Duality

by Layla Heart

  What? ‘Why?’

  “Rune, what’s going on?” Kit is already standing, looking around for our things. We’re dressed, but our bags and other things are still scattered around the room. Then he grabs his phone, scrolling through it, tapping on a few things before reading a message. “Why does Finn want us to come back?”

  “I don’t know.” I put my phone away. “But it doesn’t feel right.” I look at Litha. “I’m sorry. We’re going to have to cut this dinner short.”

  Litha nods, her eyes sad, and she stands up too. “I guess it can’t be helped.”

  “Wait.” I feel danger flash in the bond with Kit, and when I look at him, he’s glancing out the window, his eyes wide. “We can’t leave. Not now.”

  “What?” I’m behind him in seconds, also looking out the window. When I see the figures on the street below us, their green and blue armour easily recognizable, my heart sinks, the dragon inside me roaring, in fury and fear at the same time.

  Fae warriors, in the streets of the neutral town next to the academy.

  This is bad, really bad.

  12

  When Phoenix was doing a small protection ritual to figure out a way to safely have Litha practice her magic, we saw the sign at the same time. A blue-green flame at the edge of her ritual circle. The circle is supposed to keep us safe inside, while also warning us of new dangers, and that flame was a bad sign. Blue-green means fae, like my family...

  The flame wasn’t too big, but noticeable enough for us to see it and that still made us worry. So we tried to find everyone as quickly as possible. If we’re all on academy grounds, we should be safe, no matter what. Bane had been easy enough to locate, he was at his parents’ place, but the other three had been a bigger task. We spent way too much time checking if they were somewhere in the house or in the library, or anywhere else on campus, because nobody was picking up their phone, until Rune finally checked his messages...

  Why the hell did they go off the campus grounds? Those two... Really. They knew they weren’t supposed to leave the campus, and to take Litha with them... Are they inviting danger or something?

  I stalk down the path towards the gates again, waiting for them to arrive, checking my phone constantly. I nearly drop it when it buzzes, the message is from Kit this time. ‘We can’t come back.’

  My chest tightens, anger flashing. ‘Just do it. You know you’re not supposed to be out there anyway.’ Right as I send the message, my phone rings. Rune. “Yes? Why can’t you come back?”

  “Your father’s men are in the streets below us.” His voice is low, dangerous and my legs nearly give out from under me, too surprised.

  “What?” It’s like my mind blanks, not accepting what I’m hearing. “What do you mean?” They can’t be, they wouldn’t be, they shouldn’t be.

  “They’re in the town, walking through the streets, towards the campus.” I hear the edge in his voice, and it’s making me shiver.

  “No. No, no.” This can’t be happening. This is not happening, so not happening. I look around the campus. There are students everywhere, unaware of the danger outside the walls. There are no alarms going off, nothing to warn them. They need to be warned. Static buzzes through my head, my skin tingling badly. There should be an alarm, they shouldn’t just be able to barge right in. There is supposed to be some form of protection.

  “Finn? Finn!” This time it’s Litha on the phone. “Pull yourself together. You need to warn the headmaster. Tell him what’s going on.”

  I nod, which she of course can’t see. “Yeah. Right. Of course.” I knew my dad was up to something bad, but to attack the academy? I never expected that to be part of his plan... Why would he attack the academy? How can this be a good part of his plan?

  “Finn, please. I’m safe here. I’ll be protected. You need to warn the headmaster. The campus needs to be protected too.” Some of the things she says register, but I can’t believe it. I can’t believe what’s going on. This is not... “Finn.” She may think she’s safe, but how safe can she be? She’s out there, and so are my dad’s men!

  “Yes. I’ll call Bane. He’s with them. I’ll call. I...” I want to say something, but don’t know what. “Stay safe.” Then I disconnect the call, my heart beating way too fast. No way. My phone nearly slips out of my hands, that’s how badly they’re shaking, before I manage to call Bane. Luckily, he picks up after a couple of rings. “Bane.”

  “Yeah?” He sounds surprised to hear me.

