My heart stopped. My mouth went dry, and I had to replay those two words in my head several times. Did I hear that correctly?
Lilah recovered quickly while I stood there dumbfounded. She looked skeptical but wasn’t too quick to dismiss it as bullshit. The weight of her gaze was heavy. My cheeks burned. I felt like I’d just been betrayed, but I didn’t know what the hell was going on.
I exchanged a look with Arys who stood ready to defend me. The promise of chaos hung on the air. I reached past the wolf who paced inside me to the power rooted in my core.
“Go on.” Lilah crossed her arms and tapped a foot impatiently.
Shya looked incredibly pleased with himself. “What is the one thing that you need most in order to escape the curse?”
“I’m not playing this game. Get to the point.”
“The blood of a divine creature,” Shya continued, dismissing her angry retort. “The most obvious would be an angel. It would also be nearly impossible. That leaves very few possibilities. However, other divine creatures exist, others who belong to the light. One of which is within our midst.”
A dramatic pause got Lilah thinking and left me sweating. Falon sat up straighter in his chair, listening attentively. Every person present turned to study me. I felt like a specimen on display, which put me on the defensive.
“I can’t believe you never figured it out.” Shya openly mocked the puzzled vampiress. “Alexa is a White Flame. Against the odds, she’s been united with her twin. She doesn’t live under the shapeshifter curse. She’s gifted.”
Lilah’s eyes widened, and she took a step toward me. “She’s one of the Hounds? How can that be? They were all destroyed.”
My hands danced with blue and yellow energy. My patience had run thin, and the wolf was ready to chew its way out of me. Vampires and demons had been discussing me as if I were no more than an object for years. I’d had enough. Now, I was readying for a fight.
“Not all of them.” Shya caught my eye and winked as if this were some joke we were both in on. “Living as a vampire has sheltered you, Lilah. The Hounds can never be thoroughly destroyed. You should know that.”
I couldn’t hold back anymore. “What the hell are you talking about? I won’t be discussed as an object when I’m standing right here.”
“Hounds of God.” Falon broke his silence, drawing everyone’s attention from me to him. “Shapeshifting was originally a punishment, a curse twisted by both angels and demons. The Hounds of God were those shapeshifters that were not cursed but gifted. They battle evil rather than become it. Legend would have you believe the Hounds no longer exist but they do. They are chosen. There are stories of Hounds dated as recently as the 1600s.”
I tried to absorb what I was hearing. Lilah was eyeing me up in a whole new way. All it took to make me feel like an ignorant young mortal was spending time with those who had outlived me by thousands of lifetimes.
“So you see,” Shya came to stand between Lilah and me. “Alexa’s blood is the key to breaking the curse that binds you. Had you succeeded in having her killed, your best chance at freedom would have died with her.”
Understanding settled in Lilah’s flame colored eyes. She nodded knowingly, her gaze darting from me to Shya. “Now you want to exploit my folly for your own gain. I bet you’re quite proud of yourself.”
“Indeed, I am.” Shya rubbed his hands together like a gleeful child. “You know my terms. They haven’t changed.”
Was this for real? I couldn’t tell who Shya was screwing over anymore. It appeared to be me. I rolled a psi ball in my hands as I considered smashing it into the back of Shya’s head.
“No.” Lilah was firm. “You ask too much.”
Shya’s rage was sudden and furious. The power rose up around him to burn with the intense heat of an open flame. The dragon on my arm pulsed in response.
“Helping you reclaim your throne entitles me to as much. Make me your second-in-command or remain forever as you are, an outcast queen with no people or kingdom to call your own, answering to a werewolf with more power than you will ever see again.” Shya was seething. So was I. The bastard was playing Lilah and me against each other. He would side with whoever could give him more.
I reached deeper, allowing more power to spill over me. I wasn’t going out without a hell of a bang. Arys shot me a warning look, which I pretended not to notice. I was panicking. All I could do was be as ready as I could.