10. Xander

Chapter 10

Xander

I stalk into the deputy headmaster's office after Scythe and Lyle, who are on the tail of the self-proclaimed Lord Phoenix.

The fact that this haughty peacock has taken over his school isn't sitting well with the territorial lion, and I can see it in the way his aura pulses around him in clashing colours of red and black. To my delight, Lyle is positively murderous. This change in hierarchy is mildly annoying for Scythe and me, as Damien Agnis has the potential to be a royal nuisance.

During the middle of the lockdown, I'd forged a dragon-door from the animus dorms into Lyle's office so he could collect his things, including the carved blue angel Savage had made when we were children.

Well, the one I'd cured for him with dragon heat. I'd almost fried the thing back then. Being five, I'd only just managed control over the power I emitted from my palms.

So when we enter the office now, it's clear Damien has made quick work of moving himself in. The walls smell of fresh paint, barely dry. He's chosen black, with red accents on the skirting. It's garish interior design, and I sneer at it and the red leather wing-back behind the new amber desk. Lyle's wall-to-wall bookshelves have been removed from the right-hand side and replaced with a series of three ornate gold-framed illustrations: a newborn phoenix rising from the ashes, a phoenix blasting a group of humans with a stream of fire, and a third, a phoenix tied to a stake, but instead of the stake being on fire, the crowd of onlookers have been set alight.

The mythic orders have a habit of spreading their own propaganda, and phoenix court is no exception.

Damien saunters around the desk and sits on the red leather chair, leaving us to realise that he's removed the two chairs that used to be on the visitor's side. Scythe, Lyle and I stand on the other side like naughty students sent to the principal's office.

"Damien," Lyle says, barely suppressing his aggression and rendering me rather impressed.

" Lord Damien," the phoenix snaps with a warning flare in his golden eyes. The sort of gold a dragon might like to add to his collection.

Lyle stares at him, hard, his power flaring out around his head like a mane of lethal energy.

"Easy," Scythe warns in our telepathic group chat.

"I know," Lyle snaps. That mane of power sways on a phantom breeze, controlled but waiting.

"Firstly, how you were considered fit for teaching is beyond me," Damien continues, clasping his hands on the desk before him. "Why the council did not detain you immediately was, frankly, a bad judgement call."

This bird has no idea that the reason the Council didn't cart Lyle away was because the obsidian chains the feline king had thrown at him simply hadn't worked to detain his power.

"Secondly," Damien says, tilting his pert nose up, "My family owns this land. The leadership team needs to reflect and respect that."

" Celeste owns this land," Lyle says with the hint of a growl. "It was granted to her by way of her father."

"We are subjects of the Old Laws," Damien says. "Therefore, the title goes to the eldest living male in the family, which"—he spreads out both his hands—"is me. "

I cast a wary eye about the walls of the office, my senses seeking out the magical sentience of the building and surrounds. The school would decide where the title went for itself.

Celeste, for her part, is avoiding Damien. Though she is a powerful phoenix, no doubt rivalling this imposter, she is very much a poster child for her order. Their way is hidden and quiet. Mysterious and eccentric. Her instinct makes her spend her time alone in the quiet, away from the humdrum of society.

On top of that, according to Lyle, the Agnis family has been trying to get Celeste to reproduce with Damien. The phoenix population is a critically endangered species, practically on the brink of extinction. None of them are finding their own natural mates, let alone a pack.

Damien and Celeste are first cousins.

That's how desperate these creatures are.

And perhaps a little in-breeding leads me to surmise that Damien was born with a few essential screws missing.

"And you ," Damien gestures a rude hand at me, sensing the inquiring shift of my magic. "Your father and I have been in conversation. He tells me the most disturbing things about you, Xander."

I blink lazily at him. I'm sure they were disturbing. Not all of them lies, too. The dragon inside me wants to test this phoenix and see what shiny things we could make out of his power.

"I won't have a rebellious, undisciplined dragon with an addiction problem strutting about my school. You'll wear obsidian for the duration of your stay here."

Who, me? My dragon blinks up at me in question before yawning, long and wide.

"Well? What do you have to say?" Damien demands.

I smirk, "I'm just wondering what roasted phoenix tastes like."

His face contorts with rage. "How dare you?—"

"Damien," Lyle interjects. "You need to be careful."

Steam billows out of my nose on a heavy exhale. Ever noble Lyle is actually trying to help the nutter.

Damien shoots to his feet. "Careful of my own students? I think not."

Lyle only sighs.

It's only then that Scythe steps in. If there was another seat in the office, he would have sat in it. Instead, he strides to the bay windows on the left-hand side, and with no chairs in front of them, he leans against the wall, looking out at the school grounds. I wonder what he sees in the phoenix's aura. What lies and weaknesses are evident.

"And Scythe Kharkorous, the crime lord," Damien sneers, clearly trying to regain purchase on the conversation. "So it's true that you are also tied to the Boneweaver pack. I would not have believed it until I saw the bond today." He drums his fingers on the desk. "Do not think I don't know exactly what you're up to."

Scythe looks upon him with feigned surprise, addressing him with that slow, measured ice that usually sends lesser beasts falling prostrate. "And what is that, Lord Agnis?"

