by Jade Thorn
Steve put his hand in hers, and Melody closed her eyes, holding even tighter to Leon’s hand. Gently she reached for the strands of their broken bond and began to feed magic into it. The bond thickened, reached for her, and gradually connected with her magic. Before the witch on the other bond could react, Melody yanked the bond apart, strengthening her own with Leon at the same time.
On the cot, his body convulsed for a few beats, before lying still. The healer rushed to his side, pouring magic into him, now that he was free from being drained. Melody also fed him from her magic, drawing from her bonded shifters. Behind her, Oz murmured to someone that she was taking from her own familiars to help Leon.
The bond with her began to solidify, and she knew it was time to try and transfer it again. This would be harder, there was no preexisting link for her to work with. If she broke her link too soon, she could kill him.
“Are you ready?” she asked them, still with her eyes closed.
Steve fed his magic towards her in a tendril and she grabbed it, dragging it to Leon, to where she envisioned her own magic joining to his shifting magic. The healer kept feeding magic into him steadily, trying to buffer his organs against what was about to happen.
“Three,” she counted quietly. “Two, one.”
Melody snapped the bond, yanking Steve’s magic hard and slamming it against the broken end inside Leon. His body began to tremor, then shake, then he was full-on convulsing again, only this wasn’t a few decent leaps into the air. This was a violent threshing that threatened to rip his hand from her grip.
Still she held on tightly to them both, the conduit between the two loose strands of magic, until the healer told her what she’d been dreading.
“It’s not working, we’re losing him, either reestablish your bond with him, or in the Goddess’ name, stop his heart. You’re wrecking his body.”
Melody sobbed, slamming her bond back against his, holding it there hard until they fused. Only, once they had, she noticed that Steve’s magic was caught in there as well.
“God you hurt. I mean, he feels awful, but you’re in agony,” Steve said, making her open her eyes.
He looked at her in wonder. “I can feel you. I can distantly feel your familiars, but I can feel you. How the fuck did that happen?”
“I pushed my end of the bond back against his, but I forgot to let yours go, it’s kinda mashed in there at the moment. Which means I might be able to withdraw later and let you bond him fully. It also means that I can’t do any more just now, because bonding two people at once really sucks,” she gasped and looked up at him. “No offence.”
Steve’s face softened as he looked at her. “No, I can feel that you meant that. None taken.”
Oz growled, and Melody’s guilt returned tenfold. Steve leant to the side and threw up.
“Yeah, second thought, that sucks. What the fuck was that?” he asked, when he sat up.
Melody swallowed hard. “Guilt. It makes me queasy.”
He stared at her. “So, when you feel guilty, I throw up instead?”
She waggled her head. “I don’t feel great, so probably alongside me.”
“What about when either of you fuck?” a voice asked from amongst the waiting students.
“Dude,” objected a girl, smacking the back of his head.
“What? It’s a relevant question. If we’ve all got to go through a partial bonding with her to get a shifter, I’m not so sure that’s going to work. She’s got four of the fuckers already, you can’t tell me they’re not all banging her, so what, I get second hand sex? No thanks. Or if someone manages to hex her and she hurts, do I feel it too? Fuck that.”
“Get out,” growled Melody, standing unsteadily. “You don’t deserve any of these people. Get out.”
“What the fuck?”
“He was whipped to the point of death to save my virginity, and you don’t think that’s worth a little nausea or pain to save him? You can’t put up with a little of the pain that I experience every day, for the chance at bonding with an experienced shifter who is going to take your magic to the next level and then some? None of these shifters are weak. They’re all highly trained fighters. But hey, don’t go out of your way to do anything to earn them. We’d hate for you to break a fucking nail,” she was yelling, and the healer was trying to hush her. “Get. The fuck. Out!”
Oz grabbed the hapless guy by the back of his shirt and the seat of his pants and hauled him across the gymnasium floor to the exit, throwing him bodily out the door.
“Don’t let him back in,” he growled to the two new council guards that had turned up.
35. Melody
“Melody …” said a weak voice, and she looked down to see Leon looking up at her.
She collapsed at his side, head bowed over his hand that she hadn’t let go of. “Oh Leon, I’m so sorry. I thought you were dead. We thought you were all dead. Goddess, I’m so sorry.”
“Me l…”
She hiccuped, holding back her tears and her words. If he needed to speak, she needed to listen.
“... have to stop her …” he panted with the effort.
“Ssh, Leon. We’ve got you. We’re going to save you all. Rest, you can tell us more later.”
Leon shuddered again, his eyes closing before snapping open. A pulse of magic surged through him, scales that were diseased and misshapen spread across his arms before disappearing again.
“What the fuck was that?” someone murmured.
“No more, Mel … let … go …” Leon husked.
“Leon, what was that? What happened to you?” Melody gave him a little shake, trying to keep him awake long enough to answer. He wasn’t dying, she was feeding him too much magic for that.
Leon’s eyes flew open revealing slitted pupils and a white iris. His other hand snapped up, wrapping around her neck and choking her. He snarled as his fangs elongated, well past what they should as a mountain lion. Scales peeled away from his body, leaving putrid festering sores.
