by JA Wren
“But we’re not bonded yet!” she shrieked.
Matthis glanced away and headed back up to the path. “You’ll be fine. Just don’t squeeze his mane too tight.”
Rayna gaped at his bare minimum answer, but Asher touched her knee, igniting a fresh wave of tingles sparking along her nerves. “Hey, I’m right here, and I’d never let you fall, okay?”
Flames licked from his shoulders, just a hint of fire wafting off of him. She nodded, trusting him, but also finding herself trusting in Midnight. Maybe it was the early inklings of the bond kicking in, but as she wove her fingers into Midnight’s mane, not too tight, she knew she could depend on him in flight.
Sunshine butted her nose at Asher, and he laughed, turning to stroke her cheek. “Sorry, sweetheart, but I’ve got my own set of wings.”
Fire coiled from his back, slowly taking shape until they fanned out either side of him. Heat swirled off the flames and cast them all in an amber glow, a hint of sulfur teasing the air.
Rayna expected Midnight and Sunshine to freak out, but neither reacted with fear. More like tightly reined in excitement.
Asher glanced over his shoulder and winked at Rayna, delivering a devastating smile as he brought his fiery wings in close to his body. “Try to keep up, okay?”
With that, he crouched down low to the ground and pushed off with his feet, heading up high above them in a blink.
Oh, hell no.
Sunshine neighed and broke off into a gallop, picking up speed before she rose into the sky along with him, her gold mane and horn sparkling in the light.
“You’ve got to be kidding me.”
Her words weren’t even cold when Midnight followed, forcing Rayna to flatten herself to his body with an oof. She gritted her teeth and closed her eyes as the ground disappeared beneath them and her stomach seemed to drop, falling out of the sky the way she feared.
Relax, she told herself. She’d wanted to fly ever since she’d arrived at the academy. This was her chance.
Enjoy it.
Easier said than done when you were flying high enough to cause a nose bleed.
Her crystal pendant hummed against her sternum and Rayna risked opening her eyes to get a peek. It glowed deep red and Tink poked her head from inside the crystal. A second ticked by, and then she burst from the pendant and swooshed around them, leaving red trails in her wake.
Great, everyone was up for a flight race.
Everyone except Rayna.
But now her eyes were open and she could see the whole, amazingly beautiful forest below them. It was huge, spanning out farther than she’d thought, over the mountains in the distance and beyond. It morphed from luscious green to pink and purple, little hints of blue and red here and there. Like the changing leaves in the fall, only the wrong color.
She caught movement within the trees but they were too high up for her to make out the shapes.
In a fiery blaze, Asher flew down to hover beside her, his wings larger than ever and sending embers drifting down around him. She worried they might set the forest on fire, but they died too quickly to cause any harm.
Besides, he’d assured her he only burned what he wanted to burn.
“Having fun yet?” he yelled so she could hear him over the wind rushing past her ears, whistling like a train in the distance.
A nervous laugh escaped her. But she was having fun, despite the nerves hanging out in the pit of her stomach. They galloped around her belly with heavy hooves, but she didn’t want the flight to end either. It was too beautiful up in the clouds.
And suddenly she wanted to join the air race.
“Hey, Midnight,” she called. “How about we show him what you can do?”
Asher’s grin widened. “The race is on.”
“What—?” Rayna was cut off by her own scream as Asher took off and Midnight rushed to follow.
They sailed through the sky, meeting up with Sunshine and Tink as they rode waves and currents in the air like a ship at sea. Rayna forced her eyes open when they threatened to close, because as scary as it was, she didn’t want to waste this opportunity. No way to know if she’d have another one, and she refused to let herself miss out.
The sun was setting behind the pink-toned part of the forest when Midnight slowed, his wings flapping steadily to hold himself in one spot. Hovering in the air as his body went taut beneath her.
She leaned closer, plastering herself against his back. “What’s wrong, sweetie?”
