by Ann Denton
Bodie and I swapped another look, his green eyes thanking me, before I quickly slipped into the printer room. The body was wedged into a corner with a fucking lamp shade over its head and a printer stand pushed in front. Oh my gold-digging god. These guys were mobsters? One of them, a professional assassin? It was sometimes ridiculously hard to believe. But then again, they never had to worry about hiding the bodies before…
I swiped Larry's paper off the printer tray and got the hell out of there.
That's when I heard the sound of shattering glass and ear-splitting gunfire. Screams ripped through the air from the prisoner room down the hall, accompanied by shouts and crude slurs.
I almost thought it was Triton and the Mage Council attacking again, coming to finish the job they’d started the night before. But as soon as I heard the words, "murdering mage scum!" leave someone's mouth, I knew it wasn't them.
It was the shifters retaliating for Trite’s attack.
And they were pissed as hell.
20
Aubry
I flew down the hall as fast as my wings could carry me, speeding past the guys, spurred on by the sound of fearful shrieks being abruptly cut off—muted by death.
Fear and fury wrangled inside me. Motherfucking damn it! I knew exactly what was happening and why it was happening, but at the same damn time, I was fucking pissed. The shifters should know better.
My eyes scanned every detail, and my ears turned to high alert, my MP training kicking in to try to gauge the fight I was about to fly into. How many shifters were there? How were they getting in? How many students had they killed in the five seconds it took me to get there? How many more would die if I didn't do something, and fast?
I hung a hard left at the end of the hall and barreled into one of the meeting rooms we’d used to contain the younger magical students, the first-year mages, elves, and fae that had been on campus. Each student had been placed barefoot inside their own three-foot circular Mage Restriction Spell, so that the carpeted floor looked like it was covered in glowing bubbles.
Unlike the office where we’d kept the MP prisoners, this meeting room had windows, which were broken, and had clearly served as the shifter’s entry point.
It was a bloody fucking massacre. It looked like that scene from Alice in Wonderland when the cards painted the roses; the shifters were splattering blood all over the fucking place like stain or varnish. Even the students who hadn't been shot yet were covered in blood from their peers. And they couldn’t fucking move other than to crouch.
Sobs wove like ribbons through the room.
"Stop!" I screamed, seeing the attacking shifters' faces only after I'd taken in all the blood.
Corey, Bodie's beta and second in command lowered his weapon when Bodie came barreling up behind me and let out a growl. Russ, the wolf shifter who'd helped us during the shootout at Union Station froze with a handgun to a mage student’s forehead. He stood just outside the young autumn fae’s turquoise circle, and his teeth were clenched in fury, while the girl’s face was dull with shock.
Naissa and her son Zane, the shifters I’d met at the bank, the ones who'd thanked me for returning little Suzie's body to them by sharing an omelet with me, stood side by side. Their faces were wild and blood-spattered.
"This isn't the way!" I cried as I launched myself in front of Naissa's shotgun barrel, careful to avoid stepping into any of the Movement Restriction circles.
Easton and Larry darted into the room after me, immediately matching themselves up with Russ and Zane.
Naissa burst into tears almost immediately, and as soon as the broken-hearted grandmother lowered her gun, I pulled her into a hug.
I wasn’t sure what had gotten into me.
She’d just killed people in cold blood, and I was hugging her. Around us, mages sobbed and pissed themselves in fear. And still, I hugged her.
I tried to hug her hurt and her hate away, knowing it was impossible, but still wishing it wasn’t. I closed my eyes and stroked her spine, trying to fill her with peace, trying to fill myself with it instead of the molten horror brewing inside me.
For some reason, I just felt so deeply connected to these people, these shifters who so graciously opened up their world to me and welcomed me despite the fact that I was fae. They'd taken me in and shown me kindness, and honestly, I wanted to do that for them too. They were hurting; that's why they'd done this. They thought they could negate that hurt by hurting someone else. It became a vicious circle.
