18. Maven

Moments after Baelfiredisappears into Everbound Castle with Del Mar and the others, Coach Gallagher storms outside, surveying the still-smoking field with distaste as he approaches. The other legacies have regrouped, though some of them have some burns. Plenty of them are giving my quintet dirty looks.

The coach stops and glares directly at me, opening his mouth. He"s an easy one to read, so I"m anticipating he"ll make some histrionic statement about atypical casters being unable to lead highly-ranked legacies.

But then he sees the frigid stare Everett is cutting him and apparently thinks better of it.

Turning to all the other legacies, he snaps, "Training will begin in fifteen minutes, burns or no burns, so get yourselves patched up and prepare for one-on-one quintet combat."

I glance at Everett, noting that his ear is still bleeding.

"Hold still," I tell him, slipping off one of my gloves. My healing capabilities with common magic are pretty shitty, but I can handle a burst eardrum.

He rears away from me and brushes dirt off his clothes, determinedly not looking at me. "For the last fucking time, Oakley, leave me alone. I don"t want you anywhere near me."

I arch a brow. "Tell your body that. Most people don"t pop a boner when tackling someone else out of harm"s way."

Everett"s cheekbones turn pink, and he mutters something under his breath that I don"t catch. For whatever reason, my comment also makes Silas snap to attention. He gives Everett a death glare as he finishes healing his own shoulder. The skin is still raw and red, but the worst burns have faded.

"A word, professor?" he snaps, grabbing Everett by the arm and pulling him out of earshot.

I watch them, noting that while Silas is furious, the ice elemental looks frustrated and chastened. Is Silas this mad because Everett got close to me? None of my matches have reacted like this about me getting physical with the others, so that seems unlikely.

Curious.

At the thought of Crypt, I glance out over Everbound Forest, trying to gauge how far away the wards are. I"ll have to get through them to get Kenzie, but I wonder if Crypt will be able to get through the wards when he returns.

Fine, I admit it. I miss my invisible stalker more than I thought possible.

My attention is arrested when I spot Baelfire returning to the field, now clothed. Relief hits me. I must have been far more worried about what Del Mar would do to him than I even realized.

Yet, as Baelfire gets closer, I see that his face is twisted in anger. His ears are bright red as he joins everyone else on the field. I can"t figure out why he looks so pissed off until sunlight catches on the shiny buckle of a leather collar around his throat.

I know plenty of things about shifters, but one thing especially: collars are considered far more degrading in their culture than they are to any other beings. It"s seen as a severe insult to their inner animals. Utterly humiliating.

I"m not the only one who notices Baelfire"s new accessory, as another nearby shifter gasps.

"What the fuck? Dude, what the hell? Did they actually—" he begins.

"Shove it, Keith," Baelfire snarls before stopping beside me and folding his brawny arms.

I press my lips together, studying the collar. While some unexplored part of me finds this look on him bizarrely hot, I don"t like what it stands for.

I don"t like that they put it on him.

"Take it off."

"Can"t. Tried already," he grits out, staring straight forward like he"s too mortified to make eye contact. "It"s enchanted to keep me from shifting."

Anger washes over me. He"s a fucking shifter. He"s supposed to shift. They took that away from him over a little outburst?

When Silas and Everett rejoin us, I note with surprise that Silas healed the ice elemental"s ear when I wasn"t looking. That seems out of character for the ruthless blood fae, but I choose not to draw attention to it. I"m just glad Everett"s ear won"t be a weakness to factor in during combat.

Both of them also frown at Baelfire"s collar.

"About damn time," Everett mumbles. "I"m surprised they didn"t add a muzzle to rein in your big fat mouth, too."

Baelfire glares at him, tugging at the collar. "You"re a dick."

"At least you won"t be putting Maven at risk by losing control again," Silas adds.

"He also won"t be able to defend himself if things go to shit in combat," I point out. "Everyone here has taken notice, which means whatever quintet we"re assigned to fight will see this as a new weakness and target Baelfire."

They all consider that before Silas shakes his head. "No, their first target will still be our keeper. Protecting you will remain our top priority."

I glare at him. "I"m a barely-ranked atypical caster. Baelfire is a Decimus, a dragon, and a highly-ranked threat with a temporary handicap. He"s a far bigger prize. Enemies will want to take advantage of his inability to shift while they can. I"m the keeper, I pick the priority, and I"m telling you: watch Baelfire"s back."

Bael stops tugging at his collar and smiles like he thinks I"m being adorable. "Look, I fucking love that my mate is worried about me, but you have nothing to worry about. I"ve made it through tons of combat classes without shifting. They usually tell me not to, anyway, remember? It"ll be fine."

