Chapter 36 Avery
AVERY
“It is spooky out here,” Mallory said with a dramatic shiver. “I can’t believe you do this during every curfew.”
Since Ian was still insisting I go nowhere unescorted, Mallory had volunteered to accompany me on my rounds at the campus perimeter under the New Moon. It was useless, but it was a compulsion I hadn’t been able to shake.
“I’m just not used to sitting around during this part of the lunar cycle,” I told her. “Just being out under the stars with my swords on my back helps me feel normal.”
“I bet, you ridiculous badass,” she replied, nudging me playfully.
“I mean, I saw you in action against that quad that challenged you on the second day of school, but seeing you in the arena was something else. They’d be stupid not to make you a Guardian.
Who cares if you’re a female and a… cougar. ”
“Nope. Try again.”
Mallory and Brody had taken to trying to trick me into revealing my animal. It wasn’t that I didn’t trust them, but the fewer people who knew the truth, the better.
Until I became a Guardian, at least.
“At least we’re out of here in two days,” she went on. “Summer vacation. Allen and I get to go to Palm Beach; you, Ian, and Brody get to go kill as many real live wraiths as your heart desires. We all come back next year tanned and refreshed.”
I was ready to get the hell off this campus. Its one thousand acres was too small for me and the Blackwell Quad, and I was looking forward to a blissful month of vacation before we had to report to camp in mid-June.
Because I’d done it. Cash announced cuts earlier this week, and, much to his chagrin, I’d officially made camp as a Guardian.
Even better—Ian and Brody coasted in at the top of the Support Squadron list, and Ian had convinced Ward to let him come to camp even though it was only for rising seniors, because he a) “had already killed a shit-ton of real wraiths,” and b) “was going to sneak in anyway because none of these fuckers can be trusted to watch my sister’s back. ”
No complaints from me.
In the few weeks that’d passed since the ball, I’d kept my head down, focused on finishing my assignments, taking end-of-year exams, and doing the bare minimum to keep my spot on the leaderboard. I’d stopped going to Aiden’s class entirely and turned in my last few assignments by email.
He didn’t object.
Or reply at all.
No member of the Blackwell Quad had shown up to training for the rest of the semester. At the top of the leaderboard by thousands of points, they got to slack off for two weeks without worrying about the cut.
I’d have been annoyed if I wasn’t so relieved.
Horrible screeching sounded in the distance, beyond the walls. Male shouting echoed through the night.
Mallory shivered again. “That’s so creepy.”
“Ever seen a wraith?”
She nodded. “Back when we lived in Fulton City near you guys. My parents were able to afford to ward the house, but I saw a few smaller ones run down the street once or twice.” She nudged me again. “I guess it was you guys that were out there making sure we were safe.”
“Not when we were thirteen,” I replied. “But after you moved away? Yeah. But it didn’t really get bad out there until the past few years or so.”
She sighed. “After I got my beast and we decided to move into the shifter territory, my parents were lucky to snag a house in one of the little towns right next to a Guardian post. Good wards around the city walls. Haven’t seen a wraith since.”
More screeching and monster bellows erupted. They sounded a lot closer this time.
Mallory tensed.
“I was told the Guardians sometimes run the wraiths up against the school’s wards,” I said in a low voice, “because they’re so strong.”
“Um, you might’ve mentioned that before I followed you out here,” she hissed.
“I haven’t seen it happen. Not the semester I’ve been here,” I told her. “But if you’re uncomfortable, we can head back.”
We’d walked all the way around to the front of campus. A mile of dense forest lay between us and the heart of the college.
I motioned in front of us. “A little ways ahead is the front gate, so we can just cut back down the entrance road—”
Another ear-splitting screech sounded, followed by the eerie chittering of swarmers.
It sounded like they were right on top of us.
I reached out and touched the brick wall next to me, seeking the comforting warm buzz of the wards’ magic.
It was gone.
Alarm shuddered through my body, and my beast went on full alert. I yanked my swords from their sheaths.
“Shit, Mal—”
Mutant rat wraiths the size of border collies crawled over the brick wall twenty feet in front of us.
Their dark grey fur had melted off their lean bodies in odd places, exposing ghostly bones.
Long arms like monkeys had and three-inch claws helped them scale the wall easily, a half dozen of them hitting the dirt in concert.
Six sets of jarring violet eyes turned on us. Shock and horror sank into my body as reality struck. That wasn’t the light blue glow of the magical constructs I’d been fighting for months—these were real fucking wraiths, on our campus.
