Chapter 21
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
I FEEL THE EARTH MOVE UNDER MY FEET, IT’S NOT JUST A SONG TITLE
We’re the first to arrive at the field, and instead of hanging around with Emrys, Arlan, and Cane, I find a spot in the sun and limber up. It’s all the way down at the back oval, but the distance works great too.
I’m still wound up after five minutes in their presence.
I shouldn’t be, because beings who make it blatantly clear I’m beneath them and always will be don’t deserve a second of my time.
Unfortunately, feelings don’t work like that, especially when you’re lonely.
It’s not like I want them as my friends, but when the world constantly fucks you over, there comes a time when you start to take things personally.
To shut off my thoughts, I work through Dad’s fitness program. I did it so many times with him that the short sprints, the deep stretches, and the sets of burpees are pretty much muscle memory.
Considering how brutal and competitive previous training has been, I pace myself while also monitoring what my new housemates are doing. It’s easy to see their friendship is as strong as Orion indicated, and it’s interesting to observe how they interact with the other students as they arrive.
There’s a fair bit of hero worship going on toward them, but they don’t exactly encourage it. They’re pretty aloof, really only waving or offering a few words before refocusing and talking among themselves.
The way they stand means I’m in their direct line of sight, and they’re in mine. Emrys has caught me looking at him as many times as I’ve spotted Arlan and Cane doing the same. Given their sketchy looks, I honestly don’t know how we’re going to survive living together.
We’re still waiting on a lot of students, which is the only reason I park my butt on the grass, preparing to do some stretching.
I go to lift my leg, but under me, the earth moves.
I pause suddenly, wondering if I just imagined the sensation, but I know I didn’t since I’ve felt earthquakes before.
There’s another rumble under my butt that no one else notices, not that I let that hold me back.
I hop up, racing over to Cane. Of course, he’s already looking my way. I stop in his shadow, placing him between me and the other students. “Did you feel that?”
I purposely keep my voice low, in case I’m panicking for nothing, although I forget about beings having supersonic hearing. Arlan moves closer, and Emrys magik ebbs out of him.
“What?” Cane barks, which blows up my intention to keep this between us.
The other students turn around, and I feel a wave of heat race up my face, blazing under everyone’s attention. I lose my voice until the tremor I felt before strikes again.
“That,” I squeak as the ground under us moves.
Emrys lowers into a squat, his hands pressing against the grass.
He’s not the only one, and I realize all the magikals are doing the same.
And like Emrys, each of them omits their own unique strand of energy.
Without question, Emrys neon purple is the most vibrant, and it stretches away into the distance.
The other students move closer, and the chatting stops. All of them look to Cane for an answer.
“We don’t know what it is yet.” The words barely leave his mouth when an alarm blares. It’s the same one I heard on my first night at Thales. We’re under attack.
“Emrys?” Cane shouts over the budding panic and sound of the siren.
“Elementalism. But whoever is wielding it is hiding behind a concealment.”
I follow along, but my understanding of the different branches of magik is limited.
What I remember is that elementalism is a branch of magik practiced by those who have the power to manipulate the elements, like earth, wind, water, and fire.
It’s completely different to druid magik, witchcraft, rune practitioners, and sorcery.
When talking magik, I use the analogy of herbs and spices; there are groups within groups, and the flavor of each branch is as unique and diverse as the others.
Arlan chuckles as the earth quakes again. “I think it’s safe to say, Em, they’re not coming in peace.”
Emrys stands up, his grin as wide as Arlan’s. “What makes you say that?”
We all sway from side to side as we ride out another wave of the magikal attack, which only makes the two of them smirk at each other more.
The rumbling stops at the same time something cracks loudly. Everyone swings around to face the changing rooms, watching as the edge of the building falls away. Someone screams while another student prays.
Rumbles build, the vibrations picking up, but Cane claps his hands, drawing everyone’s attention to him. He looks calm and is as unconcerned by the commotion as Arlan and Emrys.
“This is not a drill. We have worked hard in our training sessions, focusing on what to do in case of an attack. Everyone should know where they should be, but I’ll run through it again. If you are a competent unit, you are to report to your assigned post immediately.”
He stops talking and looks over the group of gathered students.
About a quarter of the class split into their units and depart in all directions—of course it includes my angel bullies.
The way they act in the face of the attack makes me dislike them even more.
They act like a well-trained group of mature beings.
There’s no stupid bs at play, and they move as a group, all looking out for each other and the two Noms that go with them.
The other students don’t look self-conscious about their decision to stay. There’s no one pretending to be better than they are, which is surprising.
“What we’re going to do is split into groups. If you believe you’re ready to step up and you want the opportunity, go stand with Emrys.”
