“You are strong. You will feed—”

The baby lashed out and bit Severn’s nose. He screamed and dropped her. I didn’t think, I just reacted. I jumped over the pit and pumped my wings, my arms outstretched. Severn fell backwards, clutching the hole on his face where his nose used to be. I caught the child at the same moment I passed directly over the hole and felt the hunger from deep within. What the hell was in the hole? I let the momentum of my fall roll me into a somersault, the baby tucked securely against my chest.

“What the fuck is going on here? I thought you were breeding half-breeds for soldiers!”

Severn couldn’t scowl at me properly with blood running down his face and missing a nose. I marked it as an improvement.

“Give me that little demon.”

I laughed at the absurdity of his statement and clutched the child closer. The baby snarled against me but didn’t bite or strike out at me. Smart girl.

“The strong ones are kept to be trained. The weak ones are left here to rot and used for feeding.”

I saw red. There was an empty bassinet next to me, and I gently set his child down. She squeezed Severn’s nose in her hand and gurgled happily. I liked this one. I flung myself into the air, right at Severn. My claws came down around his neck. My draken roared in anger, unable to rationalize the death of any child, baying for Severn’s blood as penance.

Severn didn’t stand a chance as I shredded him, sinking my claws deep into his body and pumping venom. I didn’t wait for it to work. I wrapped my chains around his neck and pulled. He screamed as he overbalanced and fell, right over the edge of the pit. His body hung from the edge, dangling as he hung himself off of my chains. I slid forward, desperately digging my claws into any rock or crevice I could find to stop my forward motion towards the hole. I tried to shift, but my body jolted in pain. Did the white magick burn out my black magick? We both inched further into the hole, joined together by the remnants of my chains.

I shrieked in rage as Severn scrabbled uselessly against the noose, his hands clawing at the heavy chains wrapped around his neck. I couldn’t see his face as he hung over the edge of the pit, and I was only a foot or so away from falling in myself. I couldn’t help it, the distress call that tore from my body was long and loud, and every baby in the cavern wailed along in sympathy. Thad appeared a moment later in a swirl of shadows, his eyes going wide as he saw me falling towards the hole. I reached out a blood-stained hand to him, tears running down my face.

Thad lunged across the floor, grabbing me under my armpits and bracing his heels against a divot in the stone floor. His added weight stopped my forward progress, and I sobbed in relief.