20. Aurelia

Chapter 20

Aurelia

L yle protectively hovers behind me, with one hand around my waist as we wait in the jungle gym. It's a simulated jungle inside a massive warehouse on the far side of the academy. Each order has scheduled times they're allowed to visit and run around in their shifted forms. Mating groups can even apply to have hunting parties in here, often just before or after the monthly lockdown. But for me, this is my first time coming in, as our particular group of animas normally prefer to go to the student village and get a coffee instead of getting sweaty and dirty and bitten by bugs.

There are a couple of rosellas singing in the highest trees and there's the fresh and clean scent of the eucalyptus and gum trees over the dank manure smell. They have the roof open today, so the sun streams through, tickling the very tops of the biggest trees.

Lyle's thumb stroking my stomach is just as gentle as his voice in my mind. "Are you alright, angel?"

I take a measured breath as I reply into his mind. "Part of me is worried it won't work…and another part of me is worried that it will."

He leans down, lips brushing my neck in a kiss that makes my toes curl. "I'll still love you, no matter what happens."

My breath catches and I spin around in his arms, staring up at his perfect, smiling face until my vision blurs. Just as I'm about to say something back, it's then that Xander and Scythe decide to grace us with their presence and the heavy metal door to the jungle gym squeals open.

Scythe prowls towards us, and I swear his hard gaze wraps a cold wind around Lyle and me.

"Are you ready, Aurelia?" his hoarse rasp wrenches me out of my Lyle daze.

"As I'll ever be," I say, my heart suddenly kicking up its rhythm.

I glance at Xander, who has left his shackles off since our collective near-drowning incident, looking in any direction except mine. I'm sure he is far too curious about this to stay away.

Less than a minute later, Damien arrives, reminding me of a vulture, long-necked and bouncy with his excitement. His eyes find and latch on me right away and I can't help but notice both Scythe and Lyle subtly shift to flank me.

Damien comes to tower above me, compulsively straightening his white suit jacket, golden eyes glowing. "How do you do it, Aurelia? What do you need from me?"

Lyle growls in his chest, presumably from his over eagerness or overfamiliarity with first name use.

I sense all four males listening closely as I clear my throat. "I just need some of your DNA. I…mean, I just need to touch you in your shifted form."

"That's it?" he chirps.

I didn't know it was possible for a grown beast to get quite this excited.

"That's it," I confirm.

Damien nods and turns around, shrugging off his jacket and hanging it off one of the coat hangers on the clothes rack the students use to hang their clothes before they go into the jungle gym. His shirt follows, exposing the unmarked, fleshy milky-white skin of his back. He unbuckles his belt and bends over to pull down his pants.

I narrow my eyes at his white ass before Lyle tugs at my elbow.

"Angel," my lion admonishes, tugging me around to face him.

I let out a nervous laugh, looking up into those powerful amber eyes, currently simmering with disapproval. "Sorry."

He reaches out to stroke the pad of his thumb against my cheek, and by the Wild Goddess, I am so distracted by him that I forget why I'm even there. Until, that is, a burst of light and heat erupts from behind me, followed by a high-pitched, ethereal cry that reverberates all around us.

Slowly, I turn around.

My breath catches as I take in my first ever sight of a phoenix. If I didn't hate Damien so much, I'd admit that his shifted form is breathtakingly stunning.

With plumage of a brilliant, out of this world, glittering red-gold and a wingspan twice the size of mine in eagle form, Damien flaps his wings to settle down on golden claws. His neck is long and regal, a proud tuft of red plumage marking his crown above golden eyes that arrogantly regard us. His tail feathers are fluffy and shimmery, so long they drape across the floor like the train of a king's coronation cloak. He's bigger than I expected, his crown feathers reaching my shoulder.

Xander sniffs, making sure to let us all know he's unimpressed.

Damien ignores him, taking a step forward and bobbing his head to give me permission. Or an order , I suppose.

Lyle's hand never leaves my waist as he follows me while I reach a hand out to touch the most polite place on a bird—the outside of his wing. Fascinated by the brilliance of the red feathers and the way they glitter with gold, I stroke the feathers of Damien's wing more times than is polite. It's not until Lyle clears his throat that I shake myself out of my daze and abruptly straighten, staring at my fingers because I half expect golden flecks to coat them.

They don't, of course, and instead I feel a slight tingling travelling up my fingers and palm. The sensation continues all the way through my shoulder until it hits my head and then I feel a little dizzy.

Any doubt of my ability to turn into a phoenix abruptly leaves me. With new power flooding my veins and a thread of excitement, I step away from Lyle's grip and whip off my blouse and unbutton my shorts. Turning away from the men, I kick off my shoes…until I realise I'd put on a bright red G-string this morning.

But I'm already here now.

And if Damien Agnis really wants to see my ass that much, he may as well.

So I give myself a little shrug and pull my shorts down.

I actually feel Lyle's panic behind me. "Angel, wait?—"

And then I slip the G-string off too, kicking it behind me.

With my back turned, hopefully none of them can see I'm grinning madly. Perhaps I am mad, because this whole thing is leaving me flushed and giddy, but there is something flooding my veins now and it feels positively sparkly.

An eagle might have been my favourite form because I'd never considered a phoenix being an actual lifetime option of mine.

I get to be a real life phoenix. The stuff of dreams.

It takes a second of a thought of me shifting into the powerful, mythical bird for it to happen. Maybe I find it easy because it's so similar to my eagle form, but my face morphs into the familiar beak, my arms sprouting feathers, my height shrinking only a little, my feet forming golden claws. I'm light and airy, hollow-boned and…powerful.

I want to cry. Instead, I look down and angle my newly formed wing so I can see it.

It's something I've never seen before, in books or otherwise: my feathers are brilliant crimson-gold, tipped with an electric blue.