“You lie!” Fenris cried, lunging forward. He wrapped his fingers around the straps of Xiver’s tank top, pulling him close so that they were nose to nose. “There’s no way you would be able to get rid of the Chief Mage so easily!”
“It was pretty damn easy if you ask me.” Xiver smiled slyly. “The bastard was half paralyzed from all that gas, so he missed with whatever stupid spell he tried to cast on me. He was weak as a kitten when I grabbed his robe and shoved him out the door, so no way he survived the five-thousand-foot drop. He’s burning in the afterlife right now for all his crimes against humanity.”
Fenris let go of Xiver, his head bowed as he stepped back, and for a moment I thought he was done. But then he lifted his head, eyes gleaming with fury as he pinned Xiver with the coldest, deadliest glare I’d ever seen.
“Your crimes are inexcusable,” he whispered, raising his hands. My eyes widened as power crackled from his fingertips, the blue-green glow I associated with magic. “On behalf of the Federation, I sentence you to death.”
Bolts of lightning erupted from Fenris’s hands, hitting Xiver straight in the chest. Annia and I both clapped our hands over our ears, a second before a deafening crack ripped through the air. The soldier’s mouth opened in a scream as the lightning tore through him, and I squeezed my eyes against the flash of purple and yellow that momentarily lit up the clearing. Spots danced beneath my closed eyelids, and I waited until the sizzle in the air subsided before opening my eyes.
What had been a healthy human male only a minute ago was now reduced to human-shaped chunk of blackened flesh. The stench of charred flesh coated my nostrils, but I was less stunned by Xiver’s death than by the manner of how it had happened. Ripping my eyes away from Xiver’s corpse, I stared at Fenris, whose chest heaved with exertion even as he continued to glare at the remnants of the human who’d inspired his wrath.
“Oh, that is it!” Annia stomped her foot, looking pissed as hell. She marched right up to Fenris and dug her fingers into the fabric of his shirt, pulling him around to face her. “I knew you’ve been hiding something since day one, and I can’t take it anymore. You’re going to spill the beans about what you really are, and you’re going to do it right now.”
“Let go of me,” Fenris snarled, ripping her hand away, but I stepped forward and placed my own hand on Fenris’s shoulder, digging my fingers a little more firmly into his muscles than was perhaps necessary.
“Fuck that,” I snapped, my anger rising quickly to match Annia’s. “You don’t get to hide behind your excuses anymore, Fenris, not after that crazy fireworks show you put on for us. How the fuck did you do that?” I jabbed my finger in the direction of Xiver’s corpse.
“He’s got to be a hybrid,” Annia declared, her eyes narrowed as she studied Fenris. “No wonder the Chief Mage took you in, Naya. Apparently you’re not his first pet project.”
“I am not Iannis’s pet,” Fenris growled. “Nor am I a project, as you so callously put it.”
“But you’re a hybrid, aren’t you?” I pushed, noticing that he hadn’t denied it. “I understand why you might want to hide that from everyone else, but why would you hide it from me?” I asked, hurt creeping into my voice. “I thought we were closer than this.” I let the illusion spells drop from us, and Fenris’s thick, dark hair and beard rematerialized along with his regular features. “Aren’t there few of us as it is? Shouldn’t we be sticking together instead of hiding our nature from each other?”
Fenris sighed, running a hand across his beard. “It isn’t that simple, Sunaya. I’m not sure that the term ‘hybrid’ properly defines what I am.”
“Well then tell us what does,” Annia said, tapping her foot impatiently. “We’ve got time, and nobody but us is around to hear your secret.”
Fenris pressed his lips together as he scanned the tree line, and I knew he was using his senses to try and determine if anyone was nearby. “This is extremely sensitive information,” he said quietly. “If I share this with you, you must promise to tell no one. My life depends on it, and more importantly, Iannis’s as well.”
“Of course,” I said, my anger dissipating as eager curiosity resurfaced. Excitement lit inside my chest at the idea that I might finally be able to unravel the mystery that was Fenris. “We won’t tell a soul, right Annia?”
“I swear by the Ur-God,” she said promptly. “Your secret is safe with me.”
“Very well.” Fenris stared up at the starry sky peeking through the tree branches, and I wondered if he was just gathering his thoughts or looking for guidance. “The truth is that I was not born as a shifter at all. I was born a mage, to a wealthy Federation family in Nebara.”
“That’s impossible.” I gaped at him, dumbstruck. Nebara was two states north of Mexia, located almost directly in the center of the Federation. “Mages don’t become shifters. Why the fuck would you do something like that?”