Page 3 of Faerie Fate (Fae Academy for Halflings #7)

Chapter Two

T he reason why the hallways were empty.

The reason why I’d found only fifteen people so far.

Death permeated the walls, the floors, the stones, to the foundation of the Fae Academy for Halflings, and coated the inside of my stomach with acid. Then came the tsunami crash of emotion, devastation and fury, a terrible combination.

Alone and reeling, I stared at the massacre. Unable to look away. All those poor kids?—

First-years. Oh god, they were all first-years, because there in the jumble was Professor Nitliffe, the charms teacher, with her eyes frozen open in death.

She’d tested me for my innate powers, my cognitive manipulation. She was specifically a first-year teacher.

Kendrick had killed Nitfliffe. Had she stood her ground to protect the kids, or had he wiped her out first before moving on?

My hands fisted, knuckles popping, the change threatening to overpower me. My wolf rose in the face of this fucking injustice before the sickness forced me to stop. My head spun, dizzy.

These kids hadn’t done anything to Kendrick Grimaldi, yet he swept through this supposed safe haven like a wave of death.

They were innocents. They had no business in this vendetta of his but they’d paid the price. And where was I? Planning and plotting and not fast enough to save any of them.

This horrible game of cat and mouse with Kendrick wasn’t just dangerous for me and the people I cared about anymore. He was killing students in his play for me. No remorse, no conscience.

I was responsible for every single one of these deaths and I took that into myself, forcing it to change me, so I’d always remember.

Every last one of them…

I made the mistake of counting the bodies and stopped when I reached twenty-five.

My breath came in sharp cutting gasps and my heart constricted, stopped, resumed its off-rhythm beat until the pain traveled from my chest to my skull. It pierced the back of my eyes and my palms went clammy.

No, no . This was the wrong time for a panic attack but there was no stopping the visceral reactions once they began.

Soft padding footsteps sounded from the corridor outside. In the midst of a panic attack, I was too sluggish to move. To think. Then a solid weight slammed into my back and trapped me against the wall.

“My lucky day.” The guttural voice sounded close to my ear as a gust of hot breath ruffled the hair on my neck. “Look at what I’ve found! Oh, you’re going to be like a little golden goose, girl.”

The emotions poured into me and the change rippled through muscles and bone, along my spine. Fur pushed out across my forearms and I suddenly hit the ground hard, my knees cracking.

Dizziness stopped the change from completing but the fall saved me from attack.

The patrolling wolf shifter had swiped his claws at me and grazed my shoulder. Pain was minuscule compared to the stalled change, but I rolled on my side, curling into a ball, before he moved again.

I pushed against the wall of dizziness from the zombie curse. My stomach churned, making it almost impossible to harness the change. A sob burned my throat and the sorrow of all those kids helped me pry apart the wall.

The patrolling wolf roared as my body doubled in size. The change ripped through me, my wolf attempting to gain control.

My muscles tensed, my bones breaking and reforming in a transformation I’d done thousands of times in my life. In my weakened state I was slow to move through it now, and the shifter on patrol caught me in one arm, dragging me against his chest until I had a face full of fur to breathe through.

“What do you think you’re doing?” he seethed. “Shifting isn’t going to help you.”

“Fighting for my damn life, clearly,” I muttered.

My mouth became crowded with sharp teeth. Being this close left me without maneuvering room so I pushed my elbows into his ribs. Pushing harder, deeper, between the bones until the man jerked backward with a yelp.

The change sputtered and stalled, with my body poised between halfling warrior form and human. Muscles protested, screamed at being frozen in this unnatural progression.

The wolf in me cried out for a control neither of us had. I opened the gates for her but…I hadn’t had a lot of opportunities to shift into my pure wolf in Faerie. I’d done it only a few times since I moved, and the zombie curse made things much harder.

The patrol wolf recovered, hurling himself at me, his arms swiping to band around my legs.

I stepped to the side and brought my knee up on his way past, using his momentum against him. His face slammed into my thigh bone and with a yelp, the wolf skidded to a halt. He rose, snapping his teeth in the air in front of my face.

He fought for Kendrick and the orders given to him. I had higher stakes. Panic made me desperate. I had to go for the soft underbelly, for any part of him that would make him bleed and slow him down.

Turning, I dropped on all fours, rushing the change. Forcing my body into pure wolf form instead of the halfling warrior shape. With a cry, the wolf slid free, sleek black hair furring over the rest of my body.

The patrol wolf did the same.

I took off down the hallway, away from the black cloud of death, and he gave chase. At the last second, I turned, my back legs pressing to the wall.

Kendrick’s man slammed into me and the wall, cracking the side of his skull to the stone.

I rounded on him with my teeth bared, snapping on his front leg hard enough to break the bone.

Unfortunately, it seemed that not all of my teeth were changed. Several of them were still human and peg-like. Ineffective. He recovered quickly from the lack of pain from a broken bone and his eyes narrowed on mine.

The wolf was much larger than me, more muscled, and stronger. Thinking fast, I released my hold on his leg and ran off. The same trick wasn’t going to work twice. Rather than chase after me, the shifter turned and straightened, allowing the change to bring him into his stronger halfling form.

