Page 162 of Her Psycho Beasts

Scythe drops to his knees two steps away from us, a pained whisper leaving his lips.

“Scythe?” I say in alarm.

He has his head in his hands and is shaking it from side to side. Lyle goes to him, reaching out a hand to touch Scythe’s tattooed shoulder, right over the image of an octopus.

But Scythe leaps to his feet and turns away from us, striding into the dark, a determined beast.

Something flashes through my own mind, a fell, grating scream, the image of infinite darkness…

Nausea floods my stomach, screeching up my throat. I clamber to my feet.

“Leave him, regina,” Savage says. “He needs?—”

“I know what he needs!” I snap, whirling around to glare at Savage. “I’m his regina.”

Savage levels me a cool look and I immediately regret my words, rushing over to him and wrapping my arms around hisneck. Kneeling before me, his face meets my chest as I kiss him on the forehead. “I’m sorry.”

My wolf’s face brightens immediately. “It’s okay, regina.”

But that dark feeling still resides in me until Ghoul says from within his shadows, “Interesting.”

“Asshole,” I shoot at him. “Asshole blob.”

Savage snorts between my breasts. “Heisa blob.”

“Come here and say that, snakelet,” Ghoul says, immediately withdrawing his shadows and revealing his towering, lethal form once again.

“Get out of here,” I say. I have a bad feeling and Ghoul is making it worse.

The basilisk lord swaggers over to me, making Savage leap up and bare his teeth threateningly. Ghoul makes a shooing motion towards him with one hand, before leaning towards me and saying in a low voice. “You still owe me, regina. And I’ll be sure to come calling on that debt.” With that, his shadows gather around him and his shape changes into a hulking mass that disappears into the trees.

Goosebumps erupt all over me.

Lyle, from where he was threateningly standing behind me, soothingly rubs my bare arms. I’ve never forgotten the favour I’d asked Ghoul months ago, when I’d found a serpent tied up and tortured by my mates and hidden in our suite. Natalia had been responsible for kidnapping me, but I’d still asked for her release. It seems hardly fair now, that she was no doubt already known to and allied with Ghoul, but it can’t be helped. I agreed to this, and at some stage, he would come calling.

A siren goes off in the distance, telling us that our hour of fun is up. Scythe is likely making his way back already, so Lyle and Savage bundle me between them, leading me through the forest towards one of the many exits that line the field.

Chapter 86

Scythe

Two Years Ago

On the first full moon of the new year, Savage and I find my mother, sitting in human form on a rock, staring out to sea. The night is humid, the air tumbling through her waist-length silvery tresses like a mermaid from an old story. My blood lights up in recognition as I make my way across the sand, happy that the blanket I bring along every year will finally get some use.

Xander stands guard by the car, ensuring our privacy.

“Mum!” Savage cries, waving his hand over his head in greeting.

My mother turns, and what I see nearly stops my heart. Tears stream down her cheeks, her eyes dark, her cheeks sallow.

She smiles at the sight of us, a thin hand reaching out. Savage bounds up to her, dropping to his knees and nuzzling her hand like a pup.

“Darkness,” she whispers, extending her other hand to me. “Such darkness approaches.”

I too drop to my knees and press my face into her hand. “Mother,” I sigh, throwing the blanket over her lap. Her cold touch warms me to the bone. Her words, in the rare years she does broach the sand to see us, are always unsettling. Rarely do I know what she means. They are riddles I’ve never been able to decipher.

“The Wild Mother has come to take me, my sons.” She looks out across the dark sea. “I see her, upon the horizon, beckoning for me to join her.”

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