Which is just how I like it.
“I’ll say it one last time.” I take care to use my most badass voice. “Respect the tail.” Curling forward, I smack my supernaturally-tough head onto Blaze’s. He stumbles backward, stunned. I jump to the ground, and my tail grips Blaze by the ankle. Twisting about, I spin and take my enemy along with me. Our 360-degree journey ends when Blaze’s head smacks into another tree. He’s knocked out cold.
Huh. It’s like a concussion theme day here at the Wheeler Institute.
My tail lets go of Blaze’s ankle and starts to do a happy dance over my shoulder. I pat the arrowhead end. “Good job, boy.”
Lincoln extinguishes his baculum. Now, he holds two silver rods in his hand, nothing more. He chuckles. “’Respect the tail.’ That’s a good one.”
My tail whips up to muss Lincoln’s hair. They have their own love thing going. Well, as much love as can happen between a demonic tail and a hot prince. Most days, I try not to think about it too much. A few more seconds pass with my tail fawning over my fiancé before I yank it away. “That’s enough, boy.”
A mischievous gleam shines in Lincoln’s mismatched eyes. “Why? Are you jealous?”
“No, not at all. We simply need to, you know, clean things up?” I so suck at lying.
“Yes, we do need to set things right.” Lincoln’s still working his sneaky-grin thing, but at least, he’s letting the whole tail conversation die out, which I totally appreciate.
Stepping over to Blaze, I search through his pockets until I find the coin. It’s about the size of my palm and cool to the touch. You’d never suspect this little item could bring on the end of the after-realms, yet that’s the whole point of major magic, I suppose. It wouldn’t work too well if it advertised itself. I zip open my backpack—which survived the battle like a champ, by the way—and slip the coin inside. A sense of relief washes through me.
“I think we did it,” I say.
“Almost.”
Suddenly, Blaze hops up to standing. It’s like something out of a human horror movie. His face is crazed as he grips two fresh daggers. This time, he’s ignoring Lincoln and running straight at me.
I want to move and fight, but seriously? What is this guy’s deal? I mean, what kind of person has a head that thick? My tail really rammed his cranium into an oak tree, after all. It doesn’t seem possible.
Lincoln reignites his baculum as a long sword. I blink hard, trying to get my thoughts back into battle mode. There’s no real need, though. Before two full seconds have passed, Lincoln has run his long sword straight through Blaze’s chest.
Couldn’t happen to a nicer guy.
Blaze tumbles over, dead. Lincoln glares at the corpse. “No one goes after my future wife.” He raises his baculum again, ready to strike.
I rush to Lincoln’s side, setting my hand on his forearm, trying to calm my guy before he loses it entirely. It strikes me that Lincoln did the same for me, not so long ago, back when I wanted to go into berserker mode and free Harper early. “It’s okay. You killed him.”
Lincoln turns to face me, his eyes wild with rage. “He woke up out of nowhere and ran straight for you.”
I gently guide his arm down. “I know. But you got him.” I rest my palm on his cheek. “It’s over now.”
Lincoln heaves in a few breaths before nodding. “Right.” Finally, Lincoln seems to snap out of his berserker funk. He extinguishes his baculum and sets both rods back into their holster. “It’s just…Anyone attacking you, it makes me crazy.”
I can only smile. “I got that.”
Harper’s weeping sounds from across the clearing snap us both out of our thoughts.
“Oh, crap.” I sigh. “We forgot about Harper.”
Lincoln and I rush over to her side. With a flick of my tail, Harper is free from her bindings. She hobbles away from the tree to stare at me, wide-eyed and frightened. “What…What are you going to do?”
It’s a good question. Part of me wants to say my goodbyes, forget this school ever existed, and haul ass back to Antrum. That way, Lincoln and I can put the codex somewhere safe—along with the coin, of course—and then get on with our lives. That impulse quickly fades, however.
Even with the fact that time is running out, there’s no way we’re leaving here until I’m certain that Harper and the others are safe. I glance over at Lincoln. The resigned look on his face says it all.
“We’re staying, aren’t we?” I ask.
“Yes.” He glances up at the sky. “We still have the afternoon left.”