average human’s Reviews > Clash of Claws > Status Update

I’m cancelling our tutoring session tonight and all sessions for the rest of the semester. You’ve demonstrated sufficient knowledge and skill with the Runes 101 curriculum and will receive an A.
- Professor Blackwell
I stared at it. Aiden hadn’t said anything about this before the break, but he had seen me successfully perform a Moon blessing, so maybe I’d earned the rest of the semester off? I’d just have to get over the pinch of disappointment at losing that slice of time with Aiden when I got to be the sole object of his unwavering focus.
Still, something uncomfortable began to churn in my gut.
I’d had a blissful, relaxing spring break at home with my family. I felt good. My shoulder had healed, which I’d accelerated by spending some time as my beast, lounging around in the privacy of our house. Ian had even brushed out my fur, and I swore the extra endorphins had fixed me right up.
Or maybe it was the nightly TLC I’d given myself with thoughts of Wyatt’s hot mouth on mine, Elijah’s glowing yellow eyes, Aiden’s rasp up against my neck, or Heath’s demanding tongue between my thighs that’d done it.
As nice as it was to spend time at home, I’d been looking forward to returning to campus. I was ready to kick ass and earn back my place on the leaderboard, but if I was being honest with myself, I’d been looking forward to seeing each member of the Blackwell Quad again. An itch plagued me, like I was an addict jonesing for my next fix of… I didn’t know what.
Heath’s bossy care? Aiden’s praise? Wyatt’s panty-melting smile? Elijah’s dangerous allure?
But when classes resumed yesterday, something hadn’t felt right.
Wyatt and Heath had ignored me completely. It wasn’t unusual for them to keep their distance from me during the school days. It wasn’t as if I’d expected Wyatt to show up to school and announce we were something after our encounter at the lake any more than I’d have expected the same of Heath after what happened between us the night I’d helped Clara.
But I no longer felt the heaviness of their gazes on me when I wasn’t looking.
The hyperawareness we had of each other.
The sizzling tension that I’d pretend was my imagination.
As of yesterday, all of it was gone. The difference was stark.
And now Aiden had summarily dismissed me from tutoring.
My beast bristled. I don’t know either.
The class took a collective breath, which tore my attention from my phone, and Elijah strode into the room.
I braced myself, waiting for him to take his usual path up the center aisle stairs. He’d always pause, and those golden eyes would meet mine. He’d give me a sly, knowing smile, and then he’d make his way to the seat next to mine.
Not this time.
My stomach sank through my chair as he made his way to the far side of the room and offered a fist-bump to a couple of the avian shifters, and then he winked at the blushing girl sitting behind them. My beast hissed angrily within me.
He grabbed a seat, cracked open his backpack to grab his laptop, and settled in to listen to the lecture as he always did.
He didn’t even look at me. The same guy who’d stared at me like I was the only thing on this planet while his quadmate lit me on fire was now acting like I didn’t even exist.
I opened my own laptop. The pages of today’s reading assignment blurred. I clenched my teeth tightly together, desperately trying to keep my lip from trembling.

Nothing changed in the weeks that followed.
Heath, Wyatt, and Elijah melted into the crowd of elite students in the dining hall, in the classroom, even in training. They had flirty smiles for the girls who batted their lashes. They joked with and fist-bumped the same assholes who call me an abomination under their breath when we passed in the hallways. During one particularly grueling individual challenge against the SWIM, I took a gorilla-wraith fist to the head so hard, the impact with the arena floor left me with a mild-but-real concussion. Heath didn’t even notice, much less drag me off to the infirmary to glare at Dr. Lee while he fixed me.
Aiden managed to never look my way in Lunar Magic class.
I hadn’t even seen George, and I wondered forlornly if Elijah had convinced him to keep away from me.
At least classes had been busy and the homework heavy. I’d signed up for every individual combat opportunity that was offered to my training class, and I’d managed to gain some ground on the leaderboard, but I still needed to kill some major wraiths with a team if I had any hope of advancing to camp this summer.
