Esme
The woman standing in front of me looks like an apparition for a moment. She’s tall, brunette, and beautiful.
“Are you okay?” the woman asks, glancing back at Phoenix, who coos softly on the sofa.
I stumble forward to make sure he’s okay, but I don’t make a move to touch him yet. I don’t want that beast’s blood anywhere near my son.
“Esme?”
I turn when she says my name. “I… are you real?” I ask stupidly.
Her expression flushes with concern and she moves closer to me, pulling off the soft overcoat she’s wearing. Underneath, she has on a figure-hugging black dress that emphasizes her hourglass shape.
She moves forward and puts the coat over my shoulders.
“You’re shivering,” she tells me. “My name is Svetlana.”
Svetlana…
Why does that name sound so familiar?
Then it hits me all at once.
“You’re with Artem,” I say. “You… you’re helping to bring down Budimir?”
“Yes,” she says, looking relieved that she doesn’t have to explain it to me. “I am.”
“What are you doing here?”
“I was at the hotel when the fighting started,” she tells me. “Artem attacked Budimir’s council meeting.”
I shake my head. “What… I thought that wasn’t until later?”
“Budimir moved it up and Artem decided to act fast,” she tells me. “I was brought here from the Regency and I heard the guards talking about you…”
“Where are they now?” I ask, terrified that someone would walk in and kill us both.
“Artem has just stormed the compound with his men,” Svetlana tells me. “It’s chaos out there. Budimir has barricaded himself in one of the rooms downstairs.”
Relief floods through me immediately, but Svetlana notices my expression and shakes her head. “Esme, we don’t know who will win this fight.”
“But—”
“Artem is still outnumbered,” she tells me. “And Budimir fights dirty. Not to mention the fact that he has you.”
“But… we can leave now,” I say desperately. “We can get out—”
“We can’t just walk out of here, Esme,” Svetlana tells me, grabbing my hand. “Budimir’s men are still all over the place.”
I close my eyes for a moment and try to breathe. “What do we do?”
“I was only able to get in here because the soldiers guarding this room were called away to protect the entrance,” she tells me. “But now we have a dead man in here with you and me. It won’t take a rocket scientist to figure out what’s happened.”
“Who saw you come in here?” I ask urgently.
“No one,” she replies. “I’m not watched like you are.”
“Okay,” I say. “Well—”