Not them!I screamed in the shared headspace, fighting the wave of sadistic pleasure radiating from the beast. It was intoxicating, a rush of dopamine triggered by the kill. I felt sick, my human stomach turning even as the creature’s maw salivated.Go to the center! The Woman in White!
Meat everywhere,the Skal argued, distracted by a Keeper trying to keep it at bay with fire. It absorbed the heat, shaking it off like water, and snapped the Keeper in half.Abundance.
"No!" I gasped aloud in the tunnel, my physical body sagging against Kaelen.
"Aria?" Kaelen’s voice was tight with worry. "What's happening?"
"It’s... it’s too much," I whispered, my eyes squeezed shut. "It won't listen. It’s just killing everything."
Focus!I slammed my will against the Skal’s mind, using the golden chaotic mark I had branded onto its soul.Obey me!
The leash snapped taut. The Skal roared, a sound of frustration, but it turned. It ignored the scrambling cultists, ignoring the easy prey, and swiveled its triad of eyes toward the center of the room.
Toward Marissa.
She hadn't moved.
While her followers were being dismantled, while blood painted the walls and screams filled the air, the Matron of the Line had simply turned to watch. She stood amidst the glowing jars, her hands folded into her sleeves, her expression one of mild curiosity.
She didn't look afraid. She looked... disappointed.
Target,I pushed.Subdue.
The Skal surged forward, stepping over the ruin of a cultist. It clicked its claws menacingly, saliva dripping from its mandibles. It pulled itself up to its full height and towered over the woman, a mountain of death ready to fall.
I braced myself for the strike. I wanted her stopped and captured, so I could find out what she had done to me, what she planned to do with what she had stolen from me.
But as the Skal loomed over her, ready to pin her to the ground, it stopped.
It didn't freeze because of a shield. It didn't stop because of a weapon.
It stopped because it smelled her.
Through the Skal’s senses, the scent washed over me, drowning me. It wasn't the smell of blood or magic or fear. It wasn’t even the smell of the ocean. It was the scent of authority so old it made the Titan bones look young.
But mixed with it was something else. Ambrosia. Gold. The scent of the High Seat. The only way I knew that was because the Skal knew that.
Error,the Skal’s mind stuttered, backing away fast enough that its legs scraped sparks on the stone. Its aggression evaporated, replaced by a terrified, instinctive submissiveness.Invalid target.
"What are you doing?" I mentally screamed at it. "Attack her!"
Cannot,the beast whined, a high-pitched psychic keen.Owner.
Owner?
I looked through the Skal’s eyes, really looked, at Marissa.
She smiled. It was a small, thin curving of her lips that didn't reach her eyes. She raised a hand, not in defense, but in a gesture of command. A simple flick of her fingers.
"Heel," she said softly. Her voice carried across the carnage, cutting through the screams of the dying.
The Skal dropped to its belly. My control shattered. The golden mark I had burned into its mind didn't disappear, but it was overlaid, smothered by a presence that felt vast and crushing.
I gasped, my physical body jerking in the tunnel. "It won't... she stopped it."
The Skal cowered, its eyes rolling back, terrified. Through its fractured vision, I saw the air ripple around Marissa.
That was when I saw it.