Sunshine breezed past them so fast she was a blur, descending to the clearing where they’d taken flight earlier. Tink snapped back into Rayna’s pendant, knocking the wind out of her with the force of her dive into the thing.
“We need to go, Rayna.” Asher swooped in and lifted her off Midnight, clutching her under her arms as he pulled her against him. She yelped, but he shifted her around with sure hands until she could wrap herself around him. “Hold on tight.”
Yeah, he didn’t need to tell her twice. Changing flights in the middle of the damn sky was enough to clue her in that something was up.
The question was what the hell had them all so spooked?
Eighteen
When they emerged through the barn door back into the academy, high-pitched wails blared through the air. Rayna’s spine tingled, that eerie sense of dread flooding her veins and setting her on fire.
The bad kind.
“What’s going on, Ash?”
“I don’t know.” He grabbed her hand as his wings retreated into his shoulder blades, leaving nothing but singed holes in his shirt. “But last time this place was under attack, those alarms went off. I’m guessing this can’t be good.”
Shit.
Would Winterhounds soon swarm the academy like a hive of angry bees?
She still couldn’t get the image of Asher ripping through half a dozen of the beasts out of her head. The sight of one tearing into his shoulder and neck. Blood gushing from the wound. Asher falling to his knees practically where they stood right now.
Rayna shivered. Her breathing went ragged as she tightened her grip on his hand, determined to stay by his side this time.
She stumbled as they headed back up the stone path, scanning the trees in every direction with laser-sharp focus. “I didn’t hear sirens when Apollo was here,” she forced out through her mounting anxiety.
“You were outside the walls, in the gardens surrounding the academy. No alarm bells out there.” He paused, looking left and then right. “This way.”
The campus grounds were empty. Not a single student or faculty member to be seen anywhere. Had they all retreated at the sound of the siren? God, she hoped so. The alternative was way too terrifying to consider—that they were already too late and everyone was gone.
Dead.
She tried not to let the word bounce around her head, but it echoed in Erebos’ voice. Over and over. On fucking repeat like a glitch in her brain.
Darkness and death.
At least the sun was still mostly shining. Though of course that just made her think of Apollo and sent another wave of unease roiling through her. Goose bumps rose over her skin, her blood chilling at the thought of facing off with him again.
She edged closer into Asher’s side, absorbing his warmth.
Time. She needed more time before she came face to face with her murderer again. Time to hone her skills and gain control of her powers. Completely. Utterly. Halfway wasn’t gonna cut it. Not with the god coming after her.
Maybe that was why Nyx had kept her deadline so short.
They stuck to the shadows as they made their way to Alpha Dormitory, slowly and carefully just in case something lurked nearby. She really didn’t want to have to fight a Winterhound. Those icy wolves creeped her out with their glowing red eyes.
Her heart pumped in her chest, too fast, and her head grew fuzzy. She clutched her pendant with her free hand, relishing the familiar buzz Tink sent her.
Would Midnight bring her the same level of comfort onc
e they were officially bonded? She doubted the Pegasus would shrink to fit inside her pendant.
As they approached their dorm, Rayna gaped up at the empty dais where the golden statue of the female archer usually stood. “Ash.” She pointed towards it, unable to say the words.
He cursed under his breath and gripped her hand harder, tight enough to cut off her circulation. But who cared? His fingers heated to near scorching levels. “Come on, we need to get inside.”
They passed the giant black orb at the entrance, the star dancers still twirling inside the globe, but Rayna swore she caught a trace of terror in their sparkling faces. Hard to tell for sure, but their movements were jerky.
Forced to continue their dance even as the academy faced an unknown threat?
“Rayna!”
She jerked her head away from the orb to find Autumn running towards her, barreling into her arms. “Autumn, do you know what’s going on? Are we under another attack?”
The Nature Mage hugged her way too tight, cutting off Rayna’s oxygen supply, but she didn’t have the heart to complain.
