Chapter 22 #3
The bridge itself was pale stone, wide enough for plenty of foot traffic and lined with a carved railing that had runes etched into it that hummed faintly, even now.
I didn’t understand how the humans crossed it with such bad intentions.
We’d just reached it when boots sounded ahead.
Fifteen more humans stood at the far end.
“Of course,” Slater grunted, his voice a dry rasp. “Because why not throw in more humans to deal with when we’re barely fucking standing.”
They spread out in a tactical fan, weapons raised. Behind us, another group of humans ran from inside of the academy toward us, boxing us in.
“Tourmalyke?” one of them called out from the bridge.
“Negative,” another answered. “Asset is present. New orders. Take her in, not just her DNA!”
Ice-cold frustration coated my spine at their words.
“Rune—” Jesper started, but I was already moving.
There was no point in holding back. We were cut off. The academy wards were compromised. Everything about tonight was a message from the fucking Whettlocks.
Fine.
If they wanted to play rough, I’d destroy all of their toys.
I launched myself forward, bare feet slapping the stone, dress trailing behind me like a smear of poisoned starlight under the academy’s fae orb lights that floated around.
“Fates, Rune!”
Bullets pinged off hastily erected shields from Drecken. One grazed my arm and another seared through the side of my calf. Pain rippled, but the adrenaline pumping through me made it easy to ignore.
I dropped to a slide toward a human shooting at me, momentum carrying me under his aim, and jammed my palm into his knee.
The bone crunched, and he dropped. I popped up, spun, and slammed my elbow into his visor.
It cracked under the impact. My fingers speared through the damage, finding his skin and pushing fatal venom into him.
He collapsed.
Drecken’s magic blasted several of the humans behind me to nothing as the tourmalyke faded enough from his system.
Jesper, Zuko, Slater, Koa, and Dimitri threw themselves into the fight.
Tobias, Ominous, Ivy, Solon, and Lorian guarded the students who couldn’t fight yet.
The next human tried to catch me in a chokehold, but I twisted, letting his arm slide along my collarbones, using the movement to flip myself up onto the rail, balancing on the edge.
He grabbed my ankles.
I smiled down at him.
The dumbass wasn’t wearing gloves.
His grip spasmed and tightened involuntarily as my venom shot through him, and he dropped dead.
Another with gloves tried to drag me down, and I let myself drop. My ass hit the railing as my legs whacked under his arms and used the momentum to throw him over the rail.
I watched his body tumble into the churning glow below.
When he hit the cloud of magic, it wasn’t like hitting water.
It was like dropping a living thing into the swirl of a storm.
The mist swallowed him, wrapping around his body, seeping into his mouth, his eyes, and his ears.
He flailed, limbs jerking wildly, but there was nothing to grab, nothing solid to swim through.
The magic grew brighter around him, shimmering almost hungrily.
His scream tore up through the glowing vortex as the color of the mist pulsed brighter. His form blurred inside the luminous haze, but his bones seemed to bend at the wrong angles as he dissolved and his scream cut off.
All that remained was swirling, glowing mist and a few flickers of light.
I turned back to the fight, breathing hard, but I was pleased to find very few humans left.
Koa stared at me, eyes wide, flames flickering faintly at his fingertips. “Wow,” he rasped, “that’s one death I really don’t want to experience.”
“Gotta be better than being eaten whole by a shark,” I teased weakly.
“Fuck,” Slater breathed, arousal leaking through the bond. “I know I did a great job on that dress, but you, covered in the blood of our enemies, throwing humans into the magical abyss? Somehow you make it so much sexier, venom baby.”
“That is so fucked up,” Zuko said, even as he nodded. “But he’s right. It really is.”
“That’s my sister!” Tibby cried from behind. “Focus!”
Jesper let out a breathless laugh. “You are terrifying, honey drop. Have I mentioned lately how much I adore that about you?”
“No, but I appreciate it.” I smiled at them.
“I’d also appreciate your help to take down the last of them,” Dimitri said between pants as his vampire speed worked then failed.
We finished the rest of the humans together, my mates running on fumes but still landing blows and guarding my back when they could. All of them placed their bodies between me and danger, even though I didn’t need them to. I did the same for them.
By the time the last human dropped, groaning his last breath as my venom killed him, my dress was a ruin of toxic glow and bloodstains. My hair had fallen out of its carefully arranged style, waves tumbling wild around my face and shoulders.
My heart hammered painfully in my rib cage.
The academy behind us was damaged but still standing. The bridge beneath our feet thrummed with blocked magic.
The abyss below churned lazily.
I turned slowly, scanning everyone. Some students still lay unconscious near the steps, but most of the ones we’d walked out with had made it to the bridge. Their faces were pale, eyes wide, some tear-streaked.
My mates moved toward me from all directions.
Slater reached me first, blood streaking his jaw, and his red hair a mess. He cupped my face with shaking hands. “You good, venom baby?”
I nodded once. “I’m good.”
“That’s my fucking girl,” he murmured, pressing a quick, fierce kiss to my lips.
Zuko came up next, fingers skimming over my arm where bullet grazes had healed but bruised because my magical energy was low. His orange eyes were sharp and molten, and I hadn’t realized he’d lost his bandage. “Pretty little poison, you are absolutely unhinged. I love you.”
“I love you all so much,” I murmured.
Koa slid in behind me, wrapping an arm gently, carefully around my waist, hand splaying over my stomach. His blue healing warmth seeped through me in spurts, healing the rest of what my body refused to without more magical energy. “You truly are a goddess, little vixen. In the most horrifying way.”
“High praise,” I giggled.
