by Lucy Auburn
I pick now.
I crouch.
She steps onto my back.
I flow forward, sword in position in front of me, eyes on my first target.
She leaps from my back in a fluid, graceful motion that’s all predator.
We go so fast—thanks to the Grim time slipstream I pull us both in—that the shifters don’t see us coming. They’ve gotten lazy, waiting in the trees for us, certain we wouldn’t see them.
They came here for a sneak attack and forgot they could get snuck up on themselves.
Overhead, the hawk—who I’m sure now is Olivia—screams her warning, but it comes too late. My blunt-edged sword is already coming down on the closest shifter, a lynx who folds as I hit the back of its neck with my blade. Even though it’s not seriously hurt, the lynx stays on the ground after my hit, play-acting dead just like it would be in a real battle.
And that’s not it. To my left, Petra has landed in a killer pounce on the back of a mountain lion crouched in the underbrush, her lips peeled back to shake its scruff. Yellow eyes narrowed in anger, it reluctantly goes down to its knees, “dead” before it even got to fight back.
Petra and I make brief eye contact before we return to fighting, staying at each other’s side, protecting our partner’s back. I take out a goat shifter before it can ram me with its horns; she picks up a snake shifter in her mouth and shakes it until it goes limp. We are each other’s opposites in perfect synch. When she goes low I go high, and vice versa.
We’re like a well-oiled machine. I barely even have to look at her before I know what she’s going to do, which foe she’ll attack next, and where I need to be to have her back. And when I surge forward to attack an enemy, she’s right there behind me to watch my six.
When my arm is softly bitten by a tiger shifter I’m pretty sure is Sam, I shift the sword into my left hand, reluctantly admit that Kade was right to force me to learn how to use it, and take him out with a strike to his head. He comically falls to the ground, exaggeratedly groaning in pain, legs kicking. I roll my eyes as I leap over him, Petra at my side, prowling through the trees for the next attacker. She nods her head out towards the field, and together we walk back towards Fisk. I make sure to look at our backs at all times in case we get attacked again.
But somehow we did it. We took them all down, with only a few minor injuries to show for it. A surge of pride blooms in my chest, and all I want to do is tell the guys.
So I’m not looking up in time to dodge out of the way when the hawk dive-bombs for my head. By the time I hear the sound of its aerodynamic body hurtling through the air for me, it’s too late.
For me at least. Not for Petra. With a twist of her haunches she leaps up onto my back and snaps her jaws around the hawk, taking it down to the ground with her as she falls. It screeches and bats its wings at her, but she holds on tight until it goes limp in fake death. Spitting it out, she looks up at me with a feather stuck to her jaw, her face saying it all: I let my guard down, and she had to fix it for me.
I'm pretty sure she's calling me a dumbass in Wolflish.
“Thanks?” I gesture towards the hawk. “Pretty sure Olivia’s got rubber tips on her claws though, so I would’ve been okay.”
Petra snaps her jaws in irritation, her teeth making a click-clack noise.
“Okay, okay. You saved me. I’m a dumbass who wasn’t paying attention. I bow to you, my lord and savior.” I dash off a little mocking salute in her direction. “You da best, woofy.”
She snorts at this, flings the feather off her muzzle, and falls in at my side. We walk towards Fisk together, a jaunty little bounce in our steps, my blunted sword resting on my shoulder. A breeze kicks up, pushing my hair back from my face; it’s gotten longer now, long enough to brush my collarbones. I’ve been making Petra redo the black dye to cover up my boring brown roots, and when she complains I threaten to stab myself in the hand during our Shield training so it affects her grade.
Needless to say, she puts the dye on my hair.
And growls like a wolf the whole time she’s doing it.
“We get an A, right?” I stop in front of Fisk, hand on my hip, eyeing his disgruntled expression. “You’re always saying that following the rules of engagement gets people killed. So you can’t dock us for not waiting to get attacked. The first to shed blood—”
“Wins in bloodshed. I know my own fucking words.”
