I t felt good to be looked at with this much fear. These people—these selfish, pathetic humans—looked at us like we were gods.
I wanted to laugh. I felt more powerful than I ever had since returning to this body. I was a little drunk, too. Meajqa had slipped me a flask before we entered the city, and I had not cared to turn it down. I wanted to feel unstoppable.
Meajqa had given me a nod and a wink then, practically playful. Now, his face was stone as he stood next to me. I followed his stare—followed it to the Aran queen, who stood near the table. Beside her was Tisaanah. The sight of her, even from a distance, made my heartbeat quicken.
Caduan entered the ballroom first. He observed the party with a frigid stare.
“What is this?” he said, in Thereni. “We were not invited?”
For a long moment, all the humans were still. At last, Lord Zorokov rose. “Get out of my home.”
Caduan’s laugh was the edge of a blade. “You call this a home? This is not a home. This is a prison.” Guests scrambled away from him as he crossed the room, one portly woman tripping backwards over a chair. He regarded her with cool disgust. Then his gaze settled on Nura, and the disgust turned to outright hatred. “But I suppose lack of respect for life is a common trait among your kind.”
“We aren’t—” Lord Zorokov started.
“No need. Save your words. I know what is happening here, and I am not even surprised by it.”
One of the noblewomen let out a strangled cry and dove for the door. Luia caught her arm, yanked her back, and in one smooth movement, gutted her with her blade.
“She would not have made it far,” Caduan said calmly. “The doors are barred.”
Lord Zorokov advanced, fury settling into the lines of his face. “You don’t know who you’re threatening. You can’t do this to us.”
“I am not threatening. I am warning. And certainly, I can do this to you.
I don’t need you anymore.”
Perhaps once, Lord Zorokov had been considered a great warrior by his people. Perhaps that was how he’d gained his power—by speaking the only language humans knew. Perhaps by those standards, the lunge he made for Caduan was a skilled one.
But for us? It was nothing.
I smoothly stepped in front of Caduan. My magic had been itching at my skin this entire time, desperate to be released. The bright light cut through the air like lightning. My blade struck him just as my magic did. His blood spattered me in a hot spray.
I hated this man.
When he fell to the ground, throat opened, burns on his face and black flowers growing from his eyes, I turned myself over to the glorious euphoria of battle.
In an instant, chaos broke loose. The humans screamed, climbing over each other in wild attempts to either escape or attack us.
But I looked only at the Aran queen across the room, and I let the anger sweep me away.
