Page 29 of Her Psycho Beasts

Marduk makes a noise of contempt. “As do I, however, there are aspects of the Old Way that should be left behind. Someone needs to explain this to him.”

I take a measured breath, exhaling slowly as I recall my last conversation with the new deputy headmaster. If he were any other order, his days would be numbered. The considerable power in his blood complicates things.

“Scythe,” Marduk places heavy emphasis on my name. “The longer that phoenix is in your school, the longersheis in danger.”

“Which ‘she’?”

“Yourshe. The Lady Boneweaver.” He swirls his glass around. “Does she know about?—”

“Not yet. There is the pressing matter of her coming out.”

He nods slowly, contemplating this. “She is but a debutante, in a dark, dark world. She could never wear a dress of white. It would have to be black.”

I’d always imagined her in dark blue to match her eyes when fierce. Like the deep sea before a storm, but even that colour isn’t quite right for the impact I desire. “There is the other matter of Sabrina Panthera.”

Marduk’s face turns grave, and I know he’s thinking about Titus Clawson and his role in Sabrina’s kidnap. “It may get messy.”

“It’s always messy,” I muse. “In one way or another.”

“There is a foul essence in the air, shark-friend,” Marduk says, staring out the window to the street below. “And I do not like what it will bring.”

Fear stirs in my arteries and it takes me all of a second to realise it’s not my own. I know my blood connection to Aurelia is going to allow me to feel certain things, but this level of panic is unexpected.

And then it’s my own anger, a whip of icy wind lashing strong enough to make me jump to my feet.

Marduk goes still, before also rising to his feet as Xander’s droll voice stalks into my brain, followed by a nervous request for communication from Raquel, my new broadcaster. I listen to what they both have to say, feeling my blood pressure rise with each passing second.

I take a deep breath to steady myself and thank the Wild Goddess that Savage is not here right now.

Marduk waits for me, keenly searching my face. “I long for a connection such as this,” he murmurs. “What ails your pack?”

Swirling my whiskey glass, I consider my options. Of the two of us, Savage is the shit-stirrer. In the past few years, I’ve been the problem solver. But before that, I’d done my fair share of shit stirring too.

Chapter 14

Aurelia

So Connor wasn’t exaggerating when he called the confinement space ‘the dungeons.’

It’s a dim, circular cavern, deep under the earth.

Our entire class is packed like sardines, standing on the bare, dirt-floor of a cell carved into the earthen wall, leaving those at the front to peer through the thick obsidian bars at another class of naughty students across the cavern.

There’s a pit toilet in our cell, obviously used, and the place smells strongly of that, and serpent. In short, it’s definitely something I’d expect grumpy old dragon-lords to keep their unfavourables in.

Yeti had muscled everyone aside to push Minnie up against the bars to a prime position for fresh air, and I got to be next to her, with Raquel, Stacey and Connor squished up next to and behind me, sulking away about not being able to sit down. Our nimpins chirp their sorrows in our ears, feeling everyone’s shared discomfort.

I mean, I’m sulking too. We all are, full pout and crossed arms and everything. Though it’s useless because the guards shoved us in here and then left through the low-ceilinged tunnel that leads back above ground.

“Feels very authentic, doesn’t it?” Connor says from where he’s pressed against Beak. “It was creepy being down here by myself last night, but with all of us in here, it’s just a party!”

“Minus the actual party,” Stacey grumbles, shaking the obsidian bars with both hands. “I’d put music on, but then we’d get found out.”

“We can sing,” Minnie says helpfully. “What’s a good prison song?”

“Theymustsing in prison,” Connor says. “Shame Savage isn’t here so we could ask him.”

The pang of sadness that strikes my heart every time my wolf-mate is mentioned strikes me anew, making me sink lower into my gloom.

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