Her hands shook as she unwrapped the carefully swathed parcel. Tears ran harder as she realized what was inside. Marriage blades. Two each for the couple was a traditional wedding gift among her people. One to always honor thyself and one to always honor the other. They were ice white. An upgraded set to the ones she had carried out of Eldora. That she now only had one of after Malysa had destroyed one of them. Her new pair was more delicate with hints of the cerulean blue of her eyes on the handle. Ahlvie’s was perfectly proportioned to his human size with the gold of his Indres irises cut into the handles.
She swallowed and then carefully strapped her new blades into her wrist gauntlets. Then she belted Ahlvie’s set to her thighs. She would get them to him one way or another.
A princess had walked into the royal chambers.
A queen stepped out.
Her head held high.
Her tears scrubbed clean from her face.
A sapphire signet ring indicating her new rank.
Ceis’f had returned. He stood at the entrance with a handful of military men she had trained with from the last hundred years. As one, they dropped to a knee before their queen.
“Ready the troops,” she commanded them. “We march to the Domina at first light.”
33
The Shift
Ahlvie
Ahlvie shifted.
He came to himself, gasping. His human form shuddered. And that dark thing crawled under his skin, waiting for the moment to wrest control back.
He was naked. He had been nothing but naked for so long. Too long. He’d lost track of time. He had been a beast forever. A sick, deranged killer.
And now, he was himself.
Mercifully so.
A set of clothes sat to his right, and he drew them on with a killing calm. They were bigger than he remembered ever having worn. But they fit like a second skin. The beast within had bulked him up. His shoulders were broader. His chest and arms full of muscle. His legs tree trunks of solid force.
He wasn’t sure he liked the change. He had always been a mendicant. A storyteller, unassuming gambler, and cheat. A friendly smile and quick joke could steal money out of anyone’s pockets. But no one would see him as anything but a brute now.
“Come now. You don’t look so bad,” Malysa trilled behind him.
Ahlvie stiffened.
She hadn’t been in the room when he got there. Her self-portaling had gotten even better. Quieter. Stealthier. She was getting stronger. Impossibly stronger for someone who had been chained to this Creator-forsaken mountain for more than two thousand years.
“Don’t look so upset about it,” Malysa said.
He turned to find her settling into a chair like a queen. The darkness seemed to pull in toward her. It was still hard to see her in Matilde’s body. One who had been a friend and now was just…this.
He gritted his teeth in disgust and barely contained rage.
“Ah, still not a broken dog yet?” she teased.
“What do you want?” His tone was savage.
“No humor for me? I know it’s underneath all this.” She gestured to his form. “Surely, you could at least give me a smile.”
He did nothing of the sort. He just snarled at her. More beast than man. Even though she was allowing him into this form. He knew she’d allowed it because he couldn’t manage it without her permission.
“Fine,” Malysa said on a sigh. “I’m sending you to Kell with Wara. She’s Braj and an assassin, but I think it’d be better to send a pack with her as well. There’re some dissenters there. I’d like to clear them out.” She looked at her fingernails. “They’re bothering me.”
He knew that he didn’t have a choice. It wasn’t a request. It was a command.
“Is that all?” he asked.
“Don’t act like you don’t enjoy it,” she said with a smile that was almost endearing. She rose to her feet and strode toward him. She came to his nose but seemed to tower over him. She gripped his chin in her hand. “You’re so much more now, Ahlvie. You’re not an insufferable human with a polluted bloodline. You’re of my creation.”
“I do not enjoy killing people. Whatever your politics,” he spat.
She grinned. “But the beast does. And how different are you two really?”
“Utterly,” he said even though he knew she only wanted to get a rise out of him. “And who enjoys forced servitude?”
She slapped him, and his head snapped to the side. His cheek burned from her hand. So much more forceful than her small frame.
“If you were strong enough, you could break my hold,” she taunted him as she had so many times before. “But you’re not. And you know why?”
He didn’t reply. He didn’t even look at her.
“Because you don’t really want to.”
He did. He wanted to. She had no idea.
“Where does it all end?” he bit out.
“With me ridding this world of all those who claim to be Doma and ruling over all just as I deserve.”
He heard her sink down into the chair once more.
He turned back to her. His gold eyes glowing with fury. “I guess no one ever loved you.”
A flare of anger rose in her dark eyes and then disappeared. “One person did. Benetta loved me, and then she chose humans. She chose them over me. No one will ever make that mistake again.”
34
The Guild
“Are you sure about this?” Cyrene asked Kaliana for the tenth time.
She just nodded with a small smile on her face. “This is where I belong. Here with Thiago and Alessia.”
“Don’t you think you would be safer with us?”
Kaliana laughed. “If leaving showed me anything, it’s that I am much safer here for now. I was born to be a queen. But I think this is the only place I’ve found any sort of happiness. I’d like to hold on to that as long as I can.”
Cyrene wrapped her arms around the woman she now considered a friend. She realized that she would miss Kaliana.
“I will work on the others though,” Kaliana assured her. “Try to get you some more magic users.”
“Thank you,” Cyrene said. Their eyes met when she pulled back. And Cyrene saw the mutual respect mirrored on Kaliana’s face. “Be safe.”
“You too,” Kaliana said, squeezing her hand.
Cyrene stepped back, nodded once at Thiago, and returned to Sarielle. She took off, leaving Fen behind. Dean was waiting in Aonia. He’d wanted to look around some more while she was returning Kaliana. Cyrene was glad to have the moment alone with her dragon.
Cyrene leaned forward against her side and stroked leisurely. “I can’t believe I lost Shadowbreaker.”
You did not lose it. It was stolen from you. And you will get it back.
“Yes,” she easily agreed with Sarielle. She would get it back. “You made quite an entrance.”
It was my pleasure.
Cyrene snorted. “I believe we’ll need quite a bit more of that before this is all over.”
That human man was a fool for disrespecting you so, Sarielle said of Killian. I still think we should go back and teach him a lesson.