by Lucy Auburn
He shrugs, all nonchalant boredom. “Someone had to get you to celebrate it. You’re two decades old—that’s a big deal.”
“Yeah,” Mateo agrees, “especially given how many times you nearly didn’t make it this far.”
Motherfuckers betrayed me. But I can see that Olivia is all excited about this party, and confused by my death glare, so I put my irritation at getting surprised aside and throw my arms around her.
“Thank you,” I murmur into her hair. “I assume you brought booze up here?”
“Loads of it. That’s why we’ve got a few hangers-on. Sam couldn’t keep his mouth shut and that Quentin kid overheard him talking about it.” She gives me an apologetic smile, half-wincing. “There uh, might be a few more people on the way.”
“Then I better get so drunk that I don’t want to murder them for crashing my last night with you.”
Petra pipes up, “I can kill them for you.”
Liam raises his brows. “Is that an official Shield duty?”
“Totally. We get one murder per phoenix assignment.” She smirks at me. “Use it wisely.”
Sebastian offers, “I can take care of any of the ones you don’t like. One simple injection into their beers, and...”
“I don’t think we really want to kill any of them.”
“Who said anything about killing? Just a little sleeping powder.” He pulls a little packet of crushed up blue pills from his jacket. “Little water in this, tiny slight of hand, and they’re out like a light.”
Ezra grumbles, “Put that away before someone sees you.”
“You’re no fun.”
Olivia, thank whatever gods may or may not exist, disappears for a moment and comes back with a whole case of beer in her hand—and a bottle of wine. The demons fall on the beer like, well, the demonic beings they are, while Olivia uncorks the wine and pours a few classes. Petra grabs one and forms a little circle of just the three of us girls.
“To the end of the year, and new beginnings,” she declares, raising her glass. We clink ours against it and cheer.
Surrounded by friends—and a few acquaintances that Sebastian might drug regardless of what any of us tell him—I drink, laugh, and greet midnight happily. The start of summer warms the air, and the wine tastes like promises of what’s to come.
It may be my last night with all of my friends together for a while, so I enjoy it while it lasts.
As we count down to midnight, joined by a few promised party-crashers, thoroughly drunk and happy, I smile so wide my cheeks hurt.
And I don’t feel the danger coming until the sudden sense of fear bursts wide in my chest, a warning of pending doom setting my teeth on edge, echoed by the screeching alarm of the watchtower. Adrenaline pumps through me, and an instinctive fire rushes out of my fingertips to swirl around my hands. Everyone hushes all at once; Liam growls low in his throat.
“Something’s coming,” Ezra says, loosening his blade in its sheath, green eyes narrowed towards the darkness. “I can sense it, but I don’t see it.”
Olivia stares off into the distance, her pupils reflecting light, a feather forming in her hair. Those hawk eyes of hers focus—and she gasps, nearly dropping her wine glass.
“Grims.” There’s a fear in her voice I haven’t heard before. “Dozens of them—maybe a hundred. Climbing the walls and headed this way.”
We can’t stand up to that many, not with so many people already gone for the summer.
It’s going to be a bloodbath.
Chapter 27
Liam grabs Olivia and pulls her close against his side, his party expression wiped off and replaced with full-on terror. “What do we do?”
Ezra responds, “What we have to. What all of you have been training for.” Glancing down at Quentin, who’s passed out on the ground, he adds, “Those of you who aren’t shitfaced drunk, that is.”
“We’ve got this,” I tell my friends, with more confidence than I feel. “First step is to secure the Great Hall. Then communicate with the watchtower about the threat. Then get the headmaster.”
“I’ll get the headmaster,” Petra says. “I still have the key to her rooms—she hasn’t appointed a new assistant yet.”
“And I’ll fly to the watchtower.” Olivia sounds confident, but her hands are trembling. “I can do it, I swear. I’m ready for another battle.”
