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“What the hell does that mean?”
“Neither of you should be here. Just die already and let him find another mate.”
“You’re attacking me in my sleep—like a fucking coward, I might add—because my life meansnothingunless I agree to be his mate?”
Why was it that no one saw me as anything more than an object? A vessel, a guardian, a mate . . . where did it end?
Heat was rising. My face warmed and rage ignited within.
I didn’t know what I was doing, only that I was done.
“My turn,” Eres said.
Chapter16
Reagan
My back bent at an unnatural angle until it snapped. Every bone in my body seemed to be trying to torque, despite being impossible.
Every limb spasmed as I jerked unnaturally. My shoulders rotated forward then back, popping out of the sockets.
It took me too long to understand what Eres meant.
I thought she was going to pull out some fabled powers that unicorns were meant to have. In hindsight, I should have guessed.
For the first time in my life, I shifted.
Nausea roiled my belly. She pushed me to the metaphorical backseat so I couldn’t act on the instinct and retch all over the bed like I wanted.
Eres let out a deep chuff worthy of a majestic warhorse. Red tinted her vision as she took control of us. She stamped her foot like a bull, then lowered her head.
She didn’t detail what she planned on doing, but we were feeling each other really well for once. I withered, knowing her intent.
“We can't kill her,” I said, trying to throw her off course. Eres attempted to charge, but it worked.
Our balance was a delicate thing and we wobbled on unsure legs like a newborn foal instead of an obsidian steed.
“Like hell I can't,” she replied back, “stop vying for control.”
“Like hell I won't,” I said, throwing her words back at her. “I need her alive.”
“Let go. Blame me for her death later, but we’ll be alive and that’s what matters.”
“Eres, she said ‘we’ know more. I have to find out what that means and if Clara is safe! What if they go through the portal to the family? Subdue her, dammit, but don’t?—”
Eres let out a whinny that may as well have been a roar from her perspective.
“I am a death god,” she said. “I am superior. She is a danger to us, and we will end her. That is final.”
Jana seemed to watch us with narrowed eyes, like she was trying to understand our agenda as we thrashed back and forth. Too bad she wouldn’t appreciate how much I was fighting to keep her alive. Eres thought of herself as the end all, be all but she wasn’t the only one in this body. While I’d always been a shifter, I was latent. She didn’t have nearly as much control as she should. For that, she only had herself to blame.
I jerked a little too hard, trying to pull her back when she got near Jana, and we went sprawling in a plume of dust. Not only was she a bitch for trying to kill me, but she was also a shitty maid if there was this much dust down here.
“If you're going to have inane thoughts, the least you could do is stop fighting,” Eres insisted.
“If you're going to kill someone, the least you could do is consult me first,” I shot back.
“I don’t know what you’re playing at, but I’m ending this,” Jana said, then shifted way faster than I had. Seconds passed where Eres tried to kick her legs out from under her. It worked, sending her to the floor beside us, but it was no matter. She quickly got back to her feet in the form of a full-grown elk.
