Destiny Rising: Destiny Series: Book Two

by Cooke, CJ

  Professor Octavia stepped up and immediately had a fireball hovering above her left hand. “Will this suffice?” she asked.

  “Yes,” Madame Nines murmured, staring deep within the flames.

  The Headmaster stepped forwards, and we all drew our attention away from Madame Nines, who seemed to have dropped into some kind of trance. “Aria, what came through the last portal that opened?”

  “Just more of the same. About thirty or so,” she reported.

  “What caused them to withdraw? Was there any kind of signal given, or did you see anyone giving them orders?”

  “I honestly couldn’t tell you. It took everything in me to concentrate on the fight, and I had to let my magic overwhelm me just to survive.” She looked down at the ground for a brief moment. “I shouldn’t have let so many get past me,” she said quietly.

  “It wasn’t your fault, Aria. We left you to fight thirty demons alone. The fact you’re standing here talking to us now seems like a miracle,” the Headmaster said, laying a hand on her shoulder. Kyle growled softly off to the side of him, and the Headmaster chuckled. “Bit too soon?” he smiled over at Kyle withdrawing his hand.

  “I wasn’t joking about keeping moving though,” Aria said, looking around. “They’ll be closing in on you fast. I need to double back.”

  “I would suggest you don’t stray too far. We should stay close enough together that we can reach each other for aid if needs be. But I will leave you to discuss what needs to be done with your mates because I understand how difficult this must be for all of you so soon after beginning to form the mating bond.” Kyle nodded gratefully at him, and the Headmaster moved over to where Caleb and Professor Octavia stood talking, trying to get the surviving students back on their feet and ready to start moving again.

  Kyle and Aria locked eyes with each other. Most wolves would see this as a challenge in most scenarios, but I could see the unspoken conversation passing between them. They both knew that she would have to go, and neither of them wanted her to do it. True to her character though, we all knew Aria would do what needed to be done, and fight for everyone here to her last breath if needs be. Kyle sighed and pulled her into his arms, and then she moved to Liam before finally ending up in my arms.

  “I don’t think I can keep doing this,” I whispered to her. “I can’t watch you leave and not go with you.”

  Aria nuzzled her face into my neck. “I know,” she whispered to me, so no one else would hear. “How much do you have left in you?” she asked us all. “Honestly,” she clarified.

  “Not much,” Liam admitted.

  “You need to stay with the group here then. If a demon makes it past me, there aren’t many of you that would be able to take it out and those of you that can are already on the edge of exhaustion. I can’t lose anyone else,” she ended in a quiet voice, her eyes finally straying to where Trent and his friends stood vigil over Britt’s body, which had been laid beneath one of the nearby trees. “I won’t go too far, but I want a good half an hour between you and them. Same rule as last time. If I get overwhelmed, I’ll fly straight back here, I promise.”

  I held Aria out at arm's length and ran my eyes over her, checking for any wounds. She had some small cuts and slash marks on her arms where she wasn’t covered, but apart from that, she looked fine, if not tired. I already knew there was no scent of blood on her, but I needed to see with my eyes to make sure. She’d just taken on thirty demons alone, how the hell she was even here talking to us, I had no idea.

  I reluctantly let my hands fall from her shoulders, and it was possibly the hardest thing I’d ever done in my life.

  While I’d been checking her over, Madame Nines had roused from her trance, and now the teachers were back to huddling together and whispering plans.

  The Headmaster turned and addressed the group. “I know you are all tired, but we still have a long way to go. If we keep up at the rate we are going, we can reach the pack in four hours. Madame Nines has contacted the pack’s seer, and reinforcements are on the way. They should be able to meet up with us halfway at the two-hour mark. Even when they do, we can’t stop until we reach the safety of the pack. I need you all to push through with everything you have,” he solemnly said as he looked around the group. I could see what he was thinking, just as much as everyone else around us could. He didn’t believe we were going to make it.

  “I think everyone here is ignoring the obvious solution,” Della piped up. Here we fucking go. “If Aria just goes back and kills the last eight demons, the rest of us can stop running for our lives,” she huffed. It was almost like she was insulted she was being made to run for her life.

  I saw Kyle draw another deep breath, preparing to lay into her again, but Caleb beat him to it. “Perhaps you should stop expecting everyone to risk their lives to try and save your pathetic existence,” he roared. I’d never seen him lose his temper before. “You should be on your knees, thanking her for what she’s done. Now mind your tongue before we decide to just leave you out here by yourself.”

  Caleb’s fists were clenched at his sides, and he was visibly struggling to rein in his wolf. The Headmaster placed a hand on Caleb’s shoulder and pulled him back gently before wrapping a hand around the back of his neck and whispering something to him to calm him down. Della just stood with her arms crossed, pouting and thankfully everyone ignored her. No one else seemed to dare speak.

  “Elites,” Kyle addressed. “Same positions as before. We’re moving out.”

  Everyone clambered to their feet, and the injured were hoisted up. Trent and his friends gently picked Britt’s body up from the ground, and she was laid over Trent’s shoulder who was going to carry her for the next hour. I hoped the four of them would be joining us in the Elite group, if it even survived past this.

