by C. J. Cooke
“Congratulation on that by the way.” He smiled. “It’s good that you are going to have them around to support you.”
“Because I’m about to explode in a crazy mass killing kind of way?”
“No,” he laughed. “Because you are going through changes and you need people that you can talk to about it. I have never felt magic like yours Aria. It is so strong. The strongest I have ever felt. In this realm we have lost a part of ourselves, we are not what we once were. If we have any chance in the war to come, I think it’s going to be you.”
“No pressure then?”
“Maybe just a little.” He smiled. “But we are here to help you handle the load if you will let us.”
“I think I might need to take you up on that.” I felt my shoulders slump forward as I sighed. Just then there was a knock on the door and the headmaster went over to answer it. Thankfully it was food. Eating your feelings was definitely a thing and I was going to fully embrace the saying.
After we finished eating the headmaster talked me through a meditation technique which he thought may be able to help me gain more control over my magic. We must have spent an hour going over it again and again. Apparently, meditation isn’t really my thing.
Chapter Nineteen
After the stress inducing lunch that I had, I needed to get my mind off magic and the insanity that mine bought with me. I was so excited about moving room and thankfully it was just the thing that I needed to take my mind off other things. Packing my stuff up though was definitely not something that I was excited about. The only thing getting me through was that I couldn’t wait to see our new room and get settled in with my guys. By the time the bell rang to indicate that class was over I had made it to the classroom where the guys were finishing up and was literally bouncing up and down in excitement. All three guys were laughing at my giddiness as they walked out of the class. But once they walked through the door and we turned to walk down the corridor I got a strange feeling of wrongness in the air that tickled down my spine. I slowed down which pulled Liam to a slow pace beside me. “What’s wrong kitten? You’re not changing your mind on us already are you?” He laughed. One look at my face and he stopped laughing. Liam pulled us off to the side of the of the corridor and Kyle and Sykes followed. I don’t know what it was I couldn’t put my finger on it. Something wasn’t right. “Aria, seriously, what is it?” Liam asked dipping down a little so he could look in my eyes.
“Do you feel that?” I asked looking around the corridor for whatever was giving me this feeling. It wasn’t just that something was wrong. It was danger. There was something dangerous here. My magic was calling to me that something wasn’t right but it had never done this before and I didn’t know how to focus it to give me the answer that I needed.
“What is it?” Kyle asked taking my hand. All three of them were now stood surrounding me with my back to the wall. They had created a wall of mates around me and whilst I was touched at their concern we needed to have a talk at some point about this. If anything I wanted them to be behind me. “What can you feel Aria?” He pressed when I didn’t answer right away. By this point Professor Octavia had come out of her classroom and was eyeing us curiously.
“Something is wrong,” I answered casting my eyes around me. “My magic is screaming danger but I don’t know where it is.”
Professor Octavia rushed over to us having heard what I said. “What does it feel like Aria? Explain it to me.”
“As I walked out of the classroom I could feel it, like a sense that something was wrong. Then it was like I felt my magic run down my spine. It’s reacting strongly but I can’t focus it to tell me where it’s coming from.” I looked up at the Professor feeling distressed, I wasn’t used to this feeling but not knowing where the threat was going to come from was throwing me through a loop. The feeling of fire in my veins was building, my magic was preparing me for a fight but I couldn’t tell where was it was going to come from. I stepped past my mates into the corridor and pulled my short swords into my hands. The heavy feeling of them had always helped me to centre myself.
“Close your eyes Aria,” Professor Octavia instructed and I immediately did as she said. “The magic that you can feel shivering down your spine, focus on it. Draw it to the centre of your mind. Once you have it push it out of you with the intention of it directing you towards the threat. I know that doesn’t sound very specific but I fear that time is of the essence right now.”
