Chapter 102
Aurelia
My skin feels like fire, and my blood like light itself.
The tremble across my body is not fear, but power.
Ghoul arrived and left like a dream, giving me what I wanted, his eyes red and haunted by the knowledge of what is to come, and a tint of…
jealousy. I nap for two hours after receiving all five of my mates.
When I wake, Scythe’s lips flutter across my pulse, and I stretch out like a cat.
Xander is dressing off to my left, and so is Lyle. None of us need to say anything. Only a glance from Scythe asks me to get up. “Don’t shower,” Savage says, inspecting his nails from a shadowy corner, where he sits cross-legged observing us all. “It’s best to fight dirty.”
There is something in his eyes I’ve not seen in waking memory for a while.
A cruel gleam I’ve seen in memories and that one time when they’d held court in the animus Rec room and he’d gouged out the belly of a beast for disobedience.
It’s cold and harsh. He looks away from me and down at the concrete floor, ruminating on something I can’t know.
Lyle must notice my observation, and he brushes my now frizzy hair with his fingers, tying it into a secure bun. “Savage trained for this, regina. He’ll be in his element. It may be something you’re not used to seeing.”
“I want to know all of him,” I reply. “I’m not scared.”
Lyle turns me to face him, and his face is kind of sad. “I’ve seen all your sides, regina, and I love you for every inch. I will be there when you hold your father accountable for his crimes.”
We leave the cavern and make for the dining hall for something to eat.
It’s sadly vacant, the air usually still when it should be buzzing with noise during lunchtime.
To my surprise, my counsellor Theresa is on duty, overseeing the empty buffet line as we fill our plates with light foods.
Lyle startles when he sees her, and the cassowary anima steps forward with a wry smile.
“You didn’t think I’d leave, did you, Lyle? After all you’ve done for me?”
“Your mates—”
“Understand completely,” she reassures us. “You gave me my life back when you gave me a job here. I wouldn’t abandon your pack or this academy and what it stands for when beasts come to take it from us. Some of the other faculty feel the same. We will stand with you.”
The backs of my eyes burn as they converse quietly, and I take my food to the table and eat next to Savage, who only has a glass of water before him. “You’re not going to eat?” I murmur.
He turns in the seat to give me his full attention. “I fight best if I’m hungry, regina.”
Xander pulls out the seat next to me, sitting down heavily. “Regina, I want to give you something.”
I turn around with interest and see he has a small blue velvet box in one hand. He opens it to reveal a gold necklace with a jewelled pendant. It’s a deep blue sapphire with five stones set around it in a circle: green, yellow, blue, red, and grey.
“One for each of us,” Xander says as I run my fingers over the precious stones.
The fact that he included the grey stone means everything to me.
His big fingers are gentle as he carefully takes the necklace out of its place.
I turn around, my skin prickling as the pendant settles above my cleavage, and he clasps it securely.
I can immediately tell that it’s been dragon-spelled to change its length when I shift.
“Thank you,” I say, turning back to show him how it looks.
There’s something in those glowing eyes as he looks upon me, like he wants to say something.
I’m just about to probe for an answer when Sabrina, Stacey, and the assassin twins stride through the outside door.
Minnie, Marduk, and Yeti on crutches arrive through the inside door.
They grab their food and sit down next to us.
“So what’s the plan?” Sabrina says, looking at me and toying with a piece of lettuce.
“The avians have checked out the convoy coming for us,” I say.
“And what I suspected has been confirmed. My father is going to be difficult to kill. He’s in a military truck protected by armed guards, shifted serpents, and serpent runes.
Out of the three, the runes will be the most difficult to get past.”
Stacey’s eyes go wide, and the nimpins on her shoulder, including Henry, hover with nerves. “Will they work like the one you used on The Collector?”
“Likely, just more…instant.”
“So how do we counter them?” Sabrina asks, twisting her lettuce in her hands. “How can we get to him?”