Faster. I needed to be faster. I pushed my body to its limit and the shifter closed the distance between us in three bounds, every landing shaking the foundations. He jumped, tickling the hair on my back, before he landed in front of me.

Muscled shoulders blocked out the exit. He gave a roar that bristled every hair on my body and then he charged.

Think, Tavi . Panic made it all but impossible. I snagged on a spell Melia had taught me.

I’d never attempted it before. Did I have the power to make it work?

I nudged my head to the wall and thought Elaphrium . The word would open the secret passage, if I remembered it correctly. I drew my magic to my skull and cast it out

The wall dissolved in a wave of darkness.

But I wasn’t going through.

The distraction worked and the shifter paused to stare at the new opening. Half a second, no longer. In the hesitation, I lunged, calling my halfling form to the surface. The small burst of magic used to open the secret passage would open me .

I rose, chest height with the warrior, and dug my claws into his stomach to tear through sinew and muscle. I fought dirty when I had no choice. The hot drip of blood painted the floor in tones of crimson and the shifter yelped in surprise, reaching up to keep his intestines where they belonged.

I kept going, through my disgust and nausea, through everything, until his body shuddered and fell backward.

He landed on his haunches before toppling over to his side, his features slowly melding back into those of a startled and pale human with his gut ripped open. Entrails decorated the sides of his torso and I stood over him, staring, until he fell still.

I finally pulled myself together enough to shift back. Human me felt weaker than before, the blood leaching from my face and heat pooling in my stomach.

“Damn it.” I groaned, pressing a hand to the ache where he’d gotten me in the shoulder.

Another glance at the body had my own guts erupting and I threw up until I emptied.

I was definitely a little off my shifter game, and not just because of the zombie curse.

It shouldn’t be this hard to breathe or to get my wits back. So many things shouldn’t be happening, except they were. I spared another ten seconds of heavy breathing before I took to the open passageway and closed it behind me.

Stopping my search now meant leaving the survivors behind.

Pulling myself together took a long time. The passage opened up to the opposite wing of the third floor, and I hurried into a room only to find people were dead. Kids were slaughtered.

I pressed a hand to my mouth to prevent the anguished cry from escaping.

But there were more here who needed my help. I’d gotten an up close and personal look at what Kendrick did without someone around to check him. I wouldn’t let him hurt anyone else.

I kept searching for survivors, my limbs aching and heavy, my muscles slow to recover from the change. I found only a handful of others in one of the spells and charms classrooms.

Opening the door to Faerie was second nature now. I turned the key and hustled the second-year students across the threshold.

Melia was there to welcome them with open arms and a kind smile. It was the same smile she’d given me when we met during my first year here. She caught my gaze, her wild curls tamed beneath her hood, and I crept closer.

“How are they?” I asked in a low tone. Wincing because even that was too loud. “Have you seen them?”

Melia knew who I meant without me having to explain. “Livvy and Mike are both safe, still walking around the school,” she assured me. “You’ve found more people than they have, Tavi. Be proud of yourself.”

Tension in my chest loosened but not enough to let me move without pain, as if I needed a reminder.

“It’s so quiet here now,” I wondered out loud. “It’s like the halls are deserted. I’m finding a few hidden students and teachers, but no other shifters.”

“None?” Melia hissed out a breath.

“Okay, one seriously bad dude who tried to kill me,” I said in a rush. So I had to kill him first, no big deal . I’d rather Melia not know about that. Although surely she’d understand.

“One of the professors told me the shifters are outside of the school. That’s why you haven’t seen them. They’re out on patrol so no one can leave.” Her gaze searched my face to see how I’d take the news.

No one can leave .

Startled, I stepped backward through the door. “Keep a watch on them. Don’t let Coral give you any shit.” I dragged it shut, pulling the key with me. The portal closed and the chill rattled my bones.

I scoured the rest of the third floor before going into one of the towers. I stopped at a window, staring down. The trees cast black shadows against the silvery fog hovering over the great lawn.

There were several more bodies lying motionless on the grass, people who had tried to escape. It wasn’t fair. Not fair at all to be cut down, stabbed in the back, by people who wouldn’t give you a fair fight. Those wolves were cowards to blindly follow orders to hurt the innocent.

My heart stopped beating and I slammed my palm to my chest to get it to start again. It finally did, with a hitch, and resumed an irregular rhythm. Then one of the shadows moved, apart from the tree’s shadow.

A glowing set of eyes gleamed ruby bright from between the limbs. It was nothing more than a flash but those eyes met mine.

Then the darkness separated and down on the lawn below stepped dozens of shifters, all of them stopping to stare up.

I darted backward before someone recognized me through the glass. I’d seen enough.

Lost in thought, I didn’t notice the presence of another shifter until a bulky hand landed on my shoulder. Meaty fingers bit into my skin and I whipped around.

Recognition landed hard in my gut. The one-eyed wolf . The one I’d left behind in Faerie. My stomach plummeted.

“Hello, girl.”

He reared his arm back too fast for me to follow and punched me in the temple. Pain splintered across my skull before the edges of darkness crept in and swallowed me whole.