Page 53 of Her Rabid Beasts

“She won’t listen to me,” he says. “That gargoyle is loyal to?—”

“To me.”

We all turn around to find Lyle stalking towards us with death in his eyes.

Chapter 24

Aurelia

I’m curled up tightly against the base of my bed in wolf form, Henry chirping slowly to give me a count for my breaths and Eugene nestled by my side. My anima wants to take control again, but I deny her, focusing on Henry’s little comforting rhythm.

Within minutes, my wolf hearing picks up a commotion outside and a very audible Savage. Groaning to my feet, I lope my way over to the double balcony doors. Since Savage came in last night, the door is unlocked, but I don’t open it up. I manage to nuzzle the lace curtain aside and peer out.

Xander and Savage are in each other’s faces and I can just manage to see a head of bouncing pink curls next to a tall blonde one, so I know Minnie and Lyle are there too. Christine is wailing. From the sound of it, I think she’s barred entry to the dorm. Silently, I thank her for the extra time. I don’t know what possessed me to howl that loud, calling everyone here, but I feel better for having done it. Almost like I’d been bottling up my emotions and a pressure valve opened up to physically get it out of my system. My stomach still burns, and I just need a bit of time to pull my shit back together.

A small click sounds to my right and I whirl around.

On the other side of my bed is my chest of drawers and wardrobe. To the right of those is the bathroom door and to the left of itusedto be an empty wall.

Now? A black mahogany door stands wide open, a gilded door frame and handle sparkling in the sunlight filtering from the windows. Beyond the door lies a set of stone stairs, ominously leading upwards into the shadows.

Upwards.

Another dragon-trick door has been opened.

My wolf’s mouth drops open and Henry and Eugene give an excited squeak and cluck, respectively, both immediately zipping over to the doorway and inspecting the space. It’s almost exactly the same as the set of stairs that lead down to my secret cavern.

But Xander’s dragon didn’t open this door for me.

Is the school trying to tell me something? An open door is about as clear a message as it can get.

I shift back into human form and look down in dismay at my now shredded dress. Quickly tugging on a simple thin purple cotton sundress with spaghetti straps and a soft, barely there thong gifted to me by Sabrina, I warily step up to the door. There’s no magic fizzing around it that I can sense. Nothing like Xander’s dragon trap that locked me in their room when I snuck in there that first time.

I take a tentative step into the cool shadows and take a sniff. It’s only dust that I smell.

Henry sneezes and, alarmed, returns to land on my shoulder.

“It’s alright,” I say soothingly, although I’m the one with the shot nerves. Adrenaline still pumps through me, making me shaky, and that burn along my abdomen is at the edges of all things. “Clearly we’re being told to go up. It’s gotta be safe, right?”

There are dragon-shaped sconces on either side of the passage, ones with their wings spread wide as if they’re mid-soar, and as I step past them, purple flames magically sputter to life.

On bare feet, I pad silently up the steps, testing each stair in case there are unexpected tricks. This place is old, as is the magic, and even though I’m getting a distinctlyhelpfulvibe from all of this, you can never be sure with the mythic orders.

Even my own order is still mysterious to me. My mother never got to teach me anything about it other than the use of my shields. And my father? Fat chance of him revealing anything he knew. To him, knowledge is power and no matter how hard I researched about my own kind, I was never able to come up with anything useful. I even felt guilty looking anything up in case it got noticed and reported back to my father. In the dead of night I would practise shifting into small creatures. The one thing I did figure out, was that I had to touch an animal in order to turn into it. It was lucky that in primary school we’d had a visiting petting zoo and I’d gotten to pet a range of animals like alpacas, mice and even a baby saltwater crocodile.

But now I’m here at the Academy… my options for researching are more open than before. I have a range of friends for one and access to the library for another.

The black stone staircase winds in a tight spiral, and I take each step with one hand lightly tracing the rough surface of the wall. The purple fire makes for a sort of eerie ascent, but I’m not bothered by it. If anything, it suits my mood. Eugene silently follows along, his little feet making scratching noises as he dutifully watches my every move.

A part of me is happy for this distraction. With this new development, I can focus my mind on the present. On being here, with the stone under me, and who knows what above me.I don’t have to think of the past or the fuck up of my lifeorthat acidic pain across my stomach.

My thighs burn, but just as I’m wondering if I should take a rest, we come to a small landing terminated by a medieval style circular door of black painted wood. A cast-iron ring in the mouth of a dragon’s head serves as a door handle.

“Fancy,” I whisper to my side-kicks. “But what’s on the other side?”

The handle is ice cold under my soft touch. Like it hasn’t seen a human hand in decades. Blowing out a steady breath, I tug on it.

It opens silently and smoothly on its hinge, so the gasp I let slip sounds loud in comparison.

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