And then the day finally arrived—the day the Guardian training program opened the arena to the rest of the school and the public so they could watch our power quads work. Today I would challenge the SWIM with a unit of four and finally earn back my rightful spot on the leaderboard.
I’d been paired with a moderately skilled trio of Primes who Brody assured me were probably not going to try to kill me. It would’ve been unfortunate to experience another simulated soul death, not just because it would be the end of my chance to become a Guardian, but also because the whole damn school was in the bleachers.
But my assigned partners had failed to show up.
Cash was ready to giddily throw me out of the arena and probably the program, but then Ward Gale stepped in.
And now, as I stood at the edge of the arena and warmed up my shoulder with a few slashes of my sword, a heated conversation unfolded in front of me that made it clear that I hadn’t been imagining things these past few weeks.
Something was very wrong.
I could only listen in stunned silence as Heath, Wyatt, and Aiden squared up to Ward and brutally and unapologetically attempted to destroy everything I’d been working for.
“No, Ward,” Heath growled. “It doesn’t matter that Elijah’s not here. We do quad challenges with just the three of us all the time. We don’t need a fourth, and we definitely don’t need her.”
“She’s not a part of our quad and never will be,” Aiden added, sounding as though the idea disgusted him.
That knife through my back hurt like hell. My beast flattened her ears against her head and hissed.
If Ward was surprised by their attitude, he didn’t show it. “Overruled. I’m assigning Baxter to your team. Everyone else has a full four.”
“We run our attack with full rotation of Prime beasts, Dad,” Wyatt drawled. He looked like he didn’t really give a shit about anything right now, least of all me. “She’ll hinder us.”
That was a fucking lie, and they all knew it.
Especially Ward, who raised a single bushy brow. “Oh? If Elijah was here, he’d be shifting?”
They just stared at him.
“That’s what I thought. Shut your mouths and sit your asses down. You’re up last as the grand finale.”
As Ward stalked off, the guys didn’t acknowledge my presence. Heath heaved an annoyed sigh then marched over to a nearby bench, and the others dutifully followed. The three of them sat down and spread out, leaving no room for me.
I could take a hint. Sliding my swords back into their sheaths, I walked to an empty bench ten yards further down the way. As I sat down, I kept my attention firmly on the first quad that’d taken the floor to enthusiastic applause.
There was no time or space for me to marinate in this hurt. I had to get on that floor and show that I had what it took to hang with the most talented men in the Guardian program. If I wanted to move back above the cut line, I needed a lot of kills, including several Giants.
Then, and only then, would I allow myself to feel… blindsided? Betrayed? Like an idiot for allowing myself for one second to fantasize about there being something real between me and them?
Because the Blackwell Quad now seemed determined to make it clear that there had been nothing at all.
I searched the crowd and found Ian across the way, seated in the front row and surrounded by his friends from the Support Squadron. Everyone around him was laughing and cheering as the quad on the floor plowed through the first swarmers, but not Ian.
His face was hard, and his blue eyes glowed dangerously as he stared in the direction of Heath’s bench.
Couldn’t get anything past my brother. Add one more item to my list of problems: keeping Ian from trying to stab any members of the most powerful quad on campus.
It was a long hour of simulated wraith battles as team after team took the floor. Three people “died.” Four others ran out of bounds rather than take a death blow. Only one quad managed to kill a Giant without also taking a huge loss of points.
The crowd had somehow grown even larger and louder over the course of the hour. I spotted a whole section of faculty and staff, and there were also family members scattered throughout the crowd.
I hadn’t thought of inviting my dads up here to witness me killing wraiths that were complex magical illusions. They were about as impressed as Ian and I were with the fact that no one in the program went near a real wraith until senior year, but they were also pretty astounded by our description of the complexity and power of the magic produced by the SWIM.
Next year, I decided. I’d sit in the stands with them, like the other senior Guardian trainees were doing today, and we’d critique everyone’s skills together.
Cash’s obnoxious voice echoing through the speaker system knocked me back to earth. “And finally, the last team of the day will be our current leaders! Heath Blackwell, Aiden Blackwell, and Wyatt Gale of Blackwell Quad, with one substitute.”
