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

a few steps in, and Siraay watched as his eyes rapidly scanned the room before finding and stopping on her where she lay before the fire.

He strode closer, stopping a short distance away from the rug. He paused to take in her feline form for a moment longer before he tilted his head a little down to her. ‘Show me,’ he said.

Siraay lifted her head a little, looking back up at him. But while quietly spoken, his words were, without a doubt, a command.

She breathed in, her large lungs visibly expanding, and Changed.

Now she stood in her normal form once more, looking up into his eyes. She knew her expression was haughty and slightly rebellious, but Chezran’s eyes shifted directly to her neck, hardening as he seemed to confirm something he had already suspected.

‘Are you hurt elsewhere?’ His voice was clipped and curt.

She didn’t move her head at all but kept holding his eyes. She needed him to know she wasn’t weak. ‘No,’ she told him firmly, even though her mind flashed back to the bruises on her shoulders that she had seen earlier in the mirror.

‘Why?’ Another command. This time, for an explanation.

She felt her face harden. She wasn’t some reckless youth or inexperienced minion to be commanded. She was a Lady of Xarcon. A predator. A sevonix.

Her lips parted slightly, and she knew she was breathing through her teeth, but she couldn’t stop the signs of irritation from showing. And why should she cover them?

‘We had a difference of opinion. He lost control. I showed him what I would and wouldn’t put up with.’

‘And became the talking point of my palace today, it seems.’ Chezran’s voice was cold, displeased.

Siraay grew more annoyed, and she raised her chin higher, straightening her spine. ‘I won’t submit before someone like him. If he, or anyone else, doesn’t like me being here, then they can face up to me or get out of my way.’ She let her head tilt just slightly, and her voice became slightly softer. ‘Or I can always remove them if they insist on being an annoyance.’ There. She’d said it. She would not put up with a charade of friendliness or neutrality while people plotted against her behind closed doors.

Chezran’s face didn’t alter as he kept looking at her, his eyes firmly locked on hers. Then he nodded once, spun abruptly on his heel, and walked briskly back to the door, Trelar just managing to open it in time for him to depart.

After the servant had closed the door, Trelar turned her face towards the fireplace, her expression confused and fearful.

Ignoring her, Siraay faced the fire once more, her hand going to the bruises at her throat. Her fingers brushed the collar of her dress before she let her hand fall back to her side.

The dress was lovely, a deep purple that clung to and flowed down from her hips, showing off her lean figure. Its collar sat high around Siraay’s neck and flared out as it extended stiffly upwards. It covered the majority of her throat.

But left enough of it bare to reveal a hint of the bruises on her neck.

Just enough so that anyone who looked at her and saw the marks would think she had been trying to hide them.

***

She appeared to be standing in the council room, but it was almost completely dark, save for one torch that burned and flickered on the wall by the door.

Siraay blinked a little as she glanced away from the torch to get her bearings and then paused.

Had that shadow moved?

She tensed as she saw the shadow shift again. Yes—there was definitely something stirring in the shadows. And it was coming towards her.

She wanted to back away, to run from the unknown thing, but her feet seemed to have become a part of the floor, a part of the darkness. The shadow advanced swiftly towards her, and Siraay opened her mouth to cry out. There wasn’t much she was afraid of these days, but unknowns were always the most dangerous. How could you prepare to fight against a foe you knew nothing of?

Yet even as she tried to expel her breath, no sound came. Fear blanketed her as the shadow continued to approach.

Closer and closer, twin points of light reflecting from its dark mass …

Siraay felt her mouth drop open, both in confusion and surprise, as the shadowy form resolved itself into a form.

It was a sevonix.

Chezran.

But how had she ended up in the room with him? Yet Siraay quickly forgot that matter as the lord came within attacking distance … and passed her.

It took her a moment to realise nothing had happened. Nothing at all. There was no recognition of her in those feline eyes, no glance towards the sound of her breathing, which must have sounded like a storm in his ears.

Could he truly not see or hear her?

A sound came from the other side of the door—a careful knocking.

Chezran wheeled swiftly in his feline form—he was so much larger and more powerful than Siraay—and seemed to fade backwards into the deeper shadows within the council room.

The door opened, and a figure stepped through, briefly silhouetted by the light from the dining hall before closing the door behind them.

Then, ‘My lord? I was told by Archon Renhed that you wanted to see me?’

Pyron.

Siraay felt her lip curl at the sound of that drawling voice.

Yet when Chezran didn’t respond, she twisted her head to scan for the lord. But he was no longer behind her.

And she wasn’t the only one uncertain of what was happening.

‘My lord?’ Some of the confidence had left Pyron’s voice, and the little light coming from the lone torch in the room glinted off his silver mask as he awkwardly turned his head to search the darkness.

Awkward, because he was stiff from the injury Siraay had given him.

Siraay flexed her fingers in satisfaction, but then she stilled as her eyes caught further movement in the dark.

Without a sound, Chezran attacked