Suri ran off to her room, where Sorrow was lying in wait in her wardrobe. Finally! I’m getting out of this place!
9
Zyzz held himself back from howling. He was fully transformed into his wolf form. The moon was fat and full in the night sky. His shifter power was at its peak. It needed to be for what he was planning.
Where are they keeping her?
Mona had been kidnapped by the magi council. Maybe one of them, gone rogue, or all of them. And Zyzz didn’t know if she was in Earth, or Faerie.
The fae entourage had left the Academy. Maybe with Mona, maybe not. The Master mages wouldn’t tell him anything.
I’ll go to the shifter hall. Maybe Lydia knows.
A running leap carried him through the air, landing on the grass of the Academy grounds. The demon assault, raging earlier in the day, had suddenly stopped. It was strange. The rift had suddenly closed, surprising the shadow demons left behind. Stranding them and the lesser hell spawn in enemy territory.
Zyzz had picked up the news in bits and pieces. Heard that the Masters and mages gathered at the Academy launched an all-out attack, killing the hell spawn left behind. For the first time since Mona and Zyzz were attacked, the Academy was clear of enemies.
Or so it seemed. Zyzz kept careful watch on the shadows, moving across the Academy grounds in a crouch. Ready to react at the slightest smell or movement.
The people guarding the Academy were mostly inside too. Tending to wounds, repairing armaments, and generally resting and preparing for whatever was to come. No doubt hatching a plot. Zyzz would never trust the magic council again. Not after what he had heard in the Headmaster’s tower. All of us are expendable. He’d been foolish to think otherwise.
But now that the human forces were able to rest, maybe they could find a way to secure the Academy. Stop the flow of attacks. The arch demons, the primary faction hellbent on taking the seed, were spending enormous amounts of magic to open the rifts. Zyzz hadn’t heard of anything like it. The world had gone mad. Unless something was done, it was very likely that the Academy would fall.
Maybe they want the Academy to fall. I have to find Mona.
Ten minutes of stealthy loping took him within sight of the shifter hall. The bowed, viking style roof was made from Norwegian wood, and carved into the shapes of fierce animals. It was Zyzz’s home.
Like many shifters, he had been pretty much abandoned by his parents. Left in the juvenile prison system, then the adult prison system when his aggression got worse. He had been wild, not caring who he made enemies with. On a path to an early death. It was a common fate for his kind. Only the lucky ones are found by a mentor, and taught to control the intense fits of rage that come with shifter blood.
Zyzz walked through the open archway and into the courtyard. Smelled the stench of ghouls, and shifter blood. He hurried onward, to the large double doors leading inside the hall. They swung freely like saloon doors, but were very heavy.
Zyzz hit them at a run, taking the weight of the wood on his shoulders and feeling it swing open, then closed. He skidded to a stop, long claws cutting grooves into the scratched up floor.
“He’s back!” shouted a shifter, from up on the second floor.
Zyzz shifted back to his human form. Everyone is fine. Thank god.
Laura and Clint greeted him with huge smiles and hugs. Next came all the other shifters, glad to see him after he’d been gone for days. Neither side knowing if the other was safe. Zyzz couldn’t help but smile and hug them back, give them all at least a touch on the shoulder. They were his pack. Even though Lydia was their Master, she was too old to shift, making Zyzz the alpha.
“Where have you been? What happened?”
Dozens of questions came at him. Zyzz let his friends lead him to a soft, well-worn couch and sat down. Don’t relax, he told himself. Back in the shifter hall, with his pack, a feeling of warmth and safety came over him. Protective, seductive. Telling him ‘this is your place.’
“I can’t stay for long,” said Zyzz. The others went silent. “Mona is missing. I have to find her.”
“When did she go missing?” Lydia asked. Someone had gone to get her from her chambers. She was dressed in a long, white robe. A shawl rested on her shoulders. Her face bore a hundred wrinkles. She looked shrivelled. Older than Zyzz remembered, even though it had only been a couple of days.
