Academy of Beasts V Read online

  “Whatever,” he muttered. I tried to move forward, but he didn’t step away from the doorway.

  “I’ve got class.”

  His smirk deepened. Ren was by far the most infuriating Council member.

  “That must suck,” he said unsympathetically. The Council boys had a habit of missing classes without any trouble, except for Theo, with his less than stellar grades. I rolled my eyes and crossed my arms over my chest.

  “Ren, please move. I don’t have time for this today.”

  “Only because you begged,” he said and took a step back. I glowered at him as I moved past him in the hallway.

  “I didn’t beg.”

  I left him and hurried out of the manor. He was being weird today…weirder than usual. I shivered as I flew through gardens and onto the path to the castle. Perhaps I was catching a cold. My body felt clammy even in the beaming sun.

  The cobblestones glittered on the path to the castle. Let the Council boys take their precious tunnels and shortcuts. I would rather walk without them.

  Lucius was in Priscilla’s seat the next day too. I threw myself into the chair beside him. He glanced at me with his hand poised over his notebook. He seemed like a good student.

  “Good morning,” he greeted. With his dark hair pulled into a bun, he looked a bit like a samurai from the old films that my father had liked to watch.

  “Morning,” I mumbled. Last night, I tossed and turned in my sleep. I needed about two more cups of coffee and a better attitude. From the look on Lucius’ amused face, he knew that too.

  “Ready for class?” he asked.

  “Barely.” We descended into silence as the professor came in. I missed my morning chats with Priscilla, but he was nice enough. After class, Lucius surprised me when he joined me on my walk to my next class.

  “Wait, are you in this one too?” I asked him. He hadn’t joined me yesterday. I was going to feel like an even bigger asshole if I hadn’t noticed him in two whole classes. He laughed and shook his head.

  “No, but my class is right next to yours.”

  “Oh.” I felt stupid for not ever noticing him in the halls. Priscilla had said he was a good friend of hers. I’m sure that I missed her saying hello to him in the halls because my head was off in the clouds. Somewhere up ahead, I caught the sight of a familiar head of blond hair. Enrique. He didn’t see me.

  “I’m going to see Priscilla this afternoon,” he said, breaking through my thoughts. “Do you think I could make a copy of your notes for her from the first class? My writing is awful.”

  “Yeah,” I said. “Actually, could I come with you?”

  “Your handwriting is neat,” Lucius commented as he pulled my notes out of a small black box in the library. “Much neater than mine.”

  “I have to keep them neat, or I won’t understand anything when I look back,” I told him with a shrug. “I’m not as well-versed on shifter stuff as the rest of you.” He handed the notes back to me and grabbed the fresh stack of copies that had magically appeared beside the box.

  “So, it’s true?” He stared at me. “You’re a late-shifter?”

  I scratched the back of my neck. “Something like that. Hey, how does this magic copying box work anyways?” My ability to change subjects was legendary around these shifter folks.

  “Magic,” he said with an amused smile. “You guys use machines in the human world. That’s too costly for us.”

  On our walk to the medical ward, I spotted Jasper, the shadowy fox-shifter, headed down the other hall with his violin case. He shot me one of his mysterious smiles and waved. Lucius quivered visibly with a grimace when we turned the corner leading towards the medical ward.

  “That guy freaks me out. His eyes are always watching. He looks like he can see right through the people.”

  I laughed. “You’re not the only one who feels that way, you’ll be pleased to know.”

  Chapter 3

  “You look as pretty as a picture,” Lucius called out as we came through the swinging doors of the ward.

  Priscilla lifted her head up from her pillow. She smiled weakly from her hospital cot and gave a weak wave of her hand. Nurse Greta was nowhere to be found. I pointed to the stack of notes in Lucius’ hand.

  “We brought notes!”

  “My favorite thing,” she said with a half-grin. Her voice was low and hoarse, almost as deep as Lucius. “I sound like garbage, I know.”