I didn’t even merit a name.
The lights dimmed as they did before the start of every challenge, and I walked out onto the floor. Heath, Aiden, and Wyatt were already there, standing in a neat line, their weapons strapped to their backs.
Not one of them looked at me as I stepped up next to Heath.
The floor lit up with the soft glow of the magic as it conjured our first opponents.
“Care to tell me what your problem is?” I asked in a low voice.
Heath didn’t reply as the usual opening salvo materialized on the floor—a dozen swarmers, this batch a mix of two-headed feline things and some bat-bodied spiders the size of a Rottweiler.
“Just follow my commands and don’t ask fucking questions, Avery.” He turned to say something to Wyatt, giving me his back.
Dismissed.
The wraiths formed their swarm. Adrenaline pulsed through my body, bringing my beast on high alert. I reached behind my head and pulled my swords from their sheaths. Heath, Wyatt, and Aiden ceased to exist as anything except the extra blades and brawn I needed by my side to slay every grotesque thing on this floor.
The wraiths charged, and I let the fight take me.
We were seamless. It was as if I was fighting alongside Ian and my dads. I didn’t have to wonder who was going to be where or whether someone had the monster at my back while I dealt with the one at my front. Wyatt swung his ax. Heath and Aiden wielded their sabers. I carved with my swords. In concert, we tore through all dozen of the wraiths in record time.
When they flickered out, four Rippers appeared, spaced evenly around the edges of the arena. Huge horned beasts with glowing void eyes, clawed feet, and rotting flesh that would smell rancid if they’d been real.

Cash wasn’t messing around. For the rest of the teams, the Rippers had been run two at a time, but he’d thrown all four at us at once.
Heath became his majestic golden wolf and Wyatt his sleek and powerful bear. Aiden twirled his sword expertly around his wrist, his Moon-blessing runes visible under the radiant magic of the arena. I dismissed with a furious shove the ache that punched me at sight of them.
We clawed and cut and stabbed and dodged in concert. Phantom talons raked my skin. Behind me, Wyatt’s bear bellowed in pain and roared with rage. Heath’s wolf snarled and tore out a wraith’s throat, and I sliced through its neck. Wyatt did the same to another, and Aiden was there to take its head off with his blade.
We destroyed all four wraiths. The crowd was deafening around us.
The final two Giants flickered onto the floor. Humanoid, twelve feet tall, claws, antlers, spikes, and tails. One charged immediately at Aiden. He shifted smoothly into his jaguar, dodged, and jumped onto its back. He and Heath worked that one while Wyatt and I handled the other. Giant hands battered me. More pain as phantom fangs sank into my skin. A hit from a tail simulated a cracked rib.
Heath and Aiden downed their wraith. I dodged another swipe of the tail, sheathed my swords, and sprinted to Heath and Aiden’s target. I picked up Wyatt’s heavy ax and swung it with all my strength, removing the fallen wraith’s head.
Heath and Aiden, still beasts, bolted for the remaining wraith. They joined Wyatt’s bear, all three of them piling onto the monster as it screeched and clawed and bellowed in pain. They took it to the floor. I ran for it, heaving the ax again and bringing it down, cleaving the head from the body.
It flickered out. The crowd roared. The leaderboard flashed in blinding LED above us.
Thousands and thousands of points were awarded to each of us and to the Blackwell Quad. The words RECORD TIME flashed in red across the top of the board.
I leaned on Wyatt’s ax, sucking in huge, panting breaths. I closed my eyes.
I did it. We did it.
Had I ever had so much fun in my life? At my core, I was a predator. Killing wraiths, even fake ones, made my beast soul fucking sing, and doing it alongside talented and powerful teammates was a high like none I’d ever experienced.
Opening my eyes, I found Ian in the crowd. He stood on top of his seat, wearing a huge smile and clapping wildly for me. Brody jumped up and down next to him. Mallory, Allen, Chance, and Ash were the stands somewhere too. If I listened hard enough, I was just able to make out Mal’s exuberant shouting above the noise.
