Ella
My eyes flick to Jessica’s to find her gaze already on me. I stare at her, hoping she can intuit, hoping she has the courage to run when –
“If you think my human sister is a bitch,” I say, taking another precise step forward, forcing Xander to rise his foot to take his final step back. As that foot falls, I bare my teeth. “Then just wait until you really meet me.”
And as Xander places that foot down, and it falls on the edge of the stair that he didn’t know was there, I bare my teeth and transform in a flash.
Xander’s foot slips and slides unsteadily to the step below, unbalancing him. He flings out an arm to balance himself and while he keeps one hand steadily on Jessica –
As I hoped, the hand he flings out for balance is the one that holds the knife.
The moment she feels the cold press of it leave her neck, Jessica screams and rips herself away from Xander. His hand is still knotted in her hair and I swear I hear it rip from her scalp as I leap for him, but I can’t turn and see
Instead, I’m already in the air in my wolf’s body, sailing for him, my teeth bared. His eyes are wide as my paws slam into his shoulders, as I take him down to the ground.
A garbled scream falls from his mouth as he whips the knife in his hand toward my side, but it’s too late.My teeth are already closing around his throat, digging deep.
The dagger cuts me, I can feel it, but it slides away from my skin to clatter on the ground as Xander’s body crashes into the stone steps. My jaws close, my teeth meeting, and instincts take over as I shake my head, ripping the life from him as I tear his flesh.
I feel him go still beneath me quickly, leaving no time for a last gasp or a final word.
I did my job well.
My chest heaving, I stand above him for a moment, looking down into his face, making sure his eyes are dead.
And then I disdainfully step away, wanting nothing more to do with him, wanting the taste of his putrid blood out of my mouth.
and I drag
instincts to protect and back to my reality,
is for Jessica,
flashes ahead of me and turn wide-eyed back to the stairs. Because I realize with quick horror that while I concentrated only on Xander, and Jessica, and
palace in the middle of a city on
are crowded with people who look at me in shock. And press, who snap pictures of their Queen covered
is a momentary pause when I panic and stare out at the flashing cameras, but then suddenly – quite suddenly – everything is
I turn when I hear
to get to Sarah,” I say on a gasp, knowing that she needs to be
says, his voice worried. I tug at his arm but he won’t let me go, so I glare up at him. “Seriously, Ella,” he says,
“But she -”
nodding to me, “she’s conscious – let us take her
to it, realizing that he’s right. Because I am panicking right now, and trying to do everything at once, and completely forgetting that I’m a Queen and
nods once to me and then stands straight, supporting me as I step away from Xander’s lifeless form. Conner’s hand is still supportively around my arm
against the guards who hold her back from her sister,
her head to me,
go as they see my serious face. Jessica rushes to my
are going to
you,” she says, looking back, “do you promise she’s
of it. “We just all need to get inside, okay? And Sarah needs
little for that. The doctors – they’re going to help
she trusts me and lets me
my knees go
Jessica with me
me now, knowing that I’m safe, and he steps back as Sinclair takes a
growls, stepping close to me and glancing momentarily down at Jessica and over at Conner,
hand on his cheek, shaking my head. “I’m fine, it’s fine,” I
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