Dimitri tilted my chin up, red eyes scanning my features carefully. His thumb brushed a smear of blood from the corner of my mouth, then he gave me a crooked smile. “You just turned a formal into a massacre and still look so gorgeous, lethal darling.”
“That’s the weirdest compliment I’ve ever gotten.” The corner of my lips curved. “Thank you.”
“I’m sure Slater has said something weirder.” Jesper stepped in, his hand sliding over the back of my neck, thumb rubbing the tension at the base of my skull. He pulled me into a brief hug. “You did so good tonight.”
I leaned into him, letting his winter woods scent ground me.
“Without you, we would’ve died tonight. Even me.
” Drecken appeared at my side, the faint glow of his magic still clinging to his fingers.
His blue gaze swept over me, taking in every lingering bruise and streak of blood.
“Viperling, you are, without exaggeration, the most breathtakingly destructive being I have ever seen.”
A whoosh of displaced air hit the far end of the bridge as five figures emerged from the shadows. My three parents, Rowan Clearwater, and Damien Clearwater.
Mom’s eyes went immediately to the bodies, then to our group, then to me. “Brief me now. We received a taunting message from the humans.”
Jesper straightened automatically, his clearly ingrained squad-leader reflex kicking in.
“Human strike team with three waves. First hit the auditorium with tourmalyke gas and ground assault, second waited for us at the front entrance when we fled Apex Nexus, and the third ambushed us at the bridge. There was no prior detection. They were after Rune.”
Mom’s gaze sharpened. “All this for her DNA specifically?”
“A human from the third wave said orders have changed, and they want to take her in,” Jesper said, meeting her eyes. “They pumped enough tourmalyke into the auditorium to drop every supernatural in there. The only reason we’re all alive is because of Rune.”
Dad’s jaw flexed as his eyes met mine. “Did they take anyone?”
“No,” I said, voice cracking.
Mom looked past me, where students were barely standing and humans lay dead, then she looked back at Jesper. “Casualty report.”
My throat bobbed as I answered for him. “Four watchers are dead. One confirmed student is dead. It was Seth Corvus. House of Twilight fourth-year. He was a phantom. He took the strike meant for me.”
Rowan exhaled slowly through his nose, smoke curling from his nostrils.
Pops's phoenix flames scattered over his shoulders.
Dad let out a low hiss.
My mom’s face didn’t change, but her expression drew tight.
“Drecken,” Dad muttered. “Wards?”
Drecken was already casting, fingers tracing sigils into the air. Threads of arcane light spidered outward, connecting to existing lines of protection around the academy, the campus, the bridge, and the Houses.
“They didn’t punch through the main ward,” he muttered. “They slipped between secondary anchor points. They timed it for the new moon, when the wayfaer portal is shut down, and overloaded micro-barriers with direct impact.”
“Can you repair it?” Rowan asked.
“Of course,” he scoffed. “But that’s not the problem. The problem is that they knew exactly when and where to strike to get the maximum effect with the least resistance. Someone tampered with the wards from inside.”
Mom’s gaze cut back to me, to Tibby and his mates, then to my mates, then to the rest of the students. There was worry in her eyes, but mostly fury. “It wasss probably Vel when she wasss in charge of the year-one Houssse.”
“She’s dead now, but who knows what else she’s fucked with.” Dad sighed, rubbing his temples.
Mom’s lips thinned. “Either way, the timeline for our raid on their facility moves up.” She flicked her gaze to Jesper.
“We were planning to raid that facility at the end of next week. We move it to three days. You will have the final intel by then, complete squad rosters confirmed, and extraction routes mapped. Do you understand me?”
“Yes, ma’am,” Jesper said immediately.
Dad surveyed the wreckage of the night. The destroyed formal, the traumatized students, the broken academy doors, the blood and broken glass, and the bodies.
“I will address the academy tomorrow. Tonight, we’ll get everyone stabilized, patched up, and accounted for.
We will confer with the Human Council within the hour.
They will not like what I have to say. Drecken, thank you for fixing the wards. Rest now.”
Rowan’s gaze sought my mate’s with a sternness that made Drecken pause. “Tourmalyke is your only weakness. Take the time to heal from it.”
“I’m healed,” he mumbled, crossing his arms in a huff.
Mom walked directly toward me, cupped my cheeks in her hands, and pressed her forehead to mine. “You did good tonight. You sssurvived and protected who you could. You were ready. I am furiousss that this happened. I am furiousss they came for you. But I am proud of you. Do you understand me?”
My throat tightened. “Thanks, Mom.”
She pulled back, and Dad enveloped me in a tight hug.
“I don’t love how revealing this dress is, but I love that you’re safe now.” He pulled back and patted my head.
Pops grabbed me next, checking me over. “I agree. The dress is too much, but regardless, you look beautiful. The amount of blood tells me how well you did tonight. Great job, Rune.”
“She really protected us all,” Tibby said, walking over with all three of his mates leaning against him for support. “Thanks, Roo.”
“And you, are you okay?” Mom checked him over with my dads before feeling satisfied that we were all okay.
“Get cleaned up,” she told us. “Infirmary check for all of you, but then rest. Tomorrow, we will arrange for the raid fully. In three days, we burn their facility to the ground.”
I looked back toward the academy. A faint green glow emanated down the hallway that led to the shattered auditorium. My gaze moved back to the bridge and the churning magical abyss beneath it before skimming over the immense amount of corpses left over from the humans we'd fought.
My mates stood around me, bruised and exhausted, but alive.
Seth had given his life for mine…for all of us.
I would make damn sure that the Whettlocks would never hurt another supernatural again.