“I don’t know,” said Zyzz, shaking his head. “The other Masters won’t tell me where she is. They’ve locked her away somewhere. Or sold her to the fae.”
The rustled passed through the group of shifters. They muttered and glanced at each other, scratched their heads. “She stopped by here a few days ago,” said Clint. He met Zyzz’s eye, and held it. He was one of the only shifters who could do that without becoming scared. Zyzz knew that, if anything happened to him, Clint would be a good leader.
He might challenge me again, once this is all over. Zyzz could see from Clint’s calm, determined gaze and commanding posture that his second-in-command had recently seen battle. There was nothing better than war to give a shifter confidence.
It took Zyzz a moment to process what Clint had said. “What was she doing?” he asked.
Laura jumped into the conversation. “She told us she was on a mission from Kelendril.”
Zyzz growled, and curled his upper lip. Of course it would be him. He’s been nothing but trouble for her.
“But it was a lie,” Clint said, cutting in. “I talked to him. He said he ordered her to stay with the junior mages.”
“We were going to help her do…whatever she was planning,” Laura continued. “She had a shower. I gave her my room to get changed into fresh clothes.” She shrugged. “Then she left. Went out the window.”
Zyzz narrowed his eyes, trying to make sense of what he just heard. “She didn’t say anything? Nothing?” He accepted a mug of steaming tea from a young shifter. It was nearly boiling; the perfect temperature.
“Only lies,” said Lydia, her voice stern. “She led the young ones into danger. They were captured by a shadow demon and his ghouls. She only came to us because she needed our help.”
“You tried to track her, of course.”
Lydia slowly shook her head. “Two shadow demons and their minions attacked the Hall before we knew she was gone. After the battle, it was too late.”
Clint clenched his jaw. “Laura and I searched for her.” He shook his head. Zyzz could feel anger emanating from him like heat from a stove. “We tracked her to the library, but didn’t go inside. It stank of demons, and brimstone.”
“I was speaking with another Master when you arrived,” said Lydia. “We think the last of the demon forces are holed up in the library. They hope to survive until an arch demon opens another rift.”
“Then the demons have her,” said Zyzz. He got to his feet, shoulder through the gathered crowd of shifters. Everyone in the Hall, excepting the junior mages Mona had dragged along, were in the common area. It was hard to find one that did not bear a minor wound.
Zyzz paced across the hardwood floor. A small fire crackled in the hearth of the large fireplace. It too had been made in the viking style. Maybe even made by vikings themselves, Zyzz thought, as he watched the dancing flames. They gave shadows to the wooden pillars on either side of the fireplace. The pillars were carved with the shapes of all kinds of beasts: bears, hawks, tigers, wolves, and dragons. They had been cut into the wood with rough chisel work so that the shapes curved around the pillar. In the shadows and dancing light, the beasts looked like they were alive.
All shifters had at least a drop of Scandinavian blood. That was where the first shifters appeared. Where the original curse took hold. ‘Berserkers,’ historians liked to call them. The true records of what they were, the oral histories, had been kept secret from the ungifted.
Mona was not a shifter. She was not part of Zyzz’s pack. Yet I want her to be.
He was torn. How could he leave behind his friends, the closest thing he h
ad to family, when the Academy was under attack? Their lives were at risk.
This demon assault is no small thing. It’s not one of the little tests the Masters throw us from time to time.
Zyzz put a large hand on one of the pillars. Ran his fingers through the marking of a wolf that had been cut into the wood. My place is here. I cannot leave them. But my mate has gone missing…He sighed deeply. Shook his head. It was unreasonable for him to think of Mona in that way. She had shown interest in him. Deep interest, by Zyzz’s judgement. But women are mysterious. Quite different animals than men. He could always be wrong. There had been a spark of passion—no, more than that. A bright flame. But so brief.
Is it enough to justify leaving my pack? I don’t want to be a fool.
And then, Zyzz remembered who he was. An alpha. A wolf. A leader. He didn’t need to be told that he was strong and brave. Didn’t need accolades, or social validation. It did not matter what the others thought. He would go alone, if it came to that.
