He pounces on her, and I scream. The room goes dark again.
Anassa nuzzles her nose into my side, harder this time.“Meryn, he is not killing her. He is restraining her for your protection, and for everyone else’s. Take another breath.”
I do as I’m told. The shadows part again.
Cratos holds Saela down, two huge paws pressing against her back, pushing her into the floor. Even so, she bucks back, nearly knocking him off her.
Nearly knocking agiganticdirewolf at least three times her size off with the flex of her spine.
My mouth falls open, and I can feel the color leave my face. All that strength in the body of an eleven-year-old girl.
Saela’s never been physically strong. She was the book-smart child. I was the strong one. She took to self-defense training well, but even still—she’s always fought with words, not muscles.
Her hazel eyes sharpen, and she moves her body again, and again, bouncing Cratos up and down. Anassa meets my gaze with her golden one, and I can tell what she’s thinking without her even communicating it.
Cratos alone won’t keep her down. Anassa bounds over to her mate, adding her paws to Saela’s back.
My blood runs hot with fear. Not justformy sister… butofher.
We spent classes here learning about Siphons, studying them, but there’s still so much I don’t know. Do Siphons maintain any ounce of who they were before they changed? How human are they still, after the fangs?
I want to run to her, to hold her in my arms as I did just moments ago. She was smiling and safe.
She wassafe.
Is she even in there anymore? Or is she going to be like… this? Forever?
Saela screams, a bloodcurdling shriek that echoes through the room. This is hurting her.
My elbow slams into Stark’s side, and I slip free. But only for a moment. His hand closes around my wrist and yanks me back so hard that my shoulder nearly wrenches from its socket.
“Newly turned Siphons are at their most dangerous,” Stark hisses in my ear.
He secures me against his chest, his arms like iron restraints. His touch burns through me, and I hate it. I hate it and I cling to it, too.
“I’ve seen this at the front. Many times. It’s a game the Astreonans like to play.Please, listen.”
I still, momentarily shocked out of my panic by the urgency in his voice.Please, he said.
“They turn our soldiers into Siphons and set them on our forces. When the turning first takes place, new Siphons are consumed by bloodlust and will kill anything in sight. She doesn’t know you right now, and she could kill you,” Stark says quietly.
She could kill you.Saela, the little girl who would weep if I tied her plaits too tightly. Who would lock our door and lay her head in my lap on the nights our mother got violent. Who once caught a mouse in our home and instead of killing it or moving it outside, created a little bed for it inside a matchbox and named it Felix.
How is this real? But he’s right. Shockingly, terrifyingly right. My sweet baby sister is… gone.
My mind spins as I try to think of what to do next and ignore the churning, vengeful thoughts aboutwhywe’re in this situation. Of the man—no, themonster—who did this to my sister.
My betrothed.
Wrath slices through me, making my veins burn—and with it, the shadows streak toward the ceiling in a merciless wave.
Another breath, and the shadows slide down the walls.
This is what he would want: me, too distracted and weak to even deal with the crisis at hand.
He’s not allowed to manipulate my actions any longer. Saela needs me to be calm and levelheaded.
She comes first.