  “You sound like really charming garbage,” I assured her. She pretended to reach out to swat me. Lucius watched us, amusement flickering behind his blue eyes. He set the notes down on the side table next to the cot.

  “You didn’t miss much,” he informed her. “A resounding lecture on the physics of dragon-shifter fire. Child’s play.”

  “For you guys,” I reminded them and crossed my arms. Dragon-shifters were raised with a strong educational system. They’d probably gotten the basics on dragon-shifter fire in their version of pre-school. Unfair! Meanwhile, I had to study for hours every day to keep up with our classes. Have you ever tried to remember the gravitational theory behind shifting into an animal body? It’s boring. I wouldn’t recommend it.

  Priscilla rubbed her eyes. There were shallow dark circles beneath them. “Thanks, guys. I appreciate it.”

  “I’ll bring them tomorrow too,” Lucius assured her. “When are you getting out?”

  “Probably on Thursday,” she said with a sigh. “Nurse Greta wants to make sure I don’t infect anyone. You should probably wash your hands when you leave here. Just in case.”

  Something like anticipation danced up my spine. I cleared my throat and glanced towards Lucius. Time to be awkward…but it couldn’t be helped.

  “Lucius, would you mind giving us some girl time alone? I have to ask Priscilla about something.” I tried to compose myself in the most feigned embarrassment as possible. Something I’d learn about shifter men was that any time you mentioned girl time, they virtually ran out of the room. Lucius lifted one eyebrow and nodded.

  “Sure thing. I have to run anyways. I’ve got practice,” he said. I wasn’t sure what that practice meant, but he left without another word.

  “He’s nice,” I told Priscilla when we were alone. She nodded.

  “Lucius doesn’t come from my kingdom. His territory raises strong warriors. Did you know that he swordfights?” Even sick, her natural knowledge of all things shone through. I chuckled. She leaned towards me. “So, why the need for secrecy?”

  I bit my lip and sat down in the seat beside her, dropping my voice to a whisper.

  “Have you ever heard of The Officials?”

  She blinked. “The what?”

  My heart dropped. “Damn. I was hoping that you might know something. I got some information…I think the Council boys work for a group called The Officials. I think they’re the ones in charge of Beast Academy.”

  “That’s big,” she said with wide eyes. Some color came back to her cheeks. “Do you have any proof?”

  “A reliable word,” I told her, thinking of Mr. X. Later, when she was recovered, I would try to tell her everything. She tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. It was odd seeing her without her signature tidy braids.

  “I’ll keep an ear out for it.” A sly expression broke across her face. “You know I can’t resist finding info on something I don’t know about.”

  “I know. There’s more I’d like to share,” I confessed. “But I don’t want to bother you right now.”

  “You’re not a bother, Fiona. You’re my friend and you’ve been through a lot.” Her eyes sparkled with mischief. “Besides, it’s been five against one for your battle against the Council boys. Don’t you think it’s fair that you get somebody else on your team?”

  I grinned. “I think you’re exactly right, but still. I’ll wait until your better.”

  “Fair enough,” she mumbled and sagged against the pillows. Her hand covered her mouth as she yawned. “I think I’ll take another nap.”

>   “You deserve it,” I said. Nurse Greta shuffled in as I was making my way out. She was hauling a stack of boxes through the double doors.

  “Wash your hands!” she cried as I passed by.

  “I will,” I promised. There was a women’s bathroom on the way back to the main courtyard. I went inside and scrubbed my hands as instructed. Getting sick was the last thing I wanted to do. There was too much to investigate right now. I used one of the hand towels hanging on a ring by the sink. The bathroom had a small, high window near the sinks. I could hear the rising laughter of students on the other side of the castle. A group was playing some kind of game on the lawn.

  Theo! He flew across the greenery with a soccer ball in his hands.

  “You can’t use your hands!” came the muffled cry from below. Theo burst out into laughter and kept going. I pulled away with a grin. Leave it to Theo to return from a mission and go straight to goofing off with other people.

