Page 9

Phenex

T here was a commotion outside my door. Thundering footsteps, raised voices, each one trying to be heard over the others. The energy was frantic and brimming with intrigue.

Something had happened.

The assembly earlier had been uninformative at best and pointless at worst. We had essentially been told to stay in our rooms, keep our noses out of it, and let the ‘grown ups’ get the job done. We weren’t even told what that job was, and it was incredibly condescending how they spoke to us as if we weren’t adults in our own right. I ignored it for the most part. The bastards in charge were typically from the House of Pride so I didn’t take their words or actions to heart. They always enjoyed blowing hot air up their own asses to inflate their own egos.

That was one of the reasons I loved my own House so much. We may have been Greed and that came with its own stigmas, but at least we were honest about our predilections and didn’t treat the other Houses as if they were beneath us. Well, there would always be someone and I had my own opinions, but I didn’t strut around like a puffed up prick constantly spewing shit. I cultivated my hoard and minded my own business.

But that didn’t mean I wasn’t curious why everyone was in such a tizzy.

I placed a dried flower inside my book to mark my page before closing it and delicately replacing on the ledge beside my bed. Then I quickly threw on a shirt, untangling myself when it got caught on my horns before tugging it down to cover my bare torso, pulled on some pants, then I cracked open my door to peer out into the hallway.

Students were gathered in groups that mingled as they excitedly discussed something I couldn’t quite catch with the overload of sensory information. Too many voices were speaking to pick out any words, and I winced at the noise.

That was when Abaddon pushed through the crowd as he headed straight for me. He pushed me back inside my room and slammed the door behind him when the others caught sight of him and started bombarding him with questions. He ran a nervous hand through his hair and stroked down to the tip of his right horn.

‘What’s going on?’ I asked.

‘We looked outside,’ was his vague answer. I waited for him to elaborate, but when he didn’t I pushed for more.

‘What’s outside, Don? What did you see?’

He pursed his lips and blew out a long, slow breath. His hesitancy was started to worry me.

‘We are in a completely new realm.’

‘Yes, you’ve mentioned that,’ I told him, annoyed at his hedging. ‘Just tell me, Don. What’s going on?’

He chewed his lip as if debating he even wanted to tell me, then he physically deflated and gestured toward my bed. ‘You might want to sit down for this.’

I scowled at him, losing my patience and ignoring his advice. ‘Just spit it out already, Abaddon. The suspense is making it worse, and you’re making me anxious.’

‘All right, all right. I’m not even really sure what to say. There have been some confessions of a strange sound, but only a few are hearing it. Enough to know that there’s something going on that’s beyond our control.’

‘What kind of music? What does it do? How does this connect to being transported to a different realm?’ I asked in rapid succession and he raised his hands to stop the bombardment.

‘Let me finish and you’ll know what I know,’ he shot me a pointed look and I took the hint, sucking my lips into my mouth to keep them closed.

‘Right. Well, when the first student came forth saying they could hear something, they said it felt like they were being summoned. At first we dismissed it, but then Mistress Bast said she could hear it, too. She also felt the call. When more and more came forward claiming to hear it, to feel a pull tugging them outside, we decided to take a look.’

He paused, taking a breath to steady himself and I was practically vibrating with the need to push him to spill it already.

‘There’s a courtyard separating the academy with a village of red brick buildings. Buildings that seem to belong to… Humans.’

My breath stalled in my lungs. ‘What?’

‘And that’s not all. We caught a few of them scouting and guarding the perimeter, but we also found they weren’t the only ones. There was a Fae sighting, and a Shifter, too. Someone even claimed to see winged beings soaring in the skies above.’

‘Angels?’ I all but squeaked. If that were true and the stories about their race were more than just cautionary tales, then our greatest enemy had returned. We were all in danger.

‘I’m not finished,’ he said grimly.

‘What else?’ I asked breathlessly.

‘The courtyard gave way to a portal. All the races seem to be drawn to it, including ours. We believe that is where the call is coming from, and we’ve lost those who could hear it already.’

‘They stepped through?’ I surmised, my knees wobbling with the overload of information. I finally took Abaddon’s advice and sat down on my bed, my legs suddenly unable to hold my weight.

‘Not yet,’ he admitted, his tone fierce and determined.

I jerked my chin towards the door where the students were still milling around noisily. ‘That’s what’s got them so worked up, huh.’ It wasn’t a question.

‘A group of us are preparing to head outside. We need to stop them from stepping through that portal.’

I jumped to my feet, the decision needing no thought. ‘I’m coming with you.’

‘You should stay here where it’s safe. The other… beings seem just as freaked out as us and we don’t know how hostile they’ll be.’

