“They’re trying to turn us into dragons,” he replied. “It hasn’t taken in us, our shift beasts were too stubborn, but the others. Goddess, don’t let me become like them.”
Several of the students retched.
There was a commotion and suddenly her familiars were surrounding her. Melody hadn’t felt them approach. In fact, she hadn’t felt anything since she’d seen Leon change. Even his hand on her throat hadn’t hurt, it was why she hadn’t struggled.
Nick picked up Leon by his shirt, his weakened body hanging above the ground.
“What are you?”
“Changeling. They found out how to change out a shift beast. They had a tiny bit of dragon blood and managed to change one shifter entirely, but he wasn’t strong enough and he died. They’ve been experimenting on us. The stronger our beasts are, the more likely we are to survive, but if they’re too strong, they fight back and we’re unstable.”
“The other survivors?” Nick growled.
“Mindless, obedient. They’re monsters, covered in scales, they can’t eat properly, only drink blood. Those of us who are unstable are used as donors. It’s why there are no bodies, we’re consumed.”
Melody spun away, looking for something, anything to ground her. She couldn’t cope. Not this, not this. She knew her aunt was mad and cruel, but not this … this horror.
They’d been right to grieve them all. They were already dead.
“Break their bonds,” Councillor Argrum ordered. “If they die, it’s a kindness.”
The healers looked at him aghast.
Leon’s body pulsed again.
“Please, not like this, break me one more time Melody. Please, release me.”
Leon’s broken cries gradually turned into vicious snarls, and there was a scuffle behind her, but she couldn’t turn around.
She could feel him, through the bond. The spark that was Leon disappearing under a tide of darkness. The smell of his wounds, his snarls of anger and pain, it was too much.
Steven caught her eye and nodded.
“Someone catch Steven,” she called out.
Immediately, two shifters bracketed him, holding his arms and shoulders. They all nodded.
She did what she could to spare them both. She pulled Steven away first. His knees sagged a little, but he managed to stay upright. It was better that way, she didn’t want him to feel what was coming next.
With a sob, Melody turned around, facing the snarling abomination that Leon had turned into again. Feeding him her magic had only woken it up. It was easier to do when he was like this, when he wasn’t like the honourable man that she had known.
She yanked hard on her magic, severing the bond with him, the shock making her reel. Oz’s arms trembled around her, and she knew that he could help her, if he was willing.
“Yes,” Oz said, before she even opened her mouth. “I’d love to. Melody Canticum, I challenge you.”
She wobbled as his supporting strength left her, and a tall brown wolf with one white paw stared back at her.
“Shift,” she commanded, pushing her magic and the loose tether at him.
Oz rocked back on his ass, an astonished look on his face, the bond already strong between them.
“You didn’t think I could do it?” she asked him.
He blinked up at her, a goofy smile on his face. “I didn’t think you would, but I also didn’t know it would feel this good.”
He flopped backwards onto the hard floor, unmindful of his nakedness as most shifters were. His hands covered his face and he laughed into them.
Well, she thought he laughed into them. Right then, she needed to deal with Leon, then she could sort out the flood of emotions that were threatening to overwhelm her.
“We’ve got him, Mel,” Ryan assured her, Asher kneeling with him next to Oz.
Pack.
Yes, she supposed they did. Behind her, there was a ring of steel and a wet splat. Melody spun, only to have Leon’s body land on her, his head on the ground beside him. She fell backwards, landing on Oz, the air rushing out of him in a pained grunt.
Shocked, she sat there as Leon’s blood spurted out of his body and onto her face and torso. One of the senior students started screaming, until Mrs Hardinger turned up and slapped her. Unfortunately, hot on her heels was the provost.
“Just what is the meaning of this?” she snapped. “I agreed to let you borrow Melody to help process the identity of these beast criminals, but I did not agree to a bloodbath in the gymnasium, nor borrowing more students.”
“This is council business, Provost, you have no say in any of this,” Argrum snapped, then his face softened when he looked at Melody’s shocked one. His sword still held firmly in two hands, blood dripping from the tip.
“He was lunging for you, it would have likely been a killing blow if you look at his hands.”
Numbly, she looked down at Leon’s hands to see that they had shifted into long lethal looking claws. There were no fingers, only black hardened lengths that curled around to sharpened tips. Yes, if he’d struck her with either of those, he would have likely taken her own head off.
Even in death, he was still shifted into his monster form, colourless slitted eyes staring at her, while sores oozed and bubbled across his skin.
“Councillor Argrum, I must protest. There are more important matters to tend to, like the wards around the academy. Surely the interrogation of the shifters can wait until we secure the grounds, it’s not like the animals are going anywhere.”
Melody clutched at Leon’s body, anger surging through her, but Oz grabbed her from behind and whispered in her ear. “Not now, Mel. Not now. Bide your time.”
All the fight went out of her. That woman, that beastly woman, she was just too much.
“As for the wards,” the councillor said, turning his attention to the provost. “The council is very interested in learning why they fell, why they were so weak in the first place.”
The provost huffed. “Well, if I had half the help here that I ought to, they’d be
