Page 95 of To Bleed A Kingdom

The tsking female sighs, peering at the speaker over her shoulder. “You can't ever enjoy yourself, can you?” Turning to face the Soulless, she raises a palm and beckons them forward.“Come, now. Like he said, we don't have all night.”

The Soulless snarl in a blood-lusted craze and converge on them in a crushing throng, but the Soulless don’t get anywhere near them. They claw, slice, growl, and snap their teeth, barely coming within reach of the newcomers before one member of their party is slicing off their head or stabbing them in the heart. Moving at a speed I can barely keep track of, they hold no fear as they laugh and taunt one another before slicing and dicing with a skill far exceeding any I've ever known. They are the very embodiment of death as they slaughter dozens of Soulless within minutes.

“That was a bit underwhelming,” the tsking female pouts, standing with her companions in the middle of a massive grave.

A tall, broad-shouldered male almost as large as the Captain steps forward and pats the female on the back. “Don’t be like that. Maybe it wasn't as much of a fight as we were hoping for, but it was nice to stretch the muscles.”

“How can the Cascadonians be so terrified of these things?” She nudges a prone body with her boot, lifting it off the other bodies it's piled atop of. “They’re nothing more than annoying gnats.”

“Silence,” a different female orders, rushing towards me to kneel at my side.

With her hood still up, I can't search her cheek for the swirling mark that distinguishes her as a Cursed, but how can she not be with the way she and her companions move? The way the Soulless reacted to them? There's no way she’s fae or immortal. She's Gods Cursed. They all are.

“Let's take a look at these wounds,” she mumbles, weeding through my blood matted fur to inspect my wounds.

Now that the Soulless no longer have their fangs and claws in me, I've regained some movement, but I'm still in no condition to fight. Not that I believe I could hold myself against them even if I was at my best, but I still raise my head and growl, unwilling to lay here and do nothing as this creature places her tainted hands on me.

She swivels her hooded face towards mine and whacks me on the muzzle. “Don’t you growl at me,” she scolds, wagging her finger. “I'm trying to help you.”

Did she just slap me on the muzzle? As if I’m no more than an unruly cub?

Shocked, I stare at her in silence as she returns her attention to my wounds.

“Alright.” She nods to herself, then looks up at me. “I need you to shift.”

I chuff the tiger equivalent of a scoff in response. Even if I did trust her, which I certainly don’t, I don’t have the energy to shift, wounded as I am.

“Listen to me.” Grabbing one of my paws, she pays no mind to my claws as she places it on her palm and begins stroking the fur. “I need to see you in your natural form to properly assess your wounds.”

The more I watch her and her companions move, the way they speak and interact with each other, the more I sense they aren’t Cursed at all. But whether they’re Cursed or not is inconsequential. I still have the Soulless’ venom coursing through me, and there's no way this female can help with that.

“I can help you shift, but I can't do it on my own,” she says in a strange, lilting accent. “Can you at least try?”

Feeling her stroke the fur on my paw, I think about how she can’t possibly heal me, but if I could manage to shift, I could at least send her to the Captain with a message and warn him of what happened here tonight. Maybe, even though Calder and I will die, at least we can use our last breaths to protect Seboia.

But how can she help me shift? That's not a known Gift. Maybe she is Gods Cursed.

Unsure if she's Cursed or Seboia’s savior, I chuff in agreement.

I still can’t see her expression within the darkness of her hood, but I hear the smile in her voice when she says, “Perfect! Now I'm going to count to three. When I say three, I want you to shift.” She places both palms on my sternum. “Ready?”

Ah, fuck it. What more do I have to lose?

I chuff in response, and she curls her fingers into my matted fur.

“One…two… three!” she shouts, and I try to shift. But as I wait for a wave of glittering copper to wash over me, nothing happens.

Inhaling a deep breath, I try once again to summon my Gift, but I can't call forth even a trickle of power. Feeling foolish for even entertaining the thought, my muscles loosen and I scour my mind for a way to pass a message along to her. But suddenly, my mind blanks when a bright light of undiluted power explodes from the female's hands, searing my eyes and slamming into my chest, remolding me into my two-legged form in the blink of an eye.

What the fuck what the fuck what the fuck what the fuck!?

Eyes still burning from the flash, I squint and gape at the woman poking and prodding the wounds on my now naked body. “What are you?” I ask. She laughs and continues to inspect my gut.

“A pain in my ass is what she is,” a male voice growls.

“Shush it.”

“I will not shush.” He stalks forward and crouches beside her. “You can’t do this. It’s too risky.”

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