Savage puts his finger in the air like he’s in class at the academy. “ButI’dlike to know!”
Our regina finally turns back to look at us. “Has everyone moved their bowels today?”
Xander chokes on air before throwing himself down on the couch and flicking on the TV. “That’s none of your damn business, Aurelia.”
“Everything is my business now,” she snaps back. “If you need a laxative, you have to let me know now, because we can have it delivered. There are lots of different types.”
Savage grins at me. It seems our regina’s avian preference has had an effect on her treasure haze. The four of us males watch her as she paces back and forth before the front door. She seems to be debating something within herself, chewing on her bottom lip as she comes to some sort of conclusion.
To my great dismay, she heads to the kitchen and selects the biggest knife from the wooden block next to the stove. Then she takes it and heads back to the front door, where she sits cross-legged on the floor before it. We all immediately pursue our regina. Savage sits in front of her, causing her to grumble, climb over him, and seat herself between him and the door as if protecting him.
“Regina,” Savage says slowly, leaning forward to try to get eye contact. “Why do you have a knife in your sweet paw?”
Aurelia growls at the front door as if there’s an enemy right behind it. “I have it so I don’t scare the humans.”
We wait for her to elaborate, and she huffs impatiently, waving the knife in the air. “If it’s an animalia, I can shift to fight them. But if it’s a human, my shifting will scare them, so a knife makes more sense. There are humans on the levels beneath us.”
Savage nods. “Oh, that makes a lot of sense now.”
Aurelia guards the door the entire day, leaving only when she needs to use the bathroom. By the time the sun starts to set, she gathers us by the door and we prepare to leave.
Chapter 41
Scythe
Riding back to Animus Academy on Lia’s back is something I never imagined I’d be doing. I am well practised at riding Xander, but when he suggested he bear us, Lia glared at him like she was going to lash her teeth around his throat.
“Over my dead body,” she snarled.
It made the rest of us snarl to hear her talk that way, instinctively gathering around her. She looked us each in the eye with such determination, then began to shift. We’d all had to sprint to the corners of the apartment roof to avoid her massive blue limbs. Savage was the first to recover, as he often is, treating this like it’s some great game and climbed up her body with enthusiasm, seating himself in shotgun position.
Lyle pats Aurelia’s foreleg before levitating himself up onto her back. I glance at Xander, who holds Katerina’s head in a plastic bag hanging from one hand.
“Is it strange riding another dragon?”I ask, heading towards her hind leg.
“Yes, it’s pretty fucking weird,”he replies.“You go on.”
Katerina’s head soars through the air, and Lia raises her forepaw to receive it in her massive grip. I bear climb up myregina’s hind leg, hand over hand, until I’m on her flank, at which point I walk down her spine and settle behind Lyle. Her scales are pleasantly warm under me, and it’s reassuring to feel that through my trousers. It’s the only type of warmth I crave these days. The only type of touch I want.
Compared to the touch of The Collector, which had filled me with such…poison. The Wild Goddess knows the type of toxicity that would have plagued me had she gotten her way with me. Deep instinct tells me she didn’t. So when Xander pulled me aside last night, with a quiet voice and earnestness in his eyes, a part of me had already known.
“I didn’t let her, Scythe,” he’d said, gaze flicking down to the floor. “I stayed awake and made sure you wouldn’t do what she was asking. Connor didn’t fasten my shackles properly, so we have to thank him for that when I see him next.”
“Thank you, brother,” was all I’d been capable of saying. How could I have said more, when the very thing I’d hated him for had been the thing to save me? It was only the severance of his bond that led him to have a clear mind while under the spell. The Wild Goddess was more likely to be a twisted, laughing crone ifthisis the type of fate she deals out.
Lia’s power now envelops us in a bubble of warmth just before she launches into the night air. A moment later, a black dragon joins us in the sky, flying low, directly under us as if protecting Aurelia’s underside from those below.
Earlier today, Rufus informed me of the goings-on in my absence, including the ambush Aurelia received after leaving the Jewel of the Jungle and the way she’d destroyed multiple council helicopters.
My regina has grown. She has matured into a full-grown Boneweaver, and now the world knows what she’s capable of.
In just the same way, her sire’s plans are also maturing. His investments are claiming full interest. Mace Nagaisthe councilnow. He can wield full political power and has been steadily using it against us. The loss of my cleaning businesses is a heavy blow, but nothing we can’t recover from. I’d built my enterprise to be resilient in that way. But one thing is now clear, Mace is getting bolder.
Last night, there was a council raid of warehouses owned by some other underworld crime lords. It had appeared on human news as a great success by Mace. Some propaganda about cleaning up the corrupt animalia community. This had been his end goal all along. A way to get the serpents’ full power over the other orders he’d perceived as their enemies.
He’d not forgotten the Great Serpent Purge of 1970. Not forgiven the council and all those in it who had persecuted his people for their powers. Who had marked their faces for carrying venom and executed all feral serpent families. But what does Mace intend to do with all that power? How is he going to exact his revenge?
Marduk reports that he and his pack, along with the other animas are back at the academy, except for Connor who has taken the rest of Katerina’s captives to safety in the accommodations I’ve provided. I’ve utilised my contacts from the Lily Institute to send them the staff to ensure their proper medical and psychological treatment. This is important to me because it’s important to my regina. Marduk also has a captive with him by way of Stacey’s newfound rex. This news, while inconvenient, might come in use.
