Chimera Academy The Complete Collection

by Eva Brandt

  “I could be, yes, but I’m not. The Chimera dynasty might be rotten to the core, Brendan, but it still needs continuity. I can’t provide that, nephew. I’m sick. I’m dying.”

  Silence fell over the med bay. Brendan stared at his uncle blankly, his face set in a non-expression that I recognized as his go-to reaction to disbelief. “What?”

  Brendan and his uncle weren’t close, so there was no deep familial affection between them. But Archibald had always been a soldier. I didn’t remember him ever getting sick. As a rule, the whole Chimera royal family was like that, and the skill was even more advanced in Brendan, who’d borrowed it from Typhon.

  Chimera royalty only ever died from battle wounds or old age, never disease. That was an unwritten rule of our society.

  “I know this might come as a shock to you, but that’s the way it is. Some powers… Human bodies aren’t meant to contain them. Which is why you must all be very careful. I’ve seen your downward spiral. If you keep going at this rate, you’ll get yourselves killed too.”

  “I-I don’t understand,” Selene stammered. “Killed?”

  My mother’s eyes flashed, and for the first time since she’d arrived, her pleasant, meaningless smile faded. “Please, don’t lie, Acting Pilot Renard. You know exactly what His Highness means. You can’t have missed it. You’re not blind.”

  “Chimera tamers borrow certain characteristics from their mechas,” Commander Trevor offered, speaking for the first time. “That connection gives us a few extra gifts. But if it is pushed to extremes, it can twist our bodies and our spirits. You’ve seen it in the members of your unit and maybe, even a little in yourself.”

  Selene stared down at her hands and I wondered what she was seeing, what she was thinking about. A wave of tachyons flared around her, making the air blur and overheat. It was only for a second, and then, she looked at Archibald again. “Right. What does that mean for us?”

  “It means we have to advance the plan and get rid of Philip as soon as possible, so we can stabilize our political system before things can get any worse. As long as Brendan and I work together, we should be able to contain most of the damage and make sure none of us lose ourselves to the power we wield.”

  “I’ll be able to handle the assassination part,” my mother piped up. “That was the whole point of me approaching him the way I did. But The Grand Judiciary is an entirely different matter. If King Philip falls, they’ll try to take control and they won’t work with us. We need to strike at the same time in two different places.”

  It was nothing I hadn’t heard before, a million times, from Brendan. The knowledge that The Grand Judiciary could topple the crown altogether was among the factors that had stayed Brendan’s hand all these years. But if Archibald was on our side and we divided our efforts, we might have a better chance of success.

  “Or we could take them out while they’re in the same place,” Brendan said. “Right now, as far as I know, they should all be at Hades Base, dealing with that whole emergency meeting business.

  “That’s just it,” Odette said, shaking her head. “Philip very rarely goes to Hades Base in person. I don’t think he went there this time around either. He doesn’t really trust them and he’s not always where he’s supposed to be. We can’t rely on that. Besides, we’d like to avoid talk of foul play if possible, at least when it comes to Philip. I’m working on a more discreet method. You just have to be on standby and prepared to take over when we’re done with him. Once he’s dead, The Grand Judiciary will most likely try to attack you and take you out of the picture. They don’t need more than a little DNA to keep the dynasty going and that can be harvested even if you’re dead.”

  Everything she said made sense, except for one little tidbit. I tried to control my temper, but I couldn’t take it anymore. I let out a sharp bark of laughter. “So you expect us to just trust that you’ll kill your lover when the time comes? After everything that’s happened? After Stella?”

  My voice cracked when I spoke my sister’s name. Even if I knew she was still alive, the wound of her loss had never truly healed. I couldn’t just pretend it hadn’t happened and my parents couldn’t turn around and act like they hadn’t handed her over to be a broodmare.

