The Shadow Prince

The beast’s three heads roar in pain. Simon has only made her angrier. Turning her attention away from me, she pounces on him.

I try to rouse Dax, who lies in a faint in the middle of the floor as Simon’s screams fill the room. Daphne runs for Joe and tries to pull him up. She still clutches the Compass tightly in her hand. The beast has Simon by the throat now. She shakes him violently back and forth. His limbs flail in the air like he’s made of nothing but bloody rags. The panther releases him, and lets him try to crawl away before she pounces on him again, flips him over, and tears at his stomach.

Hellcats always play with their prey before killing it.

Simon’s screams turn to whimpers. The beast turns away from what remains of his body. His blood saturates the fur on her muzzles. Her giant paws are soaked in it. Anger and frenzy cloud her eyes and she bares her teeth at me while crouching, preparing to attack. Her tail twitches wildly behind her, taking out what remains of the table.

Tobin grabs Sarah, pulling her out of her stupor, and they run along the side of the wall, trying to get out of the way. But one of the beast’s heads catches the movement, and she swats hard in their direction. Her claws tear into Sarah’s side, flinging her across the room. She bounces off the window, as if she were only a pebble, and lands in a crumpled heap.

“No!” Daphne shouts.

“Blast that thing!” Tobin says, pointing at the beast.

“It’ll only make her angrier.” I push myself up to my knees. “The only way to stop a hellcat is to stab it through the top of its spine.” I pick up a broken metal table leg from the ground. “Tobin, get Lexie and Daphne out of here. I need to stop Brim.”

“No,” Daphne says. “I’m not leaving.”

“Go.” I rise slowly, cautiously. The beast’s eyes lock on the metal bar in my hand.

“I’ve calmed Brim before” Daphne says. “I can do it again.”

“This isn’t the same. She’s not herself. She’ll tear us apart and then the rest of the people in this hospital.” I can’t bear the thought of slaying Brim—my Brim, my family—but I will have to try, for all our sakes. She and I are bonded. She always finds me. The beast will pursue me if I run, ripping through anything or anyone who gets in the way. In a city this big, that could mean hundreds of casualties.

“Let me try.”

Brim growls, the sound echoing off the stark walls.

“Get out of here!” I shout at the others. I brandish the bar in front of me and send a pulse of electricity crackling around it.

Tobin and Lexie make a break for the door. The panther looks as though she is about to spring after them. Daphne waves her arms, grabbing the cat’s attention away from them.

“Brim,” Daphne says, in a gravelly voice that sounds like the growl coming from the beast. She holds her hands out in front of her and slowly approaches the three-headed panther.

“Don’t,” I caution.

One of the beast’s heads snaps at her.

Daphne is undaunted. “It’s me, Daphne. You like me, remember? Haden and I sang to you.”

Brim snorts through all three of her noses.

Tobin and Lexie try to escape through the doorway, but a sharp squawk from Lexie snatches my attention. I turn slightly away from Brim and Daphne to see the man from the motorcycle chase—or at least I assume it is the same man, as his face is still obscured by the helmet—standing in the doorway, blocking their escape. He has Garrick by the back of his collar. Lexie tries to push him out of her way, but he responds by shoving Garrick at her. The two stumble to the ground. Tobin takes a swing at the masked man’s stomach. The man blocks the blow and then slams his gloved fist across his jaw, sending him sprawling. Tobin shouts as he hits the back of one of the couches.

The noise distracts Daphne momentarily and her gaze breaks from Brim’s eyes. The beast sends a paw out and swipes Daphne’s feet right out from under her. She hits the ground, her elbow slamming against the linoleum first, and the Compass flies out of her grasp. It sails up into the air and then slides across the floor until it comes to a stop only a few feet from the doorway. My attention is torn in two directions as the panther crouches over Daphne, growling, and the man in the motorcycle helmet stoops down and grabs the Compass.

“No,” I shout, forcing a bolt of lightning through my chest and into my hand. I don’t know which direction to throw it. Brim roars. I run for Daphne, but throw the bolt over my shoulder to try to stop the man as he runs to the door. The lightning hits the doorjamb as the man jumps through it. I try to take aim with a second bolt, but I am too late. The man escapes.

I whirl back around toward Daphne and the beast, with the long bar in my grasp. Daphne lies on the ground; the beast is on top of her. The panther rears back her three heads.

Daphne opens her mouth. I expect her to scream, but instead she starts to sing. It’s a faint, strangled sound at first.

“Oh, star of mine …,” she sings. The panther stops midstrike and stares at her, two of her three heads cocked with curiosity. “High in the sky. Were I a bird, to thee I’d fly.”

I recognize the words. It’s the lullaby that my mother used to whisper to me. The one that made me want to be able to soar like owls from their roost.

Daphne sings another line of the song.

The beast seems mesmerized by her voice. I come up behind her, the electrified metal bar in hand, and take aim at the top of her spine. I want Brim’s death to be as quick as possible.

Unwavering, Daphne keeps singing.

The beast sighs, and I raise the electrified bar, ready to strike.

Daphne catches my attention by shaking her head. “Don’t!” her eyes say to me. “Sleep, my little starling.” She whispers the last line of the song.

Brim’s three mouths yawn and then her body convulses with a great shudder as it curls in on itself. Seconds later, she is a little ball of fur again, curled up and snoring on top of Daphne’s chest.

“I … I can’t believe that worked,” I say, taking in the odd scene. It would have been a pleasant picture, if not for all the blood. I’ve never felt gratitude so strongly before as I do in this moment. I know Daphne did this not only to save herself and Brim—she’d done it for me. So I wouldn’t have to lose the one thing I had left that had always loved me.

Daphne sits up, cradling tiny, sleeping Brim in her arms. “So that’s what happens when you get a hellcat mad.”