  How do I even tell him? “Rune called. He said that...” My voice gives out and I take a deep breath. “He said that there are fae soldiers in the town right now, coming towards the campus.”

  “How would he know?” But I don’t even have to answer him, because he curses loudly. “Of course. The cafe. Where are Litha and Kit? And Phoenix?”

  “Litha and Kit are with Rune. Phoenix is at our place.”

  “Where are you?” His voice takes on that edge that makes me follow whatever he’s saying. Rune may be big and scary, but Bane has this natural way that lets him command just about anyone.

  “Between the house and the gate, was looking for the others.”

  “Go back to the house. I’ll be right there. I’ll warn my parents.” I’m about to disconnect the call, when he speaks again. “Finn, I’m pretty sure I don’t have to tell you, but keep your weapons close.”

  “Always.” I disconnect the call and sprint to the house, where Phoenix is waiting for me in the doorway, her eyes alarmed when she sees me.

  “What’s going on?” She steps to the side, letting me in, which is good because the electricity has started to spark around me again, and she can’t be too close to me when that happens. I don’t want to hurt her.

  “Worse than we expected. Fae soldiers in the town, Rune just told me. We were too late.” I glance towards the rest of the campus and see the silent alarm go off, the magical lights flashing near each of the buildings, telling students to stay inside.

  “Rune saw...” She blinks. “How would he... Fuck.” Dark red clouds form around her hands. I’ve seen her use her normal and her light or healing side of her magic, but this is the darker side to her magic, the death part of resurrection. “Close the door.” She nods to it and walks into the dining room, which also has a view of the front of the building.

  I do as she says and follow her, at least here I can’t explode too many things, the lights here have already been swapped out.

  We watch as students quickly make their way to the nearest building. I want to do something, I need to do something, but I have no idea how close the soldiers even are.

  “I guess we now know how the prophecy was stolen. They shouldn’t be able to come into the town without anyone knowing.” Phoenix stares towards the gate, which is just out of view of the window. “If they got that far without anyone noticing...” She looks at me, her eyes dark.

  Yeah, that’s a really bad sign. A really really bad sign.

  A door at the back of the house bangs and we both jump. I’ve got my knives in my hands in moments and Phoenix’ darkness around her hands is even deeper.

  Then Bane appears in the doorway to the kitchen, staring at us, his eyes filled with fury, his hands partially transformed into claws, like he can’t control his transformation. Which is a bad sign, a really bad sign. “If Rune can see them from the cafe, they’re minutes from the gate. How did nobody notice?”

  “Magic.” Phoenix simply states, her voice low. “Lots of it.”

  He nods, his eyes darting around the room, before he lets out a deep breath. “Of course, of all nights. Those two assholes have to take her off campus tonight.”

  “If they hadn’t... We wouldn’t have known about the soldiers. Rune was the one who told us.” I’m not sure why I’m defending them, because I had the exact same thought earlier.

  He frowns as he looks at me, blinking. “Why did you call me before? You just said you wanted to check on me? Why was that?”

  Phoenix answers i
nstead. “We saw danger in our ritual circle so we knew something was up. We just wanted to make sure everyone was safely on campus. We didn’t expect it to be this big. When we finally got a hold of Rune, he was the one who told us about the soldiers.” Phoenix pulls her magic back inside her. “We can’t stay here, wait around and do nothing. I can’t sit still right now, not when I know they’re out there.”

  “I know. Which is why I’ve got this.” He throws an insignia-like thing on the table. “Snatched it on my way out the door. There is a side gate we can use to get out, it opens with this key. It’s an old gate, and barely anyone knows about it.”

  “How do you...” Phoenix frowns, raising an eyebrow at him.

  “He reads old books in the library like they’re the newest craze.” I shrug. It’s what Bane does, knowing things like this. Without him, we wouldn’t have found even a tenth of all the routes out of our previous campus.

  “Almost.” Bane smirks. “This came from a book I stole from the tower the day Kit and I found out about the prophecy room.” He winks. “Good thing I snatched it too.”

