7. Aurelia

Chapter 7

Aurelia

M y animas and I text and video call incessantly over the next six days on our contraband phones. Raquel and Connor don't have phones, but they're always in the background of Stacey's.

"Urgh, I need a distraction!" Stacey cries on our second day. "An extended lockdown should be illegal. I can't deal with this. Can you ask Scythe again if he's found anything out?"

"It's only been forty-eight hours," I groan, rolling onto my back on the bed Lyle and I share and petting Eugene on the head. "But I can't stop thinking about anything else either."

"Forty-eight hours of stinkin' hot lion sex, I bet!" Connor screams at the top of his lungs, dancing vigorously over Stacey's shoulder. "How's that for distraction, Lady Boneweaver?"

Minnie snorts loudly as Raquel slaps a hand to their forehead from where they sit on Stacey's desk, brushing the fur of the line of nimpins patiently sitting there.

"Could you say that any louder?" I groan, glancing at the door that leads to Scythe and Xander's room. No one is there, of course; Scythe is doing whatever unethical activities he does during the day and Lyle is on the phone to the king of feline court, trying to do damage control.

No one is involving me in anything and I have so much energy to burn.

"Listen, guys," I say, holding the phone above me as I lie on my back. "I have so many ideas to get Sabrina back right now, and each one is worse than the last. We just have to wait for Scythe."

"Right," chirps Minnie, and I can tell she's trying to keep us in good spirits. "Yeti says exactly that as well. And are we gonna talk about the good news we heard on the news tonight?"

I take a deep breath as my stomach lurches.

"What news?" Connor exclaims.

It's Raquel that says, "B-Blackwater Penitentiary was b-blown apart."

There's a beat of wide-eyed silence. "And," Minnie says, smiling hopefully at me. "It's been reported that a number of inmates escaped. It's bedlam over there!" She waves her hands in the air like this is a good thing.

"Wait this is good?? Stacey asks worriedly. "Wasn't Savage being taken there?"

"Think about it!" Minnie says. "What does Savage love more than Aurelia?"

"Uh…" Connor squints his eyes like he's trying to think.

"Bombs," I say quietly.

Stacey's mouth drops open. "Oh Goddess! You don't mean Savage did this?"

I shrug, because the truth is that we can't be sure. There's a good chance that it was him. And nothing in my anima is telling me that he was mortally hurt.

"But other inmates have escaped too," Connor says. "That's probably not a good thing, right?"

"The Baku p-pack was one of th-them," Raquel says, their lip piercing glinting in the sunset light coming through their dorm window.

We all go silent. Everyone knows about the notorious hyena pack that were jailed for murder a few years ago. In fact, after years of enmity, it had been my father that put them there. The fact that they just happened to be on the run now is…interesting

"The new deputy will have their work c-cut out for them," Raquel says, clearly changing the subject. "Anyone got any idea who it is?"

"It'll be announced the morning the lockdown ends," Minnie says. "There was an email this morning. Everyone in the mated dorms is being really dramatic about it. Apparently, Lyle was the best deputy the school's ever had." She beams at me and I grin back.

Lyle hasn't revealed anything to me about the new deputy, and Celeste hasn't been in contact either. In fact, for the last forty-eight hours, Lyle and I had mostly been… Well, we'd been doing what a newly mated couple did. I now have another bite mark on the other side of my neck to match the first one, plus I am sore in places I didn't know I could be sore.

We've also been talking. And there's nothing like pillow talk to get out the difficult stuff. Lyle had asked me how I'd known who Fredrick Ulman was, and it was then that I'd told him how serpents can get visions of their mates, both in the present and the past. I'd felt closer to him than ever before when I'd told him what I'd seen of his past and he tucked me under his chin so I couldn't see his face. The tightness of his arms around my body told me everything I needed to know about how much it meant to him.

The remainder of the lockdown passes in much the same way. The animas and I video call at least twice a day, Lyle insists on feeding and showering me, doting on me at every turn, when he's not on the phone or on his laptop. Scythe barely interacts with me, working on his computer or on his phone and I can only hope some of that work has to do with Sabrina.

