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It was a bit troubling for Kin to be identified when he spent an enormous deal of effort to neutralize his scent, or magic signature, to the level of a common witch.

Abanoub was unexpectedly sharp. Rowan chose to not draw anymore attention to her business partner and focused on the bigger issue at hand.

“I don’t need an army to get answers or to find a culprit.

Peace is easier when there is one common enemy, isn’t it? ”

“They’ve attacked the world’s oldest shifters.

Do you think a mere person could do this to us?

Do you truly think there is not an army waiting to fight back when they see you are in their way?

Think carefully of where you want to land on this battle, little succubus.

You may find that some of those you want to protect are the ones standing against you. ”

Rowan frowned. “Do you know who did this to you?”

“The gods.” He let out a shriek, “The gods have done this all to us.” He stood and his steps shook the ground beneath them all. “By my claws, my brothers fell. It is my fault, mine and the gods.” His speech became unintelligible as he squawked.

“Hey!” From behind the cell a bronze skinned man was running towards them, changing into his sphinx form as he moved closer and closer.

Rowan looked from the oncoming threat to the crazed sphinx to her sister, who had taken several steps back.

“Can you take him, Kin?” She yelled over the squawks.

Kin sized up the oncoming threat, “Yes, but it’ll be a tight squeeze.”

She nodded and turned to Louisa, “Get in the other cage, and keep Zeva safe. The Atlanteans didn’t finish cleaning this up.”

“Rowan, he’s ten times your size, he will kill you!” Zeva shrieked as Louisa began tugging her away.

“Listen to whatever Louisa says, Zev. I’m going to be fine. You need to give Kin room to move and I need to focus. Do you understand?”

Zeva’s face was red with her anger, “I swear if you die Rowan Dahl, I’m so letting mom use the picture from my coming of age ceremony as your memorial!”

Rowan cringed. “You wouldn’t dare!”

“Don’t die then!” Zeva moved away with Louisa and only when they were safe did Rowan move towards the opening of Abanoub’s cage and slide in.

Behind her, Kin erupted into flames. A giant albino fox with its paws wrapped in fire and five bushy tails stood in his place.

He yipped at the charging sphinx two times smaller than himself, but the sphinx didn’t stop.

Kin took off to meet the creature, and the ground shook with the force of their mass.

Rowan turned her full concentration on the stampeding sphinx in the cage, shooting up to meet him face to face in the air, a claw slicing a tendril of her hair off as his paw missed contact with her head.

His eyes became further dilated, eating the whites.

His squawking grew desperate. “Abanoub, can you hear me?” She called, “If you can understand, blink twice.”

The eyes didn’t blink. But he had seemed lucid when they had first arrived.

He was cognitive enough to recognize a succubus, an elf, a vampire and a kitsune, were in front of him.

Could his mind have deteriorated from the trauma of killing six of his sphinxes?

While there was that possibility, something was nagging at Rowan. Something was off with this scene.

She examined the bars of the cage, dialed her senses up despite the way the screeching already hurt her ears.

Yipping and growling came from behind her.

Zeva’s whispered prayers reached her. She concentrated past the squawks and heard what they had been covering; a squeak.

A squeak like the one of a door in desperate need of lubrication.

Nothing in the immediate vicinity would make that sound.

The cage doors had both been closed and when she glanced down, that was still the case.

She looked up towards the ceiling she couldn’t see, but there was no noise coming from that direction either.

She concentrated harder on Abanoub until she zeroed in on the source.

The cobra on his nemes headdress was moving. Wherever its head moved, the sphinx would follow.

Focusing on her target, Abanoub turned his full wrath to her, and he began an onslaught attack of claws or tail.

Rowan decided for a bit of offense, and as she dodged his tail, she grabbed hold of it.

She climbed onto his back, closing the distance between her and the snake.

Her greatest advantage with the sphinx was that it couldn’t reach its shoulder, no matter how it tried to get her by turning his neck around.

As she climbed along the fabric of his nemes, her arms, hands, and thighs burned with the exertion to keep hanging on.

Just as she approached her goal, she felt him changing.

Startled, she realized he was shrinking.