The wards had failed.
“Oh, holy fuck,” Mal gasped. “Avery, what the fuck? Shit, shit, shit.”
“Shift and fucking run, Mal,” I barked. My beast shoved hers with the order.
In a blink, Mallory disappeared, her clothes falling to the grass. An orange tabby cat bolted from the pile, shooting like a furry bullet into the darkness of the forest.
As I’d dared to hope, none of the wraiths peeled off to chase her. My beast and I were a much tastier prize.
An alarm blared in the distance, coming from the direction of the main campus. The breach of the wards must’ve set it off.
The swarmers charged. I ran straight for them, hurdled the first one that reached me, and sliced through the neck of the one behind it with ease.
Adrenaline flooded me, and I whirled, swinging my swords, hacking off limbs to maim and slow.
In the past, Ian would’ve been with me as we handled a swarm this size, but all the training alone against SWIM’s opponents had served me well.
I severed heads.
I stabbed one that leapt at me through the heart, destroying the exposed organ enough for the kill.
I took minimal damage—claws tore through the leg of my pants, and I suffered one deep gouge on my arm.
The dead wraiths lay in the grass around me.
As my training dictated, I waited, catching my breath as I watched the swarmers melt away.
Unlike the wraiths we faced in in training, which disappeared in a flicker as the magic holding them together released, real wraiths oozed into the ground upon their deaths, their corrupted souls disintegrating into nothing.
I was only given ten seconds to confirm all six swarmer deaths before an ear-splitting cackle announced the arrival of another monster.
A Ripper launched itself off the wall and landed in the remnants of the swarmer goo. My heart jumped into my throat, and I tensed, sending a prayer up to the Moon that this one had traveled alone behind the throng of swarmers.
Glowing violet voids focused on me. It emitted another high-pitched cackle. This one looked like what might’ve been destined to be a hyena soul, with its round ears, long, thick neck, and whispers of darker spots dappled over its thick gray hide.
That was where the similarities ended.
Its maw was twice the size of a normal animal’s, a grotesque clown mouth flashing rows of needle teeth as it advanced on me.
Its body was cracked along the sternum, and the same eerie violet light that churned in its eye sockets leaked out through its ribs.
Fish-hook claws as long as my hand sank into the dirt as it prowled closer, its rank stench finally reaching my nose.
And because it was a Ripper, it was as large as a powerful Prime shifter.
I spun my swords. “Let’s go, you disgusting piece of shit.”
It cackled again, and then it leapt for me.
I dropped, my knees hitting the ground as I arched my back.
The wraith sailed over me, and I slashed both blades outward, severing rotting muscle and tendons in its hind legs.
It hit the ground hard, roaring a brain-battering screech as it stumbled on broken legs.
I flipped around and lunged to my feet, rank gray goo dripping from my swords.
Before the wraith could regain its footing enough to attack me again, I launched myself onto its back and drove both blades into its body. I skewered the heart with one blade and severed the spine with another.
It screeched and flailed, pitching me violently to the side as it staggered and fell to the ground. I crawled slowly to my feet, wincing as what was definitely a bruised hip made itself known.
The Ripper lay still. I’d stabbed it through the heart, but unlike a swarmer, where that could be sufficient for the kill, this one needed its head removed or the whole heart cleaved from its body.
I got started removing its head. Two strikes to its thick neck weren’t enough. More roars and screeching sounded nearby. I had no idea how wide the break was in our wards, but I had a hunch there were now other monsters lurking in this forest.
I hacked away, panic rising with every stroke. I was a sitting fucking duck out here alone.
The moment I finally severed the spinal cord and the putrid gray flesh began to ooze away was the moment my luck ran out.
Another hyena Ripper burst through the trees with a horrifying shriek. Glowing void eyes zeroed in on me.
It flew ten feet in a single leap.
I hit the ground and rolled out of its path, dropping one of my swords as I went. I groped for it and was trying to scramble to my feet, when an enormous rust-red bear came barreling through the trees and tackled the wraith to the ground with a vicious snarl.
“Wyatt!” I gasped. “Watch out!”
The wraith sliced a deep gash into Wyatt’s furry side as they wrestled. Dark blood seeped from it, matting his fur.
I ran for them, swords raised.
“There!” a deep voice bellowed.