Would the mages and the shifters always be trapped in this never-ending loop of violence?
I opened my eyes and the sight before me wasn’t promising.
Zane dropped his gun and held his hands up the moment his mother lowered hers. But Corey and Russ were still giving Bodie and Easton a fight.
"You are a beta!" Bodie growled at Corey. "You don't get to make calls like this. You’re not an alpha!"
"Yeah, but I should have been!" Corey spat, his bleach-white smile stained pink with blood. "I would at least do what's right! I'd get revenge on behalf of my people!"
Suddenly, Bodie released him and brought his hands down hard on Corey’s lowered gun barrel, dropping it to the floor. Then he grabbed both sides of Corey's head and snapped his neck before I could even gasp out loud. The beta dropped to the floor, where Bodie looked down and finished his speech.
"Taking revenge is not what's right. Disobeying your alpha is not what's right."
Several of the university students leaned away from Bodie and Corey, unable to move because their feet were literally stuck to the ground.
Bodie didn’t seem to notice, other than a small twitch of his nose, which told me he could scent their fear. These poor students had every right to be afraid. And furious. But none of them said a single word as Bodie took control of the room.
He turned his green-eyed glare over to Russ, who had finally stopped fighting Easton. "Are you next?"
Russ held up both hands, breathing heavily as he lowered his tear-filled gaze to the floor. "No, sir." He choked back a sob.
"Good."
I couldn’t help myself. I needed to comfort the shifter. "I’m sorry about your wife, Russ." I knew that the horror in the library was on repeat in Russ’s head. I knew, because it was on repeat in mine. All of these atrocities played again and again in my mind each night, like infomercials that wouldn’t turn off, like lyrics for a song I hated that wouldn’t leave my brain, like ghosts that dogged my every step.
Tears streamed down his cheeks as he nodded, silently accepting my sympathy.
Part of me wanted to comfort the students too, but I didn’t know if that was possible. Or if I’d just come off as a bitch. So, I simply stared at each of them numbly.
Bodie’s eyes softened a bit after that conversation, but he still looked around the room with disgust slathered all over his face. I didn't think it had anything to do with the blood, either. I think he was just... pissed off. About what his people had done. About what his people were going through. About everything and everyone. About the injustice of it all.
It was fucking unjust.
And it needed to end. Somehow.
I stroked Naissa's hair as she continued sobbing into my shoulder. The students who were still alive sobbed. Sobs and silence mingled as the true weight of what had just happened drug us all down. It gave me a hollow sensation in my chest, and my thoughts from earlier this morning circled back once more.
Everything had gotten a hundred times worse since I'd arrived. And it just kept getting more and more hopeless the longer I stayed.
Russ broke the silence by walking over to stand in front of Bodie. "Alpha." He bowed his head. Then he straightened and stared at Bodie. "Please."
I wasn’t exactly sure what he was asking at first. But when Bodie’s chin lifted and he swallowed hard before nodding, I had a feeling I could guess. Two seconds later, Russ collapsed to the floor, neck snapped.
"You," Bodie walked over to Zane and shoved t
he man backward. Zane stumbled and fell into one of the turquoise circles that held a dead mage student. The kid’s lifeless body had fallen backward, limp, but his knees were bent because the circle still glued his feet to the floor. "You can wait here for your alpha. In fact, why don’t you wrap your arms around that kid you killed while you wait."
Zane’s eyes widened but when Bodie took a menacing step forward, he immediately reached out and gently grabbed the body. He pulled it upright next to him. He started to shake as he wrapped his arms around the young boy’s ruined torso.
Bodie only had to look at Naissa in order to make her do the same. It was harsh, but nothing more than they deserved. I had no idea if their alpha would execute them. In all honesty, they deserved it. But that didn’t make me less sad. Justice and kindness were often worlds apart.
