Fated Magic

Lughnasadh Elite Academy Collection 2

Layla Heart

Fated Magic (Lughnasadh Elite Academy Collection 2)

Copyright © 2020 LAYLA HEART

All rights reserved. No part of this story may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means without express written permission of the copyright holder.

ISBN: 9789493139107

NUR: 285

Edition: 20200521

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Blurb

One attack on the Academy by the fae king, six lovers having to work together to survive.

When Litha sneaks off campus with Rune and Kit after a very tense first day of classes, it all ends horrifically wrong when the succubus cafe they’re staying at is surrounded by fae soldiers. Not only that, but as they’re breaking free, they spot Litha’s grandma being dragged along by the soldiers and Litha sacrifices herself to save the woman.

That’s just the beginning of some very tense days as Bane and Rune don’t get out of the struggle unharmed, their lives now in grave danger. The fae soldiers were using weapons coated in a venom that slowly eats away at their flesh, and the six now have to work against the clock to find an antidote for it, or risk losing their werewolf and dragon lovers.

Meanwhile, Litha’s parents come out of hiding, bringing with them new information about the prophecy. Information that makes clear that the prophecy has accidentally, or willfully, been misinterpreted for over eighteen years.

Not to mention, a surprise visit from Bane’s uncle, the werewolf king, and Kit’s mother, the succubus queen, like life wasn’t complicated enough already…

This collection includes the second three novellas of the Lughnasadh Elite Academy: Legacy, Sorcery and Bravery.

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Legacy

Lughnasadh Elite Academy 4

1

It's hard to breathe, my lungs are filled with smoke, the air around us heavy with the stench of burned bodies and the smog is making it almost impossible to see anything.

I'm still sitting on the road, Litha and Granny Bastet in my lap, as I'm trying to make sense of what happened, what just went on.

Everything happened at the same time. Above us, Rune, transformed into his dragon form, broke through the wall of the upstairs room at the succubus cafe, raining down pieces of stone and debris on the soldiers below. Kit followed him closely behind, also transformed, and on Rune’s back I caught a glimpse of Litha. They were heading back to the campus through the air, the soldiers quickly recovering and aiming their weapons at them.

Which was when I saw Granny Bastet, my grandma’s twin sister, her limp body between some fae soldiers, also on their way to the campus. I don’t remember my grandma, or granny, as grandma died when she transported her twin sister to the human world, together with Litha and her parents. But I’d seen enough pictures to know who she was, and the red hair was a definite giveaway too. A sound escaped me and I automatically moved forward, towards her, needing to save her.

The moment the sound escaped me, something happened above us too, Litha jumping off Rune’s back, flames surrounding her. Next to me, Finn and Bane gasped loudly, staring up at her. The fire around her grew and grew the closer she came to the soldiers. She didn’t seem to give a care that she was probably jumping to her death, all her focus on Granny, her arms reached out to her.

The soldiers stared up at her, terror in their eyes, nobody moved, they were all mesmerised by her, by her power. And with the ease that she used her magic, that instead of it getting weaker the closer she came, it only got stronger, they didn’t seem to have much with them in the way of magic blockers, which was… interesting. Or maybe there was another reason they didn’t work on Litha.

Barrelling to the ground, the waves of heat around her intensified, the air in an even wider circle becoming too hot to breathe. I could feel the fire licking at my skin, but it didn’t harm me, unlike the fae soldiers, whose skin was starting to bubble under the heat, like they were being boiled alive.

And then a shock wave of liquid fire erupted out of Litha, the light too bright to look into, and I had to close my eyes to protect them. I reached out and Finn and Bane grabbed my arms, all of us trying to stay on our feet. When the immediate heat dissipated, I opened my eyes again, black spots in my view making it hard to see much. It took a while before I could see anything, and what I saw made my heart hurt. Not just hurt, it broke my heart into a million pieces.

Bodies. Smoking and burning bodies of the fae soldiers littering the streets. The rest of the town, the buildings, the few plants, a couple of trash cans, they’d been damaged a little, the plants looking a little crispy, but nothing in comparison to what the soldiers looked like. Litha had killed the soldiers, she’s burned them and killed them. These were the first deaths by her hands, she took not just one life, but the lives of tens of soldiers around her.

Bane pushed at my shoulder, nodding towards the street and in the middle of the still slightly burning bodies, I saw Litha, with Granny in her arms. The smoke from the bodies was already getting worse and worse, if we wanted to get to them, we needed to move now.

I rushed for Litha and Granny, ignoring the heat on my skin. “Litha! Granny!” I knelt down next to them, pulling them in my lap. “Litha!”

I kept glancing around, not really able to believe what I saw, there was a clear circle around them, where she’d pushed the soldiers away from them.

“What did you do?” I gasped, trying to heal Litha and Granny, but not really accomplishing much.

The princes soon caught up with us, forming a protective circle around us.

The smog is getting worse and worse, the bodies have stopped burning and are now simply smoking. It helps to keep us hidden from the rest of the fae soldiers for a while, but it also makes it hard for me to see the princes, or for the princes to see any soldiers who may try to attack us. The bodies are still littered in the street and I actively try not to look at them, or take too deep of a breath, or I’ll be sick…

“Rune?” Bane calls out from somewhere behind me, he’s taken up position on the street towards the academy.

