Page 180 of Gift from the Stone

If it were up to me, all of them would die, no matter the level of involvement, but no, sweet mother dearest doesn’t believe that is right. Those with less association will be tried fairly. Blah, blah, fucking blah.

Pulling out my communicator to verify the list of names once more, even though I have every last fucker memorized, my heart stops beating.

Twenty-four missed calls in the last three minutes.

Panic grips me as I call Corentin back. Mentally ordering him to pick the fucking thing up.

One ring. Two rings. Three rings.

I hang up and do it again.

One ring. Two rings…

“Why the fuck haven’t you been answering?” he screams down the line the second he answers.

My darkness swells to the surface instantly. The tone of his voice is one I’ve only heard very few times in my life.

He’s completely lost control.

“What’s wrong?” I ask. Reaching out, I snatch Draken back to me by the collar of his shirt and start marching down the hall.

“Get back here now. They’re attacking the academy,” he shouts before hanging up.

The water in my veins freeze. Then melts away by the rage boiling through me.

“Palace team to the academy now. The Mastery’s broken through the wards. Codi and Blaze, full fucking lockdown. No one in or out when we leave. Draken,” I order and everyone starts moving their asses.

My sight blurs as my shadows creep out of every pore in my body, preparing for the battle we’re about to enter.

These fuckers. Constantly, constantly. They believe they can take, touch, and destroy what is mine.

They learn today.

Snatching Draken closer to me, I transport us out with no warning. From the anger vibrating from his body, he doesn’t need a warning. He needs to be let loose.

That’s right, dragon. Fuel the fire.

Stepping out of the transport, my senses are assaulted with the chaos unfolding in front of me. The air is crackling with energy, tinged with the scent of all the elements colliding, and the metallic tang of blood fills the open, ruined space.

Massive craters dot the training field. The normally shiny green grass is seared black and stained red. Smoke is bellowing everywhere, but yet the gym is untouched. I see the shimmering haze of an enchantment around it. I don’t know if it’s our enchantment or theirs.

Me and Draken spot a glowing figure right smack in the center of the fucking ruin, and we take off toward him.

When Draken partially shifts and releases a ground-quaking roar, I call on my shadows and use the cover of bodies to move myself all the way to Corentin’s side.

“How the fuck did this happen? Where’s Tillman?” I shout, releasing waves and waves of water on the fuckers surrounding him.

“Fuck if I know. They broke through right after you left. It took them seconds to get through the wards and pile in. He’s trying to make his way to the students. They have them corralled in a shield.”

“Where is our Primary?” I growl when I notice she isn’t beside either of them.

“The command room. Ry is in there with a slew of the new arrivals.”

Fuck, okay, so our enchantment.

The students are being horded like cattle in a makeshift dome, surrounded by six shields pumping their gifts out to keep them trapped in there together. Every student they can get their hands on gets thrown through the shield with the others, then the pest comes right back into the fight, searching for another.

A screech to my right draws my attention to a burly fucker lifting a girl right off the ground by her neck.

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