Fate Hollow Academy: Term 3, page 20
“Let’s hurry.” Lachlan’s eyes darted around, keeping an eye out for Lily.
“I memorized the facility. I’m taking us where the werewolves should be held.” Damien shadow-traveled us deep within the facility, and we stepped into a large hallway with glossy marble tile. The overhead lighting flickered, and glass cages with werewolves in their normal forms lined the wall. The entire place was technologically advanced, including the doors to the cages. Cameras hung in the corners of the ceilings.
Red lights flashed along the walls as alarms blared through the halls.
A shiver of unease spread goosebumps over my skin. “This is terrible.”
“It is.” Lachlan growled, stomping forward at a human that was scurrying down the hallway toward us. The human’s eyes went wide as he realized we were not humans, but he had made it too far.
Lachlan used his supernatural speed and grabbed the human by the throat, smashing him against the glass door that housed a werewolf. “Unlock all of these,” he snarled.
The human held his shaky hands up with a key card. “Use this! Just let me go!”
“Sure.” Lachlan snatched the card and tossed him to the ground.
As soon as the human made contact with the ground, I saw the hope in his eyes vanish as Damien's shadows punched a hole through his chest, something a human could never walk away from.
“Only one human around here?” Alister arched an eyebrow.
“Not likely. You all go down the hall. Clear out that room. I’ll get the werewolves out of the cages.”
“Let's go, little bird.” Damien threw an arm around my shoulders and started walking us down the hallway.
Kian hesitated, glancing at Lachlan, and I caught his gaze. “Stay with Lachlan and help him however you can.”
Kian nodded and gave me a grateful smile. “Be careful, sweetheart.”
‘Call on us if you need help,’ Shade squeaked.
Kian took the key card from Lachlan before chanting something, and purple light flashed through the hall. All the glass doors to the cells opened.
“Your magic has to be the most useful thing ever,” Lachlan said with a grin. “It's been getting less chaotic since you mated with Wren.”
“Yeah, it has. Thanks for noticing,” Kian mumbled as his cheeks tinged pink.
I was thankful that it had. He was so concerned over how unstable it was, but after cutting ties with his coven and our mating, it really had stabilized.
“Let's go,” Alister nudged me, glancing toward the end of the hall as Lachlan and Kian went the other way.
We hurried down the hallway, and the door lit up purple before opening in front of us.
I glanced back to see Kian holding the key card toward us with a sheepish smile before turning back to Lachlan. Shade waved his little paw at me as the werewolves started to exit their cages, appearing disoriented and confused.
Damien guided me into the room behind Alister, who went inside first.
It was a decent-sized room that looked like a lab. There was a screen where humans could see into the cells of the supernaturals they’d captured.
I winced at the heavy scent of blood coming from a few sharp objects laid out on a towel.
“This is disgusting.” Alister scrunched up his nose.
“No kidding. How can humans lack so much humanity?” A sharp intake of breath hit me as I noticed all the journals laid out on the table. Journals I knew must be filled with terrible things.
“Beats me,” Damien muttered as each of us started to rifle through the bookshelves and drawers for everything we could.
“What's that?” Damien peeked over Alister’s shoulder as he picked up one of the journals on the table next to the torture kit. “It's a journal from a werewolf named Lily. Seems like she’s been doing experiments on her own kind. These are her notes.” He swallowed hard.
My heart beat wildly in my chest. “There's no way it's the same Lily. Lachlan would be broken, and if it is her, maybe they forced her to do it.”
“Wouldn’t surprise me,” Alister muttered. “But the notes are extremely detailed.”
“And what she did was fucked up. She traded secrets about their kind too.” Damien narrowed his eyes at the journal.
I stepped back as my gaze snagged on another journal, and magic pulled me toward it. Ringing exploded in my ears as I zeroed in on it and reached down to pick it up. It was a white leather bound journal with the words the last arctic fox shifter written in silver on the front cover.
“I don’t know. We need to show this to Lachlan,” Alister said, pocketing the journal.
“What is that, little bird?”
Damien and Alister stepped beside me as I ran a shaky hand over the words. It looked old, but me being the last arctic fox shifter didn't make sense for it to be a journal for me. Unless it wasn't for me at all, it was for someone else.
I opened the journal, and the spine gave a loud crack. My heart lurched to my throat as I read the first page.
Cooper Clearwater
Age: 29
Eye color: blue
Hair: blond
Height: five-eight
Scars on torso and extremities
Shifts into an arctic fox
Contains a special power but will not share the nature of it
I flipped the page, but the words went blurry as I read on to the experiments that had been performed. They had been inflicting pain on him since the day he was captured. They’ve had him for seventeen years. Dad would be forty-six now, and he spent that long under the thumb of humans…
“Samson obliterated all of the humans but one, and the agents are going to take everything they can of importance from the facility and then burn it to the ground,” Lachlan said as he and Kian entered the room.
I snapped the journal shut and nodded, wiping the tears from my cheeks. “Did they find any other supernaturals other than werewolves?”
“They found some shifters as well,” Kian told me, and a stabbing pain exploded in my chest.
“Did they find any arctic fox shifters?” My voice cracked.
