Circe lunged forward, casting me a hot, fevered stare. Hatred emanated from her mind and sent a jolt of anger through me, singeing the corners of my control.
“Back off!” I threw my arms out, sending Adonis and Circe stumbling back.
She tumbled to the ground, but before I could repeat my defense, she was standing again. An unnatural grin stretched her face. “Nice try.”
Charles’ tremors turned into loud pops, his transformation nearly complete. I struggled to hold Adonis back by pushing with my mind but only succeeded in slowing his pace.
Circe’s fangs snapped down, and I staked the branch through her heart. It sunk into her chest cavity as though I had plunged into loose clay. I tugged the branch out, and she staggered back. She coughed up thick, black blood. Black veins branched across her skin.
She bit her own wrist and frantically smeared her blood over the wound to no avail. Circe crumbled to the ground, gasping for breath and digging her nails into the soil, until finally her breath sputtered and she fell forward. Her body slowly decomposed. No burst of ash. She’d been a newborn—less than a century old. No wonder she’d been Thalia’s pet.
Through the spaces in the crowd, I made out Thalia and Callista as they emerged from the steps leading out from beneath the mausoleum. They prowled away from the building, closer to the action. Thalia, wanting to appear strong to the Queen, suppressed the hurt of losing one of her own. Callista pointed and yelled to other Cruor, commanding them to assist the attack.
The sudden chaos threw Adonis off. He strode forward, radiating anguish.
“Away! Away!” I said, holding my hands toward him. Nothing happened. My body trembled and a wave of nausea washed over me. Marcus was near. He was disabling my abilities.
Adrian blocked Adonis’ path. Before Adonis could reach us, something slammed into him. The force of the impact jolted his body forward, his neck snapping instantly. A wooden horn impaled his heart, the tip protruding from his chest and shoving his ribs apart.
I wobbled back, staring at Adonis’ dangling boots. Charles had taken the form of a rhinoceros. He’d infused with the branch when he was shifting. Was that another skill the dual-breeds possessed, or were all Strigoi capable of such things?
He lowered the body to the ground and pressed his hoof on Adonis’ leg, crushing the kid into place while he pulled his horn free. Adonis’ torso ripped in half and his body rapidly decayed.
Taking in deep gulps of air, I looked up to see Charles: a powerful rhinoceros with a wooden horn, emerald green eyes, and silver-brown, leather-like skin covered in blood. Instinctively, I leaned back, but guilt dug at my heart when I saw the hurt in Charles’ eyes.
“Silly, silly girl.” Thalia stepped out from the pack, her pale skin glowing in the moonlight. Behind her stood two men, nearly seven foot tall each, their skin hinting at sheens of gold in the moonlight and large, translucent, veined wings stretching out behind them, almost as tall as the men themselves.
The Ankou, I presumed, though somehow I hadn’t expected them to appear as abnormally large fae. I’d only seen them blur by when they killed the Morts outside Charles’ house. They were unnaturally beautiful.
Callista strode past Thalia, leaving her behind like an afterthought. “This has gone far enough,” she said, her face unreadable. “Join us or die. We are done playing games.”
No sooner had she spoke then the Ankou were at my side, towering over me, seeming as though they would need no supernatural ability at all to squash me. Their size alone would suffice. Yet I was too stunned by their perfection to see them as a real threat. Instead, my fear remained with what Callista might do next.
Swallowing hard, I lifted my chin and boldly met her gaze, gathering as much energy as possible from the electric current that ran beneath the earth’s surface. “I’d have to be dead to join you, idiot.”
“Guess she’d rather be dinner,” Thalia said, her voice emotionless and chilling.
I ducked away from the Ankou as Adrian and Henry sprung forward, tackling Thalia. I motioned for Valeria to run with the children, but she calmly stood her ground. Chills burrowed into my pores, prickling each hair follicle on my arms and the fine hairs of my neck and back.
Deep lines creased Callista’s forehead, distorting her expression into something nearly inhuman. Animalistic.
The transformation, a fleeting glimpse of cat-like features that half-deformed her face, faded as quickly as it occurred. Could it be…was she one of the cloaked figures I’d seen outside my window after my positive energy ritual?