Whatever spell the old witch used to bind us to The Collector is powerful, but my brothers are the strongest beasts I know.
Lyle is out of action in one of the elephant-grade vehicles, shot in both knees and shoulders, then suffocated until he passed out. She’d known his rabid lion might be a problem and came ready with obsidian bullets. She doesn’t know that Lia is the only one who can tame the feline. What is she going to do when he wakes up?
Scythe stands stock still next to Katerina. His shark teeth are out, black eyes swallowing the whites, but he is eerily still. Great-white-shark-still as he was commanded by our new master.
I surmise that it’s some type of aquatic freeze on his psyche. He’s ‘gone cold’,as we call it, and while he can be violent in this state, it’s calculated. Right now, he seems to await instruction from his new regina.
My stomach twists at the thought, a sudden roaring echoing in my head. The witch’s spell has affected me too, but its hold is weak. I feel the need to obey the crocodile, but with a little effort, I’ve found that I don’thaveto. I just have to maintain the ruse of obedience.
I raise my hand to my new mark, and all I know is the sick feeling of watching Aurelia in her blue dragon form fly away from me, confusion, rage and fear shattering her sapphire eyes. She’s probably thinking she’s all alone. That she’s been abandoned once again. I hope Minnie will stop her from coming after us claws first, but it’s a blessing they got her out of here at all.
Tonight, Lia will sleep alone. She will fret. She might cry?—
The thought of her crying makes my fists clench. She’s been through enough and has never been broken by it. But…she doesn’t have any of us now. In the history of royal fuckups, this is perhaps our worst. Second only to the devastation at the Lily Institute.
I never saw it coming.
Savage finally falls with a thud, drawing my attention back to the chaos. Satisfied, The Collector turns around and jerks her chin at me. “I want him in obsidian. I don’t trust him as far as I can throw him.”
I barely suppress a growl at the thought of losing my powers, but I feel the urge to oblige her, and I give in to it. “As you say, regina.”
Actual vomit surges up my throat. Usurper, charlatan, swamp-fucker, would all be more appropriate titles for her. The only thing this creature deserves is the same fate as my own father: being ripped apart, piece by piece.
Katerina raises her brows but says nothing, turning away to Scythe and stroking a finger down the square of his jaw.
As the kangaroo shifter guards cautiously approach me with the heavy black chains, I stick my arms out and stare across the estate grounds at what remains of my father. His corpse lies in the grass, the heat still steaming in curls from his lifeless, wingless, heartless body.
The one good thing about tonight is that my mother got the vengeance she deserved. I can hear her shuffling around in my sister’s room on the top floor of Drakos estate, her injuries still bleeding. I know Selena has been watching this scene with bated breath. I know the hatchlings are bundled up in blankets, set far away from the windows where their grandmother guards over them.
I let them wind the chains around my wrists, and it’s then that I note the familiar, unusual scent. Connor avoids my eyes as he helps secure the chains in place. He wears a silver collar around his neck now, having signed his contract with The Collector a few months ago. I pretend not to notice when he clangs around a solid black padlock.
He makes a fuss of fixing the lock in place before stepping away and handing the key to Katerina.
But the magic that is supposed to snuff out my magic does not activate. Connor hasn’t locked it properly.
Trying not to smirk, I snuff out my own eyes. The golden orbs of light that give me vision wink out, and my world is plunged into the unforgiving dark. My ears take over, picking up every forsaken sound in my vicinity.
“So beautiful,” The Collector coos at what I’m guessing is Scythe’s cold face. “And all mine.” I can hear the manic glee in her voice and the curve of her smirk. A wave of hate barrels through me. She turns to her guards, snakeskin heels wrenched out of the pristine turf as she saunters towards the convoy of vehicles. “Let’s move out.”
I heave myself to my feet as Savage is dragged, his breathing even and heavy in sedation, into his own vehicle. Naturally, I choose the one The Collector is climbing into, while the hyena matriarch groans to standing, the joints in her old knees popping and cracking.
She huffs in my direction. “The Wild Goddess has never loved you, has she, boy?” she croaks. “What did you do? Stab her in the back in a past life?” Cackling at her own joke, she turns to take her seat.
“That wasn’t me,” I mutter. “All I ever did was curse her name.”
“That’ll do it,” she pipes. “A woman scorned is…”
“A womanout for revenge,” The Collector snickers.
I say nothing as I climb into the back seat of their Jeep and turn my head eastward, in the direction of my regina.
Chapter 3
Aurelia
Iprowl in my room, from end to end, all night. A pair of Savage’s track pants and Lyle’s T-shirt cover my body and I don’t want to shower because that’ll wash their scents off me. One of Scythe’s business shirts is clutched to my chest so that every time I inhale, I get a lungful of their combined scents.
It’s the only thing that calms my rage and the blind urge to charge into the night, towards The Collector’s property and wrench my soul-pieces back. My new leg aches dully at first, but as the first rays of dawn pierce the window, I blink in frustration against the lightning bolts charging down my thigh.
