by Lucy Auburn
Sam roars and leaps forward; Lynx steps between him and Meyer, snapping a long length of rope in his hands.
I know that I told the shifters to do whatever it takes to take Meyer down. I even said out loud that they might have to spill some blood to get things done.
But as Sam crashes into Lynx claw-first and rips him apart, I find my anger turning towards my friend. That feeling only shifts when Lynx snaps the rope around Sam’s neck and squeezes tight—and another, bigger worry replaces it.
Glancing down at me, Meyer says, “Don’t worry, Dani. I don’t know what’s going on, but I’ll take care of it.” He smiles, all smooth and easy charm. “After this is over it’ll all feel like a dream.”
I fucking bet it will, with the way he’s been perverting Mateo’s power to get what he wants. I don’t intend to let him win over me.
As I surge to my feet, knife in my hand, a battle cry rings out overhead. Olivia, in hawk form, dives down towards Meyer; at the same time, Liam reveals himself, bursting out of the empty supply room in his large magnificent lion form.
Both feline shifters are so large and powerful.
Neither of them can compare to the swirling might of Ezra’s sword as he faces them both and cuts them down. Meyer barely even has to lift a finger to send the enslaved demon in the direction of his will. Though both shifters fight, Sam is weakened by Lynx’s rope around his neck, and Liam doesn’t seem to know what to do when faced with a skilled swordsman.
He cuts them down.
Blood gushes from wounds on their shoulders.
Olivia circles Meyer’s head, screeching.
His fingers twitch once more, and a robotic, joyless Mateo draws his gun from his shoulder holster and points it in the direction of her winged fury.
No. I won’t let him kill her, especially not in front of me. It isn’t fair—none of this is fair.
So though the knife is slick in my nervous grip, though the part of me that’s spent months studying under him rebels, I grab the hilt of the poisoned blade and surge towards Meyer.
I don’t know how it is that I pull it off, but somehow he doesn’t see me coming. With a twist of my hand and a sneer on my lips, I bury the poison-soaked dagger in his rib cage. He groans as its point pierces through skin, muscle, organs and bone to nestle in his vulnerable middle.
Around us, the demons still, their puppet strings temporarily cut without Meyer’s will to direct them. Sam falls to the ground, bleeding from multiple cuts in his side, which heave with effort; Liam groans and circles us, limping on one bloodied front paw, eyes darting as he tries to decide who to attack next—or whether this is a true stalemate.
I stare at Meyer, shock and horror alike freezing me in place even as his dark, slick blood coats my poisoned knife. I’ve somehow forgotten what was meant to come next; the violence of the blade in his body has twisted me off course inexorably.
He looks at me. He blinks. The expression on his face is—betrayal. I don’t know what to feel, how to think; I don’t know why my tortured, scarred phoenix heart twists so terribly.
It was so easy to imagine killing him when he was the Grim who betrayed me and stole my beloved demons from me. But right now he’s looking at me with very human eyes, and the blood that pours from his body is like nothing I prepared for. No matter what violence I’ve seen or felt in my life, my hands tremble on the knife so much that I’m surprised I haven’t dropped it.
“Dani.” His voice trembles; he sounds undone. I stare at him, equally confused for a moment. “What...”
Meyer loses his train of thought. The world around us is unusually still. An odd silence echoes through the gym as all the players we’ve brought here to play our game freeze. Time around us slows, both of our Grim-powered bodies slipping into an instinctive time stream, slowing down reality just for this. My every heartbeat surges with adrenaline.
“Dani,” he repeats, sounding stupefied, “why would you do this to your own father?”
I let go of the knife.
I stare at him.
And rage surges inside me, as unstoppable and destructive as a storm.
Chapter 33
Black fire wreathes my arms. Heat explodes behind me, and I know that it’s the feeling of my wings unfurling. Power sets my heart coursing fast, makes adrenaline course inside me.
Time stands still. Everything around us flickers to a stop except our bodies.