  “I know you can never forgive us for that, Pollux,” my mother said seriously. “Believe it or not, we… We didn’t expect it. We all thought it would be for your sister’s own good, that she would be able to persevere and contain the power that was given to her. We thought that maybe, she was the key to proving women could move further in this society that forces us down. But we paid the price for that arrogance.”

  Her gaze landed on Selene and she clenched her jaw in anguish and frustration. “There finally is someone now, someone who can help us crawl to the surface. And maybe this is a horrible idea. We’re all risking our lives for a plan that might not work. But do we really have another choice? We can’t go on this way.”

  “She’s right, Pollux,” Selene answered softly. “We need to move forward. I don’t know how much help I can be, considering my condition, but I’ll do my best. We…”

  Selene never got the chance to finish the phrase. The doors of the med bay suddenly exploded, cutting her off mid-sentence.

  A thousand different things happened at the same time. Knox jumped over Selene, shielding her with his own body. August and Brendan shot forward, taking most of the blast themselves. Prince Archibald shoved my mother down and Commander Trevor shielded me.

  Meanwhile, my chimera started roaring in anger at the back of my mind. “Those traitors! I will consume them all!”

  The lights in the room flickered and the ground shook. Brendan and August were thrown back by the blast, their bodies smoking and broken.

  Selene screamed. “No!”

  “Yes,” an unfamiliar voice offered.

  Shadows drifted into the room, amorphous, but crackling with energy. “No, no, no,” Scylla chanted in my head. “How did we miss this? Stay safe, hatchling. We’re coming.”

  Another explosion sounded, and even if this one was distant, I felt it echoing all the way into my bones. “No one will be able to help you,” the shadow said, as if it had overheard my exchange with Scylla. “Your friends are a little distracted.”

  “What?” Selene asked. “Who are you? What do you want?”

  “Revenge,” one of the creatures replied. “Two members of the Chimera dynasty, the Grand Chimera Unit and you—Selene Renard. It’s almost too good to be true.”

  “You’re making a mistake,” Prince Archibald said, getting off my mother, but still blocking the creatures’ view of her and Selene. “I know you’re angry, but this isn’t the way.”

  “On the contrary, this is the only way. We listened to the Grand Chimeras once. We won’t do it again. We have to start over.”

  Archibald smiled, and in the dim light, his teeth suddenly look very sharp. “Well, you’re going to have to go through me to do it.”

  “With pleasure,” the creatures said—and lunged.

  At the same time, Commander Trevor retrieved his phaser and sent a powerful blast in their direction. The shadow absorbed it like it was nothing, but it did have an effect.

  It gave the creature more substance and the amorphous shadow became more distinguishable. Tachyons crackled over its surface, and I finally recognized the face and shape of our opponent.

  It was a Centaur, a member of the Lower Chimera Unit. We were so fucked.

  * * *

  Selene

  When I’d had that vision on Earth, the last thing I’d expected was to have to face chimeras in battle. Yes, that dream had filled me with doubt and uncertainty, but I’d never thought any chimera would attack me outright. It just didn’t seem like something they’d do. Chimeras had physically hurt me before, but it had always been by accident, and I no longer blamed them for it.

  This was an entirely different matter. These creatures had come here with the specific intention of hurting us, and I was included
.

  The Centaurs had been completely destroyed in the first Apsid War. It stood to reason that they were angry, and based on what I’d seen in my dream, they’d never been completely happy with the idea of serving mankind in the first place. I didn’t know what I’d done to draw their attention, but after almost miscarrying my baby, I wasn’t well enough to confront them.

  Then again, I didn’t think I’d have been capable of fighting them off even under normal circumstances. August and Brendan were far more powerful than I was and they’d been blasted away like broken toys.

  My first instinct was to rush to their side, to help them in some way. Knox stopped me. “Leave them,” he murmured. “They’ll be fine.”

  I couldn’t believe my ears. Knox was so close to Brendan. How could he possibly want to abandon his lover? “But Knox…”

  “Leave them,” he repeated.

