I rolled back to my feet, and the moment I did so, Finn be back on me, cranking my nose so tight to my chest I could barely move. My beast tried a rear, but Finn cracked his newest addition to our fight—the icefire whip. Only this time, instead of adding to the bloody welts along my flanks, he wound it around my hind foot, and yanked.
I exploded into the air, landing on three legs, but he flicked his wrist, directing the whip with his power—and wound it around a front leg, binding the two together.
I could not keep my footing. I went down hard, and he nimbly leaped off me, tightening the whip strand to bind my other front leg as well.
I be effectively hog-tied.
He planted a foot on my neck and leaned close. “This has all been rather fun, but it is over now. Without your power, you are nothing but a horse. And you can never win against what I am.”
A deep voice carried across the arena. “If he is going to be too much trouble, leave him out of this one.”
“No,” Finn said. “I’ve got him now.”
I glared up at him, but to be honest, he did. That whip be the final indignity, and I had no answer for it.
Galeran strode to where I lay and leaned over me. His eyes be even more red-tinged than they’d been before. “I would like you to bear witness to what we can achieve without Nikolai. This isn’t the role I originally envisioned for you, but you can still participate, albeit in a rather restricted manner.”
I hated everything he be, and stood for. But if I be going to bring him down, it all starts here.
“Do you yield?” The eyes, with their crimson dark depths, stared down at me, unblinking.
My beast rebelled, insisting we fight until we die. But the human be still strong enough to win, just.
The bridle be so tight around my nose that I could barely speak through clenched teeth.
“I yield.”
23
Anna
My session with Cara started with a debrief of my power’s use over the course of both my botched mission to free Talakai and the successful one.
Unfortunately, that included what had happened between Matt and me.
“We kept our clothes on,” I stated. “But his lips and tongue were in contact with my skin. And I didn’t even realize what was happening, not at first.”
“And he bit you.”
“Yes.” I swallowed, and focused on the topic I could deal with, rather than the one I could not. “Am I going to become a Dire now?”
She shook her head. “It depends on your own heritage. The Dire virus takes weeks to alter a human hybrid into a beast. But some—for instance, Liberis and Satyrs—are immune to the shifter viruses.” She paused. “If you are susceptible to it, it will be a while before we know.”
I scanned Cara’s face and asked the question I was most afraid to have answered. “Am I always going to be a risk to Matt?”
Cara’s lips pulled straight. “Yes.”
My heart sank, but then she continued. “Just as he will always be a risk to you, in that if he loses control of his beast, he could kill you. The question is, can you stop yourself from draining him, and if not, can you learn to return some energy to him?”
“Do you think I can do those things?” I asked.
“I don’t know,” she answered. “There are aspects of your power that are unique, but the draining and killing are very similar to what our Bellatis are capable of.”
I stared at her. “Sebastian can do it too?”
She nodded.
“Does that mean I have Liberi blood? Can’t you do a genetic test for it?”
