Page 143 of Infernal Secrets

The lighter clicked. A tiny spark caught the incense, and cinnamon filled the air as the flame grew.

My eyes stung when I remembered the way Ash had held me last night. His cinnamon and bay rum scent both comforted me and broke my heart.

Something existed between us. But I needed to help the guys before the distance Ash wanted hurt us more.

“You fail to…” I covered my face with my hand. “Lady, these…”

“Shyrlivi?”

I dropped my hand. “Yes,” I whispered.

Placing the lighter beneath the counter, she asked, “What about them?”

“They don’t belong here.”

“Who says?”

“They aren’t from here,” I said, trying to cling to a sliver of rationality.

This woman spoke like she understood. If I didn’t say Earth, Niemna, or Elyrdin, maybe I wouldn’t seem insane. Even that logic sounded insane.

“No, I suppose not. But dear Raelynn, they’re where they need to be right now.”

I wrapped my arms around myself, turning away from her intense gaze. “I don’t understand. They wanna go home.”

“Do they?”

“Yes, and I want them to go home.”

“Do you?”

I whirled around to look at her. “What? Well, yes. I mean, it’s not fair they can’t go home when they want to.”

“Home is where you make it,” the woman said, tapping her pale gold fingernails on the cover of the book in front of her. “But if we were to speak in technicalities, then I suppose you would be right.”

Movement near the shelves to my left caught my attention. When I sidestepped for a better look, no one was there.

“The only issue you have is their inability to go home?”

I turned back to the woman, recalling the moments I’d shared with Ash and Zeke, laughing and growing more attached to them with every day that passed. Even the intense night with Cyn crossed my mind. I shook my head, forcing the distracting thought away. I couldn’t think of that.

They needed to go home, or the target on my back wouldn’t disappear.

“I’m in danger,” I said, throat tight with anxiety as I watched her. “Since they came… I mean, since I got the book, I’ve been…” I sighed, still not sure if I could trust the woman.

She’d heard enough to warrant a call to security, yet she hadn’t. Why?

“Your fear isn’t worth clinging to,” she said, voice soft. “I’m merely an ear. The only ear for your story.”

I saw the truth in her eyes. She wouldn’t tell anyone else what I said. Even so, a powerful urge to protect the princes swelled inside of me. She didn’t need to know where they came from or their identities as heirs to thrones in another world.

“Infernals have tried to hurt me since they arrived.”

Her brows rose—the first sign since my arrival that I’d said something she hadn’t expected.

“They’ve attacked me, and the sightings are worse when I’m alone outside my home.”

She hummed, hand curling into a fist on the book in front of her. “That’s unexpected.”