“I’m at my bungalow,”I rasp, clutching my broken heart.“Come quickly.”
The dry grass crunches under my feet as I stumble across it towards Aunt Charlotte’s old house. I wonder where my little cousins are because this house looks long abandoned. The daylight stings my eyes as I hurry into the shade of the house, but another set of feet, too light to be Scythe’s or Xander’s, crunch over the grass just ahead.
A female serpent in military uniform raises her gun, pointing it at my face. I squint at her. Dark hair, a pale, angry face.
“Natalia?” I rasp. “Is that you?” Three male serpents in the same uniform rush up from behind her, swinging their guns up, aiming them at my sorry ass.
“Hold!” Natalia shouts. Her finger hovers over the trigger, and then I notice the black mark on her hand. I’d seen it before: a cursive B. I couldn’t guess what it meant before, but I can guess now.
“Captain, shoot her,” one of the males behind her says. The others growl in assent.
“I saidhold,” she snaps at them, not taking her eyes off me.
“You’rehismate,” she says accusingly.
“I’m his regina,” I hiss back. Of course they’d all seen the video. All recognised me despite my attention to the disguise.
They all bristle in surprise. Natalia even takes a step back, despite her gun and training, her eyes widening. “We should have fucking known,” she mutters. “Who else could match his power?” The others curse under their breaths. I notice they have black marks on their hands as well. “I haven’t forgotten that you saved me from your mates,” she grits out.
My brows can’t help but rise. “They were wrong to do that,” I say darkly, remembering the time Scythe, Savage and Xander held Natalia captive and tortured her in our suite. That was after Natalia and her cronies had jumped me and tried to cut off my mating mark, but still. She was just a girl, like me. At the time, anyway. Natalia grimaces at the memory, glancing over my shoulder at the bungalow behind me.
“She’s probably been giving him her venom!” One of the soldiers snarls. “She’s probably controlling him!”
“What?” I say vaguely. “How would—” It hits me then. How Ghoul has been demanding my venom. Since Drakos Estate he’s been drinking from me. Does that mean he’s been?—“
“She’s not a basilisk,” Natalia says. “She’s a Boneweaver, her venom can’t work the same.”
I stare at Natalia for a moment. They haven’t seen footage of our fight yet. “He’s injured in there,” I say quickly. “You’d better go help him.”
Her dark eyes flick to me again. She assesses me and seems to make a decision, lowering her gun. “Stand down.”
“What the fuck—” the males begin, but she puts up a fist and they shut up. “She fucking saved me when she didn’t have to. We owe her. Let her go.”
“Thanks,” I say, rubbing my neck.
“You’re different from the girl I remember,” she says, continuing on past me. “Get the fuck out of here, Boneweaver.”
I don’t need to be told twice.
Chapter 81
Savage
“There, there, sweet baby,” I coo at Toastie. He’s the wombat joey I was taking care of as ordered by the council all the way back when Damien Agnis tried to be headmaster of the academy. That didn’t last long, and neither did my moment as father to Toastie, but I do miss him. Lyle decided that since I might cause trouble while I waited for my regina, I might as well help Zookeeper Rick with the pups.
“You’re doing a great job, Savage,” Rick says, chuckling as Toastie guzzles down his bottle. It has a really long teat on it, and I wonder if mummy wombat nipples are that long too. Seems a bit dangerous if you ask me.
“I got really good at it, Rick!” I say. “Also, I look after my regina really well, so that’s given me a lot of important skills, you know.”
“I bet it has,” he says, nodding while he puts a kangaroo joey back into his pouch to sleep. “Reginas can be a right handful.”
“Not mine,” I say proudly, handing Toastie back to him. “She’s so perfect.”
He nods like he knows what I mean. “All creatures are perfect in their own way.”
“Except Titus,” I say quickly. “He needed to die forsure.”
Zookeeper Rick tries to think of something to say, but honestly, it’s better not to say anything at all in situations like this. I’m about to tell him so when I feelheras she crosses the boundary into the academy.
