Page 4 of Her Psycho Beasts

“She’s gone, Aurelia,” I say firmly. “The next hour, the next day will not make a difference.”

She whirls around, panic flaring. “Are youkiddingme?”

“No.” I ground her with a stern tone. “Now, tell me what you would do. What would be your next move?”

Her eyes slide around the room. “I… I’d?—”

“Without the help of your mates.”

She glares at me, then takes a deep breath, understanding that arguing will get her nowhere. She taps a bare foot.

“Well. It’s clearly my father who has her. So I’d…call him. If he’s holding my friend hostage, he clearly expects contact from me.”

“Is that his usual tactic when taking hostages?”

She goes silent and I know she is far away, in a place she doesn’t like to linger. The distant past. Then I get a quiet, “Yes.”

“And how do you think that phone call, that negotiation, would go?”

She closes her eyes because she knows the answer. Her shoulders sag. “Not well. It wouldn’t be a negotiation at all.”

“And what would he ask of you?” I push her towards the truth.

Her eyes search the darkened landscape through the window behind me, as if she can see Mace Naga and his retinue rushing back to Serpent Court. “To present myself. To…surrender myself.”

“And how would you respond?”

“I don’t know,” she mumbles.

“You do know.Think. How should you deal with a beast like Mace? Don’t think of him as your father. He’s not. He showed that today. He’s shown that every day since you were thirteen.”

She flinches like I’ve slapped her.

My shark thrashes inside my body, promising violence. I say more softly, “When a man shows you who he is, you believe him. Every action is revealing.”

Her dark brow furrows as she considers this, hands on her hips, staring at the floor and biting her lip, deep in thought.Aurelia’s life is going to change dramatically now, and I wonder if she’s ready for it. For what she has to do.

Sitting back in the chair, I do what I do best. “You and I are going make a little agreement.”

She eyes me suspiciously. Good girl.

“We don’t react, Aurelia. We respond. I will help you bring back Sabrina, alive and hopefully mostly well. In exchange, you will be one of my…beasts. You will obey my every command. You will follow my rules. You will swear allegiance to me.”

Surprise flickers across her beautiful features.

But she doesn’t know that I have no animas sworn to me. Anims, yes. But never animas. She would be the first and only one.

“Take it or you get nothing from me.”

Her eyes flick down my body so fast I might have missed it. What do those eagle eyes see? What do those Boneweaver eyes see? With training, could she see as a shark does?

Something fresh and clean glimmers in my stomach, wholly unexpected. Perhaps it shows on my face because Aurelia takes a smooth, controlled breath.

Chapter 2

Aurelia

I’d never considered myself capable of killing someone. I am a healer. That is my calling—it has been for many years.

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