As I froze, my eyes traced the bridle on Sebastian’s face, and the way it had cut into his nose and behind his ears. The surrounding skin appeared burned, and rage rose within me.
“Okay,” Maddy said.
I pulled the mane over the needle and tube. Even standing right over it, it still appeared in place.
Then I met Sebastian’s eye, and my heart leaped. The cloudy darkness now had a silver ring surrounding it. The horn had done that much, at least.
I sliced the ropes holding him to the stone, taking care to place them so they appeared still attached. “Lie still,” I whispered to him. “We have to blend for a bit longer yet.”
I moved to his head, extended a talon, and slid it beneath the sidepiece of the bridle. I tried to slice it through, but it resisted me. So I sawed, wincing when it made the skin over his nose bleed.
He never even blinked an eye. I couldn’t believe how tough the woven material was.
“Liberi hair,” he panted. His eye took in my talon. “Be that—”
“Yeah. I’m so not the Dire I used to be.”
He exhaled a soft snort. “Fate be a bitch.” His eye blinked. “Anna?”
“She’s facin’ Galeran.”
“Sardding hell.” His lips peeled back from long equine teeth, and he tried to raise his head.
I pushed it back down, just as the strands of the headstall finally parted. “Yeah. I’m right with you there, mate.”
58
Anna
We pushed all the furniture to the walls.
“Do you have a Dire form?” Talakai asked Lucas.
“Yeah, not Alex’s, but another. Why?”
“Galeran will ignore a Dire,” Talakai stated.
Lucas’s brows rose, but then he nodded. He stripped off his cloak, revealing a black-scaled bodysuit as the bones shifted beneath his skin. In no time, he’d writhed his way to a heavily muscled, black-furred beast.
“Very nice,” I said, and then looked at Talakai. “Where will you be?”
He ripped off his cloak and shrugged his wings free. He took up position on my other side, looking so powerful, and so lethal—he was sexier than the most sinful chocolate.
His eyes glimmered at me, and the surge along the link indicated he’d gleaned my thoughts. But what he said was, “Galeran and I have met before. So I thought I’d say hello.”
“Yoou have an interesting strategy,” Lucas said. “Hiding in plain sight.”
Talakai snorted. “He’ll sense me anyway.”
“The more distracted he is, the better.” I gestured for Trix to retreat to the back room. She cast me a reproachful look, something that was far more effective now that both of her eyes were blue. But she obeyed.
“If he isn’t alone, we are in trouble,” the Dragon stated.
The Morph’s eyes flashed. “Nikolai said he woon’t be aloone.”
I straightened and faced the doorway to the tunnel. “Okay. Here goes nothing.”
My priority was to search all the nooks, crannies, and crevices for the unhired critter help. The castle was full of them, some of which were already heading for me. I motivated the whole lot.
