Page 185 of Her Rabid Beasts

“No!” I cry.

“Easy,” Lyle whispers in my ear. “Easy, my angel. Savage can look after himself.”

I bury my face in Lyle’s chest. Savage, my one comfort in the darkness. My first.

The feline king comes up to us and I barely restrain an open, threatening growl. His midnight skin glints under the floodlights, and though his expression is serious, his eyes glimmer with interest. “I’ll be in touch in the morning, Lyle. We have much to discuss. Rules to make, etcetera.”

“Of course, Your Majesty,” comes Lyle’s stiff reply.

The remaining council members leave with wary looks towards us and the dragon king doesn’t even look at us at all.

Then it’s just Georgia, glancing between me and Lyle.

But he acts as if the lioness isn’t even there. As if she wasn’t the one who gave evidence against him. My lion sighs through his nose, tugging me towards the medical clinic and Celeste, who is watching us assessingly.

But I don’t want to leave. I want to run after that van. “Where are they taking him?” I ask as Lyle tugs me up the drive.

“Blackwater,” Scythe says.

“Scythe.” My voice is hardly more than a sob.

The shark angles his head as he considers me through the night. “You have other things to worry about, Aurelia.”

“But—”

“Angel.” Lyle shakes his head as he tugs me through the academy gates. “Savage would want you to focus.”

I take a deep breath of night air and turn around to face the academy. Right, because the guards lining the drive are staring at me. The expressions range from pure shock and awe to wariness and fear. I wonder how long it will take for word to spread.

Boneweaver Female. Unbred. Offers of 20M.

That unholy voice resounds in my head, but my anima brushes it away.

Savage.My anima keens for our wolf, getting further and further away from me.

“I’m sorry I couldn’t get here sooner,” Celeste says. “But there are currently two serpents tied up in my office.”

“You should have killed them,” Lyle growls.

She gives him an amused look. “You know I don’t do that. But I suppose we’ll all have to get used to the newly integrated you, Lyle.”

I wonder about the same thing. And about how everything will be different now.

Georgia starts to say something, but Lyle dismisses her without a thought, pulling me towards the glaring lights of the medical wing.

Celeste’s voice is barely a warning hiss. “Donotapproach a newly mated male, Georgia. You know better than that.”

“Yes, my lady,” comes the quiet reply. Georgia leaves in a hurry, her stilettos clicking a fast pace away from us.

“I will talk to you in the morning,” Celeste says. “For now, I think you need to process what’s happened, Aurelia. And what it will mean for you.”

I nod slowly. My stomach feels hollow, my heart twisting in agony. I’ve gained and lost something at the same time.

Lady Celeste takes a small glass vial out of her pocket. “No avian healing will fix those wounds, Aurelia,” she says softly. “But phoenix tears will do the trick.”

I stare at her and the gift she’s offering me. “These areyourtears?” I breathe. Of course, as I wanted to be a healer, I studied the effects of phoenix tears as extensively as I could. But they’re mostly shrouded in mystery and hard to come by, phoenixes being rare as they are.

“They are.” She smiles kindly. “And I think if anyone deserves it, it’s you. Those wounds look old and vicious, Aurelia. You should have come to us.”

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