2

Dove

"Fail?" I asked aloud to the hollow female voice.

How could I have failed? That can't be right. Not after how hard I worked. I'd done better than most of the applicants that had passed. Some couldn't even defeat all their demons.

Glass walls lined the floor above, allowing applicants and students of Foxfire Academy to view the physical admissions exam. And they all had watched me fail, their eyes glistening with their sneers. Any spot not taken made their chances better to enter the academy.

" Any concerns may be submitted to the Academy Elder. Please exit to your left."

A loud buzz sounded and a gate opened. I exited the testing room, feeling as though I was inside a bad dream. Dingy orange lights lit the cement hallway. I climbed the stairs from the underground arena toward the office of the Elder.

Fail. Fail. Fail . The word kept repeating.

I passed by the glass walls, where another applicant had begun his exam—three unseelie pixies flying around him, Tier I. But nobody watched him.

Everyone circled around a man with golden hair. The crowd of students laughed hysterically at whatever joke he'd told. He looked like the type who ran the academy like a kingdom. His addictive aura compelled me to stare. He was well over six feet and he carried a golden mace that matched his hair, his square jaw smooth shaven.

He hopped on one leg, kicking it outward. Heat bloomed in my face as I realized he was doing an impression of me. The man flung the imaginary demon several more times. He moved on to me fighting the chort, standing completely frozen, his mouth slightly ajar, his blank stare fixated on a nearby wall, getting more laughter as he dragged it out.

Mortified, I edged around, hoping to get to the Elder unnoticed. But the golden-haired man found me with ease. While my unnatural white hair didn't help me blend into crowds, it also was a telltale sign of my lack of magic.

"Hey! There she is!" the guy yelled, causing the entire room to turn and block me in. His voice brought my attention back to him. The deep rumble like thunder putting me in a trance. His blue eyes crashed over me like ocean waves, ensnaring me with his intense presence and his striking features.

"Six and a half minutes!" a girl said, flipping her short blonde hair. "I didn't think you'd make it past that scary imp." She put her hand over her mouth and trembled in mock horror, earning a few pity laughs from those around her.

"Well, she talked to that chort for like two minutes," a student chimed in.

"For next year's exam, if it's an imp, just end it. Don't let their teeth get near you," some guy said, looking down at the blood oozing from my leg. "Maybe a longer weapon would help."

As the other students spoke, the guy with golden hair kept his focus on me as he stepped forward, staring down at me due to his height. His lopsided smile looked kinder than his words suggested. "Too bad you didn't get accepted. Would have made for an entertaining year."

He held out his hand, as though to congratulate me for failing. He smelled fantastic, like fresh rainfall. I clenched my fists, keeping my feet planted firmly. Backing down or submitting would make me look weak, even if this male's scent was ambrosia.

He drew his hand away, resting it on his golden mace. "Or not."

"Do you ever think about anything other than getting laid, Kairos?" a guy appeared at his side. A giant. A titan. A mythical hero. Taller and bulkier than everyone else around. A good few inches taller than the golden Kairos. Brown hair swooped over his forehead, chestnut eyes roasted over me, causing heat to swell inside me. He wore a forest green sports jersey with the number twenty in gold. A sword handle rested on his hip, no blade in sight.

All kitsune had weapons to fight off any demons. Demons were drawn to kitsune—they wanted to kill us as much as we wanted to kill them.

The students parted in fear as a guy with black hair and tattoos covering his arms and neck stepped forward. Dark ruby eyes, flawless skin, his hair effortlessly styled, messy but in a way that looked intentional. Gorgeous but deadly, like an angel of death. A deep pink scar curved from his ear to his jaw, across his cheek. He wore a white t-shirt and black jeans with a dagger and a shortsword hanging on either side of him, both so black the metal absorbed every ray of light around them.

The only thing missing from his bad boy appeal was a leather jacket. Something told me he had one. His eyes swept over me with disapproval before telling his friend, "I would actually like to get some sleep tonight."

"I didn't ask you to join," Kairos, the golden-haired god responded, giving me a reassuring smile and a wink. "Unless you want him to, of course."

The comment caught my breath, heat pooling in my cheeks and everywhere else.

"He needs his beauty sleep," the giant piped in. The dark one punched him hard in the arm, but the giant didn't flinch.

"Don't you have any standards?" the dark one asked his friends as he examined me with contempt. A few of the students chuckled nervously at the comment. The dark one's glare kept everyone a safe distance away. "At least fuck someone who can pass the admissions exam."

Those words snapped me back into reality. I pushed through the crowd, doing all I could not to run away and embarrass myself further.