62. Aurelia

Chapter 62

Aurelia

D amien, Lyle, and I sit in an awkward, feather-drop silence in Damien's ground floor classroom-office. Apparently, the Deputy's office still won't let him in.

It's just a matter of luck that Savage and I had chosen this room for our frivolities. Luck, or Savage had known exactly what he was doing. Lyle had delicately sniffed the air as we'd walked in for my therapy session, which my lion is going to ‘supervise'. Lyle had cast me a look, his animus briefly flaring in his eyes before we sat down in front of Damien's desk.

What type of therapist put a whole big-ass mahogany desk between him and his patient? Damien. Damien did.

If this is how he's therapising Sabrina, it's no wonder it isn't working.

"A rather therapeutic set up, don't you think, Mr Pardalia?" I say breezily.

Lyle's animus only grunts at me and removes his tie. I raise my brows at that, because I doubt Damien will appreciate me receiving his therapy while I sat in Lyle's lap to calm him down.

But if push came to shove…

"I've found it quite effective," Damien replies sharply.

"Evidence-based," I nod, sitting down and crossing my legs primly. I've purposely chosen a short skirt and low-cut blouse to distract Lyle with. He's already glanced at my legs twice now. Success.

"I would like to talk to you about your mother," he says, opening up my file.

"Absolutely not." I smile with my teeth. "That is an out-of-bounds conversation." If I am forced to utter a word about her, I will break down. Or tear the room apart. One of the two. Or both at the same time.

Damien's nostrils flare.

The windows to our left rattle, just a little.

"Your father then."

I hear a faint crack from behind me.

"He's no father of mine," I say tightly, clenching my fists in my lap as Lyle shifts in his seat. "He is Mr Naga, as far as I am concerned."

" His Majesty ," Damien corrects sternly, oblivious to the rattling windows or ignoring them, "is the appropriate honorific."

"As I was reminded by his servants," I mutter. "The one time he visited my bungalow."

"You carry resentment towards him."

There's another crack next to me as I stare Damien down, a droll look making my features stony. How the hell am I going to suffer through this?

Glancing at Lyle, I say, "To think I'd thought your sessions were bad."

Lyle huffs through his nose like a bull, staring Damien down like he's going to charge at any moment.

"For your own safety, sir, I think we should conclude this session." I show him my teeth again.

"Perhaps we should get supervision from one of your other mates."

"Oh yes, I'm sure Scythe would love to tag along."

Damien inhales and exhales like I'm the one testing his patience. "I trust you are…recovered?"

The rattling stops as my power falters alongside my confusion.

I only understand what he's talking about when Lyle's power flares around him. "Oh, from my period? Yes, a woman's menstruation usually only lasts seven days." I stand and grab Lyle's hand. "I'm going to take Mr Pardalia now."

Damien doesn't bid us goodbye, just stares at us on the way out. Lyle, for his part, pulls me into a janitor's closet and proceeds to fuck me up against the wall, growling, "Mine," over and over again until I come, shuddering and shaking around his massive girth. I let my power into him too, and he drinks it up like wine because he knows that's exactly what I need.

After dinner, Eugene and I collect Minnie and Stacey, the two best researchers I know, and hurry them into the library while my mates go to the gym. Xander has returned and is more irritable than ever, so I have a feeling Scythe wants to burn off some of his energy. I pull my animas into a private corner of the library, which has a few males getting help with their homework.

"I almost broke the windows of Dolores' office," I say. "I think this thing is getting worse."

I had left out my new power surges in my recounting of events to my friends. I fill them in now and they both take this information in with great seriousness.

"There's got to be something in here about controlling it," Minnie says, getting up to do a search on the library computer.

"I'll check online," Stacey says.

"I've had to power share to tamper it down," I say worriedly, rubbing my arms and casting an eye about the tables behind us. "But even then it's still an issue. It's such a shame I couldn't talk to Mum. I'm sure there were things she knew but never had the time to tell me."

Before I know it I'm crying into my sleeve for what feels like the hundredth time this week. Minnie puts her arm around me as we walk through the stacks to the section on order gifts. "She's safe with the Wild Mother now," she says thickly. "But it's not like there was never anything written on the Boneweavers. There's got to be stuff here somewhere."

We spend a good two hours searching through the books, and even Stacey's searches online don't reveal anything concrete about it, only vague stories about really powerful telekinetics, but none of them lost control like I have.

We part ways and go back to our respective dorms for the night.

