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Khan turned to the heads of the houses and started to address them, but Fen didn't hear a word of it. Power boiled hot in Fen's veins, and she tensed as the runes lit up on her skin in a warning. She looked around, searching for the threat. Time slowed around her, and feral, burning magic slammed through her body.
Loki…
"It is over when I say it is over," Hasina hissed. She pulled a dagger-like hairpin from her hair and launched herself at Khan's back.
Fen's vision blurred, and red power exploded through her. Fur and claws burst through her skin. She moved faster than time, and she was suddenly pinning Hasina to the ground, her fanged mouth holding her down by the throat. She caught a glimpse of herself in the shining side of the metal shedu. She was as big as a chimera, her grey and white fur bristling on end and large golden eyes shining with fury.
Fen could hear the cries of the people around her, but she couldn't make out what they were saying. The only words rushing through her weredestroyandenemy.
A warm hand rested on her head between her ears, and she could smell man and spice. The chant in her head changed tomate, lover, magi, king.
"Fenrys, don't kill her," Khan said softly, his hands running calming strokes through her fur. "Her soul is not worth you carrying the guilt, my love."
Fen's growl was so deep, her body vibrated with it. Fen spat Hasina out, fighting every instinct she had not to kill the weeping woman in her maw. Blood was dripping from Hasina's neck, staining her golden dress. Fen placed a heavy paw onto her chest and snarled through her muzzle a single word. "Truth."
"I did it! I killed the pharaoh," Hasina cried, clutching at her wounds. "Call this fucking monster off me!"
Fen growled, pushing down heavily on Hasina's chest until she stopped squawking and lay still.
"Fenrys, love, guard this traitor while I deal with the politics," Khan instructed. Fen bumped her large head against him to let him know she understood. She was more interested in the wriggling rat between her paws anyway.
In the distance, a god was laughing.
Forty-Three
The following days were a blur of long meetings, reinstating councils, and cleaning the city of Sekhmet propaganda posters. The patrols were dismantled, and the warriors in Sekhmet's army were given a choice to fall under the new rule or exile with the known profiteers of Hasina's horrible government.
With the help of the Atrashasi magi and the war shedu, Khan finally got his wish to destroy the arena until it was nothing but rubble. Fen had witnessed its utter ruin, her hand in Khan's and tears in her eyes.
She had especially enjoyed watching as Nektos had been escorted out of the city and told never to return. It was more mercy than she would have given him. Khan was determined that no more blood be shed, and for the likes of Nektos, losing his power was a better punishment.
Fen had taken a whole day to change back from a wolf into a woman. Her body had ached afterward, and she still felt that burning power locked deep inside her.
The one thing it had achieved was not a single person questioned her right to stand behind Khan while he put his city back in order. No one was going to mess with someone that could shape shift into a giant, blood-thirsty wolf. The Ankharians and Atrahasi alike hadn't seen that type of magic in a thousand years, and all looked at her with awe. Fen had made it known that she was quite willing to let the beast out should they get any ideas about crossing their new pharaoh.
Khan's coronation had been a quick and private affair of the heads of the houses, the high priest and priestess of Amun and Amunet, and the councilors from Atrahasis. Fen had made Khan wear the crown in bed that night, but he hadn't worn it since.
The heads of the houses now knew of his plan to establish a solid council to rule Ankhara over the next three years, and then he would abdicate the throne. There would be no sole ruler of Ankhara to abuse their power again.
They had been shocked and argumentative all afternoon about the change of tradition. Sargon and the other councilors would stay for a while to help convince them of the virtues of the change of government and to draw up new peace agreements between the two cities.
"I need to be able to see an end to it, or I'll go mad," Khan said to Fen once the council members had left the new meeting rooms.
Fen tilted his head back and kissed him. "I'm so proud of you. They will get used to the idea. Some traditions are so outdated that they need to be changed for a place and a people to grow. You are fulfilling your promise to restore balance and peace to the city; that is enough."
Khan pulled her gently into his lap. "There is only one last thing to do."
"You're going to let me blood eagle, Hasina?" Fen asked hopefully. She had explained the process to him and the twins in great detail; they had all been horrified and fascinated.
"So violent, my wolf." Khan laughed and rubbed his nose against hers. "No more killing, especially blood eagles meant to honor Odin. He gets no more praise from you. Besides, I have thought of a better punishment for Hasina."
Fen toyed with the bond braid behind his ear. "Oh, tell me more?"
Khan's smile turned wicked. "It's going to be a fate worse than death."
* * *
Asten stood with two other Thothi before the gates of Horus. The large metal warehouse that Fen had first been processed through had been dismantled, so the two monoliths carved in symbols stood at the end of an open dock.