The dragon roars from on my other side, in front of me, and a shiver goes down my spine. Of course, shifted dragons can’t speak, but I’d be damned if Rune’s growl didn’t just scare people shitless, which is probably why he did it in the first place.

“Can you pull up a wall on that side? Keep our back safe?” He’s yelling, but I don’t think it’s really going to be hard for the soldiers to spot us anyway, not with the bodies all around us.

Rune’s next growl is even lower, and then Kit’s rough voice reaches us. “He can’t. We can’t use elemental magic here, the town’s protective spells won’t let him pull up a wall of earth here.”

“Fuck.” Finn is also behind me, but closer than Bane. “Any other way you can keep them off on that side? We can’t be spread out like this for too long.”

“Stack up the bodies?” Even as I say the words, my stomach churns. This is so not something I want to think of, but there is no other way to create a barrier on that side. I still can’t hear any soldiers out in the smoke, but I don’t doubt that they will start showing up soon enough, probably just waiting for orders or a little too surprised by what Litha did.

“Finn, take the front. Kit, stay with him.” Bane’s voice drops to a growl. “Rune and I will take care of things on that side. Keep me updated.”

“Check.” Kit’s shadow flashes closely by my side in the smoke, but not before he glances at Litha for a moment, his dark eyes on her, the black magic in his body swirling fast. He wants to kill someone, something, to let that energy go, to let his anger go. The soldiers didn’t technically hurt Litha, but they’d made her use her magic to a level where she hurt herself, and, to him, that was just as bad.

On my other side, Bane’s wolf rushes past us, appearing for less than a second, before he’s back into the smoke and out of my sight again. I can hear Bane and Rune drag things around in the darkness, and I have no idea where they are exactly. Not that I really want to be able to see what they’re doing, just the thought is bad enough.

I’m sitting here, in the middle of the street, and I can’t do much apart from trying to heal Litha and Granny, which doesn’t do anything anyway. I wish I could get out there too and do something, feel useful, but the guys are trusting me to keep an eye on Litha and with my magic… I’m not so sure I’d be much use overall. I have my healing magic, and my death magic, and a really good memory for spells and rituals, but nothing that would be useful in a situation like this. Nothing to protect us or to give us an advantage right now. I guess Bane’s dad was right that we all needed to learn hand-to-hand combat skills, because there is only so much I can otherwise do.

There is a bright spark in my head, a warmth flooding my mind, Ember. She’s close enough to get a connection to me. ’There was an explosion in the town. Are you safe?’

’Litha made that explosion. We’re safe, unharmed. What’s going on on campus?’

’The professors are running around, something about fae soldiers in the town. But they seem to be very confused by the explosion now, worried that the fae brought something dangerous with them. Oh, someone just turned into a jaguar, I thought you only had wolves and dragons on this campus.’

’Ember, just the important things.’ I sigh. If you think dogs are easily distracted… Even witch-familiar cats have an attention span that would make an ADHD person seem like they’re super focused at all time. ‘Are they coming out here? We kind of need help. I don’t think the princes can keep the soldiers off for long when the fae decide to attack us.’

’I don’t know. Are they even aware you’re out there? They mostly seem to worry about the fire right now.’

Great. Fuck. The one thing that saved us may also be the thing that delays the help we need right now. How are we going to stand against a big chunk of an army? We can’t keep protecting Litha and Granny for hours, or however long it takes for help to get here. We’re not prepared enough, we’re not strong enough. We’ve got the element of surprise, and the smoke, on our side, but the window of that advantage is rapidly closing. They’re going to attack us soon, and we don’t have the manpower to protect ourselves.

“Finn,” I whisper, turning my head in his direction a little. Bane and Rune are too far off, and they’re shifted, and Kit is too far away to get his attention easily.

He’s next to me in a flash, his fingers on Litha’s throat, checking her pulse and then her breathing, before he looks at me, his normally green eyes almost black. “Yes?”

“Anything in your arsenal to get us out of here, or protect us? Anything?”

He shakes his head, letting out a low growl. “Just shooting electricity at them isn’t going to get us anywhere right now, they’re fae. And Rune and Kit can’t fly us out of here, it’s not safe and with two unconscious people…”

“Yeah, the hiding spell we used before isn’t going to do us much good either, we’re with too many. And if we do get out of this street, they’re going to hunt us down before we reach that side door again.” I try to look through the smoke, but it’s too thick to see anything, even Rune and Bane are hidden, though I can still hear them move around.

The bodies around us are still smoldering, the fire hot enough that it’s taking a while for it to die down. This is what Litha can do. This is what our Queen-to-be can do. I never really thought about what her powers could be like if she was pushed to the limit, but I guess we really don’t need to worry that she may only have shielding magic. It’s obvious that she’s from a long line of witches, centuries and centuries old, one of our most important royal lines, even more important than my own family… This is not just any family’s magic, this is magic inherited from one of our founding families. She’s a queen, title or not, she’s our Queen.

