“Is it safe here at the academy?”
“No,” Damon said at the exact same time Sadie said, “Yes.”
Damon moved up to walk beside Sadie. I arched my brows at him in question.
“It’s not safe anywhere anymore,” he said, his voice unusually somber. “Not even here.”
My heart rate picked up as I looked around us. Even though I spotted nothing more than butterflies and hummingbirds flitting from one flower to the next, my pulse thudded through me with alarm.
The academy was supposed to be impenetrable, but when magic was involved, certainties were rare. Even though some of the greatest wizards of the magical world crafted the Academy Spell, there was only so much they could do to anticipate every move of all the dark witches and wizards out there. Gorky Gower’s team of dark mages had found a way to connect to my pendant and circumvent the school’s defenses. I’d seen the same happen with Rina, when Rage had the mother of all hard-ons for her mountain lion shifter magic.
The Academy Spell was undoubtedly the strongest and best of its kind, since Albacus and Mordecai, though half dead, were the best of their kind. But I still wouldn’t rest easy until Gorky Gower’s head adorned a pike, and his beastly minions, like Linda, were out of commission. A bitter smile dragged across my lips. Hell, her head could go on a pike too, next to Gorky’s. They could be twinsies.
Beyond the rogue sector of the Shifter Alliance, the entire Voice, comprised of disgruntled members of the Undead League, dark mages, and other assorted supernaturals, needed to be taken out. It was the only way for the academy to guarantee true safety for its students. The same went for the Magical Creatures Academy’s sister schools. No one was safe until the Enforcers dealt with the problem once and for all.
“Have there been more attacks here on the school since I left?” I asked Damon.
“Yes,” he said, as Sadie once more said the opposite.
I huffed. “Seriously, guys? Some straight answers would be nice.”
“There’ve been no successful infiltrations since you’ve been gone,” Sadie said. “But the Voice has tried.”
“Oh shit,” I said.
“Yup. That’s about my thought when it comes to the Voice.” Sadie’s fingers twitched around the handles to her blades as if anticipating one of their members popping up in front of us. “The only good member of the Voice is a dead one.”
Damon, Orangesicle, and I nodded. Why and Val, not to be left out, imitated us without really understanding.
When they were willing to kill dozens of us in our sleep, there was no mediating a solution. If the Enforcers the Voice killed had been my friends, if I’d attended the Magical Creatures Academy with them as Sadie and Damon had, I’d be out for blood too.
“So did they or didn’t they manage to get inside the school again?” I asked, swallowing the lump in my throat and hitching Why farther up my hip while I waited for their answer.
“No, they didn’t get in,” Damon said. “But they reached the gate. The battle was bloody, with significant losses on both sides.”
“By the time we got here though,” Sadie said, “the rabbits had dealt with the problem.”
I halted, my breath suddenly shallow. “Did any of the rabbits die?”
Damon nodded solemnly.
“Oh fuck,” I whispered, meeting eyes with Sadie. She, Why, and I had been stuck with Roberta, the matriarch of all the killer bunnies, in Zavid’s court for months. Roberta, despite being totally terrifying, had a way of growing on you—kind of like a fungus you just couldn’t shake.
“Roberta?” I croaked my question at Sadie, who nodded.
My mouth dropped open before I recovered. “Oh no.”
I never fucking cried, never. But Roberta … not her. She couldn’t be dead, she just couldn’t. Hell, the murderous bunny was larger than life. I couldn’t handle the thought of losing my second bestie, especially not like this. Not because of the likes of mega turds like Gorky, who didn’t even have the decency of having a good name.
I sniffled, working to keep my shit together when it was obviously breaking loose. “I’m going to rip his balls off and feed them to him before I kill him.”
“No, girl, no,” Sadie said hurriedly, and I whipped my eyes open when I hadn’t even realized I’d closed them. “Roberta has a few new scars, but she kicked some major ass. When we got here, she was covered in blood.”
My heart thudded and I sucked in a breath, shaky with my relief.
“She defended the academy with everything she had,” Damon said. “She’s the reason the Voice didn’t manage to breach.”
“She and her kids,” Sadie said.
I didn’t want to ask, but I knew I had to. I looked away as I did, and Why licked my chin, tickling my neck with his fur.
“So some of her kids died, then? More of them? Please tell me they didn’t. She already lost Rasper.”
When neither Sadie, Damon, nor Orangesicle answered me, I finally turned to look at them.
Sadie shrugged sadly. “We won’t tell you more, then.”
I shook my head, as if that alone would push away the truth I didn’t want to hear.
There were so many more questions, so many more details I needed to know. But there was one more question I needed to ask before I took another step.
“And the day I left with Why … when I disappeared, Gorky was here with his asshole underlings. He said more were on the way, and creatures were rushing in to fight him from every direction. Did…” I swallowed audibly, tilting my head up to face whatever reply arrived next. I could handle it. “Did anybody else die? I mean, other than Selene and Professor Whittle? You told me they were still okay, right?”
“They’re okay,” Sadie said, but didn’t say anything else.
“And everybody else?” I pressed.
Sadie exchanged a long look with Damon, and Orangesicle didn’t bother being jealous, staring off into the distance in a way I’d never seen him do.
“Shit, shit, shit.” I couldn’t seem to help the panic rising in me. Val pressed himself against my legs in silent support, and Why burrowed in my hold, seeking a way to comfort me.
“Who died?” I asked in a high-pitched voice I barely recognized. I desperately wanted to ask if any of my friends had, but it didn’t seem right to give their lives priority over others, even though I really wanted to. I couldn’t even consider that Ky, or Adalia, or Rina, or Wren, Dave, Boone, or Leo, that any of them might not be alive anymore. I couldn’t deal.
Sadie sighed loudly, and she wasn’t a sigher. “Come on. We’ll tell you once we get inside.” She started walking again.
I didn’t follow. “No, you’ll tell me now.” I wasn’t bothering with fucking pleases.
Sadie didn’t turn back around though. Damon wrapped one of his big strong arms around me and pulled me into him. I barely knew the Enforcer, but I melted into his embrace.
When his words came, they wrapped me gently. But the truth of them was anything but gentle.
I pressed my face against his chest and let them rock through me.
“Two fivers died, along with Professor Burl Quickfoot, and two of the pygmy trolls.”