Fisk gives me a look that suggests he’s considering whether or not he’ll get fired for strangling me to death. On the one hand, he’d be killing a student. On the other, I’d come back to life. Choices, choices.
“Fine!” He throws his hands up in the air, and Petra yips at him. “You passed with flying colors. Hell, you did better than I thought you would. Our next training session was supposed to be about all the things you did wrong today,” he scowls in our direction, like we should apologize for doing so well, “but I won’t be able to fill up a whole hour with that, much less more.”
I start to pump my fist in the air, but Fisk holds up a hand and makes it clear he’s got more to say. “However, you did make a few mistakes. Most notably, Dani, you forgot to consider an airborne combatant before letting your guard down. Our next session will be about airborne attacks. Other than that... good job.”
He says it like it costs him something to admit it, which just makes me smile harder. Petra bumps against my hip, half in congratulation, and half no doubt admonishing me for getting marks taken off because I didn’t notice Olivia diving for my head. If I’d been paying attention I could’ve let loose a jet of phoenix fire in her direction.
But after what happened to her last semester, the thought of hurting Olivia—even a little—makes my stomach turn.
So maybe I let my guard down. It’s not like the battle was real. We got rid of the only real threat ever posed to all of us, and Olivia wouldn’t have hurt a hair on my head if she’d connected with it. A few measly marks off our score is nothing.
Nothing even approaching the overwhelming odds of our training drills would ever happen on the academy grounds, and we all know it.
This is the safest place there is.
Chapter 25
Friday, 2:00 PM: Group Combat with Jared Fisk
Final Class
“I know all of you have been waiting for this day.” Fisk stands on the big, wide field where just last weekend Petra and I finished our final Shield Training drill and proved ourselves to him once and for all—or at least, made it by the skin of our teeth. Behind him is a chalkboard he dragged out onto the field to torture us with. “Well, it’s time for all of you to find out who made it on the leaderboards. Drumroll, please...”
Two of the horse shifters transform into their animal forms and start to stamp on the ground with their hooves, rearing and whinnying with excitement.
Leaning over to Mateo, I murmur, “I bet you’re number one.”
He cuts his eyes at me, pouting. “Don’t probe the wound.”
“Yeah, Dani,” Lynx agrees, “he’s still torn up about not technically being a student here. Reminding him that he can’t get an A won’t help things.”
I roll my eyes. “I didn’t see you as the kind to give a shit about those sort of things, Mateo.”
“I’ve studied so hard,” he complains. “I even managed to refrain from exploding any of the students, just like he insisted. And I completed all the tests.”
Sebastian gives him a withering look. “There were no tests in this class. No studying either.”
Ezra points out, “I wouldn’t brag about not murdering Dani’s classmates if I were you. It’s not exactly impressive.”
Mateo won’t stop pouting, so I tell him, “You’re number one on the board in my book.” That seems to cheer him up considerably. “I’m sure I’ll be at the very bottom.” I watch Fisk write a few of my classmates' names on the board, starting from the bottom and going up. “He’ll write me next. Just wait.”
I don’t see my name among the first
ten he writes—all of which are the bottom third of our class. Groans erupt around us; the horse shifters turn back into their human forms and pout about being in the middle of the pack. Shifting my weight back and forth, I try not to feel impatient to see my name. It’s got to come up soon.
But Fisk makes it all the way through most of the names, leaving the top three blank, without putting my name on the board.
Ezra whistles. “You’re going to the top, Dani.”
I shake my head. “No way. Maybe he saved a dunce cap with my name on it just for me.”
“Don’t sell yourself short,” Lynx says. “I’m sure the dunce cap will say ‘idiot’ on it, not your name.”
I roll my eyes. And nearly miss Fisk putting another student’s name on second place.
Then another on third.
And finally, mine on the very top row.
1) Dani Carpenter.
I can feel the whole class stare at me as Fisk calls out, “Congratulations, Carpenter.”
No way.