“Can we reach someone by phone?” Finn grabs his own, but the twisted piece he pulls from his pocket doesn’t seem very promising. It doesn’t seem to have survived Litha’s attack as well as we have… “Maybe not.”

“Yeah, I tried that earlier. The heat must have been too much.” I shake my head. The longer we stay in this smoke, the longer we stay out here, the more danger we’re in. There are soldiers on every side of us, even though they’ve not dared to get close yet, they may just be waiting for orders, or they may be laying their own plans.

The ground under us shakes as Rune lets out a loud growl, and Kit screeches behind us. These aren’t the sounds of protection or communication, these are sounds of alarm.

I guess our time of trying to figure out what we’re going to do next is over. The soldiers have decided for us.

Finn meets my eyes for a moment, sparks flashing in the air between us. “Protect her, at any cost.” Then he sprints off, back to Kit’s side, the blue sparks following him through the smoke, and I see them reflected on metal surfaces around him. He’s got his blades out, he’s ready to do anything for her, and so am I.

We have to protect her. We have to protect her at any cost. She’s ours.

2

The soldiers pushing through the smoke almost look like a black mass as they move as one. They’re wearing masks which seem to let them breathe easier in the smoke and they’re now carrying blades, blades with a green sheen on them, almost glowing. That can’t be good, that really can’t be any good.

I let out a low growl, hoping to impress at least a few of them as I’m still much bigger than most of them, but it doesn’t seem to stop them, not enough anyway. The soldiers keep coming our way at a steady rate.

This would be a great moment for my dad, or anyone else, to jump in and help us out, to fight with us. Because we may be trained in close quarter combat but only when it comes to fighting each other. We have no experience with actual combat, definitely not against trained soldiers. And I’m still queasy from the bodies all around us, trying not to step on them or smell the scent of their burned flesh.

Rune roars loudly again and snaps his jaws at one of the soldiers, taking his arm clean off in one bite, leaving nothing behind but a bleeding stump, the soldier stumbling back into other soldiers. But even from here, I see the fear and anxiety in Rune’s gaze. The magic protecting this town is preventing us from using basic elemental and other ‘big’ magic, we can shift into our animals but Rune can’t use his earth magic on the stone around us and, even though Litha was able to use her fire magic, we can’t use any abilities here. Right now, we’re just big animals, very big animals. That’s all. Better than being in our human form, but not good enough against dozens of soldiers.

I lurch at one of the soldiers who’s dumb enough to come too close. My teeth sink into the flesh of his arm and I feel the bones of his arm snap in my mouth, like they’re nothing more than a twig, blood spilling down the sides of my jaw. The soldier lets out a ear-piercing scream as he drops his weapon, trying to pull back his arm.

The blade falls down in front of my paw, but I don’t pay much attention to it, we’ll get rid of it later. I jerk my head to the side, putting some speed behind it, before I throw the soldier back into the guys behind him, his arm at a strange angle next to him. Then a searing pain runs up my leg, so painful I let out a shout of surprise.

Quickly looking down, I realise I’ve stepped onto the blade and even though it hasn’t broken through my skin, my paw feels like it’s on fire and the wolf inside me is telling me that this is dangerous. Bad and dangerous. Or, in his words: ‘Bad! Evil! Bad!’

The soldiers are trying to get closer again, holding their weapons out in front of them. They’re easily climbing over the low wall we’ve made of their fellow soldiers, like they’re not even there.

I blindly grab a fae corpse from next to me, taking it in my jaws tightly. My wolf lets out a triumphant cheer in my head, if you’ve ever seen a dog play with a thick piece of rope or a stick, when they flail it from side to side, then you know how dangerous the next thing can be. It’s bad enough when it’s a dog who only reaches about halfway up your thigh, imagine a wolf who’s significantly larger than you doing the same thing, with a ‘toy’ literally your size.

Not effective in killing anyone, but significantly effective in keeping people away.

I shake my head from side to side, letting the wolf take over, the movements smooth and very targeted, driving the soldiers back a couple of paces.

Next to me, Rune lets out a painful roar and I catch a glimpse of one of the fae soldiers driving his weapon in Rune’s left leg, the blade sinking through the dragon’s stone skin like it’s mere human skin. What the fuck is on these weapons? Weapons should not be able to go through Rune’s skin that easily…

We can’t stay here, we need to get out of here. Fast. Really fast.

I’m so distracted by what happens to Rune that I almost bite the person touching my flank, before I realise that it’s on the wrong side of me, not on the side of the soldiers, but on the side of the others. When I glance to the side, Phoenix is looking at me steadily, her eyes filled with the fire of conviction. Next to her, Finn also walks over, his electricity sparking around him, but somehow it looks like he’s controlling it, not the cloud that normally surrounds him, but it’s like the sparks are moving around him in controlled patterns.

Why are they here? They’re supposed to be with Litha! They’re supposed to be protecting her from the other side!

“Go to her. Stay with her.” Phoenix doesn’t raise her voice, but I can still hear her clearly. “We’ll help with this side.” She glances at Finn and I have no idea what those two are up to, but they seem to have a plan.

