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My office suddenly felt small. Everyone crowded inside, determined to get a piece of the drama. Rophan was at my back as I had a glare-off with Deyton. Dany stood over by Zen and three of his men. Asriel was there with Laventis, another councilman who wasn’t exactly my best friend, and by the glower on his face, didn’t plan to be anytime soon.
Even my brother made an appearance, joining us at some point. This was getting better and better. I wiggled my fingers, trying to get rid of the need to scratch Deyton’s eyes out, maybe try to scoop his brains out too. It needed a good scrambling.
“Now, let us start at the beginning,” Asriel said, trying to be the peacemaker. “Mr. Deyton, what happened to initiate the challenge?”
“The two students, Jori and Ribner are both in my class. Ribner made some inappropriate comments about Jori’s pack which Jori responded unfavorably to. They were about to fight there in the classroom, so I moved it outside.”
“Why didn’t you stop the fight?” Zen asked. “Or contacted my team like you have been instructed to do when students get into fights.”
“I turned it into a challenge. I gave them explicit rules to follow. Everything was going fine.”
I snorted. Deyton’s eyes narrowed as he focused on me.
Two could play that game. Deepening my frown, I narrowed my eyes into slits, making sure my eyebrows bunched up. I tried to pull a Rophan. I wasn’t sure how well I did, but at least Deyton knew that in my head, he was dead a million times over.
“The students were never at risk. They were only going to fight until one of them conceded.” He sounded so sure of himself with that assessment.
“Idiot,” I mumbled. He still heard me.
“Excuse me?” Deyton asked, trying to come off all proper. As if I was being inappropriate.
“You are an idiot,” I said louder and a little slower, refusing to back down on this.
A muscle in his jaw flexed as the skin along his mouth tightened.
“You know the history between their families. You allowed them to play on it, to get each other riled up, and then you gave them permission to do a challenge. They’re sixteen!”
“Adeelah, enough,” Asriel said, sending me his disapproving look. I hated that look on him. It hurt to know that I did something he didn’t like. Asriel was one of the good ones and we had quickly become good friends since I’d gotten him to join the dark side and stand by me to get the academy opened.
I snapped my mouth closed and worked hard to release some of my anger. It wasn’t going to get me anywhere.
“Why are you angry?” Laventis asked. “From the sounds of it, this was a simple challenge. They’re Naturals, they can handle themselves.”
I worked through my logic, needing them to understand exactly what had been about to happen. “You are correct that challenges are common in our community. It is a way to resolve issues, to work out who’s dominant, who isn’t. To help work through our gripes. That is fine. I’m in for that.” Refusing to look away from Laventis, I said, “But not with sixteen-year-olds. Not with young adults. Especially not with young adults whose family history is so dangerously intertwined with another in a negative way. Their families are practically mortal enemies. The only reason they were in the same class was because it was history class. All they needed to do was sit there and listen. Nothing in that class should have gotten them worked up. I had hoped to desensitize them from each other and get them used to being around each other. It was history class for Athena’s sake! The closest they would have gotten to violence was through the conflicts from our past read in books.”
“There was nothing wrong with that challenge,” Deyton said.
“Everything was wrong with that challenge. We had already talked about this and it’s in the policies. No challenges. I thought I was clear about the reason why.” It was so hard to keep my voice low. I wanted to grab him and shake logic into him. “But apparently everyone needs a reminder. Challenges are over small things, and when it comes to young adults, it’s basically petty things, like someone touching someone else’s girlfriend, or for eating their food, or for looking at them. It’s to help establish who is dominant. Once they are adults, those challenges can have more meaning to them, like who will become the next leader of the pack, or who has power, or even in extreme cases, fights to the death.”
I glared at everyone in the room as they stared at me, listening. Some, like Rophan and Gaerlan, understood where I was going. Others like stupid Deyton still didn’t seem to get it.
“You cannot take what amounts to mortal enemies and allow them to fight, not unless you want it to turn into a deathmatch. You especially can’t do it to sixteen-year-olds who are full of hormones and anger. These children are all full of issues. They had to learn to deal with the Unveiling. It has warped their sense of right and wrong. I’ll be frank, most of them are demented. They’re twisted little kids who don’t know how to be themselves without attaching darkness to it. Do you get it now?”
