Destiny Awakened

by C. J. Cooke

  “If she had hit you with her magic, I would have ripped her arms off.” He growled into my neck holding me tight against him.

  “And we would have held her down for you to do it.” Liam said stepping up behind me and rubbing his cheek over the top of my head.

  “Well that was definitely impressive” the headmaster said from somewhere behind us. Several staff members had started seeing to the other group of fighters and most of them were starting to struggle to sit up, either having injuries attended to, or drinking some water and looking sorry for themselves. Caleb and the headmaster had walked over to join our group. “I will see that Della is dealt with appropriately. Once she wakes up that is.” He said raising an eyebrow at me. I just smiled at him. These were my fighters and I would stand up for them. In a louder voice he addressed the rest of the school. “Well, it seems that the Elite training program is a definite success.” He smiled over at me. “Aria, would you be willing to extend the program to any other students?” he asked.

  I looked around at the rest of my group who were already strapping their weapons back on and were proudly standing tall. “Trent from the second year is taking the Elite’s up to ten, I can take seven more after him.” I said looking into the stand of spectating students. There was definitely a lot of puffed up chests and overinflated egos on display and I couldn’t help but roll my eyes at them. I met Trent’s eyes and gave him a nod and he grinned back at me as his friends patted him on the back and congratulated him. I scanned the crowd and met the eyes of any female student that looked remotely interested. “If you want to try out for a place you can met us on the front steps 5am on Monday morning.” I heard a few remarks about the time and added “If your delicate arses can’t get out of bed at that time then you’re not what I’m looking for.” And I immediately turned my backs on them and gave my attention back to my mates and those stood with us.

  “Why seventeen?” the headmaster asked.

  “Including myself that gives us three squads of six.” I replied with a shrug.

  “You will have to break up your original nine.” He pointed out.

  “Yep” I said before turning my attention to Caleb who had remained silent at the headmaster’s side. “You want to help me draw up a training plan?” I asked him.

  “Sure, maybe you could look over the training with me for the others as well.” He said with a smile and I released a breath in relief. He had known that we were going to win and we had spoken about it before but I didn’t want him to feel bad once we beat his group in front of the whole school.

  “Would you like to join us for a drink Caleb?” Kyle asked him, just as the back wall of the gym exploded inwards and all hell broke loose.

  Chapter Thirty

  The stone of the outside wall exploded across the gym, some tumbled across the gym and others hit the students sitting nearby. The explosion had knocked several people including me off their feet. I managed to get my knees up underneath me as I stumbled up off the ground. I shook my head to try and clear my ringing ears. Several students were lying bleeding on the ground nearby. I looked around and saw my guys already getting to their feet nearby. The rest of the Elites were fine as well and starting to sit up. As everyone tried to gather themselves back up several members of staff were assisting the students who were hurt and still unconscious on the ground. The headmaster was checking on the students by the bleachers who seemed to be in shock. No one was paying attention to the gaping hole in the wall. No one was paying attention as the first demon took a step inside. I quickly called three daggers and sent them in quick succession at the demon’s neck. It didn’t quite sever the head but it lolled over to one side before the demon collapsed to ground gurgling on its own blood. I was fairly certain it wouldn’t be getting up again. That was when the first scream came “Demons!” and then chaos ensued as all of the students and staff tried to run for their lives. Those that were still on the ground were being trampled by their panicking classmates. Lives were going to be lost and worst of all everyone’s first instinct seemed to be to run away as demons started to lumber through the hole in the wall. They were similar looking to the ones which had been in the simulation from my first day. They stood on two legs and had to be about seven feet tall. They looked similar to a gorilla stood upright but had a ring of horns around their head and what looked the thick tusks hanging from the corners of their mouths. Long strings of drool ran from their mouths as they roared their rage into the room. One of the demons grabbed a student who was still lying on the floor by the hole. He already seemed to be dead but that didn’t stop the demon from tearing off an arm and biting into his neck.

  “Elites with me!” I shouted pulling my short swords into existence in my hands as I sprinted towards the demons. “Engage them in the breach, we need to stop them from entering the school.” All of the Elites drew their own weapons and we charged the breach and the demons tearing into our classmates. Several of the staff members seemed to rouse from their panic and charged to join us.