“We don’t know yet,” Kally said as she stepped up to join them, emerging from the shadows. “There was definitely a breach in security, but right now that’s all we’re sure about.”
“A breach?” Asher fumed, the scent of smoke and sulfur tainting the air. “What do you mean a breach?”
“Calm down, hotness. I’ll explain everything, but let’s get somewhere safer first, huh?”
Rayna wanted to argue, demand answers, but it was hard to do with Autumn’s arms locked around her neck. They awkwardly made their way up the stairs, the Mage clinging to her like a life jacket the whole way.
Lady Gwenn let them through with zero fuss and didn’t even bat her carved wooden eyelashes at Asher for a change. First time for everything. Apparently, even she recognized now was not the time for flirting.
Nissa poked her head through the gap in her door as they passed, her eyes impossibly wide. “Can—can I hang out with you guys? I swear I won’t go all exploding phoenix again but—I’m scared, and I don’t want to be alone right now.”
“Sure,” Rayna said, her tone clipped thanks to Autumn’s hold on her neck, but she tried for friendlier. “Of course you can.”
Asher unlocked his door and held it open for all of them to enter. “Okay, now spill, Kal.”
Rayna perched on the end of his bed, Autumn plastering herself against her side, while Nissa hovered close to Asher.
Kally paced a line between the door and window, glancing outside with every twist of her heel. “Earlier this afternoon, I bumped into Autumn, and she mentioned Delilah had gone missing. I had Hale make an announcement for her and Ethan to report to her office.” Unease poured off of her. “But neither of them showed.”
Autumn let out a squeak-sob combo and buried her face in Rayna’s hair. She stroked her back, trying to sooth the Mage even as she processed what was going on.
Where the hell was Delilah and Ethan?
Were they okay?
Alive?
Rayna swallowed against the tightness in her throat. She had to believe they were. Couldn’t bear the thought of something happening to her friends. “We need to find—”
Kally held up her hand. “In the meantime, there was a disturbance at the infirmary. I was just leaving the admin building when I heard all the Hippokampi going mental, making it look like every single patient was crashing at the same damn time. During the chaos—somehow—Professor Balthazar went missing, too.”
Rayna shook her head. “No. I saw him the other day. He was tied to his bed with Moon Thread. You all said—”
“Only a daughter of the night can remove the string,” Kally finished. “I know. We’re obtaining the whereabouts of every student on campus. Particularly those related to Nyx. Any female student who might possess the ability to remove it.”
“I was with Ash,” Rayna blurted. “In the Magical Creatures barn. You can ask Professor Matthis. Or—”
“Relax, Ray-Ray.” Kally stopped her pacing to give her a small smile. “You’re not a suspect. Checking the students is a formality. Right now, our main concern is the breach. I’m sorry about Balthazar, but he’s kind of low on the list for now. Student safety is priority number one.”
“How do you know there was a breach?” Asher asked. He stood beside Rayna, so close she could feel the heat rising off of him. Nissa fidgeted at his other side, just as close, like she wanted to crawl under his skin.
Rayna couldn’t blame her.
Kally sighed, then started pacing again. “We eventually found Delilah and Ethan next to Gorgon Fountain. The statues summoned us, but we were too late.”
Autumn whimpered and gripped Rayna harder. She knew how her friend felt. Tears gathered in her own eyes as sorrow threatened to consume her.
Not Delilah.
Please, not Delilah.
“They’re alive,” Kally rushed to add. “We were too late to catch whoever assaulted them, but they’re both alive. In the infirmary right now, but their memories are hazy. They know someone attacked them, but they can’t say who. The statues confirmed it, but they can’t tell us anything, of course, only nod or shake their freaking heads.”
Rayna sagged, relief washing over her. Delilah had been hurt but at least she was alive. She could heal. Whatever happened, she’d be okay.