Better to die following your heart than to live your days in regret.
He looked to Lydia. The old Master was so old. She was also strong. Like a willow with deep, winding roots. Appearing weary, reading to slump into the ground. Yet in the howling storm, it alone holds fast. Solid, stable. She wasn’t going away any time soon. Zyzz knew her well enough to know as much. If Lydia’s health began to fail, he trusted he would see the signs. He did not see them that night. On her face—on all the shifters’ faces—was nothing but determination. Resolve. Strength. Under Lydia’s command, they would survive.
Or so Zyzz wanted to believe.
He could not ignore the charred patches on the floor. Black stains from spilled blood. Cracks in the wooden wall, where something heavy had been thrown against it. The demon forces had once before breached the shifter hall interior. It may be that they do it again, and more of my brothers and sisters find an early grave.
“Will you stay the night?” a junior shifter asked.
Zyzz turned from the fire. Most of the shifters had dispersed across the lounge area. Gone over to clusters of chairs and cushions and favorite spots on the floor. Or back to their rooms, up on the second floor.
Zyzz looked down on the shifter. Did I really look like this, once?
The boy was a little over half of Zyzz’s height, and probably less than half his weight. A first or second year, newly found and brought to the Academy. Incorporated into a pack for the first time in his life…only to have it threatened to be ripped away a year later. Maybe it would have been best if he hadn’t been found. What is better, to never have a family? Or to find one, then have them slaughtered before your eyes?
He put his hands on the boy’s shoulders, let them rest heavy. Let the boy feel Zyzz’s weight. Driving him just a little bit into the earth. Making him solid. Helping set roots in his mind. He looked deep into the boy’s eyes.
“It’s time I left this place,” he said. “You have to be strong, for all of them.”
A wrinkle formed between the boy’s eyebrows. He was worried, and not even trying to hide it.
Lydia, Clint and Laura must have heard Zyzz. They came over, joining him by the pillar, next to the flickering fire.
“I’m going to make a new pack,” said Zyzz, to all of them. “You all know I’m in my last year. I’ve been preparing to leave for months. It feels right.”
Although he did not know it, Zyzz was repeating what every alpha said when they reached a certain age. In some cases, the alpha leaves to find a mate and start his, or her, own pack. The rest of the time, they already have one. Zyzz wasn’t sure yet if he counted himself lucky for meeting Mona. But he had to follow his instincts. That was the ruling principle among shifters. Don’t overthink it. Listen to your heart. Follow the gut instinct. It won’t lead your astray. The journey will make you stronger.
Lydia wore a small smile. She put her dry, papery hands on Zyzz’s, and gave him her blessing. “You’ve always been strong,” she said. “But let me give you one last word of advice.”
Zyzz bowed his head and closed his eyes, giving all of his attention to the words of the woman who had rescued him, trained him, provided him with a pack and a place to call home.
“Be careful of your pride. Too much makes a tyrant. Too little, a slave.” The fire popped and crackled. Zyzz looked up to meet Lydia’s stern gaze. “Expect the best of yourself, and do not be disappointed by the weakness of others.”
She then let go of Zyzz’s hands and shuffled off to find another cup of scalding hot tea. Years of her wisdom and battle knowledge had gone into Zyzz. It was now up to him, to live or die. Thrive, or wither, in the great battlefield of life. He was far from the first alpha she had sent off on their own. Times being what they were, she hoped he wouldn’t be the last.
“You know we’re not letting you go alone, right?” Clint’s expression was dead serious.
“We’re coming with you to the library,” said Laura.
Clint scowled. “Mona already ditched us. We’re not letting it happen again.”
“If Mona’s in there,” said Laura, talking about the library, “we need to get her out as soon as possible. Before the Demon Hunters and Masters blow the place to pieces.”
“Good,” said Zyzz. They could accompany him for the journey. After, he would send them back. He wasn’t so selfish that he would take the Academy’s second and third best shifter students with him. Clint would start his own pack, one day. And it had been clear to everyone, for years, that he and Laura were in love. This rescue will be our goodbye.