  “What’s next?” I shake my head, not ready for his joking. “We sneak out of the gate, and then what? The soldiers are everywhere, they’re... not nice. They’ll kill us, me included, if they see us.”

  Bane turns serious again. “Yeah, that’s why we need Phoenix.” He throws a note to her and she unfolds it, revealing a complicated graph and some words on it. “Can you do it?”

  She nods, her jaw setting. “I’ll need a few moments to memorise it, but I think I can pull it off.”

  “On the way to the gate enough time?” Bane looks her over.

  Phoenix shrugs. “Only if I don’t have to look where I’m going.”

  “We can make that work.” Bane quickly strips, throwing me the clothes. “Don’t forget to take those, and the key. You both ride on my back, by the time we hit the gate, we should be ready to get to the others undisturbed.”

  “You’re insane.” I sigh, looking around and catching sight of my school bag. I throw everything out apart from some extra weapons, and a few vials of poison, and then stuff the clothes and the key in it.

  “Royalty doesn’t tend to come with sanity.” Bane smirks and we make our way to the back door.

  Next to me, Phoenix is looking everywhere but at Bane’s naked form, which almost makes me smile, if this hadn’t been so serious.

  Bane opens the back door and steps out, he gives us a terse nod and transforms into his full wolf form. The beast is huge, reaching my shoulder easily. Another reason why shifters are so scary. But this is our only hope.

  I help Phoenix onto his back and then climb on myself, sitting closely behind Phoenix so I can hold her in place, my bag on my back.

  As soon as I’m seated, Bane takes off, quickly making his way to the shadows around the wall, trying to at least hide us somewhat. As much as a big beast like him can be hidden...

  13

  I almost jump when Rune’s phone rings and he picks up, a tense look on his face. “Yes?” He listens and then nods. “Okay. We’ll wait for updates. Try not to get yourself killed.”

  In the time since he told Finn about the soldiers, Kit told the owners of the cafe what was going on and they locked up shop, keeping everyone inside.

  I have no idea what’s going on in the streets, since Kit and Rune have kept me away from the window after I had a quick glance earlier. They don’t want to tempt anything by having anyone of us visible. They said that because of the privacy magic from the succubi, the window should never show that anyone is looking through it, but it’s better not to take chances.

  “Was that concern or a warning to them?” Kit eyes Rune, worried.

  “Both.” Rune shrugs, but his movements are jerky, not as easy as he makes his voice sound.

  “Why?” I look between them.

  Rune sits next to me on the couch furthest away from the window. “When someone steals a dragon’s hoard, dragons become really protective. But when a person from their hoard, or a family member, is killed...” He looks at Kit, his eyes sad.

  With a sigh, Kit finishes the sentence. “Dragons go insane, quite literally. They’ll kill indiscriminately. Friend and foe alike.”

  My heart sinks and I take Rune’s hand. “Let’s make sure that doesn’t happen.” Let’s make sure nobody dies tonight.

  “Kinda hard.” Rune pulls a face. “Finn called. They’re on their way to some hidden gate in the wall, hoping to get around the soldiers, to us.”

  “No.” I jump up, grabbing for my own phone. “They can’t.”

  Kit easily takes the phone from my shaking fingers. “They’re already on their way. There is no stopping them now. Right?” He glances at Rune.

  Rune stares into nothing for a moment, tension obvious in his gaze. “I think they’re near the gate already, they stopped moving.”

  “Can we meet them somewhere instead? I don’t want to just wait around.” I can’t stay here. I can’t let them put themselves in danger.

  “No.” Rune shakes his head. “Maybe when they’re closer, but not yet.”

  Kit glances out the window. “There are still soldiers outside. We can’t leave.”

  “Why? Why can’t we?” I look at them both. How can they just sit here, waiting, not doing anything?

  Kit reaches out, carefully taking my hand. “All we can do is save our strength. I promise, we’re getting out of here as soon as we can, but it’s no use fighting our way out when it’s just going to get us killed before they’re even here.” Then he looks at Rune. “How far?”