"Watch out," Bastien, the door gargoyle, says as Eugene and I approach the animus dorms. "Angry dragons are about."

"Angry Boneweavers too," I grumble.

Eugene clucks in agreement.

I should have known our quiet spell wouldn't last. There was still the matter of our captive nimpins, and zookeeper Rick had rebuffed Stacey's attempt at seduction, refusing to tell us where they were being kept. It is this that leads to the next catastrophe.

Late one evening, Minnie and Raquel are re-watching Bridgerton with me in the TV room of my pack's suite. We're all crammed in there, Minnie curled up in Yeti's lap holding a bowl of popcorn, Marduk and Savage are sharing a bowl of sour worms on the floor, while Raquel and I are sharing an entire slab of chocolate. Scythe and Lyle are on laptops in armchairs next to us. The other animas are busy in the pack dorms with Sabrina, working on their dresses for the ball. Xander, as is becoming common these days, is with Eugene in his room, smoking.

Except our faithful rooster comes rushing into the room, flapping his wings and squawking before jumping in Savage's lap.

Something dark makes the air tremble. I set down my bowl.

Savage and Raquel leap to their feet at the same time.

"Sabrina!" Raquel shouts, before sprinting out of the room. They've heard something on the wolf-network.

"She's on top of the anima dorm!" Savage cries, his eyes frantic as he reaches for me. "We need to go now."

"Oh Goddess!" Minnie shouts, scrambling off Yeti.

It's chaos as we all head for the stairs and run outside. I forgo my human feet and launch into my eagle form, swooping down the corridor and stairwell, my heart racing.

I'm one of the first to make it outside. Ahead of me, Connor is sprinting across the school grounds in his lioness form.

Raquel and Minnie are close behind us. I pump my wings, gaining height into the night air, as the sight of a slender figure on top of the anima dorm comes to view. She looks fragile, and yet determined.

"Stop!" I scream into Sabrina's mind. "Don't you fucking dare!"

I beat my wings hard, spearing right for her as she wanders closer to the edge, her black hoodie flapping in the wind.

She steps off the edge.

Steps off as if it's nothing.

Multiple screams fill the air, including mine. And then Minnie is there, in her tigress form, roaring into the night, and Sabrina is caught with a powerful telekinetic hand.

I breathe a sigh of relief.

Until I see Sabrina thrashing around, fighting Minnie's power as if she's been caught by an enemy once again. Fighting for her life. Her death. But Minnie holds her firm and Lyle has come up next to her. Between the two of them, they guide our thrashing friend gently to the ground.

"It's my right!" she screams. "My right!"

It strikes me right in the heart.

"She said she was going to the bathroom!" Connor cries, back in his human form, standing next to Minnie. "But she was in there for too long!"

Yeti is shooing gaping animas from the dorm back inside as I land and shift back into my human form.

"It was Cherry," Stacey sobs. "One of the guards heard us talking about the nimpins and told us he'd seen Cherry's body."

Raquel swears, pinching the bridge of their nose. Savage is by my side instantly, tearing off his T-shirt and shoving it over my head while Yeti does the same for Minnie.

We reach for Sabrina, now being held by Connor. She pounds hard at his back as he holds her, both of them sobbing.

"My heart hurts!" Sabrina screams. "My fucking heart hurts all the fucking time and I want it to stop!"

Connor tries to comfort her. "Baby girl, I know."

"You don't know!" she screams, her long black hair a tangled mess. "None of you know!"

Minnie crouches beside them and brushes Sabrina's hair off her face with a shaking hand. "It'll hurt forever," she says, to everyone's surprise. Sabrina quietens and stares at her, breathing hard. "You just learn to cope with it better."

Sabrina's face screws up in anguish and she cries into the night, her pain carried on the wind right into my spirit. Stacey, Raquel, and I huddle around them. Together, we all hold her tightly.

"I can't do this." Sabrina's voice is hoarse now. "I can't go on living like this. I'm broken. It broke me."

"You can survive this," Minnie presses. "I did, and so can you."

"And we were all there." I say, trying not to break down. "You helped Minnie, and we got through it together. Let us be here for you."

No more death. I can't cope with more death right now.

I feel Scythe behind me, his presence sure and steady as a glacier. "May I touch her?" he asks into my mind.

Turning around to glance at him, I frown. "What?"

" Can I touch your friend?" He blinks slowly, meaningfully, through the dark. "Regina?"

Realisation courses through me. Touching a female other than your regina is not generally permitted for a loyal animus. Scythe is asking me for permission to help Sabrina.