The Hunter's Vow (Monster Hunter Academy Book 4) Page 14

  “In the meantime, they did their level best to stamp out whatever monsters made it through to the human realm on their own?” I asked. “There had to be a reason for the Hallowells to insist to Wellington that there were no more monsters coming through.”

  “You got that right,” Liam agreed, now having taken up station in front of one of the other portals. “Because if there are other races out there that can create portals at will, or if you just have portals littered all over the place, then the crossover between our two realms has to be much higher than we think, not at all dying out.”

  “In the centuries before the Hallowells took an active interest in the realm, you would be right. And there remains a heavy monster incursion into the human realm. Sometimes we seek that which is different, sometimes we harvest new plants to study, particularly those plants that are diminishing in your world. The Laram in particular are gifted in this work. Sometimes we cross over to hunt. Again, when you come face-to-face with a monster in the human realm, your instincts are to fight it. Those instincts are sound. We don’t enter the human realm for idle chatter or to make friends. That doesn’t happen.”

  “But shouldn’t it?” I heard myself asking. “Shouldn’t we find a way—”

  Grim refocused on me. “No,” he insisted. “The Hallowells at least understood this, but you wouldn’t be the first to make this mistake. The founders of Wellington Academy certainly did. Humans, when they’re caught up in their thoughts of nobility, believe that other races think the way they do. They want to form alliances that last longer than the span of a single battle, to build bridges, not walls. That may work for Earth, though I would argue it isn’t working all that well, but it isn’t a feature of the monster realm. We don’t want to unify the races. We celebrate our differences and respect them and, in some cases, fear them. We don’t seek to blend them together.”

  Liam tilted his head at this, his brows climbing his forehead. “You have no intermixing between the species or the families or the races or whatever you call them here?”

  Grim shrugged. “It happens, but those unions produce no offspring, or produce offspring only very rarely and the resulting newborn is considered something of a magical anomaly.”

  “Ah…you mind explaining that last part a bit more?” I asked, not bothering to blunt my harsh tone. He was describing me. “I’m the magical anomaly, right? I’m the freak.”

  “If the gray wizard is your father—”

  All three guys jerked and squinted hard at Grim as he continued. This was news to them, but they knew enough not to interrupt him. “Then yes, you are a very rare occurrence. Of course you are. You’re the harbinger. That’s one aspect of the harbinger that we’ve managed to keep from the Hallowells. They know only that their family had a particularly rich possibility to create such a person, not how it could happen. And no one expected the gray wizard would have any involvement in the process. He certainly had no intention of becoming your father, I can promise you that.”

  “Whoa, whoa, whoa,” Liam said, unable to restrain himself any longer. “You found your dad? He’s here? And he’s a wizard? That’s cool, right?”

  I made a face. “Not as cool as you’d think. My dad appears to be a class A douchebag—even if he is the Great and Powerful Oz. He’s also more or less in bed with the Hallowells, and…he’s worth a lot of clams.”

  Grim rolled his eyes as I barely restrained a giggle, though of course, the other guys didn’t get the joke. Tyler rocked forward on his toes and then back on his heels, his head tilted in thought. “How did he meet your mother?”

  Liam laughed. “You’ve got that right. But I bet I know the answer. I mean, check out all these portals, man. She could easily have fallen through from the other side, right?” He pinned Grim with a glance. “That’s how it works, yeah? They go both ways?”

  Grim nodded. “They go both ways, but only for certain people. The Hallowells have had magic in their family for centuries. If they encountered a portal, they would be able to cross over. Most humans can’t, but not because they don’t have magic in them. Mostly because they never thought to access that magic. Those that do and find themselves on our side of the portal often become food. Those who manage to get back to their side find their magic enhanced. But that happens very rarely. Boston, the area where the academies sprang up, was a popular crossing point into the Americas for multiple species here. The human families that chose to relocate there from Europe, or who were drawn to relocate there, had the magic necessary to access the portals…and had the vision necessary to see the monsters for what they were. Wellington Academy was founded in Boston for a very good reason.”

  “Then the Hallowells came along and systematically tried to shut everything down.” Zach said.

  “Not at first,” Tyler said, as if he’d finally worked this logic out. “At first, they were as entranced as all of us. They remained part of Wellington Academy for a solid fifty years. They just wanted more. They broke with Wellington Academy a hundred years ago to set up their business in New York, to pursue their own magic. In our hubris, we thought they were idiots, but since they remained steadfast donors to the cause, we didn’t care. Plus they were master illusionists, and their kind of magic had proven dangerous already for the school. It made sense to us at the time. We had no idea that they were working their own private monster trafficking program.”

  “Not only that,” Grim said, “the end game has always been to reestablish the power of a monster hunting group. An elite academy that drew the best and brightest children of magical families, but to a facility that the Hallowells controlled exclusively. They’re wanting to close Wellington Academy, to shut it down, only because they have something better. The Hallowell Academy is driven by a much more brutal vision. They hoped to establish it in New York and have tried several times.”

  “You’re kidding,” Tyler said. “How in the hell did we not know about this?”

