Ch30: No One Important

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Susie


The smell of death filled Susie's nostrils as she stared in shock at Headmaster Arken.

The omegas cowered a few steps below. Dark blood was trickling from Oscar's slumped carcass down the stone steps past them.

Cries of alarm filled the air. Some students had fled, but most were still present, faces pale with shock. No one could have predicted what Arken would do, especially with so little warning. Public executions were not uncommon in Henrikk's court, and occasionally in the market square of the Capital, but here, at the school...

Susie glanced at Harry, but he'd left her side and gone to stand with Sarah who was bent over a hedgerow, retching. He rubbed slow circles on her back and was trying to reassure her.

Susie was moments away from throwing up herself. She clenched her hands tightly and forced air in through her nose, trying to settle her stomach as the raw bloody scent hung heavily around them.

In need of reassurance, Susie glanced at the staff members, but there was none to be found. They looked shocked, and Zott's face had turned a waxy shade of green. Only a couple of teachers seemed to have the sensibility to go and reassure the students.

Susie's empty stomach roiled.

She'd always hated the smell of blood. Most shifters did. Wolves were natural hunters, but hunting as a means of survival was very different to witnessing pointless slaughter.

Amidst the chaos, Arken remained perfectly still, his eyes out of focus as he held the extracted spine high, his fingers red as he clutched it tight. It was a terrible thing to behold, the bones still covered in torn muscle and organ tissue. Long rivulets of sleek, silky blood dripped down in front of Arken's face to his feet.

It was too morbid to watch, but Susie could not look away.

Suddenly, Arken jerked into motion, the connected bones rattling as he flung it through the air.

For a second, Susie thought he was throwing it down into the crowd of first years. But he'd flung it straight at the pike. A loud buzzing zap sounded, and as if magnetised, the spine instantly wrapped around the pike tightly. It was twisted around the pike in a way that human spines were not designed to bend. A loud, triumphant shriek erupted from the pike, followed by a blast of air that rustled clothes and whipped hair violently. Susie nearly lost her footing as she shielded her face from the wind. Several students fell. Zott toppled over and nearly squashed an unimpressed Marmala.

Several first-years panicked, lurching into motion. A male vampire knocked into Susie as he stumbled backwards. She helped steady him.

"Sorry," he mumbled.

"Don't worry about it," she replied automatically, her attention returning to the pike at the height of the stairs.

Dark clouds had appeared above, obscuring the sun and throwing the scene into shadow. The spine glowed, bathing their faces in an unearthly red.

The blood no longer ran down the pike. Instead, the blood had separated from the bones like oily droplets in , and the sparkling red beads floated in the air, swirling slowly around the pike in an ethereal vortex.

Susie remained rooted to the spot, ignoring the sound of Sarah's voice as she pulled on her arm. Susie stared transfixed at the string of cartilage and tendons wrapped around the weapon's shaft, the tip of the tailbone extending up past the transition to graze the lethal blade. As she watched, it began to disintegrate, decaying at a rapid pace until it was gone.

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