by Lan Chan
Isla appeared at the front of the other side of the huddle. Emily’s presence threw a bucket of ice water over the demands of the bond.
“Is this far enough away from her?” I asked Diana.
“Pardon?”
“She has a supernatural restraining order out on me.” I felt like an idiot saying it.
Confusion made Diana’s nose pinch. “I don’t get it.”
My explanation immediately got her back up. “How is that fair? You haven’t done anything to her.”
My response was cut off by Sophie’s arrival. “Oh,” Sophie said when Kai and Tyler moved forward to address the room. “Is that what the commotion is all about?”
She zipped her lip when Tyler cleared his throat. “As you all know, third year has traditionally been the year in which Bloodline transitions students from theoretical to practical application of what you learn in this class.”
He cast his eyes over us. “Unfortunately, Malachi and I haven’t had the opportunity to observe you the way Professor Eldridge did as you moved through your studies. Over the coming weeks, we’re going to step you through an intensive course so we can get up to speed. I understand this class has had more than their fair share of demon contact...”
Do not look at me. Do not look at me. He looked at me. Urgh.
To be fair, so did the rest of the class. All except Emily who still wouldn’t make eye contact. “I want you to split yourselves into two groups. Malachi and I will take a group each and run you through the drills.”
There was a stampede over to the left side, Kai’s side, of the room. Somebody almost dislocated my shoulder in their attempt to get past me. Setting aside any hopelessly romantic agendas, Kai was a certified fighter. Even the boys wanted to be on his team. Suffice it to say, the groups were disproportionate. When I could move without being hit by classmates, I made a beeline for Tyler. Sophie followed out of loyalty. Diana huffed before doing the same. She dragged Roland with her.
There were only thirty or so students in this class. I counted twenty-two on Kai’s side. Aside from Diana, Sophie, and me, our side consisted of two para-human boys, Keith and Shawn, a sprite named Orla, and a shifter named Devraj. Diana was trying to coax Trey onto our side when Tyler cut her off. “Let him stay on the losing team.”
The meaning of his words was made clearer when he and Kai marched us out of the classroom towards the shifter Run. Normally, nobody else came near this section of the Academy. The shifters had full use of it to be as primal as they wanted. Around the full moon, the noises that could be heard from the Run made my hairs stand on end. I suspected it was just a way to scare the other races. More than once, I’d spotted two shifters leaving the run profusely bleeding. I left it alone because the chances of stumbling into a classmate stark naked was too high. Call me a prude, but if I saw Trey’s junk, I didn’t think I could keep a straight face.
The only other time I’d been inside was an unwanted rescue attempt of Sophie. The guarded look on her face told me she was reminiscing too. A few minutes into our walk, I realised how much the layout resembled the Reserve. Not surprising. Shifters were insanely territorial. Anything that reminded them of home would put them at ease.
Tyler led us past a wall of skyward kissing pines. If my sense of direction was any good, the dirt path would veer to the right and give way to a big clearing where...oh jeez. In the Reserve, the clearing was adorned with an ornamental lake backed by enormous redwoods and deciduous trees that put on an incredible display in autumn. In the Run, the clearing was just that. A clearing. Boring.
Diana mirrored my sentiments. “That was the biggest letdown ever.”
Kai’s head inclined in her direction. I knew he heard her because his green eyes darkened. Uh oh. Diana stepped strategically in my direction. “I think I woke the beast.”
I huffed. “I don’t think it ever goes to sleep.”
Kai halted. We were about to stop as well when Tyler beckoned those in his “team” farther afield. By the time we also came to a stop, we were out of eavesdropping distance even for supernaturals.
The look on Roland’s face could have rusted metal. “I’m going to kill you, Di.” He shot a speculative glance at Kai’s team.
“What kind of trial is this?” Dev asked. He was already stretching his ample shoulder muscles. Gold rolled over his dark brown eyes.
Tyler inspected each and every one of us. There was no change to his expression. Orla sneezed and glitter literally shot out of her nose. Figures. We couldn’t get a fire or wind sprite but a spirit one. She beamed at me. My abysmal headspace immediately cleared. Huh. Emotional manipulation. Interesting.