  “Third year students to the weapon store” Caleb shouted trying to gather a fighting force from the other students. Most continued to just run screaming from the gym but some did stop and ran back to the rear corner where the weapons store was located. Trent and his friends were the first ones there.

  “Elites engage in three’s, do not take on a demon alone.” I shouted as I plunged one of my short swords into the thigh of a demon, swiping it to the side and took out what I hoped to be its femoral artery. It roared as it fell to the ground and I pierced it through the neck with my second sword quickly removing its head. To my left I could see the guys engaging another demon but I only had eyes on three of the girls who were tackling another demon just beyond. Britt, Mae and Aeryn were circling the demon and randomly ducking in to swipe at it. It didn’t take them long to wear it down and it fell to the ground while Britt pounced and removed its head with one swipe of her katana. The guys were a bit more efficient, making each blow count. They had removed an arm and a leg before beheading the demon they were fighting. But as fast as we were taking them down more were appearing. Trent and his friends had stormed into the battle and were taking on a demon on their own. Thankfully they were working as a team as well. They clearly didn’t have as much training as my Elites but they were adopting the same tactic as the girls and trying to keep out of arms reach. Harmony, Echo and Nix joined them to fight at their backs. The teachers were fighting with magic and there were energy balls and fire flying everywhere. We weren’t winning though. The third years were trying to take on whatever came their way and were just getting cut down where they stood. I became a blur or blades and fists. I even relied on a good old headbutt at one point which had me seeing stars but had prevented the demon closest to me from taking a bite out of my neck. It was chaos. It wasn’t long before the majority of the fighting students were down, dead or dying. We had fought our way outside of the gym and were standing outside in the grounds. Several demons had escaped into the school and the screams had long since died out. Caleb had moved behind me and we were fighting back to back. It was efficient but even with that we were vastly outnumbered and I could see no way out.

  “We need to retreat,” the headmaster shouted across the grounds, which were now little more than a battlefield “the academy is lost.”

  Everyone who was left fighting just looked around as they continued to do what little they could to defend themselves. The thought that everyone was having was clear. Where was there left to retreat to? Caleb who was behind me muttered. “The pack lands, we should regroup with the pack.”

  Two more demons surged towards us and we quickly dispatched one each. My magic was practically singing a song of rage and death to me. It felt like my skin was buzzing. I had never in my life felt more alive, nor been surrounded by so much death. The Elites were still engaged with their own fights but I could see that they were starting to tire. We were all starting to tire and the demons were more than aware of it. They were starting to
attack in groups, they had grown familiar with our tactics. As the guys were engaged with two demons of their own, another surged towards Britt and the other girls. I watched in horror as it played out in almost slow motion. They were wearing down the first demon keeping out of its reach when a second blazed towards them. Britt turned to engage and swiped out with her katana slicing into the demon’s leg. She spun out of its reach as it swiped its claws trying to slash her face but by moving away, she had isolated herself from the group and there now stood two demons between her and the others. I took off at a run towards her, abandoning Caleb’s back without a second thought. It was a rash decision and I prayed that I wouldn’t regret it. There was no way that I could reach her in time and Britt turned and locked eyes with me the moment that she realised her mistake. She didn’t even move as those deadly claws came back for a second swipe and cut through her abdomen like it was tissue paper. Her head threw back in a scream, finally breaking eye contact with me as she started to fall to the ground. I hurdled the body of a dead demon and used the second one as a spring pad to launch myself at the back of the demon that had just torn through my first and only friend. It didn’t even see me coming. My sword cleanly pierced through the back of its neck at an angle and it fell to the ground dead beneath me. But it was too late, I was too late. I gathered Britt up in my arms and cradled her against my chest as a sob escaped me. There was so much blood. Her abdomen was torn wide. Britt coughed and groaned in my arms. “Stay with me Britt, please, just stay with me. Don’t go. I need you with Britt. Please don’t go.” I sobbed. I tried to press my hands to her stomach, to do something, anything. There was no way to stop the bleeding there was just so much. She was bleeding out so fast. I rocked her gently in my arms as I sobbed. I couldn’t lose her, not like this, not when I had finally made a friend, finally found someone who understood me. She was too good to die like this, on the ground, her own blood mixed with the filth.

