“He wouldn’t miss this,” my regina says. “I bet he’s in the tank with Ghoul.”
“Don’t worry, we’ll get them both,” comes Sabrina’s voice. “We get one chance at this, Lia, you know that, yeah? Just the one. We need to get it right the first and only time.”
I nod, pulling down my matching goggles and picking up my Nerf gun where it’s been resting between my legs. “Hard agree, Sabrina. And leave the hatchlings to us, Team Dazzle. Marduk?” I call. “When the dome goes, send me down.”
Chapter 104
Lyle
Being tasked with protecting my regina in this battle is the honour of my dreams. The fact that she and my brothers trust me to guard her means more to me than any of them will ever know. Ghoul had been right about the bad we’d done in the past; even I can admit that. We are not worthy of her until the good we do outweighs the bad. And I didn’t protect her enough in the beginning.
My rabid lion is pacing inside of me at the enemies that would dare assault our school and what we had built. While most of the students have left, there are still some left here who are now at risk, and it’s for all of them that we protect Animus Academy now.
The protective dome shudders under the next cannonball, and as much as I wish I could bat it away, we all must wait. Lia carries the Boneweaver bomb in a small black crossbody bag that’s padded with cotton wool. The fact that she made it herself is astonishing. That she insists on throwing it at her father’s truck herself is…not so much, in my eyes, so my plan is to stick by her side to cover her for the inevitable bullets coming our way.
Aurelia is focused, her unblinking eyes on the military truck set like a king at the back of the convoy. Males are now climbing out of it, surrounding the vehicle, ready with artillery. Two of them roll out a black mat that makes something like a twenty-metre circumference around the truck. I’d bet my bottom dollar these are where Mace has set up his protective serpentine runes.
They know we’ll come for him, and they’ve protected him thusly. Helicopters wheel overhead, shooting at the dome from above, and this time, when the cannonballs hit the shield, the entire thing flickers in and out.
“Ready, everyone,” Xander commands. “Lia, you’d better activate your shield.”
There are difficulties with the invisibility because we won’t be able to see each other, so we’ve compromised that Lia will make only herself and me invisible. Xander can look after himself, and Scythe is prepared for what is going to come as well.
My regina envelops the two of us within her shield, and I feel it coming over me like a pleasant heat. I step closer to her as she shifts into phoenix form, claws clicking as she hops onto the stone wall. I’ve never had to levitate myself for so long and so high, but I’m capable of it. Beak flies at the ready above us, ready to spot for me if I lose Lia in the air.
Behind me, Xander hands Scythe the comms device and takes off his clothes. “It’ll go with the next shot,” Scythe tells everyone. “Everyone, remember the plan.” He pockets the device, and just as the next cannonball is fired, Xander shifts.
The academy roof vibrates under Xander’s weight, his shadow casting us in shade. Scythe scrambles up his leg and stakes a seat as the dome finally, with one last flicker, goes out completely.
Xander launches into the air, battering Lia and me with powerful wingbeats. Bullets ping off his hard scales as he spears for the helicopters. Before me, Team Dazzle is set on the groundbefore the academy gates, and Savage goes off running towards the teenagers with the cannons and guns. The edges of Lia’s soft wings brush against me as she rises into the air, and I reach up to feel for her claws. I grasp onto her powerful legs, and we rise up together, wing beats and levitation combined as it’s important that I don’t slow her down with my weight.
Above us, Xander has a helicopter in his maw, and he’s tossing the crushed metallic carcass over the wall of the school, right into the standing military vehicles. The soldiers shout and scatter as it lands, taking out two Jeeps and spilling fuel and fire over them.
We fly towards Savage and Eugene, telepathically connected to each other as their jewelled goggles flash in the long rays of the afternoon sun. Savage shoots a Nerf gun with rubber bullets at two children in quick succession, and they both fall to the ground, crying out and clutching their legs. He dodges one bullet, then another with ease, kicking out a child’s feet from under him and tossing their gun.
A feline grabs for the gun as it flies through the air, but it soars above the wall, caught in the hands of one of our guards. Savage cackles as he jumps high with his legs tucked into his body, a bullet missing him completely before he slams the butt of his gun into another child’s temple.
Seeing that he’s okay, Lia takes us right to where Team Pink and the other wall felines are shoving militia bullets away. But they have their work cut out for them as they miss bullets, creating venom-filled holes in the rendering of the academy wall. Marduk and the guards shoot back with their own rifles, and it’s going to be complete chaos until they run out of bullets.
“Look!”My angel’s voice is loud in my head, and I snap to attention as she wheels us around to the direct north—Mace’s truck. The top of the tank opens in a Concertina fold, its sidesretracting neatly so we see the group of beasts crowded into the truck now spilling out.
Aurelia swears in my mind as a group of crocodiles hold the three councillors in chains. They move aside, revealing Ghoul seated cross-legged on the floor of the truck.
And I know what’s going to happen before it does.
The sound comes first—a humming over my skin, vibrating the air like guitar strings. The darkness funnels out of Ghouls’ body like a reverse tornado. It starts with black wisps that get darker and thicker, twisting around each other and up and up and up, gathering weight and size until it’s as wide as the truck itself and reaching high into the sky beyond the flight of our avians. A feeling like something worse than death shivers through the air.
The crocodile grunts throw the councillors at the shadows one by one. It happens so quickly but it doesn’t matter because no telekinesis, no order powers can stop them as Ablo Obon’s silent body gets caught into the tornado and flies upwards into his hold. Irma Goldwing is next, followed by the Lunissa Darkfang.
Gone, just like that.
As our eyes are on the shadow vortex, we both miss the attack from behind?—
An obsidian net catches both of us in its grip
Chapter 105
Aurelia
