Zodiac Academy 8: Sorrow and Starlight

Good morning, Sagittarius.

The stars have spoken about your day!

The wind is wild, and the seas are stormy as darkness clouds your night, never seeming to give way to sunrise. But take heed, a light may soon be shining through the dark to illuminate the way on, if only you can find it for yourself. An unexpected alliance with an Aries may fall into your lap today, an adversary turned friend if you can open your heart to such a path. Beware the chime of the morning bell and seek peace in the company of those you trust above all. Remember, the sun always shines brightest after a storm.

I frowned at the words displayed on my Atlas, still uncertain of their meaning even at this late stage of the day as I feigned attention in my Cardinal Magic class, counting the minutes until we were released for dinner. Professor Highspell perched on the edge of her desk with her pencil skirt riding up to dangerous heights. She smiled in delight as Tricia Buttram squirmed beneath her attention, trying to remember some facts about the Corona Borealis constellation.

I snorted as she spluttered for something to say about the constellation which was linked to my Order form, and Highspell’s eyes snapped to me in my seat at the back of the room where the so-called lesser Orders like us had to sit.

“Mr Hubert?” she asked, arching a brow which warned of punishment if she caught me doing anything other than paying attention to her and her dull as fuck lesson. “I suppose you know a little more about this subject?”

I nodded, waiting for her to actually ask me for the information before offering it out. She would give me detention for speaking out of turn at the very least, and I didn’t want to spend a single second more than I had to in her company.

“Then please, enlighten us,” she swept a hand out, indicating the rest of the class who had all turned to look my way, more than a few of them seeming grateful to have avoided her attention and left it to me.

I raised my chin, my eyes moving beyond the overtly sexual teacher to the board behind her where she’d written the name of the constellation in swirling script, and I rattled off what I knew.

“Corona Borealis also known as The Northern Crown or Woomera, the Boomerang, lies in the sky between Boötes and Hercules, and is the most closely linked constellation to the Minotaur Order. It contains four stars with known planets and the brightest star it claims is Alphecca-”

“Yes, yes.” Highspell flicked a hand at me to stop me mid-sentence and I fought to keep my features still as I fell silent and leaned back in my chair. “The cow constellation, or mud clogged field of the sky as I like to call it.” She tittered to herself, but everyone else in the room stayed silent. If that was her idea of a joke, then it was no wonder the bitch had no friends. “I want you all to study the Corona Borealis constellation before our next class and write me an essay titled: Ten things that make this constellation less powerful than most. Extra points for descriptions of the Order linked to this particular formation of the stars and eloquent examples of their weaknesses and their strengths – they are lesser for a reason, but it is always worth noting the ways that such cunning beasts can undermine the hard work and resilience of our great land, so no corner cutting.”

Her blood red lips pulled into a wide smile as she met my gaze, daring me to say a word to defend my kind. She sneered just slightly as her attention slipped to my nose ring, the symbol of my position as a full bull, able to create a herd of my own. Bernice, the only one of my prospective cows in this class shifted in her seat, one of her braids slipping over her shoulder to kiss the dark skin of her cheek.

I held Highspell’s stare. I wasn’t a fool. I wasn’t going to waste my breath on defiant outbursts which would only land me in detention, or worse. This game we were playing wasn’t worth risking for petty pride, so I dropped my eyes to the desk before me in what Highspell would assume was submission, or shame over my Order, or whatever the fuck else she cared to believe, and I bit down on my tongue so hard that it bled.

The bell sounded the end of class, but no one moved, all of us waiting for Highspell to officially dismiss us.

Mildred Canopus raised her hand from the row of fancy desks at the front of the classroom, her back ramrod straight as she waited for permission to speak.

“Yes, Mildred?” Highspell asked without looking at her, her attention instead fixed on Gary Jones in the front row as she ran her tongue over her bottom lip.