I shook my head, strapping my belt around my waist to keep my pants up. ‘I’m coming.’

Abaddon sighed but didn’t bother arguing any further. We both knew there would be no talking me out of it. He chucked my boots at me when he saw me hunting for them, then waited by the door. Once I strapped on my last dagger, securing the sheaths firmly to my belt, we exited the room. My brother held the swarm of curious Daemons away while I locked up, ensuring my ward was in place. I wouldn’t put it past any one of them to sneak in and snoop or steal something. That was just the way of Greed.

‘Abaddon, are you going to save them?’ one person called.

‘Are there really other races?’ another asked.

‘I heard there was an Angel!’ someone further back shouted above the rest, prompting another slew of chaos.

‘Move aside!’ my brother commanded, and thankfully, though they didn’t move far, they did move enough for us to squeeze through. ‘Back to your rooms!’

With much grumbling they did as they were told, though a few stuck around for a little longer to watch us head towards the stairwell.

When we reached the Academy’s main exit, a crowd of older students, professors and Masters had already accumulated. They brightened with anticipation when they saw us approach, a couple of them shooting me furtive looks but no one said anything. I wasn’t exactly well known for my sociability or my skill as a soldier, but that didn’t mean I wasn’t capable. They simply hadn’t seen that side of me, used to Abaddon’s quietly studious younger brother.

‘Right, that’s all of us, then,’ Master Gulliver of Gluttony , the academy’s headmaster confirmed after a quick scan of those of us that had gathered. ‘The plan is simple. Keep our people safe from both the portal and any other threats. We do not know if the other creatures are friendly or hostile, so proceed with caution. Now, let’s go save our people.’

He waved a hand in front of the wall which disappeared to reveal the outside world.

A strange new world with green grass, odd buildings, and an array of strange looking supernatural races currently circling a growing portal. There was no rhyme or reason for the pattern in which they stood, unintentionally intermingling while they stared catatonically at the portal.

Master Gulliver strode forward, eyeing our surroundings warily as the other beings were also out and running around with a frantic energy that bordered on hysterical. A few fights had broken out between what looked like a Human and a Fae, but the majority were ignoring the other races in favour of trying to wake up their friends.

We clustered around Master Gulliver knowing there was safety in numbers and watched each other’s backs as we headed for the circle of enraptured beings.

‘Spread out,’ he commanded. ‘Wake them up. Do whatever is necessary so we can get back behind the safety of the academy’s walls.’

I didn’t think it was the smartest idea to split up, especially when there were so many potential threats wandering freely, but we split off into pairs. Abaddon and I stuck together and headed for the other side of the circle. I couldn’t help studying the beings we’d previously believed to be creatures of mythology, mere stories told by creative minds. My focus was repeatedly drawn back to those I recognised to be Humans, a giddiness building inside me at the prospect of finding the woman of my dreams. Was she here? If so, I hoped she wasn’t one of the…

Fuck me.

There she was. Dark green hair, tiny, delicate build, milky smooth skin, pink pouty lips, and those brilliant blue eyes…

‘Don,’ I called out, but my voice was barely more than a whisper. It was like the air was constricting in my lungs, refusing to budge.

‘What is it?’ he asked, but he didn’t look up from where he was trying to jolt a Deamon I didn’t recognise back to reality.

‘It’s her.’

‘Her?’ he asked, still not fully paying attention as he gripped the unresponsive Daemon’s shoulders and shook.

‘The Human woman from my dreams.’

That caught his attention. He paused with his hands still on the other Daemon and his head slowly turned in our direction. His eyes landed on me first, gauging me reaction before following my gaze to the woman in front of me. His breath stalled in his lungs as he took her in, cataloguing the physical features I’d raved about. I watched it all in my periphery, refusing to remove my attention from the literal woman of my dreams.

Unfortunately, she was just as responsible as the rest of the circle caught up in the call of the portal.

Abandoning my quest to protect our people, my sole goal now was to protect her . My instincts screamed at me that she was my mate, her sweet, floral and earthy scent drifting beneath my nose tauntingly.

I lifted my hand to touch her but I didn’t get far, terrified I was hallucinating.

‘It’s really her?’ I heard Abaddon ask from beside me, though when he’d moved I didn’t know.

‘Is she real?’ I breathed.

Don’s poked her shoulder with his forefinger. She swayed slightly from the pressure but quickly straightened, the action proving her tangibility but also how out of it she was. There was no reaction.

Our names were called from somewhere across the way but I ignored it. Abaddon started cursing up a storm, gripping my arm in a vice-like grip as if afraid I was about to be forcefully taken from him.

