Page 13 of Foxes of Legend

The naked woman approached, slinging her arm around Kairos’ waist. “Kairos, you might want to dispel these rumors before they get out of hand.”

My eyes locked onto her, ready to rip her arm from its socket. A small unnatural growl erupted from the back of my throat, out of my control.

She flicked her eyes to me and laughed. “Is that supposed to make me feel threatened, kit?”

Kairos raised his brows. Enko cleared his throat, nudging Kairos with his elbow, flicking his eyes down to the woman’s arm, which was still touching him.

Kairos stepped away from her grasp. “What rumors, Mel?”

She giggled. “You guys being Fated to that first-year, of course.” A mixture of disgust and feigned pity rested on her faceas she tilted her head in my direction as if I couldn’t hear her perfectly.

Kairos frowned. “WeareFated to her.”

Her smile turned to shock in a heartbeat. A man with a shaved head sidled up next to her, patting her shoulder. She shrugged him off roughly, her cute demeanor dissolving into malice. “Not now, Vince.”

Vince had on obnoxiously yellow gym shorts and a shirt that looked a couple sizes too small to show off his muscles.

“Hey, Stryker, I’m less than fifty kills from overtaking your position in the Top Three,” he said to Kairos. His eyes slithered up my body in a way that coated me in slime before nodding at me, “You think your hot new Fated will go for me once I pass your kill count?”

Kairos’ fist pummeled into Vince’s face. Vince’s hand shot to his injury, coming away with only a bleeding split lip, but he scowled at Kairos for a moment before he stalked off down the hall.

Enko and Kairos guided me away. Mel glared from the front of the leaderboard, not moving since the altercation, her arms crossed over her bare chest. Two girls stood on either side of her, patting her arm and rubbing her back as though she needed comfort for the scene she had caused.

“What was that all about?”

Kairos' jaw clenched tightly and Enko responded, “Kairos and Mel’s family’s grew up around each other. Vince is fourth on the leaderboard, he thrives on the competition. You’d do well to steer clear of both of them, especially Vince.”

8

Dove

On the field behind the main academy building, clusters of students waited for the first combat instruction of the semester.

Enko stretched out his gigantic arm, pointing toward a crowd of students on one side of the field. “That’s the first-years over there. Varma always likes to give a speech, scare the kits a bit.”

Kairos and Enko split off from me as I approached the recruits, all chatting excitedly, reuniting with old friends and making new ones. My Fated watched me from afar as I made my way through the crowd, frozen green grass crunching under my feet.

Our schedules were packed full. Physical Training, five days a week. Weapons and Hand to Hand Combat alternated day to day. After our morning workout, we had a short break for eating and showering before our academic class: Demonology, History and Religion, Elements, Tactical Strategies, and eventually Forging.

The academy prepared us for a lifetime of battle, fighting against the demons corrupting our world. We trained to take over a war that our people had been fighting for thousands of years.

Our primary purpose was to protect the weaker inhabitants of the world—the humans. The other supernatural creatures took care of themselves.

In the distance, the older students split as Seven emerged from the forest. Silence passed over everyone. His black hair looked even messier than the day before, and he glared in every direction, daring someone to say something. Everyone ducked out of the way, hiding from him, as though getting too close may kill them. My eyes drank him in like I’d been deprived of water since I’d seen him the day before.

He was the top student at Kitsune Academy, according to the leaderboard, closing in on a thousand kills. Black demon blood or hellfire char streaked across his chin over his jagged scar. He wore a white t-shirt despite the chilly morning, and black pants—I would guess the same ones as the day before. Goddess only knows where he’d slept because he hadn’t come back to the dorm since finding out he was Fated to me.

“Why do you suppose they call him Seven? Seven tails?” a girl behind me asked.

“Who cares?” someone else muttered. “He’s hot.”

Something inside me twitched, objecting to the comment. I glared back at the one who said it.

A guy beside me chuckled, “He had to redo an entire year of classes, that’s how he has so many kills on the leaderboard.” He reached out a hand to me, “Hey, I’m Caleb.”

Caleb was stout and burly, muscles he’d been building years before the academy. He had a kind enough smile, and I needed to make some friends if I wanted to survive at the academy. I shook his hand.

He nodded back toward Seven, continuing, “I heard it’s because he went rogue. Killed seven kitsune, took all their magic, stole their tails.”

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