Marlowe's POV
Thea explodes with power, and I've never seen anything more beautiful or terrifying in my life.
Rainbow light pours from her in waves that crack the walls. The restraints holding her disintegrate. The machines monitoring her catch fire. And when she stands up from that medical table, glowing like a goddess, every instinct in my crow screams one word:
Queen.
"Nobody hurts my mates," she says, and her voice echoes with power that makes even Elder Crag stumble backward.
The cages holding us shatter. All five at once, metal twisting like paper.
I shift to crow form and fly straight to Thea, landing on her shoulder. "Are you okay?" I ask through our bond.
She flinches. "Did you just... talk in my head?"
"The bond lets us communicate telepathically when we want," I explain quickly. "Are you hurt?"
"I don't know." She looks down at her glowing hands. "What's happening to me?"
"She's awakening," Elder Crag says, recovering his composure. "The bonds are unlocking latent abilities. Fascinating."
"Fascinating?" Corvus snarls, shifting to human form. His body is covered in electrical burns from the cage. "You TORTURED us!"
"For science." Elder Crag gestures to his security team. "Subdue them. Carefully. The girl is too valuable to damage."
Ten guards rush forward, all in combat form.
Thea raises her hand instinctively.
Rainbow light shoots out like lightning, hitting all ten guards simultaneously. They freeze mid-charge, completely paralyzed.
"I didn't mean to—" Thea stares at her hand in horror. "I didn't know I could—"
"You can do anything through the bonds," I tell her, shifting back to human. "You're channeling all five of our abilities at once. My crow magic, Corvus's wolf strength, Sable's panther speed, Russet's fox fire, Flint's dragon power."
"That's impossible," she whispers.
"So are you, apparently." I grin despite everything. "And I love it."
Elder Crag is typing frantically on a tablet. "Seal the room. Full lockdown. We can't let her escape with this much power—"
Sable tackles him before he can finish. The tablet goes flying.
"RUN!" Sable shouts. "Everyone run NOW!"
We bolt for the door. Thea stumbles, still glowing, not used to this much power flowing through her.
I catch her arm. "I've got you. Just keep moving."
The facility alarm blares. "POWER BREACH. CONTAINMENT FAILURE. EVACUATE IMMEDIATELY."
"They're going to lock down the whole building," Russet pants as we sprint down the hallway. "Trap us inside."
"Not if we're fast enough." Corvus leads us toward the emergency exit. "Three more floors—"
The floor beneath us explodes.
We fall through crumbling concrete into the level below. I shift mid-fall, wings catching air, but Thea's already falling too fast—
Flint catches her, dragon wings unfurling to slow their descent. They land hard but alive.
"Is everyone okay?" Thea asks, still glowing.
"Define okay," I mutter, shifting back. My wing is definitely sprained.
That's when I see them.
The feral beastmen from before—the ones who were supposedly part of the "test." They're surrounding us. At least twenty of them, all with those dead black eyes.
"They're being controlled," Sable realizes. "Look at the collars."
He's right. Each feral has a metal collar around its neck, glowing with symbols.
"Remote control beastmen," I say bitterly. "Elder Crag planned this from the start."
"Then we break the collars," Corvus growls.
The ferals attack.
We fight as a unit—five beastmen protecting one glowing human in the center. I go for eyes and throats in crow form. Corvus tears through them with wolf savagery. Sable moves like liquid shadow. Russet's fox fire lights up the darkness. Flint's dragon form is too big for the space, so he fights human, breathing fire in controlled bursts.
But there are too many.
A feral wolf gets past our defense, lunging for Thea.
She doesn't run. Doesn't scream.
Just grabs the collar around its neck.
Rainbow light floods into the metal. The symbols crack. The collar explodes.
The wolf drops, shaking its head. Its eyes clear from black to normal amber.
"You're free," Thea whispers to it.
The wolf looks at her with something like worship, then turns and attacks the other ferals. Fighting with us instead of against us.
"The collars!" I shout. "Thea, touch the collars!"
She understands immediately. Starts moving through the chaos, touching each feral's collar. One by one, they break free from Elder Crag's control.
One by one, they join our side.
By the time the last collar shatters, we have thirty freed beastmen standing with us.
"Thank you," one of them—a bear shifter—says to Thea. His voice is rough from disuse. "We've been trapped in those things for months. Forced to fight. To kill."
"You're welcome." Thea's glow is fading now, exhaustion catching up. "Just help us get out of here."
The bear nods. "We know a way. Follow us."
Our strange army moves through the facility. The freed ferals know every passage, every weakness in Elder Crag's security.
