The Monster, as the Ryujin Tiamat bloodline called her, had always revolved around Phei in one form or another. Even when oceans separated them. Even when years passed without contact or even when fucking reason should have killed whatever twisted, breathing, hungry thing lived inside her long ago. It remained. Quiet. Breathing. Hungry.
The eldest Tiamat princess — the strongest of her generation, a woman whose power had once held the entire Ryujin Tiamat household together by force of will alone — had fought this creature for two full days, unleashing everything she possessed.
And she had made Lucienne take one step backward. One. Because the Ryujin Tiamat Matriarch was coming, and even the Monster understood what that arrival meant.
One step. After two days. Against the second strongest Ryujin Tiamat alive.
And Phei's power, measured against Lucienne's, was a pond staring into an endless, lightless ocean.
And the worst part?
