A flash of light. Hathor and her friends jumped from their seats, running out of the café they were eating lunch in. Smoke rose from a Dorm building nearby. Looking around, Hathor saw they weren’t the only ones who saw the light. Now, everyone was staring at the rising plume. What the fuck was going on?
Everyone was thrown from their feet as the shockwave reached them. The noise was deafening. They were thrown to the ground, into walls, through windows. Glass shattered everywhere, raining down on those outside and in.
Hathor stumbled to her feet, raising her hands to her ringing ears. Gilded blood trickled down the side of her head, dripping into her ears. Her friends weren’t in much better shape.
Troy climbed out of the window he’d been thrown into, a hand to his head, cuts on his face and tears in his clothing. Maddie was covered in red cuts from glass. She hauled Imogene to her feet. The Firebringer had a nasty looking cut on her head. Maddie healed it quickly. Isaiah, using the now-cracked wall he’d been thrown into as leverage, pushed himself to his shaking feet. A cry from behind made Hathor spin. Sky had pulled a large shard of glass from his shoulder. Hathor ran to his side and healed the wound.
“What was that?” he moaned.
“Bomb,” Troy said.
Hathor pulled Sky to his feet and turned to the others. “We have to help.”
The group ran, weaving their way through the maze of buildings. Others had the same idea and were close on their heels. As they ran, others joined. Everyone was running for the Dorms.
“Why would someone blow up a Dorm?” Imogene called.
Hathor shook her head. “Attention, distraction. There’s too many reasons to count!”
“Whatever it is,” Isaiah interrupted, “people will have been in the blast radius.”
“We were in the blast radius,” Maddie hissed.
“He’s right,” Troy said, ignoring Maddie. “Pick up the pace people!”
They reached the building in minutes. The Vivus Dorm had been blown wide open. Two walls were missing, the others scorched black. The other surrounding Dorms had signs of damage – shattered windows and doors, holes in the walls, scorch marks. Smoke bellowed out of the entire area. Even the ground was broken and burning.
People ran out the broken front doors of Vivus Dorm, all of the injured, some carrying others. And those were the lucky people. Imogene, Maddie, Isaiah and the others who’d followed them ran to help. Sky said something about getting hep and ran to inform the Headmaster and Jay. Troy took Hathor’s hand, squeezing it once. Together, they ran past the injured and into the building.
The lowest level was creaking and breaking. Hathor barely took three steps inside before she was tackled to the ground by Troy. A flaming beam fell from the room, missing them by inches. Looking ahead, they watched as the hover platform fell from its hold. They grimaced as it shattered.
“Stairs,” Hathor said.
“Oh, yeah,” Troy agreed.
The pair ran to the first ramp they could find. They came across many other injured students, helping them up, freeing them from falling debris, and pointing them toward the main exit and nearest emergency escapes.
One of the pair’s friends, a Lyriumian woman named Olivia, practically fell into Hathor’s arms. “Bomb. Fifth floor. Massive explosion.”
“Are you okay?” Hathor asked.
“Yeah. Yeah, I’ll be fine,” she said, brushing away a few drops of blood from beside her eye. “I was on floor two. Got a few people and my brother out. Trying to find others below this floor and a way up above.”
“Doubt you’ll find one,” Troy said, nodding to where the hoverpad had been floating. Unless the ramps are intact.”
“We have flyers,” Hathor said. She turned to Olivia. “Go outside. Find people who can fly and go up to the top floors. You can bring people down that way.”
“Okay.” Olivia begun to run away but stopped, turning back to the pair. “Where are you going?”
Hathor smiled grimly. “To see if there’s anyone on floor five.”
The fifth floor was beyond recognisable. It was in pieces. Sunlight streamed in through the missing walls, lighting up what was left of the floor. And the students. Hathor put a hand over her mouth in shock, Troy cursing and looking to the side.
They’d all been caught off guard. Students and teachers. Bodies were everywhere. Some were crushed under furniture or fallen beams and wall. Others had shards of stone, glass and metal impaling their bodies. Other hands limbs missing. Some were nothing but blood and chunks. It was horrifying. The scent was enough to make Hathor want to puke. With the sight, she almost did.
“That’s just fucked up,” Troy breathed. “Who would do this?”
“I don’t know,” Hathor murmured, “but we need to see if anyone on this floor is alive.” Even if there was only a small chance.
Jay was reading over the student and teacher files in Orion’s office when the explosion came. He jumped to his feet, running to the nearest window. One of the Dorms, Vivius if his guesstimating was correct, was smoking up a storm. Even from here, he could hear the screams rising from the ground and see figures being swept from their feet in the distance.
Jay spun to Orion, the Lyriumian man standing beside him, and said, “Call Amneris. I’m going to help.” The Headmaster nodded as Jay ran to the door.
He ran to the nearest hoverpad, climbing on board and pressing the button for the bottom floor. It barely made it two floors down when Jay, and the two other students on board, were thrown from the platform to the floor below. He helped the students to their feet, telling them to take the ramps and warn other students and teachers to do the same. No way hoverpads were safe if someone was blowing shit up.
Once they were out of sight, Jay ran in the direction of the second explosion.
“Is anyone here?” Hathor yelled over the sound of fires. She and Troy walked slowly through the fifth floor, having slowed their pace to make sure no one was missed. “Make some noise so we can find you!”
“We’re here to help!” Troy called.
“Wait, you’re a wolf.” Hathor spun to Troy. “You can sniff them out!”