The way Cane talks respectfully to the students, like a leader should, makes my head spin. As to date, I have seen the opposite of what I am witnessing now. I honestly thought there would be shade thrown toward those who indicated they weren’t ready, but there’s no derision anywhere.
All the students join Emrys, and when Cane doesn’t challenge anyone’s decision, my admiration for him grows.
That is until he opens his mouth and my view of him plummets.
“I swear to god, if you let me down, or put any of your fellow students at risk because you think you are better than you actually are, I will fail you and your entire unit. Now, everyone can head out, except you, Miss. Ellis—you’re with Arlan. ”
Then every being, the ones I was just considering I may have judged wrong, turn and make me regret thinking anything remotely positive about them. It’s not only scorn rolling off them, there’s dismissal and ridicule too.
Except the thing is, it’s nothing new. I’m seriously getting used to the see-saw responses of others, so their treatment glides over me. Well, all of them but Professor Cane’s. The knowing smirk on his face is like being winded.
“And I thought he was a good guy there for a minute,” I muse.
When Arlan scoffs and mutters something under his breath, I realize I spoke loud enough for him to hear, not that I care.
Cane takes off, shifting as he runs. It’s a beautiful sight and makes me dislike him even more.
Some of the student cohort shift too, but they lack his finesse.
Once they’ve taken to their beasts, the difference between Cane and them becomes even clearer.
It’s hard to look away from him as the group races away.
Just as they’re about to disappear from view, Cane’s wolf leaps up to stand on the building’s broken roof. He scans the area, perhaps searching which way to go, but then he swings around and looks back at where we are gathered.
The intensity of his stare has the hairs on the back of my neck standing, and I check behind me in case I’m misreading his attention as a sign we’re about to be attacked. There’s no one behind me, and the look of disbelief and disappointment on his face steals the wind from my sails.
He turns to take off again, and even over the distance I can see the way his muscles bunch. I can’t look away, but before I blink, there’s a familiar hum, and I fumble my balance as my hands fly up.
Much like the other times, this one simply appears from nowhere.
Instantly, I’m transported back to the same place where the three guys attacked me in the forest. I’m standing with my back pressed against the same tree, only this time I’m watching hooded beings spill from a split seam.
I recognize the portal only from the movies I watched back home, but I know that’s exactly what it is.
Each group member wears the same clothes, like a uniform, and they move with drilled precision.
One of them looks directly at me, and the pale, opaque film clouding his eyes has me screaming and hurtling back to reality.
My hands are pushing down, and I fight against the figure in front of me.
“New girl! Maya!”
I know that voice, and it brings me back to full awareness. Arlan is on his knees, his hands holding my shoulders off the grass, his voice anchoring me to reality.
“They’re coming from where we were that day with the boys, Arlan. A group of hooded beings. Their eyes are smoke-filled pewter, and they’re armed with shards of glass.”
The shock on his face alerts me to the fact that what I saw is as real as the grass I’m now sprawled across. He guides me back down, then surges to his feet. “Cane! East quadrant! It’s the Legion.”
My head is fuzzy, almost as if I’m going to faint, and my energy levels are so drained that if I had to run, I know I wouldn’t be able to move an inch. Yet I manage to lean up enough to see a massive black wolf lead a mismatched group of beings down the path I ran a few days before.
Arlan splits his attention between me and them. It’s easy to see he wants to join them, and I don’t want to take the blame for making him stay. I struggle to my feet, while the world spins out of control around me, but I manage it after a few attempts.
“Go. I’ll hide in the rubble over there.”
I try to lift my arm to point to where Cane and the others were, but my legs give out. I don’t land on the ground because vampires have extraordinary reflexes.
“What’s happening?” I ask. My words slur, and I feel like I’ve drunk a bottle of champagne. “Arlan?”
“What’s happening is, you’ve had a vision.
Or you outed yourself as a spy. If that’s the case, I have to say, sweetness, you should probably join the drama club because you’re a hell of an actress.
Fair warning, if you’re tricking me, I will drain you dry,” he whispers, but when I open my eyes, I see it’s not that at all; it’s that we’re moving so fast that the world is whirling past us.
If I were well, it would be an exhilarating ride.
Yet, with the way I’m now feeling, the motion is like taking the plug out of a bath; all my energy, plus the apprehension I should feel, drains away.
It leaves me curled in his arms, thinking how weird it is that I feel like I’m home.
When we get back to the house, nothing sticks.
I know Arlan’s talking, and I’m answering, but I couldn’t tell you the words.
Things don’t start making sense until a while later, when time is again relevant and I can keep track of things happening around me.
I come back to the taste of something sweet on my lips and a raven squawking in my face.