I rubbed a hand over my face. We needed answers, not more questions.
“Ryan has gone to confer with Jacques about that.”
“Does he believe Talakai be not involved?” I asked.
Cara’s mouth straightened. “It would take hard proof to convince him and Cody of that. Amadeus has gone as far as to put out a council warrant for his arrest. That puts him on the hit list across the realms.” She took a deep breath. “But that isn’t what we need to talk about. We need to discuss Anna.”
I’d rather discuss swords and Dragons, but I took a deep breath and nodded. “She drained those two men and used the energy she absorbed to shred their hearts.”
Cara nodded. “I examined the bodies. It was exactly what she did to the feral Dire.”
“She’s manipulating life essences,” Bess said. “How is she doing that?”
It was a rhetorical question—we all knew the most likely possibility. “DNA testing would confirm it,” I pointed out.
“Which is precisely why we cannot do it,” Cara stated.
I grimaced as I followed her logic. Our Elders certainly wouldn’t want a potential hybrid wandering around loose. Other than a small group of Bellatis on special assignment, they be still debating whether to allow my fellow warriors loose. This, despite the desperate need for Bellatis to restore ecological balance across the realms.
“If she be a Liberi,” I said, “the Elder council will wish to have her brought to Elandriel.”
Cara and Bess exchanged looks. “That is, unfortunately, true.”
I gazed out at the waves. In my experience, the Elder council be ruled by paranoia, fear, and the personal pursuit of power rather than self-sacrifice. They lacked the calm, rational thought to make sensible decisions.
My doubts about the Cryptid council had a lot to do with my experiences with our own Elders. Cara had pushed hard to extricate me from the special assignment group to be an instructor at the academy. Which had landed me, very neatly, in the middle of this mess.
“So, where does that leave us?” I asked. “Her powers may be familiar in some respects, but they also possess unique attributes.”
“How can she be a Liberi?” Bess protested. “We would have known about a half-human hybrid.”
I ignored her comment because the evidence was mounting to the contrary. “As far as we know, no Liberi female has ever used her power as Anna be using it. She be behaving like a Bellati. A male, not a female.”
“Yet she can also heal,” Cara pointed out. “Like a true female.”
“It’s like both sides combined in one person,” breathed Bess. “As we know, that is a potent combination.”
She referred to Nikolai, but he be a rare Liberi known as a Perditor. “It be dangerous,” I agreed.
“She isn’t like Nikolai,” Cara was quick to point out. “He can manipulate external energy sources and tap into the core itself. She seems to need to touch to use her power on someone, and she is manipulating her own and their energy only.”
I stiffened. “There be something between her and the Dire,” I stated. “And his life essence has been extremely low over the last couple of days.”
Cara eyed me. “I noticed that. Do you think she had anything to do with it?”
I shrugged. “Considering what she can do, be it not likely?”
Bess’s lips compressed. “She is a risk to everyone, the way she is now.”
I glanced sharply at her, and my defense of Anna was more automatic than I wished to admit. “She requires training.”
Cara backed me up. “Exactly. This is what this academy is all about. If the Elders get wind of her, they will demand she be contained.”
“Maybe that is for the best,” Bess argued.
Cara looked at her. “There is nothing they can do for her that we cannot. I do not trust their motives, as of late. And neither do you.”
Bess sighed. “Okay. I agree. So long as we can guide her along the right path. But if things start going wrong—”
