But while we'd been fighting, Kyanite had been finding the perfect song. The jagged, thumping beat of Dead Posey's “Fire Burnin'” echoed around us. Meilen snarled when she heard the music, baring her teeth at me. I ignored her posturing; teeth don't intimidate me, not even dragon teeth. Instead, I started to sing about being untameable—a wild thing ready to burn down the world. My magic responded immediately, filling my words, but Meilen reached me before my spell could take shape. Her clawed hands slashed at my face. I ducked and punched her in the gut without missing a beat.
Meilen doubled over, toppling onto my back since I was still in the process of ducking, and damn was this dragon bitch heavy. It must be a shapeshifter thing. I had to angle out from beneath her so I could continue singing without grunting from the effort it would have taken to push her away. She stumbled but swung around to face me again.
“Your music won't save you,” she growled, her voice going deeper.
Shit, was she going to shift?
I reached the chorus, singing about striking a match and putting Hell to shame. But I didn't need a match. Now that I had some space between us, I could release magic. With the powerful lyrics, I straightened and flung out a hand, directing it at her. Yeah, the hand gesture was unnecessary but Meilen had chosen the worst time to attempt her assassination. I was already pissed off and wound up. I needed to vent and proper venting came with gestures.
So I vented.
Hell hath no fury as a woman scorned? Well, a woman scorned hath no fury like a stressed Spellsinger. Meilen shrieked as she was consumed by magical fire. Her hair went first; a blink and it was gone. Her skin took a little longer, bubbling before bursting. Meilen's cries finally alerted my guards, who exploded into the room, weapons drawn. Their arms fell limply to their sides when they saw the burning courtier. They gaped from her to me, but I continued to sing and Meilen continued to scream.
I didn't envy the guards their quandary. Faced with an outsider—who also happened to be their king's consort—killing one of the nobles of their court, they hesitated. They couldn't just stand there while I killed Meilen but they couldn't hurt me either so they compromised and cast their weapons aside before tackling me to the floor. My song stuttered to a stop and Meilen crumpled into a blackened heap. Frankly, I was a little amazed that she wasn't dead. She may be a dragon, but she was a water dragon, not fire. I expected her to be vulnerable to my flames but perhaps the Lóng were more resilient than I thought.
“She attacked me first!” I shouted at the men as they tried to restrain me.
They helped me to my feet but placed themselves firmly between Meilen and me. One of them started to speak but a tentacle wrapped around his neck and yanked him away before he could get a word out. As the remaining guard and I gaped in shock, the soldier smacked into a wall and tumbled to the floor, his neck broken.
I followed the retracting tentacle to Meilen's naked but healing body. Or half a body, rather. Meilen's torso—with its bald head and angry-red skin—flowed into thick tentacles, the tips curled beneath her to hold her upright. Her rapid healing wasn't all that shocking; it was entirely possible that Lóng could heal like that. However, the tentacles were troubling. Sure, there were tentacled women in Verin's court but Meilen wasn't one of them. So what was she? Orwhowas she? Then I heard the strangest sound and my suspicions were confirmed. Barking. I heard dogs barking.
The remaining guard ran forward as he started to shift, abandoning his human body for one a little more hardcore. Not that I blamed him because Meilen wasn't Meilen anymore. Her body transformed from the bottom up—oozing outward and upward out of the top of the tentacles. The dog heads appeared first, barking and snarling and chomping at the air. A bulging torso with flabby breasts ballooned above the doggy belt. From the center of its shoulders, a collection of snake necks branched out, supporting vicious, four-eyed, shark-toothed heads. In short, Meilen shifted into Scylla.
Scylla shot forward and upward, her tentacles stretching and snapping like rubber bands, and came down upon the transforming dragon. All six of her mouths opened wide as her heads circled the dragon's throat like a ghastly necklace. She struck, her teeth slicing past scales that hadn't fully formed yet, and chunks of dragon disappeared down her snake throats, causing those throats to bulge cartoonishly as they swallowed. The half-shifted guard fell to the floor, his body rippling back to human as blood gushed across the indigo stone and seeped into the rugs.
All of Scylla's mouths grinned and blood dripped from her lips.
But again, as Scylla had been distracted, Kyanite started a song and this time when I sang, I called uponallof my magic: Spellsong, Light, and Fire. I'd been learning to control my goddess magic and the most important lesson had been about balance. I needed to control my emotions and tap into all three magics harmoniously if I wanted to use them safely. If I sent Fire forth without Light and Spellsong going in equal measure, or if I used Light or Spellsong to magnify Fire and not merely support it, Fire would overpower them, burning me along with my target. It was a delicate balancing act but I was quickly learning to perfect it.
And I was done playing with this bitch.
This time, when I sang about burning so hot that I'd put Hell to shame, I really meant it. I infused my song with divine fire and light. I united the three magics inside me and sent them forth in a searing blast. A white-hot column of flames erupted around Scylla. Her eyes widened and she briefly screamed in pain. Briefly because I incinerated her. There was no healing that.
Scylla's body turned to ash and burst into dirty snowflakes just as Verin came running into the room. I released the song and my magic, quenching the fire without a problem. The music faded and the snowflakes settled. Verin's horrified gaze went from the bodies of his soldiers to the pile of ash that was once a Greek monster, then to me.
I turned toward him, panting, and grinned. “Hey, babe. I found Scylla.”
Chapter Twenty-Three
The bodies were carried away—or, in the case of Scylla, swept—and Verin's bedroom was cleaned but all of that was done while Verin and I were in a bath.
Verin sat in the huge, black tub behind me, his hands trailing a soapy sea sponge over my skin reverently. He'd already washed my hair and draped it over my shoulder so he could clean my back. He rinsed me off using a porcelain bowl—the whole thing feeling very ceremonial—then set the bowl aside and eased me back against his chest. He nuzzled his face against my cheek and started washing my breasts.
Verin had been fawning over me since we'd reached the privacy of the bathroom. No, that's not true exactly; he'd been fawning over me ever since he'd returned from the kitchen. Even as he'd barked commands at his soldiers and servants, he'd stroked me like a prized peregrine—hair, face, back, whatever he could reach. But once Verin had gotten me alone, he'd focused all of his attention on me. And I wasn't complaining. Hell, I'd fight Scylla all over again just to have him wash my hair.
“I should have known something was wrong when Meilen approached me,” Verin murmured against my skin.
“What's that?” I turned to look at him.
“When I left to get our dinner, Meilen tried to seduce me.”
“She what?!” I turned around fully.
“Well, it wasn't actually Meilen, it was Scylla.” Verin shuddered. “She coaxed me into a room under the premise of apologizing to me, then tried to kiss me. As I disentangled myself, she got more aggressive. I finally had to shove her away and command her to stop.”
“She used that excuse with my guards too—told them that she wanted to apologize to me,” I grumbled. “Scylla was really paying attention when she was Chan.”
Verin grunted and pulled me back against him. “I should have known it wasn't Meilen. She was notably strong, even for a Pú Láo. It took me several minutes to get away from her.”
