Page 97 of Her Tortured Beasts

“No!” I violently wave off the wolf’s arm, except the movement unbalances me and I go crashing in the opposite direction. Scythe catches me and firmly sets me back upright.

I scowl into the night air.

I’m learning, slowly, the difference between the sounds of night and day. Time moves excruciatingly slowly right now, and all I have for input are the sounds and smells around me.

I suppose it’s just lucky that Father didn’t take my ear drums. He probably could have, except the eyes had felt like the worse torment at the time.

“Just a little further,” Scythe says in that broken voice of his. That’s the three of us. Three, broken boys. All of us fucked up in some way. Savage’s was a little more hidden than mine, but all he had to do was start speaking and you could see it.

Even now, he bounds before me, kicking up sand with a completely mad hooting.

The ocean feels loud in my ears above the crazy wolf’s laughter. I’d never noticed how it seemed to crash. Each droplet making it’s own noise until it became a cacophony. An orchestra with no conductor.

Gulls call out to my left, the wind tugs at my hair and something in the ocean stirs.

“What’s the moon like?” I ask quietly.

“Round,” Savage says.

“Beautiful,” Scythe says. “A hunter’s moon. Here he comes.”

I strain my ears for all they’re worth, trying to sort through the sounds like a sieve. Everything is just loud. Then, the movement of wet sand, the press of heavy, broad feet. Someone with lungs much bigger than mine takes a breath.

“Scythe Kharkorous has brought me a friend,” comes the husky voice. It’s deep and coming from high up. This is a big animus.

“Eko, this is Xander, the young man I was telling you about.”

Eko’s big body steps before me. He smells fresh and briny. He takes my face in one wet hand, turning it side to side. I suppress a cringe at being inspected. “You are not broken, dragon,” he says. “You are not injured.” My stomach tightens. “You are steel waiting to be re-forged.”

I swallow through a thick throat.

“Are you willing to bathe in fire?”

My nostrils flare as I suppress the sudden burn where my eyes should be. “Yes.”

“Are you willing to cast aside everything that you are, to learn to see what others do not?”

I pause at that. Everything that I am? “My father has already taken everything that I was. I am nothing right now. No one.”

He makes a deep sound, a whisper of a chuckle. “Dragons do not lose themselves so easily, XanderDrakos. A fish may lose himself in the ocean, but a dragon does not lose himself in the sky.”

The thought of flight makes my head spin. The thought of never doing it again makes me want to vomit. To my great embarrassment a sob darts like a thief out of my lips.

Eko puts a hand on my shoulder and to my surprise I find it reassuring. “You have not lost your heart,” he says gently. “That is good. You will need it.”

Chapter 55

Aurelia

Iknow Xander and Francesca have left the estate because Flores orders me to dress and takes me down to breakfast this morning.

Their places are blessedly empty and the twins are quiet as they eat—except to demand that I sit next to them. Eugene is also absent, as Flores won’t allow him at the table, Selena has been keeping him tucked in the nursery during meal times.

Despite Francesca being gone, Flores is in a good mood and allows me to take a spot at the table for the first time. Is it his way of saying thank you for rescuing Delilah? Surely not.

I take my seat between the twins. Emmerson gives me a chipolata and most of the wilted spinach off his plate. I smile at him and scoop up the entire wad of spinach, shoving it into my mouth.

The little dragon grins at me before turning his face down to his food. A hand approaches me from my left and I turn to see Lady Drakos’ delicate, veined hand reaching out to pat my own. She smiles at me, and I notice her mythical eyes have a new sort of sparkle.

---