8

Dove

On the field behind the main academy building, clusters of students waited for the first combat instruction of the semester.

Enko stretched out his gigantic arm, pointing toward a crowd of students on one side of the field. "That's the first-years over there. Varma always likes to give a speech, scare the kits a bit."

Kairos and Enko split off from me as I approached the recruits, all chatting excitedly, reuniting with old friends and making new ones. My Fated watched me from afar as I made my way through the crowd, frozen green grass crunching under my feet.

Our schedules were packed full. Physical Training, five days a week. Weapons and Hand to Hand Combat alternated day to day. After our morning workout, we had a short break for eating and showering before our academic class: Demonology, History and Religion, Elements, Tactical Strategies, and eventually Forging.

The academy prepared us for a lifetime of battle, fighting against the demons corrupting our world. We trained to take over a war that our people had been fighting for thousands of years.

Our primary purpose was to protect the weaker inhabitants of the world—the humans. The other supernatural creatures took care of themselves.

In the distance, the older students split as Seven emerged from the forest. Silence passed over everyone. His black hair looked even messier than the day before, and he glared in every direction, daring someone to say something. Everyone ducked out of the way, hiding from him, as though getting too close may kill them. My eyes drank him in like I'd been deprived of water since I'd seen him the day before.

He was the top student at Kitsune Academy, according to the leaderboard, closing in on a thousand kills. Black demon blood or hellfire char streaked across his chin over his jagged scar. He wore a white t-shirt despite the chilly morning, and black pants—I would guess the same ones as the day before. Goddess only knows where he'd slept because he hadn't come back to the dorm since finding out he was Fated to me.

"Why do you suppose they call him Seven? Seven tails?" a girl behind me asked.

"Who cares?" someone else muttered. "He's hot."

Something inside me twitched, objecting to the comment. I glared back at the one who said it.

A guy beside me chuckled, "He had to redo an entire year of classes, that's how he has so many kills on the leaderboard." He reached out a hand to me, "Hey, I'm Caleb."

Caleb was stout and burly, muscles he'd been building years before the academy. He had a kind enough smile, and I needed to make some friends if I wanted to survive at the academy. I shook his hand.

He nodded back toward Seven, continuing, "I heard it's because he went rogue. Killed seven kitsune, took all their magic, stole their tails."

Killing demons wasn't the only way to get tails. Killing any powerful supernatural creature would have the same effect.

Seven should have been much too far to hear the accusation, but his eyes shot directly to us, causing the first-years to go deadly still. He looked at me, though, as if I was the one who had said it. His red eyes flashed like he was about to murder me. My heart pattered, just at the very prospect of his attention. When I curbed the instinctual excitement, I groaned inwardly.

As if he doesn't hate me enough already. And I have to share a dorm with this guy for the next year...

Every tail increased a kitsune's strength, speed, healing, and hearing abilities. He definitely had more than a few tails if he could hear at that distance.

Seven was dangerous, that didn't surprise me. Some kitsune went rogue, sometimes even working with demons, like the supposedly terrifying Lord of Nightmares. And how would Seven rack up so many tails the honorable way?

An older man crossed the field from the academy. Mr. Varma wore shorts despite the freezing morning temperatures, his leg hair raised like a porcupine ready to attack. A copper whistle rested between his lips and he blew loudly to silence the chatter.

"Atten-hut!" He yelled, and the first-years all around me scuffled into rough lines as Mr. Varma blew his whistle a second time.

"Welcome to the academy. As you've probably noticed, this class is required for all levels. That's because the best way to learn is by getting beaten. Half of you won't make it through your first year. For the lucky few who stay committed over the next three years, I will teach you everything you need to know to defend yourself and win against the demons. We'll start with conditioning. Four laps around the academy. Move!"

The whistle screamed again as my eyes scanned the upperclassmen where Enko and Kairos both watched me. Seven stood by their side, a scowl on his face and his arms crossed. He snapped his head in my direction, glaring harshly.

After four laps around the school, I was near the back and actually possibly dying. Each step caused a jolt to ripple up my spine, a shot of pain through the numbness of overexertion.

When the whistle blew, thank the goddess , I collapsed on the ground near the other first-years. Because I didn't have my fox form or any tails, I was slower than basically everyone, and that meant a shorter break. I chugged at my water.

