Chapter 286

ELENA STARED AT THE HACKED remains strewn across the wooden floor in Ada's quarters. Beside her Wilheim, Cat's younger guard, stared white faced at it.

'What was it?' he asked, a tremor in his voice.

Elena glanced at the boy. 'What did it look like to you?'

'Me,' he said. 'Just like me, as clear as if I looked in a mirror.' Wilheim shuddered. 'Then it changed, got all hazy, and it looked like Ada.'

'Telepathy as well as shifting abilities,' Elena murmured, making a motion over the corpse so the head turned. 'Part gontai then. Part troll too.'

'The body looks like a urotho,' Aldeern said from beside her. 'But those talons I'm not familiar with.'

'It's Jenviet's signature. She always adds it to her creatures.' Elena looked at Aldeern. 'I want all the troops, our own and the allies, inside the gates. Have the gates closed. Anyone requesting access must be tested. Use the obiki method,' she addressed the Hotorethites behind Aldeern, the five men nodded. Their violet eyes glowed in th