Tyler motioned us into a huddle. “Most of you are here because our world needs protection. Your parents wish for you to learn to defend yourselves. One day soon, you will graduate. In the current climate, it’s likely that your first assignments will be to guard a weak spot in the dimensional barriers. Most of those are adjacent to a human population. Today, we’re going to test your ability to guard. I want you to pick a mark. The aim of the exercise is for you to guard your mark while trying to take out theirs.”
All eyes turned to Sophie and me. Dev opened his mouth, but Tyler jumped in ahead of him. “It doesn’t have to be an actual human in this instance.” He pointed across the field at where the much larger group was huddled. “Think carefully. In the field, strategy often counts for more than raw power.”
With that, he took several steps back and allowed us to negotiate. “That’s it?” My question was met with a noncommittal shrug.
“That’s more than you’d receive on most missions.” Guarding was starting to feel less appealing.
Despite Tyler’s assurances that we shouldn’t target humans, both Keith and Shawn were all for either Sophie or me being the mark. Dev wasn’t so sure. “We are at a vast tactical disadvantage.” He scanned the other group, taking note of their abilities. “They’ve got two strong water Fae on their team. Not to mention a pack of shifters, two mages, and a vampire. If we bench Alessia or Sophie, we lose our ability to use any form of magic on them.” Orla cleared her throat. “You know what I’m saying, Orla.”
She huffed and sparks of rainbow-coloured lights sprang from her hair. “I take it you want me to be the mark.”
“I’m just weighing up our options.”
“Do you have an Angelical word you could use on them?” Keith asked me.
“Don’t even think about it!” Tyler snapped. “You’re not here to kill each other.”
Keith’s skin turned a shade of maroon. Dev wasn’t placated. “We would be if this was a real mission.”
Tyler’s nostrils flared. I thought for a second I could see the slightest hint of steam coming out of his nose. It made me wonder what kind of para-human he was.
“So if Lex isn’t allowed to use Angelical, what else aren’t we allowed to use?” Shawn asked. Tyler pinched the bridge of his nose.
“There is a difference between using your abilities to gain an advantage and letting off a supernatural atomic bomb.” He flattened me with his gaze. He needn’t have bothered. After what happened at Terran, I wasn’t going to resort to using my unsafe words just to win a stupid Weaponry and Combat drill.
Sophie had been quiet the entire time, but she piped up now. “But those are the only rules, right? Choose a mark and protect them and don’t kill each other?”
Tyler nodded. A smile played on Sophie’s lips. “I think I have a plan.”
When she told us, Dev whistled. The excited murmuring of the rest of the team mirrored his admiration. Behind Sophie’s sweet persona, there was an alpha lurking.
As Kai whistled to signal that huddle time was over, I couldn’t help grinning internally at the thought of Max trying to wrangle her into submission one day. He would be lucky if he didn’t end up dead.
12
As soon as the signal was given, the other team formed a physical barrier around Emily. Mark chosen. They stood in three lines of consecuti
vely widening circles around her. We remained exactly as we were, in a straight line with no indication which one of us was the mark.
Their choice of mark was logical. “At least we didn’t have that disadvantage,” Roland said out the side of his mouth.
“Win some, lose some,” Keith agreed.
Dev wasn’t so blasé. “They should have given her a pass. It’s not fair to throw her in like this on her first day.”
I almost coughed up a lung. “Pardon me! What happened on my first day?”
Dev grinned at me. Dark brown lines appeared around his eyes. “Those were entirely different circumstances, Alessia.”
He always did that. I’d told him so many times to call me Lex, but it never stuck. “Look at her, she’s almost crying.” The shifter in him was on display. Bloody alpha shifters and their stupid hero complexes.
“Just don’t go banging your chest trying to save her,” Diana warned.
Dev clutched at his heart, pretending to be mortally offended. “Loyalty first.”
Sophie laughed. “Yeah, right! The loyalty hierarchy is mate, pack, duty.” She pumped her brows at him. A spot of rose swept across his dark skin.
I groaned. Perfect. The shifter on our team, arguably the strongest of us all, thought their mark was cute.
