Luke’s white face penetrated Thoth’s veil of red, just for a moment. He vaguely heard Cypress’s voice at the edge of his attention span and then something grabbed him from behind.

You’re under attack, his brain told him.

Thoth had been under attack a lot over the course of his life. Day to day life for as long as he could remember had been revolved around how to avoid or hold his own against attacks from his peers, whether verbal or physical. It had affected when he travelled, which routes he took through the castle, even his meal times. Thoth had gotten into the habit of eating outside of the usual mealtime hours so that he could be free to move between his lab and his bedroom when the other kids were with their families eating dinner. He’d been attacked psychically, magically and physically by those crappy Auran freaks who kept trying to kidnap him and drag him off to Earth. Mordred’s entire coup had been an attack on normalcy. These days, he couldn’t leave camp without looking over his shoulder, listening out in case guards, soldiers or bounty-hunters tried their luck with him.

And now he was being attacked by some unknown force in the kennel block. A lifetime of built-up reflexes against assault took over and he didn’t even think before reacting. The spinning glob of water expanded immediately, shifted shape and encased Thoth and his unknown assailant entirely in an upright coffin of pure liquid. Able to see and move easily through water, Thoth twisted in the accoster’s grip, taking advantage of surprise. Freed, he drew the water back from their top halves, creating a thick snake of clear liquid which arched menacingly around behind him, and spun around. As soon as his eyes fell on Cypress, the aggression flew straight out of his face and body language. He dropped his arms, causing all of the water to crash instantly down to the ground. The up-splash showered Danny and Luke and the water swirled around their ankles for a brief moment before sinking as it flowed outwards from their spot.

Anger paused by the mistake, Thoth regarded the dripping Cypress with a look which was creeping towards apologetic. He might have made it all the way there, forgetting his fury, if Danny had kept his mouth shut. As soon as the accusation was hurled, Thoth’s eyebrows knitted together and he whipped around to face his friend with thunder in his eye.

“Well, someone had to do something,” he snapped, “and it obviously wasn’t going to be you.”

When did Danny get taller than him? Whatever. Everyone was taller than Thoth. His coffee-brown eyes narrowed as he calculatingly took in Danny’s size and prominent position in front of the door. Some of the water around their feet pulled itself up into the air of its own accord, splintered into droplets. It looked like someone had pressed pause on rain.

“He can’t be allowed to do that.” Thoth gestured furiously to the door, not noticing that the volume of his voice was reaching dangerously high levels. If the kennel master was just outside, there was no way he wouldn’t be able to hear him. “He hurt her.”


MASTER OF THE ORBIS . MASTER OF THE WATER ELEMENT . SON OF AURA