By the time we arrive back at the compound, I know something is different. Savage has been whining low in his throat against Lyle’s neck. And even growling, Lyle has his arm around our wolf brother, his hard gaze on the back of the driver’s seat where The Collector sits, her foot hard on the pedal. I’m in dragon form, flying above the convoy as commanded.
I bet he doesn’t even know why he hates her. The spell is strong enough that it’s pulling at their psyche, but there’s a layer under that it can’t reach. Something soul-deep is telling Lyle he’s in his enemy’s domain. Scythe is cold in his seat, but there is a new rigidness to him that I observe as I fly low next to the road, at a deep enough angle that I can see him clearly. There is a crack in his dark aura now, something like light spilling out of it.
I wonder if there is a time limit on this curse. I wonder if it’s wearing off.
My regina’s bone is one of the strongest magical objects on the planet, most surely, and the way they’ve wielded it against her screams of injustice. Claws tear at my chest as I think about her, hoping she got home alive. From Katerina’s discussions with Mace, I know someone came after her in the sky. Some planhad been set in motion. I strained my ears as we left, using all my senses to locate her. Perhaps she stayed close to see the after effects of her display?
But there was nothing to pick up. No gunfire. No roar in the night. I thought perhaps I’d felt something deep in my chest, but there was nothing out in the sky to back it up. Grimacing, we’d left in the opposite direction to the academy.
About half an hour out from the property, Katerina gets a text message that makes her slam the steering wheel multiple times. She swears loudly, and I try to use my enhanced sight to catch a glimpse of the text, but even for me, it’s too small.
But I know what it means. Whatever plan she’d set up hadn’t worked.
My smart, brilliant, regina. Elated, I gain some height, planning on reaching the compound before them.
There is extra security in The Collector’s domain tonight, all claws on deck with enough armour and firepower to make the place look like a military base. The grunts have the audacity to aim their piddly anti-air force weapons at me as if I’ll try something upon landing. Fortunately for them, my brothers are in the Jeep speeding through the front gates, so I won’t be able to have any fire parties with them.
Katerina screeches to a stop, leaping out to speak with her head of security, a red roo, six foot six, and tanked with muscle. They both glance at me as I shift back and stalk over to check on Savage.
He growls under his breath the entire time we’re put back in our sleeping positions. This time, I squeeze my way into Lyle andSavage’s cage, concerned about the mental states of both. If they shred me in their sleep, so be it.
Both end up shifting back through the night, but neither ends up attacking me. They just sleep against each other as I watch over them and make sure Katerina’s ongoing cooed commands over Scythe bear no fruit for her.
I wait for Aurelia to call me back into the astral realm, but to my utter and eternal dismay, she does not.
When the morning light spills through the small, high windows of her bedroom, Katerina lets us out to wash. It’s then that I notice her hand is bandaged. Herrighthand.
Delicately sniffing the air when she turns around, I notice a faint scent of…something delightful. Something bitter and sharp that makes me happy beyond compare.
The morning progresses as usual. She makes Scythe and I kneel by her side as she eats breakfast, feeding us morsels when she feels benevolent. But I must be in her bad books from last night’s slip up, so bits of omelette get thrown in my direction onto the floor, where she has me lean down and lick up the piece like a dog.
She brings us around as she does her checks and has meetings with her avian breeding staff—the healers and scientists she uses to monitor her so-called programs. Connor gets his blood taken, eyeing me with alarm. One of the guards was showing him something on his phone.
“See anything from last night after Aurelia left the Jewel?”I ask into his head.
He can’t reply, so he gives an imperceptible shrug, his eyes wide, which probably means everyone’s seen footage from insidethe Jewel when Aurelia arrived but nothing more than that. There were a lot of beasts in there who had their phones out, so I knew the entire meeting would end up online. It annoys me I’m not there to scrub it for Aurelia.
I’m placated by the way Katerina scratches her hand. I’m further placated when I see a faint line of red creeping up above the bandage. It oozes blood.
“Oh dear, regina,” I drawl, swallowing bile as I use that word on her. “I think you’d better get that checked. Smells like it’s festering.”
Her head snaps towards me. “Does it?” She sniffs her own arm, frowning. “I only smell…” She snaps her mouth shut before she acknowledges what this actually is and gets out her phone, walking away from me.
Mace himself arrives that evening. I’m not in the room when he visits, but Connor gives me the gossip the next day. “Mace walks in, right? And he says, ‘show me!’ Lady Katerina unravels the bandage, which is up to her elbow by now, and Mace literally takes a step away from her! Can you imagine! His nose crinkles like he’s smelling something gross. ‘Your skin is breaking down. How did this happen?’ Lady Katerina is all sweaty, and she snarls, ‘You’re supposed to tell me, it was your fucking daughter!’ Mace raises his brow, right? Like, all dramatic, and I couldn’t breathe, like, at all, but then he says to General Ghoul, ‘pull up the footage.’ They watch the video of the meeting and then Ghoul points, ‘there it is. She’s cut her thumb with her fang.’ Everyone in the room goes quiet, except Ghoul, because you know how he is. ‘And then she drew a sigil on her palm. When you took her hand, she placed the curse on you!’ and the bastard laughs all crazy!”
Connor slumps against the wall, running his fingers through his long black hair. “Aurelia did something to Lady Katerina’s hand. They’re trying to figure out how to undo it now.”
I want to beam. I want to sing.
I want to sing? Wild Goddess, I’m finally going insane. But my regina,myregina, has found a way to break the impenetrable skin of the lady crocodile.
She’s created a weakness The Collector never had before.
Chapter 20
Aurelia
Ihave no way of knowing how many days it takes me to recover at the bottom of the canal, but at some stage, I feel a pull to look upwards and see the light with the rudimentary eyes at the end of each starfish arm. To see my friends. The ache in that leg of mine is soothed. I flex and stretch it out and find it to be strong.