Damien cringes a little, as everyone does the first time they hear Scythe's harsh, damaged rasp. "I could have you thrown into the Lily Sanctuary within minutes. Do not think you can threaten me."

I bark out a laugh.

Scythe must be feeling venerable today and ignores Damien's audacity. "My peaceful stay here rests on the basis that our terms are honoured."

"I refuse to negotiate with criminals," Damien spits, cutting his palm through the air. "This is why I'm taking over. To set things straight. To bring back integrity. And the law. You may have friends in high places, but so do I."

He tugs on a chain of gold from under his collar. Attached to it is a pendant made of gold and emerald, and it vibrates with a power I know too well. "You think I came here without protection?"

I stare in utter surprise at the dragon-made trinket until he tucks it back into his shirt away from sight. I almost sigh in relief as the threat of my sire's power leaves the air.

"You cannot harm me, Scythe Kharkorous," Damien declares again.

"What need would I have to harm you?" Scythe asks calmly. "The students answer to me, however, and I could make your stay here very difficult, if I so choose."

And a majority of the guards.

Damien's lips thin out. "We shall see about that." He turns back to Lyle. "I need to discuss the Boneweaver."

"Her name is Aurelia," Lyle says through clenched teeth.

Damien smiles, and it's quite an unpleasant thing to look at. "Yes, your troublesome regina ." He takes a deep breath as if stabilising himself. "I understand this is a delicate situation, but I also understand that her multiple legal issues are, in fact, ongoing. I will take over her counselling from you, just as I will be counselling all the difficult students."

"You will not." Lyle steps forward. "She is mine. She will always be mine. I have been managing the legalities with my lawyer. No male will be interfering with our regina."

Damien passes Lyle a droll look. "Mind yourself, Lyle. This is highly uncivilised. If you are to remain a teacher here, you need to be a good example of control and civility."

"I am perfectly in control," Lyle grits out. "If I weren't, you would be bleeding out right now."

Damien gives him a cold smile. "You would die trying."

Lyle is at the desk in a heartbeat, gripping the edges so hard the wood cracks. He leans over to sneer at the phoenix. "And you will die trying to bed Celeste. She will never take you as a mate. She will never accept you. Nor will this school."

With that, he turns around and storms out. I'm tempted to do a slow clap, but refrain because Scythe would disapprove.

Damien's ugly smile turns into a sneer. Well, well…we've struck a nerve.

"Now you've done it," I remark.

Damien dismisses me with a deliberate turn of his head, something my sister used to do when she was angry with me as a child, except she'd also pout and cross her arms.

Scythe says, "I will be taking Aurelia out of the school in a couple of weeks. She will be returned safely of course."

"For what possible reason? She is a convicted felon."

"For business."

"Absolutely not!" Damien says as if that's the case closed.

"I will be taking her whether you like it or not."

Usually, for Scythe, negotiations mean head on a platter, or body in a splatter. Because when you hear his feet approaching, it's too late to run. But Damien is a special case.

"Arrogant of you to assume I would allow that."

Scythe's eyes glitter as the room drops in temperature at least twenty degrees. "You would regret the moment you tried to intervene."

But Damien just tosses his head, letting his golden, phoenix eyes glow, casting heat in a shimmer around himself. "However, I am willing to negotiate."

I raise a brow.

"I understand that Lyle is newly mated and… touchy about his regina." He waves a hand as if that is all very beneath him. "He may come between me and my observations, and I would like to see Aurelia shift into a phoenix."

The room is quiet now, a sour wind sweeping up what is left of the oxygen. Scythe stares at Damien.

"Why?" I ask.

"I simply want to see it," he shrugs. "Celeste and I are amongst the last of our kind. To see another is a rare and, frankly, wonderful thing. All would be blessed to look upon my own order."

A dark rainbow of understanding flutters around Scythe's aura, and I wonder if he's had the same thought. Wondered what Aurelia would look like as a Great White shark.

"None of this is for us to decide," Scythe says slowly. "It will be up to Aurelia whether she agrees to this or not."

"You will learn that she is quite stubborn," I say dryly.

Damien's reaction is not at all what I expect, and it makes my dragon's hide crawl. His eyes glitter with something akin to excitement. "Is that so?" he murmurs. "A good quality."

We leave the new deputy's office in silence, Scythe cold and distant, as per normal, and me irritated and heated up, as per normal.

Georgia, Lyle's old PA, is now at her desk just outside the office, looking a little worse for wear with an unusually messy lopsided bun and smudged eyeliner. She is aggressively chewing on her lip as she stares at Lyle's back where he waits for the elevator.

I get out a dragon-strength joint and light it with a finger flame as the doors slide open and we step inside.

"Give me that." Lyle snatches the joint right out of my fingers. "I need it more than you."

Scythe prowls into the elevator just before the doors close. I take out another joint and light it for myself.

"What's the plan?" Lyle growls, smoke streaming out of his mouth as he speaks.

"To keep you calm," Scythe growls. "To keep you away from a murder trial."

I nod in agreement as Lyle glowers at us both.