‘Liar!’ she screamed, forgetting her earlier caution as she lunged toward me.

I was ready, for this was what I wanted. It was my turn to affect a power stance, my labrys pointing forward with all my power and the creature’s borrowed strength poured into sharpening its blade to cut through Morrigan’s shields…

But then she stopped, smiled, and turned neatly on her heel. To sprint directly toward my friends.

‘Fuck,’ I said, and then I did call for the creature.

‘Speed!’ I yelled, letting it know what I needed even as my little legs started churning. Sprinting far faster than I ever could have on my own, I felt Anyan’s coiled power strike, sending up a wall of earth to protect Ryu and Caleb from the Red’s onslaught. I felt them brace the earth barrier with their shields even as I threw power at them. Anyan caught it, weaving it into the earth he controlled. It wouldn’t hold the Red long, but it was enough.

She was running hell for metal, probably expecting the earth barrier to shatter before her. But it held, and she bounced off it with an enraged roar. She then raised her claws to start slashing her way forward, but I was there.

The labrys carved through her shields like they were butter I was so amped up, and I caught her a glancing blow on her red-scaled shoulder. Blue blood spurted and she wheeled around, lunging toward me as she did so. Her claws glanced off the blade of the labrys, only inches from where my fingers gripped the haft. I shuddered, and then I began fighting.

We closed in against each other, her a whirl of claws and distended muzzle, me using every trick in my arsenal, and more than a few of the creature’s, to match her blow for blow. I blocked a clawed fist, then a clawed foot, and somehow managed to pivot fast enough to stop that damned tail from slashing across my back. Unsure how long I could keep this up, I turned to my friends for help.

Anyan was already in action, hauling the fire hose of a nearby firefighter out of his hands and training it on the Red and me. The water blasted with excessive force at both of us, but I met the blast with a laugh.

For while the water wouldn’t hurt the Red as much in this hybrid shape that was as much Morrigan as dragon, it was just the weapon I needed.

The water danced around me as I began flailing at the Red, striking her blow after blow with clubs of water. I imagined it felt like being forced to belly flop, over and over. The water also charged me as I used it, washing away that dangerous moment of doubt that had preceded Anyan’s help.

I may not have put the fear of God into the Red that day, but I did make her retreat. With a growl, she sprang back, shaking herself like a dog as she did so. Then she was running in the opposite direction to the Thames, letting the speed of her sprint dry her of her enemy element. I considered chasing after her, but knew we’d accomplished what we’d wanted to. We’d stopped her initial, grief-fueled attack on London and we knew her strength after the fall of the White.

Behind me I heard cheers, and I turned my neck just enough to catch the crowds behind me in my peripheral vision. Only the humans were cheering; my friends were waiting to make sure the Red didn’t return like the killer in a horror movie.

One human wasn’t cheering, however. Trevor was watching me, his chubby cheeks raised by a smile that made me shiver. He was pleased with my performance. I turned back to the Red’s retreating form.

I watched her shapeshift into the dragon and fly away, and then even Iris whooped with pleasure. But the rest of us remained silent, knowing that our plan had one major flaw.

Now that she was no longer able to take her anger out on this city and its people, she’d move on to her next phase.

Taking her anger out on the world.

Chapter Twenty-One

The barghest’s hairy chest made an exceptionally good pillow. As did his whole body, really. So who could blame me for staying sprawled across him after we’d made love that night?

His hands busied themselves with long, slow strokes over my hair and down my back. The steady thrumming of his heart beating against my ear sounded as epic as the opening of Verdi’s Otello. It would be a very long time before I took Anyan’s presence for granted again.

We were in our own apartment in a grand house owned by the US State Department, courtesy of Trevor. Once again, our friendly government representative had spared no expense to make me feel at home. Our quarters were as big as some of Rockabill’s houses, including my own, and were decked out in a lavish style more befitting a prince than rubes like us. Not that we hadn’t happily indulged in the bottle of Veuve waiting on ice in a silver wine chiller, and we’d been more than willing to clean up nearly all the gourmet open-faced sandwiches and chocolate-dipped strawberries waiting on a silver platter. The only thing that had kept us from cleaning them up entirely was that Anyan feeding me strawberries had pretty quickly led to him feeding me other things, and next thing we knew, we were naked.

