“We have lost what little time we might have had. He’ll make a move sooner rather than later.”
I look up into my shark’s eyes. “What should we do?”
“Prepare for the worst. I will double the guard on the wall tonight, and we need to send the students home.”
“What?” My voice is sharp. “Why?”
Scythe inhales through his nose as if steeling himself to tell me. “He will come for the five of us, regina, and he will tear down the academy to do it. Especially now that he knows about the portal.”
The portal.I say every curse word I know, running my hand through my tangled hair.
“Regina.”Xander’s voice is a fire whip in my mind. “We’ve got this. We’ve got you.”
My mates. He is coming after my mates, once and for all, with the ultimate weapon. A weapon we cannot destroy. A weapon who asked me to execute him. Nausea roils in my stomach, and it’s too much. Suddenly, I double over, heaving onto the grass. Lyle and Scythe steady me, pushing my hair back and rubbing my spine. My body trembles with adrenaline and inner pain. Could I kill one mate to save the rest of us? To save everyone? There has to be another way.
“I need to fly,” I blurt out before stumbling to the side and shifting into my eagle form. Cutting through the sky, I let the upper currents of the world take me where it wills in a lap around the academy, the ground fading away, my beak a guiding arrow. Cold and fresh, the roar of the air fills my head, pushing out everything else.
My father knows we’re aware of his plans. He knows about the portal. This will push him into action. I had decided, when my mates were taken, that I was done acting on the defensive. I am the night’s greatest predator, and I won’t stop my winning streak now when things are at their most dire. Etienne thought he could share our secrets? Well, fuck him.
“I will be back,” I tell my mates, not asking for permission, only letting them know out of respect. I fly back into our suite to shove some things into a backpack before heading out onto the roof, where I shift into an even bigger bird. My wings stretch out, red edged with blue, long plumage as my crown. I trackmy father in the same way I once tracked my mother—in my phoenix form, where the bond of parent to child always exists, whether we want it to or not.
Through the night I fly, over arid soil and bushland, over suburbia and tall apartments. To my surprise, the grey, sickly thread does not lead me to Naga House or a university where he’s putting on another dramatic performance. Instead, I am led to a part of the outer city where I’ve never needed to go. It’s a long, double-story colonial building, all clean lines and white and gold paint, with freshly cut lawns and professional humans walking out with bags and briefcases.
I eighth shield myself before I land on the pavement, quickly dressing. I’ve chosen appropriate clothing to meet with a crime lord: a white blouse and a navy-blue pantsuit. Heck, I’m getting used to this. I tie my hair back in a high bun and smooth down the stray hairs, then step into black heels. This is clothing my father recognises. It’s something he respects.
With my invisibility shield still on, I stride into the building and right around the metal detectors where two uniformed human guards stand, tracking my father through the carpeted hallways of offices and function rooms of the state parliament house.
A sign points me to theLegislative Council Chambers,and I don’t have to open the door because a bunch of old white men do it for me, marching out, excitedly talking to each other and pointing at papers. It gives me a shiver, but I press myself against the wall, keen not to show my hand just yet.
As soon as there’s a gap in the stream of people, I hurry inside, my heels muffled on plush, wine-coloured carpet. Everything in the circular chamber is red—the carpet, the rows of chairs, the tables. But that’s not what makes my skin crawl. It’s the fact that my father, the tallest in the room, is in its centre, standing next to a man and woman in official black councilrobes, talking quietly. As the room empties of humans, I make my way down a set of stairs to them, resisting the urge to rub my arms at the smell of official government business in the air.
I’m watching my father’s dreams come true. I also watch him see me. His black eyes flick over the shoulder of the shorter man, before flicking back. His thermal sensors are no doubt honed strong because he’s on high alert for any retaliation from other crime lords, because I’m sure that whatever legislation he’s putting through here will cause a riot amongst the animalia population.
The human senators mention something about a dinner, but Mace Naga raises his voice just a little. “Most certainly. I will join you shortly.” He gives them a thin smile that makes me raise my brows, and the two humans gather their things and make for the stairs that lead out of the room.
My father makes a show of gathering his own briefcase, his back turned towards me. Once the door closes, we are alone. Mace Naga inhales deeply, his head tilted upwards as he looks around at the ornate room. I drop my invisibility. “So you finally summoned the courage to come and see me,” my father says without turning around, showing me his back as if I am no threat. No enemy of worth. “It was only a matter of time.” He turns, eyes fixed on me like a predator assessing its prey. “How are you, Aurelia?”
“You have never cared for me.” I keep my voice light. “There’s no need to pretend now, Father.” Even now, my heart pounds to face him. To be in a room alone with him. I can’t count the number of times in the last ten years that we’ve faced each other like this without an audience. With nothing but cold menace between us. I’ve always known he was capable of great evil, but now I’ve seen it with my own eyes. “I see you finally lied and cursed your way to parliament.”
There is no emotion in his grey expression, only acute observation that would make any creature want to shrivel.Idon’t. I withstand the judgement. “You think you have claimed your own position at Animus Academy. With four mates, at that.”
“After you so vehemently told me that they and everyone else would kill me.”
“Advice you should have heeded. You will die at the end of this path, Aurelia.” The artificial lights overhead do nothing to soften his appearance. They only serve to make him look harsher, more powerful. Somehow, he even has the lighting working in his favour.
“I never fathomed my own father would be my enemy. That he would be responsible for the end of my mother.”
“There were things more important than you and your mother, though neither of you are capable of understanding that.”
I scoff in disgust to disguise the rage. “This discussion is pointless.”
“Nothing I do is pointless, Aurelia. You of all people should know that.”
“Indeed, you’re not above using child soldiers. There is no lower gutter to sink into.”
His lips twitch as if he finds this amusing. He raises his hand, the shadow of his cobra curled around his arm in a spiral showing, its head rearing up to bare his fangs at me. “How little you know.”
That swelling rage rises to a zenith in my blood. Over and over, he underestimates me. But…he knows thatweknow about his plans. Is he trying to make out that there are things still hidden? But that comment about my mother and I not mattering to him still stings like a slap. It’s a wound I’ve never quite gottenrid of— how quickly he discarded me as if I never mattered to my family at all.
