I screamed as every filament of stolen strength suddenly reversed course, from tearing me apart physically to doing it spiritually. My greatest fear had become my enemy’s greatest weapon, because I couldn’t think past the terror. Couldn’t concentrate, couldn’t feel, couldn’t breathe.

Couldn’t let Pritkin in.

“Cassie!”

“I can’t; I can’t!”

“You must! Look at me!”

I screamed again instead, a terrified, gut-wrenching sound, the cry of a cornered animal who knows it’s trapped. Who knows that nature is red in tooth and claw, and that there will be no mercy. No way out; no way out. I was trapped and I was going to die this way, because he was eating me, he was eating me, he was—

“Lady!” Rhea was pounding on the door, her voice frantic. “Lady, do you need me—”

“No! Stay out!” She couldn’t help, and I couldn’t let her see me like this; not like this.

So weak, I thought in disgust. I always had been, except for that brief moment on the river when I’d dared to steal power from a god, from the king of the gods. And even then, it hadn’t lasted. Aeslinn had quickly begun pulling it back, because power—

Goes both ways.

I blinked, my desperate cries suddenly silenced, as I realized—I might not be able to survive this, but I could make my opponent pay. If he had his fangs in me, then I had mine in him. And what the hell did I have to lose?

Not like a beaten dog, you bastard, I thought. I go out like a goddess, like my mother before me, like a Pythia. You might win, but I will make you bleed.

My strange new vision kicked in, showing me lightning running like thorny vines throughout my body, like a second venous system. I didn’t wait to examine them closely; didn’t care. I ripped them out, feeling my life force splatter like blood as they tore loose. Didn’t care; didn’t care; didn’t care. It beat along with my heart, a new mantra, because I was dying anyway. I just needed to last long enough to take him with me.

I looped the silver strands around my mental hands, round and round and round, ignoring their bite; it only helped me to hold on.

Then I jerked, pulling with everything I had, and felt a god falter.

“You would vie with me?” The voice was amused.

“As opposed to dying like a dog? Yes!”

He laughed. “Then dance with me, little Pythia. Let us see if there is anything of your mother in you. Or if your father’s tainted blood has poisoned yours as well.”

“Go fuck yourself,” I panted, because this was not my finest hour.

“Yes, it is,” Pritkin said, his voice rough, and kissed me.