“Well, I can help with the murdering part… but not just yet. I’d hate to rush it. I’ve been looking forward to this for a long time.”
“Leave her alone,” Shaun said. “You’ve got what you want. You don’t need to hurt her.”
“Oh, but I do,” Brad said, without taking his eyes from me. “We have a score to settle. We’ve been here before, haven’t we, Jade?”
“Yeah. Remind me how that ended again?”
His face creased into a snarl, then he forced a cocky sneer back onto his lips.
“We’ll see how long that smart mouth lasts. But first, I’ve got an Alpha of Alphas to kill, and an academy to take over.”
“How did you even get in here?”
“I had a little help.”
“The Bittens in the med wing were a setup,” Shaun said, before a fist thudded into his stomach, and he broke off, wheezing. The Bitten drew his fist back again, but Brad waved him off.
“That’s right,” he gloated. “I knew you’d find some way to keep them alive, and out of the dungeons, so I planted a couple of my people amongst them. Then all I needed was a little help from a certain disillusioned daughter of a dead alpha to steal some keys, and show them where the anti-portal wards were.”
“Tara.”
Behind him, Dean snarled and lunged at Brad, but his captor yanked him back, hammering three more punches into his broken ribs. He hissed in pain and settled for staring daggers at the Bitten leader. He wasn’t the only one. What sort of psycho would use a grieving kid to carry out their dirty work? They must have been grooming her for months, ever since she’d first started going to The Wolf and Sheep. None of us had even seen it. Shit.
“Throw them in one of the other cells,” Brad said over his shoulder. “We’ve got work to do.”
He turned back to me and gave me his cocky smirk again.
“See you later, Jade.”
“Not if I see you first,” I muttered under my breath as he sauntered from the room. They pulled the door shut, leaving me alone once again.
I waited until the sound of their footsteps and the students’ protests had faded away before I started pacing the cell, examining every inch of it. Waiting for the alpha pack to pass judgement on me was one thing. Waiting for that smug prick Brad to torture me to death was another entirely. I was going to find a way out of here, just to spite him.
…Which was great, except this cell had been built to contain the baddest shifters who passed through this academy, and none of them had managed to bust out. I didn’t much like my chances.
I rattled the door, not in the least surprised when it didn’t budge. Backing up two steps, I lowered my shoulder, and charged at it.
The force of the impact jarred up my arm and threw me to the floor in a heap. I groaned and rolled over, looking up at the door. Not even a smudge. The damned things were probably spelled. I wasn’t getting out of here using brute force – I would break before the cell did.
But I couldn’t just wait for Brad to take over the academy – and probably kill half of the people here. Not to mention me, and everyone I cared about. I went back to pacing, looking for a weakness I knew I wasn’t going to find.
I paused mid-stride. Weakness. Tara’s grief had been her weakness. Brad had exploited it. He’d used her to destroy the wards that stopped people shifting in and out of the academy itself. And if the wards were down… that meant I could open a portal from inside anywhere in the academy. Including this cell.
I stretched a hand out in front of me.
“Eachlais!”
Nothing happened. No flicker of energy, no sharp tang of magic in the air. Dammit. Why the hell was I the one person in this academy who couldn’t master a simple portal? Brendon thought it was because of the druid magic tainting my shifter powers. But most of the shifters’ hatred of hybrids was political, not practical. Kelsey had both druid and shifter magic, and she could portal. So could Underwood.
I took a steadying breath, and focused my energy, tapping into the primal magic deep inside me, both druid and shifter. Two sources of magic meant I was stronger, not weaker. And the only thing holding me back was me.
I raised my hand again, staring at a spot just before the bars. I didn’t need to go far – the other side of the bars would do it. I hadn’t heard anyone locking the door when they left. I focused on my spot, calling the image to mind of the space beyond and picturing it inside the small circle of energy, and pouring all of my magic and all of my desperate desire to be there, not here, not about to be tortured to death, into it. I sucked a breath deep into my lungs.