He was a Manticore, a powerful fire Elemental and pure-blooded for the last four generations, so he had been quickly selected for his position at the front of the class. I knew he didn’t want it though, he was as much of a prisoner to this system as the rest of us. Gary looked down at his desk as though urging it to turn into a black hole to swallow him up, and I actually pitied my friend for his position as one of the favoured Orders. Or at least I did until I reminded myself about dinner coming up next and my stomach rumbled loudly.

“Is it acceptable to list the best ways to kill a Minotaur in our essays?” Mildred asked, a cruel glint in her squinty eyes as she turned a pencil over between her fingers.

“Such as?” Highspell inquired lightly.

“They moo real loud when you blast them with Dragon Fire,” Mildred said, drawing a chuckle from a few of the King’s United Nebular Taskforce as she went on, and I found myself sitting up in my chair, my hand moving to grip the edge of my desk as if it might be able to stop me from doing anything dumb like leaping to my feet and ripping that bitch apart right there in the middle of the classroom. She’d been boasting loudly about her part in the battle the king had won against the rebels ever since returning to the academy this morning, and if I had to listen to one more fucked-up story from her experience in the fight, then I was sure I was going to snap.

“And they taste just like braised beef too,” Mildred finished.

“By the stars,” Frank muttered to the left of the room, his face paling with horror and he wasn’t even my kind.

I glanced at Bernice who had fallen as still as a statue, her hands shaking where she clasped them in her lap, the urge to shift written all over her beautiful features, but if she did that, she was as good as dead.

Every student still attending Zodiac Academy had been hauled through an inquisition, more than a few never returning from their bout with the FIB interrogators, their fates unknown. I knew that the supposed lesser Orders like the two of us who had kept our place were only really here for the sake of appearances. There had been several bullshit articles published about our ongoing attendance here, claiming that even lesser Fae could still have a place within Solaria so long as we could prove our loyalty to the crown, that we were innocent of treachery and were able to overcome the failures of our Orders.

It was bullshit. Utter fucking bullshit, but I didn’t care because I was still here, witness to it all, close enough to see exactly what was happening all around us and able to do something about it whether they knew it or not.

“It’s not worth trying to swallow the horns though,” Mildred said lightly. “I got one caught in my throat and damn near choked on the thing.”

More’s the fucking pity.

Bernice was trembling more noticeably now, her hot-headed temper rising, words no doubt burning like bile in her throat as she fought to hold them in.

I released my hold on my desk and dropped my hands into my own lap, subtly casting an illusion so that Bernice would feel the gentle stroke of my palm along her spine. She stiffened at the touch, her gaze cutting to mine and connecting.

I offered her a look of solidarity, silently reminding her that we’d be out of here soon, safe perhaps, able to do…something. Or at least I hoped so.

Bernice blew out a breath, her fingers unclenching as she got control of her Order form and nodded subtly, but I kept that illusion going, slowly caressing her, easing her worries just a little.

“During the battle, my uncle Fredrick and I actually managed to herd five of them together while chasing them from the skies,” Mildred was saying, her chest puffed up as she spoke, her tongue darting out to lick at her hairy upper lip. “It was exhilarating, the way they mooed and ran, a little stampede of death appearing before them as they trampled their own allies in their attempt to escape us-”

“Fascinating,” Highspell purred, her gaze boring into me, but I kept mine fixed on the desk, refusing to give her the excuse she was looking for to punish me, some sign of defiance, some indication that I felt anything at all for the demise of those rebels. “But unfortunately, we can’t condone the deaths of the lesser Orders unless of course they are found guilty of crimes such as betraying the crown or allying with the Vega trash. So, let’s say no to adding a section on the best ways to kill them, and instead focus on how you might look out for a trap they could lay with their cunning and conniving ways for the essay. Dismissed.”

Highspell waved a hand at the door, and it swung open as she finally released us from the torment of her classes on prejudiced bullshit.

I waited in my seat as the higher Orders left first, the front rows emptying quickly while Gary practically ran from the room to escape the predatory looks Highspell was throwing his way.

