Page 119 of Firebird
The praetorians had their swords drawn and sliced through the air at me.
“Your uncle wants you alive,” snarled one of the praetorians in garbled speech.
“I’m sure he does,” I snapped back, beating my wings and charging forward.
When he thrust his sword toward my gut, I deflected and bent his arm, driving his blade directly up through his chin and skull, blood spraying my face as I spun to fight the next one.
Trajan had killed another, then twisted again and decapitated asecond with his gladius, his blue-spiked tail swiping one of the last two to the ground. Praetorians weren’t as accustomed to battle as we were, and that was our advantage. Too many hours standing around on guard and doing nothing made them no match for us.
The sixth backed away, then flew off into the night toward the palace. Before the one rolling on the ground could get away, I raised an arm, holding my hand outstretched. “Trajan!”
He flipped his gladius through the air. I caught it and stabbed the praetorian on the ground through the heart, the blade crunching through to the paved stone beneath. Then I stood straight, pulling the blade free, panting hard and staring at Trajan.
“So he knows,” said Trajan, his tail twitching behind him, his voice dangerous, eyes ice blue. “How?”
I shook my head. “Doesn’t matter.”
“I’ll get the last one.” Then Trajan was in the air, flying after the praetorian that got away.
Trajan was fast. The praetorian wouldn’t reach the castle before Trajan caught him. I stared down at the mess of bodies, trying to figure out what to do next. If the emperor knew and his men didn’t return, he’d send more or he’d come for me himself.
I turned for the door, needing my gladius, when Ruskus appeared suddenly, breathless and with a dagger in hand. Brave man.
“Dominus, are they all dead?”
“All dead.”
“What do we do with them?”
A sharp jolt pinned me still, like a rope that constricted my chest, my entire body freezing at the jarring of my very soul.
Instantly, I heard her,felther,screaminginto my mind.
Julian! Help me!
“Get the others to Trajan’s house,” I growled.
“Tonight?”
“Now!”
Then my heart fell while my wings took flight.
Rage and terror dug their talons in deep, swelling my half-skin beast to gargantuan proportions. By the time I reached Ciprian’s outer terrace, I was too large to fit through the archway made for dragons in half-skin.
I charged through the opening, my horns and wings crumbling stone. A bearded human jumped aside at the door. I grabbed his head and ripped it from his spine, then tossed it across the room, blood spraying. I barely noted the other men crying out in fear and fleeing, for my primal gaze was on Ciprian crouched over my mate, who was bent over a sofa, her tunic torn from her back, a trickle of blood sliding down her spine, and a knife in Ciprian’s hand.
My roar shattered glass and shook the ceiling of the home I was about to destroy, along with its master. Ciprian leaped to his feet, bulging and rippling into half-skin. It wouldn’t help him.
“I’m going to rip out your throat and bathe in your blood,” I growled darkly as I stalked across the room.
His eyes widened as he took in my form. My horns scraped the ceiling with each step, crumbling plaster onto the floor. I was beyond half-skin, but not quite dragon—some terrible beast in between.
“So the traitor comes calling,” he bellowed, planting his feet, flexing his muscles, and shedding his torn tunic.
It was him. He had been the one to tell the emperor. All the more reason to destroy him.
“That’s right, Julianus.” He spat my name with disgust, circling behind a table like a coward. “I know about your nightly errands out of the city. And so does the emperor now.”