I slowly step back a few paces and watch as Finn spins his electricity around him faster, silver flashes in the cloud. Then Phoenix takes something from Finn’s bag and then I realise what the silver flashes in Finn’s cloud are. Phoenix holds one of Finn’s knives between her hands, her hands glowing blue for a moment, and then she throws the weapon into Finn’s cloud, who spins it like it’s the easiest thing in the world. Phoenix magnetises the weapons so Finn can control them.

Finn’s electricity is only ‘small’ magic, nothing big like Rune’s control of the earth, and this way he’s still within the limits of what the magic suppression of the town allows, while turning very deadly at the same time.

After throwing in another knife, Phoenix glances back at me, frowning when she sees me still there. Right!

I rush towards Litha, trusting my senses to find her, since the smoke is still too thick to see through. When I catch sight of her, I transform back into my human shape, grabbing her carefully and pulling her in my lap as well as I can. I check her pulse and her breathing, she’s still out of it, but seems otherwise unharmed. Even in her state, she’s still holding the old woman in her arms tightly. The woman Phoenix had called ‘Granny’, and who Litha had such a strong reaction to that she burned dozens of soldiers to the ground.

“Kit?” I call out, looking back, but the shapes in the smoke don’t tell me much. I hear sounds, I can see weapons and bodies, but not much more. My stomach constricts, it would be bad if he was hurt, now he’s there on his own.

Then I hear Kit’s screech, letting me know that he’s still there. It’s hard for him to speak when he’s transformed into his incubus beast form. Two more screeches follow, a little higher, but definitely the same type of screeches.

Then, a short gust of air moves the smoke around and I see three winged shapes instead of one. Kit has help from two succubi on that side. They’re each holding magicked weapons, black and purple swirls around them, succubus and incubus black magic. Their weapons, like their monster shapes, bigger than the fae’s daggers, which keeps them out of harm’s way from the green goo on the fae’s daggers. Good.

Rune’s next roar makes me flinch and Litha also jerks in my arms, but as I glance down, she’s still out of it. She’s so pale, she looks so weak…

How much longer can we keep this up? How much longer can we keep them off us? Will this all be in vain?

There is a commotion behind me. I shoot up, ready to fight off whoever is breaking through on that side. But instead of soldiers or something scary, a beautiful silver-grey wolf steps out of the smoke. Mum! She’s here!

She saunters over, her eyes shooting from side to side, her ears constantly moving, alert to any danger. When she’s close enough, she pushes her head against me and glances down at Litha.

“She just drained her energy with her magic.” I reach out to Mum, running my fingers into her soft fur, calming down a little. Then I see more creatures rush past us, all moving towards Rune, Finn and Phoenix, ready to help them. “They’ve got weapons… coated in something. They need to stay away from the weapons.”

“We know, we encountered them on the other side too.” Dad puts his hand on my shoulder and it still makes me jump. “Did you get hurt by them?”

I nod and look down at my hand, so dark against Litha’s light skin. The blackness from before is spreading under my skin, the pain manageable but getting worse. And I only touched the blade for a moment, Rune was stabbed… “Rune…” I want to rush over to him, but Dad keeps me where I am.

“If he’s hurt, we’ll help him. You need to stay with Litha and Bastet, get them both to a healer.” He steps back, and more people come up to us, reaching out to Litha. A growl breaks from my throat, my wolf flashing through me, my skin shimmering for a moment. They’re not touching her! After everything, nobody is touching her.

Then I kneel down and carefully take Litha in my arms. Luckily, she’s not too tall. Although, I think I could have lifted Rune in his dragon form, with all the adrenaline flooding through my body at the moment.

Kit appears at my side, helping me lift her onto the stretcher, pulling a light blanket over her that my dad hands him. Kit is still partially shifted into his incubus form, his face still distorted, but he no longer has the long talons and most of the black swirls under his skin have gone.

We should get Litha to the academy, but when I meet Kit’s eyes, we both glance back at the others. We can’t leave them behind. We’re not going anywhere without the others.

As more of the smoke clears, I first catch sight of Rune, who is limping our way, his hand on the hip where he was stabbed. His whole thigh is black and there is green pus bubbling up from the cuts in his leg. Oh, fuck.

Kit almost rushes over to him, but Finn hurries to Rune’s side faster, wrapping his arm around Rune’s shoulders, letting Rune lean on him. Finn’s face is pale, his breathing hard, but he doesn’t seem to be harmed otherwise.

Finally, Phoenix steps out of the smoke and comes over to us, her hair wilder than normal, dark clouds around her hands, swirling up to her wrists. But it’s the look in her eyes that stills me for a moment. She’s had to use her magic to kill someone. She was so close to them that she’s looked them in the eyes as she took their life…

Fucking hell…

Then something unexpected happens, Finn reaches out to Phoenix and wraps his arms over her shoulder too, pulling her against him, and she leans against him, trusting him as her steps falter for a moment.

I help Dad put Phoenix’s granny, Bastet, on another stretcher, and a third one is offered to Rune, who shakes his head firmly. Then Mum steps next to him instead, and he grabs a hand of her fur, keeping himself up at her side.

The road to the succubi’s cafe took us mere minutes a few days ago, but with the street littered with corpses and our own exhaustion, it’s taking much longer this time. But at least we’ve survived, we’re all here, we’re all alive. We’ve all survived this attack.