Their gazes darted to the journal in my trembling hands as they shook their heads.
“Not that I'm aware of,” Lachlan said, coming closer until his earthy scent mixed with the others.
“Only wolf shifters and a few jaguar shifters,” Kian added, doing the same as Lachlan. Shade jumped to my shoulder and started to pet my head, sending calming magic into me.
Damien growled as he traced his fingers down the journal. “Can I see that, little bird? I recognize a scent.”
I nodded, handing it over and ignoring the pain in my chest as I let go of it.
He flipped through the pages until a few pages before the end. His horns and tail seeped out as a shadow started to go wild within the room, knocking things off the desks and shelves. “The person who did the last set of experiments on your father is the same woman that got me captured by the humans in the first place.”
“Are you serious?” My heart splintered.
“I'll kill her,” Damien promised with malice. “I will make sure she chokes on her own blood. Actually, I’ll make sure she chokes on her own lung.”
“And we'll find your father, sweet ruby.”
“We promise, sweetheart.”
“We will find him. Okay, tiny fox?”
“Yeah, we will.” I wiped my tears away and focused on Lachlan.
“Did you find any sign of Lily?”
“I did find another letter from her.” He held it up between his index finger and forefinger.
“You're going to want this too.” Alister grabbed the journal out of his pocket and tossed it to him.
He caught it and opened it. A look of fury paved over his expression as he read the first page.
“We can process all this shit after we get out of here,” Damien said bitterly. “We need to get Wren back to the academy.”
“I'm fine.”
“You're not.” He held out the journal, and I grabbed it and clutched it to my chest.
“They also found a few Drake scales. Twenty seven of them, and they look old,” Kian added before Damien shadow-traveled us into Rowan’s room.
A huge sigh of relief left my lungs as I collapsed on the bed, still holding the journal to my chest.
Rowan and Rhett stepped in as soon as they sensed us.
“What happened?” Rowan asked, crossing his arms as his gaze bore into me. “The infiltration of the other facility was a success, but there was no sign of your sister, Lachlan.”
“Any leads on any arctic fox shifters?” Damien asked.
Surprise swept across both Rowan and Rhett’s faces before their brows furrowed and their focus trained on me. “What’re you talking about?”
“Why don't we go talk in the office and give Wren some time to herself?” Alister suggested.
“Is that what you want, sweetheart?” Kian placed his hand on my leg and squeezed.
“Yeah, I think I would like some time to read this.” My voice cracked.
Concern thrummed through Rowan and Rhett’s bonds, but they didn’t push.
“Of course.” Kian leaned down and kissed my forehead. “We're going to be right out there if you need us.”
“We'll be back when you're ready, sweet ruby.” Alister leaned down and kissed his mark on my neck, making my body shudder.
Damien leaned forward and kissed my lips. “Take all the time you need.”
“We’re going to be right out here.” Rowan's gaze locked on mine and warmth flooded me as understanding crossed his expression. “I love you, fledgling.”
“You did exceptional today, baby. There was hardly any fear through the bond.” Rhett only released a bit of his pheromones, but they coated my skin enough to make me relax.
With longing glances over their shoulders, they left the room and shut the door behind them.
I let out a shaky breath and adjusted myself on the bed, kicking off my shoes and snuggling under the covers. I flipped the journal to the second page and took in what was written.
We finally caught up with the family of the endangered arctic fox shifters after tracking them for a year. They are most definitely the last ones in existence. To our calculations, the mother got killed in the capture—but she was just an arctic wolf. The father was only wounded. Unfortunately, the small fox got away, but we have hope that the oldest arctic fox shifter will be of use to us. My boss loves endangered species, but I don't see how an arctic fox shifter is any different than an actual fox shifter. Either way, he told us not to inform anyone that we had the shifter. We were to report everyone had died, that the arctic fox shifters were officially extinct.
He's crying for his child and wife. We haven't bothered to tell him if they were dead or alive. I think he assumes that they are both dead.
My throat clogged with emotion as I kept reading, flipping the page.
We took blood samples and gave one to the warlock. He was very interested in it. He said the fox had a special power, but he couldn’t tell what it was.
I hadn't even known Dad had a special power. I frowned as I continued to read.
Depression has sunk its claws into our arctic fox. He tried to commit suicide five times this week. We decided to tell him that his daughter is still alive and that we would hunt her down and bring her here if he didn't cooperate. That seemed to get him out of his funk. We have replaced a few of his vital organs with a regular fox’s. It seems that that makes no difference in his powers.
My gut churned, and my tears dripped on the piece of paper. I flipped through again, going to the back of the journal where the last entry was, and I noticed that it was different handwriting like Damien had said.
The arctic fox shifter is angry with us. We told him that his daughter was almost captured by one of our specimens, but unfortunately, she had help from a few powerful supernaturals that we believe to be her mates. We told him that if he didn't show us his power soon, we would get our hands on her no matter what. She has the power to become incorporeal, a power that I have never heard of. We must get our hands on her and let the warlock extract her power. At this point, I’d be happy with a few vials of her blood. If I have to use her father against her to do it, I will.
