No.I wanted Dariusdead. The intensity of that sentiment swept through me. But Sebastian was right. The twins were the priority. And as I stared down at those muscled hulks with the wicked swords, I experienced a qualm. Bellati he might be, but he was only one.
“Can you take the Dragons, if you have to?” I asked.
His hesitation told me all I wanted to know. Alarm pierced me.
His lips twitched. “They be underworld Dragons, and therefore, not as strong as those of the Empire. They lack the training, as well as the crystal levels in their blood. But it gives all Dragons a natural resistance to my life-energy powers.”
“Is that a no?” I whispered, frantic.
“That be a ‘this be going to be one hell of a fight if the Dragons don’t leave’ clarification.” He didn’t appear concerned. In fact, his entire face was lit with anticipation.
I ground my teeth together and stared down at the group below. They were far enough away that I couldn’t hear them, but Grievan seemed to be debating something with Darius.
Bellati hearing was better than my own. “Darius wants a bonus for completing the grab,” he whispered. “After they pass the cubs over to the caregiver—I’m assuming that be why the woman be here, as the underworld not be kind to females—we will wait to see if the Dragons leave.”
“And if they don’t?”
He grinned, his teeth gleaming white in the shadows. “Then the fun begins.”
9
Anna
As I lay there on the pump room roof, I was weirdly aware of Sebastian’s every breath and every move.
Would I ever be like him? Eager for the fight? When I agreed to enter the academy, it wasn’t what I’d had in mind. I wanted to help people, yes. But this fierce joy of the fight was a different thing.
Matt had it too. Maybe it was a shifter characteristic. But now, lying on this roof and watching the twins struggle against their bonds, I glared daggers at Darius.
I didn’t just want him dead. I wanted to kill him myself.
Maybe these shifters were rubbing off on me.
Darius’s arguments were clearly not yielding the results he wished for. Grievan seemed unmoved, while the alpha’s gestures grew increasingly emphatic.
But the underlord snapped his fingers. It stopped Darius cold, and a guard stepped forward with a leather bag. He threw it at the alpha’s feet, and Darius stooped to open it.
He crouched over it for a few moments, counting the money. Grievan stood with crossed arms, clearly unimpressed with the delay. Finally, Darius rose and nodded to the Dragon holding the leashes. Who then dragged the cubs to the woman and handed the leads to her.
Confused, both twins hissed at her. I heard their squalls—their sub-harmonics reverberated clear through me.
Grievan gestured to another guard, who advanced toward the cub with what looked like a heavy cloak. He threw it over the Sabre child and wrapped her up so her wicked little claws couldn’t draw blood. The woman picked her up, and he approached the other.
Meanwhile, the Dragons stepped back. But they didn’t shift form to leave. Instead, two of Grievan’s guards approached the door to the stairway.
The underlord was leaving first. My heart accelerated.
“Well, damn,” was Sebastian’s only concession to things suddenly getting a lot more interesting. “Okay, here we go. I’ll draw them off to the left. You will need to follow the parapet, staying behind that shed and the chimney, and come in behind them to get to the twins. Do not engage the guards, you be not ready for that. Wait for an opportunity to get around them.”
He’d drawn his horn, and its razor-sharp spirals reflected almost blue in the dim light. It was outshone by his eyes—they glowed.
“Ready?” he asked.
I nodded.
And he was gone, a silver blur leaping off the roof to race among the Dragons.
He was so fast, he’d sliced one wide open before they had any idea he was there. A spinning, whirling, leaping dervish of death.
