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Long, platinum hair fell straight to his waist, a satin sheet that sparkled as his body grew taller, waist slimming and shoulders widening. He looked so much like Vann that, for a second, Thad was convinced it was his cousin standing there.
Until he spoke.
“Come, Thaddeus. Say hello to your father.”
His voice wasn’t at all like Vann’s, entirely lacking the soft and gentle quality his cousin boasted. Thad couldn’t decide whether that was a good or bad thing. He might have stood a chance against Vann. Might have been able to make him see reason. To listen.
This…
He didn’t have a choice when his feet moved. His mind was splintered, too far gone to do anything but what it was told. Behind, he vaguely knew that Nyri was throwing a fit. That Sorcha was frantic, but…they were distant, as if he’d been plunged under water. He couldn’t understand them. He was somewhere else, now.
Somewhere they couldn’t follow.
“No. No!” bellowed the one in chains.
Maybe it was his father, maybe not. He didn’t know anything anymore.
“Good doggy. So obedient.” The shapeshifter patted the top of his head, a wicked grin splitting his full mouth. “Really Caius, you should be proud. He did what I said, when I said, and rarely ever questioned it once he decided to grow the fuck up. And did you see? I even took him to the Marker to have his first battle commemorated. Mostly because I knew it would kill you to have missed it, but honestly? It felt sort of nice while being laid into his skin and mine because of your fucking curse.”
Something nudged Thad in the back, a sharp point that dug into him once, twice. A pause… Next he knew, it was slamming him forward, his head crashing into the stone beside the shackled version of his father.
—Thaddeus! Sweet one, can you hear me?—
His head rang as function came back, all of that rigid stupefaction fading, and he let the pain anchor him. Let the fury flood him.
Aye, Sorcha. I’m…I’m here.
—Thank the weeping moons and stars. Let me free now, lad. I’ll get us out—
“You meddling, useless whore!”
“Don’t fucking touch her!” his father roared.
Thad whipped around as a smack rang out, the shapeshifter rearing back to deliver another strike when he noticed Thad watching and froze.
“Ah-ah, my boy,” he crooned, dropping his arm, and Thad felt those icy hands digging around inside him, trying to seize control again. “Don’t look at her, look at me. There’s nothing to see there.”
Too late.
What…the fuck am I looking at, Sorcha?
He’d never seen a dreadbeast so unformed, the mutation only half complete. It was bolted to the wall, massive irons around its waist and…neck…
Half hiding behind tawny lengths of matted hair, tears wobbled in blue, blue eyes—the same eyes Thaddeus found every time he looked in the mirror. The only thing that was her anymore.
“Mam?” he whispered.
She had no lips. No lips. Just jagged, oozing spikes where her mouth and teeth should be. Her torso was hunched and wasted, and jointed talons had replaced her arms and legs, another set besides. One of those bony appendages was extended out, trying to reach him and he knew—it was her who pushed him. Who brought him back to himself.
—Sweet, greeting Sisters—
She was alive.
Sure as shite, his fucking mam was right there staring back at him.
Thad’s knees nearly buckled, but the shapeshifter jumped in front of him, blocking the sight of his mother.
With wide, panicked eyes, he patted himself down, then let out a whoosh of breathy laughter as he glanced over Thad’s shoulder. “Apparently, the oath doesn’t apply if I’m not the one to tell him, Caius,” he said, cracking his neck and flashing a relaxed grin. “Though I won’t be testing it by expounding further.” A blink and he had Thad against the cave wall next to his father, shackles closing around his wrists. “There. That’s better.”