And that’s the most important thing right now. We’re here, we just need to get back on campus, get to safety, and get better again.

Still being alive is the first step, but probably also the easiest step…

3

As soon as we reach the campus, one of the professors comes over and tries to guide us to the infirmary, but Bane shakes his head, pointing to our house instead. “We can get treated there. It’s safer, and you’re going to need all the space you can get.” His voice is low, hard, and I feel this twitch in me, like I need to obey him or something, like I don’t even have a choice in the matter.

We slowly walk to the house, all exhausted, or wounded, or both. I glance to the side, I want to check on Rune, check his wound, check what’s going on with him. The green pus slowly slides down his thigh and he seems to be in a lot of pain. What was on those knives? It’s something bad, that’s obvious, but what the fuck is actually on them?

Bane carries Litha into the house and I pick up the old woman, sensing her drowsiness, her fear, her exhaustion. She looks so much like Phoenix, and Phoenix also called her ‘Granny’, but that makes no sense. Everyone knows that Phoenix’ grandma died the night Litha was born, when she helped Litha’s parents escape to the human world.

I follow Bane through the house, to the living room, where he puts Litha on one of the couches, and I put the old woman on one of the other couches.

As soon as I’ve made sure that she’s comfortable, I rush over to Rune, who’s limping through the door. I reach out to him, wanting to touch him, hold him, help him. He’s pale, not grey, the colour of his dragon, but pale like he’s close to death. “We need to get that leg checked out.” I look down, at the spreading blackness and the dangerous looking green pus.

“We will, in a moment.” He puts his hand on my shoulder, letting me carry part of his weight, and I let out a surprised sound as I’m surrounded by his pain, but also by his need to check on Litha now. He can feel she’s alive in his bond, but he needs to make sure, he needs to see it with his own eyes.

“She’s okay.” I try to let him feel this in our connection, but he still keeps limping towards her. He needs to be with her first, before anything else.

I turn to Finn, hoping that he can read the desperation in my eyes. We can’t let that wound fester for too long, or he could lose the leg. But Rune can’t worry about himself when he’s worrying about others, that’s who he is, so we need to worry for him instead. In the end, I just let Rune go where he needs to go, too exhausted to fight him, and in no state to argue.

Finn looks at Rune for a moment, then he nods resolutely and goes over to one of our walls with books, taking some from the shelves and putting them down on our desk.

Healers from the academy swarm into the living room, trying to check on each of us, but I push them away, letting them worry about Rune and the others first. I’m okay, just tired. I’ll be fine when everyone is safe again.

Phoenix kneels next to the old woman. “Granny Bastet, can you hear me? What happened?” She’s got tears in her eyes as she moves her glowing hands over her body, trying to heal Granny Bastet. Bastet… I know that name. I know it… The old highest priestess’ twin sister! This is Phoenix’ grandma’s twin sister, the twin who went missing after her sister’s death… What?!

Finn taps me on my shoulder with a book. “You’re better with these.” He hands me a book with spells.

“Thanks.” I take the book and follow him to the desk. There, I realise he’s already picked up a whole stack of books. Every one is about spells or poisons or herbs, he’s covering his bases. “What are we looking for?” I open the book, scanning the index for something that jumps out at me.

“This will help.” Phoenix appears next to us, making me jump. She’s got something wrapped in a piece of fae armour in her hand. Not just any armour, this piece of armour has partial dragon scales attacked to it, making me shiver. Oh, hell. I don’t want to know how they got their hands on those…

I reach for the package, carefully sliding an item out of the armour. It’s one of the knives! “How did you…” I stare at her, pretty sure I didn’t see her carry this before.

She shrugs, frowning a moment. “They seemed important. I thought it would be a good idea to get our hands on one of them after Rune got stabbed.” At least one of us was aware enough out there…

“Thanks.” I nod at her.

She inclines her head. “Of course.” Then she turns around and goes back over to the couch, apparently not wanting to leave the side of her granny for too long.

I glance at Finn, whose eyes have gone hard looking down at the knife, then he jerks his head to the side and grabs a couple more books, spreading them out on the table in front of us.

“Keep that inside the cloth, don’t let it touch the table.” He pushes one of the books at me, another book with spells, while he takes one of the books with poisons made from plants. “Look for anything that leaves festering wounds.”

I nod, taking the book and sitting down at the table. I want to go over to Rune, but the healers are already with him, and I don’t want to disturb them. I’m more use to him when I’m doing research. I’m more useful if I find what hurt him than if I’m crowding him the whole time.

No matter how much it hurts not being at his side… No matter how much my heart hurts that I can’t be there with him right now.

I have no idea how much time has passed, Finn and I have collected about twenty different things that can be on the weapons. Twenty things to test for, all of which would result in the type of wound Rune has. But each one has the exact same outcome if it’s not treated fast enough, death, a painful and agonising pain until death. Finding what’s on the weapons is only the first step, we’d then have to get our hands on an antidote or a reversal spell or ritual, all of which are complicated and hard to get.