“Stay safe,” I tell her, because after coming so close to losing her last semester there’s no way I can stand the thought of her getting hurt again.
“I will.” She kisses Liam on the mouth, quick and desperate. “You guys secure this place. I’ll give the signal if I see any of them coming. You know the drill.”
She shifts as she leaps off the edge of the roof, her fierce expression transforming into a battle ready hawk scream. The watchtower still blares its alarm as we go down the stairs, Petra first, the keys to the headmaster’s rooms in her hand. Ezra unsheathes his sword and Sebastian hands me one of his knives, the demons already getting into formation in front of me like we trained: two in front, two in back, ready to kill to protect.
We head down the stairs to the upper floor of the Great Hall. Petra splits off to go down the hallway towards the headmaster’s office, shooting us a, “Good luck.” As we turn the corner and reach the top of the second staircase, the one that leads down to the lobby of the Great Hall and its front doors, a sudden feeling of premonition washes over me.
“They’re out there.” I look back at Sam and Liam, who are right behind Lynx and Mateo, frightened but determined looks on their faces. “You two can turn back if you want to. I have the feeling this is our fight more than anyone’s.”
“Are you kidding me?” Liam shoots me an annoyed look. “Go down those steps, Carpenter. I’ll be right behind you with my lion.”
“And me with my far superior tiger.”
It’s good to hear the humor and confidence in their voices, even though there’s fear laced beneath it. “Alright.” I glance at each of my guys one at a time, meeting the battle fever in their eyes. “Let’s do this thing.”
We surge down the steps together in formation. Fire climbs up my fingertips and wraps its way around my forearms and elbows, black and orange in color, heat banked against my skin.
Outside the doors to the Great Hall, which I’ve come to think of as my home, half a dozen Grims stand in a loose line. Their clothing is (of course) black, their faces covered in horrific-looking Halloween masks, dark death energy swirling about their bodies. They approach the front doors in a lazy way, no doubt expecting to walk through and find a half-staffed building, the students all asleep and ready for slaughter.
I hear the sound of a lion’s rumble and a tiger’s growl as Liam and Sam shift into their animal forms and pace through the lobby.
We reach the front doors. Ezra grabs the handle on the right; Sebastian on the left. Silently, those green eyes check in with me, and I nod once to let him know I’m ready. Confidently as I can, even as horror and trepidation rises like bile in my throat.
They’re out there waiting to kill innocent students.
And we’re the only thing standing in the way.
At least, that’s what I think until I see a glowing orange light reflected in the windows of the big French doors. Looking to my left, I spot Yohan, his great big fiery wings mantled behind him—and then further up the stairs, the bright red fire of the headmaster as she gets into position, ready to defend her school.
My own black-and-orange wings unfurl behind me, the power I draw from my quartet like lightning in my veins. I can feel their heat like a comforting blanket of badassery as Ezra and Sebastian throw open the doors to meet our enemies.
We’re on them in an instant, but it doesn’t seem to matter. As Ezra faces a Grim and takes his arms off, and I throw a fireball straight at another to disarm her completely, I can feel more of them swarming at the gates. They shouldn’t be able to get in at all—there are wards and spells to keep them out, one on top of the othe
r—but they climb over the barriers and into the campus grounds like it’s nothing, black energy swirling around them and giving them supernatural strength.
There’s something wrong about that energy. It feels twisted and off. But I don’t have time to think about it; there are dozens of other Grims to take down, four of them right in front of us.
Sebastian ducks low and hamstrings one with his knives, then Liam pounces on him and snaps his neck. Lynx whips out his rope and lassos one of them to the ground, while Mateo fires a few rounds into another’s chest. With a roar of aggression, Sam runs out into the fray, swiping at legs and pouncing on knees. Yohan joins me in throwing fireballs, and at our back the headmaster takes down more than one at a time, creating a wall of fire and hemming them in.
But then a few of them manage to draw on their arcane power and summon demons.