Orla clutched Dev’s arm. “I’ll kill you if we lose.”
Dev’s gold-ringed eyes widened before they dulled to normal brown. He shook his head like a feline trying to shake off water. I took it back. Spirit sprites were totally badass.
While we’d been verbally sparring, Kai and Tyler had their heads together. Now they disengaged. Kai walked up to the mid-point between the teams.
“You’ve been given the rules,” he said. “Let me make things clearer in case anyone gets any bright ideas. No weapons besides your innate powers. No foul play. No killing. If I so much as see anyone fighting dirty, you’ll be sorry.”
He turned his back on us and returned to Tyler’s side. “Sweet talker, isn’t he?” Diana commented. It was a monumental effort not to react to their sideways glances. Thankfully, I was saved by the bell. In this case, it was an alarm that blared overhead. It sounded too much like the perimeter alert alarm. For a second, I had PTSD and cringed, remembering the night the demons attacked the Academy.
My hesitation gave Isla and Kieran an opportunity to work their magic. Storm clouds gathered overhead. They blanketed the field in a dense cluster. Isla raised her arms and the bubble burst. Fat drops of rain pelted on us.
Within seconds, the field became a damp, slippery mess. Two other Fae snapped their fingers. A gust of biting wind ripped over our team, making my face numb.
Down the line we had formed, Keith and Shawn flexed their limbs to try and stay warm. Besides Sophie and me, the para-humans were the most susceptible to cold. Alacanthea had been a sun-drenched paradise. I threw a protection circle around all of us. Fingers crossed it would hold.
Sophie sniffed. “Ready?”
I nodded. Dev and Roland stepped out in front of us. The other team saw the defensive gesture. Several of them grinned. All this water and wind made it difficult to move around, but it picked up pollen like a mother. In the Run, just like in the Reserve, there were huge fields of wolfsbane. It was insanity if you asked me. The shifters were paranoid about going rogue, so they had planted swathes of the irritant plant as a safeguard. The wind picked up little seeds and tossed them in a huge swirl into the air. The rain washed them into the turf.
Hedge magic would do the rest. I shot a wave of magic into the earth and pinpointed every seed. Where my magic touched them, the seeds sprouted. I pulled water rapidly into their roots until they leaped into unnatural growth. A tiger roared but it wasn’t ours. Trey smashed against my circle. I braced and threw him off.
One by one, over and over again, their offensive fighters began to attack my circle.
“Hold it!” Dev yelled at me.
I wanted to shout back but there was only so much multi-tasking I could handle. The magic circle flickered. Sophie shot her power into it to reinforce it, but it wouldn’t take the assault of additional Fae magic for long.
The next time Trey jumped, Dev broke through the perimeter of protection and slammed into him. The two shifters went rolling across the field. They collected a few other students in their wake. By now the wolfsbane was waist high. Isla had the good sense to stop the rain. The clouds cleared, turning the sky into a soft blue once more. Sunlight reappeared. I smirked. They really didn’t pay attention in Herbology.
Diana was the next to jump out of the circle. Then Roland. They shot straight at Sasha. Mid-run, Roland paused. He stood suspended for a second before he raised his right first and smacked himself in the face. Diana got a few steps closer than her brother but just shy of an arm span away from Sasha, she started attacking herself too.
Keith and Shawn raced out to provide backup.
I raised my face to the sun. So did the wolfsbane. Unnaturally fat heads of dark blue flowers did what they did best when the sun shone. They let out pollen.
Sophie stepped up to the plate. Her palms swirled with pink kitchen magic as she gathered the pollen into expanding globes of energy.
“Don’t let her finish!” Isla screamed. The other team rammed into us. Orla sneezed more glitter, this time a red blush that helped to dampen the repeated blows from the other supernaturals. My head rang with every punch and scratch.
Just as my circle began to weaken, Sophie lifted her palms up. Wolfsbane was poison to shifters but it also irritated most other supernaturals besides the para-humans. Sophie crossed her arms over her chest to create an X. Then she swept her arms out and the alchemical mixture of burning wolfsbane liquid exploded.
My larger circle broke. I gathered up the last of my strength and threw a smaller circle around Dev. He took one shuddering breath of poisoned air before the circle gave him relief. Just that small hint had the gold reappearing in his eyes.
