Page 148 of The Wolf and the Chimera
“Really?” I asked. “You hurt Kalli forhersake?”
Throwing the most terrible thing he had done in his face snapped the final tethers on his control. He reared back and launched himself at me.
It was the sloppy, poorly concealed attack that I had been pushing for.
I dodged him, lurched across the room, and picked up the obsidian container of pure, unadulterated power. As I held it above my head, Lyall’s blue eyes grew impossibly round, and the sharp scent of his fear filled my nostrils.
“You drank a few drops of my magic,” I said, “and became almost wild with power.”
I took a step closer, and Lyall flinched. I raised the container even higher. My arms shook, and Lyall’s gaze shot to me, then darted back to what I held.
“What would a whole container of it do,” I asked, “without any wielder to control it?”
My dizziness worsened, and I fought to keep upright. I couldn’t let Lyall detect any weakness.
"It would destroy the entire chateau," Lyall said and swallowed, "which is why you won't unleash it—not with your bastard mate still on the loose. Every second that passes undoubtedly draws him closer to you.”
My heart panged, but I didn’t falter. If Lyall sensed the slightest waver in my threat, he would be on me. His eyes were wild with stolen power. If he shoved those damn needlesunder my skin again, I doubted his loyalty to Cordelia would outweigh his desire for more magic.
Lyall would drain not only my power, but also my life.
I couldn’t let him know I was only stalling until my mate and my friends arrived. In my bones, in the depths of my soul, I knew Ryder would come for me. Despite Bo’s betrayal, my heart told me that Kieran and Melanie would too.
Pack sticks together.
My friends were coming for me. I only had to hold out until they arrived.
My vision darkened at the corners, and I wondered just how close to death Lyall had brought me.
“The bronze inlaid in the container’s interior is what’s making you so dizzy,” Lyall explained. I struggled to comprehend his words, but the fear in his eyes was easy to read. “Silver is the weakness of the wolves—or was—and bronze is the weakness of the chimeras.”
Spots danced in my vision, and the container grew heavier and heavier in my arms. Lyall took a step closer, and I retreated. The container slipped in my fingers, but I caught it.
Barely.
Lyall sucked in a breath.
“Don’t push me,” I warned.
“You don’t know what you’re doing,” he countered. “Put it down.Before the bronze makes you lose control entirely,put it down.”
I ignored him.
My grip on the container, shaky as it was, was all that stood between me and death or Entombment.
I let Lyall see the wild desperation of a caged animal within me. I let him see just what he and the High Witch and the sorceress had planted in my heart. Though my arms trembled, I raised the container even higher.
“Maybe I willput it down,” I threatened. “Maybe I’ll drop it before my mate reaches us.”
Chapter Forty-One
Ryder
The farther we traveled through the vents, the less dense the smoke became. The ventilation system had blown the wolfsbane from the closest vent in a neighboring room and into the surveillance area.
Now, it was a mere haze. Paired with our hazmat suits, I prayed our scents couldn’t be traced. I was able to summon my wolf’s vision, but my dominance continued to loom beyond my control. The lack of power paired with the narrowness of the ducts grated my nerves, but behind me, Melanie army-crawled with ease thanks to her smaller stature.
“I think we lost the last of Lyall’s henchmen,” she whispered.