  “I’m …… s-sorry Aria.” She mumbled. Blood stained her lips and trickled from the corner of her mouth. She didn’t cough or splutter. It was like her body barely had anything left. “St-stupid mistake.”

  “Don’t, don’t say that. Just hold on. Someone here can help us. You just need to hold on.” I begged. The battle raged around us but I didn’t care. I didn’t care in that moment what was happening. All I could see was my only friend dying in my arms while I begged her not to leave me like the selfish bitch that I was.

  “It’s okay,” she said trying to reach her hand up towards my face. I caught it as it began to fall back towards her and placed it gently against my cheek that was streaked with my tears and filthy with demon blood. “It’s time.” She whispered as her eyes grew vacant and her last breath gently blew out of her. And with that she was gone. Brave to her last breath. She didn’t cry, she didn’t scream, she just stopped and then she was gone. As I looked down at her unsure what to do, I couldn’t let go, I couldn’t leave her here alone, it was like all of my surroundings just returned at once. The screams and wails of the other injured students lying around us, the roars and grunts of the demons still fighting the few left standing. And that was when I felt it. I had thought that it had blazed before but my magic suddenly surged, surged with the outrage of our loss, surged with the anger and the need for vengeance and it was like nothing I had ever felt before. I thought that my skin would split from the sheer force of it. It burned hotter than I had ever felt and I revelled in the pain, revelled in the justice that was about to flow out of me and end in rivers of demon blood. Finally, when I felt like I couldn’t take it anymore I threw back my head and screamed.

  Chapter Thirty One

  Kyle

  We had seen Britt fall and Aria rush to her aid too late. It was like reality bitch slapped us and laughed in our face. We weren’t ready for this. It wasn’t that long ago that we were kids, fuck I think we still were kids. This shouldn’t be happening. Liam and Sykes saw the moment that she fell at the same time as I did. We did what we could to reach her but another demon stood in our path and we cut it down as quickly as we could, before it could realise that it only needed to turn around and it could easily rip our mate’s life from us as well. Mae and Aeryn had taken position to shield Aria from the front but her back was still open and vulnerable and we moved as fast as we could to offer her as much protection as we had left in us. It wasn’t lost on me that we had little left to give. The battle had been exhausting and whilst the number of demons was drastically less than it had been, the fight was definitely not over. Caleb had regrouped with the headmaster and a few other teachers and were hastily drawing up a plan to retreat.

  I had never seen Aria cry, I had never seen her look so lost as she did the moment that Britt breathed her last breath and passed over to the other side, while she begged her to stay. It broke my heart that I couldn’t stop this. Not just because I was losing my friend but because it was one more thing that I couldn’t protect my mate from.

  As Aria clung to Britt’s body, her body shaking with sobs the air started to shimmer around her. I had felt her magic growing over the last few weeks, we all had. But now the hairs on the back of my neck stood on end and not just from the keening noise that Aria was making. It was like a split second before a storm broke and the storm that came was the most magnificent thing that I had ever seen.

  A set of pure white wings exploded from Aria’s back, blood spraying as they seemed to tear free from inside her. Aria cradled Britt’s broken body in her arms. The air around her shimmering like a mirage and I recognised it as the shift taking place. The curious thing was that Aria didn’t shift into something else but as her magic reached a crescendo, she changed in other ways. Her hair was still the same beautiful auburn but it was braided down the sides away from her face, the plain fighting leathers that she had worn before changed into a tight-fitting leather suit with armour curling around her. It looked like it was black but as the light hit it, it reflected a deep red. The weapons which she had always seemed to just pull out of the air were now strapped to her body. Her twin short swords were sheathed between her wings, throwing knives were strapped to her thighs and a collection of throwing stars were housed in a belt riding low on her hips. She was the picture of a warrior, she looking ready to deal out death, she looked magnificent. And as the change came to an end, she threw back her head and screamed out her rage and her grief. It was like the entire world held its breath and every remaining demon turned towards her with something akin to terror in their eyes.

  ALSO BY CJ COOKE