  “They just went through the gate. Phoenix is using some spell, I don’t know what it is. It clouds them, makes it hard to trace them, even for me.” He frowns, standing up, his skin flickering a stony grey, his muscles bulging, as he shakes his head.

  “How long until they’re here?” I step closer to him, trying to look at his face, try to read what he’s thinking.

  “Ten minutes. Twenty minutes. I don’t know.” He goes to his bag, pulling out a blade and putting it on the bed, then he takes his shirt off, stuffing it into his bag. “We need to be ready to leave as soon as we can.”

  Kit nods, letting go of me. He also puts his shirt in his bag, and then looks around, grabbing a couple more items before his eyes fall on me. “If you need to flee right now, do you have everything that you need on you?”

  I nod, not sure what else I’d need or could use. I don’t have weapons in my bag, just the small one in my jeans pocket, and I also already have my phone on me.

  “Okay.” He grabs all three bags and hands them to Rune. “Hide them.”

  Rune takes them and holds them tightly, like they’re precious or something. “I’ll be right back.” Then he slips out the door, closing it behind him quickly.

  “What’s he going to do?” I stare at the door.

  Kit shrugs a little, his eyes still darting around the room and out the window. “Dragons are great at hiding things. So even if they search this room, they won’t be able to find our things. Precaution.”

  What? “And the shirts?”

  He flashes me something that’s almost a smile. “So we don’t ruin them when we have to transform. Buying new shirts all the time is not cheap.” Then he rushes to the window as there is commotion outside, and his eyes go dark as he looks out. “Oh, fuck.” A shadow seems to pass over him, something dark which sends shivers down my spine, something big, something powerful. But it doesn’t stop me from needing to know what’s going on.

  “What?” I go over to him, but he holds out his hand, stopping me.

  “We may not need the others to get us into trouble...” He glances at the door. “Come on, Rune. Hurry...” He rolls his shoulders, tension in him rising and I try to get closer to the window again.

  “What’s going on?” I push against him but he holds me off.

  “No. Not a good idea.” His eyes flash between the door and out of the window. “Come on. Come on. Rune...” His
whole body is filling with energy and the shadow turns into dark spirals. The swirls start to play under his skin, moving around. His fingers grow longer, his eyes go darker, the shape of his face changing a little. He’s starting to look dangerous, scary.

  Rune bursts through the door, alarm in his eyes too. “What’s going on?”

  “They got someone with them.” Kit pushes me aside as he lets Rune look out the window. Why is he allowed to watch, but I’m not? I try to get closer, but it’s no use, Kit is much stronger and his hands have started to look really dangerous.

  Rune stands still like a statue for a moment, then he moves, his shoulders bulging, changing, as he leans closer to the window. “Oh, fuck.” He glances back at me. “We’re out of here. Now.”

  I take a step to the door, definitely ready to leave, when Kit grabs my arm and holds me in place. Before I can ask him why, Rune’s form starts to change.

  In front of me, Rune quickly strips out of his jeans and other clothes and transforms into a gigantic dragon. Pale grey skin, claws that look like they can tear anything to shreds, a creature bigger than any animal I’ve ever seen, the size of a dinosaur, and wings that could each easily stretch from one side of my bedroom on campus to the other.

  “Get on him.” Kit is already moving me, getting me on the dragon’s back. And as soon as I climb onto Rune, he strips off his cloths and transforms too, his wings shooting out, darker than I’ve ever seen them before, his skin is now covered in the dark spirals everywhere, his hands turned into sharp claws, he’s got two black horns poking out from between his hair and his eyes are black with small red irises. Holy fucking hell. I get why people are scared of incubi when they’re like this.

  Then, with a loud crash, Rune breaks through the wall, not even paying attention to the rubble falling all around us, before he leaps out and shoots into the sky, over the surprised soldiers, away from here. Trying to get me to the others, to safety.

  It only takes the soldiers moments to realise what’s going on and for them to draw their weapons, shooting up at us. The bullets fly past, so close to me, and I think I hear some of them hit Rune, though Kit is more nimble in the air, more easily able to avoid them. Of course, they’re trying to shoot Rune down first, since he’s so much bigger.