5. Chapter Five

CHAPTER FIVE

CREED'S POV

S tudents crowd around the academy's main entrance, injured and huddled together like rodents or gathered around the faculty members crying.

This is why I couldn't stand being in this academy for long. None of them had ever experienced an ounce of hardship, let alone our daily misery. They wouldn't last two seconds without the security of the academy or their families.

We make our way through the groups huddled together; even in the chaos, the crowd parts with ease for us. As they should.

A faculty member calls for the first years, and begins to move them into the academy, calling for the second years shortly after.

Guess they were trying to organise things.

I look around at the mess and corpses laid out around different parts of the academy's grounds.

This had been a shit show. Not even the faculty were fully prepared for this, and they should have been.

If it were in my domain, they wouldn't have gotten one toe into the parking lot before I crushed them.

A few faculty members group together and approach the beast corpses. They form their spells, and large green flames appear and wrap around the bodies before they incinerate them and then move on to the next corpse.

A couple of the faculty separate from the rest and move toward two of the smaller corpses. They chant, casting preservation magic on the bodies before levitating them toward the training grounds.

I guess they'll be doing their own investigation soon.

How the hell had they let all this happen in the first place? I knew they were useless, but…this was just ridiculous.

This stupid shithole was supposed to be fortified, having ‘impenetrable barriers', and not once but twice did they put my people in danger.

I still hadn't found any leads on the attack on Morgan, but this attack should give me some answers. There's no way, with all this carnage, that someone didn't slip up.

These attacks were obviously planned, but for what, I'm still unsure of.

But they've fucked with the wrong people. Dragging Morgan and the boys into this shit? I shake my head. There won't be a third time.

I look around at the groups still left in the yard. Where the hell was Morgan? Everyone had left the dorms already, so where was sh—

"Creed!" Morgan calls, heading over with Grey and an injured Ash in tow.

I grab her as she reaches me, wrapping my arms around her. Thank god she was safe.

Morgan could be as stubborn as I was and just as protective of what was hers. I glance back at Ash, who's clutching his injured waist, and Grey, who's supporting him on one side.

Those bastards needed to level the fuck up. Weak was not a word I wanted to be associated with the men supporting my sister. She deserved only the best.

"Micai!" Morgan yells as she struggles free from my arms and walks over to her. "Are you okay? What happened? Are you hurt anywhere?" She tugs Micai from in between Ezra and Annex— much to their chagrin —and scans her up and down for any injuries or wounds.

Once Morgan's content with her inspection, she pulls her into a hug, a shaky sigh of relief leaving her lips. "Thank the Gods."

My brows draw together as I watch them. When did they become so close? How did Morgan even know Micai?

What the hell had I missed?

I watch as Micai stiffens at Morgan's touch before a soft smile tilts her lips, and she leans into Morgan's embrace, wrapping her own arms around my sister in return.

"I'm fine," Micai calls softly as Morgan pulls back, checking her for a second time. "Can't keep a girl like me down for long."

Morgan glances around at Mallyn, Ezra, and Annex, wincing at the mess of dried blood on Annex's torso. "Clearly, something happened. Maybe you should clean that up."

"A little mess never killed anyone." Annex rubs a hand down his chest, where now a large circle of dried blood resides.

That would draw some attention.

"She's right, we don't need the faculty annoying us with questions. Cover it up."

Annex sighs before heading to a group nearest us and yanking a jacket from the nearest guy. The guy shrivels into a ball as Annex walks back in our direction, throwing the jacket that's clearly a size too small on and pulling it over his torso.

"What?" Annex calls. "I'm covered."

I drag a hand down my face. I guess it was better than a blood-stained chest. But he still looked ridiculous.

Annex slides beside Micai, his arm wrapping around her shoulder, while Ezra's arm is sitting on her hip. Their attention is entirely on her, nestled between them as they ignore everything else around them.

And I don't like it.

Annex died tonight… for her .

He came back like he has many times before…only each time he dies, the madness roots itself deeper inside him. His curse slowly eats away at the sanity in his mind. There was a reason he was so deranged.

I'll have to give him a few jobs to help keep him busy and feed the carnage his madness will make him crave soon.

I glance at the three of them together. What's to say that the next time isn't the one that throws him over the edge? I don't want to lose my brother to his curse.

And Micai…she seemed reckless. There were no strings tying her down and not enough information to make me feel I could trust her.

My people, my family, my brothers…I wouldn't let them get hurt again.

My eyes narrow toward her soft, smiling expression as she watches them.

She was a liability and a weakness we couldn't afford…not with them or with what we planned. She had too many secrets.

She says she ‘trains' but for what? To keep the bullies at bay? I don't think that's all there is to it.

And how did she happen to get speed and strength like that when she's supposed to have no magic or power?

She was able to manage that beast with Grey when even Ash couldn't, and outrun both Annex and Ezra, even keeping up with Mallyn while he was in his beast's form. Even I struggle with that.

What exactly was Micai?

My eyes trail up her body; remnants of dried blood trail down her legs as her dress falls ripped and tattered past her knees.

She's covered in bits of dirt and debris from the forest, yet still looks somewhat…beautiful.

My brows pinch together with the thought before I shake it away.

Annex's laughter pulls me from my thoughts, a smile pulling at both his cheeks and mirroring Ezra's as they continue to talk to her. And some strange cord pulls tightly around my chest.

I'd never seen either of them smile so… genuinely .

Mallyn draws nearer to them, his eyes never leaving Micai as he moves closer to her. What kind of magical pheromone did Micai have to pull all three of my brothers to her?

The ease and comfort that my brothers have with her is unnerving; how they even threw themselves in harm's way without hesitation for her.

I thought she was a phase, something that would pass with a bit of time or the appearance of a better woman, but now…

"Of course not." Annex's words pull me back to whatever conversation they're having. "My girl's made of stronger steel."

Annex wraps his arm back around Micai before dragging her toward him and Ezra.

" Your girl?" Questions Ezra with a playful brow raised.

"Mine, yours, ours." Annex shrugs. "It's all the same bro."

He peers down at Micai, nestled between them. "No argument on it, Red?" His grin widens as she flickers her gaze to him.

"Have I finally worn you down?" He chuckles as she stares at him, a pink blush tinting her small cheeks before she glances back toward a grinning Ezra. They both wear a dopey, loved-up look in their eyes while watching her.

My eyes narrow toward them, my brows drawing deeper downward.

Love? Were they that serious?

I shake my head.

No. They couldn't be that far gone.

They had only known her a couple of months.

They'll change their minds.

People like us…We couldn't love or trust others so easily with what we had been through before.

It just wasn't that simple.