The Unseelie fae could communicate telepathically with monsters? I’d never heard such a thing before. What would a monster’s thoughts be like? It was something I couldn’t even imagine.
Victor tightened his furry winter robe around his form. “If we are going to be proper monster slayers, we must understand how nature works.”
Victor turned his back to us, and waved his hands. A magical force began pushing back the foliage. The tree leaves parted, along with the branches of bushes. There was a rumble of excitement from around us as the parted leaves exposed a valley beneath the trees.
Within the valley were a variety of creatures. A monster with the head of a snake and the body of an iguana that was at least as large as Stefan feasted on the body of a dead deer. Its fangs ripped into the meat, swallowing it whole as a variety of its smaller kin bathed on rocks nearby. A feathery rhino with the body of an ape grazed, tossing the snow around with its horn in an attempt to find any grass. When it didn’t locate any, the monster ripped down a tree with its massive arms and began feasting on the bark.
An ugly bird-like creature that was twelve feet tall with a hooked beak prowled the opposite side of the valley. It had a large plume on its head, which it raised at the appearance of another male. The two birds began dueling with their claws, while a female looked on in interest.
All were quite grotesque in appearance, but from this distance, they were thoroughly non-intimidating. They were doing as monsters do. Each species kept its distance from each other as they continued to eat, fight and sleep.
“In the valley below me are a threshold of monsters. I’ve put an illusion around the area, so the monsters cannot smell, hear, see, or otherwise detect us. If they could, they would attack,” Victor explained. “Take care not to cross the boundary. If you do so, the illusion will fail, and the monsters will be alerted to our presence. If we have to kill everything in the valley, our exercise for the day will be ruined. Therefore, no one will receive any points.”
No one wanted to be the guy who crossed the boundary and ruined the day for everyone. We all kept a clear berth from the silver line in the grass. I took a seat beside a patch of bushes and opened my journal, studying the monsters and making notes on their behavior. A couple of the birds were nesting eggs, and most of the snake-like monsters had retreated to holes in the ground. Stefan, the mature academic he was, doodled childish drawings of the monsters in his notebook beside me.
We remained in the trees and continued to study the creatures. As the hour passed, I grew more and more calm. It was interesting looking at monsters from this perspective. Typically, you’d draw a sword and behead them without a moment’s thought about it. It was often the right thing to do, as more monsters than not were, by definition, evil.
But some were benevolent, more like animals than creatures of the Underworld. Before, I’d had the perspective that hesitating before a monster was foolish. A good way to end up dead. You had to kill them, before they killed you.
I no longer held that view. After my dealings with the leshane last semester, I’d come to realize the difference between a true monster, and a creature simply deemed vile. I didn’t see a reason to kill monsters now unless necessary. Not all of them were evil. And the ones that truly were, you knew from the beginning. There was a clear difference.
At the end of the hour, I stood, and placed my journal into my bag. Professor Victor was busy putting the foliage back into place. I wanted to get out of here before anyone could ask me anymore questions, but before I could, someone stepped in front of me.
My wolf snarled at Zander’s appearance. The alicorn was a favorite of Elijah’s, and as such, had made no effort to stop tormenting me. Probably on the king’s orders, no doubt. It was Zander’s goal to make my life here as irritating as possible.
“I don’t get why everyone is kissing your ass,” Zander started. “You’re nothing special.”
“I don’t want any trouble,” I started.
“Good, because you can’t back it up,” Zander said. “You’re a degenerate, and worse, you lost the crown.”
“Stick your head up your own ass,” Stefan shot at him, immediately coming to my defense. A couple of boys looked up, attention directing to our argument.
“Why are you defending him? HemurderedLord Lucien!” Zander shouted.
My lip curled. For as much of a dick as Zander was, I knew he was right. I’d killed the university’s most beloved professor. There were a great number of people who were curious about me being the Phantom, but a great deal more who were angry at me for taking Lord Lucien’s life.
Now that he had the attention of the class, Zander continued, raving. “Lord Lucien didn’t deserve to die. He sacrificed himself for this lowly wretch. It was an unworthy trade. We lost a man of great wisdom and power, and for what? To keephim?”
I hated Zander. But I agreed with him. Lord Lucien had been ten times more of a man than I ever would be. It wasn’t right that I was still here and he was gone.
“You’re on borrowed time. The Circle kept you around because your mate’s got power,” Zander seethed. “But once they figure out how weak she really is, she’ll be executed, and so will you.”
I burst into a wolven at the mention of someone taking Emma’s life. Everyone in this world should know she was off limits. Zander took my shift as a challenge, and morphed into an alicorn. We charged at each other, me with my fangs snapping, and him with his horn down. I dodged his horn as we met, and went for his throat. He slipped aside, and the two of us began a vicious duel, me lashing out with fangs and him with his horn. Each time I went to give a blow, his horn dove for my eyes, and I had to retreat. Frustration welled in my stomach and caused rage to boil over.
I couldn’t get to him with his horn in the way. If I got too close, he’d run me through. Alicorns could only be taken from the side, but each time I attempted to go for his stomach, he spun around to face me again.
I jumped, trying to land on his back. Zander rose on his hind legs to fight me off, before both of us were blown backward as we ran into a shield. I went sailing backward twelve feet, and landed on my ass. Zander huffed from his spot a similar length away, struggling to get back on his hooves.
Professor Victor, who’d cast the spell, was red in the face. His robes billowed around him in a fury as he came between us. “That’s enough, from the both of you,” Victor snapped. “If either of you attempt to start a brawl in my class again, you will end up in detention.”
I growled, and changed back. Zander remained in his alicorn form and lashed his tail in a snippy way. I wanted to rip it off.
“I think we’re done here,” Victor said, with a harsh glance at me. “Class dismissed.”
His harsh look gutted me, and I knew— Victor blamed me for Lucien’s death. The two of them had been close friends, I knew. And although he had to be impartial as a teacher, privately, Victor resented me for what I had done.
Zander trotted off, like he’d won. Causing division had been his goal— on Eli’s orders, no doubt. The rest of the class hurried off, in no mood to attract Victor’s wrath. Stefan held out a hand to help me up, and I took it.
