Page 88 of A Reign of Malice
I’d rather be dead than his queen, but something tells me my death isn’t his goal. At least not yet.
Moving as swiftly as I can, I lunge for him once again with jaws snapping. I go low, aiming for the flesh of his thigh, but he’s faster than I expect for someone filled with toxins.
He dodges, seeming unconcerned that his wounded arm is still dripping, not healing as it would for a normal wolf. There’s something unholy holding him together. It’s not adrenaline. It’s not instinct.
It’s dark magic. Just as Estee warned.
Aeson shoves me back, and I skid across the floor, my claws scraping stone as I slow my momentum.
He comes for me again, the grin of a devil on his face as he raises his bloodied hand. Before I can react, he wipes two fingers across my right eye.
The effect is immediate.
Agony erupts through my wolf’s head as the darkness soaks into my vision. My right eye goes blind. We howl in pain. I stumble, thrashing. For a terrifying moment, the world is lopsided. Sight and shadow merge, and I can’t tell up from down.
“Shift!”
I hear the word, and I can’t tell where it comes from or who said it, but I listen anyway before the poison can reach my brain, ending all this before it’s even truly begun.
I change back, the magic from the transformation covers my body, slowing the shift. Its warmth seeps into me as if cleansing my body. By the time I’m on two feet again—well, on my knees—the burning has subsided, but my vision is still blurry in the right eye.
I clutch my face, fresh blood on my cheek that feels like tar. Is this my own or Aeson’s? I reach for the tablecloth, yanking it toward my face even as dishes crash on the floor, and wipe furiously and just when I think I might be okay, a shadow falls over me.
“You didn’t really think I’d let you touch me without consequence, did you?” Aeson taunts, his voice low and nearly as sharp as the blade he draws from his suitcoat pocket.
It gleams silver under the golden light, and I feel his intent.
My life is no longer safe.
He means to end me. Now.
He stalks closer, slowly, savoring it.
Then—
“Don’t!” Dasha’s voice shatters the tension like a lightning bolt. She’s moving, fast and desperate, her hand clamping around his wrist. Her fingers shake, but they hold. “Youneedher, Aeson. If you kill her, you destroy yourself. You said it yourself. You needed her to balance…”
Aeson’s glare is enough to have her words trailing off as he replies. “I don’tneedanyone.”
His arm moves in a blur.
I think it’s meant for me, but then the dagger slices clean through Dasha’s throat.
Time stops.
A choked gasp escapes her lips, blood spilling down her chest in a crimson arc. Her body falls forward onto the table, her lifeblood soaking into the feast below. It splashes against my skin, hot and metallic.
“No!” I scream, lunging forward.
But it’s too late.
Aeson steps past her without a second glance, the blade still gleaming in his hand, his steps soaked in the gore of the only ally I had within these walls.
Behind him, her body slumps from the table to the floor, lifeless.
In the silent seconds that follow, I think this is all but over, that I’ve lost, failing my mate, my pack, everyone…but then the howls begin.
Distant, at first, but quickly coming closer. Growing louder. Dozens of voices in unison. War cries.