  As he spoke, he picked me up and backed away toward the wall. At the other side of the room, Commander Trevor and Prince Archibald were already engaging the Centaurs in battle. One of the Centaurs grabbed Commander Trevor’s arm and tugged. He screamed as his metal arm was torn away from his body. As the limb fell to the ground, I gasped in panic and horror.

  The Centaurs weren’t as large as the harpies, but in their current form, their actual physical size didn’t matter that much. Their presence suffocated me, making spots dance in front of my eyes. I had to do something, anything, but I was too terrified to reach to Gaia and Tartarus. Would they even listen to me? Somehow, I doubted it.

  The Centaur seemed to intend to tear Commander Trevor apart altogether, but at the last moment, Pollux intervened. Shoving his palms against the shadow, he blasted it back.

  The wave of power wasn’t simple tachyon manipulation. The Centaur was unable to absorb it and its form dissipated. The shadow next to it reacted very poorly. Letting out an infuriated neigh, he shot forward, ready to trample Pollux.

  “Don’t touch my son!” Odette screamed, bodily launching herself at the ghostly chimera.

  It should have been a futile effort. Women from the nobility possessed Tartarus’s gift, but for the most part, it was latent. Compared to a chimera, she was nothing more than an ant. And yet, when she touched the creature, the Centaur recoiled and reared back.

  The sight gave the others pause, long enough for Pollux to grab his mother and move out of the way. Commander Trevor rolled to his feet, clutching his injured arm, his face white with pain, but his stance steady. “Run!” he said. “Go. We’ll hold them off.”

  He was in no condition to do that, but Knox didn’t care about such details. While I’d been distracted by the battle, he’d already been working on a way to make sure we escaped.

  Even if he was still holding me, he managed to blow up the wall between us and the room on the other side of the med bay. “Wait!” I told him. “Knox, wait.”

  He didn’t. He was already out of the med bay before I even finished the sentence. The others were left behind, at the mercy of the Centaurs. And the worst thing of all was the fact that I couldn’t fault Knox for his logic.

  The rest of the people in the room might be able to take a blast and survive it. Normally, I could have done the same. But my child definitely couldn’t.

  If I pushed myself further, I’d lose the baby. I had no choice but to go along with Knox’s decision.

  Unfortunately for us, the Centaur Herd was much larger than the Harpy Squad I was used to. Only three or four Centaurs had entered the med bay. The others were infiltrated throughout the rest of the academy.

  Knox and I didn’t get very far before three more of the smaller chimeras got in our way. “You’re not going anywhere, Knox Alexander,” one of them said. “Hand her over and you might still survive this.”

  Knox snorted. “You and I both know that’s not going to happen. You might as well quit while you’re ahead. Cerberus will kill you for harming his pack.”

  “Cerberus is busy with other things,” the creature replied with a laugh. “Besides, he doesn’t need humans in his pack. Chimeras are his family, not people. He’ll realize that soon, because of the royal family you all serve.”

  Knox didn’t bother acknowledging the words. Unlike me, he didn’t doubt his chimera’s affection for him and he was too busy finding a way out to focus on their threats and taunts.

  We couldn’t go back the way we’d come, since most likely, that would land us in the same predicament as before. I didn’t know what had become of the others, but if they survived the attack of the Centaurs, they wouldn’t be able to help us much.

  I tried to reach for Sphinx again, searching for answers, for any kind of aid. I received no response. That meant we were on our own.

  Knox turned on his heel, chose a different corridor and took off running. He moved so quickly I was forced to close my eyes to avoid throwing up all over him.

  Much too soon, he stopped and set me down. I had a bad feeling as soon as he faced me and my suspicions were confirmed when he actually spoke. “Listen, Selene. They’re not going to stop following us, and I’m not sure what happened to Cerberus or the others. You have to make your way to the main hangars. The Venom is still there and the shields will let you pass. It’s big enough that its independent generators should be able to hold back the Lower Chimera Unit.”

