Aiden was pretty sure it was regular fear making his heart race and not anxiety. But in the current situation it was hard to tell.
Bryn and Mr. Johnson took care of two of the attackers just like that: Bam! Bam!
Aiden took a deep breath. He felt like he had to redeem himself for panicking in the gym. People had been hurt, maybe killed, while he’d huddled against the speaker, helpless.
One of the attackers formed a glowing ball, aiming for Mr. Johnson. Aiden sent vines streaking from the boulevard and grabbed her. As she fell the ball exploded, and she screamed as white flames covered her.
Aiden winced. He wished there was a way to stop them without violence. But they were killing people and they had to be stopped.
Dylan took out one of them with a huge wave of fire, and Aiden had to look away, covering his ears to block out the screaming.
Principal Nejem arrived with the others, and they all ran toward the entrance. “There’s at least a dozen of them inside,” one of the cops said, moving to join them. “I don’t know how many are left alive. They have the side entrance to city hall blocked. I was trying to get around through the front.”
“We’ll get the entrance clear.” Bluish light surrounded Mr. Johnson. Aiden hadn’t ever seen him this angry, not even when Dylan released Morgan.
The second they stepped into the station, Aiden regretted it. There was fire everywhere. A few sprinklers were going off, but not nearly enough. The others must have been broken, maybe by the attack. There was no alarm either.
Aiden had gotten a lot better over the past two years, but he’d never completely lost his fear. And really, it was fire. Who wasn’t afraid of it?
Bryn reached out, and several flames disappeared.
Well.
In the front room they found two dead police and one person that might have been an attacker. Shouts and sounds of fighting seemed to come from everywhere.
“We’ll need to split up,” Mr. Johnson said. “Some of you come with me through the holding area to the side entrance of city hall, the others go through the office area.”
“I’ll take the office,” Principal Nejem said. Her magic felt like hot wind and sand. Aiden was very glad he wasn’t on her bad side.
The two cops who had been outside chose to go with her. The fox twins joined them.
“City hall,” Dylan said. “Gotta save the wardens, right?” Of course Bryn and Aiden voted to go with him, and Tiago refused to leave Aiden again.
They rushed through the door to the holding cells. Aiden held his breath, but no one was there. The fighting was farther ahead.
Aiden moved to the back of the group, and Tiago briefly squeezed his hand. “Glad I can fight with you this time.”
“Fighting for my life is becoming way too normal.” Aiden’s voice came out shaky.
“You could’ve stayed back at the school. Or gone home,” Tiago said.
Aiden sighed. “Yeah, that would’ve been the smart thing.”
“But not the brave thing.” Tiago glanced at him with a little smile.
Now Aiden’s pulse was racing for another reason. And oh jeez, had anyone noticed they were wearing each other’s clothes?
One of the doors at the end of the hall was blackened and twisted partly off its hinges. Mr. Johnson stood next to it and counted on his fingers: One… two… three. Then he pushed through the doors, the others following close behind.
On the other side was a wide hallway with a set of doors on the far end. Three people stood in front of it and one of them stepped forward, purple magic streaking from his hands.
Aiden flatted himself against the wall. Mr. Johnson threw up a shield and the spell slammed against it, hitting so hard Mr. Johnson fell back. Bryn stepped up beside him and sent a huge blast of fire down the hall.
Aiden closed his eyes against the brightness and the fear that squeezed his lungs. She wouldn’t hurt me.
The sprinklers hissed to life, but it would be a while before they could knock out the flames. The whole hall was burning.
But the bad guys looked fine. The one with purple magic ran forward and Bryn rushed to meet him. Mr. Johnson was right behind her. Spells flew everywhere.
Aiden briefly thought of going back, maybe hiding in the car.
But Dylan and Tiago both ran forward, past the three locked in battle. Aiden’s heart seized, but somehow none of the wild streaks of magic hit them. The two bad guys left guarding the door tensed to attack.
His best friend. His boyfriend.
Not to mention the people on the other side of the doors who needed help.