I exhaled and I realized my hands were shaking. I hadn't been this nervous over a fight in… years. Probably because I hadn't been emotionally attached to anyone for that amount of time. I wasn't sure how I felt about that. Part of me wanted to scold myself for getting soft. But the other part cherished the time I'd spent with the shifters and my mates, cherished the loving softness I’d acquired for the first time in my life, and wouldn't trade it for the world.
Easton walked up and placed a comforting hand on my shoulder before going to check on the injured students.
Larry bent down and handed a handkerchief to a mage student who had leaned as far outside his own circle as he could and was trying to use his hand as a tourniquet for his friend’s arm.
"Here," Larry said gently, giving the kid the square of fabric.
The student, a dark-skinned boy with curly black hair, nodded as he accepted the old mage’s offering. He quickly tied it around his friend’s arm, as Larry rifled through potions in the inner pocket of his jacket.
Eventually, Larry pulled out a pink Healing Potion and passed it over.
"Thank you," the boy mumbled.
Larry gave him a tired smile. "You’re welcome."
My gaze lifted as Larry stood back up, and I was suddenly met with the full weight of his devastated stare.
I sniffed and looked away, as if coming face to face with terrified students covered in blood was a better sight to see. As if the bodies littering the floor were easier to look at than Larry's disappointment. In a way, they were. Larry represented the better part of all of us. And his disappointment and shame were worse than any hit I’d ever taken.
I glanced over at Easton and Bodie. "You think you guys can clean up this mess while Larry and I mix up some potions?" I hadn’t forgotten Aaron. I had no doubt that some of these students would also volunteer to forget anything to do with guns.
"Yeah, Sweetheart. We got it," Easton replied gently.
Bodie simply nodded.
I gestured toward the door, but as Larry shuffled toward the exit ahead of me, the same student from a moment ago stopped the old mage.
"Wait," the boy said. He seemed to be gathering his thoughts, or more likely, his courage. "You’re helping them."
His eyes flicked onto me and then to Easton and Bodie for a moment before returning to Larry’s weathered face.
Larry sighed. "Yes, I am."
"Why?" the boy asked.
Larry ran a hand through his frazzled salt-and-pepper hair, messing the hell out of it. "What’s your name, young man?"
"Decker, sir."
"Well, Decker, I’d love to talk with you about it sometime in more detail. However, it will suffice to say: we’re all born with our eyes shut, but in order to see what’s right, we need to open them to the truth."
Decker paused for a moment, and I could see his keen mind soaking up Larry’s words like a sponge. A nod was his only response, so Larry and I continued out into the hall.
At the end of the corridor, I bent down and grabbed the ingredients list that I’d picked up from the printer for the mage. I must've dropped it in my haste to reach the back room. God, it was insane how fast shit could happen. How fast everything could shift, how fast an entire life could change. Or end.
We pushed through the doors and entered the warm, yellow sunshine without speaking.
Yeah. So much for things looking up, huh, Lar?
I took in a deep breath of fresh air and let it out slowly. "What are we gonna do, Larry?"
He glanced at me, the same sadness from before filling his old brown eyes. "We’re already doing all that we can."
"Are we?" I asked. "I can't help but feel like there's more we should be doing. Something we might've missed. It can't keep going on like this, and total annihilation is not an option." Aaron’s warnings came back to haunt me and visions of the college disappearing in a mushroom cloud filled my head. "What else is there?"
Larry exhaled and shook his head thoughtfully. "I don’t know, Miss Summerset. This war has been going on for a long time. I joined years ago, thinking I could make some sort of a difference, but even with the nonstop work I do, it still isn't enough."
I nodded my agreement. I knew that feeling. That worn-down sensation of dissatisfaction. I could never do anything right to please my parents. Eventually, I realized that I needed to stop trying; they weren’t worth it.
But this? This was most definitely worth it.
"Aaron said Triton's attacks will keep coming," I muttered by means of casual conversation, not wanting to say the worst aloud. "And they're only going to get worse."
Thanks to you, my brain hissed at me. I'd never heard it sound so harsh. But it was right.
