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

pivoting points, she flicked her legs up off the ground, using the strong muscles in her core to bring them up in order to wrap her ankles around the chief archon’s neck.

At the same time, she let her upper body fall downwards, her feet and legs still gripping tightly around Pyron’s neck, the weight of her body pulling his head down towards the ground.

And as Siraay’s own upper body dropped farther towards the floor, she was able to wrap her arms around Pyron’s lower legs, using this new grip to exert more force with her own legs, bending Pyron in half.

With her opponent’s face and neck thus exposed, Siraay swung her legs free and backwards over her own head, using the falling momentum of her lower body to flip herself upright, her head and shoulders lifting, her fist rising for Pyron’s face as she landed.

With a resounding crack, Siraay’s fist connected with Pyron’s jaw, snapping his head up and back.

Another rapid spin combined with a drop onto her haunches, and Siraay’s back leg swung around to knock Pyron’s feet out from under him before anyone had even registered the first blow.

The chief archon hit the ground, his body loose and bouncing, his face dazed.

Siraay remained in a crouch for an instant more while she assessed her opponent. Then, sure he was down, she straightened slowly, watching him try to roll onto his side … and failing.

He was done.

Siraay looked up at the watching crowd that was looking at her in silent awe.

Loce kept blinking, glancing from her to Pyron and back again.

Herrin’s face was predictably blank, but his stance was loose and off-balance.

Even Renhed was looking at Siraay as if she had never quite seen her before.

Meanwhile, her guards, Wexner and Zale, were standing tall and proud.

But none of them mattered, for as she turned nonchalantly away, breathing and sweating hard, blood running from her cheek where Pyron’s first blow had landed, and her stomach cramping with pain, Siraay’s eyes came to rest on someone who was looking at her in an entirely different way.

This wasn’t the time to smile, so she didn’t, merely raising her chin, not in challenge but to emphasise her message.

That she was a force to be reckoned with.

She held Chezran’s gaze for a long moment, then she twisted away, swept up her towel, and strode quickly from the room, leaving silence in her wake.

CHAPTER FORTY-FOUR

IT TOOK THE entire walk down the corridor from the training hall to the grand staircase for Siraay’s breathing to slow, and the journey up the stairs and down the hall to her room for her heartbeat to normalise, Wexner and Zale trailing her every step.

She left the pair outside the door to her room, eager to bathe and dress for the next part of her plan.

Trelar had the bath ready and waiting, steam rising from the surface of the water.

Once undressed, save for her usual accessory, Siraay walked up the steps leading to her bath, smiling smugly at her reflection in the mirrored wall beyond the steaming waters.

And froze.

Her eyes.

They were yellow. A deep, almost golden colour that nearly matched her necklace.

Siraay breathed in deeply, closing her eyes to shut out the startling sight as she forced herself to focus, carefully honing in on that place deep within her where her power usually slept.

It was awake. And roiling.

Concentrating harder, Siraay mentally stroked it, calmed it, until it settled down to slumber.

When she opened her eyes again to peer into the mirror, they were once more light blue.

Letting out a sigh of relief as she took the first step down into her bath, Siraay reflected with concern upon this new occurrence.

Going by what others had told said, her eyes always stayed blue in her animal forms. So that couldn’t be the reason for the colour change.

As she sunk down into the warm waters up to her chin, she considered that it might have something to do with how she’d tapped, just a little, into her sevonix strength, agility, and reflexes during the fights this morning—a feat that had proved difficult to manage and was dangerous to employ.

But the slight advantage she had gained had been worth the risk.

Yet her eyes … why would her eyes have changed like that? And had it happened during her fight with Pyron?

She didn’t think so, but then, even if it had, no one but Pyron had been close enough in those final moments to notice.

‘And he won’t be remembering too much anyway,’ she mused out loud.

‘Sorry, lady, did you ask for something?’ In the middle of the room, Trelar straightened up from where she had been bending over to pick up Siraay’s sweaty training gear from the floor.

‘No,’ Siraay responded curtly before smiling once again at her own reflection and ducking her head beneath the water.

***

She had bathed, dressed, and was having Trelar fix her hair when she heard a knock on the door.

Not expecting anyone, Siraay frowned, but Trelar said, ‘I called for refreshments, lady, knowing you would have a long training session this morning.’

While Trelar went to get the door, Siraay leaned back in her chair, again tilting her head this way and that as she admired in the mirror the way her red locks had been arranged to tumble down over her shoulders.

The female servant hurried back into the room, sliding the tray of refreshments onto the round table that sat in the middle of the room.

Lifting her chin, Siraay breathed in the scent of warm bread and freshly sliced fruit as Trelar took up a position behind her again, picking up a brush and applying it to sections of Siraay’s hair once more.

Moments later, Trelar had finished, and Siraay fingered the ends of her hair. Although the majority of her newly washed and dried hair had been left loose, Trelar had braided sections back from behind her ears, bringing the two sections together before twining them into another loose braid that was almost absorbed into the rest of