36. Scythe

Chapter 36

Scythe

A urelia's question is blunt, but she says it with such open vulnerability that a dark emotion triggers like a gunshot to my gut. It tears me open.

Her face, when I'd first seen it tonight where she sat in the chair, half in shadow, half cast in moonlight, had been full of graceful sadness. She looked so small. So lonely. So much like a creature who had spent years alone that I couldn't bear it a moment longer.

And now, nestled next to me in a way that eased some of my dark pain, I consider this young woman that has changed our lives so much.

She was a maelstrom that raged in, tore us open, and left me wandering in the wreckage.

"I'll never be safe with you." Those words had torn from her mouth, a repressed cry so many months ago, but I'd carried them like poison ever since.

Because she had been right. I had intended for her to die. I had willed it and arranged for it. Decided it was the best possible path for her. For us all.

But the path we are on now, this twisted, dangerous one, held at its end an even worse fate.

Her death would have been a kindness.

But if that were true, why then do I feel a violent need to make sure that it never happens? Why do I feel the ferocious need to destroy anyone who would harm her? I had killed for her. Multiple times now. Defended her honour like it was my own.

Her mating mark shines with that infinite celestial light.

I'd fought the regina draw for so long. I had the capacity to fight it still. Had the capacity, the coldness, to arrange for her death even now.

And yet I won't.

The horde of spectres continue their forever-march around the bedroom. Stringy-haired, malevolent-eyed, cruel. Effective. They continue their heinous dark chant. They continue to chip away at my sanity.

I do not have long. Not in this realm.

It's not her fault. And yet it is.

So I whisper the words into the night, "I cannot give you what you want, Aurelia. And I will always be sorry for that."

Her aura pulses a mournful blue. The smell of her tears cuts into my heart and I should not, but I brush at her cheek with the pads of my fingers, as soft as I dare. She can't help but lean into it, letting her tears slide down her face in a silent, sad song.

"This is a story that will end in tragedy," I tell her. Tell myself. "We cannot be anything."

She swallows hard, and I get the strong urge to kiss her. Those lips that had sucked me so lovingly, so hungrily, and swallowed me down with perfect relish. Instead, I solidify my resolve and remain watching her.

It comes out as a halting gasp as she asks again, "But you still want me dead?"

I walk on a knife's edge. One wrong move will send us into an abyss. And if I fall, we all fall. I can't allow that to happen to my brothers. To her.

I lick my lips, wishing they were hers. "No."

She closes her eyes as shades of relief wash through her auric body. Perhaps I want to give her a little light before the coming darkness, because I finally decide to lean down and brush my lips against hers.

Electricity zings between us, hot and biting. She gasps at the sensation. I taste her bottom lip, then her plump upper lip. Savouring her sweet taste, her golden scent, the softness of her mouth that yields to me as if she wishes for more. Her arousal is perfume to my soul, and I inhale it in like a drowning man, before whispering against the perfect blossom of her mouth. "I am so sorry, Aurelia."

She doesn't know that I mean that in two ways. And I've never in my life been afraid to reveal something to someone.

Because though I've already hurt her, what is coming will hurt her tenfold. It will cut her so deeply that the mark will leave an immortal scar.

A scar like that changes a person for good. And my beautiful, strong, little regina will have to choose the person it will make her.

Sabrina reports that she is ready to tell her story the next day. Having suspected what she'd been through, I'd given her plenty of time. We sit in the room she now shares with Raquel, Stacey, and Connor. Marduk and Yeti also sit in the big circle of chairs, Marduk with his arm possessively around Minnie.

Minnie is no longer unsure about Marduk. She trusts him implicitly. Whatever happened between them at Clawson House drew them together, just as I had hoped.

The spectres rage around me, stuffing the room and my consciousness with their presence. Today, their voices are thankfully stifled, allowing me to hear Sabrina properly.

"I was knocked out for most of the trip, then concussed afterwards," Sabrina mutters, as if this annoys her. "I'd always thought that if I ever got kidnapped, I'd try and figure out where they were taking me. They always say not to let them take you to a second location."

The fact that she'd lost part of her tail in the process told me just how hard she'd fought her kidnappers.

