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Sabium would never have been a better man. Whichever evil had been planted in his mind—either when the gods created him, or when his father raised him—had simply been waiting to be set free.
My silence hadn’t pleased him. He met my gaze, and his mouth twisted. “I suppose there are worse things than being a monster,” he said. “Such as being leashed by one.”
Fury twisted in my stomach.
Sabium’s lips curved into the mimicry of a smile. Pushing his chair back, he got to his feet and stalked from the room.
Eight days.
* * *
Prisca exuded rage.
She sat, appearing almost relaxed in her chair in our room at the inn I’d chosen—that monster taking up far too much space as he sprawled at her feet. But I could see something in her eyes that hadn’t been there before. Something cruel and vicious and burning with suppressed vengeance.
She’d gotten out of bed, eaten, slipped food to the monster—who followed her around as if guarding her from me—even washed the blood out of his fur. She’d changed into the fresh clothes I’d bought at the market, used my pigeon to send a message to her aunt, wrote more messages for Tibris and the others, brushed her hair… And the entire time, it was as if she was somewhere else entirely, her gaze burning with wrath.
She didn’t sleep. When she lay down, she jolted awake, and the dark circles beneath her eyes—already startling when I found her—seemed to grow worse by the hour.
I supposed it wasn’t surprising. Prisca had taken a number of blows that would have been crippling on their own, and all of them had come in a short period of time.
But her timing was definitely inconvenient.
We took turns on sentry duty each night. I’d been careful to appear as if I were traveling alone, Prisca using her power to sneak up to the room I’d secured. But it was only a matter of time before Regner’s guards began going door-to-door in every village within a few days’ travel of his dungeon.
My worst fear was that we would stumble across a town or village just as they were readying for a Taking or Gifting ceremony. While both of us carried blue marks on our temples, the king’s assessor and the priestess would be the most likely to recognize one or both of us. If they traveled with a null or managed to take us by surprise with fae iron…
My hair had been darkened, but Prisca’s long blond curls and amber eyes were recognizable. We needed to take care of that. Soon.
I considered my strategy as we ate. I’d ordered food to be delivered to the room, well aware that we couldn’t draw attention to ourselves. And so, I sat on my bed, plate in my lap as I eyed the creature. Prisca had attempted to convince him to stay in the forest, and he’d argued.
Argued. Because the beast could talk. In our minds.
Last night, he’d slunk out the window, climbed up the side of the building, and strolled along the roof, where he’d kept watch.
A knock sounded on the door. Prisca went still. The Drakoryx slowly rolled to his feet.
I held up one finger, and Prisca buried her hand in the fur along the back of his neck. My power came to me easily, warming my hands. Prisca nodded. She could pause time if necessary.
Crossing the room to the door, I cracked it open.
The messenger stood at attention. I glowered at him. He just sighed, handing me the note and holding out his hand for the coin I dropped into his palm.
I closed the door, locked it, and opened the message.
“Kaliera,” I said.
Prisca curled her lip, her eyes flashing. But she leaned forward, gesturing for me to continue. She had always been at her best when there were plans to be made, action to be taken.
“I don’t like it either. Somehow, her messengers always seem to know where I am. Clearly, she thinks we’re still her fucking puppets, even if we’re no longer at her beck and call. But this is important. Regner is going to kill Jamic before the next full moon. He’s bringing down the barrier.”
She frowned. “Why would he bring it down? That’s exactly what we want.”
“He knows we’re a true threat to him now. And he’s going to end this war before it even begins. According to the queen, he’ll draw all that power into his own body, until he’s the most powerful creature on this continent. Completely unstoppable. All of us using our power together wouldn’t put a dent in the magic he has been hoarding for all these centuries.”
Prisca placed her plate on the ground, and the Drakoryx got to work finishing her stew. “That amount of power in a human would make him insane.”
“We could argue that he already is insane.”