I glance back at Rune, who is leaning back on the couch, his face pale, his eyes distant. The healers have tried to clean the wounds as best they can, and Phoenix has tried to heal it, in the end opting for trying to stop the spreading instead. More and more skin on Rune’s thigh has turned black, and I have a feeling the blackness is darkening still, even when it’s no longer spreading over his leg more.

Phoenix is now in one of the guest rooms with her granny, who is slowly coming out of whatever drugged state she was in. It would be helpful to know what exactly happened, how the fae got to her, but I have a feeling it’s not that easy. Granny Bastet has hidden herself from the world for so long, and now they’ve suddenly found her. How the fae have been able to find her, after such a long time, when thousands of people in this world were looking for her after she’d just disappeared… That just looks like a lot more trouble.

In Bane’s arms, Litha lets out a small sound and we all automatically try to move closer to her, but she’s still out of it. She must have exhausted all her energy when she made that fire blast. It was the most intense show of magic I’ve ever seen, and I’ve seen quite a bit of magic, especially when I was at the barracks to see the training of our army. I’ve never seen anything like that before, and it was as cool as it was scary.

“Got another one.” Finn puts something between the pages of the book he’s looking through, his eyes dark. “Same result.” He glances at Rune. “We need to start testing. We can’t leave this much longer. We may already…” He doesn’t finish his sentence, but he doesn’t need to.

“Yeah…” I stand up, stretching. We have to get a move on, we have to start somewhere, or we’ll never find anything. I eye the knife. “Let’s get to the lab.”

Finn nods, collecting the books together and standing up too.

“Are you sure that’s a good idea?” Bane speaks up, and I look at him, he’s frowning, his arm tightly around Litha. “Going outside? Is that a good idea?”

I shrug, glancing at Rune. “We don’t have a choice. It may not be perfectly safe out there, but we have to start testing the weapon to find out what they infected you two with.” I go over to him and Litha, trailing my fingers over her arm, just needing to touch her a moment. She’s there, not aware, but she’s there and not in any pain. Good. I kneel down, lifting her hand, giving her a light kiss on her palm, before carefully placing it back. “I’m not letting anything bad happen. Not now, not ever.” Even though it’s our fault that she’s had to use her magic or why Rune and Bane are hurt, if we hadn’t left the campus, we wouldn’t have been locked out there… But if we hadn’t left… The fae soldiers could have come even closer without anyone knowing… A lot worse could have happened if the soldiers had been able to get to campus…

Bane touches my arm, his trust in me taking my breath away for a moment. “Try to stay safe.”

I nod, not able to meet his eyes right now. “Not sure how much I can influence that, but I’ll try.” I turn to Rune, wanting to hold him, kiss him, anything to feel him against me, but he’s holding up his hands.

“You don’t want to feel this.” He’s gritting his teeth, his face having gone even paler. “I promise you.”

I give a quick nod, my throat starting to close up and my heart hurts. “I’ll be back as soon as possible. Hold on for just a little longer.”

He smirks at me, but his eyes are tight and tense. “I’m holding on as long as I can, you know I won’t let go. Go do your thing, find out what this is. You’re our best bet. You’re the brains of us all, I’m just the muscle.”

Tears threaten to spill down my cheeks, but I step back, turning to Finn. “Let’s go.” I go over to the table and take the other stack of books. They’re heavy, but I feel like I can carry just about anything right now, because I have to.

Finn nods solemnly. “We’ll be back as soon as possible.” He’s got the knife with him, stashed in his bag, which I remember Phoenix carrying with her earlier.

When we step out of the house, it’s dark outside. Not just the dark of night, but dark from a lack of light. The emergency lights have stopped, but the whole campus seems deserted. It’s deadly quiet, sending shivers down my spine. Normally, no matter how late at night, you usually see someone around, but there isn’t anyone right now. Everyone is locked in their buildings, staying there for their own safety.

When we get to the research building with the labs, we finally see the first lights coming from one of the rooms inside. We push the front door open, it’s not locked, which it normally would be at night, and in the first lab we pass, Bane’s mum is sitting at one of the tables, bent over a book. She’s surrounded by books, and the way she hold herself reminds me of her son just a couple of days ago, as he was looking through books about the prophecy, that same determination on her face. Next to the piles of books is a clear box, in the box is a knife just like the one Finn has in his bag, another one of the fae knives…

I glance at Finn who nods, and I push open the door. Three are better than two, especially when you can get help from one of the leading specialists in the werewolf army on offensive weaponry and spells.

Bane’s mum looks up, opening her mouth, but I show her the stack of our own books, and she nods, motioning to the other side of the table. “Show me what you’ve got.” She’s not Bane’s sweet and loving mum right now, this woman we see here is the wife of a headmaster of a school under attack, this woman is the mother of a prince. This is a wolf determined to protect what is hers, ready to rip out the throat of whatever is endangering those she cares for, those under her protection.

I put the books down, opening one to the page of one of the first spells I found. “We’ve got some ideas, but without testing a weapon… we can’t be sure.”

She nods, pulling the book to her. “This is where what you’ve been taught is put into action. This is the real world, not just a test.”

Finn and I nod at the same time. “We know.”

