Page 4 of Ethereal Shifters

She cuts me off. “I love you, bestie, and your love life is the gossip I love to hear, and it has no effect on my grief. He was…well, it is hard but…at the same time, he made his choice and he betrayed me. My soul, my Nexus, might not recover from the loss ever, but my life can’t stop because his did. I’m alive and that is a blessing, considering the Vian could have killed me at any point. I’m the last surviving member of my family, and I will do my parents proud by becoming a ranger. I won’t let this grief bury me. I can’t, because if I do, I won’t be able to dig myself out.”

“It will consume you,” I whisper back. I know the pain of losing my parents, and I nearly lost myself in grief. If I lost amate, one I fully bonded to and loved…I don’t know how I’d recover. “I’ll be there with a shovel if you go too deep.”

“Same.” She smiles at me and straightens. “But you might need a shovel to whack your crazy mate with while he looks that mad.”

I can feel Hollis’s glare and I bet he is pissed I’m not continuing a staring contest with him. I’m ignoring him. “I can handle that shithead.” She laughs low. “I’m here if you want to talk, though. Grieve, get angry, whatever you need, I’m just here.”

“I know you are, and it’s the same for me with you.” Her eyes soften. “You haven’t told me much about your upbringing, and I see you wake up with nightmares…and how you are about the sea and deep water.” I didn’t know she was watching that closely. “I’m always here if you want to talk about it.”

I smile at her but turn away before she sees the truth in my eyes. How I don’t want to ever talk about my upbringing because I can’t. Because I might have to look at how I was treated as something bad, and my parents can’t be bad. They are the only people who ever loved me, the real me. They died because of me. I don’t think I can talk to anyone about them. Ever.

Hollis stomps a foot on the platform, and the crowd goes silent. Hollis takes a step forward to the edge and slowly runs his eyes over the crowd of his students. I use the moment to think of my Nexus and the warning. Why would she want me to be nice to Severi? It was bad enough she kissed him! I’m not going to see him anytime soon, and if I do, I’m plunging my Nex dagger into his deceitful, although perfect, body. He’s not exactly going to walk into the academy. At least I hope he doesn’t. I don’t think he can. Whatever agreement he had to see me with Onyx’s dad can’t carry on.

Although the Supreme Alpha is working with our enemies, and that will never end well for the Nexus race.

“We’ll start today with sparring. We’ve been doing this for a while, but two people here have been extremely behind.” He looks at Annie and me. His voice is accusing and it pisses me off. Annie was kidnapped, and I was locked up. It was hardly a vacation. “It’s only fair we let them catch up the hard way, and why not start them off with our best student to spar with?” He looks between Annie and me. Fucking try it, asshole. “Miss Autumn, come up.” He looks away. “Mr Dartst, come up. Your fighting skills with that Nexus brute strength of yours is interesting and an excellent test for Miss Autumn.”

Whispers burst out in the crowd, and as I move forward, another person walks through the crowd next to me. The biggest guy probably in the entire city is my opponent, and I don’t remember ever seeing him before. Well, fuck. His bulky muscles look bigger than my head as we step out in front of the crowd of students, and he jumps onto the platform with ease. I climb up next and stand next to Hollis. He clicks his fingers in the air, and the rain stops. Right above is clear, but it is raining everywhere else. The water on the platform is brushed away, like a caress of air until the entire area is bone dry. Hollis barely looks like he has moved, but he is stopping the rain with his power, and he pushed every drop of water off the platform like it was nothing. Damn. I knew his power was strong, but I didn’t know how strong exactly.

I rub my arms, looking up at the third-floor window, and I see only Alek is there now. “What do you mean his Nexus power is strength? He’s going to hit me like a rock.”

Hollis doesn’t even look down at me. “I’d be sure you avoid him if you don’t want me to laugh.”

I clench my jaw to stop myself from pushing his smug ass off the platform before turning away and going to my spot on the other side of Mr Dartst. I send a prayer to the Wolf Gods, not that they ever help me, but it’s worth a try. My father’s trainingcomes back to me within seconds of making a plan. He once told me that, no matter what an enemy looks like, they have a weakness. I’d guess this massive guy is slow and arrogant with his strength gift. I can use that to win. My Nex dagger flies out of my holder, along with Dartst’s axe, and they land in Hollis’s open hands.

