Page 71 of Rise of the Queen

“I wouldn’t have it any other way,” Ivan said.

My dad turned me to face him, wrapping his arms around me. “We’ll see each other again soon, peanut. Lena wanted me to tell you ‘thank you.’ She finally got to talk to that cranky, stubborn bastard because of you,” he said, laughing.

“That makes me happy. He needed that. And thank you, Dad, for always being here to provide insight,” I said. I took a step back from him and everything faded to black. Ivan disappeared too, and I knew I was back to my own darkness. I could feel Adrik’s hand on my cheek, making my entire body feel warm enough again.“Mmm, there’s the warmth I love,”I thought before opening my eyes, to see him kneeling in front of me, a look of concern on his face. I assured him I was fine, apologizing for not realizing the time. “Your next meeting is waiting for you. He’s irritated that you’re late, for the record. Go. I’ll come downafter you’re done with this meeting and fill you in. Especially since you’re wondering how I knew that,” I said, grinning at him.

I had enough time for a quick shower before Adrik was done with his meetings for the day. I was deep in thought during my shower, thinking about everything I’d learned, along with everything that had happened lately. As I turned the water off, I heard Adrik’s voice very clearly in my head. He was wondering what I was thinking about; he could feel my emotions going crazy.

“Jesus, she’s all over the place,”he thought. Since I’d never seen it happen, I got out of the shower to see if my eyes were swirling. They were.Now I understand why he’s so mesmerized by this.The colors of my eyes were never still, never doing the same thing twice.

I tried to take a breath. I didn’t feel out of control, but Adrik was becoming even more sensitive to me lately, so clearly he was feeling everything I was feeling at the moment. Instead of continuing to stew over everything in my head, I decided to experiment on Ivan. He was still in the penthouse, along with the Wonder Twins and Stephen. I had no idea if it would work, but I tried to ask him a question while I was still in the bedroom getting ready.

“Do you think we should tell the others that you have a stronger connection with me or do you think they’ll be jealous?”I thought about asking Ivan the same way I got Adrik to hear my thoughts. I wasn’t sure if it would work, but I heard his answer shortly after.

“I think we should wait on that, princess. I also think we should wait on telling them this is a thing that’s happening now. I understand why Boss wanted to wait to tell everyone about your eyes. This is really fun.”

“We are in so much trouble, Squish.”

I walked down the hallway to the kitchen, laughing to myself about being able to talk to Ivan as well as Adrik. The guys were standing in the kitchen, waiting for me.

“You look better again, spider monkey,” Andrei said. “You got zapped worse this time, I think. I don’t know how you fight it. It sucks.”

“I think I’m getting used to it, so apparently it doesn’t feel as bad as it looks. It doesn’t feel as bad as the first time when Adrik and I both got zapped or when it happened with Misha. Those two were the worst,” I said, hugging his waist.

“The shitty part is that it only happens to us once and it happens to her all the time,” Misha said.

“It’s not that shitty, my adorable Russian guardian. It just makes me tired. It doesn’t kick my ass. And if that’s what it takes to help you guys, then I’ll gladly do it. Although, I have to say, you should all be jealous of Squish. It took him a really long time to get zapped. I didn’t even help him on this one. He just did it. He’s totally superhuman.”

“You got a new level?” Stephen asked.

Ivan nodded. “After you broke your sisters, it started happening. It went from being able to only see a person’s demon when they were completely consumed by it, or right before that happened, to now being able to see the demons all the time. Like I can see them riding around on people looking for ways to get in. It looks like some people have a pet demon riding around on their shoulder,” he said, trying not to laugh at his explanation.

“How do you keep a straight face,” Stephen asked, completely serious.

“It’s so hard, man. So hard.”

“We should go downstairs. Adrik’s meeting just left. His last meeting had to reschedule, so he’s free. We have much to discuss, gentlemen,” I said, grabbing Misha’s arm and walking toward the door.

Once we were on the elevator, Andrei asked, “You both were talking to your dad, weren’t you?”

I nodded my head. “I heard you in my head, but you disappeared quickly. Not sure if it was my doing or my dad’s doing. You saw us?” I asked.

“I could see the house and see you and Ivan standing inside talking to someone else, but I never saw him completely. I just figured it had to be him, since none of us could feel anything out of the ordinary from you. You felt like you normally do when you’re happily sleeping,” he said.

“That method of talking to me is much easier on you guys than the way Lena first came to me. She still feels bad about that, for the record. She’s still apologizing for it. She didn’t realize we were all so connected.”

As we walked into Adrik’s office, he was already looking at the door, like he was waiting on me to walk through it at that exact moment. I smiled to myself, knowing it’s because he was waiting on me. His expression softened immediately when he saw me. He stood up from his desk, closing the distance between us quickly.“I’ve missed you so much,”he thought as I felt his warm hands on my cheeks, pulling me closer to him. His lips pressed against mine. I felt the pull in my chest, showing me just how much he missed me. It only took a second and he lost the tiny bit of control he had. His lips parted, his tongue demanding entryinto my mouth. He devoured me with his kiss, his passion for me making my knees weak.

“You really did miss me,”I thought as he stepped back from me, pulling me with him toward one of the couches. He raised his eyebrow, looking at me with a surprised look on his face, but he didn’t say a word.“It’s our newest trick. I’ll tell you about it later, but keep it quiet for now. This one is special to you and Ivan.”He nodded discreetly as he sat down on the couch, pulling me into his lap.

“So, what valuable insight did your father have for us this time? And how did you both get to see him?” Adrik asked.

“I don’t know about that one. You’ll have to ask him, but he did say he was saving time by talking to both of us. He’s a very busy man,” I said, trying to sound very serious. It was very difficult to sound serious about aerial acrobatics training.

“Very busy,” Ivan said, snickering.

I took a deep breath and started to explain everything he’d told me and Ivan, leaving out the part where I could communicate with Ivan and Adrik telepathically. For now.

Before I told them about what needed to happen with Armando, I decided to show them how I came to that decision. “So, Bubba, you’re about to be really happy. My eyes did decide on a new color recently.”