Scythe’s eyes search mine as this new information registers, but he never hesitates. “Children pay for the choices of the adults around them. It’s not fair, regina, but it’s the truth.”
I look into his ice-chip eyes and sigh, thinking about the choices that had been made for me. A choice that tore my heart into five pieces. “I want to kill my father, Scythe.”
He nods, his hands sliding down my arms to hold my hands. Lyle’s shadow, his hair unbound, his wild eyes wrangled into tame irises, steps next to us. “That is a burden you’ll carry for the rest of your life, regina. Are you sure you want that?”
I glance at Scythe and Savage, then at Xander, who stares at me with something burning in his gaze. I look back at Lyle. “Not a burden,” I say with lethal softness. “A privilege. A right. The fulfilment of a vow I made in my mother’s name.”
“You want your pack to be complete, regina,” Lyle says. “That is your right too. We just don’t know how possible that is.”
“We don’t know much about basilisks,” I say carefully. “I need more information, and the source isn’t giving us much.”
“I’ll try the old Drakos library,” Xander says. “I want to see my family anyway. I can check if Selene knows anything.”
“Thank you.” Selene is a wealth of knowledge, having spent so much of her adult years in the dusty archives under Drakos Estate. She’d been a great comfort to me when I’d been alone.
“And I’ll help you check the academy texts tomorrow,” Lyle says.
I turn north, looking over the dark school grounds and the bushland beyond. My hand finds the stone again, a strange expansive sense travelling up from my fingers and spreading through my hands. A bid for attention. “I feel the academy. I feel like it’s trying to tell me something.”
Savage appears next to me, pressing an ear to the stone next to my hand. “What’s it saying?”
I feel it out, trying to parse the sense of imbalance. “It sounds like a warning.”
Once the adrenaline wears off and I get cold, everyone follows me back inside. This time, I crawl next to Xander, who carefully puts his arm around me and fills my legs with his healing power. It’s still new, being this close to him, but his power is so familiar and calming that I nestle into it. I think it’s new for him too, because he doesn’t melt into me the way my other mates do. He still…holds himself. As if he’s worried he might hurt me in his sleep and needs to watch me breathe.
Chapter 55
Scythe
The mornings feel heavier these days. When Aurelia doesn’t sleep, I don’t sleep either, and neither of these things is good for the pack. My regina puts on a brave face, fuelled by her need to learn about her most mysterious mate. Sharks are creatures familiar with the darkness, but basilisksarethe dark, and Ghoul revels in the ancient powers he was gifted. Or cursed with.
Rufus is thorough with his morning run-down of operations. I’d culled much of my business a few months ago before my planned departure, but my enterprises are as robust as ever. There have been no further moves on my property. The other crime lords are all lying low after Mace’s sudden elevation and Tiberius Clawson’s demotion. It was a shock to everyone, even Marduk and Yeti. It’s for this reason that I seek out a meeting with the Devi pack this morning.
Marduk greets me in his suite with a tumbler of apple juice. “Looks like whiskey, shark-friend,” he says. “But without my regina’s disapproval.”
“Thank you, Marduk,” I say, accepting the glass. He waves me over to a seat at their rounded wooden dining table, whereMinnie sits with a mug of what smells like chamomile and honey tea, her orange nimpin Gertie on one shoulder. She’s nervous, and I don’t blame her one bit.
“Good morning, Scythe,” she says in a happy voice. “Lia is occupied in the library this morning.”
“So she is,” I say conversationally, sitting down opposite her. “There’s a lot on her mind lately.”
“Hence our covert operations.”
“I do not hide anything from my regina,” I reassure her. “But today’s events concern the Devi pack.”
Minnie nods. “I’ve been avoiding my parent’s questions.” Yeti places a hand on his regina’s shoulder in moral support and she covers his hand gratefully.
“I think that is wise,” I say. “But hopefully not necessary for much longer.” She audibly swallows. Finally, I ask the question. “Are you ready, Minnie?”
Something comes over the little tigress’ eyes. Something I’ve never seen from her before. I’d seen her the day Titus broke her bond and the way she’d come out of it. I’d seen her stop an entire unit of military bullets with just a thought. But this is something new. It’s dark and still, like the surface of an ancient lake that hides danger beneath. Suddenly, I understand why this is Marduk and Yeti’s regina. Why she ismyregina’s best friend.
Because I can only describe this look as frightening.
“Yes, Scythe. I’m ready.”
Chapter 56
Aurelia