Aiden, Heath, and Elijah sprinted into view. The runes on Aiden’s Moon-blessed blade emitted a soft glow—he must’ve dug deep to recharge them in low magic before they ran out here.
“Avery, stay clear!” Heath barked. “Aiden’s got it.”
Normally I’d have ignored him, but the fight with the first Ripper had taken it out of me. I stopped in my tracks and sheathed my swords while I caught my breath.
Aiden ran for Wyatt and the wraith, his saber raised. Just as Wyatt tore the wraith’s throat out with his teeth, Aiden was there to take its head off with one smooth, powerful strike.
Heath grabbed my arm and hit me with the full force of his Alpha stare.
“Everyone is sheltering in the dining hall. Go back there and reinforce your brother and the other trainees. The faculty is warding the building until the Guardians can send in reinforcements, and the Council’s specialists are on their way to repair the perimeter wards. ”
I shook my head. “No. I’m staying with you guys.”
Beggars could not be choosers right now, and this was an emergency.
Gold flashed in Heath’s hazel eyes. “Avery, for the love of the fucking Moon, do as you’re told for once in your life.
We have Aiden’s blade, and my quad will hold the breach in the wall until help arrives.
You’re already tired and probably fucking injured, and I don’t need one extra back to watch. ”
“Dove, please do what they say,” Elijah said, his voice low. His pupils slitted and then bounced back to round in a blink. “We’ll draw the wraiths away. They won’t be able to resist us—especially not me.”
I shook my head violently again, panic wrapping its claws around my throat. “No, you don’t understand—”
“Avery, go,” Aiden said, moving to Heath’s side. “That’s an order from your professor. Once the woods are clear and the wards are repaired by the Council’s team, we’ll come spring everyone from the dining hall.”
“But—”
A roar sounded in the distance. Ear-splitting screeching followed.
Wyatt bumped my back with his big furry head, shoving me in the direction of the school with a soft snarl.
“Fuck.” Heath tossed his sheathed saber to Aiden, who caught it in his free hand. Heath’s body flowed seamlessly into his giant golden wolf. He and Wyatt the bear took off in the direction of the screeching.
Aiden secured Heath’s sword to his waist and sheathed his on his back. He looked at Elijah. “You ready?”
Elijah nodded, his gaze distant as he stared into the trees.
“Aiden,” I tried once more. “Please don’t leave me out here alone.”
He spared me a dismissive glance. “Shift into your animal if it will help you run faster. The wraiths will be drawn to the power of our beast souls.”
“They’ll be drawn to me—”
“Just go, Avery. For fuck’s sake.”
He sprinted away, chasing after Heath and Wyatt.
Elijah reached for me and gave my hand a perfunctory squeeze, saying nothing, and then he shot off after Aiden.
Before he disappeared into the trees, I caught a glimpse of his body as it shuddered and grew, morphing violently into a huge serpent-shaped monster.
He let out a screech that put the wraiths to shame as he faded from my view.
“Shit,” I whispered.
And then I had no choice but to do what they said.
I turned and ran for the school.
I hurdled fallen limbs and dodged branches. I stumbled on a rock, caught myself, then leapt over a small ravine where there may have once been a creek.
I made it maybe a quarter of a mile before the trees began to shake in front of me. The ground vibrated under my feet, announcing the arrival of something really fucking big.
A Giant tore through the trees in front of me. Tore through them like they were bamboo reeds and not decades-old maples with trunks I couldn’t get my arms around.
It was at least twelve feet tall, bipedal, and humanoid like most Giant wraiths were. This one had what looked like a jackal head and a long, crocodile mouth full of teeth. A fucked-up Anubis on corrupted Moon magic steroids.
Clawed hands bigger than the rat swarmers I’d killed chucked a tree to the side. Hairless gray flesh was pulled tight over knotted muscle and gaunt ribs. Void eyes, glowing sickly violet, drank me in with deep and desperate hunger.
I ran.
It howled and snarled and gave chase.
I weaved through the trees, adrenaline coursing through my veins like white-water rapids. My beast surged to the front, pumping strength and speed into my limbs.
It was no use.
The wraith swiped at me from behind, its huge hand hitting me with the force of a bus. I flew twenty feet and hit a tree.
A barrage of pain racked my body. My shoulder had dislocated on impact. Tree bark raked my side as I slid to the ground.
I rolled, disoriented, groping for my swords.
The Giant attacked again, pinning me to the ground.
My beast took over.