  “Okay, Aria, like you said. No more than half an hour out. Keep to the air until you engage them if you can. And I want you to check in with us in another two hours when we should hopefully be meeting up with some of the pack. Same rule as last time, if you’re not back by then, we’re doubling back for you,” Kyle told her seriously.

  Aria looked around the three of us before nodding. “I’ll see you in a bit,” she said with a sad smile and then with a flap of her wings she took to the sky, and we all just stood there and watched her leave.

  I felt my heart leave with her, and it was like my chest collapsed in on itself. I meant it before; I couldn’t keep doing this. No more words were spoken as everyone started to move forward once more.

  Chapter 2

  Caleb

  I took the lead of the pack of survivors, running for our lives through the forest, to hopefully meet up with the pack. We’d been moving for about fifteen minutes now. I knew I was setting a hard pace, but what choice did we have? I couldn’t believe I’d just lost it like that! I shouted at a student. Yes, that student was Della, but still. This has got to be the most unprofessional I’d ever been in my life. Saying that, there was no way that I was apologising to that bitch! I couldn’t believe the balls on her. If it weren’t for Aria, we’d all be dead by now. We’d lost so many. I should have trained them harder. We should have told them earlier what was coming. This was all our fault.

  The forest wasn’t too dense on the trail we were taking. We had enough cover if we needed it, but we could also see what was coming for us. Aria had left us fifteen minutes ago to go back and cover our backs. We still had eight demons left on our trail. I wish I could have gone with her. Maybe I could have redeemed myself in some small way if I had. I didn’t know how I would face Marcus, the Prime Alpha and Kyle’s father, when we got to the packhouse. We’d lost so many, so many shifters out of one generation. This could have devastating consequences for us as a species.

  “Stop doing that to yourself,” I heard Dominic pant out beside me, and I glared across at him. “We did what we could. No one is to blame for this.”

  “We should have done better,” I gritted out.

  “We all could h
ave done better. We were the only ones preparing for this,” he said.

  Dominic was beginning to look like I felt. I didn’t know if we had it in us to get to the packhouse, never mind if the students or the injured could make it. Octavia had said if we could rest for longer, she and Pax should be able to open up a portal to get us there. The problem was we didn’t know how long we could last if we stayed in one spot.

  It had been decided between us that we would rest when the reinforcements reached us. Then we could attempt to open the portal. We hadn’t mentioned it to the students, because we didn’t want to get their hopes up if it wasn’t possible. I hated to, in any way, think Della had been right, but maybe the only chance we had of surviving this was if Aria could take out the last eight demons.

  I’d managed to take out three when we were fighting at the Academy. Eight was just impossible. I didn’t know how Aria was still moving, let alone covering us and still fighting for our lives. And us, well, we were just running for our lives, while she continued to put hers at risk.

  I glanced over my shoulder at the students and the other teachers who were following. Dominic was running nearly at my side, but he was starting to fall behind. We had ten students carrying the injured between them. Trent had Britt’s body over his shoulder. The Elites were still forming a loose perimeter around the others. They were starting to look like exhaustion was hitting them too, and they’d been through more conditioning training than the rest of us. Thanks to Aria. Again. I felt less than useless right now. The endless trudge of running through this forest wasn’t helping.

  We reached the hour mark after what felt like an age, and as we drew to a halt under cover of some trees, everyone collapsed to the ground. Trent and his friends moved a short distance away and laid Britt’s body down carefully on the grass before, returning to the group and collapsing themselves.

  There were no natural water sources in this part of the forest, and we had no supplies. Resting was the only thing we could offer them right now.

  I moved away from the group and slumped down with my back against a tree, Dominic came over to join me, and after a few moments, Aria’s mates came to our side as well.

  “They don’t have any more left in them,” Kyle said, grimly looking at the group of students across from us. “They can’t go any further.”

  Dominic’s brows furrowed as he regarded what was left of his students. “The only other option we have is to wait for the reinforcements. They’ll be bringing supplies with them, but they have to be at least an hour away from us at this point. Even if we could find a defensive position to hold, there’s no saying we have enough left in us to hold it or that the pack reinforcements would be able to fight their way through to us. You saw what happened at the school. The demons will just cut them down as they come.”

  I huffed a laugh, “Aria was right, we can’t rely on the shift, and we should have been training them all with weapons. It’s the only thing that made any difference in the fight before. I was so dismissive of her when she said it.”

  I could feel the lump forming in my throat and the need for tears to well in my eyes. If I hadn’t been so dehydrated, I think I actually might have cried. I was definitely throwing myself a pity party right now.

  “While I do love to hear someone admit that I’m right, now just doesn’t seem to be the time to gloat about it,” Aria said as she flew down to us.

  I didn’t miss the way she stumbled as she landed. It was no wonder the exhaustion was starting to hit her as well. Her mates immediately surrounded her, and we kept quiet while they checked her over.

