Her purr fell silent.
And there was a price.
As if from very far away, she heard Giaus snarl, released from her thrall. Felt him try to wrench her away as the prince’s clawed fist found an anchor at the base of her skull. Deadly points sinking in deep enough to score the bone, he held her there as she laid down a new mark.
A new claim.
The link in her chest writhed as if burned, yawning wide before it split her right down the middle.
Renegade whined in exquisite, blistering pain as she was torn apart.
Her pieces divided between the Anhur.
23
Silence.
It lasted only an instant. A single moment between the high, cooing purr spilling over Renegade’s lips, and what came next.
Sinadim tried to twist and slipped in a pool of his own blood. Too dazed to feel the life-ending beating, the strained ankle, or the sagging, dislocated shoulder, he blinked and chased away the sparkle of dark stars. Trembling as a puff of soft breath caressed his throat.
And he knew.
What was coming.
Salvation from the beast, surrender to the slave.
Death on either side.
There would be no mercy for the infected unworthy.
His only chance to survive the next minutes, in whatever capacity that might be.
It was welcome, this ending.
A desperate, bloody capitulation of everything he’d ever known. The death of a prince.
Sinadim’s eye flicked up, watery with pain. With everything else.
His chin tilted back.
An invitation and a denial.
Blind to both, Renegade struck. The imprint of blunt incisors slashed through his skin, and the claws of his working hand snapped to the back of her head. Held in a deadly cradle, he caught her there just as Giaus moved to tear her away.
A dainty snarl spattered against his nape and the female’s jaw locked around her mouthful of flesh.
Giaus roared, hands moving to pry her free before the damage went so much deeper than bone.
Clinging to consciousness, Sinadim’s claws found the base of that fragile skull. Did the only thing he could, laying there in a helpless puddle on the floor of a prison of his own making.
Piercing her scalp, he left marks on her skull. The point of one claw notched between the vertebrae an unspoken threat to sever her brain stem. And with a promise flickering in his eye, Sinadim met the rabid glare of a primal, frenzied male. Made sure Giaus heard the crunch of bone threatening to collapse under his grip.
“She won’t… feel a thing,” Sinadim rasped, slurring as he tried to shift and claim equal footing. To sit and meet Giaus’ fury without having to stare up into eyes gone black.
But his heel slipped, and with a vibrated warning, Renegade’s bite was driven deeper. Enough that her teeth caught and hooked at something vital, something that sent a shock through Sinadim’s muscle. Made him twitch once before his arm went dead where it hung from the socket. Useless and numb.
“Kill me,” Sinadim pressed, ignoring the injury to save his life, “and you’ll kill her too.”
