What a sad jest. He couldn’t protect me. No one could. I was the only one who possessed the power to escape this horror-filled world. But even I needed help from the supernatural. If Bunica had been right, then there was at least one goddess on my side. My grandmothercontinued to sing in my memory, her eyes glittering by the firelight, intense upon me, Malina, Kostanya, and Kizzy.
“Fury burns her soul. She becomes a beast of her own. Her mind fills with darkness. Her heart is hard as stone.”
Goddess, help me,I thought, since I could not speak the words with the muzzle in my mouth. Then I sat back onto my knees and peered up at the divine creature in half-skin, wishing I could become her. The power of a dragon was magnificent. If I held such power, I’d change the entire world.
Magic burned brighter inside my chest, spreading through my limbs. It hummed and whispered through my veins, sizzling to the surface of my skin. It had been too long since I’d felt this sensation, this touch of the gods.
I didn’t need the power of a dragon. I held the power of a sorceress, of a bloodsinger.
Knowing what to do, I paused for one moment longer in the temple then marched back toward the center of the house and the corridor leading to Valerius’s bedchamber.
“She kills the devil wolf. Vengeance gives her strength. She tears him asunder. With her claws and her teeth.”
When I finally entered his bedchamber, no longer trembling with fear but with anticipation, he was muttering something to himself while looking out the archway toward the lights of the city. I took my place beside his bed, cupping my palms at my sides.
Inhaling a deep whiff, he turned, that sinister grin on his face. His bright green eyes were slit with the dragon, his features tight as if he were about to shift. I remained still and poised.
“There she is.”
He stalked toward me, still smiling. He stopped before me and then cupped my face, though he merely held the bridle, which covered myjaw. He rasped his thumb over the jeweled mouth. I couldn’t feel it, but I shivered with revulsion all the same.
“I wish I could kiss the lips beneath this golden chalice, sweet Lela.” His dragon eyes glazed with cold lust. “I would devour you.”
His speech was somewhat garbled since his canines were lengthened. He was closer to the dragon tonight.
“But you would bite out my tongue, wouldn’t you?” he whispered intimately.
He wrapped one hand around my length of hair falling down my back and pulled so that I bent my head and arched my neck. I inhaled sharply at the pain but kept my hands at my sides, tucked in the folds of my nightgown, and remained calm.
“Wouldn’t you?” he hissed, our faces close.
I couldn’t answer, but he seemed to find the answer he needed in my gaze.
“You can’t help but make men want you. You certainly possess the beauty of awitch. But you aremine, Lela. It will always be so.”
Seemingly satisfied with his decree, he let me go and stepped back.
“Now, remove your gown and bend over the bed.”
He stepped away toward his wardrobe to undress and place his toga neatly on its shelf. Valerius had always been a creature of habit. He never altered his routine. He was so predictable.
I did not remove my gown, but I bent over the bed and set to work quietly with the key hidden in my hand, waiting for his return. It only took a few moments before I heard his bellowing outrage.
“I gave you an order, Lela!” His bare feet smacked on the marble floor as he crossed the chamber. “Don’t think because I haven’t had you in months that you can disobey my commands.”
I curled the fingers of my left hand over the lip of the bridle above my mouth and tightened my hold on the hilt in my right.
“I’ll fucking make you obey,” he growled.
“So mark me, all ye monsters, who prey on daughters fair. We mothers will come hunting. We are the beasts you must beware.”
The burning in my veins coursed quicker and hotter, my own heart drumming louder in my ears. He grabbed hold of my hair and jerked me back off the bed, onto my feet.
With one swift move, I pulled the bridle from my mouth—the unlocked clasp falling free—and twisted around, swinging and slashing the dagger across his chest. The shock made him let go of me and falter back, glancing down at the gash. When he looked up, I was already licking his blood from the blade.
“No!” He lunged.
“Fall to your knees and don’t move,” I spoke softly; an eerie echo of my voice swirled in the room, laced with the power of the gods.
