A few quick leaps carried her to the nearby rooftops, and she hopped unseen to the lodge’s roof so she might peer down at the guard. Bored and tired, he leaned on his spear as if it were an exceptionally deadly walking stick. A cursory circle following the rooftop’s edge showed multiple entrances she could use, albeit at a bit of a squeeze. She checked on the soldier one last time, then moved for the opposite end to sneak unnoticed through a window. At least, she tried to move. Instead her entire body locked in place.

You would take my form yet deny me the tearing of flesh? rumbled Endarius’s voice like a thunderstorm inside her skull. I want blood upon my tongue, god-whisperer, not skulking cowardice.

Mari shivered in place as if suddenly lost in a snowstorm. Saliva dripped from the sides of her mouth. Her wings shuddered, and her limbs tightened so her claws fully extended, their impossibly sharp tips raking the stone.

“We track the Seeds,” she whispered, the words coming out as a soft growl. “It is their blood I would give you, not that of a lone soldier who means nothing to Thanet.”

I would hunt, girl. My rage cares not for whom. You promised blood. If you would have my gifts, then I would have your offerings.

A sharp hunger stirred in Mari’s belly as if she had not eaten in weeks. The drool dripping from her teeth thickened. She could smell the sweat sticking to the soldier’s skin. She could hear the steady beating of his heart.

“A pitiful offering,” she argued meekly to Endarius.

But one I demand nonetheless.

Mari leaped from the rooftop. Her full weight hit the soldier’s back, and he had not a chance to remain upright. A frightened yelp was his only sound before she closed her teeth around his neck. He hit the ground face-first, and when his nose broke on the street, the smell of blood arced through Mari’s body like electricity. The jagged tips of her wings pierced each of his shoulders to pin him. Her teeth tightened. A shake, a tear, and his spine cracked. Blood washed across Mari’s tongue, and it filled her with elation so strong, it bordered on sexual.

“Happy?” she asked.

Are you not?

Mari dared not answer him. Instead she licked a bit of blood off her front paws and then bounded through the door.

The interior hall of the lodging was wide open, with four tables stacked with benches for daily meals. A cast-iron pot hung over a fireplace. A busty woman with her hair wrapped in a bun emerged from the adjacent kitchen upon hearing the door open, and her tired smile immediately vanished into shock. Her mouth opened and closed, words unable to form as her eyes bulged.

“Flee,” Mari ordered, and the woman was only too happy to obey.