“You’re being dramatic,” Deyton said. “They need to be able to do what they know to do to deal with their issues. Challenges are an outlet for them, a way to get past it. You’re stunting their growth by not allowing that.”
“You disagreed with me so you go behind my back, against policy, to prove your point?” I asked. “Are you so determined to prove that I’m wrong that you blinded yourself to the truth even as it glared you in the face.”
“What the fuck are you talking about?”
I barely stopped myself from rolling my eyes. “They were about to go into to-the-death mode. They were ready to tear each other apart.”
“No, they weren’t.”
“They were,” Rophan finally spoke up. “The wolf was ready to shift, and he had lost all control over his other form. If he had, that wolf would not have stopped until the other boy was dead. He was enraged.” His expression hardened as he looked at the teacher. “You should have seen the signs, but you were too busy enjoying the show. If he had shifted, and if he had won, he was going to have to live with that death for the rest of his life.”
“Neither boys have ever killed someone before,” I whispered. “You almost turned them into murderers.”
The room went deadly silent as I gave them a moment to soak up all the implications.
“This is what I know of those two families. Those two boys are the only ones who have not had their hands soaked in blood. They had not had the chance to lose themselves to the anger that their family pushed onto them. They are redeemable, at least they were until Deyton. What was the first thing they did when they went into class and realized they were in the same room with each other?”
Deyton didn’t answer right away.
“Mr. Deyton,” Asriel said, his voice just above a whisper. He was seething now as he got the full story.
“Nothing. Nothing at all.” He glanced down, realizing he’d lost the battle. “They glanced at each other, and then sat down away from each other. Things only got riled up when I was doing introductions and Mr. Oline made a dig at the other.”
“Even then, did they move to attack each other?” My brother spoke up.
Deyton shook his head.
“You let them,” Asriel said. “You allowed it to continue until the two of them riled each other, instead of stopping them like you should have.”
“I’ve seen the results of what happens when the Oline and Tredarious family meet,” Gaerlan said. “I’ve seen what happens when they walk into the same room. It’s instantaneous. They don’t hesitate. They attack, and they don’t give a fuck about who gets in their way. We know the stories. They’re notorious for leveling small villages in the past, for destroying houses.”
I nodded, glad someone saw what I already knew. “Those boys didn’t outright attack each other. They only reached that point because Deyton failed them. Their history teacher, who had no right to sanction a challenge, failed them.”
My accusation hung in the air. As a teacher, my condemnation was the worst that one could receive. He didn’t fail them because he was naive. He failed them because he did know better. For a week straight before classes started, they went through training. I made sure to have it beaten into them our policies on violence and situations, on how to handle them. Zen’s team was a big help with that.
Deyton chose to ignore it and put two of my students at risk.
That was unforgivable.
I sighed, forcing my anger away. As long as they got it, it was time to move on. I’d hold onto my grudge, but I wasn’t going to let them know I did. I needed to seethe a bit longer over this. I could have lost a student on the first day of classes and all the work put into this would have been destroyed because of one idiot.
I spoke, giving him his final judgment. “Mr. Deyton, you are on probation. You will have one of Zen’s men sit in on your classes to ensure nothing like this happens again.”
He opened his mouth to speak.
“Remain silent,” Asriel said. “Take your punishment.”
I nodded at the councilman to show my thanks before turning back to the teacher. “You will report to Dany at the end of the school day to hand in your badge. You will not have access to anything other than the school during the day while teaching, and your apartment. That will remain so for two weeks as you gain back our trust that you are capable of following our rules. Zen’s guards will provide us with updates on your behavior. Prove to us you are a teacher, and you will be off probation. Screw up again, and I’ll make sure your balls are removed from your person and strung along your classroom as garland.”
“Isn’t that extreme?” he asked.
I stomped forward until I was in his face. He was only an inch taller than me, and I had a way to make myself seem bigger than I really was. My intimidation forced him still as he fought to hold his ground.
“I do not trust you, Deyton. I do not trust you with the children I just pledged my very existence to protect. If I do not do everything I can to make sure they remain safe, then I’m a failure too. And I refuse to be one. Not when I came this far. Two weeks. That’s all you get to prove yourself. Don’t mess it up again.”
“That is fair,” Zen said.
“I agree,” Asriel added.
“Fair enough.” My brother glared at the teacher.