  “And why didn’t it work?” Zach put in.

  Liam fielded that one. “Because Wellington Academy isn’t just a group of falling-down buildings and students who have gone soft over the centuries. Grim said it himself. There’s magic here, and portals. The academy has closed them, but they still exist in a concentration that can’t be replicated anywhere else. The Hallowells need Wellington’s bones, whether they like it or not. The battle will be fought on Wellington Academy grounds.”

  “Fought against who?” Tyler said. “The five of us? The board?”

  Liam hooked his thumbs into his jeans pockets. “I’ll take those odds,” he said.

  Grim shook his head. “If you do, you’ll die,” he said, his tone flat. “The Hallowells have marshaled a good thirty percent of the monster realm’s most vicious, controllable creatures. Those at the higher levels are hamstrung by their evolution. For them, battle is a conversation—a question, and then a decision. For the monsters the Hallowells have under their control, it’s a directive. The full weight of most multiple monster species converging on Wellington Academy would crush it.”

  “But we’re a collective,” Tyler said, returning Grim’s gaze evenly. “We’re also good at crushing stuff. And we’ve got two more things going for us. A shapeshifting son of a bitch of a monster, and the harbinger. The Hallowells aren’t going to know what hit them.”

  I didn’t share their enthusiasm, but I knew in my heart that both Grim and Tyler were right. The Hallowells didn’t have any idea how strong we were, how fiercely we would fight. But I also suspected that Wellington Academy wasn’t prepared for the hell about to be unleashed on them. We needed more to fight a threat like this. We needed everything.

  “How much time do we have?” I asked.

  “I’ve been seeking that intelligence all along,” Grim said. “If the Hallowells have revealed that you’ve been taken, Nina, that will be their catalyst. The fight is nearly upon us.”

  18

  At that moment, a long clear note sounded, and though it was impossible to tell which
doorway it sounded through, Grim glanced back toward the portal that I knew to be the main entry to his sanctuary.

  “It’s morning,” he said. “The council is convening.”

  Liam peered around. “Morning? It’s dark as midnight out there.”

  “Well, cats, you know,” Tyler put in, and Liam grinned as Grim rolled his eyes.

  “There was a second reason I didn’t disclose everything to you,” he said. “You’re imbeciles.”

  Zach and I grinned at each other as Liam and Tyler fist-bumped, and we all moved together to flank Grim as he exited the room. He blinked, took a step back, then steadied himself.

  Liam, of course, kept going, walking right up to Grim and pounding him on the shoulder. A burst of flame zipped out from his embedded wrist unit, snaking across Grim’s skin, as both Zach and Tyler breathed out a short, succinct spell. I could feel the rush of magic as it flowed out, surrounding Grim with a bright light. Grim whirled sharply, his hands going up, but not even he was fast enough to avoid the magical group hug.

  “What is this?” he demanded, and Liam chortled, as Tyler threw his arm over my shoulder and hugged me to him, and Zach and I fist-bumped.

  “You can’t hide from us anymore, big guy. We’re a team. We’ve always been a team, even when you didn’t think we could handle being a team. We’re even more a team now. It’s all team Monster Hunter, all the time. So get used to it.”

  Without waiting for an invitation, Liam pushed back past Grim and stepped into the foyer, his shout of excitement electric as he pounded down the front steps and whirled around. “Is this, like, a room made out of friggin’ live trees?” he demanded.

  “Imbeciles,” Grim said again, then he met Tyler’s gaze. “I didn’t want to lie to you. It wasn’t honorable.”

  “It was necessary,” Tyler said. “For you, if not for us. But now—we’re done with all that. That magic we just threw your way is the real deal, man. We’re all bonded twice over, thanks to Nina, and we haven’t even begun to figure out what that means. Suffice to say, you’re now part of that.”

  He turned to me and grinned. “At least now you don’t have to endure any more questions about whether or not hooking up with the other monster hunters is worth it.”

  “I don’t know,” I shot back. “I’m beginning to question my choice in teammates.”

  “Too late!” laughed Liam, from outside the doorway. “Tyler, my man, come out here. You’ve got to see this! And Grim, I love what you’ve done with the place!”

  Grim cursed under his breath and headed through the doorway, Tyler on his heels. I turned back to the bed, finding my knife and strapping it to my ankle once again. Meanwhile Zach hummed happily as he finally took a taste of the stew. Then he made a face.

  “Okay, that’s completely disgusting,” he muttered. I laughed, the tension breaking as I suspected he intended it to.

  “When you’re hungry, trust me, it’s the most incredible thing you’ve ever had.”

  “Hey,” he said, reaching for my hand. I let him take it, the bond between us shimmering, images of faraway places and pockets of time that no one else could share surfacing in my mind. Zach and I shared a connection that had always felt both far away and perfectly home, and I clung to him like a rock in the storm, knowing he was privy to my thoughts and not minding anymore.

  “Do you have any idea how far you’ve leveled up already? Or how far Grim has?” he asked quietly. I shook my head.

