96. Aurelia
Chapter 96
Aurelia
W e sit in silence for a while. Well, my pack and me. The Devi and Panthera packs chat amongst themselves, unsettled by the events of tonight. We’d gone in to save Raquel and did nothing for her. Instead, I’ve lost Xander to what Marduk thinks is a dragon-sized trap.
I stew in it. The look in his eyes, the gentleness of his voice. The way Lady Drakos fought against her bonds, that familiar look of berserker rage I’d seen in Xander so clear on her face.
Something ignites within me, and it blazes through my muscles and tendons. It flashes through my core and my power flares like wings.
There is only one path for me now.
I rise to my feet and meet the gaze of my mates, one at a time. Somewhere in the distance, perhaps in ancient memory, there comes the sound of war drums.
The hairs on the back of my neck rise. The regina in me snarls at her mates. “Do you stand with me?”
As one, they stand. Scythe’s teeth elongate. “You know we do, regina.”
I nod with approval. “Then we go to Drakos Estate. Xander does not die tonight. Not on my watch.”
“Your will is mine,” Lyle vows, his amber eyes wide and ferocious.
Savage crouches as if ready to spring. “My soul is yours, regina,” he growls.
I see it then, as Xander would have in the visions his dragon gave him. The way we might have won battles in other times and places. The way we would fight in a battle to come.
“Lia?” Minnie whispers, her eyes gleaming as she stands from Yeti’s lap. “But how will you get there? You have no dragon.”
“True enough. But dragons weren’t the only beasts who could carry incredible weight.” I swallow. “The thought came to me when I rescued Delilah Drakos from the clutches of a dragon. I’d carried her as an eagle, but she was too heavy for me then. It was just the wrong form.”
Stacey’s mouth forms an ‘o’ and she grabs Savage’s notebook and pen, scribbling something onto it. She shows her picture first to Minnie, Marduk and Yeti, then to me.
I smirk and nod.
“But your leg,” Minnie frowns.
“I have two legs,” I say simply.
“Can you take us as well?” Marduk asks excitedly.
Lyle’s brows shoot up. “Will you share with the rest of the class?”
That fire in my body makes me burn with urgency and I grab Lyle’s hand and pull him outside, calling for everyone else to follow.
I hobble down to the elevator that’s thankfully in the pack dorms, and before I know it, I’m rushing outside.
“Regina,” says Scythe in disapproval.
“Come, come!” I wave a hand at him as I exit onto the field at the back of the academy, looking up at the overcast sky.
There are no stars tonight. No moon. Just the faint blue glow of the security dome.
“Regina, tell us what you’re trying to do,” Savage urges.
“No time!” I say, whipping my shirt off.
Marduk yelps and turns around as Minnie and Stacey step forward. My power is so irritable that when I explode into my phoenix form, I shower my friends with glittering, crimson feathers.
“No,” Scythe says, understanding immediately. “I should never have told you about Celeste.”
But he had told me how Celeste had broken the sound barrier carrying him back to the academy after I’d left.
Too bad, so sad. He’d given me a gift.
Stacey finally shows my mates her illustration. “What in the chamber of secrets is that!” Savage exclaims, wildly gesticulating at the drawing.
My beak is smirking, but no one else but me can tell. I’m too jittery, too full of fire to even joke about it. “I’m going with or without you.” I spread my wings, flapping so they get battered with air, before I angle them downwards and launch into the sky.
“Regina!” Savage screams in panic as I gain height. “I’m coming!”
“Good boy,” I tell him as I tip, ready to swoop. “Lyle, strongest first.”
Lyle frowns and glances at Scythe. I know they hate this, but they have no choice as I dive towards Lyle, my right leg bent up to protect it, my left claw ready to receive. Lyle shouts out, but he reaches for me, Henry clutching onto his hair as I shove my claw in Lyle’s face. He grips it in one hand. Savage leaps to attention as I sweep Lyle into the air and he catches Lyle’s legs just as he’s lifted off. Scythe snarls up at me, but I ignore him as he adds his weight to Savage’s
“Quick!” Marduk says as I bring them up higher, pulling Scythe above the ground with my teeth clenched against this new power. The Caspian tiger grabs Scythe around the legs, and with a loud fuck that comes out as a high-pitched cry, Marduk’s feet leave the ground. He’s followed by Yeti. There’s no physical force keeping me afloat, all power, no physics as my irritated, immense strength is let out in near-full force, my anima finally getting what she wants.
