“Stay out of this,” he growls. “Both of you. I’m sure Tage is not talking about exiling—”
“Oh, but that is exactly what I mean.”
Cyphus pulls back as though struck. “You don’t—”
“You can’t be trusted. That means you can’t be a member of this pride.”
“Ican’t be trusted?” Cyphus pounds a hand to his chest in emphasis, clearly implying he’s not the one in doubt.
“Come now. Even before you disobeyed my command, you’ve been questioning my every decision.”
Cyphus finally snaps, his face lunging forward like a snake shooting from its burrow. “Because you’re fucking weak!” He waves to the others. “They would admit it, too, if they had the spines. All of you!” His eyes spear each of them. “Fucking weak!”
Tage’s arms tighten ever so slightly around me, the only sign that Cyphus’s insults affect him. “I’ll give you five minutes to gather your things and any supplies you need.”
“Don’t do me any favors,” he snarls. Then his burning eyes drop to me. “We know what this is about. You have some twisted infatuation with her. You want to fuck her. Taste a human, tasteher. Go ahead. No judgment...we all have our fetishes. If you want to play with your food first, fine. Afterward, you do what you ought to and finish her.” He shakes his head. “The skelm have the right of it. Humans are just prey.Meat.They should not be allowed to share the same air as us. We should wipe them from the earth like they tried to do to us. We’re at war, and you’re just too dumb to realize it.”
Cyphus’s gaze sweeps over the others while he points a damning finger at me. “You want to live freely? Claim our rightful place at the top? Start by getting rid of that.”
I flinch. I am just a...that.
Not even a life.
Merely a thing.
I realize then that he doesn’t hate me. Hate is too strong an emotion. I am nothing. A life that doesn’t matter. To him, I’m simplyan insect, one little bug within an infestation that requires elimination.
Danhy and Viggo look miserable.
With a jolt, I realize he’s calling the others to action...inciting a rebellion.
Tage realizes it, too.
They all do: Danhy and Viggo and even the newcomer, Merik. They must pick a side. Their heads swivel, each eyeing the other.
I swallow wretchedly, searching Tage’s face, wondering if this is it. The move he can’t outmaneuver.
Tage can either allow this to happen or...or...
I’m not sure what theorinvolves. What would resistance even look like? He can’t possibly defeat the four of them if they band together against him.
And yet it seems Tage fully understands all the nuances at play here. “Well?” he addresses Danhy, Viggo, and Merik. “Are you with him? Or me?”
None of them react. Except Cyphus. Fanning the flames, he urges them in a voice far too reasonable for my liking. “Listen to your instinct, to your dragon...it will tell you what to do.”
I lightly touch Tage’s shoulder. He can’t risk his pride for me. If he loses them, he loses everything, maybe even his life. And for what? At that point, I’ll be dead anyway. “It’s fine. You can let me go.”
His eyes flash. “No.” The word bites the air between us in hard refusal.
“Yes,” I gently counter.
Tage responds by setting me on my feet, handling me carefully, like I’m some delicate piece of glass.
A quick glance at his stony expression reveals that it’s not me he’s handling with care...but himself. His face isn’t quite his face anymore. His onyx flesh flashes and undulates, overwhelming the human skin. The bridge of his nose ripples, ridges appearing and then disappearing along the slope.
Pushing me behind him, he braces himself in front of me, stance wide, arms primed for action. Still a man, but with a beasthumming within him, ready to burst free, throbbing and vibrating like the earth itself, expanding and contracting. He feels larger than ever as he looms like a wall before me, shielding.Protecting.
“What will it be?” he asks Danhy and Viggo, his voice thick, the words a bit garbled, as though his teeth are too big to fit in his mouth, and I know. His dragon is close, just swimming beneath the surface. “You go with the one eager for war, hungry to destroy life or you choose me. You already know what I am.”
