Page 4

"Yes, sir."

"As I was saying. Ashter's passed the Menagerie's behavioral assessments and has been cleared for active deployment alongside Jade."

Heat pulsed once around my wrist. Ashter was pleased. He probably thought active deployment meant forests, things to chase, and more people to talk into feeding him. He probably wasn't wrong.

Alex tipped his head. "So we're getting a new recruit and her pet? Is it a dog? I like dogs."

The smoke at my wrist stirred.

He smiled, entirely unaware he'd just insulted something capable of removing his arm.

"Ashter isn't a dog," Janus said, his face staying so perfectly straight I knew he understood exactly what was about to happen. "Jade. Release him."

Traitor.

I brought my hands from behind my back and held my left arm out. Familiar heat brushed the inside of my wrist, and the first thread of black smoke slid free of my sleeve and curled over my skin. Another followed, then another, winding around my palm before spilling from my fingertips and pooling near the floor.

The four men watched the vapor thicken and roll over itself until the dark mass reached my waist. I felt Ashter through the bond, that strange internal pull I'd never found a decent way to explain, and the smoke began to compress.

His forepaws formed first, black claws settling against polished wood before his legs and shoulders followed. The smoke hardened into the rough, coal-dark texture of his hide, thin ember cracks glowing beneath it. His chest took shape, then the thick column of his neck and the broad plate of his skull as the last of the vapor folded in.

Two red eyes opened. Heat rolled off him in a wave, the air thick with the smell of hot stone and old smoke.

Every chair moved at once. Wood scraped hard against stone as all four men stood, but Ashter was already moving. He planted himself between me and them, shoulders raised, the obsidian ridges along his neck lifting through the last wisps of smoke.

Corian's hand shot up toward his own squad, a clear order to hold. Nykos shifted his stance, eyes tracking Ashter's forelegs and throat like he was already working out an angle of attack. Halver drifted a half-step ahead of the others without seeming to decide to. Alex took one very careful step back.

"What in the Rift is that?"

I looked at him. "I thought you liked dogs."

His eyes flicked to me, then back to Ashter. A laugh got out of him, despite himself.

"Ashter." I kept my voice low.

The ridges along his neck lowered a fraction.

"Enough."

He backed against me without taking his eyes off the men, solid weight pressing into my side. Fully formed, he came almost to my shoulder, which made his immediate attempt to shove his enormous head under my hand for scratches considerably less threatening than he clearly thought it was.

"Sit down," Janus said.

Corian lowered his hand and pulled his chair back into place. His eyes found mine for half a second before he sat, brief and unreadable, gone again before I could decide what to make of it. The others followed. Alex left a little more space between his chair and Ashter this time.

"The Menagerie classifies him as a Tier One Fire Rift creature," Janus said. "Formerly, Cindervarg rolensis. There's no other individual of the species, so there's no species beyond him."

Alex looked at Ashter, then Janus, then Ashter again. "That feels like something you could've mentioned before she let him out."

"Alex," Corian said.

Alex didn't take the hint. "I'm just saying a little warning would've been nice. Something like, the dog's actually a Rift creature big enough to eat you."

"Ashter doesn't eat people," I said.

Alex looked at me. I scratched behind one of Ashter's ridges, and his tail swept the floor, scattering ash across Janus's polished wood.

"Usually." My smile came before I could stop it.