Solasta Academy: Blood & Moonlight

Chapter Thirty

Heavy rain poured throughout Doris Cove, making the ocean waves crash outside. Calia's storm powers were in full effect as she aimed her lightning at Gideon, but he dodged each one. She wasn't particularly skilled at combat, but it was her abilities that led the way. It was almost as if it was upset that it was suppressed while she was chained. The buzzing in her mind and veins gave her enough energy to keep striking the killer before her. But he kept backing up or leaping to the side with his quick Werewolf reflexes. Calia growled every time, but she didn't give up. Coach Gideon will die tonight.

"My powers are pissed, Gideon," she shouted over her lightning strikes. "It wants you dead, and so do I."

"I don't want to kill you," he said regretfully. "None of us do. Not yet, anyway."

"Who the fuck is us?"

Calia cast another wave of rain and lightning toward him but he bounced at just the right time, his claws coming out of his fingertips at once ready to strike her. But it was Gideon's feral grin that made her pause. Was he talking about the people who were after her? Did they order him not to kill her yet? "All in due time, darling. You aren't ready yet."

"Ready for what?"

Gideon said nothing and instead pounced on her. She stumbled back a step until she crashed to the ground, the blade falling to the ground yet again. Calia's chest heaved as she tried inhaling every bit of air, but it was useless. Gideon's large body was on top of hers, and his claws blocked her airway. She tried grabbing his hands to force him to let her go, but he was much stronger than her by a mile. "I do wonder if Juliette was terrified before she died. Just as you are right now," Gideon mused as he squeezed her neck tighter. "Did the killer steal the air from her lungs before they ultimately stabbed her in the neck? Or was it a quick death?"

He lifted his claws off of her a little, allowing her to say one thing that was on the tip of her tongue. "Everything you ever felt toward me or my mother was a lie. A delusion. And I'm grateful that we had the chance to get away from you—from everything!" No matter if she was upset that her mother hid her true nature all her life. She knew what kind of dangers lurked in the shadows, waiting to take Calia and her innocence. For a brief second, she wondered if the same thing happened to Juliette. Soari? Is that why her guardian hides behind her humor most of the time? So she doesn't feel how much she lost at a young age? Maybe that was why her mother kept this world a secret from Calia for so long. Why were her guardians hell-bent on protecting her?

Calia used her lightning to strike his claws, and he grunted in pain. Good, she thought. He scrambled off of her, which allowed her powers to strike him again and again until he was bleeding and broken. But Gideon stood back up as it didn't faze him one bit, and she took a step back and took a breather. It was then that he sprinted toward Calia and clawed the side of her face as she gasped in shock. Silver blood leaked down to her neck while Arzhel yelled in agony from behind her, hurting himself as he tried to yank out of his chains. She collapsed on the rocky exterior of Doris Cove while palming her cheek to try to stop the bleeding. Gideon glanced at her as if examining her injury and the lightning in her bones, screaming at her to strike him yet again. "Maybe the power of the storm isn't as dangerous as sunlight, after all," he grinned. "Or fire and ice."

"She's just getting started, you fucking asshole!" Arzhel snarled.

Gideon only struck her again—twice—three times before her body sank down into the salt water of this strange Cove. Her breathing slowed as she tried getting back up, but her muscles demanded otherwise. Calia's limps turned into liquid, almost like she was the ocean herself. Nothing mattered now except that she was losing. That she was going to die at the hands of a psychopathic killer. It was an odd feeling, she realized as she watched Gideon stalk closer and closer to her. This would be her last time laughing with her friends and learning new subjects about which she was always curious—mastering her powers while she traveled with her adoptive parents to other worlds and realities. Calia wanted all those things, and as she stared into Arzhel's forest-green eyes, she wished to all the Gods that it would happen. His expression was pain, almost feral, as he fell down and tried to reach her, but he was too far away.

The killer kicked her in the ribs until blood splattered out of her mouth. Then Gideon used his claws to rip her stomach and her legs, and she whimpered in pain. Nothing could have given her the strength to get back up, and it was the storm inside Calia that spoke in her mind to do the same. You fought well, my Calia. Rest now, and you shall meet your mother again.

Gideon leaned down over her, his expression sad as he almost looked human. But he wasn't. He was a monster that killed children—ripped them to shreds as they cried out for help. "I am sorry this had to end this way," he said, kicking her again and again until Calia couldn't feel anything but pain.

But Calia only focused on the boy who screamed out her name over and over again. The boy whose black hair covered his moss-colored eyes as he hid his smile from everyone. Arzhel Koen protected everyone but himself because that's how selfless he was. "Get up!" he cried. "Please."

"I'm sorry," she whispered. "I did my best."

And then she closed her eyes.