20. Aeron #2
“They’re not very coordinated now,” he observed.
“Whoever’s controlling them is stretched thin.
Probably trying to manage the assault on multiple fronts.
” He turned back to us, his expression shifting to something more serious.
“We need to move. The teleportation circle on the other side of campus will get us out. We can cut our way through.”
I wanted to argue, wanted to tell Elder Briar Hall that teleporting through an active war zone was suicide, but I could already hear the wet sounds of corpses breaking through the back entrance of the student center. We didn’t have time for debate.
“Stay close to me,” I said to Quill, pulling him against my side as I turned to Wild. “Lead the way.”
Elder Briar Hall moved with the fluid grace of someone who’d spent centuries in combat.
He pushed through the interior doors of the student center, his fae magic crackling around his fingertips in that sickly green glow.
I kept Quill tucked protectively against me.
My scales could deflect some minor forms of magic.
Besides, better me get hurt than my mate.
The campus was in absolute chaos. Students were running in every direction, some heading toward the reinforced academic buildings, others trying to escape toward the perimeter where the wards used to be.
Security witches were engaged with clusters of undead, their spells lighting up the night in bursts of color and power.
But there were so many of the corpses. So goddamn many.
“Watch your left!” Elder Briar Hall called out as an undead lurched toward us from behind one of the statues. He flicked his wrist casually, and the creature exploded into black ichor without so much as a grunt of effort. The casualness of it was somehow more terrifying than the violence itself.
We moved through the carnage like we were wading through a nightmare. Quill’s breathing was ragged beside me, and I could feel him trembling slightly, though whether it was from fear or adrenaline, I couldn’t tell. All I knew was that I had to protect him at any cost.
“The circle is near the gates,” Elder Briar Hall said, not even winded as we sprinted across the lawn. “Just another fifty yards.”
That’s when I saw her.
A woman I’d never seen before, easily six feet tall if not more, her skin gray and ashen.
She had the ears of a fae and long wild coppery hair surrounding a white mask that covered her features.
But even with the mask I could see the glowing emerald eyes behind them, landing on us with inhuman precision.
She adjusted her course, coming straight for us, power flickering around her as she raised her hands.
“Run!” Elder Briar Hall called, hurrying us on. “Get to the circle!”
I didn’t hesitate. My dragon instincts kicked into overdrive as I grabbed Quill and shoved him forward, putting myself between him and the masked woman.
Her magic crackled through the air, a sickly green that matched Wild’s but felt wrong somehow, corrupted, twisted into something darker and more malicious.
“Go!” I roared, my voice already shifting into something more bestial as my scales and spikes began to fully emerge. “Get to the circle with him!”
“Aeron, no—” Quill started, but I was already moving, shifting my weight into a more aggressive stance as the woman advanced.
Her magic lashed out like whips, and I threw up my arms to deflect the worst of it.
The impact sent me sliding backward across the grass, my feet digging furrows into the earth.
Behind me, I could hear Elder Briar Hall cursing and Quill protesting, but I couldn’t focus on them right now. All my attention was fixed on the woman in the white mask. There was something familiar about her, something in the way she moved that triggered a distant memory I couldn’t quite grasp.
“You’re Thaddeus Pyre’s grandson,” she said, her voice distorted by the mask but still carrying an edge of amusement. “How delightful. I was hoping I’d get to meet you.”
“Can’t say the feeling’s mutual,” I snarled, feeling more of my dragon form pushing through. My half-shift was becoming more pronounced, my muscles bulging as scales covered more of my skin. “Who the hell are you?”
She laughed, a sound like breaking glass. “Someone who shouldn’t exist. Yet here I am.”
More magic erupted from her hands, and this time I was ready.
I charged forward, letting my dragon senses guide me as I closed the distance between us.
I could feel Wild’s magic flaring nearby, sense Quill running toward the teleportation circle.
But the woman was fast, impossibly fast, and her magic was strong enough to make my scales burn where it struck.
“Run!” Elder Briar Hall shouted again, and I could hear the desperation in his voice now. “Aeron! We need to go!”
I risked a glance over my shoulder and saw that he was right.
Undead were everywhere, overrunning campus and security far quicker than seemed possible.
Even more were pouring through the trees.
And in the distance, I could see figures moving with purpose, actual people, not corpses.
The Purity Front, probably, coming to finish what their undead army had started now that the wards were down.
The woman’s magic wrapped around my arm, burning like ice and fire combined. I roared in pain, pulling away from her grasp. I needed to get to Quill. I needed to get him out of here.
Before I knew it, Wild was at my side, his magic cutting through the air to sever her hold on me. I fell back in the grass, my arms smoldering where her magic had touched me. A laugh split the air and I looked up.
Why was she laughing?
“Again, Wild, you get in the way,” she chuckled. “Haven’t you learned your place yet?”
Elder Briar Hall’s eyes went wide, his entire body shifting. “It… It can’t be.”
“Surprised?” I could hear the grin in her voice. “Thought you’d seen the last of me, didn’t you?”
He just shook his head. “M-Mother?”