“No Nex weapons or Nexus gifts that involve magic. Only body gifts may be used.” So he can use strength, and I can’t use anything else. I’m making him pay for this somehow. “If I catch you using your Nexus, you’re out here in the rain doing exercise for the day. Understood?”

“Yes,” I mutter, and Dartst agrees with a grunt.

Hollis jumps off the platform, and with a wave of his hand, waist-high bars rise out of the sides and lock us in. I don’t lose any more time looking his way and focus. “Nice to meet you. I’m Gwen.”

“Shawn.” He offers his name, and his blue eyes drift into a darker colour for a second. “My Nexus isn’t happy about you. It thinks you’re a threat, but you’re just a small girl.”

I almost laugh as he frowns. “Small women are usually far more dangerous than they look.”

Tensely, he gets himself into a stance. I get myself ready seconds before he charges at me, and I move, skirting to the side and spinning round to face him. I use space to move myself swiftly around his back, and I jump into the air to punch him hard in the face. Pain flashes down my arm, but there is a satisfying click of his jaw as his blood sprays, and he roars. I grin as I take a step back, and when he faces me, blood is pouring from his broken nose, and he looks mad. “You’ll pay for that, you stupid bitch.”

“Name-calling because you are going to lose is pathetic. Just for the record.” He gets madder. Well, my father always told me words are a sharp weapon to the arrogant. Dartst charges inanger, swinging out at me, but I avoid him again, skirting across the floor and moving fast. Anger is making him reckless, and it’s perfect for me. The crowd are cheering my name, which is weird because I don’t have people cheer for me, and it’s hard to not want to look their way to see if they have all lost the plot. Dartst bellows as I kick his knee at the same time I punch his neck, making him gasp and nearly fall, but he stumbles to the side of me. I glance at Hollis just for a second, like I want his approval or some insane shit, but he is speaking to Rochelle.

Ignoringme.

Withher.

I see red, or my Nexus does, and I turn back to Dartst. I can’t do this right now. I struggle to push her down, to make sure she doesn’t come out as Dartst comes at me again and again, hitting and narrowly missing me each time. Sweat is pouring down the back of my neck as he punches past me, into the platform bars, leaving a massive, dented hole in it. I wince. If he hits me like that, it’s going to really, really hurt. Dartst is back on his feet within a second, and I narrowly miss diving under his punch to land one in his stomach. Rochelle laughs and I look over on instinct to Hollis…at the wrong time. Dartst grabs my arm and roughly turns it, and it snaps. I scream out in pain, falling to the ground from the shock. He throws me across the platform, and my head smacks into the metal bar. The world spins as he stomps to me and picks me up into the air. “Fucking yield!”

“ENOUGH!” Hollis shouts.

Dartst shakes me, and my control slips. Before I know it, my Nexus is right there, right in my mind, and she takes control. The metal of the railings of the platform melts, turning into daggers that shoot straight towards him.

“No!” I scream as I pull back the control, trying to stop this new power. She must have stolen this power at the mansion, and now I know what it is, but I can’t let her kill him. Everythinghappens so fast, too fast, as Dartst tries to block the dagger-shaped metal using his arm, and they slam into his arm, one going into my shoulder, and I scream. He swings out with a cry of pain, smacking me hard across the face by accident. I fly through the air, and without the metal bars to stop me, I go right off the cliff.

Into the sea, and I can’t stop the fall. I can’t do anything.

No.No.

Fear lurches into my chest, making it hard to breathe, hard to do anything as I fall and fall. The seconds slow down as I reach for someone to save me, but there is no one there. My mother’s voice echoes in my ears.“Who would dive into the sea for a monster like you?”

My entire body slams straight into the icy water that locks my muscles up from the shock, the dark water as deep as the one my parents drowned me in, and the world spins in the shadowy depths.

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