So far as I knew, she hadn’t actually touched any of the students she drooled over, but she was clearly fine with making them as uncomfortable as physically possible.

Mildred stood so suddenly that she knocked her chair over, not even bothering to pick it up as she strode from the room, the other K.U.N.Ts swarming around her as she went, Marguerite Helebor pursing her lips as she ended up at the back of the group.

Only when they had all gone did the rest of us grab our bags and stand too, the second-class citizens forced to offer up every privilege to those the false king deemed more worthy than us.

I slipped between the mass of bodies, taking Bernice’s hand as we headed out of the room in the middle of the crowd, neither of us daring so much as a word with so many witnesses lingering close, but her fingers tightened around mine. She was a beautiful girl, fiery and full of passion, which was a lot of what had drawn me to her when I began to think about building my herd after earning my nose ring, but we hadn’t made anything between us official yet. She was one of my prospective cows, but only in the sense of us considering forming an official herd, my hand surrounding hers the most physical we had gotten with each other.

I’d wanted more, thought about it on more than one occasion, but it wasn’t that simple. We were in the midst of a war, our families and entire Order were at constant risk of persecution, and of being snatched in the night and dragged away to a Nebular Inquisition Centre, never to be seen again for nothing more than the crime of being born to our kind. Crossing that line with her or any of my potential cows felt like a risk we shouldn’t take.

Opening our hearts to each other like that could so easily end in tragedy if the things we were up to were discovered, and I didn’t want to risk anyone loving me when I was almost certain I would end up dead before long. It wasn’t fair.

We made our way across the quiet campus to The Orb, my gaze following the higher Orders as they strutted inside, claiming gourmet meals, and situating themselves in the best seats around the room.

To the right of the door, a line was already forming made up of the lesser Orders. We had to wait until everyone else had been fed before we could enter the room, and once we claimed our much less satisfactory meal, we were expected to sit in the small courtyard outside the main building on hard picnic benches left open to the elements.

I said nothing about the injustice of it as we waited in line, my eyes meeting those of a few other Fae in silent acknowledgement of the secret we shared.

My eyes moved to the sky as I traced my thumb over the back of Bernice’s hand, the sun setting in the distance and the first stars igniting as it retreated. They watched us, but if they even noticed our plight, they did nothing about it.

Eventually, we trailed into The Orb, moving to the counter to the right of the huge golden dome and collecting our trays of plain rice and peas. I said nothing as I took it, ignoring the smells of the delicious food being consumed by the other Orders in the room and grabbing a couple of grass and kale smoothies from the refrigerator as I headed outside to the shitty dining area reserved for us.

Bernice sat beside me, glaring down at her basic meal with fire in her dark eyes and I dropped my hand to her thigh, squeezing lightly before leaning close to speak in her ear.

“I have some chocolate for after,” I murmured, the scent of her fresh skin drawn into my lungs as my lips brushed the shell of her ear.

“You went into town?” she hissed, turning that wild glare on me instead as she took in my words, the movement placing our lips mere inches apart.

“There’s no rule against me doing so,” I replied, a note of firmness to my tone as she frowned at me.

Bernice flicked a silencing bubble around us before she went on, her eyes darting to the people sitting at the tables surrounding ours for a moment, but they were in the same position as us, and I wasn’t afraid of what any of them might report to the teachers. I was simply having a conversation with my potential cow. There weren’t any rules against that.

“No, but there are Nymphs patrolling the streets of Tucana and my mom warned me that Minotaurs, Sphinxes and Tiberian Rats are going missing every day.”

“We know that,” I said but she shook her head.

“I’m not talking about the ones who are taken to those fucked-up camps. I mean Fae who just disappear, their bodies never found. Rumour has it that the Nymphs have been given permission to prey on our kind so long as they keep it subtle and-”

“I didn’t see any Nymphs while I was there,” I told her, though that wasn’t entirely true; I had seen some in the distance at the far end of a long street before I ducked into the store to grab what I wanted. “And I’m not doing anything wrong by spending my money on decent food. There aren’t any rules against us buying our own food and I have more than enough auras to do so. I’m not going to eat this shit day in day out without any respite from its blandness.”

