It’s also pretty damn clear that the Director is parading us around and making sure everyone gets a good look. Which is pretty contradictory to what she was saying earlier about not bringing attention to us or showing us preferential treatment. I swear to god this woman has multiple personalities and dangerous ones at that.
I decide to distract myself since there’s not much I can do about it right now anyway so I study the human students. It’s actually quite interesting getting a closer look at them. My fathers said this was a training academy for supernaturals and humans that have been exposed to the supernatural in not so nice ways. So I assumed that the human half at least would have some variant in age. I was expecting people from my age up to their thirties. For some reason though that’s not the case. All the faces that I can see peering back at me are all around the age of me and the guys and from what I can tell the oldest only being, at a guess, twenty-six.
Unsurprisingly though all of them look more wary and suspicious than normal people our age. It’s pretty damn clear that like me they’ve seen some shit that they really wished they hadn’t. I can’t imagine that it’s easy to be attending the same school as the species that potentially gave them their introduction to the supernatural. I seriously hope that there’s a good screening process and none of them are of the ‘one member of the species did me wrong so that means they’re all evil’ illogical mentality that some people might end up with.
“Oh silly me. I took a wrong turn.” The Director says cheerily as we reach the end of the hallway and a dead end.
Kai snickers ahead of me and manages to push a shaky thought down the mental connection that’s spotty at best.
“Does she seriously think we’re going to believe this shit?”
“She seems to underestimate us a lot. Lets keep it that way.”Hunter suggests and we all nod slightly in agreement.
It’s probably best if she underestimates us for as long as possible.
We all choose not to reply as she smiles in a way that I’m sure is meant to be unassuming but makes her look fake as fuck. She spins on her heel and leads us back down the corridor and down the wide staircase we should’ve gone down the first time we passed. Its fucking big enough that it would be impossible to accidentally miss.
I barely hold in my eye roll.
Finally making it downstairs we rapidly walk through the large entrance hall, the Director clearly done with her show and ready to get on with the unbinding ritual.
“Hey!” Erin calls as soon as we step foot outside and I grin.
She wraps me in a giant hug as the guys all do the manly shake hands and one armed hug thing that they tend to do.
“Alright, we really don’t have time for this!” The Director snaps, full on tapping her foot, she’s that irritated.
“Well . . .” Kai starts and fortunately Maverick gets there in time to put his hand over Kai’s mouth. Preventing him from no doubt making a comment about the roundabout route she just took us on.
The Director raises her eyebrow and smirks like she’s just won something important and I paste my fakest and sweetest smile on.
“This way.” She says, stomping off towards the woods.
“What was that about?” Erin mouths at me.
“I’ll explain later.” I mouth back.
The other team clearly have worked with my guys before because after a couple of exchanged looks they all fall into line with us, staying silent and alert. We follow the Director into the woods and the trees seem to pull us further in, the darkness becoming all-encompassing. Instead of it becoming silent the noises seem to increase in volume as I clearly hear creatures roaming around us and judging from the sound of their footfalls they aren’t small creatures at all.
I start to get the impression that the magnified sounds are actually being produced on purpose in order to unnerve us. However they’re having the opposite effect on me, I take deep breaths as I soak in the magic of the forest and its supernatural creatures around me. I feel each of their light probing magics making curious probes towards mine and I can’t wait until I can connect properly to my supernatural side as my own magic swirls uneasily and I get a sense of yearning coming from it.
I sense the unease coming off of my guys, Erin and her men too, so following the whisper of intuition that seems to show up at random times, I push my feelings of safety and joy towards them, instantly calming them just as we step out of the thick forest.
Chapter Seven
We step out of the close knit trees and into a massive clearing of sorts. There’s a clear space of about ten metres, straight in front of us and then a ring of trees that are all uniform in size and I can only just see through. The clear area that we are now stood in seems to go around the ring of trees in what I’m assuming to be an even bigger ring.
We move towards the tree ring and I honestly have no idea how we are going to get through them. The tree trunks are so closely packed together it would be impossible for even the skinniest of people to squeeze through.
Before I can question the Director she pulls out a knife with an ornately decorated handle. Me and the guys all tense but the fact that Erin and her guys don’t and remain calm, stop us from drawing our own knives. I watch in fascination as she slashes a deep gash in the palm of her hand without any hesitation and slams it against the tree trunk in front her as she mutters something that I can’t quite hear. I catch Erin rolling her eyes out of the corner of mine and make a note to question her about it later.
You know, if we survive.
Now that the moment is practically looming in front of us I can’t help but become incredibly nervous about all of the what ifs and unknowns.
I’m distracted from my thoughts as the tree the Director slammed her bloody hand against shudders and creaks before seeming to disappear completely and making a gap that although still narrow is just about wide enough for us to walk through without turning sideways. The ring of trees was successful in blocking out a lot more than I thought it could. Inside, spaced around eight metres apart are giant rough and harsh looking stone plinths made out of quartz and speckled grey granite; each one carved with intricate symbols that look vaguely familiar.
The Director says something else I can’t understand, looking smug at our confused faces.
