“For someone who believes I’m powerful enough to have to protect a prince against, you don’t seem to believe I can do it.”
He glanced back at me and finally allowed himself a small, brief smile. “Good luck, Lady Tea.”
“Thanks.” I moved toward the edge of the lake, coordinating my breathing with every step that I took. Left foot, right foot. In and out. Left foot, right foot. In and out.
Fox moved beside me, but Polaire put a hand on his arm, forcing him to stay still while I forged on ahead. In and out. Left foot, right foot. My shoes sank into the wet soil, small bundles of vegetation caressing my feet as I moved, waving against the current. I cast my mind around for the presence, embracing it this time instead of shunting it into the furthest corners of my head, and I thought I felt it respond, sensing the change. I waded farther out, ignoring Polaire’s alarmed calls for me to stop, and reached out with my thoughts, feeling the spindles of thought gathering around me, giving me all the momentum I need.
I closed my eyes. I had expected the creature to avoid me like it had in the past, but this time the creature’s slow advance into my own head was curious, not angry or threatened. It crept out to where I was waiting, almost childish in its naivety. That should have been my first clue that something was wrong—it was far too complacent when it had done its best to avoid me previously.
Instead, I closed my eyes and drew in the Dark, feeling the energy wrap possessively around me, waiting for me to give the order to strike. And when I did, it burrowed into the dark waters, into the monster’s underwater lair, wrapping the weaves of my magic around the creature’s will.
“Rise,” I commanded, and I felt the world rise with me—and the most horrible pain I’d ever felt in my life exploded through my body as a new presence reared up from behind the azi and attacked my thoughts. It was more painful than the torrent of magic Lady Mykaela had unleashed at my first daeva raising, and I dropped to my knees. My tongue tasted something metallic, blood dripped out of my nose, and the roaring in my ears intensified.
“Tea!” I heard Fox shout from somewhere behind me, heard the splashing of water. I couldn’t breathe. Stunned, I fought for control, but a new and sudden presence in my mind was quick to overwhelm me until nothing but blissful darkness remained.
It took her a few hours to pull herself together, but she appeared well again at its end. “It took more strength than I expected it to,” she assured me. “I have taken back control. I am fine. The last daeva should be easy enough.”
I did not share in her confidence. It occurred to me that should controlling all seven daeva be too much for her, the beasts could have turned on us despite their current docility. I broke out into sweat at the thought.
She dismissed my fears. “This last one is different. I have shared in its thoughts, have been in its head longer than I have done with the others. It knows me as well as it knows anyone.”
“The azi,” I said.
She rose to her feet and removed the cork from the last vial she had. The liquid sloshed inside.
“The azi,” she agreed and, raising the bottle to her lips, drained it completely.
The girl closed her eyes.
Underneath us, the ground shuddered.
She screamed.
She was on the ground, writhing again. Her fingers dug into the sand, blood flowing from her lips where she had bitten them. I rushed to her, but she had the presence of mind to raise a hand in warning. “Keep away from me,” she rasped.
The pin on my shirt glittered wildly in response.
“I cannot leave you like this,” I persisted, tearing off a wad of my shirt and pushing the rolled-up cloth between her lips. Before I could do more, I was lifted by some unseen hand and sent sprawling.
The girl clutched at her head, and her daeva shared her pain. They howled and stamped their feet. For a moment, I feared that she had lost control of them.
“I. Will. Not.”
A surge of energy sent me stumbling back. For a moment, the girl was shrouded in a mist of darkness that obscured all in its way. Shadows weaved in and out of the fog, grappling with other unseen things. The daeva roared.
Just as suddenly, the mist was whisked away, sucked in by some vortex at its center, where the girl had knelt. I saw her heartsglass, dead as the night and black as the void, greedily taking in all the vapors, making them disappear into its depths.
An eternity must have passed before she stepped out from the black mist. She was smiling, all traces of pain gone from her face. Behind her, something grotesque and terrifying loomed—a black shape from which three long necks rose.
29
I was looking down at the body from somewhere up above. It was not moving. It stared back at me with its eyes wide open, mouth slightly agape. There was surprise still stamped across its features, which looked strangely familiar. I saw a human male on his knees by the body’s side, movements frantic. I didn’t know if the body was alive or if it was dead, only that it didn’t matter.
Hate spilled into the air around me, and I reveled in the rage. Wings beat against the wind on either side of me, and I realized they were mine. These were my talons raking through the waters. These were my fangs, snapping at the spray. I had a pair of wings and two pairs of forearms that ended in claws, a long tail whipping out behind me, and three heads. There was something wrong with this, but I couldn’t understand why.
I was also screaming, the sound louder than anything I had ever heard. I was screaming at the humans below me, the bad things who had come to harm me.
I would not let them harm me.
I would kill them.
One of them threw fire, but I barely felt it. I lashed out with my tail, and they scattered. I tried again and caught one in the leg. It fell, and I moved for the final kill. But another surrounded me with invisible winds that cut and stabbed at my skin, and I turned to confront it. The pain was like small pinpricks in my mind, easily brushed aside. I snarled and struck the ground, and they lost their balance, tumbling. I heard a horse shriek in fright, heard more wailing from below.
A sudden need to take flight seized me, and I lifted my massive wings. Still howling, I clawed at the sky with my talons, basking in the dark of the night and the cold wind caressing my scales. I wanted to leave, to soar among the endless clouds and drift away to some place safer, where things did not prick at me with sharp edges.
No, something told me. We are not yet done. I felt the message nudging at my thoughts, and with much regret, I submitted to its wisdom. My wings curled back, and I landed a short distance from where I rose, hissing.