I take a deep breath and nod to Lyle, who levitates a small, frosted glass ball out of his pocket.
“I made this after consulting with Hyacinth.” I pick it out of the air and show it to everyone.
There are runes painted all over it in a special mixture of my blood and venom.
“Normally, these are nullification runes. But they won’t work on something as powerful as my father’s work, especially with the sheer number he’s using.
So we’ve mixed my usual blood and venom with the powder they made from my old femur bone. ”
Minnie’s face turns ashen, and Sabrina tears her lettuce in half.
No one says anything, so I continue. “I just have to get it past his runes and activate it by smashing it open. With this, any serpent rune he’s using will lose power.
It’s a dark type of magic to use body parts, but it’s my own, so I don’t feel bad. ”
“It’s like a bomb!” Savage says proudly, smiling at me.
“A Boneweaver bomb,” Stacey says softly.
Scythe’s voice floats into my head, only for me. “I’m proud of you, regina. For using your enemy’s weapon against them.”
“I need this to work,” I tell him and everyone. “It’s the only way we’ll be able to get to my father to kill him. It’s the only way all of this stops.”
“There are other obstacles,” Lyle says. “There will be the militia and the venom bullets to deal with, for one.”
“Which is why we’re working in teams.” Xander nods. “You all have your assignments.”
Stacey raises her hand, but there’s a shout from outside and Beak walks in, fully naked, sweat glistening on his chest. He nods purposefully at Scythe. “They’re almost here.”
My stomach plummets, the muscles of my body clenching.
A low growl sounds in my head. Silently, we split up into our groups.
My pack and I head out to the top of the Animus dorm where we’ll get a better view of the road beyond the academy.
A dust cloud forms on the horizon, and it takes a minute, but the rumble of heavy military trucks reaches our ears.
Another rumble, higher up and higher-pitched fills the air.
Two dots rise into the sky. Then another two.
He had come for my mother.
Then he came for me.
And now he wants to take everything.
A violent rage, one like I’ve never known even when I burned down the Naga family home, funnels through me.
I place my hand on the stone wall. “Protect us. Do what you can to protect this place.” Something pulses out under my hand, and the blue dome that surrounds the school brightens, an energy shimmering down from its centre point high above us.
Savage comes up to stand next to me. Strapped to his chest is a carrier like the one they use for front-facing babies, but Eugene is in it, his goggles pulled taut around his head as he sits comfortably, legs hanging on either side. Savage has a matching pair of goggles on his forehead.
“He’s going to help me with the hatchling soldiers,” Savage says softly. “If we can see how they’re going to move seconds ahead, we can take them out without killing them.”
“But his foresight is uncontrollable,” I say.
“Is it?” Savage takes out a tiny silver tin from his pocket and opens it to show me white powder. He taps out a tiny amount onto the back of his hand and puts it under Eugene’s nose.
“Savage—” I protest.
But Eugene eagerly leans down, and as Savage covers one nostril, Eugene sniffs the portion up. I stare open-mouthed as Eugene shakes himself, making a stifled sound before settling with a “bok,” as if to reassure me.
“Are you guys seeing them?” a familiar deadpan sounds from a walkie-talkie behind me, and I turn to see Xander raising the device to his mouth.
“Yes, Sabrina, we see them. You four organised?”
Stacey’s excited voice sounds this time. “Copy that! We’re on the anima dorm, yes! We’re ready for these fuckers. Can we go through the team names again? Over.”
Xander sighs, scratching the bridge of his nose with his thumb. “Fine. Aurelia and Lyle are Team Boneweaver. Savage and Eugene are Team Dazzle. I’m…Team Xander. Over.”
“Right!” Stacey says. “Me and the nimpins are Team Cotton Ball. Sabrina, Blair, and Blade are Team Assassin. Over!”
“And!” comes Minnie’s voice. “Marduk, Yeti and I are Team Pink.”
“Roger that,” says Beak. “I’m leading Team Avian with our full flock, but we’re split into A and B.”
