“Yeah,” I said shakily. I did feel better, like I could breathe again—my chest no longer as tight.
“Good, good. Can you run for me now?” she asked. I nodded and inhaled deeply. Mhari grabbed my hand and pulled me at speed into the grove.
We ran, my thighs burning, until she stopped her run abruptly and released my hand. I stumbled into her. We were both breathing hard.
I crouched over, my hands on my knees, catching my breath. When I looked up, I saw the Academy Guard at the exit of the grove.
They didn’t move towards us. They simply stood and watched, firearms aimed.
The sound of running boots approaching behind us grew louder. We were surrounded.
“W-what do we do?” I panted. Mhari reached out, took hold of my hand again and squeezed reassuringly.
“We fight, or we surrender,” she replied without hesitation. Her previous panic had seemed to vanish, and I was jealous that she had recovered her breath and mind so quickly.
“What?” I asked. Fight? Surrender? “I need to find the Princess. This isn’t right. Something is wrong. The Royal Guard—I mean, she would never let this happen,” I said, and it hit me, the truth of it. Selene would never let this happen. Would never let me be attacked. If she wasn’t here, if Rylan and the others weren’t here, then they were with Selene, and they’d only be with Selene if she needed them.
“We don’t surrender,” I decided, as the boots behind us became thunderously loud. Selene would stand and fight, and so would I.
“We don’t surrender,” Mhari agreed. “The rumours about you best be true,” she added. I didn’t know what she was talking about, but there was no time to ask.
I dropped to my knees and flowed as much of my magic into the ground as I could, reaching out to the roots—the roots that felt the vibrations of the boots above them. Plants felt the world around them; sometimes, when using my magic, I could feel what they felt. The vibration was terrifying; it felt like an army was charging at us.
I worked my magic. Behind us, startled yelling and groans filled the cold and calm air as roots pushed through the hard earth, tripping feet and ensnaring ankles.
“That you?” Mhari asked, not taking her eye off the academy guard blocking our exit.
“It’ll slow them down. But for long—a few minutes at most,” I told her. My breathing was heavy again. I had been using my magic all morning, and that coupled with the energy it had taken to uproot the trees behind us and the exertion of the run, left me feeling physically drained and weak.
“That’s all I need,” Mhari answered before falling to the ground beside me, a silent frown of pain on her face.
I watched as her uniform tore quickly, her skin split, bones audibly crunched, and tuffs of brown fur sprouted. A button flew past me, dangerously close to my face.
Her transformation was fast—fast for someone who wasn’t a pureblood. I hadn’t seen another shifter of mixed heritage shift so fast before.
The Academy Guard blocking our exit looked alarmed for a brief moment before two broke off from the dozen or so who stood like an impenetrable wall and ran at us.
I was nearly exhausted, physically and magically. There was less than a minute for the guard to reach us, probably less than thirty seconds. Mhari’s shift was fast but would not be fast enough. I needed to do something.
I tried to harness my magic, closed my eyes, and focused on my pounding heart. If I was going to be able to use my new ability, now was the time. I remembered Ana’s hands in mine as vividly as possible and what it felt like to hold magic there—to keep it still, my hands cold, yet burning, and my magic cold with nowhere to go.
A roar startled me, and I opened my eyes to see a large wolf bat one of the guards away. The vampire guard crashed along the ground, the dirt cratering as he slid.
I turned just in time to see the second guard raise and aim his gun at Mhari—so I released my magic.
A coldness rushed from me—from the deepest roots of my chest, down my arms and through my fingers into the earth. It was shocking, electrifying, and conversely like being set alight—if fire was ice cold.
Maybe it was because I was aware of what I was doing now—unlike in the Noble Residence garden—but I felt the power and the coldness of death flow from me.
My chest felt tight again. The air was cold around us, but I would have sworn the air I breathed out wascolder.
My hands shook at my side, my fingertips numb, and I looked to my hands momentarily, half expecting to see them blackened with frostbite. But they looked unaffected—they only felt numb and lifeless.
A crack like thunder rang in the air.
Mhari fell beside me, the ground quivering with the weight of her beast. I turned to the guard who had shot her.
Another thunderous crack filled the air—followed by more. But these were not gunshots.
