Chapter 5 #2
The blue glow rose around me like a tidal wave, and instead of the dagger I’d learned long ago, I shaped it into a sword.
The combatants seemed locked together, mirroring each other's movements, ignoring me as they waited for the right moment to strike…
And it was Faris who struck first. Not with a blow, but with a grappling rush that might have worked, if it hadn’t been exactly what the monster was waiting for.
When Faris charged, the snake darted to the side, shifting its coils and aiming for his unguarded flank.
Maybe the bite wouldn’t have hurt him. I wasn’t sure how much of Faris’s body was protected by the stone skin of his earth element.
But the moment the creature moved, so did I—plunging my razor-edged blade of fae magic through the snake’s tail and a solid six inches into the floor beneath.
He’d committed everything to the lunge, and when his tail didn’t follow the rest of his body, he snapped backward, landing in a sprawl of disordered coils and hissing indignation.
Faris, whose elemental form had grown to twice his usual size, pinned the center of the snake’s body to the floor with arms of literal granite, probably preparing to rip it in half.
The snake’s head rose, eyes glittering malevolently…
But Tairen-li-Corva struck first.
I never even saw her move, but suddenly she was there, close enough to fasten both hands in an iron grip around the snake’s neck. Her arm and shoulder muscles bulged with the effort, but somehow she prevailed, holding the outraged naga’s head only a forearm’s length from her face.
“I suggest you think very carefully, Hector Ademar, before putting those fangs anywhere near me.”
I couldn’t have said what it was, but something in her voice had changed. It was deeper, harsher, with audible echoes of the authority she’d once wielded as queen of the shifters.
And whatever that “something” was, it called to the struggling shapeshifter’s instincts and unlocked a primal form of terror.
If you’ve never seen a giant snake try its best to go belly up while pinned in three places? The resulting convulsions made my stomach lurch, and they ended only when Tairen-li-Corva shook the creature’s head until I thought its bones might snap.
“Oh, stop sniveling and shift back, you spineless weasel.”
Thirty feet of snake went utterly limp, and then, to absolutely no one’s surprise, the spineless weasel obeyed.
And a few moments later, we were all thankful that shifting into his snake form had not done any significant structural damage to his clothes.
It took a little less than five minutes before the giant was dressed and relocated to one of The Portal’s basement rooms, which were most definitely not cells in any way. At all. Just ordinary rooms that happened to be very hard to get out of.
Hector’s feet had been sunk entirely into the concrete floor, so he wasn’t going anywhere.
His expression remained utterly blank, and even though his eyes still glimmered faintly in his darkly tanned face, I couldn’t read them well enough to tell how he felt about the situation.
Outraged? Embarrassed? Pleased with his success?
Faris loomed in the doorway, radiating both incoherent fury and wordless embarrassment as he regarded the would-be assassin.
The two dragons also stood nearby, shoulder to shoulder, wearing near-identical expressions of satisfaction, while I busied myself with calculating what it might take to convince Faris not to kill the naga.
Also with wondering how much damage had been done upstairs, how much business would be lost after this altercation, and what I was going to tell Callum about the evening’s events.
But all of these calculations were interrupted when the former dragon queen turned her piercing gaze on me.
“Are you hurt?”
The question startled me so much that for a moment I didn’t answer, just blinked at her in befuddled apprehension.
“I, uh… no?”
Her glare did not abate.
“Not hurt. I’m fine. Just…” Confused. Very, very confused.
She eventually gave up trying to X-ray me with her eyes and nodded once. “Good. Now, either you call my son, or I will.”
I thought about refusing. The last thing I wanted was for Callum to worry about me, and after all, I was fine. Everything was handled, and no one was hurt.
Also, I didn’t want Callum’s mother thinking she could tell me what to do.
But this was about far more than just me. There was something underhanded going on at the Shapeshifter Court, and Callum needed to know about it.
“I’ll call him,” I agreed. “But only after we deal with Hector. I want to know who sent him. And why he took the risk of betraying his king.”
“This one’s betrayal didn’t start with your summons.” From the look of Tairen’s sneer, she clearly felt nothing but naked loathing for the trapped naga. “His fall from loyalty and decency happened years ago. When he started picking up dirty little jobs for money.”
The naga finally opened his mouth. “Don’t speak of my betrayal, dragon.
Not until you, too, are the last of your kind.
Overlooked and spat upon. Unheard and unseen.
I have no clan to rely on, no enclave to call home, no people to call my own.
Why should I not make the effort to earn a place for myself?
It’s not every day I’m offered a handsome sum to strike back at those who’ve shunned me, and the payoff seemed more than worth the risk. ”
Faris growled under his breath. “So you thought you would take my territory by force? You’ll be lucky if I don’t bury you in this floor forever.
No one will find your bones until centuries from now, when the naga have faded into myth, and even then no one will remember your name—only your stupidity. ”
Okay, so Faris wasn’t going to be much help with the interrogation.
“Who hired you?” I demanded.
The giant naga’s jaw clenched firmly. I didn’t need my siren magic to tell me that I wasn’t going to get an answer.
“Hector will do anything for money except kidnap or kill,” Tairen informed us. “Or so I believed until today. And he works for anyone who will pay him. He neither knows nor cares about court politics, so you’ll get no useful information from him.”
Faris let out another growl and slammed the door shut. “Let him rot in there for the rest of the night. Maybe he’ll change his mind.”
“Um, Faris…”
He shot me a disgruntled look. “I’m not going to kill him,” he grumbled quietly. “Not yet. Not unless he hurts one of my people or refuses to leave my territory.”
I shivered at the threat in his tone and wondered if Hector could hear him.
“The doors are thick,” Faris told me, as if he’d read my mind. “And I haven’t let him out of the floor yet.”
Speaking of which…
“Faris, why didn’t you do that upstairs?”
The rear part of the building had a basement, which meant Faris couldn’t use his earth magic on the ground floor. But the club in the front rested on a concrete foundation. He should have had no difficulty restraining the naga in the middle of their fight.
But to my surprise, my boss abruptly clammed up and turned bright red beneath his beard.
“Faris Lansgrave.” Tairen’s eyes were suddenly sparkling, and an absolutely delighted smirk tugged at the corner of her lips. “I’ve known you for over fifty years. How did I never realize before today that you’re afraid of snakes?”
My mouth dropped open.
Faris glared, turned around, and stomped up the stairs without a single word.