  “It’s too soon for us to tell. He doesn’t appear any different to me, but…maybe I don’t have an effect on him. I am now able to order monsters around, so that’s kind of cool, but I don’t know how much that will hold up in the heat of outright war…or which monsters are included.”

  “Good to know,” Zach said. “Psychically, you look like you’ve had the shit kicked out of you, but I guess you’ve probably healed from any visible marks from that, yeah?”

  “Yeah.” I felt his touch on my mind as I raced through those memories of Niali in Elaine Hallowell’s cell, and what had come before as well.

  “Wow,” Zach said. By now, we had exited the building, the guys a hundred feet off already, talking together and continuing on as soon as they verified we were following. “The others are going to need to know all that. I’ll tell them.”

  “What happened back at Wellington when I disappeared?” I asked. “How bad was it?”

  He grimaced. “Bad. We knew something was fucked up from the get-go when we lost contact with you, but we were getting steady reports that there was some sort of magical disturbance in New York, an electrical storm of sorts, and that tided us over. In the meantime, Frost and Symmes went absolutely ballistic trying to find more information about the lost hunters, and Liam got to work on improving all his gadgets. The board got some lead they were hot on about the hunters, and we were put on that detail. Then everything started happening really quickly. Liam was in his basement study room at Lowell Library and insisted that the broken mirror we found in Bellamy Chapel had flared to life, but it had gone dead just as quickly, so he was trying to figure it out. Then we got the alert from Elaine Hallowell about the attack in the car.”

  “In the car?” I’d wondered how exactly she was going to position my kidnapping.

  “She said that Grim had turned on you, and it was only the Hallowell driver who was able to stop the car from crashing, while she’d been able to free herself in the melee. By the time the dust had cleared, you’d broken out, he’d chased after you, and the two of you had disappeared. She announced that her analysis of the area proved that Grim was a monster, a monster in our midst, and that we’d missed it this whole time, and that everyone at Wellington Academy was a bunch of fools. It went on and on in that vein, and we were back in the library arguing about it when the energy shifted, the mirror above the fireplace darkened, and we could see through it, see Grim, actually. And then we saw a room that was maybe some sort of cell, so we shoved a table close to the fireplace, threw another table on top of that, and raced up the thing like some sort of whacked-out stairway to hell. We jumped right through the mirror and, well…now you’re up to speed.”

  He grinned at me. “So what are the Akari like? This is all pretty cool, but—”

  His words faded away as we passed the first line of trees. There in a small clearing, three warriors stood. Two men and one woman. I recognized Rhiannon from the first battle detail with Grim.

  “The reports are coming in from all sides,” she said. “We were sent to speed your way.”

  Liam’s hands went up, electrical static arcing off them. There was magic here. A lot of it. “Well, hello to you too. Who are you and—whoa!”

  Liam yelped in surprise as a stiff wind blew through the glade, sharp and cold enough to make us all flinch, except Grim. When it had passed, three majestic snow leopards stood there—four, including Grim. He padded up to me as the guys stared, and angled his shoulder down. As he did, his three fellow warriors did the same, making the guys gape.

  “Get used to it,” I said, pulling myself up onto Grim’s thick neck and holding on tight as he headed deeper into the forest. “In the meantime, if you don’t get a move on, we’re going to beat all of you.”

  The three other Akari warriors snarled in irritation as Grim and I streaked into the trees. Shouts went up, and a few short minutes later, I heard the sound of racing animals beside me, the streaks of white fanning out through the forest. Grim, who’d apparently been operating at half pace waiting for the others to catch up, raced forward in earnest, making me shriek as I took a firmer grip on his neck, and buried my face in his fur. I didn’t bother trying to watch the forest speeding by, since my eyes were already streaming from the buffeting wind, and I didn’t open them fully again until he finally slowed and I recognized the open apron of grass that fronted the Akari stronghold.

  I expected Grim and his friends to carry us all the way into the council chamber, but to my surprise, he pulled up short, his muscles rippling enough to sh
ake me loose, and I collapsed to the ground unsteadily as he transferred back into human form. This time, I managed to catch a glimpse of the transformation. It wasn’t the slow, painful-looking metamorphosis of muscle and skin that had accompanied most of the werewolf shifting I’d seen on TV. This transformation was accomplished in a bright spray of light, barely a second between animal and man. Grim stood tall, every bit as feral in human form as he was in his Akari guise.

  The other Akari leapt into the open area, then followed suit, the guys falling off them and stumbling back as the Akari shifted back into their human forms.

  Liam spoke first, because of course he did.

  “I need to know everything about that. Like everything, right now,” he said to Rhiannon, who’d evidently been his Uber driver. “Does that hurt when you shift? And where does the rest of you go? Is it just a glamour, or is it a true bodily shift? Do you have to shift? Can you stay eternally in one guise or another without problem?”

  He barely took a breath as he rattled all these questions off to Rhiannon, who regarded him like he was her eight-year-old little brother. Grim lifted a hand to stall Liam’s next question.

  “They’re waiting,” he said.