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But I don’t think this wyvern is anything like the one who came to the sanctuary…
“Tahnee?”
Robb looked around the room for her, and her heart broke just a little.
“I’m here, Robbo,” she called out, with more bravado than she felt. “Everything’s going to be okay.”
It was an almost laughable claim to make, but she had to say something, right? And Liam was going to contact the Agency and bring help. She knew what the Agency was capable of, and she also knew that Robb’s team were devoted to him. With their assistance, the two of them were going to make it out of here.
All she had to do was wait for them, and keep both herself and Robb alive for long enough for them to make it here to help them. With the tracker attached to her shirt button, Liam would know exactly how to find her.
The thugs yanked her hands further up and behind her back, and she covered her wince.
They were clearly prepared for her arrival – not only did she feel the dulling of her powers that came with anti-shifter cuffs, but they were also fitting what she could only describe as mittens weaved from gold thread over her hands, securing them firmly in place. She couldn’t see them, but she would recognize the feel of gold anywhere, and she knew that her hands were completely covered.
Oh. I get it.
With the mittens on, there was no way she could touch her anti-shifter cuffs and turn them to gold, which would render the cuffs’ shift-inhibiting properties inoperable and allow her to change forms.
They had clearly prepared well for her arrival.
She suppressed a shiver. What else did Hargreaves know about her?
Okay, Tahnee. Pull it together. You can ponder over all of this later on. For now, just concentrate on Robb.
It was easier said than done, though. She couldn’t exactly do a whole lot for him right now, what with the smirking wyvern and the humorless thugs and the – and the lyrebird?! – all watching her.
Oh. A lyrebird, she thought, realization coming to her. No wonder Robb didn’t sound quite right on the phone.
Well, she’d well and truly walked into their trap. Which she supposed had been her intention all along – but now, she just had to make sure that she and Robb both walked out of it.
“I hear you like making gold,” the wyvern said in a raspy voice, and Tahnee jumped, very nearly saying something inappropriate for the second time in the space of a minute.
“You people are just full of surprises,” she muttered.
But then the wyvern’s words filtered through, and she wondered what it was getting at.
It makes sense that they would prevent me from shifting or turning anything into gold so that I can’t escape, she thought. But why would they want to bring it up as an actual topic of conversation? What does that have to do with anything? Are Hargreaves going into the jewelry business?
They could be in the gold-plated toilet business, for all I care, the brolga snapped. We must rescue our mate. That is all that matters.
We have to find out what they’re doing in order to rescue our mate, Tahnee explained with forced patience. We can’t just grab him and waltz out of here. Besides, if they’re threatening the sanctuary – or anyone else – we need to know about it.
The brolga harrumphed, obviously knowing that she was right, but unwilling to admit it.
The wyvern considered her for a moment with its monstrous yellow eyes, before moving its enormous head away from Robb and toward Tahnee, its long, sinuous neck curling in a way that was almost hypnotic.
A moment later Tahnee found herself face-to-massive-face with it, its acrid breath filling her nostrils.
Her nose wrinkled. It really was an unpleasant smell, and even this tiny hint of it was making her feel pretty unwell. She could only imagine how Robb was feeling.
“I would like to see a demonstration of your powers,” it said, “to verify them to my own satisfaction, but I understand that that would be a little difficult right now. Even if you were not being restrained, I doubt you would oblige me in my request.”
“You’ve got that right,” Tahnee snapped.
The wyvern regarded her with what appeared to be interest. “You’ve got spirit,” it said. “Breaking you will be a different challenge than breaking your stoic friend over there. But I think I might know a few techniques that could test your resolve.”
The wyvern twitched a wing in apparent command, and the larger of the two brutes strode across the room and delivered a backhanded blow across Robb’s face that almost sent his chair toppling to the ground.
