Victory: Year Four

by Amabel Daniels

  Bees weren’t only declining. From my reading over the summer, I’d realized they were endangered. And too valuable to lose. No wonder Suthering was for a better insect hybrid—another pollinator would be absolutely beneficial.

  “But, why now?” Bateson hadn’t become a Zoology professor without knowing invertebrate insects would suffer in a snowstorm.

  “She gloated about some journal she’d submitted an article to. She wants to prove to the world, expose the devorens to the wild before the items for the next publication are considered.”

  I reared back and rubbed at my forehead. Nothing shocking about her drive to reveal a new species, about wanting fame and credit in the scientific community outside of Olde Earth. At least, this wasn’t a surprise to me. She’d told me herself that she wanted to break from the seclusion of the Academy, and she’d even tried to pressure me into joining her campaign. I’d told Glorian, and later Suthering, so it wasn’t as though I hadn’t done my job of messenger.

  “They won’t live. It’s a mess out there,” I said.

  Marcy snorted. “That’s just it. She’s chosen these species to mix together to show their stamina in all seasons. The ancient she added, the devorans, are formidable insects that can endure all weather elements—just like the ancient Pascii butterflies.”

  Then her insistence to release the devoren hybrids now made sense. She’d have to expose them to wintry conditions to be able to show them off as all-season beings, to illustrate how dependable and hardy of a pollinator they could be. Not that pollination’s happening until the start of summer…

  “They won’t survive.” Wolf pounded on the glass once more. “The Pascii butterflies have been born into their habitats. These guys won’t be able to acclimate at all.”

  “How exactly is she planning to release them?” I asked. I had enough information. Now was time to react. I scanned the walls and columns, seeking any kind of an entrance. Other than the closed ventilation slats above, nothing promising. The wall inside the room, the one facing us, was glass until maybe six feet from the floor. That bottom portion was a combination of stone and metal, with tables and storage shelves built in.

  “The windows over there.” Marcy pointed to a rectangle at the junction of glass wall and stone-metal foundation. “That’s the only way for anything to get out. During the summer, we screen those windows for air intake.”

  I nodded. It’d have to do.

  “Come on, Lor.” I patted my thigh for Knightley to come with me too.

  The others asked questions over each other, but I ran back outside without explaining. If Bateson knew we were all watching and wanting to stop her, she might get impulsive and release these devorens any minute.

  “What’s your plan?” Lorcan asked as he jogged next to me.

  I rounded the corner of the greenhouse, and checking glances inside, I made sure we were aiming in the right direction. One pro about the glass walls, it was easy to see both ways. Darkness had shown through from the inside, with streaks of white dropping down as it continued to snow. Now, on the outside looking in, I could guess where we were by the location of the lights and interior glass walls.

  “Go in from the outside and stop them from flying out.” Or at least try to. “I’ll probably need you to hoist me up to climb in the window.”

  He nodded and picked up his pace, more than matching me.

  Once we’d run around the building, we found the exterior shape of the now-shut window. Lorcan pointed at it and we approached. Snow fell onto my face and I brushed it aside as I looked up.

  Good thing the lowest feet of the wall were solid. Bateson couldn’t have any idea I was out here, scheming to break in through the portal she wanted to use for the devorens.

  “Let’s see if I can push it in. Or pull it out.”

  He nodded and somewhat squatted under the window. Fingers threaded together, he waiting for me to step onto his joined hands. I climbed up easily and pried my cold, wet fingers at the edges of the window. There wasn’t much to grip on to with the hinges and hardware installed inside the room. I dug my fingernails beneath the metal and pulled to no avail. Then I shouldered at the freezing plate. Nothing.

  Lorcan grunted at my movement and I lowered before jumping down. I shook my head and he cursed.

  “I guess when she opens it, I’ll climb in.”

  Lorcan winced. “What if you get stung?”

  “I’ll tell them to back off.” I’d never been stung by a bee. Or pestered by a mosquito. I had a hunch my Airine powers gave me some sort of automatic immunity.