Heath, Wyatt, and Aiden had ducked into the shadows at the edge of the arena to shift back to human form and dress, and they returned to the floor to stand under the lights and bask in the cheers of their adoring fans.
Their expressions were blank, devoid of any joy or even pride at what we’d accomplished out here.
I wiped my brow, and then I went to hand Wyatt’s ax back to him.
A strong hand wrapped around my bicep, stopping me in my tracks.
I met Heath’s furious hazel glare, and I yanked my arm out of his grip like he’d burned me.
“Don’t think this means anything, Avery,” he growled. “It isn’t happening again.”
“What isn’t?” I spat. “Us fighting as a unit? Or you fucking touching me?”
His nostrils flared, and golden starbursts ignited in his eyes. “Both.”
Wyatt was on Heath’s other side, sweaty and shirtless. He laughed, and it sounded mean. Reaching across Heath, he snatched his ax from my hands without a word.
Aiden stood behind them both, his gym bag slung lazily over his shoulder and his glasses back on his face. “Can we get a move on?” he asked irritably, like I wasn’t even standing there. “I have papers to grade.”
Tears welled in my eyes. Horrified, I blinked them away. It’d taken them a mere handful of words to eviscerate my high. To tear me down and make me feel so fucking small.
I needed to go.
Without a backwards glance, I hurried to my bench, grabbed my bag, and headed for the arena doors, wiping the stray tear from my cheek before anyone could see it.

94%

“… was able to find an old cell phone,” Elijah was saying as I pressed my body against the wall. I peeked around the doorframe just enough to catch sight of the four of them huddled together and deep in conversation. “Horatio and I powered it up, and there was a call from a contact labeled ‘Archprime’ the day before she was killed. Then there was an outgoing call to the same number the night after it happened.”
“Not a smoking gun,” Aiden mused. “But the timing is suspicious. Worth following up on, for sure.”
“We should have some time before camp starts for us to—” Heath cut off abruptly when I stepped out of my hiding place.
My heels clicked against the stone floor, tiny gunshots in the tense silence that had fallen over the group. They all turned to face me, four deadly, gorgeous assholes watching my approach with rigid shoulders and smoldering glares.
Wyatt recovered first. He slouched against the railing, affixing his lazy smirk to his face. He’d loosened his tie at some point in the past half hour, giving us all a tantalizing peek at the decorated pale skin of his neck and collarbone beneath his all-black suit. “Just can’t stay away from us, can you, Wildcat?” he drawled.
Heath crossed his arms over his chest and put on his quad leader face. “This is a private conversation, Avery⁠—”
I held up a hand. “Stop it. I’ve had enough of whatever this is. I’m finished being disrespected by all of you. Something happened over the break, and you all came back to school determined to be complete assholes to me. To ignore whatever it was going on between us before that. To pretend like every single one of you didn’t put your hands on me⁠—”
Wyatt chuckled. “We put our hands on a lot of girls, babe. It doesn’t make you special.”
“Nice try, Gale.” I lifted my chin even as my beast let out a pained whine. “Low blow, but I’m still standing.”
“The affairs of this quad are none of your business, Avery—” Aiden began, but I wasn’t having it.
Not tonight.
“You’re obviously trying to send me a message with the way you’ve been treating me,” I said, meeting Aiden’s glacial stare with all the power I could muster. “Use your big-boy words and tell me exactly what that is.”
They were silent for a few moments. Heath and Aiden glared, Wyatt fidgeted with his tie like he was bored, and Elijah, who hadn’t looked at me once, could only stare at his shoes, frowning, his hands tucked into his pockets.
I wanted to ask him if he had been talking about his mother before I interrupted. I wanted to tell him about mine—about how I wondered if their deaths were similar.
And I wanted to tell Heath and Aiden what a piece of shit their dad was—that he’d more or less attacked me in the locker room hallway of the arena.
But I couldn’t. Not after the way they’d treated me. They’d stomped to death any fragile seedling of trust that might’ve been developing between me and any one of them.
