Chapter 10
Aurelia
“MINNIE!” I scream into her head, exploding out of my seat and sprinting for the door.
“Let’s go!” Minnie shouts, and I feel my friend’s telekinetic power surrounding me and hurling the both of us out of Clawson House.
Beak and Marduk shout out behind me, but there’s no time.
I tear off my jacket and shift with powerful force.
My phoenix form beats her powerful wings, carrying me into the sky as I gather my power behind me like a rumbling storm.
Small but strong hands grab my ankles just as I release my power and, like a lightning bolt, shoot us through the ether.
The sonic boom resounds through the air in our wake as my world turns dark, my feathers plastered against my skin as I scream through the air at the speed of sound towards Animus Academy.
Seconds later, the dragon magic of the property puffs at my skin, and I screech to a halt before I overshoot.
Minnie sobs loudly as I release the shield around her and she decompresses.
“THE WATER IS POISONED!” I broadcast into the school, nosediving towards the dining hall.
As we reach seven feet, Minnie lets go and levitates herself to the ground, allowing me to shift into cheetah form and land lightly on four paws.
I sprint into the dining hall after Minnie, ready to locate the poisoned bodies.
We are met with chaos.
My ears fill with shouting. Some students have shifted and are howling or screeching.
Tables have been knocked over, and there is food and cordial spilled everywhere.
I shift back into human form. Guards run towards me from the outside.
“It’s the water!” I shout. “Bring the healers, quickly!” Someone shoves an orange jumpsuit at me.
It’s tossed to the ground just as quickly as I survey the number of people lying unconscious on the floor.
There’s about twenty, some already with an avian shifter over them. Theresa has a hand over two students. Minnie passes me my phone. I must have dropped it when I shifted, and she used her power to bring it with us. On it is a text message from “Unknown.”
Welcome to our world. You are just one whore in it.
Heated blood surges through my veins.
Minnie rushes towards our table, where Sabrina is sobbing next to Stacey. A magpie from third year is sweating over her, hands over her stomach as she concentrates. I hobble over to them and shove the girl aside. “Tend to someone else.”
The girl mutters an expletive but does as I ask.
My power surges into Stacey as Minnie strokes our lionesses’ ombre hair.
My healing power registers her blood and the poison, and it takes concentration to block out the chaos around me.
Poisoning is the most difficult thing for avian healing powers to deal with.
There’s no one thing—no wound to knit together or bacteria to eliminate.
Instead, I have to surge through her blood, isolating the bad stuff from the good and neutralising it.
It would have reached her heart and brain if not for the quick work of the avian I’d just shoved aside.
This is going to take hours. It would help if we knew exactly what it was, but all I know is that Tiberius said—
I snarl in awareness and immediately shift my left finger into a sharp claw and prick my right index finger.
Shoving up Stacey’s shirt, I write serpentine symbols in my own blood.
My father taught me the attacking types, but he’d taught me the defensive ones too.
And if there is one thing serpent magic has an affinity for, it’s blood and poison.
Once I’m satisfied, I get off my knees and search the dining hall.
Hope, a nurse often in charge of the medical centre, is here in scrubs.
I hobble over, sharply calling her name.
She looks at me with widened eyes. “There’s a toxin in the water, likely serpentine.
If you have anyone fluent in serpent magic, you’ll need them to do some blood magic on the patients.
That’ll halt it long enough to get them to medical for proper assessment.
” I cringe when two nurses start CPR on the patient they’re hovering over.
“Give me room,” I say, holding out my bleeding finger.
Two hours later, the dining hall is cleared and everyone who could be saved is at the medical centre with most of the medical team.
Three students couldn’t be revived, and I watch a young nurse, with tears in her eyes, trying to close the eyes of a second-year wolf.
We broke his ribs during CPR, and my blood is smeared all over his abdomen. There are still IV lines in him.
Marduk, Yeti, and Beak are on their way back in a stolen car. They won’t be here for hours according to Minnie. As I stand and watch what remains of the day, it hits me with all the force of a sledgehammer.
I did this.
Horror winds its way up my spine, followed by something else.
Something that charges through my blood with the fire of a raging volcano.
My lungs fill with smoke. But my power comes up against someone else’s.
I turn to find Minnie, her back turned, staring at another deceased student as Theresa covers his face with a sheet.
Minnie also feels accountable for the actions of her once-mate.
I shake my head. Maybe Tiberius is right. Maybe I am in over my head. Maybe I’m not cruel enough, or cunning enough to survive in a world of monsters.
But I am something else. I am powerful enough.
Something critical cracks inside of me. Power spills in my belly, and it fills my bones.
I take a deep breath and exhale black smoke, rolling my shoulders as my vision changes.
Minnie’s power shifts in the air, like a current of wind gathering into a cyclone.
Her breathing is heavy, not strained, but like a bellows under the weight of her power.
When she turns around, Minnie’s eyes shine with a deathly light I’ve never seen before.
Goosebumps erupt all over me at that look of utter rage.
She steps towards me, our eyes locked in an unspoken, sacred promise. “Take me back,” she hisses through clenched teeth. “Take me to Clawson House, Lia.”
The two of us, both reginas of broken packs, of broken hearts, of justice gone too long unserved, stride back into the night.