living vampire,” she says, “and I’ve come to help you.”

“Oh yeah?Then can you get me and my unborn son out of here?I don’t even know where the hell we are.”

“Child,” she begins.

“I’m no child.”

She laughs softly.“To me, you are a child.This is the ether.”

“I know that much.I just don’t know how the hell to get out of here.”

“To move through the ether, you must understand the ether.It is not just a place, but a state of being, an existence beyond the tangible constraints of our physical realm.It is akin to the air around us—invisible yet ever-present, a fabric interwoven with the very essence of life and death.”

I scoff.“Thanks for clearing that up.”

“Open your mind, Princess Hannah.In the ether, time and space converge and diverge in ways incomprehensible to the human mind.It is a plane where the past, present, and future meld into a single, infinite moment.In our physical world, we are bound by the linear progression of time, but in the ether, time is but a construct, as malleable as clay in the hands of a skilled sculptor.”

“So is the war over or not?”I press.

“War is never over.Peace is never over.Time, in this place, doesn’t exist.”

“Tell that to all the dead vampires above us,” I say petulantly.

“Life and death are two sides of the same coin,” she says.

I resist an eyeroll.Whoever the hell she is, she’s my key to getting out of here.

“I’m sorry for your lost love, princess,” she says.