Fire & Flood (Mythverse #1)

Chapter 32

Chapter 32

I leave Cassie in the hall, and follow the screams.

The dance floor is chaos, shifter students already in their forms and vampires lunging for the throats of monsters. I fling open my wings, rising into the vaulted ceiling to look for Val. A hand grabs me, spins me, and I’m face to face with Greg, his bat wings out, but not fully shifted.

“Where’s Val?” I shout at him.

“I don’t know,” he says. “We’ve got to get out of here.”

“Out?” I yell, tearing my arm from his grip. “I’m not leaving everyone here to—”

“To what, Edie?” Greg yells. “What are you going to do? The other trackers already split. Our job is to find monsters, not fight them. Well look, I found them—they’re everywhere!”

He points below, and I look just in time to see a centaur jam his thumbs into a werewolf’s eye sockets, easily tearing his body in half with a casual jerk. Blood sprays and I shudder as the body shifts back into human form—a boy from one of my classes.

“No,” I say. “I’m staying, to fight.”

“Fight how?” Greg asks. “What are you going to do?”

“I don’t know,” I say, my voice shaky as Tina enters the room, unsteady on her feet after hitting her head against the wall in the hallway. I watch as she calmly assesses the chaos, straightens her dress, and dives in.

I wish I had her confidence. Wish I knew what I was, knew how to help.

My wings flutter around me, the part of myself that I am at ease with, the part I trust. I close my eyes, thinking of the other pair, the red ones deep inside me. It’s time to stop locking them out. It’s time to stop being afraid of what I am. The eyes are there, instantly, shifting and rolling, desperate to be released and join the fight. I don’t look away. Instead, I focus, staring into myself.

They widen. Red. Pulsing. And suddenly I’m tearing, my skin separating and my fingers elongating, scales rippling up my arms as they flex, becoming more, becoming something else. I shriek in pain and Greg shifts completely, his bat-self making a quick exit as I writhe in mid-air, my spine exploding as a tail emerges, the scream that I began ending in something else.

A roar.

With it comes fire, and the feeling of bones popping through skin, sharpening to new edges, redefining into something new, something different. Spikes.

I lash my tail, a new balance achieved as I pull air into my lungs and exhale pure fire. I cry again, this time in exultation as I see my reflection in the windows.

Merilee was wrong. Cassie was wrong. Everyone was wrong.

I’m not a harpy, or a bat, and I sure as hell am no goddamn ostrich.

I am a dragon.

And I am very, very pissed.

I dive into the melee, first grabbing a siren in one clawed hand and pitching her out the window. Glass shatters as her black blood falls, and I circle, picking my next target. It’s a cyclops, and he’s got a cat-shifter in his grip, crushing her despite her frenzied clawing. I swoop, staggering the pair with my spiked tail. The girl rolls, as I knew she would—a cat always lands on its feet. But the cyclops is pure strength and brutality, with no grace. He stumbles and is off balance when I pass again, crunching him easily in my jaws, and throwing the remnants back down to the floor.

My human mind cowers at the violence and destruction, but my dragon-self embraces it. No, it enjoys the thrill of the kill. I roar a fiery explosion of satisfaction and power.

The cat gives me a nod, catches her breath, and goes back in.

It’s pure chaos, blood—black and red—flowing everywhere. Hair is flying, fires have broken out. I come back to myself a bit and I search desperately for Val, but I can’t see him anywhere.

I hear Ocypete shouting orders, still screaming not to harm students, but it’s too late. It’s a free-for-all with everyone fighting for their own lives. No one is pulling their punches.

I swivel, taking another pass of the room and searching for my next target when I see that the tables have all been turned—literally—and the gods are hiding beneath them. Themis is the only one not seeking cover. She’s with Fern and another medic witch, grabbing injured students and pulling them aside. Confused, I don’t make any kills on that pass, wondering why Kratos and Mr. Zee, Hermes and all of the other well-muscled gods aren’t defending themselves.

Was Ocypete right? Are they really just using us?

I only have a second to consider it when I spot Val. He’s backed into a corner and bleeding badly. A lion, crouched and ready to attack, facing him down. It’s not a cat-shifter; I can tell by the way its coat moves—not naturally, but like it’s made of actual gold, encased in metal and impervious to any weapon.

I may not know whose side I’m on, but I do know that anyone who hurts my fake ex-boyfriend is my enemy.

With that thought, I swoop.

And I rage.

“No!” There’s a shriek as my path of my fire burns through monsters, sending a minotaur reeling. Suddenly, I feel the whisk of wings near mine, and Ocypete has landed in front of the lion, her arms outstretched.

“Edie! No!” She shouts. “Please! THINK!!”

But the lion springs at that moment, its muscular back legs releasing as it sails through the air, mouth wide, jaws snarling, claws splayed. Val’s fangs are out and his arms are spread, waiting to meet it. I watch as the two of them roll, locked together.

I don’t listen to Ocypete. I don’t think. I act, spraying fire at the monster attacking Val—and the one standing in my way.

Ocypete ignites instantly, her old, brittle skin burning brightly as she ascends on fiery wings, hoping for escape. She doesn’t reach the window, her burnt wings are featherless before she’s twenty feet in the air, and she falls, burning.

The lion is only scorched, but its back legs are alight and it runs in circles, frenzied. A hydra runs to it, spraying water to extinguish the fire, but with their leader gone, the fight is over. The lion sends one last snarl at me over his shoulder as he flees, harpies, gorgons, minotaurs and centaurs following in his wake. Some students chase after them, picking off a few in their retreat.

I sink, suddenly exhausted, my new body too heavy for my wings. I come down slowly, already transformed back into a human by the time I reach the floor, where Val finds me.

“You ruined another of my shirts,” he says, and I see that his tuxedo t-shirt is charred to almost nothing.

“Sorry,” I say. “I think I need to work more on my aim.” I gulp. “And I think you’re still smoldering.”

He gives me one of his lopsided grins. “Nah, that’s just a hot vampire thing.”

A pathetic watery laugh comes out of me. “I wish everything would stop burning. It’s all I can smell.”

Even as I say it, a soft rain starts to fall, bringing with it the smell of green earth and fresh cut grass. I let the water flow down my face, wishing they were tears. But those seem to have burned away too.

Or maybe not.

“Edie,” Val says.

Just that. Just my name as he takes a step closer, reaching for me.

One wobbly step is all it takes to get me close enough.

Then I collapse into his arms, and cry.