He gave her an irritated look. “There’s so much blood. I can’t tell living from injured from dead, otherwise I would be doing that.”
“Right,” she muttered. “Should’ve thought of that.”
A loud crash ahead was followed by a call for help. Hathor and Troy ran toward it.
Two students were trying to lift a heavy-looking beam from a third trapped underneath. Troy struggled to help, but Hathor managed to lift it. The joys of enhanced strength. One of the students dragged the third out from under the beam. Hathor, Troy and the second student dropped it.
“Thanks,” one of the girls huffed. She gestured to her friend who’d been trapped under the beam. “Didn’t think we’d get him out in time.”
“All good,” Troy said. “Do you know what happened?”
She shook her head. “No clue. There was this loud bang. We were heading to the common room.”
Hathor and Troy exchanged glances. If those three had made it, they’d be dead. They made the silent agreement to not say as much.
“Have you seen anyone else?” Hathor asked instead. The three shook their heads. “Okay, you might wanna make a run for it before this place collapses. We’ll check the rest of the floor.”
The boy who’d been trapped under the beam laughed through his pain. “Right. Me and my broken leg will run.”
“Just get out,” Troy growled.
The two girls pulled the boy to his one working foot. When they realised that wouldn’t work, one of them swept him into her arms. Hathor and Troy waited until they saw the three going down the ramp.
“Keep going?” Troy asked.
Hathor gestured ahead. “After you.”
Whoever was attacking the Academy knew exactly where to strike. Jay thought that much was obvious. The glass window in front of him had shattered in the blast from the previous explosion, having come from the top of the Second Tower. The roof was gone, the walls hanging out like a flower’s blooming petals.
He covered his mouth as the wind changed, smoking flying into his face. It made the already blaring alarms go crazy.
Jay spotted movement below. People had survived the blast! But there was no easy way to get there. He couldn’t fly . . .
“Aw, fuck it.”
Jay stepped back a few steps then charged, taking a flying leap from the window. Wind whistled around him as he plummeted to the new first floor of the Second Tower. He bent his knees to absorb the landing as the floor rushed toward him—
He landed, rolling with the fall to his now-aching feet. Nothing was broken, just bruised.
Thoughts of his own potential injuries vanished as Jay took in the sight up close. Multi-coloured blood was spattered on walls and the remains of the above floors. There were pieces of teachers and students from many different species everywhere. They’d been the ones unlucky enough to take the brunt of the explosion. Jay turned away from the sight. Those who’d survived the initial blast were now helping others who were trapped and injured. Those with healing powers did what they could do help. Those without it used their bare hands.
There weren’t many of them left.
Jay saw a teacher trapped under rubble. Five winged students were trying to lift the stone but failing. The teacher waved them off, saying they would be fine and the students should leave. The students were having none of that.
Jay rushed to the group. “On three, we’ll lift the rock. You two—” He pointed at two Harpies— “pull them out, okay?” The students nodded. “One. Two. Three!”
With a roar, Jay and the group lifted the rock. The pushed against it with all their weight. It barely rose, but it was enough. The two Harpies grabbed the teacher’s arms and dragged her away. Jay and the group dropped the rock, panting. It crashed onto the floor.
“Right,” Jay said between breaths. “Get the fuck out of here.”
The two Harpies, holding the teacher between them, spread their dusty-covered feathery wings and took to the sky. The others were close behind, those who could fly grabbing those who couldn’t.
One came forward to help Jay but he shook his head. “I’m taking the long way down, just in case.”
The student clearly disapproved but did as she was told.
Jay turned to the only door that wasn’t blocked. “Right,” he said to himself. “This will be a walk in the park.”
He ran through the entryway. Seconds later, beams fell to block the area behind him. There was no going back now.
At the same time as Jay was navigating his way down the Second Tower, Hathor and Troy had finally reached the top floor of Vivus Dorm. The smoke was bothering them, Troy more than Hathor. Hathor was wondering how long until it overcame her immortality abilities. She had tried to convince Troy to let her go ahead on her own, but he’d argued she would need help if she got trapped. Point taken.
Troy took a step forward. Hathor gasped, pulling him back as the floor collapsed beneath his weight. The pair ran backward as the hole widened, only stopping when it stopped. They stumbled to the floor.
“Fucking hell!” Troy cried, crawling cautiously toward the hole and looking down. “Like this couldn’t get any fucking worse!”
Hathor pushed herself to her feet, wiping soot from her face. “I told you to go back. I have wings. You have paws.”
“And I’m not leaving you up here.”
She let out a half-heated laugh. “Why must you be so stubborn?”
The Wolf Shifter grinned. “We can figure that out when we’re not in a burning, falling building.”
Hathor pulled him to his feet. “Then let’s get moving.”
“And how to you suggest we get around that?” Troy asked, gesturing to the hole.
“Easy.”
Hathor unfurled her silver fae wings. She grabbed Troy from behind. As they flew over the hole, Troy yelped, grasping Hathor’s arms to keep from falling. She flinched as his nails dug into her skin.
They reached what Hathor thought was a safe distance from the hole. Hathor released her friends and gawked at the cuts left from his nails. “You are so getting a manicure.”
Troy rolled his eyes. “Sure, I’ll join you and the girls for a spa day.”
Hathor held up her index finger to silence him. “Shush. I think I hear someone.”
Troy strained his hearing, then nodded. The pair ran down the main hallway, rounding a corner, and stopped. Someone was up ahead.
Trapped on the other side of flaming beams with no way to escape was none other than Dex.