“I just don’t think chocolate bars are worth risking your life for,” Bernice hissed, knocking my hand from her thigh irritably, but I caught her jaw in my grip as she made to look away from me, forcing her to hold my gaze.

“I didn’t just go there for chocolate,” I breathed, the secret I’d been keeping all day burning a hole in my chest as it fought to break free, but I didn’t dare mention it here.

Bernice’s full lips parted in surprise, my attention fixing on them briefly before I forced myself to release her, and we both fell silent as we ate our bland meals.

We hung around for a while, taking care to look casual when we finally got to our feet and wandered away up the path which led towards the Uranus Infirmary and Aqua House beyond. Anyone who noticed us would simply see a pair of Minotaurs headed towards Water Territory, nothing suspicious about that, no reason to take any particular notice of it.

I cast subtle magic around us as we strolled on, the back of my hand brushing against hers more than once, a slight thrill going through me at the contact each time.

We rounded the infirmary, moving into the deep shadow cast by the beautiful building and my magic coiled around us as those shadows darkened further. The concealment spell rose to give us cover, the shadows so thick that I couldn’t even see my own face within them as Bernice slid her hand into mine.

I found the wall with my free hand, my fingers carving a line along the cold stone as I felt my way down it, my magic reaching out with a careful caress until finally, it curled around the face of the stone gargoyle I’d been hunting for.

I ran my fingers over its rocky features, cresting its head before finding a spot right between its stumpy stone wings and pressing firmly until I felt something give.

I kept the shadows close to us as we stepped through the new opening in the stone wall, and we stayed silent until we were inside, the subtle grinding of stone letting me know that the secret entrance was once again closed behind us.

I let the concealment spells drop away and strode down the narrow corridor, Bernice falling a step behind me when it became too narrow for us to walk side by side.

The path was familiar now, but I still got a prickle of tension running through me every time I walked it. What we were doing was so risky, but not doing anything had to be worse.

I finally made it to the heavy wooden door at the far end of the stone passage and I touched my hand to it, allowing a pulse of my power to pass into it and prove who I was before it opened for me. It immediately slammed shut behind me, making Bernice do the same thing before she was allowed through, and I blinked at the orange glow of the firelight illuminating this place.

I glanced towards the fireplace, smiling at Gary as he beckoned me over to join him on the couch there, around twenty other Fae already making themselves comfortable in the large room. The walls were built of exposed bricks, deep arches carved into them all around us, the concrete floor well-worn with years of use, yet this space had been wholly unoccupied when we’d found it and made it ours. The door which led up into the main part of the building would be as carefully sealed as the one Bernice and I had entered through now, and I could feel the power of the wards and silencing bubbles protecting our hideout still in effect all around us.

“You haven’t heard?” Gary asked me in a rough voice, and I braced myself for more harrowing news from the war as I sat opposite him on the grey couch.

“Heard what?” I asked, making room for Bernice as she joined us.

Gary hesitated, his eyes dark with a grief I had come to know and expect far too much of during the last year, and I waited on his words with a cold kind of dread.

“Lionel killed Darius during the battle,” Gary breathed, and it was like the entire world fell still around me as I took in those words, trying to make sense of them.

“You can’t be serious?” Bernice gasped as Gary hung his head like he couldn’t bear watching the truth of that declaration sink into us.

“They’ve finally released a full account of the battle – stuffed full of biased bullshit in favour of the fucking king of course, but Darius’s name was listed there, right at the top.”

“No,” I breathed, yanking my Atlas from my pocket and opening it up, hitting the button for The Celestial Times app and trying not to flinch as I read over the article.

Darius Acrux Named Among the Executed Traitors in The Battle of The Great King’s Rise, by Gus Vulpecula.