We're almost to the exit when I hear a familiar voice: "THEA!"
My blood runs cold.
That's Zephyr.
My best friend. Thea's best friend. The cat beastman who's been pretending to be human for the last six months.
And he's running toward us with pure panic on his face.
"Zephyr?" Thea's eyes widen. "What are you doing here? How did you—"
"No time!" He skids to a stop in front of her. "I need to tell you something. Before you find out another way."
"Tell me what?"
Zephyr's form shimmers. Cat ears sprout from his head. A tail appears. His eyes turn feline gold.
"I'm a beastman," he says in a rush. "I've known about this world your whole life. I've been lying to you for six months. And I'm so, so sorry."
Thea stares at him. "You... you're one of them?"
"Yes. And I should have told you the moment you moved to this city, but I was trying to protect you from all this—"
Thea punches him in the face.
Zephyr stumbles back, holding his nose. "Ow! Okay, I deserved that."
"You're DAMN RIGHT you deserved that!" Thea's voice cracks. "You were my only friend! My ONLY one! And you've been lying to me this entire time?!"
"I know! I'm the worst!" Zephyr's eyes are actually tearing up. "But I was trying to keep you safe! If I told you about beastmen, you'd become a target, and I couldn't—"
"I'm ALREADY a target!" Thea gestures at the destroyed facility around us. "I've been tortured, experimented on, and nearly killed multiple times! How is that SAFE?!"
"It's not," Zephyr admits miserably. "I messed up. I should have prepared you. Warned you. Something."
Thea's anger crumbles into hurt. "Why didn't you trust me?"
"I did trust you. I just..." Zephyr's cat ears droop. "You were so lonely. So sad. I wanted to be the one normal thing in your life. The one person who wasn't complicated or dangerous or supernatural."
The betrayal in Thea's eyes cuts like a knife. "I don't have anyone normal now. Everyone in my life is apparently a shapeshifting animal."
"I'm still me," Zephyr says desperately. "Still your friend. I just have a tail."
"And lies. Lots of lies."
"One big lie about one thing. Everything else was real." He steps closer. "Our friendship is real, Thea. Please believe that."
Thea looks at him for a long moment. Then, despite everything, she hugs him.
Zephyr nearly collapses with relief, hugging her back.
"You're still an asshole," she mutters into his shoulder.
"I know."
"And we're going to have a very long talk about boundaries and honesty when this is over."
"Absolutely."
"But I'm glad you're here."
"Me too."
The touching reunion is interrupted by the entire building shaking.
"What now?" Russet groans.
One of the freed beastmen—a hawk shifter—lands beside us. "The council is bringing down the facility. They're going to bury us alive rather than let Thea escape with this much power."
"How long do we have?" Corvus demands.
"Five minutes. Maybe less."
Thea pulls away from Zephyr. "Can we make it to the exit in five minutes?"
"Not with this many people," I admit.
She looks at our group—five mates, one best friend, thirty freed prisoners. All depending on her.
"Then I'll make a new exit." Her hands start glowing again.
"Thea, you're exhausted," Sable protests. "Using that much power could kill you."
"And staying here will definitely kill all of you." She looks at each of us. "I'm not losing anyone else today."
The building shakes again, harder this time.
Thea walks to the nearest exterior wall and places both hands on it.
Rainbow light explodes from her palms.
The wall disintegrates.
Beyond it, I see night sky, fresh air, freedom.
"GO!" Thea screams. "Everyone out!"
The freed beastmen pour through the opening. Zephyr grabs Thea's arm, trying to pull her away.
"Not yet! Not everyone's out!" She pushes harder, widening the hole, her whole body shaking with effort.
The ceiling starts to collapse.
I grab her other arm. "NOW, Thea! We leave NOW!"
She lets us pull her through the opening just as the building implodes behind us.
We tumble onto grass outside the facility. Concrete and steel crash down where we were standing seconds ago.
The entire research facility collapses in on itself, burying Elder Crag and all his experiments.
We made it.
Thea's glow fades completely. She goes limp in my arms.
"Is she breathing?" Corvus asks frantically.
I check. "Yes. Just unconscious. She used too much power."
"We need to get her somewhere safe," Flint says. "The council will send more—"
"Actually," a new voice interrupts, "the council is here."
We all spin around.
Councillor Nyx stands there with at least fifty beastmen in formal council robes.
We're surrounded.
Exhausted. Outnumbered. Nowhere left to run.
Nyx looks at the collapsed facility, then at Thea unconscious in my arms.
"Well," she says. "This is going to be interesting to explain."
Then she smiles.
"Welcome to freedom, Thea Vex. Let's talk about what happens next."