10
“Wait. Do you hear that?” Laura put out her arm. Her hearing was better than both Clint and Zyzz’s. She was only partially shifted into a bobcat. Large fluffy ears, grey dappled with black spots and tipped with white, turned and shifted as she tilted her head.
Zyzz, Laura and Clint were near the library; the place where Mona’s trail had ended. Their sharp sense of smell had already confirmed that Lydia’s information was correct. The library was crawling with demons and ghouls—and whatever other creatures the demons had brought along as pets. Because Zyzz had been kept away from the fighting by the Masters, he had only seen glimpses of the battle waged across the Academy grounds. Felt the tremors and blasts of magic as their enemies attacked the infirmary. It seemed unlikely that he would be facing the winged bat demons from the hallway, all those days ago. Those creatures had been bred for assassinations, spying and scouting. Far different from the shadow demons and ghouls that the arch demons had sent to attack the Academy in great number.
“New smells,” growled Clint. “I don’t like it.”
Zyzz felt the same way. It was unnerving not to know his opponent. But he didn’t voice his concern. There was no point. They had to go in, regardless of the obstacles. Best to stay sharp, thinking of what can be done, rather than focusing on all the things that stand in your way. That was one of Lydia’s teachings. ‘Think about your enemy too much and they will grow in power,’ she had said.
Zyzz shifted his weight to his other foot. His armor, and the armor of all the student shifters, was a mix of steel and hard, boiled leather. Enchanted and fused together in a way that made it fit shifters in both human and animal form.
Laura and Clint wore their armor as well. Zyzz had gone to his room and taken his from where it had been left in his closet. It was clean and polished, the way he had left it. It stung his pride a bit to see that Laura and Clint’s bore the marks of many fights. It was a silly thing, but he was looking forward to having his scuffed up.
Laura frowned. “I heard wings. Keep an eye on the sky.”
All three pairs of feet were in their animal form. The padded bottoms were completely silent on the asphalt as they snuck closer to the side of the library.
Zyzz cycle his gaze between the rooftops, the side entrance of the library, the open parking lot to his left, and the walkway to his right that continued past the library to the next building on campus.
Normally,
with a full pack, Zyzz would be at the rear. That is the natural place for the alpha. From the back, they can see the full group and make sure no one is left behind. They are also the first to be attacked in an ambush.
With only three, Zyzz moved almost shoulder-to-shoulder with Laura and Clint. He wanted to limited the amount of time they spent in the open. Decrease the risk of them being spotted, and a ghoul sounding an alarm. If all went well, they would rescue Mona without her captors noticing.
When they reached the side of the library, Clint intertwined his fingers and made a stirrup out of his hands. In a move they had practiced many times, Zyzz took two, running steps and jumped off of Clint’s position. Clint pushed Zyzz with all his strength, and the combined effort sent Zyzz high enough in the air to catch onto a ledge. He heaved himself up and began climbing. The rope, wrapped around his body, rubbed against the brick wall as he scaled it. The library was old, and had all kinds of cracks and edges for Zyzz to grab onto, balance himself with, and use like a rock climber to get to a terrace on the third floor.
He froze in a crouch. Took a few seconds to look around and listen for enemy movement. When nothing happened, he tied one end of the rope to the leg of a metal bench anchored to the ground. He threw the rest of the rope over the side.
Clint and Laura joined him inside a minute. They didn’t speak, instead using the hand signals that Lydia taught them.
On the terrace was a skylight that looked down on the third floor of the library. They were nowhere near the top, but it was a way to get inside that, perhaps, the demons would not be watching.
Zyzz turned the metal handle on one of the skylight’s windows. Opened it smoothly and quick, not making a sound. Laura had already gathered the rope from the side of the building. It was still tied to the bench, and she let it down through the skylight. It was hard to see anything inside the room. The lights were off, but all three of them were able to use their combined senses to be reasonably certain that no ghouls slinked directly below.
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