Six days is double the amount of time for any previous lockdown, and it's sending the animuses a little more feral than usual. They're all taking it out on the beasts who had sided with Titus, because they'd all figured out pretty quickly that Sabrina, who was much loved amongst males of all orders, had been taken by the Clawsons.

Those felines were left black, blue, and bloody in the corner of the rec room, and the avians had been forbidden to heal them.

By eight o'clock the sixth morning, there is a crowd waiting by the animus dorm entrance, buzzing and eager for the second the metal grate begins to slide upwards. Lyle had organised it so the students could release all our pent-up energy by stretching out their beast forms on the front and back lawns, even the birds. The guards are ready and waiting to police any fights that will inevitably break out.

The warning siren sounds at eight a.m. sharp, seven loud blasts that grate along my nerves. After the seventh, a pregnant silence descends on us all.

Something happens that no one expects. Instead of the metal sliding door barring the entrance groaning upwards, something sounds from the speakers outside. I hold my breath from where Lyle and I watch from the second-floor stairwell above.

The opening chords to a familiar song, struck along an electric guitar is followed by a gleeful, practised scream.

As Axl Rose belts out Welcome to the Jungle over the school speakers, the males below start to laugh, and it ripples through them in a heady wave. Even Xander, who'd returned last night, suppresses a smirk where he leans against the wall in the shadow of the staircase.

I whirl around to stare at Lyle, standing protectively at my back. He responds with a grin that transforms his face into a breathtaking work of art. "I had to go with the old favourite."

The rising energy of the males below becomes a palpable thing, skittering along my skin and making me giddy with excitement.

The metal door creaks upwards, receding into the door jam, and then it's a mad rush of half-naked male bodies.

Lyle strokes a finger down my cheek "Will you be taking flight, angel?"

I smile at him eagerly. "I would love to."

My lion seems dazed for a moment as he stares down at me, and I prod him in the chest. "The last time I shifted into an eagle, you jumped out of a window to come after me."

The memory is enough to raise goosebumps all over my skin. Word had gotten around that Lyle's telekinesis was so powerful that he could lift himself up so high, and if they weren't scared of him before, they sure are now.

"I won't apologise for that," he says sternly. "You were trying to run away from me."

I smirk. "True. But never again."

"Come here, Henry." Lyle holds out his hand. "I'll look after you while Lia takes flight."

My blue ball of fluff dutifully levitates himself onto the offered palm.

Neither Scythe nor Xander are in sight as Lyle and I follow the crowd outside. Already, there are happy wolfish howls and the terrifying yet somehow playful snarling of the felines. Further away, a falcon lets out a shrill cry.

It sets my heart aching for the feeling of the wind rushing over my feathers. Excitedly, I jog out into the sun, tugging at my T-shirt.

Lyle grumbles, striding to shield my body from the other students on the field. None of them are even watching me, however, as I peel my gym shorts down my legs. Everyone is too excited to be running out to the Hunting Games field to care about naked human bodies.

With an excited laugh, I jump into the air, exploding into a mass of feathers within a breath. Stretching out my wings with an appreciative sigh, I beat down and gain height, rapidly leaving the green turf further and further beneath me. Various birds of prey soar in the sky beneath the dangerous, glittering dome that'll fry us if we get too close.

I join them, keeping a respectful distance as I mentally cheer at the lightness and relief I feel. There'd been so much tension over the last few days, and this is exactly what we all need. Pride for my mate surges through me. He really does his job well.

Beak notices me right away. I've never seen his animus before, but with his white hood, I realise he's a bald eagle. He lets out a cry of acknowledgement and I let out an answering call, before gaining some more height to get a better view.

I'd flown above the school last week, but didn't have the chance to appreciate its beauty. The long driveway leading to the main road stretches out to my left and the memory of what happened there suddenly flashes through my mind. Down that long, empty road, they'd taken Savage. Down that long road, they'd hauled away Sabrina, the girl who kept lock picks inside her pocket at all times because she couldn't bear the thought of being held captive ever again. I cringe before wheeling around and turning my back to the road.

