Page 49 of Lavish Destruction
Brow creased, I frowned, but conceded her point. Knelt in the soft loam and pressed my palms to the earth, tugging at the Grandmother’s skirt.
Hesitant.
And so I was unprepared for the rush of ancient ki that leapt in joyous greeting. Rejoicing and embracing my return with a thousandthousandtiny outstretched hands. A tattered sob burst from my aching throat when, in the distance, a lion roared.
“See? Not forgotten. And long as you can stop her from killin’ me, I’d say we press on.”
Standing, I nodded, letting my tears salt the earth with a plea for forgiveness—and felt something… flicker at the furthest edge of my awareness. Something powerful and wild and not quite sentient. A whisperer in the aether gone the instant I tried to look right at it, seeming to be in two places at once, and nowhere at all.
I whirled, gooseflesh erupting on my skin andhis, for in the next moment the whisperer vanished. Chased away by the tsunami of wrath that flooded the bond, heralding the onset of a new hunt in a new game.
Baring pointed canines, I grinned. Queen of things both savage and wild, knowing he could feel my unspoken challenge as surely as I knew he was free.
Come out to play, Captain Rawlings…
Howling winds of passion and fury were answer enough, and I turned my back on that city of silver slaves. Knowing I’d be back.
After all…nothing—not even the sun itself—could stop the night things from taking wing.
