Chapter 268

We make it through our run in record time, I think each of us feeling Jackson’s nearly limitless energy flowing through us and grateful for it.

“Seriously,” Jesse says, beaming at Jacks. “You should bottle this stuff. Sell it on the black market. Make millions.”

“I don’t need millions,” Jackson murmurs distractedly in reply, his hand on his hips, looking out over the hills in the distance outside the castle. “Also, don’t you two get hooked,” he says, turning back to aim a little glare at Jesse and Rafe. “I have a lot of energy built up in reserves but it would take work to supply four people every day. So. Only in emergencies.”

“What, and Ariel gets energy on tap whenever she demands it?” Rafe asks with a smirk, gesturing towards me.

“Yes!” I say, pumping my fists into the air even as I pant, my body still recovering from the long run. I’m still not really able to keep up with them, even if I am getting better. “Mate privileges!”

“No,” Jackson corrects, giving me a glare, even if he can’t help smiling as he does. “Just…a little bit in the morning. To help you with your crazy schedule.”

“We’ll see,” I say, patting his arm in an ameliorating way and giving Jesse and Rafe a wink, letting them know I’m in charge.

“All right, enough of this,” Rafe says, pressing the bridge of his nose between his thumb and forefinger and looking so much like dad when he’s trying to concentrate that I break into a wide grin. “So, we’re agreed? Jesse goes to the computer lab to get a laptop and a router, I go to the Captain’s office to request an emergency video call with mom, Jackson goes to get Luca before he can leave for breakfast so he can tell mom the plan for the gym before we have the magic chat, and Ari…”

“Cleans up the room and makes it so our mothers don’t know we live like wanton slobs and my boyfriend kind of moved in!” I say this cheerfully, my hands perched jauntily on my waist.

“Voice down, Ari,” Rafe murmurs, glancing around, even though we’re all alone. “We’re still at least pretending to operate under a veil of secrecy.”

“Maybe Jesse’s shadows can do that,” I say cheerfully, beaming at him. “Could you make like…a shadow dome?” I lift my hands above my head and spread them wide in a circle. “Though which people couldn’t see or hear?” Jesse tilts his head to the side, I think intrigued by the concept.

“All right, let’s go,” Rafe sighs, all business, dismissing the questions about Jesse’s magical potential. I laugh and together the four of us head into the Castle before breaking into different directions.

I pant a bit as I finish climbing the staircase up to our floor, my mind running through all the things I have to do. I mean, I don’t think Jacks has left a lot of traces of his presence, but the whiskey bottle is sitting around somewhere half full, and the beds are certainly all unmade this morning…

I’m still thinking it through, wondering if breakfast is going to come up in time, as I push open the door and step into the room, absently shutting it behind me.

But I go still and stand straight when the lock clicks in the door.

Slowly I turn to stare at it because…

I…I did not turn that lock.

“Who knew, Ariel,” a deep voice says, ringing out in our room. “That you look so ravishing in the morning after your run.”

My head snaps towards the center of the room where Alvez lounges in my brother’s armchair.

“I sensed the presence of new magic in the Castle,” Alvez continues, quietly standing and beginning to move around the coffee table towards me. “So I came up, expecting to run into all three of the Sinclairs at once. But what a treat for me, to find you all alone.”

I take a step backwards, stunned, pressing my back against the door.

“Looks like,” Alvez murmurs, crossing the room too fast for how few steps he’s taken, “we’re going to have the opportunity to have our little tutoring session early, aren’t we?” Quite suddenly he’s right in front of me, lifting a hand to press next to my head at the door, looming over me.

I stare up at my professor for a long moment, still totally shocked, when suddenly something about the way he begins to smile, his canines just peeking out from between his lips, breaks my wolf out of our stupor and sets her raging. She leaps forward in my soul, opening her teeth to let out a murderous roar, and my body moves my instinct. I whip my hands up, shoving Alvez hard, putting my whole body into it as I shout.

