The Kingdom's Crown (Inheritance of Hunger #3) - Kathryn Moon Page 0,93

smallest, most faintly challenging smirk curling the corners of his lips. He saw the girl in me who wanted to suddenly run away, and he dared her to go through with the act.

I turned, smiling slightly as Wendell nudged his massive jaw against one breast, and then let me drape myself over his great back.

Thao had asked if he could bite my ass, and without waiting for my answer, the others had all refused to let it be marred. It was kind of flattering, if a little galling too. We'd settled on the back of my thigh instead, a safely fleshy area carefully chosen for the wound so it would miss any major arteries that would be harder to heal. If the magic worked, the bite would heal quickly. And if it didn't…

Hopefully, mine or Aric's magic would make quick work of it. Or I would be left with an uncomfortable seat for quite a while.

Thao and Wendell were both chuffing, trying to soothe me with the happy sounds, and I wondered if they could smell my anxiety through all the oils. A massive, furry chin rested itself on the crease of my bottom, and I let out a little giggle as Thao waited for me to calm myself. I wrapped my arms around Wendell's shoulders and sighed.

"Go on," I said.

Thao licked at the back of my thigh, and my eyes widened briefly, muscles stiffening at the strange drag of his rough tongue on my skin. It was simultaneously threatening and an oddly pleasant touch. Wendell's head lifted, and I pressed my face into his wet fur as Thao licked my thigh again. I wished I was facing Aric, able to see his expression daring me to be brave as Thao pulled away. But perhaps it was for the best. Aric might not have been able to keep the worry out of his face.

There was a rumble behind me, a warning, and then four symmetrical points of pressure around the back of my thigh. Thao's breath rasped over my skin, and my arms squeezed around Wendell's strong shoulders. The pressure was gentle, more a reminder for me to hold as still as I could so Thao didn't tear muscle needlessly when he bit.

And then it was cruel, digging and stabbing, aching like brutal fingers. I buried a cry into Wendell's fur, but when Thao's bite finally broke through flesh, there was no volume to my scream.

Stay still. Just wait, I reminded myself, gasping through an open mouth. Just wait.

A soft gurgle of pain escaped my throat as incisors dug through muscle, the sensation somehow numb and painful at the same time. And then it was hot, Thao's teeth retreating and the nerves in my skin screaming in answer, grieving for the wounds. Wendell shifted in my hold, and it took me a moment to move my focus away from the bite burning on the back of my leg to remember how to loosen my grip on him.

"Bryony?" Aric rasped, appearing at the ledge of the tub, brow tangled.

"It will take a moment," Thao murmured, back in his human form.

"I…" I blinked, wincing as the heat in my leg grew.

Aric paled as he looked at the water, where red was clouding out around my hips.

Magic was rising in me, but it was my own, cold and furious. It bloomed from my chest, indignant at the injury, and I realized, even as the fire stretched down my wounded leg to my toes, that Aric was right. My magic would fight off this assault.

"Do you feel it?" Thao asked me, turning me in the water to face him.

"I feel…hot," I murmured.

"Her pupils are dilated," Aric murmured.

"She's not bleeding out, Aric, give it a moment," Thao said through a tense jaw, his eyes holding mine.

I whimpered, and my eyes fell shut as the magic of Thao's bite spread like a hot iron scratching through me, until there in my core, right in my hips, it struck against my own power. There was a war inside of me—lightning and ice against a smoldering coal burn.

Thao cursed, and Aric began to bark orders to him about getting me out of the water. I wanted to cry—I probably already was, given the agony coursing through me—over the failure. I wanted this. It had been my idea, and it was wholly unfair that the Hunger would prevent my transformation.

I yanked on my magic, tugging at it like the reins on a wild horse. Fire rose up into my