“Eachlais!”
Magic tingled in my fingertips for a split second, then exploded out of them in a rush. I staggered back, staring at them, and then at the oval of distorted air floating beside the cell bars. On the wrong side.
“Fuck’s sake.”
I took a deep breath and focused again, gathering my scattered energy back into my hands.
It took three more attempts to conjure the portal in the right place. I cocked my head to one side. It was a little small, but if I ducked, and kept my hands close to my body, I could probably get through. I’d take it.
I hurried through it before it could decide to close on me – even portals cast by experienced shifters could be unstable – and breathed a sigh of relief as I stepped out the other side. Relief that was short-lived. I was out of my cell, but that was just the start. There was an army of Bittens running around Fur ‘n’ Fang, and I didn’t think they were going to leave just because I said please.
I hurried to the door and pressed an ear to it. I could make out the hushed discussion of the other prisoners, but nothing else. Not even a heartbeat or a breath from the other side of the corridor. I was as sure as I could be that we were alone down here. I guess Brad didn’t want to waste any of his soldiers guarding people who were locked in shifter-proof cells. Just as well he was too full of himself to see the obvious flaw in his plan.
I inched the door open – unlike Brad, I wasn’t so full of myself I believed I couldn’t make a mistake – and shoved my head out of the door and glanced up and down the hallway. Empty.
There was no time to waste. I hurried along the corridor to the next room, grabbed the handle, and twisted. It moved under my touch, and the prisoners inside fell silent for a moment, then all started speaking at once.
“Jade!”
“How did you–”
“Are you okay–”
“Where are–”
I held up my hands and hushed them. They shut up, and I hurried over to the bars. Shaun stepped up to them and shot a glance at the door. At least one person round here had the sense to be wary of Brad.
“How did you get out?” he asked, his voice a low rumble.
“I portalled.”
He looked confused, then a smile spread over his face as he realised. He nodded his head in approval.
“Good thinking. Step back.”
I took a hasty step aside. I wasn’t strictly sure what would happen if someone landed a portal on me, and I was in no hurry to find out. Shaun turned his back on me – his hands were still bound behind him – then twisted round to look back over his shoulder. He fixed his eyes on a spot somewhere inside the bars and aimed his bound hands roughly in the same direction.
“Wait,” I said. “Hold your hands through the bars.”
Not that I didn’t trust him not to mess up the portal and send half the students into a hole in the ground, but, well, I didn’t.
He pushed his hands through the bars, and I directed a tiny fireball over them. I squinted, holding my focus as tight as I could – I’d never sent a fireball that close to someone before. At least, not someone I wasn’t trying to turn to ash.
The flames licked at the rope and the scent of burning filled the air. Shaun strained against the bindings, testing his strength against them as the flame seared through and weakened them, and in seconds they fell to the floor. He rubbed at the red skin around hi
s wrists, and my eyes picked out the damaged flesh. I was pretty sure it wasn’t the ropes that had done that. A flush of guilt coloured my cheeks.
“Sorry.”
“Don’t be. Let’s get everyone out of here.”
He held his hand out again, and his voice was calm and steady. “Eachlais.”
At his command, the portal sprung into existence. I couldn’t help but notice his was bigger than mine, and on the right side of the bars. Show off. He ushered the students through first, starting with Dean, who winced with every movement. The Bitten had done a right number on his ribs. I pulled and tugged at his bindings as gently as I could.
“What are you doing?” he said through gritted teeth. “Burn them off.”
“No. I’ll burn you, too.”
“Jade.” He gave me a look of exasperation. “I’ve got at least three broken ribs. Do you think I’m worried about some minor burns? They’ll heal before we get out of here, and we don’t have time to mess around. And if you don’t, I’m not going to let you copy my Cultural Studies assignment.”
“Please.” I rolled my eyes and held my hands over his ropes. He was right. “You’re the only one in the class with worse grades than me.”