Heath shifted on his feet, a brief uneasiness flickering across his face before he wiped it away. “Fine. It isn’t any of your business, but we’ve decided to pursue a bonding. You are a distraction we don’t need.”
The bile stirred again, but I held on for dear life. “Oh?” I asked lightly. “And I take it that, despite the clear chemistry between us, I’m not a candidate for your bond? Is that what all the asshole behavior has been trying to tell me?”
Aiden let out a weary sigh. “You know you aren’t an option, Avery.”
“Why not?” I took another step forward, bringing me within a few feet of Heath. In my heels, I was eye level with him. “Just say it. Say it out loud. Say that you think shifting females are lesser. Abominations. Beneath you.”
Heath rumbled an angry growl. “That is not it. We can have respect for females with a beast and still believe they aren’t the right choice for our bond.”
I stepped even closer until we were nearly toe to toe. I met his golden-glazed smolder and held it because I had the power to do so. “And why do you believe a shifting female isn’t the right choice for the bond of a powerful Prime quad?” I asked in a low, harsh voice. “Is it because you believe in the lie made up by our ancestors to malign a hero just because she was female? Admit you think that because I share my soul with a beast, just as you all do, that I’m somehow defective. That the Moon would never dare bless our bonding with the power you all must be desperately craving, simply because I’m your equal, not a latent conduit.”
Heath blew out a breath and raked a hand through his thick hair. He looked away from me, agony marring his beautiful face.
Aiden, as furious as I’d ever seen him, stepped up next to his brother. “You think you have everything figured out,” he spat. “You think you’re the exception to the rules. You don’t, and you’re not. Drop it, Avery.”
Wyatt had lost his cocky, devil-may-care smirk. A red sheen glinted in his eyes. “This is what you wanted, Wildcat. We told you the cold, hard truth. You aren’t it for us.”
“I wasn’t under the illusion that I was,” I replied softly, pretending I didn’t feel like his bear had just clawed my guts out and strewn them all over the stone floor. After a deep breath, I dared a glance at the quietest member of the quad. “Elijah?”
He gripped the railing behind him with white knuckles. Slowly, his glowing yellow gaze met mine, his pupils the narrow slits of his beast.
Aiden moved to block my view of Elijah. “Don’t. You agitate his beast. You know that.”
“I’m sorry, Dove,” Elijah rasped. Those were the first words he’d spoken to me since he’d let me out the laundry room door at the lake house all those weeks ago. After I’d let him watch what Wyatt did to me. “I really am.”
“I don’t believe you,” I whispered.
“I don’t blame you.”
“Just go, Avery,” Heath said, anger and frustration bleeding into his every word. “You got your answer.”
I did. I did get my answer.
My beast had curled into a little ball. Pain fled. An empty, numbing feeling remained.
Without looking back, I turned and left.

96%

“It is spooky out here,” Mallory said with a dramatic shiver. “I can’t believe you do this during every curfew.”
She walked next to me as close as she could get to my body without bumping into my swords where they stuck out on my back. It was a balmy 59 degrees on this May evening, so I wore a simple long-sleeved workout shirt under my harness. Mallory had on leggings and a Proteus sweatshirt that hit her mid-thigh.
Since Ian was still insisting I go nowhere unescorted, Mallory had volunteered to accompany me on my rounds at the campus perimeter under the New Moon. It was useless, but it was a compulsion I hadn’t been able to shake.
“I’m just not used to sitting around during this part of the lunar cycle,” I told her. “Just being out under the stars with my swords on my back helps me feel normal.”
“I bet, you ridiculous badass,” she replied, nudging me playfully. “I mean, I saw you in action against that quad that challenged you on the second day of school, but seeing you in the arena was something else. They’d be stupid not to make you a Guardian. Who cares if you’re a female and a… cougar.”
“Nope. Try again.”
Mallory and Brody had taken to trying to trick me into revealing my animal. It wasn’t that I didn’t trust them, but the fewer people who knew the truth, the better.
Until I became a Guardian, at least.
