Page 179 of Her Tortured Beasts

Fuck, she’s right. I stride towards the open gates of Drakos Estate. Ragnar and Uncle Fabian’s cars are parked in the driveway near the front stairs, hence the reason for the gates being open. But as I near the spiked iron gates, the rumble of the trucks is loud enough that I recognise the make of them immediately.

Four open Jeeps with armed guards are led by the Collector, in a red silk jumpsuit and matching headscarf.

Scythe and Lyle realise it quickly, and Minnie helps shove Aurelia behind her own pack. The Collector’s eyes light up as she spots the three dragons lying decimated on the grass. She screeches to a stop and swings out of her Jeep on black calf-hide boots, shaking a finger at me. “Naughty little dragon,” she says, eyes raking down my naked body. “Did you lot just kill three of the most powerful dragons in the state?”

My ribs are broken and there’s the start of a pneumothorax on the left side, but I lazily cast my eyes over the convoy and realise it too late?—

The final Jeep holds a group of hyenas and Lady Hyena herself, a tiny black cauldron in hand, throws a white powder at me.

I stumble back, but my shoulders hit an invisible wall. Beady black eyes gleam, and she croaks, “It’s not your night, Xander Drakos. Not your night at all.”

The scent of the powder hits me. White power. Bone white.

As Savage, Scythe and Lyle sprint towards me, I struggle to find the voice to warn them what I’ve scented in that powder: they are going to use the power of our regina to bind us, harvested right from her very bone.

“Run!”I cry to my brothers.

But Lady Hyena throws a fistful of the powder over Savage, the fastest to reach us. He stops in his tracks, trapped against the energetic bubble. Lyle and Scythe are stopped next, crashing heavily into their invisible cage.

The Collector tuts as she stalks around us in a circle, a cigarette smoking in her hand. Lady Hyena circles us in the opposite direction, sprinkling the bone powder as she goes, calling to the moon and stars with her heinous magic.

“Black moon, red moon,” Lady Hyena chants. “Black sea, Red sea,”

“Bind these beasts to me,” the Collector hisses. “A new regina comes, an old regina goes.”

“Bind them by the wind that sows.” A fierce wind whips my hair as Lady Hyena finishes the spell, fell whispers filling my ears. A vile tug pulls me towards the Collector and I frown at it, resisting this new alien urge. But purely against their will, Savage, Lyle, and Scythe turn towards the Collector.

I follow suit, copying them as I realise what this means. I clench my teeth against the nausea as I feel the powers shifting in the air.

“I thought it wouldn’t work for Xander.” The Collector frowns at me. “Scythe, tell me what happened here tonight, and leave no detail out.”

Scythe’s voice is unusually flat as he immediately gives her a brief rundown of the events, including Aurelia shifting into a dragon, and finally, the death of my father.

Shocked by the smooth obedience of the great white, I remain silent. Lyle and Savage also remain silent and still.

“Is that so?” the Collector breathes, sauntering up to Scythe and kissing him on the cheek.

He doesn’t react at all.

“The magic is binding the dragon,” Lady Hyena muses, gesturing to my stricken form. “But I do not understand why.”

“How wonderful! I get a dragon for free!” the Collector cheers. She runs her hand through Savage’s hair, then moves to Lyle, stroking the collar of his shirt.

Aurelia’s power crashes into me, protesting, demanding my attention. My breath strains as I fight the urge to turn to her. Something circles around me in a vortex. A wild power that feels heavy and golden. I begin to vibrate, my muscles trembling, my body burning up. I blink at my brothers. Then blink again.

“My my,” The Lady Hyena stares me down with those coal-black eyes. “How merciful the Wild Mother is.”

Chapter 102

Aurelia

“This is evil magic, Aurelia, you mustn’t go there!” Marduk urges me, the combined powers of the Devi pack and he keep me from running to the Collector and my mates as we watch them weave a vile spell that curses the very air. “There are too many of them, even for a Boneweaver.”

“Even for a dragon?” I hiss.

“You know as well as I do how hyena spells work!” Minnie furiously whispers up at me.

“I can still kill her!” I say through gritted teeth.

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