Page 16 of Beast of Blood and Ash
“I will speak to Jalliun,” Zarvash said, his tone softening as he looked to his mate. “He’s a reasonable priest. He held our mating ceremony.” A ghost of a smile touched his lips as he shot a fond look at his mate. “Perhaps he can make the acolytes see reason. He can remind them that an attack on a human under the Council’s protection is an attack on Darrokar himself. And on me.”
It was a political solution. A slow, careful game of influence and pressure. My entire being roared for a faster, more final answer. For blood. For fear driven so deep into those acolytes they would never dare look at Reika again. But Zarvash was not wrong. An open war with the Forge Temple would endanger all the humans, not just her. I forced my claws to uncurl, my jaw to unlock. I gave a stiff, reluctant nod.
For a moment, there was silence. Then Vega leaned forward. Her gaze was sharp as broken glass.
“Are you watching Reika?” she demanded.
“What?” The question, and the force behind it, caught me off guard. It was still strange to have a human, so small and fragile, speak so forcefully to me. In Ignarath, such a tone would have earned her a beating. Here, it was a challenge.
Her expression didn't soften. It grew harder, fiercely protective. “Don’t play stupid with me, Omvar. I saw you in the training caverns when she was there. I saw you at the market the other day. Now you just happen to be there when she’s cornered by priests? The assholes you used to call friends nearly killed her. She was hunted in the Harrovan Mountains after she escaped. She still won’t talk to anyone about it. She flinches anytime a Drakarn youngling gets too close. So let me ask again. Are you watching her? Because whatever your game is, don’t mess with her. Don’t you dare break what’s left.”
Every word was a nail driven into my flesh.
A hot, possessive fury rose in me, the instinct to snarl, to put this small human in her place, to declare Reika was mine to watch, mine to protect.
How dare she question my motives? How dare she imply I would harm her?
Zarvash must have sensed it. His body went still, his hand settling on Vega’s shoulder, a silent warning. His eyes fixed on me, no longer allies, but two alpha males on the brink of conflict over territory. The air crackled with unspoken threats. He knew what I was. A champion of Ignarath. A killer. He was reminding me of the predator he saw, and the one he could become if I threatened his mate.
But Vega’s words had struck deeper than pride.She flinches anytime a Drakarn youngling gets too close.The memory ofher body, tense as a wire in my arms, and of the terror in her eyes before she’d collapsed against me, flooded my senses.
Vega was right.
My size, my scales, my past, I was the living embodiment of her nightmares. My presence, meant to be a shield, could be just another cage.
The fire in my gut cooled to a bitter ash of self-loathing. I looked away from them, my gaze falling to the ceaseless, glowing current of the river.
I let out a slow breath, forcing the rage down. “I have no intention of harming Reika.”
My voice was flat, devoid of the storm raging inside me. Vega watched me for a long moment, searching my face, before giving a curt, unsatisfied nod. Zarvash relaxed his posture by a fraction.
I turned without another word and stalked away, leaving them in their fragile pocket of warmth and belonging. The market’s noise crashed back in, but I heard none of it. I heard only Vega’s warning echoing in my skull.
Don’t you dare break what’s left.
Zarvash could have his politics. Vega could have her warnings. They saw a problem to be managed, a traumatized human to be handled with care. They were wrong. This wasn’t a matter of politics or caution. Those acolytes had threatened her. They had put their hands on what was mine.
I would not break her. I would protect her. And I would not be careful. I would not tread lightly. I would be the shadow that fell over anyone who wished her harm. I would be the monster in their stories, the terror in their night. I would spill blood for a city that would never claim me, and I would raze it to the ground to keep her safe. Let them whisper. Let them hate me. It didn’t matter.
The hunt had just begun. And I would not fail her again.
6
REIKA
I wantedto kill those acolytes.
Fire still blazed through my veins a whole two days later—a righteous, helpless fury that left a taste like scorched metal on my tongue. Two nights of nightmares more extreme than usual didn’t exactly help. Not even Kira could calm me down when I woke up, slick with sweat and choking on screams, sure that the sadistic guard Draskeer was about to take a blade to my flesh.
Again.
The memory was a phantom limb, an ache where skin had been torn. I couldn’t shake it. Couldn’t sleep it off. Couldn’t outrun it. So I did the only thing I had left. I went looking for a different kind of pain.
The training grounds were deserted when I entered. The vast, subterranean cavern echoed with the ghost of violence. It smelled of Drakarn sweat and sand that clung to the damp stone and filled my lungs. I squeezed my eyes shut and forced myself not to think of Ignarath.
It didn’t work.
The scent memory was too strong. I could almost hear the cheer of the bloodthirsty crowds, a roar that vibrated deep in mybones. Almost feel claws wrapped around my throat, pulling me closer and …
