Chapter 9
Nine
Avalon
The post-orgasm glow of the best sex of my life was rudely cut short as the windows on either side of the bed smashed, spraying glass across my naked body. The door splintered away from its hinges, and soldiers in black poured in.
Had the Baron of the Sixth Line figured out Lierick had tampered with his mind?
A bullet whizzed by my head, grazing Vox’s shoulder before lodging in the headboard. Guns meant this could only be the First Line, and they weren’t here for prisoners.
The Baron of the First Line had sent assassins.
Hayle was up faster than my eyes could follow, launching himself at the closest one with a roar.
More assassins poured in. Had the Baron sent a whole battalion to take out his youngest son?
They surrounded Hayle, and I lost sight of Lierick and Vox in the seconds it took me to comprehend what was happening.
“Hayle!” I screamed. His desperate eyes looked at me, then Hayle was just… gone.
In his place was something my mind couldn’t comprehend.
The closest thing I could compare it to was a giant lion, but much bigger than a normal creature.
Bigger than even the Baron of the Third Line’s lion companion.
It filled the room, not just with its body, but with huge, golden wings that glinted like metal in the lamplight.
It opened its giant maw, filled with razor-sharp fangs, and bit the head off one of the assassins.
Then it just swallowed it whole.
I was too shocked to even scream. Rolling off the bed, I knew I needed to use the shock of this monster appearing to get the hell out of the way.
One of the assassins seemed to shake himself from his stunned stupor and launched toward me, but a flash of purple flew at his face, tiny claws slashing and small teeth taking chunks out of the exposed areas near the assassin’s eyes.
“Epsy!” I shouted, as Alucius and Braxus barrelled through the windows, standing between me and the rest of the room, Braxus tearing mouthfuls of flesh out of the assassin Epsy was attacking.
Gunfire was still flying around the small room, and with the size of the beast, it was impossible for it not to have been struck. My wide eyes went back to the monster, but the hounds didn’t seem at all worried about the giant lion-bird creature in the room, so I knew deep down it was Hayle.
But my mind still rebelled. I wanted to close my eyes and hide in the corner, but instead, I grabbed Hayle’s sword from where it rested against the wall and raised it.
Naked.
We were fighting off assassins naked, coated in cum.
None of the assassins even made it past the hounds to feel the edge of the blade, and I was once more thankful for my furry babysitters.
Finally, Vox slit the throat of the last assassin, and as he gurgled his last breath, the man glared at his Heir. “Traitor,” he gasped.
“Don’t worry, your Baron will be joining you soon in the abyss,” Vox growled, gripping his head and snapping his neck.
The silence that came after was its own beast.
“Iker!” I gasped at Lierick, and he hesitated, his eyes flicking between the beast and me. “Go. It… uh, Hayle, would never hurt me.”
He paused a second longer, his eyes taking in the blood-soaked mouth of the giant creature in the room with us. Finally, he dragged on a pair of pants and picked up his sword, before running from the room.
Then it was just me, Vox, and the beast that was once Hayle. Vox edged closer toward me, never taking his eyes off the creature. He dragged a shirt over my head, and I could smell Hayle on the collar. Smart.
Alucius and Braxus bowed their heads, going down onto their front paws. I blinked wildly. “Hayle?” I breathed, and the beast huffed. “Are you hurt?”
The beast rolled its eyes. If there was any doubt in my mind that the creature was Hayle, it disappeared with that familiar gesture.
As I stepped closer, I could feel Vox at my back, ready to grab me out of harm’s way if need be.
I reached up and brushed my hand across its shoulder.
It wasn’t the usual tawny color of a lion, rather a deep bronze that was almost mud brown, and its fur was not even really fur.
It felt more like velvet over stone, soft but so hard, I knew the bullets would have bounced off his flesh.
He had two tails, each with a puff of white fluff on the end. Like a pom-pom or a rabbit’s tail.
From the head down, he was probably cute. If you ignored the wings that were razor sharp and soaked in blood.
And if you made it to the front of this creature, the word cute would not only be incorrect—it would be a deadly assumption. Because despite the creature having Hayle’s eyes, it had teeth the length of kitchen knives.
“What are you?” I breathed, but the answer came from outside the doorway.
“The Spryrix!” someone gasped.