Whatever was before her, it wasn’t Leon anymore.
Oz lunged forward, breaking the arm that held her throat as he forced Leon prone again.
The pain did something, she could feel it. The magical pulse ended, the scales disappeared leaving small scars on his skin. Looking on in horror, she realised he was covered in them. This wasn’t the first time it had happened.
Leon’s hazel eyes looked up into hers, back to normal, pleading begging. “Kill us, kill all of us. We’re the ones too unstable to hold it. They use us for cannon fodder. We’re dying anyway, so they just speed up the process.”
The magic she’d fed him had done more than restore whatever else was residing in him.
Councillor Argrum pushed her out of the way. “Leon, what have they done? What isn’t taking? Why are you dying?”
“They’re trying to turn us into dragons,” he replied. “It hasn’t taken in us, our shift beasts were too stubborn, but the others. Goddess, don’t let me become like them.”
Several of the students retched.
There was a commotion and suddenly her familiars were surrounding her. Melody hadn’t felt them approach. In fact, she hadn’t felt anything since she’d seen Leon change. Even his hand on her throat hadn’t hurt, it was why she hadn’t struggled.
Nick picked up Leon by his shirt, his weakened body hanging above the ground.
“What are you?”
“Changeling. They found out how to change out a shift beast. They had a tiny bit of dragon blood and managed to change one shifter entirely, but he wasn’t strong enough and he died. They’ve been experimenting on us. The stronger our beasts are, the more likely we are to survive, but if they’re too strong, they fight back and we’re unstable.”
“The other survivors?” Nick growled.
“Mindless, obedient. They’re monsters, covered in scales, they can’t eat properly, only drink blood. Those of us who are unstable are used as donors. It’s why there are no bodies, we’re consumed.”
Melody spun away, looking for something, anything to ground her. She couldn’t cope. Not this, not this. She knew her aunt was mad and cruel, but not this … this horror.
They’d been right to grieve them all. They were already dead.
“Break their bonds,” Councillor Argrum ordered. “If they die, it’s a kindness.”
The healers looked at him aghast.
Leon’s body pulsed again.
“Please, not like this, break me one more time Melody. Please, release me.”
Leon’s broken cries gradually turned into vicious snarls, and there was a scuffle behind her, but she couldn’t turn around.
She could feel him, through the bond. The spark that was Leon disappearing under a tide of darkness. The smell of his wounds, his snarls of anger and pain, it was too much.
Steven caught her eye and nodded.
“Someone catch Steven,” she called out.
Immediately, two shifters bracketed him, holding his arms and shoulders. They all nodded.
She did what she could to spare them both. She pulled Steven away first. His knees sagged a little, but he managed to stay upright. It was better that way, she didn’t want him to feel what was coming next.
With a sob, Melody turned around, facing the snarling abomination that Leon had turned into again. Feeding him her magic had only woken it up. It was easier to do when he was like this, when he wasn’t like the honourable man that she had known.
She yanked hard on her magic, severing the bond with him, the shock making her reel. Oz’s arms trembled around her, and she knew that he could help her, if he was willing.
“Yes,” Oz said, before she even opened her mouth. “I’d love to. Melody Canticum, I challenge you.”
She wobbled as his supporting strength left her, and a tall brown wolf with one white paw stared back at her.
“Shift,” she commanded, pushing her magic and the loose tether at him.
Oz rocked back on his ass, an astonished look on his face, the bond already strong between them.
“You didn’t think I could do it?” she asked him.
He blinked up at her, a goofy smile on his face. “I didn’t think you would, but I also didn’t know it would feel this good.”
He flopped backwards onto the hard floor, unmindful of his nakedness as most shifters were. His hands covered his face and he laughed into them.
Well, she thought he laughed into them. Right then, she needed to deal with Leon, then she could sort out the flood of emotions that were threatening to overwhelm her.
“We’ve got him, Mel,” Ryan assured her, Asher kneeling with him next to Oz.
Pack.
Yes, she supposed they did. Behind her, there was a ring of steel and a wet splat. Melody spun, only to have Leon’s body land on her, his head on the ground beside him. She fell backwards, landing on Oz, the air rushing out of him in a pained grunt.
Shocked, she sat there as Leon’s blood spurted out of his body and onto her face and torso. One of the senior students started screaming, until Mrs Hardinger turned up and slapped her. Unfortunately, hot on her heels was the provost.
“Just what is the meaning of this?” she snapped. “I agreed to let you borrow Melody to help process the identity of these beast criminals, but I did not agree to a bloodbath in the gymnasium, nor borrowing more students.”
“This is council business, Provost, you have no say in any of this,” Argrum snapped, then his face softened when he looked at Melody’s shocked one. His sword still held firmly in two hands, blood dripping from the tip.
“He was lunging for you, it would have likely been a killing blow if you look at his hands.”
Numbly, she looked down at Leon’s hands to see that they had shifted into long lethal looking claws. There were no fingers, only black hardened lengths that curled around to sharpened tips. Yes, if he’d struck her with either of those, he would have likely taken her own head off.
Even in death, he was still shifted into his monster form, colourless slitted eyes staring at her, while sores oozed and bubbled across his skin.
