Page 72 of Her Tortured Beasts

“Take as much as you want,” Selena says, glancing at her watch. “Then we’d better get you back to your room.”

“Right,” I say, taking a piece of the bacon and cheese loaf, the mozzarella stretching between the pieces in the most delicious way. “Lucky that meeting they had lasted so long.”

I can feel it when the energy of the room changes. Lady Drakos goes rigid, and she sets her glass down on the table. The hand she rests on her lap trembles as she turns to look at me and there is something in her expression I cannot,darenot, read. “I’m so very sorry, Aurelia.”

Chapter 40

Scythe

It’s near dawn that I wake up, tangled between Savage and Lyle like pups in a litter. I shove Savage’s leg off and he mumbles as he wakes.

“Cheese…yum.”

Lyle leaps out of bed and immediately begins pacing the room like a…well, like a lion, the same way he has done every morning since our regina was taken.

“She sent us a good memory,” Lyle grits out. “Likely to subdue us.”

“But how did she send it?” Savage asks, getting up to look out the window. “We’ve been trying to make contact for weeks.”

“Somehow she established a connection outside of the estate,” I say. “Likely when she left for the meeting with the crime lords.”

“But why would Xander have taken her?”

I can think of a number of reasons, and every single one threatens to wrench me out of my cold state. Our reports of the fateful meeting have been scant, to say the least. It had been a tight-knit group that attended.

“We need to talk to one of the other crime lords,” I say. “But which one to choose? They all have reasons to want us dead.”

“The Collector?” Savage asks.

“Cunning enough to give me half-truths,” I muse. “No, we’ll see the falcons.”

“Did you see her, though?” Savage asks wistfully, still looking out of the window as if he’ll see his regina walking up the academy driveway. “She felt happy, for a little while.”

“She was in pain, too,” Lyle mutters. “They’ve collared her. She’s trying to convince us otherwise, but I know better.”

I sift through the memory of my regina in the Drakos kitchen. I have not seen Lady Drakos nor Selena in person for many years now, and even then it was from afar. They were kept well out of the media.

“The hatchlings have grown,” Savage muses. “Has it really been that long?”

“Lady Drakos looks older than I expected,” Lyle says. “What was that potion she was taking?”

“Yeah!” Savage says with interest. “Whatwasthat?”

My shark and I go still as we hone in on the memory of it. Because we know exactly what that potion is, and I think my regina has figured it out too.

Chapter 41

Aurelia

It takes me a little while to find out what Lady Drakos was apologising for. The next morning when Heather flips open my coverings, there is the tense, bustling energy of an event in the air. It’s like the morning of Xander’s wedding, but worse.

Xander still doesn’t look at me, or talk to me. Instead, he instructs Heather not to give me clothes once again. When I’d returned to my cage yesterday, I’d taken my dress off and hidden it under my blankets so I could cover myself better for bed. Luckily this morning, I’d remembered to take it off before the covers came up.

I stand naked before Olly, Heather and Xander, but this time when he clips his leash onto my collar, he does it by hand.

Silently, he leads me downstairs, Eugene’s wing skimming my ankle to let me know he’s there.

It has the feel of one of those bank heist movies where the high security clearance banker has a suitcase of something valuable handcuffed to his hand to make a bank drop.

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