On this grand and triumphant day, following the glorious triumph against the rebels who sought to undermine our noble new king, a full account of the battle has now come to light.

King Lionel Acrux, the first of his line and most adamant supporter of the strength of the Fae, has given this humble reporter a harrowing and touching account of the battle he so valiantly led against the terrorists who have set themselves against the crown, seeking to sow discord and unrest in our wonderful kingdom.

Eyes weighed down with the mass of a thousand suns and gleaming with the power of a truly awe-inspiring Fae, he told me himself of the awful task he had to fulfil for the safety of his people. He spoke with a heavy and true heart about the moment when he was forced to end the life of his traitorous son, Darius Acrux, for the greater good of our nation.

I couldn’t bear to read another word of that ass-licking bullshit, and I switched my Atlas off as the backs of my eyes began to burn.

Darius and I had had our rift, but I had never stopped supporting him, or loving him as the true friend I had always been to him. He may never have held me as one of his closest companions, but I’d been in his inner circle, I’d gotten to know and admire the man he was growing into and had been holding out hope for him to be the one to destroy his father for the sake of all of Solaria.

“He killed his own son,” Bernice breathed, the horror in her words slipping beneath my skin and festering there. “Who else might even stand a chance against him now? Who the hell is going to be able to stop that Orderist piece of shit from destroying our entire kingdom now that Darius is…”

“The Vegas are more powerful than Lionel Acrux,” I said firmly, raising my voice as I looked around the gathered group. The Undercover A.S.S.

We had been meeting like this for months now, working against the injustices taking place at the academy, swapping information, and doing what little we could to defy the rules that had been forced upon us, but it didn’t feel like nearly enough. Especially not now.

Our numbers were growing slowly, but we had to be careful. Most of us were so-called lesser Orders, but some, like Gary were just good Fae who hated this segregation shit just as much as the rest of us and wanted to do something to defy it. “We need to hold on. The queens are coming for their crown, they’re growing into their strength. They’ll end this, sooner or later they’ll-”

“Darius trained his entire life and still fell at the hands of that monster,” Frank breathed from the back of the room, the rest of Seth Capella’s old pack gathered close around him. “The Vegas could take decades to grow into the fullness of their power, to learn to wield it the way they’d have to in order to reclaim the throne from that son of a bitch. We don’t have that long to wait. We’ll all be dead long before they can-”

“Enough,” I mooed, shoving to my feet and scraping my foot across the floor in challenge. “If any of us here were cowards, then we wouldn’t be in this room, clinging to the Undercover A.S.S. with all we have. I’m sure as fuck not going to run scared now. I’m in this because it’s the right thing to do. I understand the risks, just as you all do, and I know what will happen to me if I’m caught, but I won’t stop, I won’t back down and I won’t let the death of Darius Acrux cast fear into my heart. He was a good man despite the way his father raised him, and he gave his life fighting for the rights of all of us. I won’t disrespect that sacrifice by turning from his cause now.”

A low cheer went up among the group and I expelled a breath from my nose, nodding in satisfaction.

“I finally got the package we’ve all been waiting for today,” I said, pulling the smartphone from my pocket and looking at its dark screen.

“Are you sure its untraceable?” Alice asked in a low voice, her hand moving to grip Frank’s knee like she was hoping the other Wolf might be able to offer us that reassurance.

“It came from Portia Silverstone herself. She left the rebel stronghold so that she could focus on reporting the truth from the front lines, and she needs Fae like us to help her break that news. I met her in the back of Andromeda Place. She says she’s trying to get in contact with Tyler Corbin so that they can collaborate on stories and get the truth out there. If we want to expose all the fucked-up Orderist shit going on in this place, then she can help us do it.”

“The moment that exposé is released, they’ll start hunting for us,” Bernice murmured, a fact more than a warning. “We’ll have to be ready.”

“We’ll need cover stories in place,” I agreed. “And our mental shields need to be bulletproof. Is everyone still practicing regularly?”