“Councillor Argrum, I must protest. There are more important matters to tend to, like the wards around the academy. Surely the interrogation of the shifters can wait until we secure the grounds, it’s not like the animals are going anywhere.”
Melody clutched at Leon’s body, anger surging through her, but Oz grabbed her from behind and whispered in her ear. “Not now, Mel. Not now. Bide your time.”
All the fight went out of her. That woman, that beastly woman, she was just too much.
“As for the wards,” the councillor said, turning his attention to the provost. “The council is very interested in learning why they fell, why they were so weak in the first place.”
The provost huffed. “Well, if I had half the help here that I ought to, they’d be up and running, but the staff here are worthless.”
The councillor said nothing, standing and letting his silence speak of his disapproval.
“I understand that you did not raise the alarm yourself,” he said finally.
“No,” she snapped. “I was unconscious on the floor, bleeding out of my ears from the backlash. That dragon sounded the alarm and organised the students into an army like he had the authority to. He could have killed those students. You must expel him.”
Low growls sounded around Melody, and now it was her turn to sooth her familiars, bonded or not. For one thing had become very clear to her today. She could no longer leave them unbound, vulnerable to her aunt’s coven. They needed to stick together if they were ever going to have a chance at a normal life.
“Provost,” called a witch from the door. “The new students are here.”
The councillor flicked a hand, and the two guards stationed there stepped aside, letting a small group of people in. Five men in total, plus one of the women from the administrative office.
She got half way across the gymnasium before she saw Melody, and then she halted abruptly. The men, however, merely moved around her, striding forward and looking around with interest.
“What the fucking is she holding?” snarled the largest one in an odd accent.
The provost, however, smiled a feral smile. “Gentlemen,” she said in a saccharine voice. “The woman covered in blood and males is Melody Canticum. The female you have come here either to woo or bond. As I tried to warn you all, she is worthy neither of your time nor your attention. Now you can see for yourselves.”
The new shifter surged forward, trying to pull Leon’s body from on top of her, but Melody was too shocked and still gripped it tightly.
“Letting him go, little one, yes? He will hurt you no more. I promise. You are safe now,” he said, gently.
Oz pulled her arms away from Leon, and she gave a small cry of distress as his warm weight was tugged from her grasp.
“Leon!”
“Melody,” the councillor said, kneeling in the blood beside her, mindless of his clothing. “That’s not Leon anymore. You know that. He’s gone now. They can’t hurt him anymore.”
She knew that, she fucking knew it. He was long gone. She felt that darkness take the last of him, but letting go of him while he was still warm, felt wrong. It made it all too real. The first tear tracked down her face.
Mrs Hardinger was ushering the senior students off to the side, where the healers were waiting to check on them. Nick stepped in front of the shifter, earning a growl when he pulled her to her feet and into his arms.
“Back off, I’m hers and she’s mine,” Nick growled at him.
“So, it was all just for show this morning?” the provost said, scowling. “You refused to bond him when I asked, then bonded him later anyway? Do you think this is some kind of joke?”
It was the slap to her mental state that Melody needed.
“No, I refused to endorse your faulty opinion of someone I respect and trust. However, it was a trigger for his dragon and we decided to bond to help him out. I wasn’t forced, i
t was a mutual agreement.”
Nick gave her a strange look, and she felt his hurt through the bond. She sent a feeling of patience through to him. At least, she hoped that was what happened.
If you can hear me Nick, I’m playing to her tune. I can’t be too flippant. She has the power to order the bond broken, with all of you, she thought loudly.
I understand, Nick immediately replied.
Well, at least that was one crisis diverted. But the next one presented itself immediately.
“Melody,” one of the new students called her, stepping through the blood without care. “I’m Alexander Canticum. I am very pleased to make the acquaintance of such a talented and may I say, beautiful witch.”
She gaped at him. It probably wasn’t her most attractive look, judging by Ryan’s snickers, but what the hell else was she to do?
“I … uh …” This wasn’t working. “You know I’m covered in Leon’s blood right. You can see that, can’t you?”
“And yet your beauty shines through even the most horrible of masks,” he persisted. He bowed to her and stepped back, but his gaze never strayed from her own.
“Melody, if I may introduce myself …” began another of the men, but Councillor Argrum spoke over the top.
“Gentlemen, this is all very nice, but very poor timing. I’m afraid that matchmaking will have to wait, while we deal with the crisis at hand.”
They all turned to look at him. She shouldn’t have been surprised, the day had started off in chaos, it was now getting a little too close to insane. Why wouldn’t there be another crisis?
“Melody,” the councillor said. “I realise that this is a horrible position to put you in, but I need you to check all of these shifters to see if they have also been tainted by the same poison as Leon. If that is the case, then we ought to put them out of their misery now. I doubt we would be able to find an antidote in time.”
It took only a second for her overwrought brain to catch on to what he was doing. He was limiting the amount of damage that rumour could do. It would also mean fewer people to leak the news back to her aunt, because something told her that her aunt knew exactly what was going on in the academy. After all, she’d broached the wards in the place closest to Melody’s cottage and had come straight for her.