The shifters on the other team didn’t fare so well. Trey roared as liquid spattered over his neck. Immediately, red welts bubbled on his skin. His eyes changed colour as he shifted, claws and teeth replacing his soft human flesh.
My throat locked. I had taken two steps forward before Orla grabbed my arm. “It’s just a game,” she reminded me. “He’ll be okay.”
Across the field, Trey wasn’t the only one suffering. The other shifters in their team, almost half their numbers, were in various stages of illness.
Unhindered by the wolfsbane, Sasha punched Keith in the head, dropping the para-human who was heavier than a boulder. His eyes glowed red, two fangs digging into his bottom lip. He turned on his heel in my direction. I didn’t see him move but he was there a second and then he was gone. I grabbed onto the Ley dimension and dragged it around me. Time slowed. Sasha appeared again just steps away. He arms reached out. I ducked, but instead of running, I reached out and grabbed the light amulet he always wore on a leather chain around his neck. The moment I yanked it off, sunlight scraped over his skin.
He grunted, intending to ignore the sizzling that was marring his complexion. Claws flashed in front of my face for a second, only to be pushed aside by Dev who barrelled into Sasha.
I dropped down on one knee, breathing heavily.
Fire ignited in the now dry grass. It started off as a tiny spark that hissed as it hit moisture but burned it into steam. That was the problem with elemental magic. All at once, it tended to cancel each other out. Gaffney, a fire Fae, wasn’t able to use his power because Isla and Kieran had soaked everything. He made up for it now.
It was clear from the circle of fire that blazed around Sophie and me that they thought one of us was the mark. Sophie knelt down beside me and slammed her palm on the ground. A pink circle rose up against the fire, slowing its progression. Sophie only had a small amount of control over fire, but it was enough to buy us some time.
Orla hopped over the knee-high flames. She flicked her fingers, stopping two of their mages from
creating whatever frightening spell they were intending to throw at us. Before she’d gotten a hold of the one on the left, Arthur, I thought he might actually be trying to open a portal.
Roland chuckled as he dove past with one of the other para-humans in his grip. The two boys landed in the mud, beating each other in glorious battle. Awesome. Our mark was behaving like a lunatic, not caring if he got injured.
Having had a few seconds to get my breath back, I pushed up to my feet and spun the Ley dimension around me. Even in their compromised position, I had no illusions that I could cut through their ranks quickly enough not to one, get my ass kicked and two, get to Emily.
None of us were going to make it past their defences with brute force alone. So, if we couldn’t get in with a battering ram, we would have to do it with stealth.
The world flickered around me as I slowed my breath. “She’s phasing!” I heard somebody scream on the other side of the field.
With no time to lose, I walked right through Dev rather than sidestep. And then I was running. A shifter lying on the ground vomiting tried to grab me as I shot past. His clawed hand passed right through me. I raced like a bullet though their line of physical defences. Each time I phased through one of them, it felt like my soul was being dragged back a little by their intention to stop me. But every time I shoved forward.
Just ten metres away from where Emily stood shivering, something solid yanked me back. Surprise had me letting go of the Ley dimension. The person jerked me sideways and let go. I spun and rolled the way I’d been taught, landing in a crouch. When I glanced up, I expected to see Kai but was met with Tyler’s dark-ringed gaze. The rest of the field froze.
“Impressive,” he said. “Let’s see if we can make this a slightly fairer fight.”
He motioned at me to come at him. I didn’t move a muscle. It was never a good idea to attack an instructor. The last time Professor Eldridge had sparred with one of us, Trey ended up pressed to the floor with her boot on his neck.
I was about to question the instruction when Tyler raised his hand. Gritting my teeth, I waited for the fireball or the lash of wind. Nothing happened for a second. And then, before my very eyes, he disappeared. A speck of yellow light appeared in the centre of the spot where he’d stood. Faster than any other portal I’d ever encountered, the thing opened up into a yawning gap. I surged to my feet as a figure stepped through the portal. I would remember him until the day I died. Or the day I stabbed him through the heart. Whichever one came first.
