Page 174 of The Forsaken Heir
“It’s not,” Freddy said, stepping forward, and raising his voice to be heard by all in attendance. “I was there when he planned it. I heard it from my brother’s own mouth. He knew my sister was alive and not an imposter, so he decided to kill the Hikshil shaman before he could pronounce her identity.”
I grinned at Freddy. This was our secret information, the tidbit of intel he’d given me and Aurelius.
Freddy lifted a small, jagged crystal and grinned at his brother. “I recorded what you said on this. A little gift from some local fae friends of mine. You should really be more careful when you leave your office windows open, big brother.”
Bastien’s mouth worked up and down, like he wanted to speak but couldn’t find the words. Finally, he did the only thing he was good at—causing chaos.
“Kill them!” he screeched like a madman. “Kill them all!”
Delphine tugged my hand, probably urging me to run. Before we could move, something horrifying happened to the person masquerading as Aurelius. At Bastien’s command, the thing tossed his head back and belted out a roar unlike anything I’d ever heard in my life. It was something between a serpentine hiss and a reptilian snarl. Once its cry was finished, the flesh of its face—such aperfectimitation of Aurelius—melted away, revealing brownish-green scaly skin. Before our very eyes, its arms fell away and crumbled to dust. Its legs expanded, merged, lengthened. The crowd behind Bastien let out an audible inhalation of surprise and horror as a massive snakelike body emerged from the ruin of what had once looked like Aurelius. In seconds, it had grown into what I could only call a gigantic snake, the head covered in scales, but with the jaws, skull, and teeth more akin to a cross between a man and a tiger. It was an abomination. At the back of my mind, I recalled a single paragraph in a book on mystical and magical creatures I’d read as a child. The hand-drawn picture beside it had beennothingcompared to the real thing.
Sahalie backed away, bumping into me. “It’s anaga.”
A serpent shapeshifter from Asia. From what I could recall from my lessons, it was ancient beyond belief, slithering across the world in the days before humans or shifters had even evolved the ability to walk. The fact my brother had managed to import one, much less control it, was impressive and awful all at once.
Thenagaturned its wicked yellow eyes upon our group and belted out a rumbling hiss as saliva dripped from its fangs.
An instant before we could run, a bellowing roar tore through the air. Looking up, I saw the most gorgeous thing I’d ever seen in my life. Aurelius. His inky-black dragon barreled down from the sky, wings folded back to use gravity for speed, his jaws open, still roaring out his anger. Behind him, more dragons speared the clouds, descending behind their prince.
40
AURELIUS
Iwatched the proceedings below from deep in the clouds. With my enhanced hearing and vision, I might as well have been standing right there with Elle and the thing that wore my face. One by one, the Hikshil stepped forward and tested it, but I barely paid attention to that. As I bobbed up and down in the clouds, doing my best to stay hidden, I kept glancing back.
Eventually, high in the air, I spotted the tiny dots of approaching dragons. Octavius and I had ordered my security to remain behind until we got a good head start.
My dragon purred happily as I dipped below the ground to get a better look at the ground. What I saw nearly made me forget to flap my wings. The shock of it was worse than seeing my exact duplicate come strolling out of the tent a few minutes before. Narrowing my eyes, I looked down over a thousand feet below as the thing that looked like me writhed and twisted, tearing away the outer façade until some monstrous snake-like creature revealed itself, opening its massive jaws to reveal huge fangs glistening in the sunlight. It threw back its head, and a screech of fury erupted from its mouth.
Iknewthis creature. I’d heard stories of them as a child, and Dad even had a story of one of our ancestors succumbing to one during an exploration of ancient Japan nearly two thousand years ago. Anaga.They were supposed to have been eliminated in the Fae Wars over a millennium ago.
Turning, I found my men, almost upon me, I gave a single barking cry to them, furled my wings, and dove toward the ground. Understanding my command, the reinforcements dived along with me. All six of us sped toward the ground below, where chaos was unfolding.
Thenagathrashed about and turned its baleful eyes upon my friends. The beast was at least fifty feet long and five or six feet thick. Whatever magic it had used to hide itself in a form as small as my body was even more impressive than my ability to shift. It was the stuff of nightmares come to life.
