Leo!
A thrill shot through me at the sight of him, but I frowned as I recognized the assassin from the suite. The one who’d killed the consort, Cassander and tried to kill me and my sisters.
Was Zel and the assassin in on it together? Was he Zel’s master?
But the assassin—Vennix, I remembered—held his ion pistol steady. And it wasn’t aimed at Leo or even his father, but at Zel.
I didn’t understand, but with the knife at my neck, I wasn’t going to try and figure it out now.
Leo eyed me, raked his gaze over me from head to toe. I was whole, but I was sure I had a swollen cheek and would probably get a black eye. And I knew I had stained the dress red with a bit of blood where Zel had poked and twisted the blade under my ribs.
“It’s over, Zel,” Travin said.
“Put the weapons down or she’s dead,” he shouted.
I felt his ragged breathing against my back, the shaking of his muscles.
“You’re dead. You just haven’t realized it yet,” Leo countered.
We were at a standoff. When the knife pricked my neck, I hissed.
I could tell Leo wanted to jump him, rip the knife from his hand and kill him, but I’d be dead first. No ReGen wand in the universe could heal a jugular from being severed.
“I will go with you,” I said, glancing at Travin, then Leo, although my words were for Zel. “Leo, tell the guards to stand down. Spread word to let us pass through the palace.”
“No fucking way,” he vowed.
I wasn’t Destiny. I couldn’t fight my way out of this. I wasn’t Faith. I couldn’t humor my way out of a knife at my throat. But I was Princess Trinity, and I could think my way out.
“Remember the saying, mate. If you can’t get out of it…”
Leo’s eyes flickered with awareness before he finished. “Get into it.” He slowly squatted down, put his weapon on the floor. Told the others to do the same.
They didn’t look thrilled with the idea, but they followed Leo’s order.
“You got what you wanted, Zel. The weapons are down.” I tried to keep my voice calm, my tone even. Diplomatic, although it was totally fake and coated with lies.
“They’ll let us pass, but I can’t walk with a knife in my neck.”
Leo took a half step back and the others did as well.
After a few seconds, Zel moved the knife away and nudged me toward the door. I moved forward about two feet, then did what I’d been waiting for. I stepped back, my leg going between Zel’s. Since my hands were at my sides, it was easy for me to grab his crotch. Yeah, I could easily feel his cock and balls beneath my palm. This wasn’t a lover’s caress. No, it was a get the fuck off of me grip just like with the Royal Consort.
I grabbed, squeezed and tugged as I dropped my weight. Zel’s hold loosened and I could see out of the corner of my eye Leo grabbing his weapon and firing.
One shot. That was all it took. Zel’s head was gone, his body falling to the ground with a hard thud. His groin slipped from my tight hold as he went. It was only then that my brain stalled, that I couldn’t even think of what to do next.
But that didn’t matter. Leo had me in his arms and was carrying me across the room before I had a chance to blink. The feel of him, god. He felt so good. Big, strong. His steady heartbeat beneath my ear. He was safe. Whole. Alive.
So was I.
I started to shake as Leo looked down at me, studied my face, my neck. Setting me on my feet, he grabbed the ReGen wand from his belt and waved it over my face. I closed my eyes to the blue glow, but felt the sting in my busted lip disappear, the nick in my neck no longer throb. He ran it over the small cut under the bodice of my dress, then twirled me around, must have seen something similar in my back, and used the wand there as well before spinning me back a
round to face him.
I heard voices behind me, but ignored them. Others had come into the room, but Leo didn’t move, didn’t even talk to anyone else, just tended to me.
“Better, mate?”