Aiden said a quick prayer and joined them. He held his breath as he ran past Mr. Johnson, Bryn, and the bad guy. With them on one side and flames on the other, Aiden barely had room. A streak of magic missed him by inches, tingling through the air.
Dylan grappled with a woman who seemed immune to his fire. Aiden shifted in his direction, but out of the corner of his eye he saw the other bad guy kick Tiago. Straight toward the burning wall.
“No!” Aiden reached out in blind panic, raw power streaking through the air. It hit Tiago half a second before he collided with the wall. Tiago bounced off and dropped to his knees.
Was he burned? Hurt? Had Aiden made things worse?
The bad guy growled, yellow eyes flicking between them. Then he charged at Aiden. He was some kind of werecreature and he was huge, nearly bursting out of his clothes. Aiden used magic to rip burning wood from the wall, forming it into a large tentacle. It caught the man around one leg and he yelped, crashing to the floor.
Something jumped on the man. It took Aiden a second to realize it was Tiago, claws and teeth tearing into the other werecreature.
Oh God. Could he watch his boyfriend kill someone?
“Cat Boy, move!”
Tiago looked up, then leapt away. Orange bands of power wrapped around the huge man as Dylan cast a binding spell.
“The other one?” Aiden asked, looking around.
“Taken care of.” Dylan pointed. The woman lay near the doors, wrapped in the same spell.
Aiden took a deep breath and coughed on smoky air.
Tiago wiped blood from his mouth. “Should we wait for them?”
Aiden turned to see the others still locked in combat. They needed all the help they could get. They had no idea what was on the other side of those doors.
Someone screamed, loud enough to carry over the fire and sounds of battle.
Aiden’s head whipped around to face the doors. They had to try to save as many people as they could. And I can handle this. I can. If he kept repeating it, he might believe it. “Come on.”
* * *
It was worse than Dylan imagined. The huge rotunda of city hall was full of bodies, fires burning all over. Aiden ran past him to put a shield between one of the attackers and a woman bleeding on the ground. A cop, her uniform a torn mess.
Dylan hesitated for a second. On the far side, people were fighting. He couldn’t make out how many. Part of the roof had fallen in, and the debris was covered in flames, obscuring the view.
He glanced back at Aiden. The changeling was holding his own, and Tiago was with him. “Dylan to the rescue,” Dylan muttered as he jumped over a large beam.
Blinking away smoke, he saw three people. Who was who? None of them had on a uniform, which would have made things easy.
A shadow rose out of the ground and wrapped around one of the fighters. He screamed, struggled for a moment, then went limp. Dylan balled his fists. Was that someone he should have saved?
A woman rushed the remaining man, dropping as a shadow flew over her head. She swept a leg out and the man went down hard. She leapt on him, wrapping a hand around his throat as he tried to throw her off.
Her face was twisted, eyes yellow and her mouth full of fangs, so it took Dylan a second to recognize Mrs. Rhodes. As the man under her struggled, Dylan got a better look at him.
Warden Bully. Visceral hatred curled inside Dylan.
Maybe he should leave them to it. Warden Bully was turning a deep shade of red. Whoops, sorry. Couldn’t save him. So sad. That jackass would be out of Dylan’s life forever, just another victim of the attack.
Aren’t you supposed to be one of the good guys? Dylan’s conscience sounded a lot like Aiden.
Charging in here, risking his life to save wardens was bad enough. But this warden?
“Damn it.”
Dylan ran up and kneed Mrs. Rhodes in the head. She loosened her grip, and he blasted her with raw magic. She flew back, landing hard on her side.
“Dylan?” She blinked, furious and confused. “What are you doing?”
He threw a binding spell. She was almost fast enough to avoid it, but it caught her in the arm and quickly wrapped around her.
“Are you helping them?” she asked just before the magic reached her head.
Dylan tensed, keenly aware of Warden Bully behind him. Was he going to get a spell in the back? “Yeah,” Dylan said. “You wrecked prom.”
“Dylan!” Aiden came racing around the debris. “They’re trapped in the courtroom.”
Warden Bully was on his knees, bent over and coughing. Dylan shot him a glare as he ran past.