Page 4 of Her Tortured Beasts

“You heard him,” Ghoul says, nudging me with his elbow.

Keeping my face as expressionless as the basilisk’s voice, I lower my shackled hands to the third step and begin bear crawling my way up.

My father thinks he can humiliate and degrade me with this, but he doesn’t know that with each step, my mind whispers my mother’s name in a reminder of my vow.

Athena. Athena. Athena Boneweaver was her name.

Twenty times I chant her name before we reach the top and I straighten, suppressing a wince at the pain in my lower spine.

The first thing I see when I raise my eyes is Xander’s chest, and the shiny new bling that adorns his neck. A solid gold hunk of a metal etched with his family crest.

He looks all cosy standing there with his father. And it doesn’t take a genius to figure out what it was that got him reinstated into the family.

Rejecting me. Exchanging me. His regina.

This entire thing had beenmyidea, and he’d gone and hijacked it right under my very nose. So instead of my grand plan looking mighty clever or sacrificial, he’s making it look like the whole thing was his idea. That it washisoperation that got me caught.

A flame of anger ignites in my chest.

There’s no fucking way he’s going to get away with this.

Chapter 2

Xander

Home – Bebe Rexha, Machine Gun Kelly

Ihave dreamt of this moment for so damn long that now reality seems like the dream.

My father leads the way into our family home, straight into the majestic black and gold tiled entrance hall with the old obsidian stone dragon guards. I smile faintly at their intimidating presence and the memories I have of my child self, scrambling up their mighty bodies and perching myself on a big head, crying out to my sister to look at me.

The bittersweet scent of cinders and magic is familiar and comforting in its power. It prickles my skin, letting me know it sees me, that it recognises me. Warmth spreads through my every pore as my own power greets the ancient forces.

Tonight, after eight years of exile, I am welcomed home. Tonight, I am reinstated as heir to my family’s royal seat.

For the first time in a long time, I feelgood.

The price was supposed to be dear, but I paid it gladly and with the honour of my family behind me. I feel…more powerful than ever before. More ready to face the world as the dragon I’msupposed to be. I am forged strong by what I did, and whatever anyone thinks about it, I made myself invincible.

The only stain upon my grand return is the slithering scum my father has allowed to take up residence here. And the worst stain of all being Serpent Spawn, who justhadto follow me home like one of Scythe’s apparitions. If she hadn’t burned down her own family home, she’d be far away from here. As it is, she is human capital that must not be stolen from us, and I plan to collect any and all interest from my investment.

My hand reflexively reaches for the right side of my neck, but I drop it almost immediately. It’s strange not feeling Savage’s chaotic energy or Scythe’s cold presence in my head, and more recently, Lyle’s leashed rabid power.

My eyes fall upon the golden archway that leads to the rest of the Estate and warmth like a welcoming hearth filters through my chest. My ex-brothers will be furious with me right now, even raging mad, but eventually, they will come to terms with the truth.

That I was never meant to be a part of their pack.

That I was meant to be free.

And within that freedom is true power.

Ghoul leads Serpent Spawn by the arm behind us as we turn the corner to find a group of Mace’s scientists waiting with barely restrained glee.

There’s eight of them, all serpents, with a steel table laden with sterile equipment, packets, and collection tubes. Every single one of the so-called team has a black serpent covenant etched for all to see on the back of their right hand.

“This couldn’t wait until the morning?” my father drawls.

The lead scientist, a middle-aged bald male, immediately breaks out into a sweat, his fear perfuming the space between us. “If it pleases, Your Majesty, we have waited so very?—”

---