  A creak cut through the silence and we jerked our heads up at the noise. Inch by inch, brightness shone from the widening crack. The window was opening.

  If anything, I was glad it was sooner than later.

  “Here we go,” Lorcan said and returned to his previous posture. I stepped up into his hands and hoisted myself toward the window. It wasn’t wide or tall, but it was more than enough for me to squeeze through. I hung my forearms over the edge and pulled myself up. I felt Lor’s hands pushing my feet higher, balancing me as I finished sneaking in.

  There was no way to land inside other than to tumble face-first onto the floor. I had no room to sit and pivot so as to fall in on my feet or even my butt. Halfway down, I curled into a ball. Most of the impact hit my shoulder and I rolled with the strike bruising my body.

  “Layla!” Flynn called out as soon as I pushed onto my hands and knees.

  Ow.

  I’d hardly made out his yell with the nearly deafening drone in the room. Humming buzzes filled my ears and I fought the urge to cover them.

  “Where are you?” I called out to him.

  “To your left.”

  “Oh, for God’s sake. How’d you get in here?” Bateson snapped as she strode toward me.

  I could only register her approaching me because I was on the floor. Low to the tiles, I was able to witness her feet stepping closer. I turned and saw Flynn’s flannel-clad legs and shoed but sockless feet. Above their waists was a blurring cloud of devorens flying around.

  That’s a lotta bees. Wasps. Besps? I scrambled to my feet and crouched below the line of activity, like I’d stopped, dropped, and rolled to stay under the danger of smoke.

  “You can’t do this, Bateson!” I yelled, seeing no point to answer her question. Let her think I materialized in here. I didn’t care. All that mattered was that I was in here now and would do anything I could to save these insects from freezing.

  “It’s already done.” She cackled a laugh. “The window’s open and they’re going to go.”

  “Stop it.” After I ordered the simple command—to her—the devorens hovering near me slowed in their frantic paths. I stood fully, wincing. It felt like I was rising to the surface of water, inserting myself into the blindness of a frenzy of too many insects in too small of a space.

  “Don’t fly off,” I said, this time to the devorens. I checked myself, shoving and locking my anger away, and focused on ordering the insects away from the windows.

  An elbow knocked into me and I turned in that direction.

  “Let’s tell them to go back into their nests. Get them away from the windows.” Flynn. He’d found me in this madness. I grimaced at the buzzing that droned like a tidal force in the room. I nodded, knowing he couldn’t see me. Acting my affirmation helped to ground me and my objective.

  “Yes,” I answered.

  Together, he and I verbally and mentally directed our energy to get the devorens from the wall with the window. A clear space grew in front of us as we pushed back the wall of the fliers. I wasn’t sure if any were retreating to their nests, but we were making some headway.

  “I don’t think so,” Bateson yelled. “Go!” She shouted the instruction and the devorens swarmed closer in again.

  She wasn’t a Pure, only a semi-Pure, but perhaps since the hybrid was a mixed combination of normal species plus a smidgen of an ancient, she could connect and communicate with them as a most
ly normal species.

  “No, they won’t make it out there. You’ll kill them!”

  “They are bred to withstand this,” she argued. “Stop being so closed-minded and old-fashioned. They are born to be hardy.”

  “They were born in a lab!” Flynn countered.

  “Go!” Bateson ordered again. More and more insects flew in our direction. Flynn and I had stood together as an obstacle between the window and the mass of devorens swirling in a cloud in the center of the room.

  So many doubled back at us in their flight to find the window and escape. I stumbled back and hit my hip on a work station table. Catching myself from falling, I raised my arm for balance, smacking my hand into my chest. It was a forceful move, plenty to smash the alexandrite on my necklace to my flesh.

  “Ow.”

  Feeling it there, warming underneath my layers of shirts and a coat, I recalled how I’d handled it before.

  That greenish glow. The rush of power.