If I would have done my job as a princess and an enforcer, I never would have gotten kidnapped in the first place. If I'd done my job as a best friend, I would have comforted Triton instead of allowing him to stew and fester in his own putrid thoughts. If I could take it all back, and change everything... would I?
My heart ached at the thought of losing Bodie and Easton and... I took a deep breath, cutting the last name off in that procession. But if I could keep the shifters safe, if I could protect them somehow, or change their fate, wouldn't that be worth it?
"The mages hate us," Larry said. Then he chuckled humorlessly. "Us. As if I'm not a mage, myself." He shook his head as we walked across the quad. "But Triton Vale… He seems to hate us more than most, and I don't understand why."
Drake must not have told him. There must not have been any time. No opportune moment to bring it up.
"It's because Drake accidentally killed his parents," I explained, unsure of how he'd react.
To my surprise, it was like a light bulb went off in his dusty old head. "When he was young, Drake had a difficult time controlling his fire. Not that it was volatile, but it was... addictive. He was always playing with it, curious as to what it would do. He loved to watch things burn."
I smiled up at him, imaging a child-like Drake, one who was still sweet and innocent, one who smiled, one who was still mesmerized by beautiful things like flames dancing on his fingertips. "You knew Drake as a boy?"
Larry smiled fondly. "I did. I told you, I've been on this side of the war for a very long time now." He took another deep breath as we reached the science center and strode inside. "When he was a teenager, things were even more difficult for him. With his family passed, he had no one to guide or direct him in the ways of a dragon. I tried to be there for him as a mentor, but ultimately, I couldn't tell him who he was or what he should do. He had to decide."
We walked down the shiny tiled floors until we reached one of the special chemistry labs that only mage students were allowed to enter: a potions room. The rooms were restricted for non-mages in order to deter other students from entering. So they could keep their magical secrets.
"So, what happened?" I asked, taking a seat at a lab table as Larry immediately began collecting ingredients for the Memory Wipe Potion.
"He learned," Larry said sternly. "At a very steep cost, too. He learned who he was, and who he wasn't."
I was pretty sure I knew who Drake was nowadays. The dickheaded prick.
Cold, heartless, and cruel. Impossible to reach out to or connect with. Even as part of me slammed the door on that asshole, another part of me cried out with longing. As Larry ground the walnuts, avocado seeds, and white powder—which I had to assume was made from murder bones— I couldn't help but ask, "So, who wasn't he?"
Larry glanced up; his grinding momentarily halted. "He wasn't a murderer. He wasn't a slave to his dragon." Then he got back to grinding.
But I wasn’t done talking about it.
"So what does that have to do with Trite's parents?" I asked, clearly unable to help myself.
"Killing them was the cost of that knowledge."
That sliced through my heart and drained the color from my cheeks. Poor Drake. But then I narrowed my eyes. "I thought you just said he wasn't a murderer?" If he wasn’t, why had he killed Triton’s parents?
Larry sighed and added in bright green chunks of avocado flesh to the mixture, thickening it into a paste. "He tracked Citrine to the Vale's house one day, and the beast within him took control. He burned the entire mansion to the ground, killing Samuel and Cordelia in the process."
Larry reached into a drawer and pulled out a wooden spoon, then picked up an empty glass jar with a corked lid, and began filling it up with the paste which had somehow turned a mysterious shade of lavender.
"Citrine," he continued as he worked, "was a councilwoman, and as such, had simply portaled out, but Drake didn't know that then. Furious, his beast soared through the night sky above the burning building searching for her. All he found was a scared little boy in the living room window, choking on the smoke, desperately calling out for his mother and father."
Triton. Oh my god.
"Drake, he… He saw so much of himself in the little boy. He remembered what it was like to be a child all alone, his parents murdered before his very eyes, and he couldn’t stand the thought of leaving him there. Drake swooped down and burst through the glass, then grabbed the boy and flew him to the nearest hospital—in case he needed treatment for burns or smoke inhalation."