A siren with hollow cheeks and dark hair begins singing. Her voice is a distant tickle in my head after so many resistance classes, the song not tuned to Black Phoenix like me, but I know it’ll get the other phoenix students on campus. I can sense it weakening Yohan; his wings grow smaller in size, his movements slowing even as he continues to fight through the lull of the song.
Another summoned demon, a great six-legged hound-like thing with scales and horns down its spine, leaps onto Sam’s back and digs its claws in.
Behind us there’s a roar; the lion shifter from Group Combat class goes barreling out and bites the scaled demon then tosses it off Sam’s back. And Sebastian throws a knife at the siren, cutting off its song in the middle, freeing Yohan from its spell.
But more are coming. And while my guys keep them off of me, and my fireballs can take them down, I sense the overwhelming odds.
Somehow more than one Grim clan has united long enough to attack the academy all at once, despite their differences.
That has to mean that there’s a leader among them.
As we move through the ranks, taking down strange-shaped demons and their summoners, I take any chance I get to study the lines of Grims. Whoever is in charge has to be giving some kind of signals to the lower ranks. They’ll have more power than the rest, too.
But the attacks are so frequent that I barely have the chance to breathe. Just as I’m throwing a fireball at a Grim in a black mask, something grabs my ankle and pulls me down into the earth. It’s an underground worm demon, controlled by a Grim in white with blood all over the front of her dress. Hacking and slashing at it with Sebastian’s knife, I free my ankle and sprint towards the summoner.
She faces me with her arms up, black smoke-like energy writhing around her arms. I summon my wings and gather fire in my palm, but before I can attack she suddenly turns around and sprints in the opposite direction. Throwing the fire at her retreating back, I frown when I realize she’s not the only Grim running in that direction.
A bunch of them have essentially stepped back from their fights to run into the woods.
It takes me a moment to realize they’re not running away; they’re running to something.
Specifically, the entrance to Darkness Island.
“We have to follow them!” I call out, getting the guys’ attention. “They’re going towards the prison.”
I start to run, confident they’ll follow me, and within moments they’re in formation around me with their weapons out. Mateo keeps up a fast pace as he reloads his gun; Ezra’s sword is slick with blood, and there’s a long gash across his forehead, but otherwise he looks okay. Lynx has an expression of murderous anger on his face like I haven’t seen since that night on the cliffs, and Sebastian is holding knives in each of his hands, barely pausing in his loping footsteps as he throws them at Grim targets rushing through the woods.
Though we’re fast, many of the Grims are faster, slipping into time-streams effortlessly and moving at an unnaturally fast pace. They summon demons to slow us down, setting them on us, using summoning circles tattooed on their skin and embroidered on their lined cloaks—a trick I've never thought of that makes them powerful.
A roar rings out as Liam rushes one of the Grims and takes him down, claws dragging him into the dirt, teeth sinking into his shoulder and tearing him apart.
But he’s the last Grim we manage to get before we reach the clearing with the door to Darkness Island. All the Grims are gathered there, well within reach, but for some reason we can’t get close to them. There’s a heavy force in the air, dense and invisible, acting like a wall between us and them.
Standing beside the wide tree trunk is a woman with long white hair, her face unmasked, a still-beating heart in one of her hands, the other hand pressed up against the trunk as she tries to open up the door to the prison colony. The dead body of a siren-lulled phoenix lays beside her; I recognize Reena from one of my phoenix classes. Her chest is a mess, ribs spread wide, organs torn to shreds, eyes wide open and staring up into the night sky.
Frustrated, I push towards the white-haired woman, steps laborious through the dense matter of the spell keeping us from them. But the more I push forward the more air leaves my lungs, until suddenly I can’t breathe.
Lynx grabs my shoulder and yanks me back, and I gasp for air. “Don’t do that again, Dani.”
“Someone has to stop her.” I study the empty space in front of us wildly, looking for a way in. “There has to be something we can do.”
