But saved my life.
A Siren Singer was perched in the opening. Tasting the air and crooning softly.Of course she’d have one all for herself.But that also meant another Singer that Zani would have to battle against. I hoped she was as powerful as Dion had said.
I shifted back awkwardly, clinging to the shadows. I would have to kill it as I jumped in. I took out the small knife Dion had given me out in the Warlands and gauged my run. I would have only milliseconds to kill it.
I ran and jumped, kicking off the ledge and leveraging from the window frame. The Siren Singer didn’t even have time to realize what was happening before my knife pressed through its throat and up into its brain.
We clattered into the room in a frenzy of thrashing death and blood. I clambered from the dying beast as quick as I could, but Agatha was already sitting there with a loaded crossbow pointed at me. A silver arrow winking in the lamp light.
“You!” she uttered.
I ran at her as she fired. I dodged the arrow and sprang onto her, picking her up easily and slamming her into the wall above her bed. I’d pinned her by her neck.
“Lady Skol made me,” she begged.
“I highly doubt that,” I uttered. “I trusted you.” I threw her off the bed and she crashed into the floor and wall. “I loved you. You were my sister. But you betrayed me as easily as you breathe.” I booted her in the stomach. “Lady Skol never made you do anything. You admitted it yourself that you killed Aunt Teetee.”
I booted again and Agatha caught my foot, twisting it and pulling me down. My knife clattered away and we began wrestling, rolling around the room. I was trying to get my hands on her throat and strangle her. She jabbed me in the neck and broke free. I couldn’t breathe. Coughing and trying to take in whatever air I could, I stumbled after her. She swung around, but I saw the glint of the blade too late, the knife swiped across my belly.
I screamed as she swiped down to stab my heart. I caught it, deflecting the blow into my thigh. She’d stabbed me with my own knife! My wolf was howling in anger. Practically begging for me to shift and tear this bitch to shreds.
“You should’ve stayed dead,” she hissed. She drew a whistle from her pocket.
I yanked the knife from my leg and threw it at her, it drove through her hand and shot the whistle away. She screamed in pain. The guards at the door had been trying to unlock it the whole time, fumbling with a key that wouldn’t work.
I leaped at Agatha, as she pulled another knife. I batted it away and headbutted her. She fell back with a broken nose. Blood flowed down her dress and she screamed in dismay.
I grabbed her by her clothes and threw her across the room. My leg was screaming with pain, but as I looked at it, it slowly began toheal.
I roared at her and leaped.I was going to kill her.
I was going to avenge Aunt Teetee’s death.
Roman’s death.
I grabbed her by her hair and pulled her to her knees. She was blubbering, crying how sorry she was and how she’d been forced.
But I couldn’t do anything.
Because I’d just frozen.My hands gripping her head. Her tears leaking down her cheeks. I could see the bruises already developing from our brawl. Feel the blood rushing around my body as my healing kicked in. Yet I could do nothing.
Lady Skol appeared from behind a wall. Agatha’s eyes bulged,shehadn’t even known she was there.
“Simply lovely,” she said. “Two friends reduced to violence. There’s no better way to conquer than to divide.”
Realizing that I couldn’t move, Agatha scurried out from under me. She wiped tears of joy from her face that were mixed with blood. She groveled to Lady Skol and clung to her robe, kissing her shoes.
“Thank you for saving me!” she said. “She came from nowhere. She killed–”
“And yet she was meant to be dead? You assured me your merls would do the job. That you yourself had gone back to the temple and seen the blood and bodies… Or did you lie?” Lady Skol said. Her face was sweet and incredibly dangerous.
Agatha stuttered. “But I did! When I went back there was only–”
“You served your purpose,” Lady Skol said. She clicked her fingers and Agatha erupted into flames.
She began screaming, burning alive and writhing on the floor. The smell of searing flesh filled the room and her burning hair stung my nostrils. As quick as it had started, it ended. She was dead, a smoldering heap on the ground that Lady Skol regarded with disgust.
“Well, that’s sorted. My plan has worked to draw you back here, however. I never expected you to die out there. I didn’t kill you myself, you see,” she said, walking up to me.
