Change of Darkness (The Change Series Book 3) by Jacinta Jade (best new books to read txt) 📕

sentry take off running towards the city gates, Siraay decided to carry on alone. Drosni and Lifron were busy helping the sergeant secure the prisoner and see the Pyron into the care of the sentries, so it was only Torina who saw her begin to slip away.

The female opened her mouth as if she would announce that she would escort her lady through the city, but Siraay caught and held Torina’s eye and shook her head slowly.

The female froze, her lips pressing together into a thin line, and Siraay knew that she was thinking of her orders. Yet after a moment’s hesitation, she simply gave a quick nod of acknowledgment and pivoted away to assist the others, allowing Siraay to disappear through the gates and into the city.

Siraay made her way quickly through outer structures towards the palace, following the straight stretch of street. There were few people about, given how late the evening now was. As Siraay thought about what the Xarcon people would all be doing now in their homes, it made her mind wander to her own needs and wants.

And as soon as she did that, the hunger hit her—a roiling emptiness that felt like it might consume her. Siraay was surprised by the intensity of it, as she had eaten earlier that day while she and the others had been out on patrol, well before the events of the evening. And yet this urgent need for nourishment seemed to grow with each step she took through the city.

She was about halfway there when she stumbled, managing to catch herself against a wall of one structure—a weapons forgery, if she was judging the shadows correctly—using its solid support to combat her sudden weakness.

Could her hunger really be the cause of this? Siraay shook her head, as if doing so might force her body to come to its senses and erase the dizziness in her head and the limp feeling in her arms and legs.

I just need a hot meal, she thought to herself. And standing here wouldn’t help in the least. So she pushed off from the wall, using the momentum generated by the shove to get her body moving in the right direction.

For several paces after her brief rest she was fine, then Siraay began to feel weakness once more spreading through her limbs. No. She wouldn’t fall here, like some undisciplined trainee. She was a warrior now. A Lady of Xarcon. And she was strong.

She stumbled again.

Mother curse this body—I’m not going to make it. At least, not on my own two feet … her mind supplied the solution.

It took Siraay a great deal of focus and a lot of her remaining strength, but she did it. She Changed.

Now standing on four tall yeibon legs, she could still feel the weakness. Still felt the ravenous hunger. But she was stable. Yeibons were natural rovers and sometimes walked great distances in short periods. Thus, bending her horned head to peer down the dim city street, Siraay concentrated on moving forwards, knowing each step brought her closer to rest and food.

She was drawing close to the inner gates that secured the yard and the palace from the rest of the city when a large shape, darker than the surrounding, raced out from between them. The shape seemed to tilt its head for an instant mid-stride, then abruptly altered its course so it began to run down Siraay’s street instead of the one it had initially been headed along.

Behind the shape, other figures ran out from the gate, heading straight down the road before them, not noting the large shape that had deviated from their course.

Siraay had managed to stagger forwards a few more lengths before the shape was running straight at her, merely a few leaps away. In her yeibon form, strong instincts began to rise within her, a panic and natural inclination to run from this threat.

So strong were those instincts, that it was all she could do to plant her feet and stand, still as possible, as the large shape slid to a stop beside her and smoothly Changed.

‘Siraay! Are you hurt?’ Strong hands roamed over her body, searching for any injuries. When the quick examination revealed nothing to her questioner, rough hands slid around her chin and guided her large head downwards. ‘Look at me!’

The male’s voice was filled with command, which rivalled any instinct that had been directing Siraay’s movements, and she obeyed.

Her Xarcon lord stood before her, his eyes blazing with anger and panic. ‘Change—Change now!’

The snap in his voice was like a whip in Siraay’s mind, and without thinking, she tried to conform to his wishes. She found that core of herself and was focusing on it when the last of her strength seemed to give way … and that leash of power she held, the lifeline between the two forms she was transitioning across, the map from one mind to the other, was lost.

As blackness crept in around Siraay’s vision and she felt the core of who she was slip through that mental grip.

And then she was afloat, in endless black depths.

***

She appeared to be standing in a world made of darkness. But the fact that she could discern that it was dark told her that this new world did indeed have some light.

And maybe it was her eyes adjusting, but as soon as she registered the thought, the light seemed to expand just a little more … enough for her to be able to see her own hands, legs, and feet.

She was dressed in dark clothes that had a gold X emblazoned on each shoulder. Clothes that appeared to be made for hard wear.

She frowned as her mind tried to grasp at something then, but even as she tried to pinpoint it, it slipped away from her, elusive, like water through spread fingers.

She shook her head, trying to clear away the fogginess, and tried to focus on something else.

Her breath caught in her throat—she didn’t remember anything