Page 17 of Her Psycho Beasts

A shift in the air tickles my predatory instincts, and I know it’s Beak behind me swooping in behind. He dips and sweeps past me, close enough that the feathers at the end of my left wing rustle. I glance at him, amused but surprised. He must like to play with death, because Lyle’s massive head snaps towards us, his amber eyes dark on Beak’s gracefully up-arcing form.

“I want you down here, regina,”comes his quiet, lethal voice into my head, though his eyes are predatory on Beak.

I swoop low past my lion, sending a downwind across his magnificent mane and making Henry blink rapidly.“Hm, but Iquite like it up high,”I say coyly.“And leave Beaky alone. He’s a good guy.”

“So he’s ‘Beaky’ now?”

All I do is cackle back. Except then he says something that makes my wings stutter.

“Don’t make me claim you on the grass before your friends, regina.”

“You dirty beast.”

“That’s not what you said yesterday afternoon. Or last night. Or this morning. In fact, I think what you said was?—”

Another presence steps into our little chat, cold as the Antarctic, powerful as an ocean wave.“You should shift, Aurelia.”Scythe’s voice is matter-of-fact.“Try the lioness again.”

I could’ve tumbled right out of the sky in my absolute shock.

“You’ve got to be joking,”I choke out as I circle back around to get the shark in my line of sight again.

He shrugs those broad shoulders, perfectly hugged in his signature black business shirt.“Consider it a debut.”

A long-ingrained fear strikes my chest, my abdomen. It sends a sharp pain through the healing wounds, making my heart pound.

“You’re panicking,”Scythe states flatly.“Being a Boneweaver could be your greatest weapon, Aurelia, but it could also be your greatest enemy. You get to choose how this plays out. Against your will, or with it.”

Lyle surprises me when he agrees.“Better now, on your own terms.”

I can’t forget that I’m bound to obey Scythe now. Something in my blood yanks my attention to that fact that he’d saidshould. It wasn’t a direct order, and he is a giving me a choice. I narrow my eagle eyes on him, something in those light-blues glitters back in challenge.

But Lyle is right. Rumours had spread over the last five days, and it’s better to just get this over with rather than have everyone gossiping behind my back. I’m in control here. I take a deep breath and circle back around, mentally gearing myself up for what I’m about to do. Lyle stands, still and alert, with Henry bouncing on his head, just happy to be a part of things.

“Alright,”I say, but it’s really to myself.

The music playing over the academy’s PA system abruptly shuts off?—

And is promptly replaced by a violent, psychic blast the equivalent of a hundred nimpins.

My body is seized by the strong fist of sound.

Every bird in the sky immediately plummets towards the ground. Including me.

Chapter 8

Ghoul

The naked female leopard spits in the face of one of the three Clawson tigers holding her against the rough stone wall of the dungeon.

“Let me go, you cunt-eyed bastards!” she screams before the gag they’d just removed gets roughly tugged back into place.

I watch curiously, from my spot against the wall, fingers hooked into my belt loops and deep in thought.

Why does my little snakelet love this aggressive leopard so much? What deserves the kind of devotion that led to Aurelia breakingbothher arms over Sabrina Panthera?

The leopard is shoved into the cell, obsidian shackles clanking against the wall as she slams into it. Her clothes were torn when she initially shifted back at the academy, so when she shifted back into her human form, they’d fallen off her small frame. The obsidian chains cover most of her body, hiding her from sight.

“Careful with the goods,” I snap.

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