22

Dove

The Archfox remained silent. I could feel his eyes watching me. "I'm sorry, Your Holiness. I didn't know it was you in the shrine. I would have never… never disobeyed an order from the Archfox."

An execution for my disobedience would not have been out of place for other Archfoxes in the past. I could only hope that we had advanced a little in the past hundred years.

"I promise I'll never let it happen again, please forgive me for the insolent way I acted."

He remained silent through my ramblings, never responding as I groveled before him. I heard the scratch of pen on paper, as though he worked with me bowing there. It was a fair punishment, and I knew he could do much worse, so I quieted myself.

How long was I there? Were Enko and Kairos waiting outside?

My knees and back ached from the low bow.

"Dove, you may rise," he said after a long time.

I rose from the floor, remaining slightly bent forward despite the pain in my back.

"Take a seat." His hand outstretched to one of the chairs in front of his desk. My eyes shot back down and moved forward, sitting, but still not looking up at him. "Where did that fierce kitsune go? The one who snapped at me earlier and called me old?"

"I'm so sorry about that, Your Holi—"

" Those are the kitsune who will win this war for us. You are not this meek fox, so stop acting like it. Or maybe I'll start to believe what Seven said about you."

I found the courage to meet his eyes, inclining my head in a nod.

"If you have multiple mates, that means you're powerful. And we are going to need power for what's coming."

My brows raised. "In case you missed the message, I don't have my first tail. I've never shifted into fox form."

"That's not uncommon in these situations. If your magic releases when you are too young, the sheer power of it could kill you. Your mates can help soothe that transition. It's important you have them to support you. Even Seven, though you two don't seem to get along."

A question hung at the end of his statement. I barely withheld a scoff. This was about him being friends with Seven. "Seven rejected me, not the other way around."

"Like it or not, we don't choose our Fated. You will heal your bond with Seven. That's an order. Not doing so could put you at risk for your first transformation."

When I opened my mouth to argue, the Archfox turned the monitor around so that I could see the beginning of a paused video of security footage.

It was the fence on the perimeter of campus. The Archfox pushed play, and after a few seconds, I appeared on the monitor, my white hair almost glowing in the dark footage as I walked diagonally along the screen.

"What were you doing out there?" The Archfox asked, pausing the video.

I gulped at the lump in my throat, the dryness in my mouth. "Just going for a walk around campus," I lied.

He pulled up another clip of a video of me jogging back the other direction.

The Archfox frowned. "This is on the outside of the fence, Dove. I already know you broke academy rules, so I would appreciate it if you refrained from lying to me. You left the grounds, broke security protocols that are in place for your safety. I have every right to expel you right now."

My breath caught, my mouth hanging open as I searched for any defense.

He hit play, seeing me collapse over the edge of the fence, getting caught and hanging upside-down.

"As it is, your secondary round of blood tests came back positive for the Fated match in all cases." He paused. "I won't be expelling you, but next time your punishment will be more severe than this. The security is in place for a reason. You are to sign out at the gate, like all other students from here on out. As this is your first infraction, you are not allowed to go off-campus without one of your mate's supervision."

"You're not expelling me?" I said, careful not to roll my eyes about the chaperone part.

"No." He shuffled some of the paperwork into a folder.

I wondered if I should be looking at the Holiest of Holy Foxes so often, but he didn't seem to mind. "Thanks."

"No need to thank me, Dove. It's purely strategy for me. Elder Peter reported that you saw the body of the dead student. How are you handling seeing that?"

I shrugged. "Nothing I haven't seen before."

Concern welled up in his eyes. "Right, your temple. How could I forget?" He shuffled through some papers on his desk. My file. "We have many resources for therapy, Dove. You've been through a lot of trauma for being so young."

"I'm fine." He watched me as though he wanted me to continue spilling my heart to a virtual stranger, so I asked, "Is that all, Your Holiness?"

"Have you mated yet? Gone into heat?"

I shook my head, my eyes back on the floor as heat pooled in my face. My eyes jerked to the door. "I should get going. Kairos and Enko are waiting."

"I'd like you to meet with me occasionally to check up." As I agreed with a nod, he continued. "Good. I expect you and Seven to be on better terms by then. Enjoy the rest of your weekend, Dove."

I exited the room, giving one last bow of confusion before closing the door.

"Dove? Are you okay?" Kairos asked immediately, reaching for me and wrapping his arms around me. "What happened with the Archfox?"

Enko waited too, stretching from one of the chairs as he approached us.

"I disrespected him in the shrine. I didn't know it was him. I thought the Archfox was old," I explained.

"He was," Enko said. "Died suddenly three months ago and a new Archfox was chosen by the Council of Elders."

Spending so much time in human cities made me miss the news. It was deemed that the kitsune with the most tails would take the position of Archfox. They didn't have to grow up in the shrines to be chosen like the rest of the ranks of the Holy Foxes. There was no term limit, meaning an Archfox could rule for their lifetime...if they were powerful enough to keep it.

"But you were in there for almost an hour, Dove. That's a bit extreme for a little disrespect," Kairos argued.

"It's a standard punishment in temples. Actually, one of the lighter ones. And after, he wanted to talk." I shook my head, wanting to tell them the interrogation ended with talk of mating.

"Bowing for an hour is a light punishment?"

"He asked if I'd mated or gone into heat yet," I confessed quietly.

Enko's nose scrunched and Kairos shrugged. "I'm not surprised. Rhys Varon is…nosy."

For some reason I wanted the two of them to defend my virtue. But what could they do against the Archfox and his armies?

"And he ordered me to fix the bond with Seven," I admitted.

Kairos scoffed, threading his fingers through his hair. "You don't have to follow his orders, Dove."

I nodded, wondering what the punishment for disobeying him would be.