Page 35 of Centaur Bolt

Life was full of nasty surprises.

As Isobel glared down at me, the Torshin moved up beside her. “Do we get to play?”

“Yes,” she hissed.

Finn’s eyes glowed crimson. “How far can we go?”

Isobel’s hair lifted off her shoulders. “I don’t need him sane to use his power.” She turned away from me to face Finn, and with a fresh burst of horror, I read her answer in her energy before she delivered it.

“Break him!” she ordered.

13

Havoc

I didn’t think my fucking guest was all that impressed with the eel.

At least, he seemed to pick at it for an extended period, considering his bloody stomach rumbled like a volcano. I’d seared the outside with Dragon fire, but the inside was still a bit raw.

I shrugged. It just meant there was more for me, which was a good thing. As there was no sharding way I was shifting back to human until I was sure he wasn’t regrowing his claws.

Although I preferred a more complete coverage of scales to what he possessed now. Some things just shouldn’t be dangling free.

I got tired of watching him nibble and dangle, and left him to it, launching myself into the air with enough force to add sand to his meal. The cavern was large and offered many spots for my beast to curl up for a nap that would be well out of Marcus’s reach, unless he embraced his wings.

If he did that, the Deranger would handle him. Despite the killing spree, I needed a recharge. That bitch had taken me lower than I’d ever wanted to be again.

I flew until I was only feet below the ceiling, and landed on a shelf extending along the entire back of the cave. Paced along it to the rockwall. The stone glittered in the light thrown by the phosphorescent moss. Some areas of these mountains grew crystals as large as my hand. In this cave, it was in dust form. Tiny drifts of it lay on the stones, and I lowered my long muzzle, extending my tongue to lap it up.

A bit grittier than ideal, but as I swallowed, I felt the energy coursing through me. This cavern had it all—food, water, shelter, and crystal dust. Ace and I had always joked that it would be the perfect place for us to hide if we were ever reckless enough to bolt away from Xumi.

But we hadn’t been. And now he was gone.

I cleaned the last of the dust off my lips and paced back to the edge to gaze downward. My cohort sat with his back huddled against a boulder. He still looked cold.

Should have grown the fucking feathers.

I curled up, tucked my nose into my tail, and closed my eyes.

The moonlight painted the clouds as rivers and lakes of silver.

This was my favorite place to fly—just above them, where the sun or the stars used the vapor as their own private canvas. The moon also danced its silvery brush through each breath I took, the warmth fleeing swiftly in the icy cold air.

But something tickled at my consciousness, and for once, it wasn’t Fang beneath my neck scales. It beckoned to me, and I banked, dropping through the clouds.

The moment I dropped below them, I saw her. She stood upon a cliff. I have no idea how she’d gotten there, and I didn’t care, either. I tilted my wings to bank away—found myself, instead, banking toward. Gritting my teeth, I tried again.

And dropped another few hundred feet.

Both my monster and my beast were not taking no for an answer. They responded to her as though she were a part of us. As though she were the fourth quadrant of our unbalanced trio. Me, myself, I—and her.

My human became even more determined to fight. But no matter how hard I tried, I just kept moving closer to her, as though I were an observer in my own body. The Deranger and the Dragon worked in perfect harmony, and despite the efforts of my human, I dove and then braked, landing on the cliff no more than thirty feet from her.

She walked toward me. Just a little female, yet one look from those green-rimmed eyes, and I was riveted. Unable to move, I could only watch as she came right up to me.

“Hello, Havoc,” she said.

Why had I ever revealed my name to her? When I refused to answer, she placed her tiny hand on my massive muzzle.

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