Chapter 62: CHAPTER 62

DOMENICO XANDER SILVERBACK

The tackle is swift. Its brief. But the impact? A hundred times what a rocket falling out of the sky, and into the ground.

Zayn’s face is covered with dust and dirt, and blood, all thanks to the cooperation between Lucian and me, as he tried to get past our defenses. Still, that bastard still manages to get the orb into the back of our net to square it all up.

Something trickles into my eyes, and when I rub my fingers on it, I don’t need anyone to tell me where it is coming from. The sharp pricks hovering over my left eye brows tells me that son of a gun had gotten to me, too.

“Piiiiiippppp!!!”

The whistle goes, and I know we are in for a brief time out.

“We can do this, guys,” Kyle’s voice reverberates in the spaces as he tries to cheer us up. I take a quick peak across the rest of us just to know our percentage level before the gun goes off for the second time, tonight.

Echo looks like he’s been rounded up with marshmallows and sent flying into the toaster.

The rumple skin on Lucian’s cheeks as he squeezes his face and grabs hold of his left ribs, tells me just one more finger on him, and he’ll be sent six feet below the surface of the earth.

Kyle can barely hold it together. His silver hair has been tainted with blood, and I can’t tell if it’s his or someone else’s. he has a hand to his waist and other, massaging his back neck from the nasty collision he made with one of Zayn’s boys.

And for Duncan, the number of bandages he has wrapped over his stomach is enough to make uniforms for the newbies that will soon be joining this goddess forsaken Academy. He’s the only to take the most damage, and I swear, when I get my hands on that bastard that did that to him, it will be the last he ever sets eyes in this Academy, again.

The only person to come out of this first half unscathed, is Lyra, and Adam.

It is understandable for Adam because all he has to do is hide is wolf-less body in between the steel frames.

But Lyra?

Goddess knows where she gets the strength from. And out of the seven of us, she looks like the only one fit enough to go a couple of rounds. The minute she turns and her green eyes pierces into mine, my lips part, and saliva slides down my airway.

There’s a light in her eyes that coerces me entirely. The warmth that gives me a brand-new courage like the goddess had given me the fountain of her own personal youth to drink. She presses her lips into a thin line, and for the first time ever since that day when she graced this Academy with her presence, there’s a softness in her eyes; like a concerned mother for her child.

I shift my eyes to my brothers, and the bastards all have their eyes on her. The yearning for something it will take all the bones in my back to confess to. I mean, we are all about lose a vital organ in this year’s competition, and the only thing we are concerned about is wolf-less girl with broad attitude, and a petite waist.

One will take a good look and the four of us and see us holding our dicks in our hands, waiting for who to make the first move and pin her against the wall.

“Piiiiipppp!!!”

The whistle blows for the second time, and we all make it to our feet.

I take a look at Zayn as we take to the fields, and prepare for a second run of the game, but the dark corners of his eyes inform me of the unfinished business between me and him.

A sigh and draw in a lungful of cloying air, as the gunshot goes off, and the orb is tossed into the air. Kyle is the first to go after it, but he’s tackled by Caleb, leaving the Orb to fall in the hands of Duncan.

“Pass it to me, Dun!” I hear Echo’s voice tear through the open spaces, and the next thing I see are shining claws stretching for Echo’s throat.

Fucking Zayn going for the kill.

Well, not today. And not on my watch.

I tackle him before his claws could get to Echo, lifting him and sending him crashing to the ground as shockwaves rattles the entire earth underneath our feet.

“The orb, Echo.”

One voice I know too well.

Lyra.

I’m about to leave this place where Zayn is lying on the ground to go secure Lyra’s surrounding when five sharp claws rips through my tendon, and sends me crashing to the ground, and whining in pain as my wolf gets to work.

I turn to face the tendon-tearing monster, and there are black eyes staring back at me.

“This is for Alira!”

Zayn tries to wraps his claws around my throat, but little does he know I’m ten steps away from him. The edge of his claw stops at my neck, but not further. He looks down his chest, and he sees my hand digging into his heart.

“You, slimy bastard!” he growls, but blood gushes out immediately from his throat.

“You can join your lover in hell!” I snarl at him, right before pulling my hand out of his chest along with his heart.

Zayn collapses to the ground as blood soaks the earth around him.

LYRA ANDREA SILVERTONGUE

It’s not I hadn’t seen his death incoming. Every time I touch the orb, a flicker of the next few minutes grazes my sight. The minute Echo asks for the orb, I see a pool of blood encircle the body of one with dark hair and hollow eyes.

Zayn.

Ever since the start of this game, it’s like I’ve been in tune with something far greater than anything I’ve ever encountered and felt.

“That’s the Raven inside of you, Lyra.”

A voice at the back of my head. Jade’s voice, or my spirit guide.

Kyle tosses the orb to me, and urges me to strike it into the air. With the Lunaris-claw leader down, the team’s defense seems a bit shaky. One strike, and everyone strikes their paws together.

The whistle follows almost immediately, and that’s because of the dead body lying down in the middle of the field.

“What will happen, now?” Duncan asks, and everyone seems to hold their silence for more than a second.

“He’ll get replaced with another participant if they choose to,” Echo responds, and I shift my gaze to him.

“And if they choose not to?” I follow up, immediately.

“Then they’ll forfeit the game, and the chancellor will declare Grimhowl the winners of this phase,” Kyle cuts in.

“I hope the choose not to,” Duncan replies, and I can’t blame him. The white bandages tied around his stomach has been drenched in blood. His blood.

I can see it in his eyes. Weariness of the highest form. He’s tired. We all are, even though the Silverback brothers won’t admit to it.

Zayn’s body is taken away as Dom swipes the blood off his paws.

“Do you have a replacement, Lunaris?” professsor Edwina’s voice powers through the crowd, but what she gets in return is the answer we all were hoping for.

“Replacement?” Someone yells. “Domenico Silverback should be arrested and taken to Azkaban for murder!

The whole of Lunaris-claw Academy echo in one voice, and my jaw drops at the unsettling behavior amongst them.

“But he…”

Kyle grabs a hold of my hand and urges me not to voice a word.

“Is it not under the game’s law that no life should be taken by force?” Another, voices out, and an equal amount of chorus echoes with it.

“Hold your peace, student,” professor Edwina cuts in. “Did we not see guardian Zayn reach for Domenico’s throat before his death? It was only self-defense from guardian Domenico’s side. If you all still have doubts, then, I can have the moment replayed for you all to see.

Their voices go down with each passing second, till none of it can be heard from where I am standing.

“In light of no other champion to replace the former captain Zayn,” professor Edwina raises her voice to all the stands. “I hereby declare Grimhowl Academy…”

Professor Edwina’s statement is cut short when abled bodied men in black leather like soldiers walks into the stadium. Everyone shifts their eyes on them, and murmurs thunders through the air.

“What is the High Court personal guardians doing here?”

Duncan is the first to break through the disturbances.

“You mean, like… the Order?” I retort, and Duncan nods his head.

“Someone is about to get arrested!” Adam’s voice powers through, next, and I knot my brows in total confusion.

“Arrest who?”