CHAPTER SIX
The chimera knew what I was. Knew that I was the only one who could fight back.
I leapt into the air, pushing off the ground with all my might, soaring toward the beast. The tiniest wave of dizziness overtook me as I landed on its back.
I started to roll forward, winded from the sudden power loss. But with a grunt, I straightened and crushed my knees against either side of the chimera’s spine. It bucked, both heads turning around, teeth gnashing, and roars and growls pushing its hot, disgusting breath my way.
Claws? It scoffed the word into my head. Not your true form.
My heart thudded. My true form. Not the one I’d been born with. But the monster I could become. The vicious thing I shifted into when my mother died.
The lion seemed to laugh. Its milky white eyes shining with mockery. But also hunger.
You can’t defeat us—not in this form.
My stomach twisted. I wasn’t ready to become that monster again. Not yet. My true form … an Azete at full power, required nearly all the lifeforce someone could give.
Enough to kill them.
“Samara,” my mother said, her voice hushed, weakened by pain, “it’s okay. I trust you. I love you. And I need you to live. To survive. So take it. Take as much as you need.”
I imagined two longswords sliding out of my arms, my claws now sharpened steel blades.
Die. Die now, it thought.
“You first,” I snarled. Then I slashed, one blade through the goat’s neck, the other through the lion’s.
They didn’t even have time to roar. Blood spurted, and the beast's body slackened. I started to fall back, and my head hit the wall, my face inches from its venomous snake tail.
Black eyes blinked slowly. Then its jaw unhinged, poison dripping from its fangs.
“Fuck!” I scrambled back, and with one slash, my opponent was defeated. The snake’s head fell to the ground with a sickening thud.
One chimera dead.
I blinked dizzily, the room spinning as my blades vanished, my Samara form restored. Two hands, two arms. Two muscular calves fit for a dancer.
I pushed myself up, trying to catch my breath.
I should have been drained by what I’d done.
Almost back to the body I’d been born with.
But I was only winded. How much of Brennan’s life had I stolen?
Usually I could tell, sense the amount, sense whether it was minutes or years.
But with him, his energy came to me so quickly, so naturally, I couldn’t tell.
I thought I’d taken a year—but I had a sinking certainty that it had been far more.
Most of the men battling the chimera with two wolf heads had fallen or run. Only two remained.
One with black curls.
One with brown.
Kienan.
Brennan.
My stomach lurched. Neither one knew how to fight chimera, and neither was strong enough. Not on their own.
Kienan parried, stabbing the beast’s belly with his blade. But it barely flinched. He was wasting time on the heart. He needed to go for its heads. The chimera’s power lay there, and only when all three heads were killed, could it be defeated.
Until then, it could slaughter them in a dozen ways—injure and antagonize them until they were too tired to fight back. Too cornered. Too scared. Too weak.
Red embers flared in all four of the beast’s nostrils. And with a deadly growl, it let its flames loose.
A scream tore out of Brennan’s throat as he leapt, throwing himself over his friend and pushing him out of harm’s way as they crashed to the floor. Instantly, Brennan was alert, rolling them to the side, just barely missing the chimera’s fire.
“Brennan!” Rowan screamed, racing back for his friends.
The chimera reared back. They needed to get up. Brennan just had to stand, pull Kienan to his feet, and run. But he wasn’t moving. He was still lying on top of him.
“Brennan! What the hell!” Rowan yelled, his eyes wide and frantic. “Get up! Get up! Come on!”
But he couldn’t get up. He wasn’t hurt. He was just drained, feeling that months of his life had been sucked away.
By me.
The beast charged forward, but instead of trampling them, it ran just past them. Its black, venomous snake tail shot out, its body stretching and lengthening, coiling itself around Brennan’s body like a rope.
He cried out as he was dragged off of Kienan, then thrown onto the chimera’s back. In the blink of an eye, the beast tore out of the tavern, out into the night.
“Brennan!” Kienan yelled, his voice hoarse. Rowan had already turned, racing after his friend as Kienan struggled to get back on his feet.
My heart pounded, my stomach twisting. But I knew what I had to do. I sent magic down my legs, thinning them out and lengthening them to run faster than I’d ever run in my life.
Another burst of energy went to my eyes, shifting them to see in the dark as I made my way outside.
I spotted Finlay from the corner of my eye, sitting on a log with Thomas, trying to console him.