I closed my eyes and did as she said. It was hard trying to get a hold of the magic with the sounds in the corridor distracting me but then all of a sudden I had it and it flared out of me. I took off running to follow it and I could hear the pounding footsteps of my guys and the Professor following behind me. All I could concentrate on was the tug of magic in my core as it led me through the academy. I didn’t need to follow it for long though because the screams of fear were enough to lead me the rest of the way. I released the hold I had on my magic, instinctively knowing that I would need everything I had for whatever lay ahead. When we rounded the final corner the scene that came before my eyes nearly shocked me to a standstill but thankfully the flush of red hot rage as my magic rushed through my veins was enough to keep my feet running and I sprinted into the centre of the chaos. My first thought was blood, there was just so much blood and it was everywhere. I couldn’t concentrate on the bodies lying still on the floor. I couldn’t look at the dead. Not if I was going to save everyone else here. Students were running screaming in all directions. It was total chaos. And standing in the middle laughing with glee was some sort of demon. He had one student hanging limp in his hand while his other hand was plunged inside their abdomen. A girl laid at his feet screaming. One of her legs was bent out at the wrong angle and she was trying to use her hands to crawl away but she couldn’t get a grip on the floor that was now slick with blood. Della stood against a wall with her witch friends surrounding her. She was white as a sheet and doing nothing to help any of the other students. I let out a scream of rage as I drew both short swords back and leapt forwards. I knew that I didn’t want to land in the bloody puddle. I needed to keep my feet. I had never seen this demon before and I didn’t know its weaknesses but I was going to go with my first assumption from the battle simulator. Nothing can function without a head. My first dive had one of my swords cut through the demon at the wrist and I rolled to a halt before spinning back to face it. The dead student fell to the ground, the demons hand falling with them, and it screamed in rage turning towards me. Behind it I saw Kyle and Sykes explode into wolves. Kyle’s wolf was black and possibly the biggest wolf I had ever seen. Sykes was slightly smaller and grey and white. Liam was only a step behind them already in his panther form. His sleek black fur glistening in the light as he crept around to flank the demon. The demon was so busy concentrating on me that he didn’t notice the shifters moving at his back. I knew that we had to make sure that he kept his focus on me and we needed to end this quickly. I rose to my feet holding my short swords at my sides, patiently waiting. I needed him to make the first move so that I could counter his attack and end this. Thankfully I didn’t have to wait long. With a roar of pure rage the demon charged at me. Liam darted in at the same time as I charged the demon. He ran across the back of the demon and one swipe of his huge paw tore out the back of the demon’s legs. He hadn’t seen the panther charge and was completely unprepared for his legs to give way from under him. As he was charging, he fell immediately to his knees and I saw my opening. I leapt high as he fell. Kyle and Sykes both darted forwards and locked their jaws around his upper arms just as I dived over his shoulder and drove my short sword through his neck. I landed on my feet as the demon fell to the ground, his head rolling away from his body. Kyle and Liam both let go of its arms and changed back to their human forms. I remember at the time wondering how they still had clothes on but the words never made it to my mouth as I looked at the carnage that lay around us. Apart from the girl with the broken leg, who was already in Prof
essor Octavia’s arms, all of the students who weren’t injured had fled the scene and everyone else, everyone else was dead.
Chapter Twenty
We all sat on the edge of the guys bed in shock. “How did this happen?” I whispered.
“It shouldn’t be possible.” Kyle said. “The demons don’t have a gate into our realm. The only way they would be able to access this realm and specifically this academy would be … “ he trailed off quietly.
“How?” I asked more forcefully than was necessary. I hadn’t quite managed to get a lid on the box that was my magic and some of the rage was still simmering under the surface. I cleared my throat and tried to force it further down.
“Someone would have to let them in,” Liam said. I swung my gaze to him shocked by what he was saying. There was so much pain in his eyes. I wasn’t sure if what he was reliving was the nightmare that we had seen downstairs or something else. “Someone would have to open a portal on this side, inside the academy, to let it in.”
“That’s … but … why?” I mumbled. The guys just shook their heads. There was no way that we could know. So much death, why would anyone want that?
Kyle suddenly stood up and shook his head. “From now on, no one goes anywhere alone. We pack up this room together and move the boxes into the new room, then we all go to Aria’s room to pack up her stuff and move her in there as well. By tonight we are all sleeping in the same room and sticking together.” He pulled out a stack of flat boxes out of the closet and tossed them on the bed before grabbing a roll of tape from somewhere. “Aria, can you start taping boxes together and we will start filling them.” He said moving back into the closet and coming out with an armful of clothes on hangers. He was right we needed to stick together. I could keep them safe if they were with me and I had to admit that we had made a good team. I quickly taped together some boxes and the guys literally just pulled drawers out of the dressers and dumping the contents inside. It took barely any time at all to have the room packed up. By the time we were finished we had fifteen full boxes and I had an armful of clothes still on the hangers. There didn’t seem any point in taking them off the hangers just to hang them back up again. The guys grabbed two boxes each and Liam led the way to our new room. We should have been excited about this but it seemed wrong to be happy about anything today.
It turned out that the new room was literally just around the corner on the same floor. Liam had already keyed himself into the door handle so he swung open the door and we all filed in after him. As soon as I saw the new room my breath caught. I had never seen anything like it. The bed was literally the biggest thing that I had ever seen in my life. It must have been twice as big as the last one that the guys had. It would probably comfortably sleep eight people, it was insane. The left hand wall had a small kitchenette in the corner with a table in front of it with six chairs. There was a small seating area with a sofa and two armchairs in the far corner. The bed occupied most of the other side of the room where there were a couple of desks against one wall that had two further doors in it. Assuming that one was a closet given the lack of dressers in the room I wandered over to the far door with my armful of clothes. I managed to shove the first door open with one hip and stumbled through into the biggest bathroom I had ever seen in my life. The vanity held three sinks. There was a door at the back that I stuck my head through and found the toilet. Thank the gods, there are some things that should be done in private no matter how close you are. The shower was similar to the one the guys had before but I paid it hardly any attention as I drooled unashamedly over the bath tub. It didn’t seem right calling it a bath tub. It was more like a small swimming pool. “I will love you for the rest of my life.” I sighed at the bath.