The flames burned through the ropes, but this time I managed to keep them from touching skin. He pulled the blackened rope away and moved to watch the door while I set to work on the next student.
It didn’t take long to unbind the others, and each time it was easier to control the fire. My magic assessment was going to be a cakewalk. Assuming Brad didn’t kill me first, of course.
Dean tore his eyes from the hallway long enough to send a look in my direction.
“What now?”
Chapter Twenty-Five
It was a good question. I just wasn’t sure why everyone expected me to have an answer. And, as I looked round the gathered shifters, I saw that was exactly what they expected. I weighed our options, limited as they were. Dean was injured, and he wasn’t going to be a whole hell of a lot of use in a fight, that much was clear. The others had a few scrapes and bruises – none of them had been taken quietly – but nothing that would slow them down.
I nodded as a plan started to take shape in my mind.
“Alright. We need to get all the students who can’t or won’t fight out of here. They’re just going to be easy prey for Brad’s men. Dean, you’re good at portals. You take charge of that, with Kelly, Aaron, and Kai.”
I nodded to the other three students.
Dean shook his head. “My sister–”
“Doesn’t need your help as much as the others right now,” I cut him off. For a moment I thought he was going to argue, then he dipped his chin.
“Fine.”
“Good. Stay together. You’re all tough, I know that. But stay out of sight. I mean it.” I glared at the four of them, silencing their protests. “If you get hurt, who’s going to get the rest of the students out?”
Dean fired off a mock salute, then winced in pain and pressed a hand to his ribs. I smothered a smug smile and turned to Shaun.
“You’re an instructor. I can’t tell you what to do. But someone needs to get those wards back up. The longer they’re down, the more people they can portal in here.”
“And you?” he asked.
I bared my teeth in a grin. “I’ve got a score to settle with Brad.”
“Forget Brad.” I opened my mouth to object, but he carried on. “I can reset the wards if they’re not broken, but I need someone to watch my back.”
Dammit. He was right. He’d be completely vulnerable while he was working the complex spells. Asking him to go alone was sending him on a suicide mission. And of those of us here, I was the best fighter.
“Okay. Let’s do it.”
“Wait.” Kai’s face was scrunched up in concern. “When the wards go up, we won’t be able to portal anyone out.”
“I can create a dead spot,” Shaun said, giving me a questioning glance. Why the hell was everyone looking to me? Didn’t they know how badly my plans usually worked out?
“The shifting labs,” I said after a second. “Brad’s men have no reason to go there.”
And, I didn’t add, if the dead spot didn’t work, at least they could lock themselves in the cages there and buy themselves some time.
Dean nodded, but there was a shadow behind his eyes. He was on the same page as me.
“Kelly and Kai,” he said. “Sweep the academy. Send anyone you find to the labs. Me and Aaron will hole up in there and portal anyone who shows to my old pack territory. No-one will think to look for them there.”
“Good,” I said. “Let’s get moving.”
I let the other four go ahead of us, then turned to Shaun.
“Where do we need to go first?”
“The first one’s right here in the dungeon.” He took in my frown, and asked, “Did you never wonder about the tingle you get every time you cross the threshold? That’s the proximity of the ward.”
“Uh… Yeah. I totally knew that.”
He hid a smile and led the way out into the corridor.
“Wait,” I said, as we reached the door. “Aren’t they going to realise it’s up as soon as they come in here?”
Shaun hesitated, weighing my words, then shook his head.
“Brad and the other two, maybe. But none of the others have been down here with it active. We should be okay.”
He ran his hands over the door frame, and I cocked my head, watching him. I’d seen one of the wards before, when Dean had dug it up last year and destroyed it. After that, Blake had set several all over the castle. I didn’t know how many there were, and where they were hidden, but Shaun seemed pretty confident. Blake confided in him.