“This can’t be possible.” I shake my head, feeling like I’m in some upside down world. “I don’t win anything. And I certainly don’t excel at team-based activities.”
“Looks like you do.” Sebastian pushes at my shoulder. “Go on up and collect your prize.”
Fisk is staring at me, holding out a medal on a thick red ribbon. The medal, of course, is gold. It no doubt has a phoenix embossed on it too.
I know I must be going crazy, because I actually want it.
As I walk past my fellow students, a bizarre sense of pride actually blooms in my chest. I did it. I really, actually did it.
I made my first year at the academy my bitch.
A White Phoenix tried to kill me. I ran away more than once. Four demons haunted me—shirtless. My new teacher turned out to be a psychotic centuries-old murderer, and also my father. But here I am, bending my head down so Fisk can put a medal around my neck.
“I’m proud of you, Dani.” He rests a hand on my shoulder as I straighten up. “You’ve come so far.”
I really have.
Nothing, and no one, will take that away from me.
Petra is glaring at my medal. “I can’t believe it.”
“You should.” I beam at her, enjoying the delicious irritation on her face. “I’m number one in Group Combat class, and it only took me a semester to do it. Remind me again... how many semesters did it take you to earn a medal?”
“I’d kill you if it wouldn’t mean a failing grade.” She cocks her head, as if an idea is occurring to her. “Then again, maybe I can graduate first, get my diploma, then kill you. Of course it would mean losing my Shield assignment, but when said assignment is you, nothing of value is lost.”
“You’re so jea-lous,” I tease in a singsong voice. “Don’t even pretend like you could kill me. You love my annoying ass. Both cheeks.”
“Eh. The left is saggier than the right. I noticed whenever it’s a few inches away from my eyes during training.”
I pout at her. “Wow. So harsh. I’m never letting you guard my six again.”
“Good. You fart too much.”
Someone shushes us, and I cut my eyes in their direction threateningly. Petra and I are standing next to each other in the crowd of graduates. They're all waiting to stroll out onto the stage out on the field and get their diplomas handed to them by Headmaster Towers. Technically only fourth years are supposed to be in the lineup, and the whole area is roped and partitioned off, but I made whiny noises until someone let me through.
Petra is my first officially assigned Shield, after all. I want a front row seat to seeing her walk onto that stage and get her diploma. Technically all the actual front row seats in the crowd are taken up by esteemed donors and parents, so it’s either here or I learn how to fly overhead, which is how Olivia is watching the proceedings.
I can’t believe it’s really the end of the year.
It doesn’t feel real until I watch Petra walk out onto that stage, beaming up at the headmaster—she’s not tall, our Petra—and taking her diploma with pride. She pulls the tassel on her grad cap over to the other side as she strides to the end of the stage, lining up with the other students one by one.
A little premonition of warning goes through me as I watch them. Something stirs in my chest, insisting that there’s danger yet to come.
But it’s just my loneliness talking. All the students will be leaving over the summer, except for me, the most at-risk phoenix—ones who don’t have closely guarded homes to go back to—and a few stragglers making up classes before the next semester rolls in.
That means there’ll be fewer than thirty students on campus, and only a few faculty members. Everyone else is going home. Even Petra has things to do before she returns to campus to take up her official position as my Shield, living in the Shield apartments on the northeast side of the grounds.
It’ll be lonely without them, I know.
That’s all the prickle of warning behind my breastbone is telling me.
As the last students strides out onto the stage to take his diploma, I clap as hard as everyone—and try not to think about how many months I’ll spend here on campus without all my friends.
At least I’ll always have my guys. That, and Yohan has promised—or threatened; it’s hard to tell—to give me extra instruction over the summer. Even Ocean told me he’s going on a research mission that might mean bringing back more information on Black Phoenix, just for me.
It won’t be all bad.
Just a little lonely.
Chapter 26
As the graduation ceremony winds down, I expect everyone to go off with their parents. Plenty of the students are already leaving, and half the faculty is too, their cars idling in the parking lot just outside the gates. Almost no one plans on sticking around to see tomorrow.
