She foundGeza in his office staring out of the window, a stack of manila folders vomiting paperwork on his desk. “Hard at work, I see,” Surah said, slamming the door as she limped into theroom.
Geza glanced at her, eyebrow rising. “Did you get into afight?”
She sat in the chair in front of Geza’s desk, folding her arms and giving her dear brother a cold stare. “Lavinia Mogren sent warriors to killme.”
Geza blinked. “Why are you stillalive?”
“You don’t seem too unhappy aboutthat.”
He shrugged. “You’re still alive. Besides, the politics around here have been aggravatinglately.”
“Do the politics around here include the Prince failing to react to an open assassination attempt on his own half-sister?”
The Prince sighed, reaching for the comm on his desk. “I really am sick of this shit.” He stabbed the speaker icon viciously. A female voice answered briskly. “Tell Mogren to get her skinny ass in here now,” Gezasnapped.
“Yes,Highness.”
“Were you going to give her a lecture, Geza? Maybe send her to bed without supper?” Surah leaned forward, glaring. “That bitch tried tokillme. And you know why?! Because I refused to stop the research on the degenerativegene!”
Geza’s eyes narrowed, fingers tapping his desk. “She told me. She told me that it would be in my interest if a cure was neverfound.”
Surah stared at her brother, stunned. “You mean youknew?”
He rolled his eyes. “Not that she was going to try tokillyou. I didn’t tell her to do that–it’s a little extreme. But she made some good points about why the research should stop. I thought she was just going to hound the assembly into canceling yourfunding.”
Surah twisted to see if the giant knife sticking out of her back wasvisible.
“What are you doing?” Gezaasked.
“Trying to find the sword sticking out of my back.” Her arms twisted behind her, patting her own back rapidly. “It has to be heresomewhere.”
Gezalaughed.Surah wanted to leap across the desk and strangle him. Was aware that any attempt to do so would have the guards, hovering outside the window, crashing through glass to eliminate her immediately, and ask questions later. Royal warriors didn’t approve of siblingspats.
Lavinia entered the office after knocking, stopped short when she saw Surah. “I see,” shesaid.
Surah surged to her feet, ignoring the lessening pain in her knee. “I see?I see!” She strode toward the gargoyle, fully intent on murder, Lavinia staring at her coolly, when Geza barked, “Surah, stop! That’s anorder.”
“You can arrest me because this bitch is going todie.”
Brown-black wings unfurled with a magnificent snap. The high ceilings of the chamber allowed for a gargoyle to unleash their full six-foot-wide, six-foot-tall wingspan and even take off in a powerful vertical leap to hover almost two stories in the air above. Lavinia evaded her easily, the gust of air from her takeoff causing Surah to stumble back severalfeet.
“Now, that was stupid,” Geza said. “Did you think she was going to just stand there? Lavinia, you can’t go around trying to kill my siblings. This is the last time I’m going to allow you to get away with these queer ideas you have. The human college has rattled your brains. You should quit your job and retreat to your family estates until you’re feelingbetter.”
“My faculties are fully intact,” she called down from the ceiling, hovering with strong flaps of herwings.
Geza looked down at his desk, staring at every single piece of paper that was now scattered on the floor. “You’re going to clean this shit up,” he said. “Your fucking public service funding proposal was in there, too–I think that’s gonna wind up getting shoved to the bottom of thepile.”
“Sire.”
Geza walked to the balcony doors and opened them. Lavinia swept out with the grace of a giant, gray, murderous, fanged butterfly. Surah was so angry she felt nascent tingling where fangs would have been, were she full-blooded. Even the pads of her fingernails hurt, phantom claws seeking to burst free and rend herprey.
“That’s it? She tries to kill me and you—” she failed to finish the sentence, at a loss forwords.
Geza dropped back into his seat, slumping on his desk and looking around at the mess with an irritated scowl. “I’m going to handle it my way, Surah. Look, if shereallywanted you dead–you would be dead. She’s actually the sanest one of that whole damn clan—and I don’t want to be the target of a Mogren assassination attempt. Theydon’tfail. So don’t get your wings in a twist.” Geza smirked. Probably thought he wasfunny.
“Are you really that stupid?” Surah asked him, covering her face with her hands. “She wants to eliminate the entire monarchy, Geza. She wants things to be like this idealized world she teaches about in her political studies classes. I actually sat in on one of those things once. It was nauseating. I might as well have been in a class on worldbuilding for fantasywriters.”
Geza snorted. “Told you those humans were rattling her brains. I should just tell her father on her. Can’t he control one female? She’s hisonlydaughter. He has noexcuses.”
