Page 120 of Firebird
“I don’t care.” I continued straight for him. I wasn’t going to parry or play games. “I’m going to kill you both.”
“You finally figured it out, did you?”
Ignoring his ploy to distract me, I dug my claws into the table and threw it aside, the wood crashing and cracking against the wall. Ciprian scrambled toward the dining area and hauled Malina to her feet by her hair.
I lunged but he spun and pressed the tip of the blade to her throat. Her torn tunic slid off one shoulder.
She was listless, her eyes dilated, her expression scared and confused. Drugged. I could smell the taint of it on her.
Ciprian laughed while I stared at him, my tail lashing and flinging a chair across the room while I tried to figure out the best way to kill him before he hurt Malina.
“I wish I’d been there when you finally learned the truth.”
I could barely hear his blathering through my intense focus on my mate. Her dazed expression and fumbling to stand distressed me. The dragon was edging hard for my skin. He wanted out.
My focus homed in on where Malina gripped his forearm, her gaze finally finding mine. She curled her fingers tight. I understood, so I entertained Ciprian’s rambling. “The truth about what?”
He backed up, tightening his hold on her. “I suppose that would make any man go traitor.”
I’d stopped stalking closer and locked in place, lengthening my claws, arms at my sides. “What are you talking about?”
“Fratricide, of course.”
I froze, staring at him, trying to make sense of what he was saying. Slowly, slowly, dawning realization chilled my blood. My breathing became more labored.
While I wrapped my mind around what he was confessing, Ciprian belted out a loud, maniacal laugh.
“You didn’t know!” His speech was barely discernible in half-skin, but I could understand well enough. “You didn’t know that your uncle murdered your father. Well, he arranged for it anyway. Your mother too, and everyone in the house. He couldn’t have a slave-loving brother while creating the empire he wanted.” He shrugged, the gesture looking likea twitch in half-skin, his sharp blade still too close to Malina’s throat. “Couldn’t blame him. I’d have done the same.”
My mind reeled and my gut churned while I held myself perfectly still. My uncle was the one to tell me they’d caught the perpetrators and executed them. I’d never questioned it. I’d never suspected him when it made perfect sense. Without my father—another Ignis of equally noble blood—protesting the emperor’s every move, he could control Rome with unchecked dictatorial power. And he had. He’d even controlled me… until now.
“Who did the actual killing… of my family?” I asked, my timbre rumbling with danger.
He laughed again. “That’s the fun part. Take a guess.”
I already knew. It had never made sense, Ciprian’s swift rise within the ranks, when his father had resigned from his legion too soon as a mediocre centurion of no high rank.
“Your father did it.” I bent my neck till it cracked, my voice dropping deeper, my blood running hotter, scorching through my veins. “Your father killed mine.”
“And he was happy to do it. My father was loyal to the new emperor. Unlike you.” He let his blade drift away from her throat ever so slightly as he shifted in thought, distracted. “Why did you betray your own blood?”
“Now, Malina!”
She gripped his forearm and sank her teeth into his skin. Ciprian bellowed and jerked away on reflex. Before he could snatch her back, I wason him.
Malina fell to the side as I shoved Ciprian to the floor and straddled him, my clawed hands wrapping his throat. I bent forward and hissed, “May you rot in the deepest of hells.”
For the first time since I’d known him, there was true fear shining in his demonic eyes, then he was fighting and snarling and growling… and growing.
“Malina!” I bellowed. “Run!”
He was shifting into his dragon. I glanced left to see her crawling to the outer terrace. Shecouldn’trun.
Then it was too late. My beast wasn’t about to let her go unprotected. He was tearing out of my skin, bones splintering, body and neck elongating, fire blazing deep within as I staggered onto the terrace and became the beast…
Vengeance.
The enemy opens his jaws and snaps. I crave his blood in my mouth, his flesh in my teeth. This demon shall go back to the netherworld. He belongs not on this earth. Not in our skies. He has no right to breathe air.