“That’s when we sounded the alarm and engaged the golden statues.” Kally dragged a hand through her black hair. “Hale’s not taking any chances this time. We’re doing a full sweep of the academy, but we haven’t found a thing yet. Not even a trace someone was on campus. Like it was a fucking ghost.”
“Or someone with inside access,” Rayna murmured. “A student. Faculty member. Maybe even a groundskeeper?”
“We’re not ruling anything or anyone out.” Kally propped her hands on her hips. “We’re calling in the Seers to delve into Delilah and Ethan’s memories, and hopefully draw something out that they’re not remembering. It’ll take time, but it’s all we’ve got.”
Nineteen
“I’m ditching class and going to see Delilah,” Rayna told Asher the next morning. “Kally will understand and if she doesn’t—” She shrugged. “Too damn bad. They can give me detention or whatever the equivalent is in this place.”
She drew her necklace over her head and stuffed her feet into her ankle boots. Nervous energy had flooded her all night and she was exhausted after barely sleeping more than a couple hours, at best.
And when she did doze off, nightmares plagued her sleep.
The same as before. Her causing the end of the world. Only now, her friends lay lifeless at her feet, shrouded in darkness as fire blazed around them.
At least the star had been quiet for the first time. Maybe it sensed she was in no state to deal with her destiny.
Asher had stayed close all night, clutching her to his chest until she asked for space. Thankfully, he’d understood it wasn’t that she didn’t want him, just…she needed air with everything going on around them. With the nightmares tormenting the little sleep she’d been permitted.
He rose from where he sat on the edge of his bed, mostly dressed except for his shirt. He cupped her cheeks and kissed her, tempting her to fall back into bed with him. But she needed to see her friend with her own eyes, make sure Delilah was okay.
“I’m coming with you,” he growled against her lips. “Until we figure out what or who got onto campus and attacked Delilah and Ethan, I’m not letting you out of my sight.”
“You promise?”
His eyes smoldered with love and determination. An intoxicating combination. “Try to get rid of me.”
“Never,” she whispered. “We’re a team. We do this together.”
He leaned in for another kiss, his lips searing a path across her neck and down to her collarbone. With a nip to her shoulder, he pulled away and reached for his tee, covering up the beautiful expanse of his chest. Much to her disappointment.
>
But they had more important things to deal with.
In minutes, they were headed for the infirmary, passing the golden archer perched back on her dais as though she’d never left. She stood motionless, and Rayna wondered what she’d look like when she came to life. Probably fierce as fuck.
“Wait.” Rayna tugged at Asher’s hand as a thought struck, pulling him towards the academy entrance. “I want to talk to Dave.”
“Dave?”
She nodded. “The guy or statue or whatever at the Gorgon Fountain? I named him Dave.”
“Of course you did.” Asher shook his head, a smile teasing at the corner of his lips, but he let her lead him through the tunnel.
The torches mounted onto the stone walls sparked to life on their own, somehow sensing their arrival and lighting the way. Tink glowed inside Rayna’s pendant before easing from the crystal and adding to the glow, hovering close to Rayna’s shoulder.
“You realize he can’t talk back, right?”
“I know.” Rayna let go of Asher’s hand as they stepped deeper into the tunnel. “But he can answer yes or no questions.”
She just had to find the right ones to ask.
Gorgon Fountain was as stunning as Rayna remembered, with its collection of humanoid statues and sparkling water rushing over the marble. She tried not to dwell on the fact they’d all once been alive and regular old humans, but she hoped that fact might make Dave more willing to help her out.
Underneath all that marble was still a human mind, right? He might be trapped inside the stone, but he had to care or they wouldn’t stand guard at the academy entrance. That’s why he’d let Hale or whoever know about Delilah and Ethan being attacked.
She waved as they approached and plastered a friendly expression on her face. “Hey, Dave.”
The David sculpture look-a-like smiled, spreading his stone lips and dipping his head in greeting. The statues around him barely gave her a glance before returning to their immobile forms, acting as though they really were pure stone and nothing more.