Bastien’s forces gathered behind him, at least fifty strong. The other shifters in attendance were in disarray, some moving to join Bastien, others backing away, unsure what to do. With my forces, fighting off fifty wolves in the open would be achievable, but difficult. There were too many innocents around to use fire—otherwise the odds would be better. The problem was that goddamned monster down there.
Unleashing a battle cry, I opened my mouth, revealing my serrated teeth. The scream caught the attention of thenaga,and it rose up like a cobra. Its blocky, scaled head snapped forward as I descended. Fast as lightning, it struck, but I tilted to the side at the last second. Its jaws clacked together on empty space, and I managed to drag my rear claws down its back before swooping down to land. It cried out in pain and rage, and the moment my feet hit the ground, the battle commenced in earnest. Within seconds, dozens of men and women had shifted, and there weremassive wolves coming at me from all sides, snapping and biting at my feet.
My men landed around me, and I spotted Vince, Rasp, and Octavius shifting, moving forward to guard Delphine and Elle. Thenagaspun around, green-black blood oozing from the wound on its back. It leveled its ancient eyes on me. The fury and hunger there sent a spike of fear through me, but I pushed it aside and leaped forward, claws extended and jaws open.
It struck again, moving with a shocking speed for something so large. It clamped its teeth around my foreleg. Had the creature been venomous, I’d have been done for, but thankfully, all it had were wicked sharp fangs that managed to punch through my thick dragonhide. I bellowed in pain and slashed at the side of its neck with my free claws.
Even as I fought to free my leg, I noticed the bright red and green flashes of magic as the Hikshil took to the battlefield. The other fae who’d come to watch joined them, obviously seeing Bastien for the psychopath he was. The group waded into the fight, helping us drive back the wolves and other shifters. If a human had stumbled upon this, their minds would most likely have melted at the sight of magic, dragons, monsters, and werewolves.
Taking a chance, I opened my mouth and breathed a fire into thenaga’sface. The blistering flames did little to harm the monster’s tough hide, but it got the thing to release my arm. I sank my claws into the softer flesh of its chest and stomach. My talons dug beneath the thin scales, and more of that putrid blood spurted out.
Before I could dig in further and try to disembowel the fucking thing, it lashed its heavy tail around, sweeping my legs frombeneath me. Screeching in surprise, I slammed to the ground. Instantly, a group of half-shifted wolves and bears attacked me. They clawed and bit at me, digging at my scales and skin. One bear sank its teeth into my face, trying for my eyes.
Swatting at them with my wings, I managed to knock two off their feet. The bear attacking my head stumbled, and I made him pay for it with his life, biting down on his side and nearly severing him in two. Kicking out with my back legs, I struck the final attacker in the chest, feeling his ribs and sternum crack as he was flung fifty yards away.
I roared in pain as thenagalunged forward and bit deep into my stomach. Blood welled around its jaws, but the real problem was how fast it was. Before I could react, it yanked me forward, twirling its full length tight around me.
Shock and fear jolted through me as I found myself in the most dangerous position I could imagine—being crushed to death by a gigantic snake creature. Even as I tried to think of some sort of defense, the muscles contracted, crushing me, forcing the air from my lungs. I couldn’t even draw a breath to try and breathe out fire. My front and back claws were useless, pinned at my sides by the muscles that might as well have been steel bands.
Thrashing my head, I looked around for someone to help. My reinforcements were knee-deep in fighting off wolves, bears, panthers, and moose shifters. On the other side of the field, I saw Delphine’s wolf clawing and biting at attackers who tried to flank the Hikshil and other fae. Vince was ripping a pair of werewolves from Rasp’s back, both men in their half-shifted forms. That was when I realized I’d lost sight of Elle. Fear for myself vanished. I wasn’t important. Ihadto save her. She was somewhere in this hell, and Ihadto do something.
Even as my vision went gray and my lungs screamed for air, I looked down, forcing my neck to bend under the strain of constriction. Rage flowed through me. I would not allow thisthingto beat me. Not when the woman I loved needed me.