Everyone nodded and I glanced towards Elijah Indus who puffed his chest up as he shifted as if on command, his two eyes merging into one as his Cyclops Order took over and he beckoned some of the Wolf pack closer to practice.

It was a difficult art to evade their invasion without them realising it. Like locking your secrets behind a door, then disguising that door as something that wouldn’t draw any attention, hiding your feelings about what lay beyond it with memories from another time.

We’d been working on it tirelessly, Elijah testing our abilities so that if and when we fell under investigation, we’d be ready. We couldn’t risk anyone exposing us. So far, we had mostly just been helping any students who came under suspicion, aiding them in escaping the school before the inquisitors showed up – though we’d only been successful in helping two of them escape entirely. But if we followed through with our plan to share footage from within the school walls, to reveal the fucked-up teaching methods taking place here, then we needed to be beyond suspicion. We had to be unbreakable. And I wouldn’t risk taking so much as a single photograph until I was confident we were ready.

Even just meeting like this, with so many different Orders in one place, could see us sent to detention, or worse. And with the punishments Nova allowed the K.U.N.Ts to dole out getting harsher by the day, who knew what we might face if we were discovered?

I relaxed back into my chair as conversation started up around me. Even with the devastating news of Darius’s death hanging in the air, I could tell that everyone was relieved to be stealing this time to talk freely, mix with other Orders and just be something close to normal.

Drinks were passed around and a couple of Fae slunk away into dark corners, tugging their partners with them as they took the opportunity to be together without having to fear watchful eyes spying them mixing with other Orders. The moans started up quickly, though most were hidden within silencing bubbles to give some semblance of privacy.

No one commented on it.

I accepted a beer as Gary tossed it to me, shifting in my seat while not looking at Bernice. I could feel her eyes on me though, feel her gaze moving over my face, lingering on my bull’s nose ring.

I gave in and turned to her, finding her bottom lip captured between her teeth and I reached out to grasp her chin, tugging it free.

“Keep looking at me like that and we’ll end up doing something we swore we wouldn’t,” I murmured, my blood heating at the liquid brown of her eyes.

“Maybe I’m starting to think differently about that promise,” she said quietly. “Maybe I’m thinking that life is too short and can be stolen so briefly. So why deny ourselves anything in the time we have?”

I swallowed the lump in my throat as I considered that, considered her. She was my little bovine, one of my potential herd, and yet there was nothing official in those titles yet. She didn’t wear my bell around her neck. But the way she was looking at me made me wonder if she wanted me to offer her that. Made me think about buying her the finest golden bell and hanging it from a beautifully decorated choker that I could wrap around her throat. If she accepted that from me, then that would be it. She would truly be my heifer, the first official member of the herd a bull of my stature could claim.

I felt Gary watching us from across the small table, but he may as well have not been there at all as I reached out and ran a finger from one side of her throat to the other, just where that choker would sit if I offered it to her.

Bernice blinked those big brown eyes of hers and my cock stiffened at the thought of it, of me and her…

“Mooove over,” Ranjeep said loudly as she appeared beside us, twisting her fingers into her long hair which was brushed to a bright sheen. The movement of her hand beside her huge breasts drew my attention to them as I glanced up at her in surprise, the moment between Bernice and I shattering.

“I didn’t think you were coming tonight,” I said, shifting back to make room for her as she dropped into the space which hadn’t really existed between me and Bernice.

Ranjeep was another of my potential herd, though she was much more forthright in telling me that she wanted to make it official sooner rather than later. She’d shown me cow bell brochures more than once and made plenty of comments about what an attentive herd member she would make once she committed herself to her bull. But Minotaur herds were complicated things. Sometimes they were polyamorous, generally a group of females with one male, though there could be solo gender herds or even mixed groups so long as there was an acceptance of the dominant bull. Sometimes they weren’t sexual in nature at all, or they could be formed from a monogamous couple and their subsequent children. Generally, we spent our teens and early adulthood testing different styles of herding, figuring out the best fit for us before settling down and offering up cow bells a bit later on in life. My potential herd had started to form around me since I’d become worthy of my nose ring, but none of us were under any obligation to stay as a herd permanently. It was simply a starting point to help us figure out how we might fit into herd life before any long-term decisions were made.