“I don’t know what you’re pulling,” I narrow my eyes at him, hand tightening on the knife, “but it’s not going to work. You’re not my father.” Just saying the word, just acknowledging it, feels like I’ve got a poisoned knife in my chest too. “My father was a man named Robert Carpenter who got sentenced to thirty years in prison for felony drug trafficking charges. He’s the reason why my mom is dead, too, and no he doesn’t write and he doesn’t call, and I’m glad for it. And you’re not him.”
He wraps his hand around mine, hands growing slick with his own blood. The black fire around my wrist coils back at his touch, refusing to hurt him, instinctively bending to some part of me that can’t quite bear to end things completely.
I tell myself it’s because I’ll lose the demons permanently if he dies.
But some sick, lost part of me wants to hear what he has to say for himself.
“Haven’t you wondered why you’re a Grim?” He presses his palm against the place in his chest where the knife meets skin, putting pressure on the wound. It seems like a miracle that he’s still alive, but then again he isn’t exactly human. “Grims are born that way. And unlike phoenix or shifters, they’re never born to parents who aren’t Grims. Our abilities don’t skip generations or lie dormant in the bloodline. It’s why our clans are so strong, why we fight for blood purity—and why I know that Carpenter man is not your father.”
He sounds so sure, so convincing.
But he’s lied to me before. Convinced me he knew what was best for me.
I won’t let him do it again. There’s no reason to even argue with him for another second. It’s pointless. All I have to do is move on to the next part of my plan, take advantage of his current weakness and distraction.
My eyes flick to my left, towards Lynx and Ezra, Mateo and Sebastian, frozen in stupefied will.
That’s all it takes for Meyer to see my intentions. “You’ll never get them back,” he tells me. “They’re in better hands now, Dani, and I have plans for them. We’re going to save our clan together. You should join me. My family is yours, after all.”
“Fuck off, Vader lite. I have no interest in your Skywalker bullshit.”
“Very well. Just know I’ll always be here if you change your mind.” It’s maddening how soft his voice is, how soothing and understanding he sounds. I want him to be as pissed as fuck as I am, so I don’t have a reason to hesitate. “We all need to know where we come from, Dani.”
Before I can open my mouth and let out an appropriately biting retort for that load of bullshit, Meyer moves—and the world moves around him. The slipstream of paused time we were in snaps out of focus, dragging us back into the present.
But Meyer doesn’t stop there; he manipulates time all on his own as he breaks our connection, jerks the knife out of his chest and evades my grasp. I’ve barely even blinked and he’s suddenly halfway across the gym floor, one of those dumb black silk bags in his hand, pouring death powder out into his palm. In an instant he’s slapped it over his wound and is moving towards the front door, calling out, “With me!”
The demons—my demons—obey him. They move impossibly fast, demonic energy swirling around them as they follow him through his slipstream in time. I’m about to go after them when Liam’s panicked voice gets my attention. “Dani!”
I turn towards him, wings of flame at my back, and my heart nearly stops.
He’s kneeling on the ground, hoodie pushed back from his head, cradling Olivia in his lap—and frantically putting pressure on a wound in her human-shifted shoulder. Sam paces around them in tig
er form, growling low in his throat.
I rush towards them. “What happened?”
“He shot her.” Liam narrows his eyes down at the wound; he’s favoring one of his feet, I realize, no doubt the injured paw. “She’s losing too much blood. I think it nicked an artery.”
I glance over my shoulder towards the door; even now, Meyer is getting away. “Sam, follow him. Keep him occupied.”
The tiger shifter rumbles his assent and runs off, muscles rippling in smooth motion as he heads out the door and down the stairs. Internally, I cross my fingers and toes that he won’t get hurt too.
Then I turn back to Olivia. Blood is bubbling between Liam’s fingers; he looks panicked. She meets my eyes, fear in her expression. “Dani, am I...”
“You’ll be fine.” I raise my right hand, letting the black-orange flames of my power flood into my palm. “Just gotta cauterize the wound.”
I meet Liam’s eyes. He grabs Olivia’s shoulder then counts down. “Three... two...”
