mind, but Ashiol was keeping her out, his defences high.
He shook his head and smiled. ‘Stay out, little mouse.’
‘Not so little.’
‘So I hear.’
‘Base insults? Does it come to that?’
‘No. I don’t have time for insults. I’ve wasted too much time trying to make you into a Creature King and you were just a demme all along. Ready to tumble on her back at the first sight of a pretty face.’
Anger poured off him. He wouldn’t be Ashiol if he didn’t taste of anger. But he seemed to be genuinely hurt as well. Velody was startled by that. It was almost funny.
‘Are you seriously judging me for who I bed? Is there anyone in the Court who hasn’t had a taste of you?’
Oh, that anger of his — she had forgotten how it felt when his animor flared with it. If Ashiol was anything right now, it was serious.
‘You knew what he was,’ he spat. ‘You knew what he did. You let him in and you brought him back. Did you think we would say thank you for it?’
Velody shook her head slowly, careful to keep a good distance from him, ready to change in an instant if he attacked her. ‘I didn’t know anything about Garnet except what you told me, and I’m not sure I trust you any more. I don’t know who you are, Ashiol. You’re the one that turned this into a fight.’
That’s the demme, Garnet said in her mind. We’ll take him down together. He can’t fight us both at once, not if we team up.
Then what? Velody demanded.
Garnet laughed in her head, filling her up. Then the city is ours.
Yours, you mean. It was her own fury she could taste now. I’m sick of you both thinking that you’re more than me, that what I believe doesn’t count for anything. I was a better Power and Majesty than you ever were, Garnet.
Prove it, little mouse. Let’s see the colour of your claws.
Ashiol blurred in front of her, and Velody leaped towards him, attacking rather than defending. She was angry enough at him that her animor surged ahead of her, hot and lashing out.
He went chimaera, and she did, too, muscles expanding outwards, wings unfurling. She sank her teeth into the side of his neck and her claws into his chest. He raked his claws down her back and they rolled, bestial and fierce, on the cobbled street.
A noxcab rattled past, barely missing them, the black horse hooves coming within inches of Velody’s wings. She hissed and let out a mighty shriek, slamming Ashiol back on the ground, pinning him down.
You’re so hot when you’re murderous, Garnet said.
Shut up! Velody yelled at him, concentrating on her body and Ashiol’s, keeping her weight on him, keeping him down. If she could only come up with a plan, but the chimaera didn’t think; it fought and it bit and it lashed out.
Pain cut through her as he freed his claws and thrust them into her thick hide. They rolled and wrestled and she found herself under him, then on top again, bleeding in too many places. Battle-rage was scarlet and bright in her mind, but she hurt, and it was all she could do to roll back and protect her throat from his snapping jaws.
She became aware of voices behind her: Delphine and Macready and Crane.
‘You can’t let him do this,’ said Delphine in distress.
‘Feck that,’ said Macready. ‘We need her to win fairly. She has to, or all this is for naught.’
Velody could feel others nearby. She was certain that Warlord was watching, and there was a sniff of Livilla, and Poet … Where was Poet? Why had he chosen Garnet out of all of them? It made no sense to her.
Ashiol dug his claws harder into her and she howled, shifting back into Lord form. Ashiol changed, too, his body covering hers. How had he ended up on top?
He stared at her, breathing hard, and for one moment Velody wondered if this was sex rather than a fight to the death. The fact that it was so hard to tell pretty much summed up the Creature Court.
Not to the death, not that, it’s not what I’m supposed to be doing, I am not that Power and Majesty, I never will be!
She could feel Ashiol hard against her stomach, and for a moment, just for a moment, he let her inside his head, inside his thoughts. All she saw was a mess of heat and hurt and