Me and My Shadow - Katie MacAlister [76]
He turned back toward me, lashing out with his tail as Renaldo and one of the black dragons rolled past him, blood staining the floor with smeared, inky streaks. I used the opportunity provided by the distraction to race across to the other side of the room, deep in the shadows now, thanks to Jim.
“He is not my boss,” Fiat snarled, his head sweeping back and forth as he searched for me. “Open those drapes so I can see her,” he snapped at his men, but they were too involved to do as he commanded.
“No? You sure take orders from him as if he was. Just what is your connection with him, Fiat? Do you think he’ll help you retake control of the blue dragons?” I inched my way down the long room, away from Cyrene.
“I have no need for another sept,” Fiat answered, taking the bait. His eyes burned with blue intensity as he searched the shadows for me, slowly following. “I am wyvern of the red dragons.”
“I think you’ll find Chuan Ren will disagree with that. She’s back, you know. Oh, but you must know—Gabriel said you were hiding from her.” I said the last with deliberation, knowing Fiat would not take such a blow to his ego without revenge.
He snarled and leaped forward, suddenly not more than a foot away from me, his fingers digging deep into my throat. I gasped and grabbed his hand with both of mine, trying to ease the intense pressure on my throat.
“If Baltic did not want you alive, I would kill you right here for that insult,” he growled, his tail sliding around my legs to hold them in a vise. I couldn’t reach my dagger, couldn’t get enough of a purchase on the floor to fight him, couldn’t even draw a breath. Spots danced lazily in front of my eyes as I stared silently into his.
Shift! the dragon shard demanded, and with no other choice, I did so. I tried to shove him off me, tearing desperately at the fingers so deep in the flesh of my neck they must surely be touching, but despite my being in dragon form, his strength was just too much for me.
“Then again, the pleasure it would give me to kill you would far outweigh Baltic’s displeasure at the act,” Fiat hissed, his face shoved into mine. There was madness in his eyes, madness and a bloodlust that scared me to death. His face was beginning to go gray, to lose focus, and I realized with a shock that he was killing me, cutting off blood and oxygen to my brain, and that I would never see Gabriel again.
“Love sport without me? This will never do. I must insist on having the premiere role in it, although if you beg nicely, perhaps we’ll allow you to join in, as well.”
The voice that spoke beyond Fiat was cool, but a bit ragged about the edges. It had the desired effect, however—Fiat jerked his head to see who was behind him, but he wasn’t fast enough. Magoth swung a huge andiron shaped like a peacock in full display at Fiat’s head, connecting with a horrible smashed-melon sound.
Fiat stared at him in surprise for a moment before he crumpled to the ground, blood spraying in a fine arc on the wood tiles beneath him.
The last thing my brain registered before the blackness enveloped me was Magoth’s smile.
Chapter Twelve
“The shadow world is not really so much a whole different world as it is simply an extension of what we know as reality. It goes by many names, and can be accessed by a number of methods—fae folk are particularly comfortable there, although they refer to it as the beyond, which, now that I think about it, is a pretty good description of what it is. It is beyond. Nothing more, nothing less.”
“Why are you telling me this?”
The voice that spoke was male, deep, smooth as silk on water, and just hearing it made me smile. It took a few minutes before the meaning of what the voice said filtered through the bemusement that held me so tightly. Slowly, inch by inch, my body ceased floating on an infinitely soft bed of oblivion, and returned to the domain of my mind. I realized with an odd start that the first voice that had spoken was mine.
My eyes