On “one” he yanks his hand back from the wound, and I press my fingertips against it flat. Olivia screams; Liam holds her down, face nearly drained of blood. The smell of scorched flesh fills the air as the clean black fire of my powers closes the artery enough to abate some of the blood loss. She sobs from the pain, filling me with guilt.
It’s a relief when she passes out.
“Let’s get her out of here.” I stand up and stare down at Liam, torn between staying and going. “Can you get her out alone?”
“I got her.”
He pulls her into his strong arms, ignoring the sluggishly healing wound on his foot. Shifters are powerful, but they don’t have phoenix powers of regeneration or the Grim ability to turn death energy into life again. He heads out the side door, towards the back dormitory—where hopefully he’ll find help and not more of Meyer’s influence.
I turn towards the front and rush down the steps outside, plunging into the evening air, following the tracks Sam’s large paws made in the ground. As I do so, I feel power surge inside me and unfurl at my back.
Behind me, there’s a cracking sound, and the smell of smoke. Glancing over my shoulder, I realize that my phoenix wings seared two holes in either side of the front doors, which even now catch fire and blacken at the edges.
Let it be a little preview of what’s going to happen to Meyer the second I get my guys back.
I don’t have distance on my side right now—no doubt Meyer has gotten far ahead, even if Sam caught up with him—but I have something else: overwhelming rage and the ability to bend time itself to my will. Between the two, hopefully I can catch up to him.
So as I step towards the trees, I think about letting my wings go, and breathe a sigh of relief when they disappear into my back. No reason to burn down the whole campus.
Then I concentrate on that feeling I get, the one where I’m at the precipice of something, and slip into an altered state of time. All around me the leaves on the trees flutter slower and slower in the wind, and the clouds themselves seem to pause overhead.
But there’s one other thing I need to find Meyer. Sam’s paw prints alone won’t let me find him if he evaded the shifter. Reaching into my blazer pocket, I pull out the tiny knotted string I put there when I dipped the knife in a special poison made just for Grims.
“Activate.”
The string glows green from end to end, then lifts up and points in front of me—towards the bit of poison still in Meyer’s chest, slowing him down and weakening him despite the physical wound healing over.
It’s a clever trick. One Meyer taught me, ironically enough. I guess you could say I’ve been paying attention in class lately.
Triumphant, I run through the darkness in pursuit of my prey.
Chapter 34
I’m running as fast as I can, following Meyer towards one of the student dorms—and maybe beyond that, the wall, and the world outside—when a familiar voice raised in frustration stops me in my tracks.
“Headmaster!” Whirling, I spot Petra striding into the pool of light in front of the Grand House, a peeved look on her face. “Headmaster Towers.” She stops when she sees me, eyes wide. “Dani, you’re covered in blood.”
“Forget about that.” I approach her, jogging into the pool of lamplight and coming to a reluctant stop, worried even now Meyer is getting away—and even more worried that something has happened. “I thought you were going to keep the headmaster occupied.”
“I tried. But she sensed something was up. So I told her about Meyer, thinking maybe if we remembered she would too, and things got... complicated. I think she went after him. I’m trying to find her.”
“Follow me, then. I know where he is. If she’s there, it could be trouble the instant he uses the demons to trick her again. And if she’s not there, we need to take him down once and for all.”
“Agreed.”
She shifts into her wolf form and places her dainty paws beside me on the path. We take off running together, bodies honed by endless classes and drills.
Slipping into the time stream again, I pull her along next to me with a surprising amount of ease. When I glance down at my hands I can see black-orange fire flicking up and down my skin from wrist to elbow, dancing and playing as I push my powers to my current limit.
I hope when I get to Meyer I’ll still have the energy to do the spell to bring the boys back to my side. I have everything I need for it: a tiny knife tucked in my pocket, plenty of rage, blood to spill, and a connection I hope still has some life in it. All I need is to weaken him enough to pull it off, which the poison should hopefully be doing for me.
Legs pumping with desperation, I run as fast as I can. As we turn a corner on the path and get close to one of the freshmen dorms, Petra’s hackles go up and she gives a low growl. At first I don’t understand what’s got her riled up, but then we get close enough that my eyes adjust to the light.