Varma used the whistle again to signal the end of the break. Sit-ups, push-ups, lunges, and half an hour of things I wished didn't exist. Some first-years emptied the contents of their stomachs on all fours. Foxfire Academy churned out the best demon slayers in the entire country, but no training could have prepared me for how difficult it would be straight out the gate.

"Take it as a lesson, kits! Tomorrow morning, you'll remember to stretch! Did you think the academy was going to take it easy on you?" Mr. Varma called out, as if stretching would have helped. He had spent the last hour lounging in a folding chair sipping on a steaming thermos. His method of teaching involved shouting orders and seeing how we fared among the skulk.

We moved on to training with weapons. "Pair up, pick a weapon, and fight!"

Caleb approached me, grabbing a spiked mace from a box of weapons and taking a few steps back. I grabbed my own, a sword. The weapon looked metal, but was too light, slightly squishy. Foam. Then the brunet charged at me, roaring like a bear, his morningstar raised above his head.

I sidestepped, still clutching my weapon to my chest, swinging it toward him and missing. It was much heavier than the weapons I was used to. I jumped forward, slashing, but he easily deflected my amateur blows. Even if I made contact, I doubted the squishy foam would bruise his woven muscles. He rushed at me, taking me to the ground, slamming me onto my back. I gasped at the stinging pain rippling over my scars, igniting the old injury. I let out a small cry of pain.

"Seeing stars?" Caleb laughed, not understanding the flareup of burns. Based on some of the other matches, he'd actually gone easy on me. His hand reached down to help me up, but I pushed myself to my feet.

"Good fight," I commented as I readied myself for another try.

He barely smiled. "You could say that."

We sparred for the better part of an hour before tossing the weapons back into one of the wooden boxes. He sauntered away as though he hadn't just beaten me black and blue. I wasn't the only one. Half the other first-years had taken a beating. This was our first homage to our ancestry, fighting for our rank in the hierarchy.

"You get whooped too?" A sigh came from next to me. She had auburn hair and big glasses with black rims that magnified her eyes. She wore a brown sweater vest over an orange shirt and legwarmers.

"Brynn!"

She bumped her hip against mine, "Got your note. Can't believe you were going to leave without saying goodbye. How'd you get the Elder to change his mind?"

"Fated," I said simply, unable to control my grin.

Her smile matched mine, "Lucky. Who?"

I pointed out the guys and she let out a low whistle. "A third-year? Which one?"

"All three—"

" All three? " Brynn repeated, eyeing me as though I lied. When she was satisfied in her evaluation, she crossed her arms and bobbed her head. Everyone headed to the locker room to strip from their sweat-ridden clothes and I steered off course.

"You coming?" Brynn asked as I faltered.

"I forgot my clothes," I told her. She offered me her spare set, but I merely shook my head, limping my sore body the long way to the dorm to change privately.

I emerged from the shower, dressing in some black jeans and a t-shirt under my black jacket. Enko and Kairos waited on the other side of the bathroom door.

"We were looking everywhere for you," Kairos said, his voice authoritative. "Do you know how worried we were?"

"I took a shower—"

"You need to tell us where you're going to be," Kairos demanded, acting a bit too bossy for my taste. "What's your phone number?"

I passed my phone over to Kairos so he could put in his number, turning to Enko, the kindest of my roommates. "What's this about?"

He smiled sympathetically. "It's not safe around here, Dove. Especially now that people know you're Fated to us. In the past couple years, we've made some enemies. The last thing we want is for you to come between us and them."

"Not just at school, but off campus too. Don't forget the Lord of Nightmares is prowling in the city. You need to be careful, Dove," Kairos said.

The Lord of Nightmares? There was that name again. As though everyone feared the rogue kitsune, a mob kingpin that ruled over the nearby city of Lethe.

"You can't trust anyone but Enko, Seven, and me," Kairos said as he pressed my phone into my palm.

I held back a laugh. "You want me to trust Seven? Someone who has never even spoken a word directly to me? And who has gone out of his way to insult me at every turn? He's an ass."

"Yeah, he is. But Seven's the kind of ass you want on your side," Enko said.

Kairos and Enko escorted me to my next class, Demonology. I invited their company. Having two experienced students to guide my way to my classes was helpful. And...something else I could barely place, a sizzle of excitement, a stream of bliss. Something about being with them provided me with an indescribable comfort, one I'd never felt before.

Like we belonged together.