  Aria had become an unexpected friend over the last few weeks. Watching her with her mates was kind of a bittersweet experience. It was nice to see them all so happy, but I couldn’t help the tiny amount of jealousy that reared up when I did. Not that I wished Aria had been my mate as well, I could admit she was beautiful, but she would only ever be a friend for me. I just hoped I could have that one day with someone. It was unlikely I ever would though. I hadn’t even been able to form a natural pack, and the chance of finding a fated mate in our world was almost impossible.

  “Aria,” Dominic said, interrupting them. “Did you see any sign of the remaining demons?”

  “Yes, I took two out, three have headed off in a different direction, I’m not sure, but they seem to be heading for something else. I haven’t spotted any sign of the other three. They’re either still pursuing us, or they’ve done the same as the other group and are heading for a different target.”

  Aria slumped to the ground, trying to arrange her wings in some way to allow her to do so. They were truly stunning, and once we were out of this mess, assuming we even survived, I couldn’t wait to see how she trained with them. Her mates dropped to the ground around her, we should probably have someone keeping watch, but no one had it left in them.

  “That’s troubling, which way did the first group go,” Dominic said furrowing his brow again.

  “Once they were about ten minutes out from the Academy, they turned and started heading North,” she said, leaning into Kyle’s arm. Her head dropped to his shoulder, and she closed her eyes. We’d expected so much out of her. It was hard to remember she was still so young.

  “North?” I questioned. I couldn’t think of anything significant off in that direction.

  “So, the situation is that we have three potential demons searching for us, we’re all exhausted, and we are still about three hours out from the pack,” I laid it out. We needed a solution, and we needed it now.

  Dominic surveyed the group, I had no idea how he was staying so calm, but it was the only thing keeping us all together at this point. “Kyle’s right, they aren’t going to be able to go any further. We need a defensive position we can hold down until reinforcements reach us.”

  “There’s a cave system about a quarter of a mile further on,” Sykes said. “It’s in the same direction as the pack. We’re almost there. It’s a closed system so they wouldn’t be able to come at us from the rear.”

  “Good. That’s the plan then. Sykes, you lead us to the cave system, Aria you’re staying with us this time, we can’t risk losing you. We can cover the mouth of the cave in shifts until aid reaches us,” Dominic nodded resolutely.

  “Is there a water source around the caves?” I asked.

  Sykes furrowed his brow whilst he thought. “No, I don’t think so,” he sighed.

  Dominic heaved himself off the ground and walked over to where the other students and teachers were resting to explain the plan to them. I could tell when he got to the part about us all heading to the cave to hole up, from the various sighs of relief that sounded off from around him.

  “How are you holding up?” I heard Aria ask and when I turned towards her, I realised she was asking me.

  “I should be asking you that, you’re the one that has yet to stop. We owe you our lives Aria,” I said, looking her in the eye. I hoped she would be able to see the sincerity in my own eyes.

  “No one owes anyone anything,” she said, looking over to where Britt’s body lay.

  If it wasn’t for the blood on her clothes, it almost seemed like she had just laid down to sleep.

  Aria climbed unsteadily to her feet. “Come on. It must only be five minutes out. We can do this,” she said.

  Sykes and her other mates climbed to their feet around her, and I struggled to my own. She held so much strength within her. Just looking at her was enough to make you rally what little you had left. She was clearly exhausted, as were we all, but she still held herself tall with confidence. The white wings shining at her back, stained with demon blood, only made her look even fiercer. I think we’d all follow her to our end if she asked us to. Perhaps we already were.

  Chapter 3

  Aria

  Sykes held my hand as he led us all to the cave system he’d mentioned. He’d changed so much since yesterday. Gone was my fun-loving, jokester of a mate. I didn’t think I’d ever seen him so serious before. I
was proud of him, and all of my mates, for how well they were handling this. They were keeping it all together for me, and everyone else, and they were showing themselves to be true leaders.

  When we finally reached the cave system, everyone stumbled inside and immediately sank to the floor. It was my mates who stood by the entrance and volunteered to take the first watch. I tried to stay with them, but they’d been very insistent that I should rest. I didn’t think I could have stayed on my feet for much longer if I was honest. Now that the initial fight and retreat seemed to be over, I could feel my magic slowly starting to withdraw. It was the only thing keeping me going, and now I was going to crash. And I could feel that I was going to crash hard.

  I stumbled into the cave and found the rest of my Elites slumped against the wall. Mae and Aeryn were softly crying in each other’s arms. They were the closest of us all to Britt. Nix and Harmony were gently trying to comfort them and hold back their own tears. Echo was glaring across the cave at Della, who was trying to rally some form of attention for herself. I put my hand on her shoulder and waited until she turned her head to meet my eyes.

  “You’ve all made me so proud,” I said to them all. “We lost one of our own today, and when we reach the pack, we’ll take time to mourn our loss. But now, we stick together. Rest and gather some strength. It’s not over yet,” I sighed.

  They all nodded in agreement, and then we fell into silence as we rested.

  “I’ll take the next watch with you.” Echo said.

  “Thank you. Close your eyes and try and get some sleep. I’ll wake you in half an hour when it’s our turn,” I told her.

  She nodded in agreement, before leaning against the cave wall and closing her eyes. I think she fell asleep before she’d even closed them.