Page 268 of Psycho Beasts

Dick was supposed to be the bad guy.

I wasn’t supposed to understand what he was saying. I wasn’t supposed to feel a swell of relief that he’d beaten me bloody to spare my sister.

I wasn’t supposed to feel gratitude.

It took a couple of tries—my mouth was paper dry—but I finally croaked out six words.

“Who is this she that you serve?”

The second the question left my lips, I wished I’d swallowed it down. Wanted so desperately to take it back.

Dick tilted his head up, and I followed his gaze.

The glass ceiling of the ballroom, which had earlier showcased dreary gray clouds, was now a midnight-black sky.

It was clear why the ball was on the equinox.

For the first time since I’d been in this realm, clouds didn’t cover the night sky.

Six full moons were massive, gleaming and pale in a straight line.

So large in the sky it seemed as if you could reach up and touch them. Like they were going to crash through the clear ceiling of the glass ballroom.

“The moon goddess,” Dick said.

His voice was a quiet rasp, but he might as well have shouted. Screamed the words at me. Bellowed in my face.

The voice.

The woman who ordered me when I fought.

The feeling of endless strength, emotionless precision.

The thing that made me a killing machine.

The numb.

It was the moon goddess, the woman I’d always felt an overwhelming compulsion to worship.

Endless seconds trickled by as I stared up at the luminous moons and realized it had all gone wrong at birth.

I’d never had a choice in any of it.

“What about the poems reading themselves to us?” I asked.

Dick narrowed his eyes, “What poems?”

My intuition screamed with warning, and I gnawed on my lower lip, not wanting to think too deeply about the masculine voice that bellowed riddles at us.

What could be a secret from the High Court.

Not good.

I deflected and asked, “Why did you put my description on the flyer? What does the High Court want with me?”

Dick breathed deeply. “War is coming sooner than we ever expected, and we needed a way to contact you. To help train you.”

Dick reached into his pocket and pulled out a circle.

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