With most of us in agreement, his punishment was formalized. We waited until he left the room, freeing up some of the space. I went to my desk and leaned against it, glaring at the floor.
I despised challenges for those very reasons. Naturals had died over petty squabbles that went too far during the challenge. It usually happened in the younger crowd, because it was true. They were all hormonal, dramatic, always about the world ending because of small things like getting a pimple or gaining extra weight or not having the right outfit for whatever event.
Naturals were just as dramatic as the humans over the same silly things. That was why any challenges issued were monitored closely with a team ready to intervene if it went too far or if there was a clear winner who didn’t know how to pull back and stop after it was over.
Deathmatches were reserved for takeovers of groups, for revenge. Not because someone said something someone didn’t like.
“There is merit in his thinking,” Laventis said.
I snorted. Laventis wasn’t one of my fans. He wasn’t outright hostile, but he made it a point to stand against me.
His eyes narrowed on me. He was a dragon prince, with fiery red hair, golden eyes, and a reddish hue to his dark skin. Cords of muscles covered his body to show how deadly and powerful he could be physically. Metaphysically, he could kick a lot of butts. He was the only councilman that I truly did fear. The way he looked at me, it was like he knew something was wrong with me, even if he never voiced that opinion out loud.
But even if he scared the bejeezus out of me, it didn’t mean I had to cower before him like I wanted to.
“Please, explain. I’m dying to know what your thoughts are.”
“Miss Neutral,” he warned.
I pressed my lips together and looked away before I said more stupid shit.
“What are you thinking?” Asriel asked.
“The challenges do serve a purpose. Many Naturals are born predators. We always need to show who’s bigger and badder. Who can outpower whom. It creates a ranking in our world that we need. The challenges do that. It also controls their aggression to prevent it from building up until they do explode and respond in an unfavorable way that could lead to death.”
“You want them?” I said.
“It’s a smart move. If we keep them closely supervised, it’ll help them get over their issues. You are right, these kids are warped. They grew up with violence all around, not just from Naturals, but from the humans too. They’ve had to go through their friends hating them and their loved ones turning their backs on them. We should consider a program so to speak to help them get over it. Asriel has already filled me in on the situation with the NSFT trainees. They’re full of hate for the humans and it’s coming out in their training.”
I mulled that over, and apparently everyone else too.
Would it be smart to open the children up to challenges? I didn’t know. It wasn’t even every group of Naturals that it was an option. Shifters definitely held them, a lot of the predatory groups did. I knew it helped, but I didn’t want the kiddies to have to face more violence. They had enough of it now.
“Adeelah?” Asriel asked. “It does have merits.”
I chewed my lip, not sure what the correct path was. I’d been a strong advocate of keeping the violence away. It felt like a betrayal to allow it on campus.
“Fine,” I said. “Zen, work with them to come up with a proposal that won’t get any of my students killed. We will go from there.”
“It’ll be a good way to build some friendly competition,” Gaerlan said.
“Or a good way to get them killed,” I snapped back.
Rophan’s expression was soft when he stepped in front of me, forcing me to only see him as his large frame blocked everyone else from sight. “It won’t come to that,” he said in a low voice. He placed his hands on my shoulders and kneaded the tight muscles in them. I wanted to moan in relief as he worked the tension out.
“We’ll come up with a good proposal that will keep them safe. But they are right. The kids will need some kind of release.”
“That’s what sports teams are for.”
His lips quirked up into a smile. “You know that won’t be enough.” His eyes grew distant briefly. “It never is enough.”
That look from Rophan did it for me. The way he looked haunted. Even if he didn’t say it, I could see it. He had done something he deeply regretted, something that a simple challenge could have resolved. I didn’t want to be the reason my students got that same look.
“I want to see it,” I blurted out. “I want to see how this will help our students.”
“A demonstration?” Gaerlan asked, moving to stand next to Rophan so I could see him.
I nodded. “Do you know any students? Not the two from earlier, but others who have smaller reasons to hate on each other?”
“I know two,” Asriel said. “They’ll love to finally face off with each other.
“Good. Have them meet us in the NSFT fields. Zen, bring guards good at subduing them.”
“I have some men who can do fast-acting spells. They’ll be present.”
“Good. Then we’ll do this. I want to see it, how this can be done.”
“Okay. We can do that.” Zen turned to his men and began whispering to them.
Asriel disappeared with the other councilman.