I track the movements of my lion as he stalks through the mass of students below; my golden light within the mass of fur, pelt, and feather. Henry is a blue ball sitting at the top of his massive golden-bronze mane, looking this way and that with his wide, black eyes.

Wolves chase each other at the front of the school, kicking a soccer ball about, and I see Raquel amongst them. Minnie is easy to spot because Yeti's white tiger's pelt is a rare sight among the rest of the hues, same with a happy golden Stacey and Connor with his all-black lioness's pelt. Hidden in the bushes, where only the birds can see them, are a group of unmated beasts in their human forms having a jubilant threesome.

It seems everyone is out this morning, though I can't see hide nor tail of a black dragon out here. No doubt the school's dome is too small for Xander to stretch his wings properly. I feel kind of sorry for him in that moment, because no doubt he's smoking his feelings away in a corner somewhere.

And then I spot him .

The other celestial mating mark waiting on the land beneath.

Scythe is the only visible human, leaning against the black brick of the dining hall. A lone figure with his hands in his pockets, calmly watching the frivolity with cold assessment. I feel another ache then. It must be lonely for him, to have no pack to swim with when he shifts. To have no wide-open space he can simply be free in. The underground pool he uses sometimes is big, but it's no ocean. Somehow, those sharp eyes find me in the mass of wings as I wheel just below the sizzling electric dome. A tug deep within forces me lower.

A shift in the air tickles my predatory instincts, and I know it's Beak behind me swooping in behind. He dips and sweeps past me, close enough that the feathers at the end of my left wing rustle. I glance at him, amused but surprised. He must like to play with death, because Lyle's massive head snaps towards us, his amber eyes dark on Beak's gracefully up-arcing form.

"I want you down here, regina," comes his quiet, lethal voice into my head, though his eyes are predatory on Beak.

I swoop low past my lion, sending a downwind across his magnificent mane and making Henry blink rapidly. "Hm, but I quite like it up high," I say coyly. "And leave Beaky alone. He's a good guy."

"So he's ‘Beaky' now?"

All I do is cackle back. Except then he says something that makes my wings stutter.

"Don't make me claim you on the grass before your friends, regina."

"You dirty beast."

"That's not what you said yesterday afternoon. Or last night. Or this morning. In fact, I think what you said was ? —"

Another presence steps into our little chat, cold as the Antarctic, powerful as an ocean wave. "You should shift, Aurelia." Scythe's voice is matter-of-fact. "Try the lioness again."

I could've tumbled right out of the sky in my absolute shock.

"You've got to be joking," I choke out as I circle back around to get the shark in my line of sight again.

He shrugs those broad shoulders, perfectly hugged in his signature black business shirt. "Consider it a debut."

A long-ingrained fear strikes my chest, my abdomen. It sends a sharp pain through the healing wounds, making my heart pound.

"You're panicking," Scythe states flatly. "Being a Boneweaver could be your greatest weapon, Aurelia, but it could also be your greatest enemy. You get to choose how this plays out. Against your will, or with it."

Lyle surprises me when he agrees. "Better now, on your own terms."

I can't forget that I'm bound to obey Scythe now. Something in my blood yanks my attention to that fact that he'd said should . It wasn't a direct order, and he is a giving me a choice. I narrow my eagle eyes on him, something in those light-blues glitters back in challenge.

But Lyle is right. Rumours had spread over the last five days, and it's better to just get this over with rather than have everyone gossiping behind my back. I'm in control here. I take a deep breath and circle back around, mentally gearing myself up for what I'm about to do. Lyle stands, still and alert, with Henry bouncing on his head, just happy to be a part of things.

"Alright," I say, but it's really to myself.

The music playing over the academy's PA system abruptly shuts off?—

And is promptly replaced by a violent, psychic blast the equivalent of a hundred nimpins.

My body is seized by the strong fist of sound.

Every bird in the sky immediately plummets towards the ground. Including me.