I take him by surprise, causing him to stumble back a few steps, and I take advantage of the time and space I’ve earned myself, whipping around and grabbing for the lock on the door – twisting even as I grab the handle –

But my fingers just slip away from it even as I try to turn.

What – what!?

I gasp in fear and frustration, hauling on the door, trying to turn the lock – but it won’t budge, no matter how much I wrench my wrist -

Suddenly arms are around my waist and I scream bloody murder as I’m hauled away from the door. My nails extend into claws, my teeth into fangs as Alvez drags me to the center of the room. I kick and twist, trying desperately to get away, but all of it is fruitless.

“Silence,” he snarls, and suddenly my voice wrenches from my throat.

I scream in panic and in rage, my hands flying to my neck, but no sound comes out – none at all.

“That’s better,” he growls, throwing me hard down onto the couch and pinning me down there, his hands hard against my biceps, his knees pinning down my thighs. “Now you can listen to me, my little demigoddess, as I tell you all the things I’m going to do to you.”

He brings his head forward, delivering a long lick of his tongue up my neck and cheek. I scream again in fear and rage, but again no sound comes out, even as I thrash wildly against him.

But he’s too big – and I’m so small –

Inwardly I quail, wishing I’d had more time with Blaze already – wishing I knew how to break out of this –

And quite suddenly, I do – but not from my time with Blaze.

From Luca.

I shift in an instant, flashing into my wolf, twisting beneath Alvez. Something about it – about the sudden change in my body or how fast I move makes him lose his grip and I flit away – leaping away from him in my lithe wolf form, running hard for the window –

Wondering desperately if I can leap from it, if I’ll die instantly, if it’s worth the risk –

But suddenly, even as I leap midair, I…freeze.

Alvez’s laughter rings out behind me as I just…hang in the air, my breath coming fast in my wolf’s lungs, panting out between my teeth.

“Clever little princess,” Alvez hums, and I see him in my periphery first as he slowly walks around me until he stands just before me, his hands tucked neatly behind his back. He bends down to grin into my face. “Oh, I have been looking forward to experimenting with you, seeing what we can really push you to.”

I snarl, the sound echoing out of me even as Alvez leers. I start a bit, surprised that my voice is apparently back after my shift, but there’s no time to think on it as Alvez suddenly he whips his hand forward and snaps his fingers.

I fall out of the air, landing hard on the floor, somehow –

Somehow back in my human form –

I whip my head up to him, glaring hard. “How are you doing that!?”

“Oh, I thought you were clever, princess,” Alvez says, still grinning down at me like this is the most fun he’s had all year. “Haven’t you figured it out yet? Who I really am?”

I stare up at him, my mouth falling open, just as the handle on the door begins to twist.

Both Alvez and I snap our heads to the door just as the knock comes and a voice calls out my name.

“Ari?”

Jackson. And Luca too, there with him - I can feel both of my bonds – can feel their curiosity at the locked door, their rising tension as they feel my fear rippling out in frantic waves.

“Ari, are you in there? What’s wrong?”

I open my mouth, a desperate response on my lips, but Alvez seizes my arm in his hand.

“One word from you,” Alvez growls. “And I will disintegrate him. In an instant.”

I look up at my professor, horrified at the threat – and by the look in his eyes, utter cruelty, utter confidence…I know he can do it. And he will.

Slowly I close my mouth, nodding to him.

But even if I don’t call to them, Luca and Jackson both at once realize that something is terribly wrong the moment I shut down my bonds, not wanting them to feel my fear anymore, terrified that Alvez will hurt them.

There’s an instant of pause and then a horrible banging at the door as one or both of them throw their bodies against it, trying to get inside to me at all costs.

“Tell them to stop, little girl,” Alvez hisses, leaning closer to me. “Or they will pay with their lives.”

I groan, desperate at the idea, and then let my eyes flutter shut, my arm still gripped hard in Alvez’s hand, as I open my bonds and take a deep breath.

But before I can beg them to stop, to turn away, to save themselves –

The door shatters into wooden shards, and Luca and Jackson – their fists covered in blood and splinters – force their way in.