Rune and Bane are at home, both wounded, and if we don’t find a way to fix this, they could lose parts of their body, or their lives. Litha just incinerated dozens of fae soldiers outside the gate of the campus, leaving death and destruction in her wake.

We’re very aware that this is not just a test, that this is the real world.

Bane’s mum glances over to me, jerking her head to the side, to a cabinet with lab coats. “Put one of those on, you can’t do this naked.”

I glance down at myself. Right. I’d forgotten about that for a moment…

4

My head feels much too light, but my body feels much too heavy. When I used my magic around Finn, I didn’t even know I did it and I’d felt lightheaded back then, but using so much magic this time… I’m not surprised that my body gave out on me. But there was no way around it, I had to protect Grandma Bas, or, well, the guardian who pretended to be my grandma all my life. Although, I may have overdone it a little on the magic, just a little.

Slowly, the world comes back to me. I’m somewhere warm and soft, and there are low voices around me. Bane and Rune. They’re talking about something, but I have no idea what.

“How many times are they going to send kill teams to the schools we’re attending?” Bane’s voice rumbles very close to my ear and I realise that the warm pillow I’m up against is his chest.

“You think this is ever going to stop?” Rune lets out a hiss as the couch under me moves a little. “They’re not going to stop as long as we’re alive. As long as she’s…” He stops talking and the next moment, he touches the side of my head, his hand is much too cold.

I shiver, trying to snuggle closer to Bane, he’s nice and warm.

“Litha? You awake?” Bane tightens his arms around me and I hear his heartbeat speed up a little.

“Hmmm.” I try to shrug, but the movement is sluggish. It takes too much energy.

“Welcome back.” Bane’s voice drops, going soft and sexy at the same time, then he kisses me on top of my head. “How are you feeling?”

“Tired,” I mumble, moving my head to the side a little, to look in Rune’s direction. But when I open my eyes, I gasp, my heart aching. Rune is sitting on the couch, stark naked, which would have been all good with me, if it wasn’t for his black thigh and green pus coming out of some gashes in his leg. What happened? What happened to my dragon? Tears spring in my eyes.

“I’ll be fine.” He reaches out to me and puts his way too cold fingers to my cheek, caressing me, but I can see the way he winces as he moves. “I promise you.”

“How?” Because that definitely doesn’t look good. He’s very pale, his eyes a little distant, and the skin on his leg isn’t supposed to be that black-like-the-night colour.

“They’re working on it.” He slides his fingers down my neck, over my arm and he carefully takes my hand.

“They?”

“Kit and Finn, together with Bane’s mum.” He squeezes my hand, but I can’t get over how unnaturally cold he feels. “They’ll find a way to fix this.”

“Can’t Phoenix help?” She’s supposed to have healing abilities. That’s what she told me. She can heal him, right?

Rune shakes his head, his eyes dark, and he glances away. “She tried. She was able to halt the spreading, but she couldn’t heal it.”

Bane tightens his arm around me again, pulling me against him more. “They’ll find a way to heal it. They’ll know what to do. My mum is one of the best.” It’s almost as if he’s talking to himself, not me.

I nod carefully, exhaustion almost dragging me under again, but I can’t go back to sleep now. Not when there’s still so much to do. I can’t sleep when my men are in trouble. “Where are Phoenix and Grandma?” The room is quiet. They’re not here.

“They’re in the guest room. Phoenix is helping her get comfortable. She needs a lot of sleep.” Rune keeps slowly running his thumb over my hand, like he can’t let me go, but also can’t sit still.

“What did they do to her? Why was Grandma here? How did they get to her?” So many questions.

Rune makes a low rumbling sound, almost something soothing, and I immediately relax. “The fae drugged her when they took her here. That’s all we know. She’s not been awake enough to tell us more. We’re hoping that she can tell us more when she wakes up.” He looks over to the other side of the room, his eyes narrowing. “Talking about sleep. It’s probably a good idea if you get some too.”

I shake my head. “I don’t want to. I need to… I need to help find out what’s wrong with your leg. We need to help too. I can’t… I can’t sleep right now.”

“Let’s get you to bed.” Bane hums, moving me a little. “You’re no use if you pass out again. You need to regain your strength.”

“No. I…” I try to come up with something to say, but I’m too exhausted. My body is still so heavy and I can barely keep my eyes open.

Rune looks down at himself and then glances at Bane, before looking at me. “I’ll see if I can wrap this leg up or something. We can probably sleep in my bed. It’s downstairs and I think it’s the biggest of all of them.”

Behind me, Bane lets out a low laugh, somehow sounding happy or relieved. I’m not so sure why. “Of course, it is.”

Rune pulls his shoulder up, looking a little sheepish at me, which is almost adorable. “You’ve seen my dragon. I… I sometimes like to sleep like that. So my bed is big enough to support me when I’m a dragon.” Then he smirks, his eyes sparkling. “And it has lots of pillows and soft things, which Kit loves.”

I nod, slowly, trying to process everything. “I don’t want to be…” I can’t be alone right now, I feel to weak, too raw.