I whipped around, and the beast had his head over my shoulder in an instant, his teeth bared in a way that made the woman in the hallway shrink back against the wall.
Iker appeared in front of her, still shirtless, but his face went pale as he took in Hayle.
Iker was covered in gashes, and there was still a wound weeping blood on his shoulder, making me a little worried he might pass out.
He lifted his sword, and I stepped forward, ignoring the beast’s growl.
“Whoa, it’s okay. He’s… friendly.” Well, that statement would hold until they saw the bodies in the room with heads missing.
“I could really use the human version of Hayle back now,” I muttered to the creature—a Spryrix, I guess?
—and a quick burst of magic brushed against my skin.
In the place of the golden lion-thing was now my very naked Soul Tie.
I looked down at his stomach and briefly wondered where all the heads had gone. Like, he couldn’t have digested them that fast, right?
“They feed the shift.” Hayle answered my unspoken question, wrapping me up in his arms so tightly, I almost couldn’t breathe. “That was so close.”
I held him just as closely, because he was right. Iker was bleeding, and Vox was bruised and battered, not to mention the line of blood across the point of his shoulder where a bullet had grazed him. If the beast hadn’t appeared, we’d be dead.
“They were impervious to my power,” Lierick said as he walked in, eyeing Hayle warily.
“Mine too,” Vox grunted, pulling pants on and throwing Hayle’s to him. “We need to get out of here before my father sends more.”
The prostitute Elkie let out a squeak of protest. “No, you can’t. You don’t understand. You’re the Spryrix,” she told Hayle, and he raised an eyebrow.
“I’m aware,” he said stonily, and I turned around and twisted his nipple so hard, he yelped.
“I’m glad you were aware, Hayle Taeme. I feel like possessing the ability to turn into a ten-foot beast with huge wings is something you should’ve told the woman you profess to love. Unless you didn’t trust me?”
And that was the crux of it. How could he keep a secret like this from me, unless he was worried I would spill his Line’s secrets?
“Avalon…”
Vox stepped in, lifting his chin toward the growing crowd filling the hallway, as people climbed the stairs to find out what the ruckus was. “We should discuss this later. We need to go.”
Elkie stumbled into the room. “No, you have to go see the Baron. You’re the Spryrix.” She kept repeating it, and I wondered if the stress of the night was getting to her. Was she in shock?
Hayle bared his teeth at the girl. “I don’t have to do anything.”
Elkie looked over her shoulder at Iker. “I can’t talk about the reason why, but I promise you, it’s important that the Baron of the Sixth Line knows you’re the Spryrix. Whatever it is you came to Doend for, it isn’t as important as this.”
She seemed almost hysterical, and I rested a hand on Hayle’s arm. This could be the leverage we needed to get the Sixth Line, their resources, and their men on our side.
He huffed a disgruntled sigh. “You know nothing of our reasons for being in Doend,” he told her flatly.
“If I need to see the Baron, we’ll wait for twenty minutes at the edge of town, where the border of Doend meets the forest. If he tries anything…
” He didn’t expand, but Elkie swallowed hard and looked at the bodies littered around the room like unloved toys.
She nodded furiously. “We’ll send our fastest runner. Please, Heir Taeme, just wait.” With that, she disappeared downstairs, and the rest of us moved quickly to collect our things.
“I don’t like it,” Vox murmured, and Hayle grunted his agreement. “What if they were the reason my father knew where we were? What if the Baron of the Sixth Line is using this as leverage for favor from the First Line?”
We looked at Lierick, who shrugged. “She was in shock, but she didn’t appear to be lying. She seemed almost excited. Reverent, even? I don’t think this will be a double cross, but I can’t be sure.”
Vox sighed, his arms coming around my shoulders and kissing the top of my head. “We should stash Avalon somewhere safe, just in case.”
I jabbed him in his ridiculously hard abs. “No fucking way, Vox Vylan. We’re in this together. Stash Iker; he’s more likely to be able to get us out of a jam if it is a trap, and he’s bleeding all over the good rugs.”
Iker bared his teeth at me. “If you think I’m letting you walk into an unknown, possibly dangerous situation without me, you’re delusional.”
Fifteen minutes later, Iker was hiding in the woods with the bags, while we watched the Baron and his entourage gallop down the pothole-riddled road on horses. They were obviously in a hurry, but they didn’t seem to be armed.
