The Hidden Princess At All-Boys Alpha Academy novel Chapter 833

We all stand quietly for a long few moments before Elias turns to me.

“Ariel,” he says, his eyes meeting mine. “You need to run.”

My eyes widen as I turn them to him. “What?”

He shakes his head. “He wants your power, badly, and he’s making moves to take the throne, which means he thinks he can get it. If you gleaned any information from your ambassadors about how to get out of here, you need to use it. And go.”

My teeth clench and I step towards the pair. “I’m not leaving without you.”

“You have to,” Pippa says, shaking her head. “There’s no time to consider –“

“No,” I say, my voice firm. “I’ll find a way.”

“You need to consider what is possible, highness,” Elias says, falling back on formality I think to stress to me how important this is. “Not what you want. Pippa and I,” he looks down at her, giving a steady nod. “We’ll find our own way.”

She looks up at her Alpha with a great deal of faith.

But no, in this horrible world that’s just getting more and more unpredictable? I can’t leave them here – not with Gabriel in charge. Not…considering what Gabriel very likely knows about these two and their relationship.

Elias and Pippa leave my room soon after that, Elias wanting to know the details of the sham investigation into the Prince’s death, Pippa wanting a quiet moment to herself to process her grief. Because even if I never got the impression that Pippa was close to the Crown Prince in the same way that she was to Elias and Gabriel growing up, it was still a shocking death in the family.

I watch her go with worried eyes that drift to her stomach, knowing that she doesn’t need any more stress in her pregnancy. My heart aches for Pippa even as she shuts the door behind her.

When I’m alone I don’t bother to light any candles, instead preferring the dark. I move to my bed and flop down into the pillows and blankets, staring at the ceiling, wondering what the hell I’m going to do. Because it’s becoming increasingly clear that my mate is lost to Darkness and that he’s determined to take me with them.

Is there a way to navigate this, to trust my grandmother’s intuition - as well as my professor’s instructions - and access Gabriel’s magic without becoming corrupted by his bond with Darkness?

Or…would it be better to just cut and run?

He snaps his gaze down, picking up the little rectangular stone, grey and carved delicately with geometrical symbols. What…what the hell is this?

He lifts it in his palm to get a closer look and a voice softly echoes in his mind, making his wolf’s hair stand on end.

I have not done much for you, it says, tender and gentle – a woman’s voice. But this, I can do.

Jackson’s eyes fly wide as he stares at the item and his wolf whines, frightened and confused. Because he’s quite sure – quite sure in this moment – that he’s not just going insane with lack of sleep and hunger and stress. No, he’s been in worse stakeouts than this and survived just fine.

No, that voice – and this stone – they’re quite real.

But who the hell did it?