"The lizard can handle some extra heat," Everett agrees.

Silas nods.

I look between them, irritation brewing. They"re not taking me seriously.

Maybe it"s because they still see me as a weak asscaster, or perhaps they"re just used to being the biggest, baddest threats around—but I"ve seen them in action now and as impressive as they are, they can be careless. They don"t know how to work as a team yet, and it"s going to bite them in the ass.

The coach calls everyone to attention and announces that each quintet will be assigned a rival quintet to hunt down and fight in Everbound Forest. No unmatched legacies are participating in today"s combat training. He explains the point system and starts rattling off assignments. When he finally gets to our quintet, he nods at Brooks and the four guys standing around him.

"Maven Oakley, your quintet will be facing off against Brooks Benson"s. And that"s everyone, so line up and prepare for the whistle. Remember, maiming, torture, and death are all on the table, but today you"re going in bare-handed. No weapons allowed."

Thank the universe. It"s been too long since I had a good hand-to-hand fight.

We move to the edge of the forest. I"m sure that, as usual, the faculty"s spells will transport us and our rivals into separate parts of the forest.

"Stay close, sangfluir," Silas reminds me, cradling my jaw gently as he gives me a pleading look.

I know it"s part of the exposure therapy, but goosebumps scatter down my arms at his touch.

"Watch out for Baelfire," I fire back.

The whistle blows, and we all take off into the woods. Transportation magic twists and pulls us, and when my feet hit the ground running, we"re in an area of spaced-out trees that I recognize as being near the small pond I occasionally visit.

We slow to a stop and follow training protocol, checking our surroundings. It"s cold and quiet in these twisted woods, the darkness encroaching as the mist drifts past like a haunting cloak.

Everett steps further away from me and almost trips over a skeleton. He grimaces. "It"s like they enchanted this forest to be eternally creepy. The shadows, the deadly creatures, all the bones and hideous trees…"

"Isn"t it wonderful?" I grin.

That earns a snort from Baelfire before he tips his head. "Does it look anything like what you"re used to? You know...back home?"

"A bit. Mostly because there isn"t much sunlight or color," I muse, studying our surroundings. "It"s nearly colorless there. When I emerged in the mortal world, my eyes hurt for days."

However, I"ve grown to like certain colors—gold, red, purple, icy blue…

Damn it. These legacies really have gotten under my skin, haven"t they?

Silas frowns. "I"m curious about that. When did you come into the mortal realm? Did you escape it all alone?"

I hesitate. My leaving the Nether was an entirely formulated thing. Once Amadeus decided the stars had aligned and it was time to send out his weapon, my emergence was disguised under a massive surge in Maine. Once I managed to make it out of the Divide unseen, a demon with connections in the Nether gave me fake human records, modern clothes, and money. She was supposed to introduce me to the human world and help me blend in.

Of course, that demon was arrogant as fuck and decided instead to try her hand at killing the rumored telum, just to see if she could. I had to dispatch her and move on alone, giving myself a crash course into modern human shit to supplement everything I learned from Lillian previously. Finally, I reported myself as a "newly manifested" caster to get to Everbound and gain access to Melvolin Hearst.

But I don"t enjoy talking about this. Even though Baelfire and Silas have gotten a snapshot of my past, it still feels weird as fuck to talk casually with anyone about it…especially when a particularly frosty professor is present.

Everett sees me cast him a brief look and grumbles, "I know where you"re from, too, Oakley."

"If that"s true, I find it strange that you haven"t reported me, professor."

His jaw flexes. "It"s not that strange. I didn"t report you being in the headmaster"s office, either. Believe it or not, I"m not trying to insult the gods by ripping apart my own quintet just because one of us was spirited away to the Nether as a helpless toddler."

I pause. "How did you know I was a toddler when I was taken?"

Everett rubs his neck, looking away. "It"s nothing. I…I don"t know if it was you. I guess I just assumed?—"

"Company!" Baelfire shouts. "On our left!"

Thank the universe for shifter hearing.

We take defensive positions just before the ground rumbles, and a wave of rocks and earth sweeps toward us. Silas hits it with a deflection spell that sends dirt raining all around. Through that dust explosion, a vampire dives forward, leaping toward Everett.

Another blade of ice is in Everett"s hands before I can blink, and he impales the vampire just as two casters and Brooks charge toward us. One caster launches an attack spell at me. I deflect, drawing on my reserve to use common magic because using either of the other two magics I can use might lead to another Chase situation.

Brooks shifts into a tiger and pounces toward Silas. I"m distracted with fending off three more magical attacks in quick succession since it"s difficult to remember to limit myself to weak, common magic. Baelfire tackles the earth elemental before they can send another wave of rocks toward me.

