14. Aurelia

Chapter 14

Aurelia

S o Connor wasn't exaggerating when he called the confinement space ‘the dungeons.'

It's a dim, circular cavern, deep under the earth.

Our entire class is packed like sardines, standing on the bare, dirt-floor of a cell carved into the earthen wall, leaving those at the front to peer through the thick obsidian bars at another class of naughty students across the cavern.

There's a pit toilet in our cell, obviously used, and the place smells strongly of that, and serpent. In short, it's definitely something I'd expect grumpy old dragon-lords to keep their unfavourables in.

Yeti had muscled everyone aside to push Minnie up against the bars to a prime position for fresh air, and I got to be next to her, with Raquel, Stacey and Connor squished up next to and behind me, sulking away about not being able to sit down. Our nimpins chirp their sorrows in our ears, feeling everyone's shared discomfort.

I mean, I'm sulking too. We all are, full pout and crossed arms and everything. Though it's useless because the guards shoved us in here and then left through the low-ceilinged tunnel that leads back above ground.

"Feels very authentic, doesn't it?" Connor says from where he's pressed against Beak. "It was creepy being down here by myself last night, but with all of us in here, it's just a party!"

"Minus the actual party," Stacey grumbles, shaking the obsidian bars with both hands. "I'd put music on, but then we'd get found out."

"We can sing," Minnie says helpfully. "What's a good prison song?"

"They must sing in prison," Connor says. "Shame Savage isn't here so we could ask him."

The pang of sadness that strikes my heart every time my wolf-mate is mentioned strikes me anew, making me sink lower into my gloom.

My phone vibrates where I've hidden it inside my bra, and I hiss at my friends to cover me from the security cameras we've located on the wall opposite us.

When I see who it is, my stomach leaps.

"Lyle?" I whisper.

All the grumbles in our cell go quiet to listen in.

"Angel?" comes an angry voice. "Why have you barred me out of your mind?"

He must've been trying to communicate with me, but locked in obsidian, any telepathic communications would be blocked.

"Help us, Mr Pardalia!" one of the felines from the back of cell shrieks. "Help us—" someone quite obviously slaps a hand over his mouth and there's a brief shoving and tugging. My ass gets painfully pressed into the bars, and I grimace.

"Not on purpose," I whisper quickly. "It's just Dolores being…well, Dolores. He's—" I'm suddenly aware of the fact that Scythe has specifically ordered me to keep Lyle calm. And telling him I've been locked up doesn't equal a calm lion.

"He's what ?" Danger drips from his voice and I can't pretend it doesn't make my anima preen to hear him protective like this.

"It's just a cute little punishment he's given the whole class." I try and sound bubbly, frantically gesturing to Connor and Minnie to back me up. "Not me specifically. But we're in obsidian, so I can't chat right now."

"Yeah, we're having a good time, actually!" Connor does a great fake laugh. "Don't worry about it, Mr Pardalia."

"I'm drawing pictures," Stacey says helpfully, shoving her foot through the bars to make patterns on the dirt floor. "It's so cool down here."

"Down where ?" Lyle's animus has that gravelly voice that makes goosebumps erupt all over me.

"Nowhere!" I say quickly. "Gotta go, there's cameras."

I hang up on him.

Raquel pats me on the back.

"Adorable," Stacey sighs, wistfully. "He might be angry enough to blast us out of here."

"Why didn't you ask him to bail us out?" a male voice asks angrily.

Yeti lets out a low growl. "He can't, you idiot. Shut the fuck up before I come over there."

I grumble. "I really didn't want him to get into any more trouble on my account. He's not deputy headmaster anymore because of me."

"Well, someone's gotta put Dolores in his place," Minnie says, resting the back of her head on Yeti's chest. "This is going to get out of hand, I can just tell."

"I'd offer to shift into a mouse," I say, "and steal some keys, but they'd just lock me right back up."

"Can you really do a mouse, Lia?" Yeti asks.

A flash from the side of my eye tells me Xander is shifting around wherever he's pressed against the cell wall. Though his eyes are dark and hollow, his mating mark glows with that ephemeral celestial light that does nothing but draw me in.

"Yeah," I say nonchalantly. "I've done a possum too." Just for fun when I was a kid. It had snuck into my cottage in my early days in there, when I'd forgotten to shut the kitchen window one night. I'd found him hunched over my left over two-minute noodles when I'd gone to investigate the noise, butter-knife raised. He wasn't even scared of me, so that's when I gave him a shove to send him tumbling out the window. I have to touch the creature to be able to shift into them.

