The bridge itself was pale stone, wide enough for plenty of foot traffic and lined with a carved railing that had runes etched into it that hummed faintly, even now.
I didn’t understand how the humans crossed it with such bad intentions.
We’d just reached it when boots sounded ahead.
Fifteen more humans stood at the far end.
“Of course,” Slater grunted, his voice a dry rasp. “Because why not throw in more humans to deal with when we’re barely fucking standing.”
They spread out in a tactical fan, weapons raised. Behind us, another group of humans ran from inside of the academy toward us, boxing us in.
“Tourmalyke?” one of them called out from the bridge.
“Negative,” another answered. “Asset is present. New orders. Takeherin, not just her DNA!”
Ice-cold frustration coated my spine at their words.
“Rune—” Jesper started, but I was already moving.
There was no point in holding back. We were cut off. The academy wards were compromised. Everything about tonight was a message from the fucking Whettlocks.
Fine.
If they wanted to play rough, I’d destroy all of their toys.
I launched myself forward, bare feet slapping the stone, dress trailing behind me like a smear of poisoned starlight under the academy’s fae orb lights that floated around.
“Fates, Rune!”
Bullets pinged off hastily erected shields from Drecken. One grazed my arm and another seared through the side of my calf. Pain rippled, but the adrenaline pumping through me made it easy to ignore.
I dropped to a slide toward a human shooting at me, momentum carrying me under his aim, and jammed my palm into his knee. The bone crunched, and he dropped. I popped up, spun, and slammed my elbow into his visor. It cracked under the impact. My fingers speared through the damage, finding his skin and pushing fatal venom into him.
He collapsed.
Drecken’s magic blasted several of the humans behind me to nothing as the tourmalyke faded enough from his system.
Jesper, Zuko, Slater, Koa, and Dimitri threw themselves into the fight.
Tobias, Ominous, Ivy, Solon, and Lorian guarded the students who couldn’t fight yet.
The next human tried to catch me in a chokehold, but I twisted, letting his arm slide along my collarbones, using the movement to flip myself up onto the rail, balancing on the edge.
He grabbed my ankles.
I smiled down at him.
The dumbass wasn’t wearing gloves.
His grip spasmed and tightened involuntarily as my venom shot through him, and he dropped dead.
Another with gloves tried to drag me down, and I let myself drop. My ass hit the railing as my legs whacked under his arms and used the momentum to throw him over the rail.
I watched his body tumble into the churning glow below.
When he hit the cloud of magic, it wasn’t like hitting water. It was like dropping a living thing into the swirl of a storm. The mist swallowed him, wrapping around his body, seeping into his mouth, his eyes, and his ears. He flailed, limbs jerking wildly, but there was nothing to grab, nothing solid to swim through.
The magic grew brighter around him, shimmering almost hungrily.