“You won’t be alone,” Bane hums, kissing the top of my head again. “We’ll all be there with you. Let’s get moving.” He takes me in his arms, standing up easily, and I feel so small, like I don’t weigh anything. And, of course, I realise that Bane is also naked. I feel my cheeks heat up, flaring fast. He looks down at me, grinning. “After your… explosion, we shifted to protect you. And after we came back here… We had more important things on our mind than getting dressed. Also, it’s for…” The light in his eyes dims a little and he looks at Rune.

“Precaution.” Rune’s voice is low, vibrating through my body. “We need to be able to shift when needed.” When needed? Why would they need to?

The soldiers! The fae soldiers!

I’d been so focused on everyone being okay, that I’d kind of forgotten about why they were in danger in the first place. “Are they… Are they gone yet? Are we safe here?” I catch the glance between Bane and Rune, their eyes dark, before they both nod.

Then Bane looks down at me, a tightness around his eyes. “We’ll… We’ll talk about all of that in the morning. When everyone is here, and awake, and potentially dressed.”

“Bane…” He’s hiding something, I want to know what, but he shakes his head decisively.

“Tomorrow. We all need to rest first.” He shifts me in his arms and Rune pushes himself up too, letting out a painful sound. “We’ll get you all nice and comfy in bed. Then we all sleep. And in the morning, we’ll talk. I promise.” He starts walking and Rune limps behind us, going to one of the doors on the ground floor.

Rune opens the door to his bedroom, revealing a spacious room, with more doors off to the side. In the middle of the room is a really big bed, if you can call it that. It looks more like some mattresses on top of a couple of wooden boxes, covered in pillows and blankets. I thought seeing his room for the first time would be more exciting, and maybe even sexy, but I don’t have the energy for any of that. “Welcome to my domain.” Rune smiles as he steps aside. “Humble, but comfortable.”

“Humble?” Bane lets out a low laugh. “Nothing about you is humble, nothing at all.”

My cheeks flush hotly when I remember that, indeed, nothing about Rune is humble. Especially not when he’s all hard and hot. I still remember how he felt in my hands.

Rune grins as he sees my blush, winking at me and wiggling his eyebrows.

Then Bane puts me on the bed and I finally get to see one of the hands he’s been holding me with, the hand he’s been really careful to hide from me. I grab his arm before he can get away, turning his hand over. His skin is very dark, near black, and while there is no green pus from a wound, it looks exactly the same as Rune’s leg.

“What happened? Tell me this much. Who did this?” I look at them both, hurt that Bane would hide this from me. They avert their eyes, until another voice answers for them.

“The fae soldiers had special weapons on them, they were coated in something bad.” Phoenix steps into the room carefully, her eyes on me. Her hair is pulled back into a ponytail, but it doesn’t seem to want to stay in. “After you…” She takes a breath, starting again. “After you saved Granny, the fae attacked us. Rune and Bane got infected by something they had on their weapons.”

“Everyone else?” They’d been under attack? After what I did?

“We’re all fine. And they will be too.” She comes over to me, kneeling down next to the bed, looking up as she touches me softly. “How are you feeling?”

I pull up my shoulder, but it’s not a big movement. “Tired, but I don’t think I’m hurt.” Which is a miracle, with how far I jumped down from Rune’s back. But that’s not the important thing. “What’s…”

She reaches up, putting her fingers to my lips. “They’ll be fine. Kit and Finn are working on it. You need to rest. You need to get your strength back.” Then she sits up, giving me a soft kiss. It’s soft and slow, desperate, and when she pulls back, I can see the anxiety and fear in her eyes. She was so scared, but she seems so glad to see me now. Then she stands up, turning to Rune. “You want me to look at that again? See if we can do something to prevent it from getting all over your bed?”

Rune nods, pulling a face as he limps over to the bed, sitting down, but in a way that his left leg doesn’t touch the covers. “Just wrap it up or something. I don’t think keeping it exposed like this is doing it any good. ‘Keep it breathing’, doesn’t seem to work here.”

Phoenix kneels down, looking at his leg. “I think you’re right. Let’s get it wrapped up.” She stands again, looking at Bane, who shrugs.

“It didn’t penetrate my skin.” He moves his hand, but the movements are weird, like it takes him a lot of effort to move them. It’s almost like a puppeteer who’s not very skilled at moving the puppet. “You stopped the spreading, but it’s still getting worse. Not much to wrap up though.”

Phoenix lets out a slow breath. “Yeah. I thought as much. I’ll be right back.” Then she leaves the room, leaving me with two of my princes, who do not look very happy.

Then Bane pulls himself together, coming back over to me. “Let’s get you all tucked in, we’ll join you soon.” He helps me move, so I’m more comfortable between all the pillows and then pulls the covers over me.

I’m still trying to sort my thoughts about what has happened. From the moment Kit saw the soldiers out the window, to Rune shifting into the big dragon and getting us out of that room, to seeing Grandma and needing to save her, to everything going black, to waking up in the princes’ living room, in Bane’s arms.

So many things happened, and I know that there must have been a lot more going on, with the way Bane and Rune look, or the way they all look at me, that pain in their eyes. So much, so many things that I want to ask them about, that I need to ask them about.

But no matter how much I try to concentrate, I’m already asleep before Bane and Rune have even joined me in bed.