Page 17 of Her Rabid Beasts

I’m well aware that he can read, even if he pretended he couldn’t when he first got here.

Titus and I converse for a little while before I have the guards deliver a goat via the dumbwaiter system. Satisfied that Titus will chase his prey around the garden attached to his room, I take my sessions with my other rabid students. There are a few down here, all animuses, the last one being Thomas Krait, a serpent.

They’ve all made good progress, and if my estimation is correct, I’ll be able to introduce at least two of them to the rest of the school in a few weeks.

After my rounds, I head back above ground and make straight for the anima dormitory.

I stride towards the old gothic building, a five story building that was a part of the original structure, looking for one of the things that caused a stir for the students this past week. Aurelia’s cavern is not the only new development the academy saw fit to introduce.

“Deputy Headmaster,” a raspy, metallic chirp sounds from above the anima dormitory entrance. I stop short and stare at the squat cast iron gargoyle perched above the glass doors.

“Well, I’ll be damned,” I say, staring up at the creature. It had always been there, the inanimate head at least. A constant, silent observer of those who entered or exited the dorm. Only now, it had grown into new life, full body and all.

“The pleasure is mine.” Not a he, but ashe, by the swelling breasts beneath her absent neck. She has a round, cherub-like face with a hooked nose and wispy, bat-like wings.

“You’re new,” I remark slowly. I don’t just mean the creation of new architecture, but the fact that for the first time, the school made something that could talk.

“Was necessary,” she sniffs through that big nose. “After a certain psychotic wolf decided to set an explosive at the base of our dwelling.”

It was lucky Xander had caught Savage just in time.

“Well, we won’t let it happen again, will we?” I say, swiping my card to get inside the dorm. It clicks and I pull it open.

“Affirmative, Deputy Headmaster. Very affirmative. Are you going to visit the Lady Boneweaver?”

I freeze.

A dark, primal rage erupts from the base of my spine and I tamper it down with the might of ten years worth of cold, hard discipline. There are guards patrolling a little distance away but none, thankfully, within earshot. Slowly and silently, I shut the door and take a step back to level a stare at the gargoyle.

Visibly, she gulps.

My voice is whisper soft. “What is your name?” For surely, the thing has one and I suddenlyneedto know it.

She shivers at my tone, then starts blabbing as if it will save her life. “Christine, at your service, sir. After the Lady Christine Draykaris, dragoness of the house of nineteen forty?—”

I cut her off with words laced in cold death. “I want you to listen to me, Christine.” Her mouth snaps shut and her eyes grow wide as she peers down at me. “Not a word of what lies in that cavern beneath this building leaves your mouth. Ever. Is that understood?”

“Mouth is zipped, sir.”

I stare her down. “If you so much as breathethatword to another soul, inanimate or otherwise, I will tear your head off this building with my own hands and crush you to sand. Is that understood.” Not a question.

“Sand, sir, sand. Affirmative.”

I don’t realise that my heart is hammering until I’m inside the air-conditioned building and the door has slammed shut behind me.

Swearing through my teeth, I follow Celeste’s instructions up to the third floor and through the new dragon-trick door. Dragon mansions are full of these types of tricks and secrets, the school itself being sentient. There is every chance the school made this entrance by itself and showed it to Aurelia for her use. My own lodgings were made in such a way when the school decided to accept me on my first day here.

The unpredictability of it might have scratched at me, if not for the fact that the school was intelligent, easy to negotiate with, and seemed to like my traditional manners. It was old-fashioned, which we both seem to appreciate. These new developments might be annoying, but they are also useful. Christine will serve as an extra pair of eyes for me now. Another layer of security upon the layers of magic already here.

The fact that the school knowswhatAurelia is, however… I’ll have to ponder that another time.

I’ve paddled my way through the canal of sparkling blue water when I see her.

My breath seizes in my throat. Every hair on my body stands on end. The paddle sits frozen in my hands, completely forgotten.

Perhaps it’s the way she sits in a sphinx pose, preternaturally still, golden fur a mirror to my own. Perhaps it’s the low boom of power that pulses around the entire cavern like the steady beat of an old drum. It pounds in my ears, heavy and constant.

Here is not a girl, as I expected, bent and bowed by fear and devastation, cowering in terror at the thought of a breeding ring. But a queen, staring evenly at me as if waiting. Assessing. Judging.

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