But while Everett and Silas are both distracted, flanking my sides in an attempt to keep the vampire or tiger from getting close, I catch the movement of a powerful spell in my peripheral vision and realize that the second caster isn"t currently engaged in combat—and he"s targeting Baelfire.

Swiveling, I dig deep into what"s left of my reserve, throwing a defense charm at the second caster. But my aim is off because Caster One"s spell slams into me, making me faceplant hard into the forest floor.

My charm only barely grazes Caster Two. He stumbles, but most of his spell still slams into Baelfire?—

And my dragon shifter"s scream of pain rings through the forest.

My stomach plummets when Bael collapses to the ground, blood gushing from multiple injuries.

No.

"Baelfire!" I shout, scrambling back to my feet and ignoring the new, stinging scrape on my cheek as I race toward him. When I reach him, he"s groaning, writhing on the forest floor as if every position causes immense pain.

And I can see why. That was a fucking silverblend spell.

His clothes are shredded, and dozens, if not hundreds, of tiny, thistle-like barbs of magically-formed silver are protruding from his arms, legs, stomach, shoulders, neck—everywhere. They"re shaped so that they"ll hurt worse coming out than going in, and gods, he is bleeding so much.

His shifter healing won"t work with the silver embedded in him like this.

The other quintet planned ahead. Even without weapons, they cheated and brought in silver to kill off any shifter they came up against.

I hear an explosion of some kind nearby, but I can"t seem to look away from my gorgeous match"s face, contorted in agony as he bleeds too freely from too many places. I try to wipe the blood so it doesn"t drip into his squeezed-shut eyes, but I realize my hands are shaking.

All of me is shaking.

How dare they hurt what"s mine?

I"m…mad.

No. I am fucking livid.

All my life, no matter what brand of hell I was trying to survive, I have known one thing to be true: to protect what"s mine, I have to be brutal. There is no such thing as taking it too far if the people I care about are at stake.

It"s why I took beatings for Lillian without her knowing.

It"s why I made a blood oath.

And now, it"s why I decide that I don"t fucking care about all the reasons why these legacies would be better off without me. All that matters is that they"ve become undeniably important to me—and now that I"ve decided they"re mine, I"m not holding back anymore.

I"ll be heartless for them.

"Maven!" Silas shouts, rushing to my side.

Everett isn"t far behind. Ice spreads from each footstep he takes as he backs away from our enemies while keeping an eye on them. They"re regrouping, too. This tiny lull in the fight must mean that our quintets are somewhat evenly matched.

But only because Baelfire is hindered, and I was tempering myself.

It"s time to fucking change that.

"Heal him," I demand, standing.

Silas reaches for me, his brow deeply furrowed, but I push his hand away and give him the withering glare I perfected in Amadeus"s arena.

"I said watch his back. I said they"d go for him. You didn"t listen, but now I"m fucking telling you to heal him before he dies of blood loss. And don"t you dare get in my way," I snap at Everett.

I stalk past them and directly into the miniature stalemate between quintets. Everett shouts my name, but I tune him out. I tune everything out and focus on the five assholes who just tried to kill my dragon shifter.

They have no idea what they just pissed off, but they"re about to find out.

The caster who hit Baelfire with the silverblend spell sneers at me. "Offering yourself up as a sacrifice to win our mercy, Oakley? Too bad this isn"t even a fair fight. Our keeper is going to rip you to shreds."

Almost like they coordinated it, Brooks the tiger roars and leaps toward me. When he does, I let my instincts and training kick in. As always, during a fight, my senses sharpen almost to the point of pain. Everything seems to slow down.

Calling on the magic rushing eagerly inside me, I grab the tiger by the throat midair and twist, slamming him into the forest floor using his momentum and the unnatural strength I"m always so careful to hide.

Before he can do anything but snarl, dark magic flares around my fingertips before I plunge my hand through his rib cage, grab his heart, and rip it out. The tiger shifter goes slack as I turn back to the others and toss their keeper"s heart aside, the hum of a fresh kill flooding me with pure, thrilling adrenaline.

The more lives I take in a fight, the more the urge to kill grows into a fever pitch and takes over. It"s been that way ever since I was turned into this. Lillian was the one who always brought me back if I lost control, but now...

I hope I can keep myself in check while I end these idiots. Otherwise, I"ll be a mindless, blood-crazed weapon until I"m killed and revived.

Either way, what fun.

The rival quintet is shocked by how quickly I just snuffed out their chance at a curse-less future. I smile and twiddle my bloodied fingers at them before flipping them off.

"You"re right. This isn"t a fair fight at all."