He was going into his humanoid form and too quickly for her to do anything but kick off some feet away, barely regaining her footing before he turned.

There was a gold sheen leaving his mouth before a spell hit her square in the chest and sent her flying back towards the bars.

She realized she couldn’t move. He was running towards her, eyes crazed, his arm pulled back and the first punch felt like needles covered his fist.

In the distance, she could hear Zeva screaming, begging for the shifter to stop his attack.

His hits came one after another, though each hit was weaker than the last. Louisa had seemed to notice it too, because instead of coming to her aid, she was trying to calm Zeva down and keep her in the relative safety of the second cage.

It wasn’t long before the alpha fell to his knees and the paralyzation left Rowan.

Pushing past the pain of putting up with his blows, she used her pent up energy, turned, kicked the headdress off and it flew to the other corner of the cage.

Warily, she watched the cobra uncoil itself from the cloth of the nemes, its golden hood growing larger.

Her vision was blurry from the beat down she had just received, but she pushed past that pain and molded her magic to burst the metal into flames.

She ratcheted up the temperature, the screeches from the snake deafening as the flames shifted from red to orange to yellow to blue when the snake reached its limit, melting into a pool of gold on the cell floor.

Spitting blood, she turned to the sphinx shifter and fell to her knees in front of him. Her energy was dangerously low, a hunger she knew she’d have to take care of sooner than later throbbed in her throat.

He looked up with glassy brown eyes. His skin was so pale he was nearly translucent.

“Are you alright?” She whispered, examining the hundreds of bite marks around the crown of his bald head.

He shook it and turned to the still fighting sphinx and kitsune. They had drawn blood, but not much. Their physical strength was on par.

“Tarik, enough.” Abanoub’s hoarse voice echoed in the chamber.

The sphinx immediately backed off and fell into a deep bow, his body morphing back to its humanoid shape.

With his nearness, Rowan could make out his features more clearly.

He was tall and lean with short, tight curls and bright brown eyes.

In his simple black shirt and light jeans, he should’ve lacked genuine impact, but he, like Abanoub, smelled like long-lost memories that demanded attention.

She held her breath as Kin took a minute longer to begin his transformation. He leveled her with a stare that made her stand straight and set every ounce of dominance she had over the ruby red eyes that leveled with hers.

He let out a yip before finally following the sphinx’s example. His face morphed into a harder and older version than his usual self when he changed back and he bent over to catch his breath. In her own weakened state, Rowan couldn’t even make fun of his lack of prowess.

“Good thing we stayed against the walls.” Louisa looked horror-struck at the many traps the two beasts had set off in their tumble. Spikes, and arrows and a swinging ax took up a lot of the space in the room.

Zeva rushed to Rowan, scowling as she took in her sister’s wounds. For a moment Rowan could see her mother in her sister. “How am I supposed to talk dad into revoking his ‘off limits’ adventures if you keep going home all beat up?”

Rowan winced as Zeva tried to touch a fast swelling bruise under her eye.

“I don’t have to go to Lexine for these injuries. Home care will be fine. Not to sound rude, but Abanoub’s punches were pretty lame.”

Abanoub, who was being helped up by Tarik, laughed and gave a groan. “Next time you try being poisoned by a cursed cobra for three days straight and see how your punches land, eh?”

Rowan shook her head, impressed by the realization that hit her. “You stayed in your sphinx form to keep from being completely consumed by the poison.”

He nodded. “Though I can’t hang on much longer. Maybe we can talk when I wake-“

Before he finished speaking, the sphinx passed out.

“Master!” Tarik yelled, surprised.

“Don’t worry, we are traveling with the world’s renowned poison expert, Louisa Monterrey.” Kin reassured before he looked over Rowan’s injuries as Zeva had and Rowan once again winced when he tried to touch the same spot.

“That hurts!” She cried.

Kin rolled his eyes. “Oh honestly, one would think you never get beaten up as often as you do if they only relied on your pathetic tolerance for pain!”

Rowan flipped him off, but allowed him to pick her up bridal style.

“You can stay here with us until Master Abanoub wakes up. Poison. It all makes sense now.” Tarik shook his head as he picked up his frail body.