My senses immediately tell me that I’m in danger.
A blistering heat smolders in the distance. Slowed by time, flames rise up behind the dormitory, red-hot and unnatural in color. Lit by the flames are a group of figures: Meyer with his back to me, the four demons all around him, facing Sam, a lioness shifter I recognize as Laena, and a version of the headmaster I’ve only seen once before.
Like the night she showed me her powers after I returned from my first foray outside Phoenix Academy, she’s wreathed in power that licks her body from head to toe. As a Red Phoenix, she has the kind of fire that burns unnaturally hot. It’s slowed by my time skills, but undeniably deadly.
And she’s facing the demons with the full intent to take them down using it.
Seeing them, I push myself to run faster, to grab time and slow it even more.
But I can feel the edges of my powers, and I know I can’t use them anymore. So I reluctantly let go of my pull on time and let the world around us catch up as we reach the scene ahead, mere feet away from the standoff.
The instant I let go flames explode all around us.
Somehow the headmaster has pushed her power out in a circular wall of flame. It rushes around us and leaps above our heads, hemming us in together. I stumble away from it, further into the circle, my skin uncomfortably warm. Petra licks her lips and tucks her tail close to her body.
With glowing eyes and bright red hair, she faces the Grim, holding out hands full of red-hot fire. “You lied to me.” Her voice booms with power, strength, and rage. “How dare you come to my school and attack my students.”
“Lana.” Meyer’s voice is patient, pitying even. My stomach twists at the idea that he’s...no. “You’re confused again. Let me help.”
His fingers twitch, and a dead-eyed Mateo approaches Lana. Sam growls and lunges forward, but Lynx gets in the way, roping him and hobbling his legs together. Laena lunges as well—and meets Ezra’s sword, her feline scream an eerie high pitch as he opens up a gash in her majestic side from shoulder to hip.
At my side, Petra growls and t
enses, but I motion for her to stay still. “He hasn’t seen us yet,” I murmur, in a low voice for her ears alone. “Wait.”
I can tell she doesn’t like it based on the way her paws tense in the ground, but she holds back. Mateo steps forward and reaches his hand out towards the headmaster, who looks at him in confusion despite all her rage.
His fingertips touch her forehead.
I tense, ready to step in and try the spell, foolish as it would be with Meyer as strong as he is right now, ready to risk everything if I have to. I can’t let them be used this way.
Before I can make the choice one way or another, Lana’s eyes flicker with awareness. She lifts her chin, motions with her right hand to bring the fire surrounding us to her, and grabs Mateo’s wrist, surrounding it with fire. He grunts in pain, reactions subdued as he falls to his knees.
Despite myself, I surge forward, crying out in reaction.
Meyer turns and looks at me.
I grab the tiny knife out of my blazer pocket.
Sam roars, struggling against Lynx’s ropes. The demon wraps a length of cord around his neck and tightens it.
I put the tip of the knife against my palm and dig deep, ignoring the pain as I open up my flesh. Meyer’s eyes narrow.
Grabbing Lana’s wrist, Mateo breaks her grip and pulls his gun.
Petra surges towards him, a whirl of fur, fangs, and claws. She leaps on his back; he effortlessly throws her off.
Adjusting his aim, Mateo points the gun towards the headmaster’s chest even as she gathers her power together to make a fireball.
I reach for my anger but find only fear.
My ears ring as Mateo fires towards Lana’s heart at point-blank range.
From the shadows, Sebastian steps into the fray, his blue eyes reflecting the fire. He moves impossibly fast, puts a hand on the headmaster’s shoulder, and chants, “Pain.”
Ignoring it all, Meyer approaches me. Blood pools in my hand, drips down my fingertips towards the ground. Meeting his eyes, I’m filled again with rage. Distantly, I’m aware of Laena attacking Lynx, him dropping the rope, Sam groaning and shifting into his human form again, neck bruised. Petra attacks—first Lynx, then Ezra, deftly avoiding his sword as the headmaster falls to her knees, blood gushing from her chest, eyes wide in shock.