  “Why are you telling me this? You should be—”

  “There’s no time,” he cut me off. “In the vent, quickly.”

  Forcing tachyons through the wall, he opened the drone panel hidden beyond. That was when I understood what he had in mind.

  Drones were tiny, but the passages hidden in the walls for them were larger than they needed to be, to make room for things that occasionally needed to be carried. I’d tentatively planned to use this sort of method in the labyrinth, during the tournament, but it had never been necessary, because the fight had ended before I could resort to it.

  Knox would never be able to follow me inside. Depending on their level of corporeality, the chimeras might, but if they didn’t realize where I’d gone, they wouldn’t know how to give chase.

  Every single part of my being protested against the concept of abandoning my lovers, of running away. But at this point, I was a liability. My presence would just distract them and make things worse.

  Maybe that was what I had been doing ever since I’d arrived at Chimera Academy—constantly making things worse.

  I bit the inside of my cheek so hard it bled. Despite my best attempts, I hadn’t made that much of a difference, but I had affected the members of my unit. Because of me, they’d gone to the Apsid Quasar to save me. And they’d badly pushed themselves and gone against their own biology in their desperation to make sure I was safe.

  In a way, it was their responsibility, because they’d made their own bed when they’d chosen to attack Gaia’s Haven. But that didn’t remove my part of the blame, nor did it make my knowledge of the imminent disaster any less painful.

  Taking a deep breath, I clutched Knox’s arm as tightly as I could. “Knox, please. Don’t die. And save the others. I need you.”

  Knox nodded and shot me a quick smile. “Don’t worry about us. We’ve survived worse. Now, go.”

  There were so many more things I’d have liked to say, but our time had run out. I needed to prioritize my baby, not my foolish emotions.

  Cracking the vent open, I crawled inside and started to move. Behind me, Knox sealed the passageway shut. As darkness fell over me, I heard a loud roar, another explosion—and then, there was nothing but terrifying silence.

  I tried not to think about that silence and focused on going further. I’d never used this method to move around, but I knew where I was and I still had my skills from Sphinx. I could always fall onto that as a guide if things got even worse than they were.

  My tentative plan worked and as I sent my mind forward, I managed to identify the right turns I was supposed to take to reach the hangars. The problem was that I still couldn’t connect with Sphinx
and it was worrying me more and more.

  Had something gone wrong during my so-called assignment from Commander Trevor? No, that couldn’t be it. I’d heard her earlier, a little before the Centaurs had shown up. At one point, her presence had vanished from my mind, but I hadn’t sensed the moment when that had happened.

  That alone was very disturbing, since the first time our connection had been shut down—when I’d done it out of grief—it had been very painful and had done a lot of damage to both of us. She couldn’t have gone dormant without me knowing about it. So what in Gaia’s name was going on?

  Knox had told me to head for the main hangars and evacuate using the Venom. But could I really leave without trying to find my chimera?

  In the end, I didn’t have much choice. There were too many people in the Grand Chimera hangars for me to dare to go there. I could’ve tried to go to them for help, but somehow, I knew that wouldn’t work.

  The Lower Chimera Unit was out of the question for obvious reasons, so I had no choice but to follow Knox’s suggestion. And it frustrated me beyond belief that I was this helpless, but I couldn’t allow that anguish to keep me from taking the rational course of action.

  I should have known better than to think things would go well. As soon as I got to the main hangars and emerged from the vents, I realized I’d heavily miscalculated.

  No sooner had my feet hit the tarmac than a familiar presence appeared behind me. “Where do you think you’re going, young Selene?”

  I looked up, only to find myself facing Sphinx. Her presence should have filled me with relief, but it didn’t. Because the light in those tachyon-fueled eyes held none of the affection I’d grown accustomed to. It was cold and savage, and all of a sudden, I knew that I was standing in front of a foe, not a friend. Gaia help me.

  Inevitability

  Jared