“At least we’re out of here in two days,” she went on. “Summer vacation. Allen and I get to go to Palm Beach; you, Ian, and Brody get to go kill as many real live wraiths as your heart desires. We all come back next year tanned and refreshed.”
I was ready to get the hell off this campus. Its one thousand acres was too small for me and the Blackwell Quad, and I was looking forward to a blissful month of vacation before we had to report to camp in mid-June.
Because I’d done it. Cash announced cuts earlier this week, and, much to his chagrin, I’d officially made camp as a Guardian. Even better—Ian and Brody coasted in at the top of the Support Squadron list, and Ian had convinced Ward to let him come to camp even though it was only for rising seniors, because he a) “had already killed a shit-ton of real wraiths,” and b) “was going to sneak in anyway because none of these fuckers can be trusted to watch my sister’s back.”
No complaints from me.
In the few weeks that’d passed since the ball, I’d kept my head down, focused on finishing my assignments, taking end-of-year exams, and doing the bare minimum to keep my spot on the leaderboard. I’d stopped going to Aiden’s class entirely and turned in my last few assignments by email.
He didn’t object.
Or reply at all.
No member of the Blackwell Quad had shown up to training for the rest of the semester. At the top of the leaderboard by thousands of points, they got to slack off for two weeks without worrying about the cut.
I’d have been annoyed if I wasn’t so relieved.
Horrible screeching sounded in the distance, beyond the walls. Male shouting echoed through the night.
Mallory shivered again. “That’s so creepy.”
“Ever seen a wraith?”
She nodded. “Back when we lived in Fulton City near you guys. My parents were able to afford to ward the house, but I saw a few smaller ones run down the street once or twice.” She nudged me again. “I guess it was you guys that were out there making sure we were safe.”
“Not when we were thirteen,” I replied. “But after you moved away? Yeah. But it didn’t really get bad out there until the past few years or so.”
She sighed. “After I got my beast and we decided to move into the shifter territory, my parents were lucky to snag a house in one of the little towns right next to a Guardian post. Good wards around the city walls. Haven’t seen a wraith since.”
More screeching and monster bellows erupted. They sounded a lot closer this time.
Mallory tensed.
“I was told the Guardians sometimes run the wraiths up against the school’s wards,” I said in a low voice, “because they’re so strong.”
“Um, you might’ve mentioned that before I followed you out here,” she hissed.
“I haven’t seen it happen. Not the semester I’ve been here,” I told her. “But if you’re uncomfortable, we can head back.”
We’d walked all the way around to the front of campus. A mile of dense forest lay between us and the heart of the college.
I motioned in front of us. “A little ways ahead is the front gate, so we can just cut back down the entrance road⁠—”
Another ear-splitting screech sounded, followed by the eerie chittering of swarmers.
It sounded like they were right on top of us.
I reached out and touched the brick wall next to me, seeking the comforting warm buzz of the wards’ magic.
It was gone.
Alarm shuddered through my body, and my beast went on full alert. I yanked my swords from their sheaths.
“Shit, Mal⁠—”
Mutant rat wraiths the size of border collies crawled over the brick wall twenty feet in front of us. Their dark grey fur had melted off their lean bodies in odd places, exposing ghostly bones. Long arms like monkeys had and three-inch claws helped them scale the wall easily, a half dozen of them hitting the dirt in concert.
Six sets of jarring violet eyes turned on us. Shock and horror sank into my body as reality struck. That wasn’t the light blue glow of the magical constructs I’d been fighting for months—these were real fucking wraiths, on our campus.
The wards had failed.
“Oh, holy fuck,” Mal gasped. “Avery, what the fuck? Shit, shit, shit.”
“Shift and fucking run, Mal,” I barked. My beast shoved hers with the order.
In a blink, Mallory disappeared, her clothes falling to the grass. An orange tabby cat bolted from the pile, shooting like a furry bullet into the darkness of the forest.
As I’d dared to hope, none of the wraiths peeled off to chase her. My beast and I were a much tastier prize.
An alarm blared in the distance, coming from the direction of the main campus. The breach of the wards must’ve set it off.