He hissed and drew his hand back, and I caught the faint scent of burned flesh. The wards were made of silver, and silver and shifters really didn’t mix. The burn wouldn’t heal without treatment, but so long as the silver didn’t get into his bloodstream, it would just be painful, as opposed to dangerous.
“It’s there,” he said, as though I hadn’t smelled the damage it did to his fingertips. “And it’s intact.”
Which was good, because the silver discs were engraved with ornate runes, and if it had been shattered instead of just disrupted, we’d have been in trouble. Reactivating wards was quite straightforward – if you were an instructor with half a lifetime’s experience. Creating new ones was a different matter entirely.
I guess whoever Brad sent to disable the wards hadn’t fancied handling them. Lucky us.
“Watch the door,” Shaun said. I nodded and cocked one ear to the door. If anyone came this way, I should have plenty of warning. Behind me, Shaun settled on the floor, cross-legged, and his breathing slowed as he took himself into a trance. I watched him with one eye. I’d seen Underwood do this before, but he was a hybrid, and I’d assumed he was using druid magic, like I did. But Shaun had no druid blood in him. The primal magic, the kind he was using to reactivate the ward, must be the same inside us all. Which made the prejudice against people like Underwood and Kelsey – and me – all the more ridiculous.
I thrust the thought aside. I couldn’t afford to get distracted right now. Shaun was completely focused on his task, and if someone came across us, he wouldn’t be able to help. Our only hope was me seizing the element of surprise, and I’d need every second of it.
Shaun started muttering under his breath, eyes wide and unfocused, staring at the place the ward was stashed. I eased the door open a crack so I could hear more clearly and scented the air that drifted past. We were alone. For now.
The taut seconds stretched out, and still Shaun muttered words I couldn’t quite make out, words that didn’t sound like English. Whatever the hell he was saying, I wished he’d get on with it before someone found us. I thought about telling him to hurry the hell up, but I wasn’t sure he could hear me in his trance, and even if he could, I doubted he was taking his time with the spell. All I’d be doing was distracting h
im – and if I did that, he might need to start over.
Dammit. I should have found someone else to watch his back. My nerves weren’t cut out for all this hiding and sitting still.
I darted looks between Shaun and the hallway, straining my eyes for sounds above his breathy whispers. Abruptly, they came to a halt. I twisted back to him, and he blinked several times, then settled his gaze on me with a nod.
“It’s done.”
“Cool. If you’re done sitting around on the job, we should probably get moving.”
“Good idea.”
I held a hand out and helped him up, and he paused for just a second to dust himself down, then made to step out into the hallway. I shook my head and blocked his path with my arm.
“Nuh-uh. You’re the only one who can get the wards back up. If we run into trouble, stay behind me and try not to get the crap kicked out of yourself.”
“Language.”
“Really?” I glanced around the dungeon and gestured to our predicament in general. “There are feral Bittens in the academy who threw us in a cage, beat the crap out of Dean, and are on their way to assassinate Draeven right now, and you’re worried about my language?”
“Manners maketh man, and all that crap.”
I stared at him, mouth agape, and he winked.
“Now, shall we get to the med wing so I can reactivate the next ward?”
I shook my head mutely, and stepped out into the hallway, pausing just long enough to test the air for fresh scents before I set off along it at a steady lope. Just our luck that the second ward had to be at the opposite end of the academy to this one – and two floors up. And, probably, full–
I stopped dead, and Shaun almost crashed into me.
“That’s not going to work,” I hissed. “The med wing is full of Bittens. Some of them were Brad’s plants – what if there are more of them?”
“Scared?” Shaun asked, his tone aiming for teasing but not quite pulling it off.
“Yes,” I said honestly. Who the hell wouldn’t be? Just because trouble kept finding me didn’t mean I enjoyed it. And sure, I might fancy my chances in a one-to-one fight, but we could be seriously outnumbered.
Feral Bitten (Fur 'n' Fang Academy Book 3): A Shifter Academy Novel Page 17