We wobble in the air, the males hardly keeping still as I beat my powerful wings.
“Ready? ” I ask everyone, taking a deep breath as I head for the dome.
“Wait for me!” Minnie exclaims.
We all look down at the same time to see Minnie leaping up and wrapping herself around the front of Yeti like a koala joey.
“No, regina!” Marduk cries.
“It’s a chain of friendship!” Minnie happily shouts up at me, pointedly ignoring the protests of her mates. “Go, Lia, go!”
Blair and Blade let out a whoop! as Stacey and Sabrina cheer me on. Honestly, it’s lucky my friends are as crazy as I am.
My power cushions Minnie and Yeti from underneath, but the combined feline telekinetic powers keeps the entire chain stable for me. They sway in a long chain below as I beat my wings to gain more height.
I close my eyes as we touch the protective dome, but just as I’d suspected, given its mistress is a phoenix, it lets another phoenix out. I envelop everyone in my power, and only once Minnie and Yeti are safely through do I pause and stare into the dark distance.
My power gathers around me like clouds gathering before a cyclone and I funnel all my rage, all my need for vengeance, and all my pain into that power. Lyle swears beneath me, his hands tight around my leg.
“Someone count me in,” I say tightly.
Funnel. Funnel. Funnel.
“One!” Minnie cries.
I think of Lady Drakos in her bed and Selena thrashing on the floor under her father’s power.
“Two!” Savage cries.
I think of Lorian, lying on the floor of The Collector’s dungeon, no light, no moon shining on that fair face.
“Three!”
Xander’s face fills my vision, of the light going out in his eyes and his world going dark as his father hurt him.
I scream and let my power go.
Like a slingshot being released, there is a mighty sound that snaps at the ears and we are catapulted through space. There is silence for three scary heartbeats as we hurtle towards Drakos Estate. The wind might have cut us into pieces if it wasn’t for the power I’d bound around my friends and their combined powers assisting mine.
Only when dark opens up to tiny lights, do I release my speed back to normal.
Everyone swears in their own way, loudly and proudly, except Scythe, who silently looks up at me to see if I’m okay.
“Your ass is going to be so sore for this,” he threatens.
I sure hope so.
Gaining a bit more height so that Yeti’s feet don’t hit the top of the black stone wall around the estate, I sail beak first over the grounds. Drakos Estate lets me in. I defended her once, saved one of her hatchlings when she could not, and she seems to remember it.
Everyone lets go in a wave after that. Yeti takes Minnie, rolling onto the grass, followed by Marduk. I lose height, letting Scythe and Savage drop off next. Lyle lets me go and lands on his feet in a crouch, leaving me to land smoothly on the grass.
My mates sprint towards me as I shift into human form, Scythe handing me my PJ shorts and tank top.
“Are you alright?” Lyle asks quietly.
“Are you mad?” Savage exclaims.
“Yes to both,” I pant. In fact, I’m pumped.
That flight should have taken everything out of me. Instead, my vision is acute, my muscles taut like springs, and there is a power in me that still demands to claw and maim.
I lead the way into Drakos Estate without another word.
“We’re completely out of our depth in a dragon fight,” Lyle says.
Savage barks, skipping merrily to catch up to me. “Those are fighting words, lion.”
“Wolves don’t bark.”
“I’m a special wolf.
“I suppose you are.”
As I stumble up the steps to the castle, I glance over my shoulder to see Savage grinning in delight as he picks me up around the waist and runs up the stairs. “My regina says so too.”
I growl in my chest, nothing more than a deep rumble, and Savage growls back. Scythe and Lyle flank us with Marduk, Yeti and Minnie bring up the rear.
It’s at this moment we hear a mighty, earth-shattering roar followed by the explosion of brick and mortar.