I followed Cara through the treehouse.
It was just me and her, now. If she didn’t think I could control myself, would she really hold me back from going after Riley?
Could she?
You don’t want to mess with Cara,Iskar said.You’ve never seen her dark side.
She has a dark side?I found that hard to believe.
What Isobel tapped into resides in them all,he said in a constricted tone.It takes fortitude to hold the line, and not let the power corrupt.
I thought of Nikolai, and a shiver passed through me. That the wise and gentle Cara could even guide that kind of power was a warning in itself.
She led us outside and away from the three structures that’d grown into her retreat, pausing near a trunk that had been grown horizontal for about ten feet.
It wasn’t until she sat on it that I realized it had been done deliberately to form a bench. She crossed her ankles and dug around in a pocket, emerging with four crystals on cords. She handed them to me.
“For Iskar,” she explained. Once I took them, she added, “So show me what you can do.”
This time there was no Dragon hanging over us in case I tried to eat her, but she didn’t seem concerned. Perhaps because there was a demi-god hanging out in the kitchen and an insane Dragon—the Deranger—in the library.
Between them and me, we were a damned scary bunch.
I had stretched the truth a bit with this control thing. And if I tried setting the demon inside me free, she would surely determine that.
I took off my tee shirt, but froze when my fingers curled into the waistband of my sweats. Modesty wasn’t something Centaurs had issues with—came from having one’s genitalia dangling on a whim—but now that I was human, I’d acquired a certain appreciation for clothing.
She arched a brow at me. “Nothing I haven’t seen before, my young friend.”
My face flushed scarlet. But I still turned away as I stripped. And kind of stayed that way as I asked Iskar,what now?
Time to try something new,Iskar stated.Do you trust me?
I-I think so.
You don’t sound too sure.
Usually when someone asks that, they are about to do something really dumb.Cara was staring at me with one brow still raised, and I offered her a sheepish smile.Whatever you are going to do, let’s do it. She’s got that look in her eye.
Okay, here we go.And he started to chant.
The rhythm spread through me, and I embraced it—up until the moment when the pain ripped through me.
Hold on to this image,Iskar paused his chanting to say. And he flashed an image into my mind—of a creature with the head of an eagle, the front end of a lion, and the hindquarters of a lizard. With wings clothed in purple feathers…
I focused for all I was worth on it, and with her watching, I managed to keep the screaming to a dull roar. But it wasn’t easy when the wings sprouted from my shoulders. My face lengthened to form jaws, and the very tip hardened into a hooked beak.
Cara’s eyes widened, and for a moment, I saw pain echoing in them. “You look just like him,” she whispered. Then her lips quirked. “Only younger. And you have dapples.”
Tell her she’s getting on, too,Iskar chided.
I refused to even go there. I stared down at my forelegs covered in black fur dappled with gold, and long-fingered paws ending in wicked hooked claws. My tail curled around them, and it was sheathed in purple scales. Feathers, fur, and scales.
Gryphons are a real mix, all right.Iskar sounded rather smug.
As Cara had said, I was Iskar.
Well, the dapples are definitely you,he stated.