  The courtyard was relatively empty on my walk back to the campus. I paused at one of the stone benches. This had been the spot where Sam had tried to attack me. I remembered the fear I had felt and the move I had used on him to protect Priscilla from him. He was so shaken after that moment. Any time I saw him in class, he looked the other way immediately. His eyes never met mine. Of course, Enrique had given him a “talk” which was likely code for an hour of menacing threats.

  As I walked on the path to the manor, my mind wandered to what lay beneath the ground. Inspired, I squatted towards the ground and brushed my hands across the cobblestones. They felt solid enough. How many tunnels ran beneath these grounds? I splayed my hand out over the stones, warmed by the sun. They could say that there was magic on campus, but I never felt it.

  “Fiona.”

  I froze. The voice had come from all around me. I shot up from my lowered position and glanced around me. Nobody. From my vantage point, I could see a few students in the courtyard, but they weren’t looking at me. Nobody was close enough to call my name like that…It was practically in my ear.

  I booked it down the path, my backpack straps tight in my grips. Was I having visions again? There hadn’t been an image with it, though. I rushed back to the manor and stopped short when I saw two people standing outside of the gate.

  Smack!

  A gorgeous brunette brought her hand across Enrique’s face. His back was towards me. I could see her rage well enough. She pushed past him roughly and stomped towards me. When she saw me, she scowled but said nothing. I watched her storm down the path.

  “What the hell was that?” I asked as I trotted up to him. He turned with a raised brow over his shoulder. I could see the pink mark on his tan skin already.

  “Ah, you were here?” he asked with an amused smirk. “It’s okay. I deserved it.”

  I frowned and grabbed the gate to the gardens. “Are you coming in? We can get you some ice.”

  He shoved his hands into his pockets. “Sure thing, princess. Be my nurse.” I rolled my eyes as we went through the gardens. The shifters were used to pain, but still…he looked awfully pathetic with a red handprint on his face.

  “She hit you hard,” I muttered as we came into the kitchen. Moony kept plenty of frozen goods in the industrial walk-in freezer. I walked in and snatched a grab of frozen peas. Enrique leaned against the stainless-steel countertop. His face was impassive as he stared out in front of him.

  “Here,” I said and gently placed the bag against his face. His hand came up to take the bag from me. His fingers brushed against my own.

  “Thanks.” He whistled playfully. “Man, that’s the downside of going after the fiery ones.”

  “What did you do to her?” I asked, crossing my arms.

  His teasing gaze found me. He wiggled his eyebrows suggestively.

  “Do you really want to know?”

  I frowned. “Maybe not. Well, put that on for a bit and then put it back when you’re done. I don’t want Moony to think we’re stealing his frozen goods from the pantry.”

  He nodded, but it seemed that he was barely listening. I gave him one last glance before heading towards the door leading to the dining room. A somber air had fallen over the manor’s playboy. As my hand reached to push the swinging door open, he spoke.

  “Do you think that love changes you?”

  I stopped. My breath caught in my throat. “Love?” I asked and furrowed my brow. “Of course, it does.” He continued facing forward without bothering to turn towards me.

  “You’re being weird,” I told him. “Come talk to me if you need to.”

  He lifted a hand and saluted, but kept his body facing forward. I pressed my lips together and went through the dining room. A sipping sound caught my ear. Dracus sat at his usual spot with his black coffee.

  “Hey. You’re drinking coffee rather late,” I said. He briefly looked up from his mug. There was a newspaper, blissfully in English this time, in front of him.

  “I missed my usual time thanks to certain…events,” he confessed. His eyes were puffy, a strange disruption to his sharp features. I glanced down at the ground, pausing beside the table. My plan was to breeze right through to go to my room.

  “Secret events?” I guessed. He gave me a pointed look. Oops. He wasn’t in a mood for my digging.

  “Who were you talking to?” he asked. I ran my hands across the back of one of the chairs in front of me.