“Sam?” Finlay yelled. He blinked, taking in my strange eyes and limbs. “Sam!”
But I kept running. I didn’t have time. The power I’d called on would run out soon. I had to reach the chimera before it did.
Geoffrey’s Tavern was on the edge of Batron, right where the town met Kalder Forest. The trees grew close together there, and the terrain was full of loose soil and rocks that made travel dangerous, day or night.
But I could see with my enhanced eyesight that the chimera had already come through the forest. Trees were knocked down in its wake, falling in every direction, with rocks and dirt kicked about.
I ran faster, dodging a tree trunk and leapt over a pile of bramble. I pumped my arms, willing my feet to pick up speed, to go faster and faster, as I was swallowed into the black of Kalder.
My breath came in short, labored gasps, my heart thundering, calves burning, until I made it into a small clearing—along with the chimera.
It slowed, stopping at the edge of a lake. Silence surrounded us. Not a single bird chirped. The snake tail unraveled, releasing its hold over Brennan, who lay prone across the chimera’s back. Then the chimera bucked its bull-like body, and Brennan fell onto the grass, his head face down.
“Brennan!” I yelled out, running forward.
The two wolf heads snarled, their gazes turned toward me.
Azete.
Red embers glowed in its nostrils, its eyes beginning to flare red. One leg moved back in warning, preparing to attack.
Brennan stirred, lifting his head off the ground. The chimera kicked. He let out a grunt of pain, rolling over to his side, his eyes barely registering my presence before they closed again.
The chimera huffed.
“Don’t touch him!” I growled.
You want him? The chimera’s words echoed into my mind.
More embers burned in the dark. It was preparing.
Gearing up to release its firebreath again.
And while an Azete was a lot of things, I could not withstand flames.
Not in this form. Not unless the Azete was at full strength, in its true beastly form. A form I could not take tonight.
The chimera pawed the ground. Come and get him.
“Leave him alone,” I said. “Fight me.”
Fight you?
It stepped forward, taking slow, measured steps, until its entire body hovered over Brennan’s. Fuck! I couldn’t attack. If I ran forward now, the chimera would either burn me alive, or crush Brennan beneath its weight.
Unless he got away, unless he moved.
Get up. Get up! I thought. Brennan, please get up.
For several long seconds, nothing happened. Then slowly, as if he heard me, Brennan lifted his head, and his eyes opened. They were so green, even in the dark of the clearing.
He drew his eyebrows together and frowned, his face pale in the moonlight as he stared back at me, finally seeing, understanding that I was there. That I hadn’t stayed safe in my room. I had come for him.
His immediate fear for me was strong. He shook his head, his eyes urging me to run before looking back at the chimera above him. Slowly, he slid his hand down to his belt, reaching for the hilt of his sword.
“Come on! Come after me, you coward,” I yelled, my voice shaking with rage. I took a step forward, and then another. I needed to draw its flames to me. It couldn’t burn me if I outran its fire. If it followed me, Brennan had his chance to escape. “Stop stalling and fight.”
Both wolf heads cocked to the side, back and forth. Its front leg slid back, hoof pawing the ground.
Brennan brandished his blade as he rolled to his back, ready to strike. But he wasn’t fast enough. The chimera sensed his movements. It dashed forward, guarding Brennan from me.
“Get away from him,” I snarled.
As you wish, it thought. Its hind leg kicked back, and Brennan yelled out in pain as the impact of the hit threw him into the lake with a single splash.
I bit back a scream, staring over the rippling water, waiting for him to surface, to rise back up. But he didn’t. Shit. Shit. Shit.
I shifted again, knowing I was dangerously close to dipping into my magical reserves.
But I didn’t care. I ran, my fingers extending into five separate daggers.
My calves thinned, allowing me to leap, and with a cry of rage, I met the chimera’s eyes, my hands slashing, blades cutting through its heads.
As I landed, I retracted the blades, rolled onto the ground, and jumped up. This time I only shifted one hand, imagining another long sword shooting out of my arm. With that, I cut off the tail and then used my hand to grab hold of the beast’s hind leg, climbing onto its back.
The lake bubbled. I held my breath, but there was no sign of Brennan.
I pulled myself forward along the beast’s spine until I was at its shoulders, and I slashed from behind. One head lopped off with a pained cry. Blood gleamed on the blade my arm had become as I swept it against the second head.
Fool, it thought, its voice sounding like death. More will come. More will—