Page 85 of The Kingdom's Crown

Aric paled as he looked at the water, where red was clouding out around my hips.

Magic was rising in me, but it was my own, cold and furious. It bloomed from my chest, indignant at the injury, and I realized, even as the fire stretched down my wounded leg to my toes, that Aric was right. My magicwouldfight off this assault.

"Do you feel it?" Thao asked me, turning me in the water to face him.

"I feel…hot," I murmured.

"Her pupils are dilated," Aric murmured.

"She's not bleeding out, Aric, give it a moment," Thao said through a tense jaw, his eyes holding mine.

I whimpered, and my eyes fell shut as the magic of Thao's bite spread like a hot iron scratching through me, until there in my core, right in my hips, it struck against my own power. There was a war inside of me—lightning and ice against a smoldering coal burn.

Thao cursed, and Aric began to bark orders to him about getting me out of the water. I wanted to cry—I probably already was, given the agony coursing through me—over the failure. Iwantedthis. It had been my idea, and it was wholly unfair that the Hunger would prevent my transformation.

I yanked on my magic, tugging at it like the reins on a wild horse. Fire rose up into my belly, cold biting magic retreating.

I gasped as Thao tried to lift me from the water. "Wait! Wait, I have it," I cried out, pushing on his shoulder with a trembling hand. "I have it."

Aric had said that the Hunger was the superior of the two magics, but it wasmine. I controlled it. And I wanted it to stand the fuck down and let me have this.

Thao's hold on me loosened, and I groaned as the fire of the tiger magic grew hotter, higher, scorching through my chest and up into my throat.

"Aric, she's going to shift," Thao said, catching my hands before I could grab and claw at my neck. "You've got to get out."

"Are you—?"

"I'm sure, Aric!"

I was jerking in Thao's hold, some reflex I was trying to bury.

"That's it, Bryony. You're doing beautifully. I will tell you more about Wendell's transformation after this. He threw up right on me," Thao murmured as I trembled violently.

It was the worst in my skull, white-hot and blinding. I was certain that the magic was burning down everything I was, blazing away the girl to make room for the animal. Thao released me, and I had no strength to hold myself up, the water rushing up around me as my legs gave out, and I sank beneath the surface, the warm water no relief for the fire eating me up.

Fur surrounded me, two bodies circling, eyes watching from above.

An empty vessel, ensconced in a pool, staring blankly back…and then—

My claws scratched over the tile beneath me, muscles striking hard. I resurfaced with a roar that thundered over tile, water sloshing from my fur, my head shaking and spraying the—

Cage. Trap. The scent of the air all wet and wrong with other smells. Two males circled me, huffing and butting me with their heads, and I snarled back, clawing them away. They tried first to soothe and then to subdue, the dark one growling in warning, and I gave them my full roar, his ears flattening against his head, even as he braved another step closer. I smacked him hard for his daring. They were small, these two. Small compared to me.

I kicked and climbed my way to the edge of the too-smooth pool, and the pale one slammed himself in my way.

Fine.

I would teach them better.

They were reluctant fighters, trying to wrestle me back, but I was bigger. I was stronger. I would master them later when I was free; they couldn't keep me between them. I bit the pale one on the ruff and wrestled him below the water, the dark one howling and finally daring to bite my side. I subdued him next, finally winning my way to the edge, scratching myself out and free of the water, little human—

Human.

—Trinkets clattering to the floor.

There was smooth reflective water—mirror—on the wall, and I caught a glance of myself, massive and grand and exquisite, shaded softly even sopping wet, before I turned and paced, searching for my escape.

The orange and white ones tried to call me back, gentling their tones after our fight. I wanted out, out, out,out.

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