Page 33 of Her Tortured Beasts

“Wait…” I turn to stare at him, then at our surroundings. I feel as if the cotton wool inside my brain is being swept away. “You’rereallyhere?”

Scythe’s eyes glint in the dark. “I am, Aurelia.”

I let go of him, shaking my head. “No. You can’t. You can’t be.” I need to get out of here. I need to get away from him. I surrendered myself for a reason. I cannot let him sway me from my purpose.

Scythe grips my arm firmly to get my attention. “Come here when you are lost.” He swallows, an unusual note of desperation entering his rasp. “Come and see me.”

Shame fills me, a great swallowing beast, mightier than anything I could turn into. “I’m sorry,” I say as I tear myself away from my great white shark and find myself alone in the ever-dark once again.

Chapter 18

Lyle

Scythe abruptly snaps the neck of the serpent he’d just been holding still. Everyone in the room freezes. His eyes search something in the air over my shoulder before he strides out of the small suburban living room of the house next to Charlotte Naga’s.

We’ve been at it for days now, against Celeste’s advice, no less. But once Savage and Scythe came to see me in Celeste’s office where I’d been madly pacing…that had been it. I’d taken one look at my brothers, with fire in their eyes and vengeance in their hearts, and that was all I’d needed to growl in assent to the question in Scythe’s eyes.

Yes, I will do anything to get our regina back.

Yes, I will kill, castrate, or torture anyone necessary to stake our claim.

Yes, I will wreak havoc on the world if I can’t get what I want.

And so here we are, in serpent territory, feral, mad, doing as much strategic harm as possible. We came here to find Charlotte Naga’s large two-storey house empty. It’s evident they moved out in a hurry with the children. The kitchen still had food on the table. The milk has gone off in the fridge and clothes arestill on the line, now dry. Mace got them out before we arrived, passports and all.

He knows exactly what he’s doing, but so do we. So we headed over to their neighbour’s house and found them to be spies.

Savage, the five ex-inmate wolves and I watch Scythe leave with frowns. There’s a strange energy in the air, something my human self can’t feel, but myliongoes insane for.

“Put him with the others,” I command, waving a hand over the serpent before stalking after my shark-brother.

More than one of Savage’s feral wolves licks his chops before shifting. These wolves are older, harder than the ones at the Academy. They’d been in Blackwater prison before Savage blew it up and gave them the chance to escape. If they were left to their own devices, they’d dispose of the evidence the old-fashioned way and obtain a meal in one swoop. But we have other, more purposeful plans today.

Savage follows by my side, sniffing and growling in his throat. Almost fully descended into ferality, he’d torn his clothes off days ago. Clothes and Savage have never gone so well together, and in this state, on a hunt with his pack-brothers and missing his regina, he is barely human.

For myself, I fear the three-piece suit is the only tether around my body that keeps me from devolving completely. My lion stalks freely within me, but without our regina, we arein a rage.

Scythe stands before the front gate of the property, frozen, staring out at the sky as if fixated. I too look out at the bright blue expanse as if I can see my regina’s eagle form soaring high above us, as I had so many times. Howdarethe sky look so bright whensheis not joyous within it.

“Is it my regina?” Savage’s voice is rough with ferality as he rounds me to stand before our brother. “Tell me it’s her. I canfeel it.” He sniffs the air with a blood-covered nose, licking the wet crimson off his lips as he searches Scythe’s face for some hint of what’s caught his attention.

I rub at my own chest, suddenly aching with primal need of many kinds.

Scythe blinks, some moment passed, a lighthouse going out. He lays a hand on Savage’s muscular shoulder. “I saw her.”

The snarl that tears through me makes both brothers glance my way. “Where? How?”

“Through a psychic bond. That tells me she still has her powers. They don’t have her bound in obsidian.”

Likely to enable her to keep us shut out.

“I want to see her too,” Savage growls, stepping up close to Scythe and getting in his face, angry he didn’t get his own chance. We’ve all been trying every day and every night to contact our regina telepathically, but have been coming up against the strongest wall Savage has ever seen. It was completely useless.

“I have an idea,” Scythe says, turning to me. “We need to head back to the academy.”

There’s a new gleam in his eyes, and I have no doubt it’s from seeing our regina first hand. Jealousy fills my blood and my animus takes over, snarling in the great white’s face. Nose to nose we stand, and Scythe returns my growl.

“Soon, Lyle,” he says. “Soon.”

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