“There might be.” I startle at Yohan’s voice, surprised to find him at my left elbow. “Headmaster Towers gave me an idea. If we can get in through the other entrance, we can meet them at this door and hold them off.”
“It’s a fifteen minute drive,” I point out, frustrated. “By the time we get there she’ll be on the other side.”
“Lana told me that when she was injured, you used dark magic to transport her to a safe location.”
“I did.” I don’t like thinking about that moment; using my Grim powers is uncomfortable at the best of times. “But it took a sliver of phoenix heart to do it, and we don’t have any of those lying around.”
“I do.”
Quietly, Yohan pulls something out from beneath his shirt: a little jar at the end of a silver necklace chain, a tiny sliver of red flesh residing inside.
“It was my sister’s,” he explains gravely. “And there’s nothing better I can think of to do with it than save the entire school.”
Chapter 28
I stare at the little piece of flesh, my own heart beating painfully. “You... kept it?”
“Yes.” Yohan takes my hand and places the jar in my palm, his own phoenix fire-proof skin not burning when he brushes against my black-orange flames, because my fire accepts that he poses no threat. “Take us to the café. As many of us as you can. And we’ll go into the prison complex.”
“The headmaster...”
“Is protecting the students.”
I look over at my guys, who show me with their confident expressions and quiet nods that they’re in this if it’s what I choose to do.
“You won’t be able to use your powers on the island,” I warn Yohan. “The shifters will get stuck in their current forms, and only the demons and I will be able to fight.”
He grins, the expression more a baring of teeth than anything. “I’ve got other ways to kill. I never go anywhere without my hunting knife. I say we go in with your demons and as many shifters as we can, and we stop this before it starts.” Looking over at where the white-haired Grim is drawing power from the phoenix heart, he adds, “But we don’t have much time. It’s now or never.”
Yet again, I’m the one with so much on my shoulders. If I don’t do this no one can.
“Get close,” I tell Yohan. Sam and Liam in their big cat forms crowd close, and the guys all put a hand on me. “As close as you can. I don’t know how many people will go with me. I barely understand how this works—I’ve only done it once before.”
“You can do it,” Lynx reassures me.
Mateo helpfully adds, “And if you can’t, we’ll all only get severe
d through the middle and die horrible deaths. But you’ll come back. So who cares, right?”
“Thanks, I feel better already.” I say it dryly, but it’s not a complete lie—something about Mateo’s flippancy has lessened my nervousness about what I’m about to try to pull off.
I dump the sliver of heart into my palm, wincing at the dried flesh texture of it. Letting the power of my Grim abilities surge through my fingers and into the heart, I speak the words of the spell.
“Turn this flesh to power, turn this power to my will. Transform, transport.”
Power surrounds us, undeniably dark. I feel the spirit of Yohan’s sister Victoria brush against me as a dome surrounds us, engulfing me, the demons, the shifters, and Yohan. It asks a simple question: where?
I think of the cafe where Meyer and I talked the day I tricked him into imprisonment.
For a moment, the spell seems to skitter away from me, and I worry that I don’t have control anymore. But then I concentrate, hard, and feel it come to heel again. The power is like a living thing; it doesn’t come from within me, and it’s not natural to control it. So it’s a relief when it coalesces around us and yanks our bodies miles away in the blink of an eye.
At least, until we get to the cafe and I feel like throwing up.
Stumbling to a nearby table, which is newly rebuilt after those fortuitous bombs went out and tore down half the place, I lean forward until the feeling passes. The others seem okay; maybe none of them get spell sick, or maybe it has something to do with the fact that I just used part of a dead woman’s body to perform dark magic.
“We’ve gotta go,” Yohan says urgently. “You okay?”
Ezra snaps, “Give her time.”
“I’m fine.” I wave away the worried, protective expressions on the demons’ faces. “Let’s go get those bastards before it’s too late.”