"Please rise to welcome Headmaster Kirill and the new class of hearts."
There was a distinct silence in the hall; one that, despite the decent applause, could be heard by those whose hearts were caged. Eyes watched as a dozen students entered the hall through the double doors, led by a Himalayan vulture. The performance had only just begun, and it was already beginning to feel like Verity's show all over again.
The sizzling anticipation for change—harbored by the majority of prey—died under a gaze so diseased, one would have thought it resembled a plague.
Dread aside, Io was having none of that; only because Dmitri was standing right in front of him, thus blocking his view of the carpet that extended across the distance between the double doors and the high table. Io could barely see anything from where he was positioned, and had resorted to staring at the gap between Lucienne's elbow and Dmitri's side while they applauded in a languid manner.
Through the gap, he could (very vaguely) catch a glimpse of the newcomers. Their backs, specifically.
It was however, a very brief and unlikely instance that he met the gaze of one of them.
A shrike, it seemed to him.
How likely was it that someone had turned his head at the exact time to meet his gaze—through the tiniest gap between anything at all—and smiled?
Io watched as the shrike turned back around to ascend the steps towards the high table, wondering if the very displacement of power was meant to teach his classmates a lesson; or a mere undermining of everything that they were.
The applause did not stop until the very last member was seated, leaving a select few predators rather disturbed. These newcomers were regarded highly in the eyes of the high table, and each of them became increasingly curious as to how this applied.
Io returned to his seat with the paralyzing thought of a shrike pecking at the bars of his cage until he noticed, the expression of his fellow classmates seated around him. Across the table was Dmitri, Lucienne and Jeremiah within his direct field of vision. None of them looked very pleased by the term that was used to introduce the youth members of the council.
Predators (across every tier and rank) turned to stare.
It was something never before seen—the dismissal of what was considered to be the highest-ranked predators on the island in a mere second. A single sentence. A word.
New
To be replaced...it was something they assumed would never happen; and Io was not surprised to find the fork in Jeremiah's hand bent in half, unable to return to its original shape ever again.
*
"What the fuck is going on?" Spat the falcon as soon as they left the dining hall and were on their way back to the predator's dormitories. "Fuck. Fuck. Fuck them all." In his moment of rage, Dmitri's hand morphed into his avian's claw and marked the banister with an unworldly scratch.
"Do us a favor and shut up, will you?" Shri clicked her tongue and snapped in return, as displeased as the one she addressed. "You're not the only—"
YOU ARE READING
Flight School: Predator
Fantasy[Second book of the Flight Series] "More than anything, the sky was red. It wasn't dark, no. Just red." Iolani Tori learns about the part of him that isn't human; and sees the line between animal and himself thin to something less than a thread. If...