  Is it a catalyst? A booster? I fumbled with my collar to draw the necklace out and I gripped the gemstone between a finger and my thumb. I concentrated once more, focusing on keeping those devorens from their likely demise outside.

  Brilliant emerald light blasted from my stone, a brightness so sudden and strong it was almost too harsh in the dimness of too many objects flying and blocking the lab’s overhead lights. With the light, the devorens retreated. In a wave-like sequence, they backed the hell up, flying away from me and the window I was commanding them to avoid.

  “What the—”

  Enough devorens had retreated so that a clear space grew, a bubble of plain air around me and Flynn.

  “What in the hell are you doing?”

  I frowned at him and said, “Directing my energy. With a little help. Focus!”

  He nodded and faced the swarming devorens seemingly heading back to their pseudo nests.

  “Where did you get that?” Bateson yelled.

  She lunged at me, her hand outstretched toward my neck. “Give me that. Stop!”

  Only, she was too clumsy to make a good hit. I fell back as she collided into me, bringing us both down to the floor. The impact smacked my hand to the tiles, breaking my hold on the glowing light.

  “Give it to me!”

  I grunted and kicked back at her. She was taller and probably weighed more. But I refused to think she might be better trained than I was. It took me a moment, but I fought back at her groping for my necklace. While it took longer than I’d wanted it to, I forced her off and under me until I had her pinned in a hold.

  As we’d fought, quiet returned and I winced. It could only mean one thing. I’d been distracted and couldn’t hold the devorens away from the window. Flynn on his own couldn’t have mastered that big of a horde of ordered insects. And without the ability to grip the alexandrite, I’d lost the upper hand we’d briefly gained.

  Flynn stepped toward us, his frown a pitiful show of defeat. I whipped my head to the side and huffed a breath to clear the hair covering my eye. I met his gaze and he shook his head.

  “They’re gone.”

  I growled at his report.

  “They’ll be fine. I’m telling you—”

  I tugged her arm harder down her back, fighting the desire to slam her face to the ground. “I don’t want to listen to another word you say.”

  “Too bad you’re just a student,” she taunted. Then she immediately sobered and asked, “Where did you get it? That gem?”

  Flynn ran away. The clicks of a door opening sounded and footsteps stampeded toward us.

  “Let her up,” Wolf said. “I’ll hold her.”

  “You’ll do no such thing. I’m not in the mood to be manhandled, even by someone like you.”

  Regardless, he took hold of her wrists and not-so-gently helped her to stand. Another pair of feet came rushing toward us, these stamps too click-clacketedy to be boots.

  “What is the name of this?” Glorian seethed. She strode right up to us. Not in her typical gray pantsuit and perfectly coiffed hair. Well, the hair might be glued to stay in place like that. But at least this proved she didn’t sleep in her neutral-toned power garments. Her robe flapped in her wake as she joined us in the devoren-less room. Her pajamas couldn’t have kept her warm on the ride over, but her fury likely heated her some.

  “And why am I the last to be informed?”

  Wolf smirked. “I contacted those who could actually help. You can’t.”

  Another dig at her lacking Pure powers. This time, I wanted to smile at the jab. She’d get no more sympathy from me, not even a basic human decency quota of my cares.

  Suthering explained and throughout his summarized words, Bateson interjected with arguments.

  “I’ve done nothing wrong,” she insisted at Glorian’s rebuke about irresponsibility. “I filed my research submission. It was approved!”

  “To study and breed them. There was nothing mentioned or approve about releasing the devorens. And if we had agreed to release them, it wouldn’t be now!”

  Bateson ripped her hands from Wolf’s hold. He’d likely only let her go because we were all here as witnesses to her actions. If she tried something, any one of us could try to stand up to her.

  “You know what?” She stepped right into Glorian’s space, snarling at her face. In a heavy brogue, she announced, “I’m done.”

  “The hell you are!” Glorian stamped her foot. “You need to answer for—”

  “Nothing! I’m done. You’ll have my resignation on your desk within the hour,” she said before leaving the room.