Blondie had been right, bless her – post-battle sex was pretty amazing.

‘Are there any sandwiches left?’ Anyan’s chest rumbled against my ear as he spoke.

‘Yes. Quite a few.’

Anyan was silent for a few seconds while I happily listened to his heart beating. ‘That was actually a hint for you to go get them,’ he said eventually.

I pinched his love handle gently, causing him to squeak, before I sat up.

‘Look at you, ordering me around like a pasha. I’m the champion, I’ll have you know.’ But I went and got the sandwiches anyway. And the strawberries. And the champagne. When I got back to the bed, Anyan had sat up. I laid the tray of food across his lap, filling up our empty champagne flutes before setting them down on the nightstand.

‘Fancy,’ I commented, giving the flute a little flick with my nail, causing it to ping in the way only crystal does.

‘They’re sparing no expense for you,’ Anyan replied, watching me with inscrutable gray eyes as he crammed a few of the little round sandwiches in his mouth. He was still eating for two, him and the dragon, despite his change in circumstances.

‘I’ve noticed that.’ I nibbled on my own sandwich, no longer quite so hungry.

‘Well, you are the champion.’ Another few sandwiches disappeared off the tray and into the barghest’s craw.

‘Yeah, but if all goes well, I’ll have killed the only remaining thing I’m supposed to be, er, championing against. So not the champion for long.’

‘You sure about that?’

‘Yes. Um, yes.’

‘That doesn’t sound sure.’ Anyan’s voice was gentle, but his words grated against my ears.

‘Sorry that I don’t know exactly what I’m doing here, dude. I mean, it’s not like there’s a long line of champions to talk to, get their stories. There was one, but she died.’

‘I love it when you call me dude.’

I glared at Anyan, defiantly finishing my own little sandwich. I would not be held back from eating by this conversation, goddamnit. That would mean I was taking it seriously.

Anyan used my full mouth as an opportunity to keep bothering me. ‘That’s true. It would have been nice to ask Blondie more about your condition.’

‘My condition?’ I said after swallowing. ‘You make it sound like I’m pregnant.’

‘It’s not a totally ridiculous metaphor. The question becomes, then, will you ever give birth?’

‘That doesn’t even make sense.’

‘What I mean is that we don’t know whether you’ll ever really lose this power of yours. I take it you’re assuming it’ll go away when you finish the Red?’

‘Of course it will. Blondie’s went away. I have it, after all—’

Anyan interrupted me again.

‘Did it? Go away, I mean. Blondie was so strong—’

‘Blondie was an Original, hence strong,’ I said, butting in myself. I didn’t want to be having this conversation.

‘Blondie was also the only Original we ever knew. So we can’t really compare her to another one, to know if she was stronger or weaker than other Originals. We also don’t know if she ever really did give up that power. We know she gave up the labrys, but couldn’t you have just gotten new power when you were made the new champion? I don’t think we can assume the power really transferred—’

‘Well, so what if I’m powerful forever? I don’t have to use it. Once the Red is dead, I can go about my business…’

My voice trailed off as I realized how ridiculous that statement was. Anyan didn’t speak, watching me look around the gorgeous room we were staying in, part of the luxurious apartment we’d been given all to ourselves.

Trevor wasn’t doing that out of the kindness of his heart. He wasn’t being generous or thanking me for my efforts so far.

He was recruiting me.

And he wouldn’t be the only one. The Alfar monarchs – all of them – would want a piece of me if I kept this power. It would be like an arms race, only I was the arms. I was peripheral to all of this, of course – I was just the vessel. My voice wouldn’t matter.

Then there were the halflings. My people – subordinated and abused to varying degrees throughout the world. They’d want something. Some, like Jack and his lot, would expect a lot. They’d want me to fight for them, too. They’d also want a piece of that power.