He would tell her thank you if she returned to his cage again and not to come back to see him anymore.
He carried too many deaths on his soul and would not live with her innocent bloodshed for some harebrained idea about escaping.
Sadly, he’d miss the moments of calm he enjoyed when she’d visited him. While that had helped him sleep one night, he couldn’t risk becoming too relaxed, not with Krol throwing more vicious opponents at him twice a day.
Our king has arrived, Titan announced sarcastically, having caught Krol’s annoying feline smell.
Bosse lifted his head and tried to figure out what that crazy shifter was up to now.
A strange bird with animal legs followed Krol into his high seating area.
In the past two years of imprisonment, Bosse had never seen a domestic pet around Krol.
As for Bosse and the other captives, none of them were domesticated.
They would all kill the castle alpha, given a chance.
The bird-animal creature stood taller than Krol’s human form. It had a sharp beak and feathers. A head shaped like an eagle flowed down a wide neck to where the bird blended into what appeared to be a lion’s body, legs, and even a tail.
Who had made this abomination? The Black River Pack? They were known more for experimenting on shifters, most often wolf shifters. He’d never heard of them combining two creatures.
Titan murmured,Magic.
Bosse took a deep inhale and regretted it. The stench of dark magic floated down to him, contaminating the already repulsive air in the arena.
Krol turned his evil gaze on Bosse and grinned. “I see you’ve noticed my Lammogo.” He walked several steps with an air of superiority, pausing to continue bragging. “It is a lammergeier vulture mixed with a Mapogo lion. Very rare. The only one in existence, in fact.”
Did that man ever tire of his pompous attitude or hearing himself talk? Bosse kept his arms crossed over his chest and tried to perfect a mask of indifference.
Krol waved his hand across the room as if it were filled with disciples. “Unlike you and the others, this one can be trained and will perform every order exactly.”
When a silent Bosse refused to show a sliver of interest, Krol snarled and ordered, “Watch.”
He shouted an order in Slovak at his guards, which was strange since he would not hire them unless they spoke English.
A guard released a full-grown sheep into the seating area. It began wandering around. The minute it neared the Lammogo, the sheep panicked and raced back to the now-closed door through which it had entered. With no way out of the closed door, the poor animal ran around the far side of Krol’s seating area while the castle king roared with laughter at the terrified prey.
The Lammogo did not so much as twitch a feather until Krol gave it a verbal order in a soft voice.
Flapping immediately, the Lammogo lifted its unholy body into the air and headed for the sheep.
Running to the front of the viewing area, the sheep tried to climb the wall, screeching. If the sheep had gotten over the protective railing, it would have fallen and probably broken its neck.
Maybe the sheep understood the consequences and wanted to die quickly.
The guards and servants had backed up to the curtains, eyes wide in fear. Silent as a bird swooping through the sky, the Lammogo flew toward the sheep and dove fast.
If Bosse had blinked, he’d have missed the attack.
But it wasn’t an attack. Though the sheep screamed when the Lammogo snatched it into the air, no blood dripped down from being clawed. The giant bird creature dropped the sheep carefully next to Krol.
The sheep stood stunned and paralyzed.
Why? What had the Lammogo done to it?
Settling back to the floor, the Lammogo stood in place, once again quiet as a statue.
Clapping at his new toy’s performance, Krol said, “Bravo!”
