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I closed my eyes, then immediately opened them. The image of Theo’s dead body stuck in my mind.
“We’d been attacked. One of us didn’t make it.”
Theo gasped, and I dropped my gaze to my hands in my lap. I couldn’t look at any of them. I focused on keeping my mental shield up so neither he nor Niall could see the vision replaying.
“It will be okay. Visions are a possible future. There are a million ways they can change before the time comes.” Sai rubbed my back.
“Right.”
But this one was too terrible. Too devastating to be real. We wouldn’t survive it.
Buzzing and beeps filled the room at the exact same time. We all froze, staring at each other. Kaden pulled out his phone, then Sai, Niall, and Theo. Mine was in the kitchen, but before I could get up, they dropped them to look at me.
“What?”
Niall was the first to speak. “An emergency assembly has been called. We need to report to the assembly hall immediately.”
“This isn’t normal? A drill?” I asked with too much hope.
“No,” Sai answered.
“Let’s get going.” Kaden hurried to the door and started throwing our coats at us. I pulled mine on while trying to slip into my boots.
“We’ll take the tunnels to the athletic center, then come in through the front doors with everyone else,” Niall explained as we headed out of the apartment. A few other students were in the hall and joined us down the stairs.
We all took the tunnels across campus, and none of them questioned the route when we headed up the stairs to the wrong building.
Seeing all the academy’s students in one place, including the university students, was overwhelming. We were usually so spread out that it was hard to grasp how many of us there were living here.
“Come on.” Sai took my hand and led us to a back row with enough seats for all of us to sit together, including some of the people that we picked up at the dorm. That helped us blend in. After this meeting, we should introduce ourselves.
“Shit.” Kaden sunk low in his seat.
“Fuck me.” Theo’s face was ashen.
All the guys were in various levels of panic. Sai was the only one who didn’t react other than keeping his face perfectly blank.
I glanced at the podium to the group of five men and three women. They were well-dressed and varied in age from their forties to maybe eighty or ninety.
“Who are they?” I whispered to Sai.
“The council,” he replied, without taking his eyes off them.
“What?” I slipped low into my seat too. “Why are they here?”
“We’re about to find out,” he said as Headmaster Goldstein stepped forward to the microphone.
“Good morning, students. It's an absolute honor to announce the arrival of the Grand Council to Drexel Academy. Please give them a warm welcome.” He stepped back to clap and stared down the audience, daring us to misbehave.
I glanced around for Hannah, Daniel, or Malik, but my eyes landed on Natasha. She was glaring at the stage with disgust.
Her grandfather was up there. I tried to guess who he was but couldn’t see a resemblance. I thought she would be excited about the chance to brag about her family connections, but she seemed as thrown off as the rest of us. Did she not know about his visit either?
That couldn’t mean anything good.
Maybe this wasn’t planned. Maybe something happened suddenly that required them to come here.
Something like a group of five hybrids bonding?
I wanted to message Mrs. Hedgings, Ms. Chronis, or even Masie, but the light of my phone screen would draw too much attention our way.
“Thank you, students. Councilman Manzela will now speak to us.” Headmaster Goldstein stepped back and fell into the darkness on the wings of the stage.
A middle-aged man with dark skin and short greying hair stepped forward. He didn’t smile, didn’t make an attempt to put the audience at ease. Nothing.
“Students of Drexel Academy, the Grand Council feels you have been done a disservice by being so removed from our watch. Starting today, we will work to rectify that. In fact, today marks the beginning of change.”
My stomach dropped as a sense of dread washed over me. Sai and Kaden each took my hands and squeezed. No matter what happened, we would have each other.
