Page 36 of Her Psycho Beasts

Marduk stops before us and it takes me a second to realise who his eyes have landed on. His eyelids flutter for a second before he falls to one knee, holds the roses in front of his chest and, with a face of utter reverence, says. “My regina. I have come for you.”

I gasp loudly, my head whipping around to see Minnie’s ashen, unblinking, still on Yeti’s shoulders. Yeti is also staring, his pale hands clutching his regina’s shins.

“Let her down,” Raquel whispers to him.

Yeti blinks as if he’s coming back to reality and carefully extracts Minnie from his shoulders.

Minnie straightens her clothes before shyly walking forward.

“Hi,” she whispers.

The tiger carefully takes her hand in his and kisses the back of it.

“Was that necessary, Marduk?” Xander grumbles.

Without missing a beat, or taking his eyes off his newly found regina, Marduk says, “Yes.”

Chapter 17

Xander

“Why don’t you just off him?” Snake Spawn demands like the spoiled nepo baby she is. “You have no trouble doing that with other beasts.”

After the big watery detention incident, I sent everyone back to their dorms to clean up. Yeti and Minnie led a sappy-eyed Marduk away for proper introductions. I could literally see the hearts in the crazy tiger’s eyes as he saw Minnie for the first time. She’s already managed to reduce him into a lovesick fool without uttering more than a sentence.

They’re all the same, these males. No brains when it comes to their women. I’d feel sorry for them if I wasn’t so disgusted.

Scythe regards the snake spawn with calculation. “Damien Agnis is not ‘other people’. There is more at play here than you realise.”

I can tell she wants to make a retort by the way she’s aggressively towelling her washed hair and pressing her glossy pink lips together. Some unusual bit of sense must enter her brain because she turns to leave.

“Aurelia,” Scythe says, stopping her in her tracks. “There’s something we need to talk about.”

It takes an irritating half an hour to round up the snake spawn’s anima gang, including Minnie with Marduk and Yeti tagging along.

They sit in the living room, their hearts all pounding madly, the nimpins squeaking in their ears. Stacey’s stomach is growling with her anxiety, and I almost send her away to get an antacid, but Lyle gives me a dark look that tells me to shut up. Raquel holds Stacey’s hand instead, and then they all end up holding hands in a very kumbaya style. It kind of makes me feel sick.

“Is it about Sabrina?” Snake Spawn asks, eyes shining and holding Henry in her lap.

Scythe nods. “She is being moved to a location that is…more accessible to us. We will be able to retrieve her if we move quickly.”

I snort because if we were smart, we would leave Sabrina at the Clawson household and not risk our own necks or business. Scythe glances disapprovingly my way. That seems to be happening a lot these days.

“How do we get to her?” Aurelia rudely presses. “Is she okay?”

She’s probably far from okay, but Scythe isn’t about to tell her that. Instead, he says, “It’ll be a delicate retrieval, which is why…” He searches her eyes—far too keenly, for my liking. He’s far too interested in her, and he’s been watching her and Lyle all the time.

“Why what?” Snake Spawn whispers.

Scythe swallows. “Why we need to create a diversion. A spectacle to drive the Clawsons out. And there’ll be no greater distraction for every crime lord in the state than for the Lady Boneweaver to make her public debut.”

He’s met by silence then, as their little minds decipher what he’s just said.

“The Clawsons?” Minnie asks nervously, her heart pitter-pattering unevenly.

“She is being held at Clawson House,” Marduk confirms smoothly. “For reasons that will become clear later.”

Minnie looks at him with wary surprise.

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