“Do you know what? I think I will.” I shove Savage off me and slide out of the car.
But before I do, I can’t help but notice the way Katerina keeps looking at her palm and frowning.
Chapter 18
Aurelia
The universe has strange ways of delivering justice.
I never intended to reveal the truth about Lorian. I didn’t actually know if another one of the monsters of our city would have treated him any better than The Collector. Everyone wants a unicorn, and now I can just imagine Katerina’s mental state. I hope they forget about me and go after her instead.
This is the main thing that’s on my mind as I launch myself into the sky. I’m keeping my mind busy so I don’t actually swing right back around to go and get my mates. I could have telekinetically whipped them up and launched into the air. I could have tried to test the stupid spell. I could have…
The list of things I trawl through is endless. The way Savage had been hurt by her. The way she might be hurting Scythe. Xander was fine, but he looked strained at the edges, and the glow in his eyes wasn’t as bright as it used to be. Somehow, that scares me. I might not have noticed in his astral form, but in person, he was weary.
She’s breaking them down.
My heart cracks through the middle, and I want to roar over the city. I want to set fire to it and destroy every inch. The plan needs to come together. Now.
It seems I haven’t learned certain lessons because it’s happened before—for someone to creep up on me when in flight. When I was distressed and deep in thought in what I’d assumed was freedom of the sky. Maybe someone had filmed me and put it online. Maybe they’d all been alerted as soon as I’d touched down. Because yes, they were waiting for me. And yes, they know my weaknesses.
Ten minutes after I leave the lights of the city and enter the dark of the outskirts, something sharp glances off my left hindquarter. I rear in midair, back flapping to find my assailant, my senses panning outwards. An Australian wedge-tailed eagle swoops away from me, then a second and third. They fly in and out, weaving around me like orchestrated flies.
Surely I can out-fly them. But out of nowhere, three helicopters zoom in from either side and behind me. Within them are felines with tourmaline chains, and?—
Gunners? They have military-gradegunnersriding in the open doors of the helicopters.
I have just enough time to notice the Naga sigil on the sides of them before I release an angry breath of fire. My father is banking on the fact that I’m not a monster. He’s banking on me being kind and generous and…sacrificial. But I’ve given up on being prey. I want blood on my hands, flesh in my mouth, and bones between my teeth. I won’t let them take me. I won’t let them touch me. Not anymore. They’ll learn that now.
Blue fire lights up the night, and male screams light up my ears. Something explodes in the engine of the first helicopter, and it pours smoke as it falls. But I have one mouth, and there are three flying machines. The second helicopter guns bulletsinto my rear, and it takes me a second to realise they’re going for mynewleg.
Pain in this leg triggers me anew. The electricity of it strikes my heart and mind and drives me wild. I flail, shooting blue in every direction. The smell of charred flesh hits my nose, but I don’t care. I spin in a circle, exhaling heat and death.
Bullets fly, and from beneath me, another helicopter roars into existence, so I turn my fire downwards. But pain is eating up my leg like a monster of its own, and it eats up the rage as well, turning me into a bubbling mess.
I scream into the smoke-filled sky. This body of mine. The beastly forms that have served me can’t face this pain again. The one that almost broke us. My body shifts without my permission, morphing, moving, changing. My eyes bleed, my vision turns hazy, and nothing so far, no form, has felt like this. That void that has been growing within me opens up wide, swallowing me whole.
The shriek of something inhuman fills my ears before shifting into something without a form at all. Everything disappears into the darkness. The stars blot out, and though I don’t have wings, Imove.Bullets fly right through me, metallic whizzes sounding in my ear before I move forward. My insides are screaming, my head is roaring, but I just move. To the nest. To the nest.
Somehow, the lights of Animus Academy appear on the horizon, but they look wavy as if distorted. Like I’m watching the world through a screen and not with my own naked eyes. There they are, twinkling like hazy jewels, and all of a sudden, they’re around me and I land tumbling upon the grass, finding my feet and sounding a call.
The ground vibrates, and a single human voice carries across the lawn. “Lia!” Beak cries in alarm.
I collapse on the spot, but he’s there, catching me and scooping me up, exclaiming when he finds my body sticky with blood. This pain is connected to only one form, and it’s because of that, that I have no choice but to shift into it. I hold on with all my might. “Water,” I choke out, gripping my thigh. “Under the anima dorm.”
Beak wastes no time, nor asks any questions as he sprints with me. I lie somehow limp and rigid at the same time, clenching every muscle with all my might to halt the beginning of the shift. My vision winks out, and all I know is the thudding of his feet and a gravelly voice that must be Christine, the door gargoyle who sits on the awning above the entry.
“Third floor,” I sob between clenched teeth. “Hurry.” But he’s already taking the steps three at a time, his breath heavy, his hands tight around me. Through the painting, I tell him. Down the winding stairs that make us both dizzy. “Throw me in,” I croak.
Of course he doesn’t listen, instead lowering me gently. But I shift as soon as I smell the salt water, and Beak, having never seen this form of mine before, shouts in alarm.
But I’m free. I’m still, and this form lets mebreathe.Water engulfs me perfectly, completely. Scythe was always right about this. Under the water is the only real peace. Though my voice is silent as the darkness, its cadence but a ripple in this canal underneath the academy that shelters me so lovingly, I know it sends out its signal across the sky.
They can harpoon me. They can shower me with bullets. They can even take my family away from me. But each time, I will rise again and again. They will know why I am regina of the Boneweaver pack. My line willnotend with me.
Chapter 19
Xander