I still had no idea what path I wanted. My cock had no objections to the notion of polyamory, but I would only choose that path if I felt certain I could offer the emotional support to each member of my herd in that situation equally too.

Ranjeep, on the other hand, seemed to have already decided what she wanted.

“Ah!” Bernice cursed as Ranjeep smacked into her while making herself comfortable. “You nearly took my eye out with those fucking udders!”

“Don’t be jealous, sweety, green isn’t your colour,” Ranjeep laughed, her eyes moving quickly back to me.

“Your colour will be red in a moment if you don’t watch your fucking mouth,” Bernice growled, and I swiped a hand down my face. Cow politics were enough to give me a headache at the best of times, but right now, I didn’t have the energy to mediate.

“How about I sit in the middle?” I suggested, grabbing Ranjeep around the waist and tugging her over my lap before she had the chance to answer.

She mooed excitedly as I moved her over my crotch, wriggling her ass against me and making it even harder to focus my thoughts.

I dropped her into my seat and took her place in the middle, taking the phone Portia had given me from my pocket once more and praying to the stars for mercy as I switched it on.

The screen flashed with a loading bar just as a thump sounded at the door, and every undercover A.S.S. member in the room lurched around in fright.

I was on my feet in a moment, switching the phone off again as I drew fire magic into my hands, fear rippling through me.

“Milton?” a girl shouted from beyond the door, and I stilled in horror as I recognised Marguerite Helebor’s voice. “You have to run!” she cried. “Mildred is on the hunt and she’s on your trail. I know you’re all in there, please, listen to me!”

“Shit,” I cursed, grabbing Bernice and Ranjeep and hauling them to their feet as everyone began running towards the hidden exit behind the fireplace. The earth Elementals among us had spent weeks carving it for this purpose.

“If she’s alone, we could take her out,” Gary suggested, glancing around at the space as it emptied out, but I shook my head.

“She said Mildred is onto us. We can’t risk it. All of you need to go, I’ll make sure there’s nothing out of place here. I’ll take the fall if someone has to.”

“Milton, no,” Bernice gasped, gripping my arm and tugging me towards the fireplace just as the door was blasted from the other side, the spells strengthening it barely holding as Marguerite hurled her fire against it.

Seth’s old pack and Elijah darted into the hidden tunnel next, the last of our group racing away while we remained. Ranjeep would have to cave the tunnel in as she went, the last earth Elemental left to do it, but we had time, we could make it, we could-

The door broke apart and I threw my hands up, a shield of heated energy rising between us and Marguerite where she was revealed alone in the doorway beyond.

Her bloodshot eyes were wild as she looked between me and the others, her chest heaving as though she had sprinted the entire way here just to beat Mildred.

“The K.U.N.Ts are coming,” she hissed. “Run.”

I had no idea why she was helping us, but the frantic panic in her eyes was more than enough to force me into action, and I shoved the others towards the hidden passage as quickly as I could.

“Why?” I asked as I backed into the gloom beyond the fire, Marguerite’s grief-stricken eyes meeting mine with a hollowness which gave me my answer before she even spoke the words.

“Because I loved him,” she said simply. “And that bastard killed him. Now go.”

Ranjeep threw her hands out, the hole in the wall closing with the aid of her magic, and we all turned and broke into a sprint, the tunnels caving in at our backs as we went.

We raced away into the darkness as fast as our legs could carry us, Gary casting a Faelight to light the way on while the three of us simply shifted into our Minotaur forms. Running in darkened passageways was what we were built for after all, and as we sprinted away into the dark and escaped a horrendous fate, I was left with one single thought in my mind: Marguerite Helebor had just risked everything to save us. So it looked like the Undercover A.S.S. had just bagged themselves a K.U.N.T.