Just as I was plucking up enough courage to stroke my fingers over her cheek, Abaddon was suddenly between us, blocking my way. I snarled, annoyed at the obstacle he was making of himself, but he snarled right back. Only it wasn’t directed at me.

‘Don’t touch him,’ he ground out and I blinked away the fog of finding my mate to take in my surroundings. A small group of battered and bleeding Humans were encircling my mate, tucking her safely inside the gap between their bodies to keep me from her. I didn’t like that. At all.

The Humans guarding her were all larger, even the female, and I wondered if that was normal. Was her height an abnormality among her people, or were these ones just giants? I cast those thoughts aside when I took in their fierce expressions. These Humans cared about my mate, which was the only reason I felt comfortable enough to back down, though I didn’t dare back away. I didn’t want to hurt her friends trying to keep her safe, but I wasn’t abandoning her, either. At least we had a common goal there.

The large male in the front spat angry words at me and Don in a strange round language that flowed smoothly from his lips with little pauses here and there as he used his teeth, tongue and throat, and I noticed his eyes were the same brilliant shade of blue as my mate’s. His features were definitely more masculine with a squarer jawline that was bruising and a more prominent brow ridge currently bleeding from a cut, but the thin, slightly upturned shape of his nose also reminded me of hers. His hair was a yellowish shade rather than green, but there was a clear familial connection between the two. I wondered just what their relationship was. Was he a brother? A cousin? I couldn’t tell from looks alone.

Abaddon nudged me with his elbow, snapping me out of my thoughts. I let them drift away to focus on the present and peered around the yellow-haired man to get another look at her. Don nudged me again and I turned my head slightly to look at him only to find him glaring.

‘Get your head on straight, Phenex. This is not the time for daydreaming.’

I cleared my throat, hoping whatever was blocking my sense left with it. ‘Right. Sorry.’

I tore my attention from my mate and the Humans surrounding her to take in the scene unfolding before me. The different races were attempting to carve out small sections of territory around their catatonic friends to keep the other races at bay. Many had already come to blows, mostly with Daemons. From first glance I could see why. Our physical appearance would have been daunting to those without horns, wings, or barbed tails. The Fae seemed to be the most aggressive while the Humans were merely defensive. Large, beastly creatures that looked like oversized Humans I was able to determine were Shifters when I watched as a few of them shapeshifted into their animal counterparts. Large, four-legged creatures with shaggy fur covering the entirety of their bodies to long, scaled things with zero appendages that seemed to move by undulating their bodies, and even small, winged things with taloned feet and protruding beaks, their bodies encompassed in an array of colourful feathers. Each of them had natural weapons in their second forms that rallied against the metal weapons of the Fae.

Blades sliced, whistling through the air, claws and fangs tore through flesh, blood splattered on the grass, the crimson colour contrasting starkly against vivid green. My hands went to rest on the daggers at my waist as I readied for an attack. I didn’t want to draw them yet in case my actions were misinterpreted as an offensive threat.

A wave of power burst from the centre of the courtyard where the portal pulsed with magic. It tore through me, almost knocking me to the ground but I forced my feet to remain planted firmly in the short, green blades of grass. It hadn’t hurt, but it hadn’t been pleasant sensation, either. Like small insects crawling beneath my skin. A tickle more than anything.

‘Abaddon, what is happening?’ I asked as I took up a fighting position with his back against mine.

‘I do not know, little brother,’ he replied in a strained voice.

‘ Juniper! ’ I heard one of the Humans surrounding my mate call. The other male, this one with darker, earth-coloured hair and multicoloured eyes also in earthy tones. I wondered what he was saying, but there wasn’t any time to guess as the ones caught up in the portal’s magic suddenly lurched forward towards the centre. The Humans surrounding my green-haired beauty scrambled to hold onto her, but whatever magic that gripped her had too strong of a hold. She took a step forward, and another, and then another, all the while her guardians tried and failed to hold her back.

All around us groups attempted to halt the magically possessed people to no avail. Closer and closer they walked to the portal as if the rest of us didn’t even exist, and I fell in line with the Humans and joined their attempts. Abaddon moved onto the Daemon he had been shaking moments ago and the group that surrounding him, but neither of us were able to even slow down their progress.

The Humans eyed me warily, but when they saw I was trying to help they didn’t push me away. I took that as a good sign for our future interactions, because we would have future interactions. I wasn’t letting her go now that I knew she was real and right in front of me.

My eyes connected with the man she shared a resemblance with an understanding passing between us that surpassed any spoken language. She couldn’t be allowed to step through that portal.