  Chapter Seventeen

  After Bateson left the greenhouse, Flynn, Lorcan, Wolf, and I walked outside and checked the grounds. Sure enough, carcasses of devorens littered the landscape. Some had already fallen down to be buried under fresher layers of snow.

  No words were needed to convey our horror and disgust at the carelessness of Bateson’s maneuver. I had a hard time casting it off as negligence. Maybe she’d actually believed the devorens could survive a blizzard for their first trip out of the greenhouse. But, she should’ve been a scientist enough to consider testing out that possibility before crassly shoving them out into the wild.

  For that matter, I perceived tonight’s incident as nothing more than her greed. Her drive and obsession with proving herself to the world. To making her mark somehow and getting fame and praise outside of the Academy.

  Much to my gratitude, none of the guys asked about the glowing light and my sudden increase in power. Perhaps Wolf knew the stone could do that and didn’t find it anything to remark on. Could Flynn know about those gemstones, too? I figured I might have been the only one in the dark, and if I wasn’t, they’d surely ask me questions later.

  Knightley and I chose to go with Lorcan and Flynn to their room. Wolf said goodbye and a thank you for coming and trying to help, but he returned to the greenhouse where Suthering, Glorian, and Marcy likely argued and debated what had happened.

  I was too tired and upset to go back to my dorm, and I doubted sleep would come at all. Yet, as soon as I changed into some of Flynn’s spare pajamas and we cuddled in his bed, Flynn holding me to his side and Knightley warming the foot of the bed, I was comforted in a basic way that my body surrendered to rest.

  I woke on the edge of the bed and cracked one eye open. Knightley snored, and with each inhalation, his mane tickled my cheek. Over the night, he’d slithered his way from the foot of the bed to wedge between me and Flynn. I sat up carefully, so I wouldn’t fall off the mattress. Yawning, I glanced at Lorcan still sleeping in his bed across the room, his red hair sticking this way and that on his pillow. Then I peeked at Flynn.

  I just barely held in a bark of a laugh. Knightley was completely stretched out, his legs extended as far and out wide as they could go. One webbed paw pressed on Flynn’s butt, like the grog was kicking him out of his own bed. Noticing how little of him was actually on the mattress, I figured my pet had shooed him away.

  “Hog,
” I whispered and patted Knightley on his rear.

  He snorted and lifted his head. In reaction, he edged his leg out even more and that paw finished the act of shoving Flynn out. He rolled over the edge and landed with a thud.

  “Ow…”

  Laughing, I crawled over the grog to help Flynn up on the other side. Standing, we looked back at the beast sprawled out again.

  “That’s not fair,” he grumbled.

  I rubbed his bed hair and he pulled me in close for a hug. And a kiss. Only a couple more long ones, though, because Lorcan woke up with a loud yawn. Maybe a telling alert that we weren’t “alone” anymore.

  That was nice of him.

  “Morning,” he muttered.

  I was surprised it wasn’t awkward to wake in Flynn and Lorcan’s room. I’d never slept next to a boy before, and before my ancient dog broke us apart, it was…well, cozy. I was sure cozy could lead to many other things, but I wasn’t ready for them yet. And I was thankful Flynn seemed to be content with our slowly maturing relationship as well.

  But someday…?

  “What do you say?” Flynn asked.

  I jerked at his question, snapping out of my mini reverie. “About what?”

  “Skipping a run today.” He glanced at the windows. “Probably icy out there.”

  Just like that, all of the adrenaline rushes, ugly emotions, and defeat came crashing back to me like the worst kind of wake-up call.

  All those devorens, dead on the ground…

  Tension returned to my stomach. So much for the lasting peace of a good night’s sleep. “Yeah. That’s a smart idea,” I said. “What do you have going on today?”

  I had work time to do at the Menagerie. And we all had a Zoology lesson in the afternoon. But if Bateson was gone…