“Interesting, I wish I could study it some more, but I don’t suppose you will allow that,” she said with a sigh.
Trent smiled and shook his head.
“To answer your earlier question, yes. I have a fox and a kitsune residing within me. No, it’s not normal. I’m a half breed, but my fox has been dominant all my life. Until I bonded with Melody and we began the path to mating. It allowed my kitsune to emerge for the first time. I’ve suspected he was there for a while, but I wasn’t sure.”
“So, even amongst kitsune you are rare?” Mrs Hardinger asked him.
Trent grimaced. “Yeah, pretty sure I’m the only one of my kind.”
“And you can do magic?” Nick asked, interested.
“Apparently. I’m as new to this as you are, but he says yes, his magic would be very similar to yours, although not as powerful yet.”
“Yet?” Nick was incredulous.
“Once we’re mated with Melody, then our full potential will be realised. We would be better able to protect her, but our fox form is already more talented than we realised.”
“You’re going to have to watch that,” Mrs Hardinger warned him. “Very few shifters speak of themselves in plural form.
“I do,” Ryan said.
“And me,” Oz chimed in.
“Justin and I do too, and I think Dean does as well. I don’t know Asher well enough to say,” Nick added.
Mrs Hardinger rolled her eyes. “Well, of course you all fucking do. How did I miss that. Fucking Apex, you’ve all got high opinions of yourselves. I’m glad Melody is here to pop those bubbles that contain your egos.”
Oz growled, but Ryan laughed. She really had hit the nail on the head with that one.
Sucks to be you if you can’t admit it, Ryan sent to Oz on their own pack bond. She’s right and you know it, so knock it off.
Toby was growling back at them, his stance protective.
“Oh for fuck’s sake,” Mrs Hardinger said with a snort. “Put your cocks away. You’re all big, bad and scary, and not a single one of you is going to fight the other over me. You all know I can pin you to the spot with a look, so give it a break.”
Ryan snickered, earning him dark looks from Oz and Toby, but he ignored them. She was right, they were being dicks.
“Melody is meant for us, but she’s been through trauma that we cannot understand,” Trent said. “And I am not using the ‘royal we’. The female is right, it is something we will watch … I will watch in my language.”
Ryan turned to look at Trent, the odd wording tipping him off. Once again, the kitsune was talking through Trent’s mouth.
“When I say us, I mean the shifters assembled around her. Whether they are formally fated mates, or suitable mates is irrelevant. We have all been chosen for the purpose of serving her. There is a higher power at play here.”
“What do you mean, higher power?” Nick pushed.
“I have waited a long time for this body, dragon whelp. I am older than you, your father, your grandfather. I know you do not ascribe to any sort of religious belief, but it does not mean that there isn’t some accuracy to it.” Trent explained. “You all cry out to your Goddess, you ask for things, you blame her for things, you bleat and wail and carry on. Did it never occur to you that she was real? That there was a foundation for your cries for mercy?”
Ryan gaped. Had the little fox just told them that the goddess was real?
“I know of who you speak,” Nick said, narrowing his eyes at Trent. “I would never have named her goddess, though.”
Trent sighed deeply. “Because you never looked deep enough, whelp. You had a brief interaction with her, and dismissed her outright. I have served at her feet for thousands of years. I have waited all that time for this body, this situation, this woman. There is a bigger cause to fight for here than Melody’s quarrel with her aunt, although it is the match to the fuse that will set things in motion.”
“So, you’re what? Some sort of demi-god?” Oz asked, spluttering. “We’re all supposed to bow down before you or something?”
“You fool,” Trent hissed. “I am nothing, nobody. A mere servant. An insignificant ant. I live at the whim of the goddess, and I give thanks for every breath that fills my lungs. I am neither her hand, nor her mouthpiece. Merely her tool. As are you all. We have roles to fulfil. Supporting and protecting Melody is our greatest, and it is my pleasure to do so.”
“There’s a war coming?” Mrs Hardinger asked.
Trent regarded her, his unblinking stare sweeping from head to toe, making Toby growl in protest.
“Not a war,” he said, finally.
“If not that, then what?” Nick asked.
“A reckoning,” Trent said, ominously. “A revolution.”
“And Melody is at the center of it?” Ryan asked him.
That cool gaze turned on him now, weighing, measuring, assessing.
“Melody is at the center of it,” Trent replied.
Ryan couldn’t help the shiver that ran down his back. This had gone from zero to a hundred in minutes. What the fuck else were they going to have to face?
25. Melody
Justin didn’t return that day.
Or the next.
Or the one after.
By then, the academy had begun to pull itself back together. The dead students had been reclaimed and buried by their families. Nick said that he and Justin had worked together with the staff to create strong enough wards to keep the other shifters in, and uninvited witches and humans out, but although Nick came back to the cabin to see her, Justin did not.
The academy had been without wards for almost twenty-four hours, while everyone regrouped, but several shifters were quick to take advantage of it, escaping the college’s confines when there was no barrier to keep