  “Enrique,” I said. The corner of my mouth lifted. “He got slapped by one of his girlfriends in front of the house. I got him a bag of frozen veggies to put on it.”

  The dragon-shifter lifted an eyebrow, but his expression remained stoic. I couldn’t imagine that it was the first time it happened in Enrique’s typical . Although the rumor was that he was dropping girlfriends suddenly. Their numbers were dwindling down to 2 or 3, last I heard.

  Dracus returned to his newspaper, which was the universal signal that the conversation had ended. I headed up to my room.

  Every one of my Council boys I had come across today was acting strangely…

  I stopped before my door with my hand hovering over the knob.

  By accident, I had thought my Council boys.

  Chapter 4

  In the middle of the night, a thump woke me up.

  Or my own snoring. I’m not sure which.

  My eyes sprung open as I turned over in the darkness. The curtains were drawn in my room because I preferred to wake up by sunlight. The sky was dark, but it must be the early morning hours. The sun would be coming up over the horizon. I turned over and glanced at my phone. 5:45 AM.

  I groaned and slid out of bed. Silence. I shuffled over to the window and glanced outside. It was utterly calm in the gardens. The birds weren’t even awake yet. I yawned. It was also a good half hour before I had to get up for training. How annoying. I hated waking up early. As I was about to leave from the window to climb back into bed, a flash of color caught my eye. Something scampered through the grass.

  My breathing stopped. A flash of red and then orange. A creature was scampering through the darkness. My heart beat heavily against my chest.

  A fox!

  I put my hand to my mouth. Could it be Jasper? I’d never seen him shift before, but he was the only fox-shifter around until you went to the castle. Or maybe one of Enrique’s girlfriends leaving for the night. I frowned.

  If it was Jasper…

  What was he doing so early in the morning?

  “What’s the benefit of shifting into your animal form?”

  I posed this question to Dracus and Theo at morning training an hour later. My eyes felt heavy, but I promised myself that I would try to do my best today. I hadn’t been able to go back to sleep. I’d added the strange incident to my secret diary in Jasper’s section. Possibly sneaks around in fox form during the early morning hours? It was a bullet note beneath a list of other facts that I had about him. Every Council boy had a page or two in my diary.

  “There are many benefits to shifting to your shifter spiri
t,” Dracus explained as he began wrapping his hands for our Dragon Fist session. He always looked especially dashing in his training clothes. He went on, “One can benefit from their animal depending on the species. For example, myself, if I need to overpower someone suddenly, then it is much easier as a dragon the size of eight men.”

  “Six men at best,” Theo muttered with a snicker under his breath.

  Dracus ignored him. “Theo transforms into his bear form when he needs more strength or size. Someone like Enrique would do something similar.”

  I nodded, taking this all in, as I stretched. Dipping my face down to my outstretched legs, I tried to make my voice sound as casual as possible.

  “But what about Jasper and Ren? They’re much smaller than you guys in their animal form.” I thought about it. “I guess their human forms are also slightly smaller than you three.”

  Theo puffed his chest up with pride. “That’s right. They are tiny.”

  Tiny was an exaggeration. Ren and Jasper were much taller than my average height. They were leaner than Theo and Enrique, though. The latter boys looked as if they survived solely on protein shakes.

  “Size doesn’t always equal power,” Dracus spoke. “If you want to be covert and stay hidden, a wolf or fox is much better at getting around than a heavy lion, bear, or dragon. I can’t ever hope to sneak around unless it’s in the air. Even then, dragons from my region in the Land of Dragons aren’t meant to be airborne for much longer than half an hour.”

  I nodded, feeling my legs stretch with a stubborn ache

  “Why the sudden curiosity?” Dracus asked. I could hear a whisper of suspicion in his voice. One needed to be careful around our President. His sole job was to notice everything, which he usually did with a sharp lecture if he detected any funny business.

  “I was curious,” I admitted, trying to sound calm. “We talk so much in class about theories and physics behind the powers, but nobody has ever talked about the advantages of different animals.”