“What do you think?” Hayle asked quietly, and Vox shrugged.
“I’m unsure. They’re within the time allotment, much to my disappointment.” We’d decided that as the Baron of the Sixth Line already knew he was here, there was no point dirtying him up again.
Well, any dirtier than we’d been earlier.
“I don’t sense any ill-intent, but they could have tals preventing me from reading their true intentions,” Lierick added, a small frown lining his forehead.
It was obvious that the Baron of the First Line knew Lierick was with us, given that his powers hadn’t worked on the assassins.
If the Barons were working together, there was a chance that these soldiers could be armed too, and we were sitting out here like ducks during hunting season.
All three of them looked at me, and I stared back. “What?”
“What do you think?” Hayle asked again, like that was going to make any difference.
I shook my head, and Lierick placed a hand on my spine. “You have the ability of foresight, Avie, even if you’ve never used it. We don’t need an exact prediction, but what does your gut say?”
Sucking on my lower lip, I dipped into that place that Lierick had convinced me existed. I thought about what I wanted to know, and while I’d almost expected a reel of events to play in my mind, all I got was the mental equivalent of a thumbs up.
“Uh, I think it goes fine?”
Hayle gave me an encouraging smile, leaning forward to kiss me softly. “You amaze me every day.” Then he looked back at the advancing soldiers still galloping down the mountainside. “They’re going to injure their horses,” he muttered to himself, his expression turning irate.
The first wave of guards arrived, stopping in front of us, but they didn’t climb down from their mounts. Instead, they stared at us with something between suspicion and incredulity. Vox’s fingers flexed, like he wanted to shove them off their horses, but he resisted.
The Baron of the Sixth Line appeared, quickly dismounting. He was puffing loudly, and Will Marlee was beside him just as quickly.
“Thank you for waiting,” he told Hayle. “We came as fast as we could.”
Given the way the Baron was sucking in air, maybe they should have arrived a little slower so he didn’t run the risk of a heart attack.
None of the guys spoke up, so I inclined my head at the Heir to the Sixth Line. “You’re welcome?”
He huffed a laugh, making the guys beside me tense.
He raised his hands. “Whoa. Not flirting with your wife, Taeme. I have one of my own, who’ll have my balls if it’s even suggested that I flirted with another woman.
Though, she’s more likely to steal your wife than me.
” He looked at Vox. “Heir Vylan. What a pleasant surprise.” There was clear animosity there, and I wondered if it was because there was history between them, or just because he was a Vylan.
Vox merely lifted a single brow. “I’m sure.”
Sighing, Hayle pulled me closer. “Enough. What is it you want, Baron Marlee?”
In answer, the Baron raised a hand, and a small woman in pants appeared, looking peeved. She unbolted a gilded box, lifting out a painfully fragile scroll. I almost knew what was going to be on it before the Baron held it out to Hayle.
I quickly read it over his shoulder.
Beneath the wings of the Spryrix, the Sixth will rise. Between the teeth of the Spryrix, the Sixth will fall.
It was signed by Ellanora Halhed.
Great. Another prophecy.
Hayle handed the parchment back to the Baron, who passed it immediately over to the woman. She slid it back into its gilded box, which was placed carefully in the saddlebags. I’d bet my next orgy that she was either the archivist or the Librarian here.
We stood in silence for a moment, because well, what did you do with that?
“And what do you take that to mean?” I asked softly. “Ellanora Halhed was my ancestor, but her prophecies could be vague.”
I sent a mental apology to Ellanora’s ghost if she was watching me.
But we needed to know their next move, and I needed to know if it put Hayle at risk.
Would they try to capture Hayle and pin his wings to the wall, taking her prediction as literally as possible?
Or would they try and eradicate Hayle, and take their chances on the rise-and-fall portion of the foresight?
People were unpredictable; people in power were more unpredictable than most.
Clearing his throat, it was Will who answered for them both. “That if we stand beside the Spryrix—Taeme—we will succeed. If we go against him, the Sixth Line is doomed.”
Well, that was pretty clear, and my shoulders relaxed just a little. We couldn’t trust them completely, but at least they weren’t going to capture Hayle and stick him in a zoo.
Lierick sighed. “We should sit down. There’s a lot to discuss.”
And some mental fog to undo. This was going to be… interesting.