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“Taliesin!” Cerri snapped.
Her voice never reached him. He stared me down with those red-rimmed eyes. The crown of thorns grew larger over his head. They dug into his skin and tousled his usually perfect hair.
I took a half-step towards him in warning. He didn’t even flinch. Magic suffused the air.
“Fuck it,” Cerri said with a dismissive wave of her hand. “Destroy Fox’s kitchen. I don’t care.”
I didn’t want to leave her side, but a crackle at the edge of my peripherals made me turn just as lightning snapped the floor near my feet. I gaped at my friend.
“I don’t want to hurt you!” Fire warmed my palm as I summoned it and held it in warning.
The man on the table vanished. It’d been a glamour. I had just enough time to spin and lurch towards Cerri before Tal brandished a kitchen knife. He brought it down and slammed it into my shoulder. The impact shoved me into Cerri.
Her potion tumbled forward, and the cup cracked against the marble counter, spilling its contents as she cried out.
I shoved back against Tal, but I didn’t put enough effort into it. I didn’t want to hurt my friend. This wasn’t his fault. Since I didn’t push him back far enough, he ducked and dove forward, this time brandishing the blade in front of him.
Cerri had just enough time to curse under her breath before the blade slid into her torso. Growl on my lips, I grabbed Tal by the back of his shirt and flung him clear across the room. I wouldn’t hold back on him ever again.
He crashed into the wall, making it crack beneath him. Fox burst into the room just as Tal slid to the ground. Behind me, Cerri grunted and groaned. The smell of her blood filled the air, but I had to trust that she could take care of herself because I was not going to take my eyes off Tal.
Fox rushed over to Tal but didn’t bend to help him up. Instead, Fox turned to me and asked me what I thought I was doing. I growled in response because it was all I could muster in my rage. Claws had pierced my fingertips and my teeth were too large for my mortal mouth. My growl still rumbled in my throat.
“That’s not her!” Tal shouted as he shoved himself back to his feet.
He leaned against the wall with one shoulder, his head hanging. When he looked up, he shoved off the wall and pinned me with glazed and wild eyes. The crown over his head had grown even more tangled. The thorns delved deep into his flesh. Pity swam in the pit of my stomach.
I wanted to help my friend, but it seemed as though there was little I could do. My hands were made for harming. These claws could slash and shred, but they could not rip apart the crown turning my friend mad.
“Why do you not trust me?” I said past my over-large teeth.
Fox stepped between us and spat, “Because you are a leashed dog that will go feral for even the glimpse of your lover.”
“Shove it up your ass,” Cerri grunted behind me, letting everyone know that she was still alive.
The sounds of ceramic on marble behind me told me that she was getting another potion ready. Was the spilled one salvageable? I didn’t want to have to keep fighting my friend. I respected Tal too much to keep harming him like this.
Tal’s snarl rippled through the room right before gravity lifted. My toes lifted from the ground first. My attention snapped to Tal who had one shaking hand raised. I shook my head. This might have stopped Del and Cerri in his old deli, but it wasn’t going to stop me.
My wings burst out of my back in a gust of black feathers that scattered throughout the room. One pump and they sent me careening across the room towards Tal. I shoved my friend back against the wall so hard his head cracked off the drywall.
I cupped the back of his skull with my clawed hand and leaned in to whisper, “I would never betray you, but you’re pushing my limits today. Cerridwen’s aura is the same as it has always been. Trust in that. Trust that I can tell the aura of my queen apart from that of an illusion.”
For a moment, Tal seemed conflicted. He lifted those glassy eyes to the ceiling, and the thorny bramble atop his head started to retract. Hope fluttered in my chest. I inhaled and started to pull back.
Tal’s brows flattened and his lips twisted in a snarl. Hope died and plummeted to the pit of my stomach. I rushed to push Tal back, but he used his arcana in the room to thrust me away. I drifted, weightless, in the air for a heartbeat. Though I quickly pumped my wings and rushed back, the man stepped in-between and vanished.
Fox shouted at me, and while I could tell that he was calling me every name in the book, I heard none of it. Ignoring him, I spun in search of Tal. Cerri caught my gaze. She had a hand pressed over the wound in her stomach. Bright red blossomed out over her clothing and brought a growl to my lips again.
Cerri’s brows lowered in determination. I watched the muscles of her jaw flex as she looked side to side. Tal was nowhere to be seen, but I knew that he wasn’t going to get far because his arcana still turned the room into a pocket of weightlessness.
Pushing over to my queen, I gently reached for her. A part of me feared that she might fall apart if I touched her. I had no idea how well she’d healed her wound. If I jarred her, I might rip it open. Her cheeks seemed paler than usual, and there was a tremble in her lower lip no matter how hard she tried to hide it.
I cursed my friend for what’d become of him. Though I did not want to have to kill him, it seemed that might have to happen. It wasn’t a path anyone here was ready to follow. If it had to be someone, I would take the mantle and bear its heavy weight so that Cerri wouldn’t have to.
“I’m almost done,” Cerri whispered.
She wasn’t trying to hide her voice. Tonight’s events had made her weak. When was the last time she’d slept? Though she’d fallen asleep in my arms earlier, Beryl had whisked her away to a nightmare realm while setting our lives on metaphorical fire.