"And then when I woke up, all I could smell were felines and serpents, so I thought I was at one of their secret locations. But…" She squints as if remembering some detail. "But there was something weird about the stones the dungeon was made out of. They were all laced with faint traces of gold ."

She shakes her head, her eyes distant.

"A jewellery thief knows her gold," Stacey laughs, then stops herself short.

Sabrina nods seriously at her. "That's right."

I glance at my dragon brother, because Xander knows exactly where this is.

"There was one guy, a higher up general or something," Sabrina says, holding Connor's hand. "He was awful. It was like he knew just how to get to me, you know? Said he'd researched about me. Knew I hated closed spaces." She swallows, tugging her hood lower looking around the large room as if reminding herself that she is no longer there. "He was completely mental. The cells just kept getting smaller and smaller, until eventually…" She shudders and I watch her aura closely. It shifts from grey storm clouds to black.

"Did they speak to you?" I say quickly, aiming to detract her from the dark place she'd just entered. "Did they reveal what they wanted?"

Her eyes focus on me and she nods. "They told me a lot, actually. I was pretty surprised. They didn't seem like they were even hiding from me, really."

I nod encouragingly.

"They wanted me for my ability to manipulate tiny objects," Sabrina says bravely. "But I never expected them to ask me to manipulate something so fucking small. I called them insane, but they just went about their business like it was nothing. I think they've been doing this for a while." She looks at Aurelia. "I thought about you, and your dad, and how he wanted you for a breeding pen." She shudders. "I couldn't believe it. I just couldn't."

"Believe what?" Aurelia asks softly. "What did they want you to manipulate?"

"They've been trying to do IVF," Sabrina says. "Trying to make babies of rare orders without the conception ritual, except…it wouldn't work. The cells would never work together. They wouldn't tell me what orders, but I can guess…"

Dragons. Phoenixes. Shoe-bill storks. Komodo dragons.

Boneweavers.

Animas go into heat every month, their bodies ovulating and giving them the opportunity to create children. But being a magical species, our bodies have evolved to require a conscious creation of offspring. There must be a deliberate merging of powers from both anima and animus.

They were trying to bypass that magical process using technology.

Aurelia lets out a long sigh. "So, what exactly did they want you to do?"

Sabrina shakes her head. "They wanted me to try to…" She scratches her nose awkwardly, then raises her two index fingers and squashes them together. "Telekinetically make it happen in the lab."

Connor and Aurelia gasp at the same time. Raquel, already privy to this information by way of the other wolves under my command, shakes their head in dismay.

"They're trying new ways to create embryos of dying orders," I confirm, then turn to Aurelia. "That is one of the reasons Mace was in contact with Fredrick Ulman, the biologist."

"That guy that kept all those feline animalia captive?" Stacey gasps.

Lyle nods. "My captor, yes."

"Who Aurelia executed," Sabrina says firmly.

"Right," Savage says. "He's as dead as they come."

I cast my brother a sharp look, but Sabrina didn't hear him. She's still thinking about what happened next in her story.

"Then they moved me and I knew for sure it had to be the Clawson's place because it smelled all…dirty tiger. Most of them are feral. They don't even shower daily."

Minnie makes a disgusted sound. "The smell was the first thing I noticed. Grubby bastards."

"Indeed," Marduk says. "They are known for it. The only place that was clean was Titus' hospital room."

Minnie abruptly stiffens. Had I been there, I would have arranged for Titus' death, but the Devi pack were too honourable to ask for such a thing.

"But why did they move you?" asks Lia, quickly changing the subject. "For what purpose?"

Sabrina's grey complexion pales further. "They…" She presses her lips together, unable to find the words.

"Because Titus wants a new pack," Marduk explains gently. "They likely wanted to consummate a bond and pledge her allegiance to the Clawsons."

"It would have happened, too," Sabrina whispers. "Until two of my guards turned out to be my mates. But then news about Brutus' death came through, and the place became a madhouse."

Xander subtly turns towards the door, and my ears pick up the pounding feet five seconds later.

Savage gets up to open the door. Outside, one of our guards stands panting, a red envelope in his hands. "It's the Headmistress," he says breathlessly. "She's awake."

A trickle of dread stalks through my body. I glance at Aurelia, memorising the last whisper of innocence in her face.

Because I'm about to wipe that away forever.