There is nothing but the tunnel of his eyes.
Somewhere, Lanlin is snarling, “If you dare, I will paint the walls of Sin Audience Chamber with your blood.”
“It is always blood with you. It was ever since you were a child,” Isis replies.
Then a voice echoes all around me, as if it’s inside my head.
I can’t escape it, and it’s so mesmerizing — a lure — that I fall into it.
I whimper.
The soothing voice is whispering to me that every dream I have had is now mine if only Ilisten.
If only I obey this Alpha.
Obey.
Obey.
“Who are youreally?” Horus’ smooth, compelling voice echoes around me.
The small thread of me that remains battles against the compulsion.
And the thought —he is doing this to Daire too— chills me with enough fear to fight.
We’re dead.
We’re so fucking dead.
“A fae who has lived too long,” Daire replies, as if he is a shadow of my own thought.
What the hell does he mean?
The compulsion is eating at me, a migraine throb behind my eyes. The words are bubbling up my throat against my will.
My tongue feels too large in my dry mouth.
I can’t keep them down. “A fucking survivor.”
I slump into the throne, breathing hard.
The compulsion is cut off with a scream.
Lanlin is holding Sobek bound in his shadow wings, as he struggles. Lanlin’s eyes are wild with fury. Shadow has Horus pinned down to the floor with her claws sunk into his leg.
Isis has dropped to her knees.
Only the High Priestess has stepped forward, weaving ribbons around herself threateningly.
Daire’s legs have buckled, and he’s collapsed to the ground. Yet he’s watching the chaos with a fierce grin.
When Lanlin flicks his wrist, Shadow sinks her teeth into Horus’ thigh.
He howls, “Mercy, brother.”
Yet Lanlin only flicks his wrist again.
Shadow savages Horus, between his legs this time, before picking him up and shaking him. Then she hurls Horus like a ragdoll against the chamber’s wall, painting it in blood just like Lanlin promised.
