I didn’t know, really. And then I did when he moved closer, and I snarled.
Cara left Kitani in the kitchen and hovered in the entrance. With her sensitivity, she knew just how close she could come without triggering my beast. “Anna,” she said. “Stand so you are between Talakai and his wrist. Then Lucas should be able to work on him.”
Anna moved closer, and I inhaled her sweet scent. My heart rate dropped, and I was able to raise the arm that dangled the chain. As long as she stood between us, Lucas could work on me.
The Watcher was one smart lady. But as Lucas worked, the mental voices only got louder. I gritted my teeth.
Cody picked up a laser cutter and sat Matt down to work on his collar.
Anna’s dog stood near us and watched me with her vivid-blue eyes. Didn’t one used to be brown? I couldn’t remember. Me, trained to notice every detail, couldn’t remember the color of Anna’s dog’s eyes.
It bothered me way more than it should have. At the Black Guild, control and observation were drilled into us from a very young age. Before Xumi, I’d never had such issues.
Before Xumi. Before Anna.
Now control was like a mirage—something I grasped for, but utterly failed to achieve. It was just another thing to be ashamed of.
I had quite the list now.
The manacle fell free, and Lucas picked up the other laser cutter. Our eyes met.
I growled.
Anna took the cutter from him. “Show me how to work it,” she said.
Moments later, she bent to her task, and I inhaled again, drinking in her scent. My beast wanted to bury its nose against her skin. It swiftly ramped until it pushed to bury something else inside her. An urge I fought, lest it end up happening here—in front of them all.
But she smelledso good.
Cara leaned on the doorframe. She and Cody hashed out the official story for the academy as he worked on Matt’s collar. Which was that Matt and I had escaped Xumi’s stronghold on our own.
If we wanted to keep the entire mission beneath Amadeus’s, and the council’s, radar, we couldn’t miss any classes. Cody joked that we’d had our training for the day, but we needed to go through the motions.
I barely heard any of it. I had dead people yelling in my head, and classes were the last thing on my mind. As the laser hissed through the collar’s metal, they drove me ever closer to the abyss.
Xumi was dead, but I was powerless to stop the dissolution she had started. In desperation, I focused on staying human. On not accosting Anna.
Her hands trembled as the laser superheated the metal to a molten state. I glanced down at her arm, still streaked with blood. She followed my gaze.
“Xumi nailed me, but I’m recovering well,” she said.
“I can finish the healing for you,” Cara offered from the doorway.
“No worries,” Anna replied. “They’re already half-baked.” She turned the laser a little, frowning as it melted through the metal.
It wasn’t doing it fast enough.
Cody had more experience with the tool, and he was quick enough that Matt was soon free from his.
The Dire rubbed his neck. “Strewth, that’s better.”
Cody lifted the cutter. “I can work on Talakai’s.”
Even the comment was enough that I growled, my wings tried to break free, and the bones of my face shifted.
As the Sabre assessed me, Matt moved forward to take the cutter from Anna’s hand.
“Think that’s my cue,” he said.