The swarmers charged. I ran straight for them, hurdled the first one that reached me, and sliced through the neck of the one behind it with ease. Adrenaline flooded me, and I whirled, swinging my swords, hacking off limbs to maim and slow. In the past, Ian would’ve been with me as we handled a swarm this size, but all the training alone against SWIM’s opponents had served me well.
I severed heads.
I stabbed one that leapt at me through the heart, destroying the exposed organ enough for the kill.
I took minimal damage—claws tore through the leg of my pants, and I suffered one deep gouge on my arm.
The dead wraiths lay in the grass around me. As my training dictated, I waited, catching my breath as I watched the swarmers melt away. Unlike the wraiths we faced in in training, which disappeared in a flicker as the magic holding them together released, real wraiths oozed into the ground upon their deaths, their corrupted souls disintegrating into nothing.
I was only given ten seconds to confirm all six swarmer deaths before an ear-splitting cackle announced the arrival of another monster.
A Ripper launched itself off the wall and landed in the remnants of the swarmer goo. My heart jumped into my throat, and I tensed, sending a prayer up to the Moon that this one had traveled alone behind the throng of swarmers.
Glowing violet voids focused on me. It emitted another high-pitched cackle. This one looked like what might’ve been destined to be a hyena soul, with its round ears, long, thick neck, and whispers of darker spots dappled over its thick gray hide.
That was where the similarities ended.
Its maw was twice the size of a normal animal’s, a grotesque clown mouth flashing rows of needle teeth as it advanced on me. Its body was cracked along the sternum, and the same eerie violet light that churned in its eye sockets leaked out through its ribs. Fish-hook claws as long as my hand sank into the dirt as it prowled closer, its rank stench finally reaching my nose.
And because it was a Ripper, it was as large as a powerful Prime shifter.
I spun my swords. “Let’s go, you disgusting piece of shit.”
It cackled again, and then it leapt for me.
I dropped, my knees hitting the ground as I arched my back. The wraith sailed over me, and I slashed both blades outward, severing rotting muscle and tendons in its hind legs. It hit the ground hard, roaring a brain-battering screech as it stumbled on broken legs. I flipped around and lunged to my feet, rank gray goo dripping from my swords.
Before the wraith could regain its footing enough to attack me again, I launched myself onto its back and drove both blades into its body. I skewered the heart with one blade and severed the spine with another.
It screeched and flailed, pitching me violently to the side as it staggered and fell to the ground. I crawled slowly to my feet, wincing as what was definitely a bruised hip made itself known.
The Ripper lay still. I’d stabbed it through the heart, but unlike a swarmer, where that could be sufficient for the kill, this one needed its head removed or the whole heart cleaved from its body.
I got started removing its head. Two strikes to its thick neck weren’t enough. More roars and screeching sounded nearby. I had no idea how wide the break was in our wards, but I had a hunch there were now other monsters lurking in this forest.
I hacked away, panic rising with every stroke. I was a sitting fucking duck out here alone.
The moment I finally severed the spinal cord and the putrid gray flesh began to ooze away was the moment my luck ran out.
Another hyena Ripper burst through the trees with a horrifying shriek. Glowing void eyes zeroed in on me.
It flew ten feet in a single leap.
I hit the ground and rolled out of its path, dropping one of my swords as I went. I groped for it and was trying to scramble to my feet, when an enormous rust-red bear came barreling through the trees and tackled the wraith to the ground with a vicious snarl.
“Wyatt!” I gasped. “Watch out!”
The wraith sliced a deep gash into Wyatt’s furry side as they wrestled. Dark blood seeped from it, matting his fur.
I ran for them, swords raised.
“There!” a deep voice bellowed.
Aiden, Heath, and Elijah sprinted into view. The runes on Aiden’s Moon-blessed blade emitted a soft glow—he must’ve dug deep to recharge them in low magic before they ran out here.
“Avery, stay clear!” Heath barked. “Aiden’s got it.”
Normally I’d have ignored him, but the fight with the first Ripper had taken it out of me. I stopped in my tracks and sheathed my swords while I caught my breath.