I raise my brows at Xander, but he shrugs and speaks to the teams again. “Our beasts on the wall are split into order groups, in subsets of A and B. Scythe or myself will call out to direct as necessary.”
The trucks rumble closer, and even though I know it will happen, it still makes my heart ache to see our group split up. Savage and Eugene, Team Dazzle, are the first to leave for the front wall. Minnie and Marduk follow him.
My shark, lion, and dragon flank me. Lyle has exchanged his usual suit for a fresh set of what he wore to Boneweaver Island: simple black track pants and a T-shirt.
For some reason, Scythe doesn’t change his clothes and wears his normal black business shirt and slacks.
I can only tolerate a set of shorts and a tank top, both black and stretchy, giving me room to move and shift.
“They’ll send the helicopters first,” Scythe says from my right. “We’ll need to respond to their request.”
I nod as the helicopters do indeed make themselves known—a set of two, loud and slowing down as they approach us.
My heart hammers in my chest, and I don’t give in to the urge to cover my ears against the sound.
The academy has been surrounded by a second shield this entire time, my own.
I retract it now, bringing it in to surround me and my mates.
It’s important I conserve my energy now.
Both helicopters stop at the boundary between the outside world and the blue dome, swaying as the megaphone resounds out. “His honourable Mace Naga and the state authorities declare Animus Academy now closed. All students and staff are commanded to file out in an orderly manner immediately.”
“You’ll have to kill us first!” screams a female voice from the anima dorms that sounds awfully like Sabrina. It’s followed by a cheer.
The magnified voice speaks out. “Very well. We have been ordered to take the Academy by any means necessary. This is your final warning.”
Lyle’s phone vibrates, and he answers it with a terse, “This is Lyle Pardalia.”
It’s my father’s voice on the other side, and I go still as I hear it. “Surrender the school, Mr Pardalia. This is in your best interest.”
“And be sucked into your basilisk’s hell vortex?” Lyle growls, to my surprise. “I think not, Mr Naga.” A chill runs down my spine.
“Very well. Tell my daughter goodbye.” The line dies.
Cold dread expands in my stomach. He has some nerve calling me daughter now, for the first time in eight years. In my head, an eagle shrieks, and suddenly, the helicopter before us, the one on the right, bursts into flame, its engine catching fire.
We all turn to look at Xander, his mouth set into a straight, thin line, his anger heating up the air around us. “I’ve fought beside you in every fucking lifetime, regina.”
I smile at him. “Did we win in those lifetimes?”
He cocks his head slightly. “No. But we’ll win this. I’ll make sure of it.”
Despite the heat reeling off him, something about his words chills me.
I turn back to the front of the school where a convoy of military trucks have gathered a distance away from the front gate—or what was the front gate.
In place of the fancy black and gold cast iron scrollwork is solid black brick with a lone gargoyle’s head at its top and centre.
I have to shift to my eagle eyes, but my suspicions are confirmed.
A stone bob, a narrow face, and a head that sits just askew like it had been torn off at some point, the surface of its stone mangled as if by sharp teeth. What remained of The Collector’s head has been made into a new gargoyle.
I stare at it as Xander speaks on the walkie-talkie again. “Felines on the wall, stand ready. Team Pink, watch yourselves; they’ll come for you first. Deflect artillery, and dislodge any weapons.”
“Roger that,” comes Marduk’s reply.
We put our earpieces in, watching the militia in their vehicles, gathering along the perimeter of the academy wall. The guards in the towers have their guns angled and ready, but a single Jeep rolls towards the driveway.
A serpent general hops out of the back of it with two beasts holding heavy black riot shields. The three of them hunch behind the shields and survey the new protection. They set something down on the ground and hurry backwards into their vehicles.
“How long will it take for them to get in?” I ask.
“We’re not going to wait to find out,” Scythe says. “It was never made to withstand a modern military assault like this.”
“North and west guard towers,” Xander commands, “open fire.”