He slammed the man into a pillar hard enough that the stone spider-webbed.
“Don’t fucking point that at her,” Jesper snarled, voice hoarse. His fist crashed into the human’s helmet again and again until it caved inward.
Blood spattered the ground as the human dropped.
He leaned against the pillar for a moment, chest heaving, then pushed off, standing between me and the rest of the humans as if he could block bullets if he had to.
Another human aimed at him.
I reached down and grabbed the knife from the husk corpse of the human and flung it at their face. It cracked their visor and made them stagger.
Zuko rushed in, not shifting but letting his basilisk speed and strength spurt through. His fist collided with the human’s throat, and while they choked, his fingers slipped beneath the edge of their sleeve.
“You’re not getting your hands on my mate,” Zuko hissed.
The human seized up and fell.
“On your right, venom baby,” Slater snapped, chaos magic sparking wildly around his fingers. He was pale and shaking, but he still managed to send a jagged bolt of distorting energy intoanother attacker’s weapon, making it explode in the human’s grip.
The human screamed, clutching her ruined hands.
I blinked in shock. I hadn’t known Slater’s chaos magic could do that.
Worthy manifested, the small serpent with wings flying toward the humans and biting any exposed flesh he could reach.
I followed, pushing through the last of them. Half of them fell to my venom. The rest went down under a battered, struggling combination of my exhausted mates and other fourth-years who’d managed to drag themselves from the auditorium.
It was messy and brutal, but we had taken each human down as their corpses decorated the academy’s stairs.
When the last one dropped, gasping his last breath as my venom liquefied his insides, I stood in the center of the stone staircase.
My chest heaved, my dress splattered and streaked with blood and entrails. My lungs ached, not from the tourmalyke, but from adrenaline and anger.
Behind me, Ominous cursed under his breath as he stumbled forward. “My magic is fucked…I can’t pull enough magical energy to travel anyone out, and it is pissing me off.”
“You’re not the only one,” Koa muttered, limping up beside me. His eyes were still a little glassy, but he lifted his hand anyway, a flicker of phoenix flame dancing at his fingertips. “I can barely light a candle right now.”
“Everyone breathing?” Jesper asked roughly, doing a quick visual check, his gaze sweeping over each of the supernaturals in attendance at the formal event.
“Mostly,” Tobias said, voice tight. “I found four dead watchers.”
My gaze cut toward the wrecked auditorium doors. “Sethis dead.”
Grief stabbed through the bond like a jagged shard. I swallowed hard, forcing the pain down. Later, I’d feel the grief. Right now, I needed the anger.
“We can’t stay here.” Dimitri’s red eyes were darker than usual.
“We move,” Jesper said. “We need to leave through Basilisk Forest. The wayfaer’s non-functioning on a new moon, but we can at least start toward HQ.”
“Agreed,” Drecken replied. He was paler than usual, his blue eyes rimmed with exhaustion, but his magic still coiled around him in restrained tendrils. “I’ll stabilize what wards I can on the way, but even I can’t teleport yet.”
We pulled everyone together, forming a staggered group of fourth-, third-, and second-years leaning on each other. Ivy had a nasty cut across her brow. Solon’s lip bled. Katie had singed hair and a furious glint in her eyes. Ominous had blood soaking his suit. Eleanor had blood dripping down her temple as Lorian carefully held her up.
Nobody but me had healed from the wounds sustained during the fight.
We descended the stairs and moved toward the bridge.
Under the bridge, the pure condensed magic of glowing mist churned in slow spirals, colors shifting from pale mint to deep emerald to soft white. It was luminous and thick. The air above the chasm shimmered, and the hum of power rose in a low, constant song.
