Lachlan nodded, and Wren wrapped her arms around my neck and buried her face in my chest. I held her tight, sending calm through our bond.
The world may have been failing, but at least I had my mate in my arms.
FORTY-SEVEN
Rhett
Iflappedmywings,soaring through the sky. The full moon was tonight, and it was when Blair and Kian’s vision would become reality.
Twitching my nose, I counted the sixth human specimen outside of our wards. I wasn’t prepared for war on academy grounds, and I knew the majority of the staff weren’t either. Over half of our students decided to go home, but we still had a small portion stick with us. That left about fifty students, all of our staff, and then Wren and all of her mates.
Tabitha and Trixie had been working together on the wards, but something was draining the magic from it. They both constantly drained their power into the wards on opposite ends of the campus to keep the wards up.
I had another letter this morning from my stalkers. My skin crawled at the knowledge of there being two of them. They were excited to see how it would play out. One expressed their worries for both me and Wren, while the other was only concerned for me and the other guys. It sounded like some sort of sick goodbye letter, but I pushed it to the back of my mind for now.
I’d scoured the campus in my bat form since early this morning, but not only have I not caught any glimpses of Grayson or Nate, the only thing that I’ve seen as a danger has been outside of the ward. It should make me feel calm, but it did nothing to ease the nerves inside of me.
Flying down into the Bestial Forest, I shifted into my normal form. Damien stepped out of the shadows at the place where five human specimens were banging relentlessly on the ward, to no avail. They said nothing, just pounded on it with their impossible strength.
Norman had continued experimenting on the ones we’d captured, and he said the only way to ensure death was by destroying the brain, cutting it off from the body, immobilizing their skeleton, or draining all their blood.
The magic of the wards gave way before more magic pumped into it. Tabitha and Trixie must have been exhausted already, and it was only noon.
“I’ve killed about fifteen specimens,” he grunted, crossing his arms.
“Ten for me,” I stated with a sigh.
The amount of students that had tried to schedule a session today had been ridiculous. They knew we would be fighting tonight, but I had no time to talk when we needed action.
Damien faded out before fading in on the other side of the ward. His shadows struck forward, severing the heads from the bodies of four of them. His telekinesis pulled the skeleton from the other and tossed it further into the forest.
He faded back into the shadows and came out on my side of the ward again. “Killing just to kill is boring. Torturing is fun, because I get to enjoy the pain.”
“The specimens barely have any pain to feed off of anyway, right?”
His silver eyes dulled to gray again as he snarled. “Yeah, and it’s bullshit.”
“Let’s just take care of the ones we can so we don’t have as many tonight.” I shifted back into my bat and took to the sky.
FORTY-EIGHT
Wren
Acoldwormoffear gnawed at my spine as I let out a long breath.
“Stop that.” Alister pulled me down onto Rowan’s bed and wrapped his arms around me.
“I can’t help it.” I found myself unable to shake the cold, dreadful feeling in my veins.
“I’m sure we can do something to take your mind off of it,” Damien purred, and Alister chuckled into my ear.
“Do you really think that’s what she needs right now?” Thorn asked, and Lachlan swallowed hard.
Rhett was out scouting the wards, and Kian was with Blair, trying to force a vision to help with tonight. Rowan was with Simmons and Norman trying to prepare the student body and the staff for what would happen tonight, and Tabitha and Trixie were still working on the wards.
That left Damien, Lachlan, Thorn, and Alister with me to help calm the anxiety spurring down each of my bonds. Their job was to calm me down so everyone else could do their job, since my anxiety was distracting. Damien had been helping Rhett, but my anxiety set him off.
“That’s not for you to decide. Is it?” Damien bit down on his lip ring, and heat flooded my core. He leaned forward and pushed my hair to the side, trailing his finger down my neck.