"Why the hell would you shift into useless animals?" Rowan, a hyena standing behind Yeti, asks. "If it was me, I'd choose something cool, like an elephant. Or an echidna."

I've never touched an elephant before, so I can't do that. But the insane sense of smell would be useful. I'd be even better at hunting than a wolf.

We've stood in our cages for almost exactly three hours before the metal grate at the entrance slides open and Damien prances in with a line of guards. Everyone goes still, on high alert, and Yeti's arms tighten possessively around Minnie.

Damien's white glasses flash in the dim light. "Students," he announces haughtily, "do you feel like you've learned your lesson?"

No one replies and I pass Stacey a dark look.

"Sir, this isn't sanitary!" Rowan whines. "If the parents hear about this?—"

Damien laughs. "I'm sure your parents are thanking me for long overdue discipline." He waves the guards forwards. "I will have your complete obedience, or nothing at all. Hence, I will make this discipline memorable."

"I'm hungry!" one of the eagles shout. "You have to feed us at some point."

Damien shrugs and gestures to the guards. "Only good students get fed. You are not, in fact, good students."

We all watch on as the guards heave at something next to our cell. It takes two big felines to do it, but they manage to pull at whatever it is.

Our entire cell begins to shudder.

Minnie lets out a little, "uh oh" just as we begin to descend. The dirt floor isn't actually a dirt floor, but the bottom of a metal cage covered in a thick layer of packed dirt—which falls away as the concrete beneath opens up like a massive trap door.

The whole thing shudders and everyone panics.

"Oh Goddess!" Stacey shouts.

"This is not fun! This is not fun!" Connor screams.

"We're lambs to slaughter!" Minnie shouts. "Yeti! What do we do?"

Meanwhile, the nimpins zip around the cell, twittering wildly.

"Oh, settle down." Damien's voice follows us as we descend into the dark. With my heightened, panicked senses, I smell salt water. A lot of it. "You will sit in the water until everyone gives up the contraband mobile phones I know some of you keep on your person. They are just as bad as telepathy during class."

"What!" Stacey whisper-shouts.

I glance at Yeti, who I'm sure has a Scythe-given phone, probably with all sorts of illegal matter he can't give up to Dolores.

"There are at least four!" Damien shouts before we're swallowed by darkness and I lose sight of him completely. "Hand them over and this entire ordeal will be forgotten."

Us animas clutch onto each other on the metal platform, peering down into the void below. Down, down we descend, the cage shuddering and shaking until?—

My sneakers splash into water.

We keep descending. The water enters our cage.

"It must be a t-tank!" Raquel shouts above the din of the other students. "C-Calm down, they won't d-drown us."

"Ya think so?" Stacey cries, clutching onto my arm as freezing water covers my feet and enters my shoes.

There's more swearing and shrieking as the icy water shocks our skins. We splash around, fruitlessly trying to get away from it. But we're still descending into the tank and groaning as the water reaches my thigh, then covers my waist.

"My balls!" Connor shrieks.

"My ovaries!" I shout back.

The nimpins shriek as one for good measure.

It's then that I look over at Minnie only to see that Yeti has her on his shoulders, her legs dangling on either side of his chest.

The cage finally groans to a halt when my blouse balloons about my waist, leaving me shivering.

"Xander," Yeti growls. "A little help here?"

Obsidian shackles clank purposefully from somewhere behind us. "Can't," comes the flat reply.

A chorus of swearing sounds from the animuses.

Damien's voice comes from high above us, and we all look up to see a small circle of light and the shadow of a head that must be his. "If you won't give up your illicit electric devices, I will render them inactive with the water. Fair is fair."

"Jokes on him," Stacey mutters, "Mine's in my bra."

So is mine, and Yeti palmed his to Minnie, so she has one in each cup. We're left in complete darkness, teeth chattering, clutching to each other for warmth, for an estimated fifteen minutes before Damien's voice sneers from above us. "Last chance!"

Stacey's grip on me tightens. She's the second shortest of us after Minnie. "He's not going to?—"

But he does. Our cage begins its descent anew and the water level creeps up our bodies, and I have no choice but to take my phone out of my bra and hold it above my head. Stacey has no choice but to hand me her phone and tread water, and I'm glad Minnie is safe on Yeti's shoulders or else we'd be in trouble.

The water is at my chin, my toes bobbing above the cage floor, before we're shrieking at them to stop for Stacey's sake. Connor ends up grabbing our lioness, and she piggybacks him in tears. We're all shivering now, noses dribbling, and my entire body is now numb.

"He is going to drown us," Minnie says in disbelief from above me. "He's actually out to kill us."