Aiden ran for Wyatt and the wraith, his saber raised. Just as Wyatt tore the wraith’s throat out with his teeth, Aiden was there to take its head off with one smooth, powerful strike.
Heath grabbed my arm and hit me with the full force of his Alpha stare. “Everyone is sheltering in the dining hall. Go back there and reinforce your brother and the other trainees. The faculty is warding the building until the Guardians can send in reinforcements, and the Council’s specialists are on their way to repair the perimeter wards.”
I shook my head. “No. I’m staying with you guys.”
Beggars could not be choosers right now, and this was an emergency.
Gold flashed in Heath’s hazel eyes. “Avery, for the love of the fucking Moon, do as you’re told for once in your life. We have Aiden’s blade, and my quad will hold the breach in the wall until help arrives. You’re already tired and probably fucking injured, and I don’t need one extra back to watch.”
“Dove, please do what they say,” Elijah said, his voice low. His pupils slitted and then bounced back to round in a blink. “We’ll draw the wraiths away. They won’t be able to resist us—especially not me.”
I shook my head violently again, panic wrapping its claws around my throat. “No, you don’t understand⁠—”
“Avery, go,” Aiden said, moving to Heath’s side. “That’s an order from your professor. Once the woods are clear and the wards are repaired by the Council’s team, we’ll come spring everyone from the dining hall.”

“But—”
A roar sounded in the distance. Ear-splitting screeching followed.
Wyatt bumped my back with his big furry head, shoving me in the direction of the school with a soft snarl.
“Fuck.” Heath tossed his sheathed saber to Aiden, who caught it in his free hand. Heath’s body flowed seamlessly into his giant golden wolf. He and Wyatt the bear took off in the direction of the screeching.
Aiden secured Heath’s sword to his waist and sheathed his on his back. He looked at Elijah. “You ready?”
Elijah nodded, his gaze distant as he stared into the trees.
“Aiden,” I tried once more. “Please don’t leave me out here alone.”
He spared me a dismissive glance. “Shift into your animal if it will help you run faster. The wraiths will be drawn to the power of our beast souls.”
“They’ll be drawn to me⁠—”
“Just go, Avery. For fuck’s sake.”
He sprinted away, chasing after Heath and Wyatt.
Elijah reached for me and gave my hand a perfunctory squeeze, saying nothing, and then he shot off after Aiden. Before he disappeared into the trees, I caught a glimpse of his body as it shuddered and grew, morphing violently into a huge serpent-shaped monster. He let out a screech that put the wraiths to shame as he faded from my view.
“Shit,” I whispered.
And then I had no choice but to do what they said.
I turned and ran for the school.
I hurdled fallen limbs and dodged branches. I stumbled on a rock, caught myself, then leapt over a small ravine where there may have once been a creek.
I made it maybe a quarter of a mile before the trees began to shake in front of me. The ground vibrated under my feet, announcing the arrival of something really fucking big.
A Giant tore through the trees in front of me. Tore through them like they were bamboo reeds and not decades-old maples with trunks I couldn’t get my arms around.
It was at least twelve feet tall, bipedal, and humanoid like most Giant wraiths were. This one had what looked like a jackal head and a long, crocodile mouth full of teeth. A fucked-up Anubis on corrupted Moon magic steroids.
Clawed hands bigger than the rat swarmers I’d killed chucked a tree to the side. Hairless gray flesh was pulled tight over knotted muscle and gaunt ribs. Void eyes, glowing sickly violet, drank me in with deep and desperate hunger.
I ran.
It howled and snarled and gave chase.
I weaved through the trees, adrenaline coursing through my veins like white-water rapids. My beast surged to the front, pumping strength and speed into my limbs.
It was no use.
The wraith swiped at me from behind, its huge hand hitting me with the force of a bus. I flew twenty feet and hit a tree.
A barrage of pain racked my body. My shoulder had dislocated on impact. Tree bark raked my side as I slid to the ground.
I rolled, disoriented, groping for my swords.
The Giant attacked again, pinning me to the ground.
My beast took over.