‘If we’re to have her starting groundwork by the end of the week, she must be halteredtoday.’
Ezer looked down at the pile of black chains. It was like a halter for a horse, though much larger, and certainly stronger.
She hoped.
She’d never haltered anything before, but she’d seen it done. She didn’t think it could be all that difficult: just lacing it through Six’s beak, while avoiding her swiping paws and razor-sharp claws, and …
‘How in the hell,’ Ezer asked, as she lifted the chain-link halter, grunting beneath its heavy weight, ‘am I supposed to do this?’
The prince only shrugged and sat down on his stool like he was ready to witness a show. ‘That sounds like a ‘youproblem’ to me.’
It very muchwasa problem. But it wasn’t Ezer’s.
It was Six’s.
The moment Ezer laced the halter over a shoulder and inched her way towards the raphon, something seemed to shift in the air.
‘Just ease it over,’ Kinlear said from outside.
‘I’ve got it,’ Ezer said as she adjusted her grip on the heavy chain-link.
Six turned and watched her with wary eyes. But she did not move to harm Ezer.
She didn’t even blink.
‘All right.’ Ezer kept her voice low. ‘Here we are, Six. Nice and easy.’
She held out the halter, the chains clinking at the motion.
‘Ezer,’ said the wind, a whisper that reminded her of a disappointed sigh. ‘No.’
And that was all it took.
Six screeched, her eyes going wild.
Ezer tried to move out of the way, but the beast leapt to her feet, her wings snapping out so fast that Ezer couldn’t avoid the hit.
And then she was in the air, thrown backwards from the impact.
Ezer landed with a bone-splitting crash against the water trough at the other end of the cell. Which promptly spilled on top of her, soaking her to the bone. She came up sputtering, gasping – so cold, that for a moment, she thought Six had broken her ribs. She thought she couldn’t breathe.
‘Ezer!’
A blink, and she came back to her senses.
‘Are you all right?’
Kinlear’s voice called out to her from the other side of the bars.
‘I’m … I’m fine,’ she gasped, as she sat up to find the raphon back inher curled-up position again. ‘Coward!’ she yelled. ‘You’re three times the size of me. Howdareyou?—’
But then she realized what she’d held in her hands, what she’d carried towards the beast.
And it seemed topopinto her senses, like a rubber band snapping into place.
Her stomach dropped to her toes, regret filling her.
Because … Six’s ankles were already bound in chains. She stared at them, the deep black shackles that were so like her own, the heavy bolts in the stones that the raphon was connected to, and it broke her.