I snapped the journal shut and laid it down on the bed, resting my hand on it. Anger poured through me at the complete inhumanity of the humans.
My heart ached terribly, but there was a small amount of relief that my father was still alive. Then the sudden horror slammed into me. I had been mourning him when he wasn't even dead. I continued to live my life when my father was getting tortured for the sake of them not finding me.
But I didn’t know. The fault was with the humans. I would make them all pay for what they had done to him.
Fates, why did you do this to my family?
A sob wrenched from my throat as I balled my hand up into a fist. My body flickered into its incorporeal form a few times as my magic sparked with my pain and anger.
I took a deep breath and calmed my magic, but it buzzed incessantly inside of me. I needed my mates. “You can come in,” I said loudly, tugging on their bonds.
The door flung open, and the six of my mates that were here barreled through, surrounding me as they climbed on the bed. Their desperation filled the bonds.
“We have to save him.” I shifted my gaze to meet everyone’s eyes and landed on Rowan’s.
“We will, fledgling. I promise.”
I handed the journal to Rowan. “Read the last page.”
His eyes scanned it before flames lit up his shoulders and died again. “They won’t touch you.”
He handed the journal back to me, and I nodded. “I know, but they have to pay.”
“They will, little bird. I promise you that.” Damien growled, running a hand through his hair.
Alister flicked his tongue over his fangs. “Looks like we’ll have to win this war with the humans faster than we thought. If the warlock working with them has actually figured out how to extract magical energy, then they need to be put down like the evil they are.”
“Fast and swift,” Damien added, and everyone hummed in agreement.
Somehow, I ended up in the middle of all of them—each of my mates touching me somehow as we fell asleep. Shade had curled up in a ball on my chest, fast asleep.
They made me feel like everything was going to be okay.
TWENTY-NINE
Thorn
“It's a valid option.” I moved my hands as I spoke, ice spreading over my arms. “Birch has always wanted the title of king, and as much as I hate to admit it, he worked just as hard as I did up until three years ago when the war started… because of something incredibly stupid.”
“Stupid, yes, but because of the Fire Kingdom,” Mother grumbled, adjusting her ice crown on her head.
“And since Birch and Adele have decided to pursue whatever relationship they had, for the sake of themselves and their child, they can unite the kingdoms in a way that has only been done a century ago between the Air and Earth kingdoms. Look how great the Earth and Air kingdom are now from a marriage alliance that long ago. This alliance wouldn't be just political either. Adele and Birch love each other.”
Birch nodded his head. “We really do… I am truly sorry about my actions that started the war—but I couldn't stay away from her. She's my chosen mate. We, um, actually completed the bond last night,” Birch admitted, scratching the back of his head as a blush tinged his cheeks pink.
“Oh, congratulations!” Mother cupped her mouth as tears formed in her eyes. “When are you two bringing Forrest to see us?”
“We plan to, for dinner tonight.” He smiled, and I knew that was how I looked when I spoke about Wren. No wonder my brother had spiraled so far. I should’ve been there for him during it…
Father sighed, rubbing his temples. “Birch, you don't even know if the woman is the same woman that you met three years ago. Three years changes a person.”
“With all due respect, Father, but Adele is my mate. I love her now, and I loved her then. Even when we were children. Nothing could change how I feel about her.”
Mother sniffled and smiled, patting Father's hand. “I actually approve of this arrangement.”
Father groaned, rubbing his hand down his face. “Thorn. Our people are expecting you to be king. And if you haven't heard, the public is absolutely in love with your mate. She’s helped them with salves to aid our soldiers, and she saved Birch during the confrontation with the Fire Kingdom. How are they going to feel when we tell them that you and Wren will no longer be king and queen of the Ice Kingdom? Instead, it will be Birch and Adele, the two who were the reason for the war in the first place.”
“It could go over with them better than you’d think, considering they're also the ones who stopped the war,” Mother mentioned. “Plus, Thorn has a great point about bringing our kingdoms together with a royal marriage after such a bloody war.”
“They would rule both kingdoms, and that will be rough for both of you. Your life forces will be tied to both kingdoms. It will take a toll.” Father heaved another sigh, sliding his hand over the ice table, frozen crystals forming in his wake.
“We can handle it,” Birch said, determination crossing his features.
“Father, my mate lives in Kalista and so do her other mates. My life isn’t here anymore. It’s with Wren. It would kill her if I was tied to the fae realm. Please understand my reasoning.” Ice dust exploded from me, coating everyone in a thin sheen, and I shot them a sheepish smile. “Sorry.”
“You wouldn’t have wanted to be separated from me like that,” Mother reminded him, and his stern expression softened.
“I agree to allow Birch to prove himself fit to take over as king. Birch, you’ll be going into a crash course with me, shadowing everything I do.”
“Really?” Birch's eyes lit up.
I leaned back in my chair, relief overflowing from my chest. Wren would be so happy with this news.
“But if you screw up, Birch. That's it. You have three weeks to prove you can handle this role. I remember how well you studied before the war. Don’t disappoint us.” Father gave Birch a strong nod. “Three weeks to prove yourself. If you cannot, Thorn will be the one to take over.”
