Page 169 of Memories Like Fangs
“Oh, Byrdie! Where did you go? I guess I hit you too hard, huh?” Lilah called out, her singsong voice breathless and confident. I could hear her heels clicking against the crystalline floor.
How had I missed that this fucking hoe was wearing shoes on sacred ground?
The tiny crack inside of me spread. A spiderweb expanding toward the edges. It held, but for how much longer?
I gritted my teeth and pushed off the ground to sit up. I leaned my back against the tower with a stifled groan. I looked down to assess the damage. My beautiful gown was torn and tattered now. My recovery was slower and weirder than normal. Smoke and red sparks formed crystal fractals that met in the middle over my open injuries or regenerated a tip of my wing or a part of my tail as my actual scales, skin, wings, and everything else healed underneath. My injuries stung, but the pain was duller than before. It was almost like Lilah’s magic now was hurting me… begrudgingly?
Why was her magic having a different effect now?
Behind me, the dark royal blue sapphire tower shook like an earthquake, sending shockwaves through me. Where the stone should feel cool against my back and under me, I only now noticed the electric heat radiating from it and the matching energy coming from my mom’s necklace. I pressed my back, my hands, every part of my skin that I could even further into the stone, drawn to the warmth of it. It went straight to the very heart of me. Around me, the hearts of the sapphires lit up brilliantly and almost blindingly. The vibrations of the stone I leaned against made my skin tingle with its power. The feeling of its magic dancing down my scales made me want to purr. It did more than ground me. It steadied me,calledto me.
Its melodies of strength went beyond my connection to crystals that had saved my life or the crystal cave I was born in,which lit up just like this one, according to my mom’s stories. Deeper than my mom’s pink and orange wedding ring that matched so many of these stones, reminding me of the sunsets of so many ancestors passed. Further than even the grimoire and the gemstones that guarded her family secrets. It even transcended my ancestral song. Itwasmy ancestry.
It wasmine.
It wasme.
Everything that came before.
Everything that was.
Everything that I would ever be.
This is our horde,my dragon purred, rubbing against my skin to feel the sapphire, too. My sensitive scales had surfaced and practically covered my tawny skin, so I could feel the power more.
The blood of our people… So, that’s why the blood magic wasn’t as strong, why it felt sentient like it didn’t want to spread. It was still dangerous and deadly, but not nearly as corrosive and destructive.
Our ancestors are not her weapons to yield.
I fought a smile.So, she was fucked the moment she walked in.
My dragon’s growl was more like a deep-throated laugh.
“Come out, come out wherever you are, little Byrdie!” Lilah sang, stalking ever closer to where I was hiding. “I’m starting to grow bored, and you and I both know what happens when?—”
“Byrd!”
As soon as I heard those deep golden tones of my favorite sound, I shifted behind the sapphire shield just enough to peek around it. There, just before the cave entrance, was Quinn. Her curls were windblown, and her face flushed. In both of her hands were Amy and Tina, ready to take on whatever enemy they needed to. Despite the fact that I still couldn’t feel her throughour bond, she instantly found my eyes. I didn’t need to feel our connection to know the panic, fury, and love in her eyes. I knew it so well, and I was sure it was reflected in my own eyes. The rest of our family came up behind Quinn, equally breathless. After taking in the shield and the rest of the situation, they immediately got to work on coming up with a plan to get to me. Quinn’s eyes never left mine.
“Well, well, well! Lookie there, Byrdie-pie!” Lilah said, shattering our moment like a hammer to glass. I followed the sound of her voice and saw that she was turned and facing the cave’s entrance, but she was damn near directly in front of the giant sapphire tower I sat behind. Her high-pitched voice reverberated around the cave, grating on my nerves in stereo now. “Your family and friends have all come to see your final performance. Isn’t that so sweet of them? Now, it will be so much easier to take them out once I kill you.”
I hardly heard Lilah’s teasing threat.
I only heard the further cracking within as everything that she had done hit me.
Her using my mate’s ex and vindictive cousin against me.Crack.
Her kidnapping and torturing me.Crack.
Her threats against my cousins.Crack.
Her murder of Talli.Crack.
Her turning my mate, best friend, and my mate’s cousins against me.Crack.
Her desecration of my mother’s remains.Crack.
Her threats, manipulation, disrespect, and viewing of everyone as pawns in her game to be used and thrown away.Crack.
