“If you put it in the sun,” I say very helpfully, “it might help take the stains out.”
Chapter 8
Aurelia
Isit on top of the academy for a long time. No amount of coaxing could get me down from my perch, where I stare out, narrow-eyed, growling low in my chest, the taste of embers in my mouth.
My breath is a pant at first. Threatening, heated. But it’s important to me that I stay in control. To recognise my power and not let it take me over into the wild madness that feels so tempting. So I settle my breath into slow waves of deliberate control, sending my overflowing power out to fortify my protections around the school. Next, I seek out my mates, closing my eyes and feeling for them through the air. Calling out to them. Nothing returns. Not even a snicker from Ghoul. I can feel their existence. They live. They breathe. But I am blocked from them.
It’s after dark that we get a visitor. From my perch, I see the marking on the car. A lone car. A lone tiger.“Minnie,”I call into my friend’s mind.“Send Marduk to see which tiger dares enter my domain.”
A few minutes later, I hear Bastien calling a greeting to the Caspian tiger as he stalks out of the animus dorms and headsout to speak to the guards at the gate. Only then do I descend from my perch onto the grass below to sit and wait for Marduk to return. Minnie and Yeti come out to wait with me, my friend perching cross-legged on my left claw and leaning back into my shin like it’s an armchair. We watch as her mate returns with a strange, grim expression and a black piece of paper in one hand. “It’s addressed to you, Lady Boneweaver.”
Accepting that my current form is not conducive to holding paper, I shift back into my human shape, and Minnie hands me the dressing gown she was using as a blanket.
Once I’m covered, I take the letter from Marduk, and sensing no malignant powers on it, I tear it open. It’s written in white ink, the scrawl large and dominating the surface of the paper.
“Tacky,” Minnie mutters as she reads from my side.
I request an audience with Lady Aurelia Boneweaver tomorrow night at 6 p.m. at Clawson House to discuss matters regarding her protection.
Lord Tiberius Clawson
The words on the paper ignite my blood, and I feel the urge to shift into hard scales again. Passing the letter to Minnie, I blink hard in my rage. Did he send such a letter to my mother’s mate before he killed him? Did he use such kind words when instructing his felines to tear down the Lily Institute and kill hundreds of vulnerable animalia inside?
Minnie breathes hard through her nose and grants me a blessing by speaking first. “He wants to see you in person. Lia, I don’t think you should do it.”
I meet Marduk’s eyes, cunning and assessing. There is an eternal wound there. Just as Minnie is scarred by Titus’ rejection, so are her mates, powerful as they are. “They mean you no good, Lady Boneweaver,” he says. “Nothing good can come out of this. But…”
My smile is dark. “But we may learn something.” He nods. Learn something that might end them. “The tiger that delivered the letter?”
“He is detained,” Marduk says.
I turn to Beak. “Put him in a locked room for the night. Take any electronics from him.”
Yeti follows after the eagle. “I’m coming too.”
Minnie takes her remaining mate’s hand for comfort, and it lightens my heart to see it. But my leg also aches, and I’m cramping from sitting on the roof for so long. “I need a shower,” I mutter, hobbling back inside. “We really need a lift. This building is very ableist.”
“Say no more, my lady!” I flinch at the sharp voice of Bastien the gargoyle and glance up at him, sitting above the entrance to the dorm. He beams down at me through his monocle, and spindly arms wheel excitedly as he points inside. “Lo and behold!”
Both glass doors swing open of their own accord. Frowning, I head inside and stop short. Before, the left of the tiny foyer of the dorm had only held stairs. Now, nestled into the wall before the first step is a single-person lift.
“Wait, why didn’t you do that for her before, Bastien?” demands Minnie.
The creature shrugs. “She wasn’t the lady of the house before. It’ll only open for her.”
Still frowning, I press the button forupand the metal doors whir open. A soft golden light reveals a black lacquered fancy elevator interior with gleaming gold buttons.
“Now you don’t have to storm dramatically up and down the stairs,” Minnie says. “And your leg won’t hurt so much.”
I get inside and press the topmost floor.
“Beat you to the top!” Minnie says.
As the doors close before me, Minnie’s pink Converse pop off the floor as she levitates herself to race. I don’t know how I feel about special rules being made for me, but if the school really is mine to command, I could use it to our advantage.
To my surprise, the topmost floor is the rooftop. I stick my head back inside the lift and go one level down, and it opens directly into my pack dorm from a spot that used to be the bare wall. Minnie, flushed-faced and panting, clears the topmost stair and lands in a heap. “You win,” she says in a muffled voice. “The corridor is longer than I estimated.” I stand there for a moment as she pants. “I think I need to see my mates,” she admits, her eyes glancing down at the black envelope still in my hand. “Will you be alright?”