But Olivia finds me in the crowd and murmurs to me, “Join us on the roof after this is all over. And wear your party clothes. We’ve got something planned.”
“I’ll be there.”
“Bring the demons,” she adds, eyes sparkling with mischief. “The more the merrier.”
Then she slips off into the crowd, joining her parents near the snack table. Mr. and Mrs. Lewis both have wide-eyed looks on their faces; Olivia isn’t a legacy, so neither one of them is a shifter, but they get to know this world. I wonder what it’s like for them.
I wish Sara had lived long enough to see me make it here. It would’ve meant so much to me. When my own graduation comes, there won’t be any family members in the audience to watch me walk the stage.
Feeling morose, I head to my room early and dig through my wardrobe for something to wear to the rooftop party. I’ve got my old clubbing dress that I wore the night the Grim attacked me, and a few things I’ve begged and bartered Petra to buy for me when she goes off campus. I grab one of the red dresses she got me from the mall in Santa Cruz, and pull it on. It’s low-cut, which is just what I need on a night like tonight.
Once I’m dressed, I freshen up my hair with a bit of flat ironing and take my time doing a full face of evening makeup. By the time I’m done I look like a whole other person—a badass one, with matte red lipstick and killer eyes.
“Alright, boys.” I summon the demons and bring them into the room with me in a snap, barely even needing to think about it anymore. “We’ve got a party to go to.”
“And me without my three-piece suit,” Sebastian drawls. “At least you look good.”
“You always look good.” I kiss him lightly on the mouth, pushing down the temptation to make out right here, right now—I didn’t spend five minutes lining my lips just to smear my lipstick on someone else. “Besides, it’s a rooftop party, not the Ritz Carlton or wherever fancy rich people go to party. Fuck if I know. All I know is, this is probably my last chance to see the whole gang together for months, so I’m probably going to drink until I forget that Yohan will be riding my ass the whole summer.”
“Sorry Dan
i.” Lynx puts a comforting hand on the back of my neck and kisses my forehead sweetly. “They’ll be back before you know it, though. And in the meantime, we’ll get the campus to ourselves.” His eyes light up. “The library will be open, right? And empty.”
The expression he’s wearing makes it clear what he’s imagining we’ll be doing in the library alone. Mateo scoffs at him. “Nerd. Only you would be sexually aroused by dusty old books.”
“They call it being a bibliophile, and it’s not the perversion you make it out to be. I just enjoy the written word.”
I snort. He more than enjoys it, if you ask me, but that’s our own little thing that we don’t share with the others. “Stop bickering and put your hair pomade in, boys. They’re waiting for us upstairs.”
Mateo eyes my dress, looking me up from head to toe with a lascivious expression. “You planning on getting fucked up tonight?”
“Oh, I intend to get so drunk that I’ll have to be carried back to my room. It’s a messy bitch kind of night.”
After all, tonight at midnight it’ll officially become my birthday—a date I haven’t bothered to tell anyone here about. Celebrating birthdays is for sticky-fingered little kids who are still wearing pool floaties and having their mommies cut their crust off their sandwiches.
Why would any of my friends care if I’m older? So is everyone. Big deal.
When I get to the roof, I nearly jump out of my skin.
“Happy birthday!” Petra, Sam, Liam and Olivia are all screaming at the top of their lungs. They’re joined by Reena from my Siren and Pixie Resistance class, Nora, a lion shifter from Group Combat, and some kid named Quentin who always aced Weapons Combat tests.
Beaming, Olivia declares, “It’s a surprise party! We can’t believe you didn’t tell us your birthday, Dani, but Petra figured it out from your admissions file. Graduation and your twentieth in one night? We just had to celebrate!”
I should’ve seen this shit coming. Frowning, I aim a dagger-like stare at each of the guys, and notice how Ezra especially seems to be looking up at the moon instead of back at me. “You helped them plan this, didn’t you?”