Her body instantly shrinks, her snarls becoming strange huffing noises.
Huh?
I follow her shrinking form down to the floor, my eyes widening at the fluffy, little creature she’s become.
She has two floppy, black ears, a snuggly-looking body, and the cutest button tail.
“A rabbit?” Lucian cries, now poised in the center of the tabletop, his weight on his left leg, as if he’s decided the refrigerator is his best bet. “How is that supposed to help? Rabbits chew through carrots, for fuck’s sake!”
Indeed, Anarchy doesn’t seem the least perturbed by her new shape. She bounces up onto the table in a single leap, her very sharp teeth snapping at the air as she lands a bare few paces from Lucian.
He backpedals at an astounding speed. He can’t fly with his still-broken wing or I’m certain he’d be up near the ceiling by now.
Not that Anarchy couldn’t reach him there. Along with taking down winged creatures, she’s proven she can jump to extreme heights.
Lucian’s good wing shivers, lifting him lopsidedly, while his broken wing drags.
It just reinforces my belief that wings are a huge fucking liability.
Diavolo doesn’t waste time with talk.
Light flashes once more around his fingertips, but this time, it’s an alarming black.
Dark magic.
I’m worried about what life Diavolo might be draining to feed it, but my more immediate concern is my brother—and stopping Anarchy from doing something she might later regret.
At the same time as the dark light flashes, bunny-rabbit Anarchy leaps across the table at Lucian, gaining enough air that she’s level with his chest.
He recoils backward, his good wing beating wildly at the air, his legs moving. His foot hits the far edge of the table while his good wing propels him awkwardly through the air.
Except that the table isn’t anchored to the floor, so the impact of his foot against its edge causes it to slide right out from under him.
In that heartbeat, he’s airborne within the space between the sliding table and the stationary countertop. Anarchy is soaring toward him in all her graceful bunny-rabbit glory, her mouth about to close around his outstretched fingers. And Diavolo’s dark light splashes across Anarchy’s back, as if he threw a bucket of black paint at her.
The dark liquid disappears instantly into her fur and then there’s athud.
Everything ahead of me slows, as if time has halted where the magic hit.
I’m already reaching forward, preparing to throw myself across at Anarchy, but I’m suddenly aware that the keeper’s hand has wrapped around my arm and he’s just as forcefully wrenching me backward.
His voice rises to a shout. “Veda! Get down!”
Get down?
Ahead of me, the ripple of energy that seems to have frozen both Anarchy and Lucian in place appears to be rippling right back at me, the keeper, and the male panthers. It’s a shimmer of black light and it’s originating from Anarchy.
What the fuck is that?
I may not know the answer, but I know it can’t be good.
Even though my muscles are responding and I’m leaping backward, I’m not going to be fast enough.
Darkness explodes across Anarchy’s body, the blast throwing me and the keeper and the panthers across the room, all of us tumbling through the air, head over heels.
Thump.
I find myself on my back, my ears ringing as I stare upward at the black smoke billowing across the air above me. It smells weirdly like lavender, both the smoke and the scent so thick that I can’t see more than a few feet in any direction.