Of course Sykes was the one to then pop his head into the bathroom and look around confusedly. “Did you just profess your undying love to a bathtub?” He asked.
“It’s glorious” I whispered as I walked past him fake swooning. Okay, maybe it wasn’t quite a fake swoon. I could not wait to get my ass in that tub. I walked through the other door, which was in fact a closet, and hung the clothes up on one of the rails. The closet, like everything else in the room was massive and it had various rails, drawers and shoe racks. I walked back out into the room and the guys were already working on unpacking. They had even fetched the other boxes whilst I was, I assume, whispering my undying love to the bathtub. Maybe I am a little bit weird.
As the guys were unpacking, I wandered over the kitchenette to have a look at what was included. There was a fridge freezer which was currently empty so I plugged it in and turned it on. We had a stove with an oven and a couple of cupboards. One of the cupboards had all the pots and pans that we would need and there was a selection of plates and bowls, glasses and mugs. There was even a drawer of cutlery and utensils. Basically, all we were missing was the food. “Hey guys, how are we supposed to get food and stuff for the kitchen, is there a store around here somewhere?”
“Nah, if we put together a list the kitchen staff will order it all for us and have it delivered to the room.” Liam answered. “I already gave them a basic list this morning which should be here later this evening.” Well that was impressively organised of him.
“Right, you ready to get packed up Aria.” Kyle said grabbing hold of a couple of the boxes. “What was it we brought in, three or four.” He said scouting around him for some more boxes.
“Just three.” I said. Liam grabbed one more box and we headed back to the door. My room was on the floor above us and we made our way up the stairs and down the quiet corridors to my soon to be old room. “It’s so quiet.” I said looking around as I opened the door for them.
“People will be sticking to their rooms where they feel safe.” Sykes said checking out the corridor before positioning himself in the doorway. It hardly took any time at all to pack up my room. Liam emptied the contents of my bathroom into one box and I emptied my dresser drawers into another. My snack box was still filled up as the only things I had taken out of it were what I had eaten. I scooped up my blankets and put it in the last box and put my knife collection on top. My laptop slipped in with my clothes and my ipad and books were already in the room in my book bag which I had been using that day. It was kind of depressing how quickly I could pack my life up. Three boxes was all it took.
We filed back to our new room each carrying a box. We were nearly at the door when we saw one of the teachers making their way down the corridor. “There will be an assembly tonight at 8:00pm in the hall. Be there promptly.” He addressed us before moving along and repeating his message. That was going to get old for him pretty quick. I checked my watch it was only 6:00pm. We had plenty of time.
“Shall we go and grab some food then we can come and unpack for a bit before we need to go to this assembly” I suggested.
“Sounds like a good idea kitten.” Liam said tucking me under his arm as we turned back to the door. At least now we had the kitchenette I should hopefully be able to keep my rampaging appetite under control.
Dinner was a sandwich bar. The cafeteria was nearly empty. I had never seen it so quiet since I had arrived. I constructed a sandwich of epic proportions which I handed off to Sykes when I saw him enviously eying it before making another, that one ended up going to Liam. I didn’t even pretend that the next one was for me as I passed it to Kyle and then made my own. If it wasn’t under such terrible circumstances this would be quite nice. We ate in relative silence. I grabbed an apple and an extra bottle of water before we left and headed back up to the room. I sighed when we entered the room. I hated unpacking and now I was doing it for a second time in two weeks. I grabbed the snack box and removed the knives and blankets before shoving it in the kitchen for later. The knives I dropped on one of the desks and the blankets I threw over the back of the sofa. Okay maybe this wasn’t going to take that long. The bathroom box was quickly emptied into one of the drawers in the vanity in the bathroom which just left me with my box of clothes. One of the guys had
already dropped the box in the closet and when I walked in Kyle was stood putting his own clothes away. I went for the quick approach of upturning my box and emptying it straight onto the floor. I felt like I could actually feel him cringe. “Don’t worry,” I laughed as I turned and saw the look on his face, like he was literally in pain. “I’m just sorting it into categories before I put it away.” He actually sighed in relief before going back to putting his own clothes away. If I was a meaner person, I could have some fun with this. But today didn’t feel like the day for fun so instead I sorted my pile of clothes into underwear, stuff for hanging and what needed to go into drawers. Once everything was sorted it took hardly any time at all to put away, granted it did help that I didn’t have that many clothes to begin with. I dusted off my hands as I went to leave, Kyle was still working through his own box of clothes. “You need a hand?” I asked.
“Nah, I’ve got this. I like them a particular way.” He said looked at the rail and slightly adjusting one of the hangers.
“I can see that.” I said slowly backing out of the closet. Kyle clearly had his own thing going on here and I didn’t want to disturb his happy place.
“He measuring his coat hangers again?” Sykes laughed.