Dragon Fire Academy 1 First Term an RH academy romance - Rachel Jonas Page 0,54

still down there, though. We’ve been knocking on the door, but Malu won’t open it, won’t let the others near it. Said he’d only come out when you got here, Kai. Said he didn’t trust anyone else.”

I glanced toward Kai, finding a kind smile set on his lips.

“I’ll take care of it,” he assured Janet, turning to leave the next second.

“Hang on. I’ll come with you,” I offered. Luckily, he didn’t protest.

We passed between Paulo and Rayen and stepped out onto the back porch. Much to my shock, there were several others waiting there. It took a moment to get over the appearance of the men who moved about—shuffling stacks of two-by-fours, tending to a few wounded—but I eventually recognized a face or two from Paulo’s photos.

“Are these … are these the guys from the other hives?” I asked, glancing around at them in amazement. It was hard enough to fathom four with the stature of my guardians, but there were so many here.

Kai nodded as we crossed the yard. “They are. I’ll introduce you when things settle down a bit,” he promised.

I could only nod, because I still hadn’t grasped that this was all real, that men like this weren’t just a one-time fluke, but these hives truly existed.

Finally getting my thoughts together, I focused straight ahead on the aged, wooden slats of a door nearly flush with the ground. There was only a slight tilt, angling it perfectly for the metal handles to catch the moonlight. Kai stepped right up to it, crouching down to knock three times.

“Malu, you in there?” he called out.

We listened, only hearing silence at first. Kai knocked a second time, and finally we heard a bit of movement inside.

“Password?” The voice from within was so small, a child. I wasn’t sure what I expected, but when Janet spoke of the bravery and initiative it took for someone to get all the orphanage’s children to the cellar, I never imagined that the savior had been a child as well.

Kai lowered his head with a smile. “Malu is king.”

My brow quirked and I smiled a bit too, hearing the phrase leave his mouth.

There was a brief pause, but the metal clanked on the other side of the door and hinges creaked. Kai took the handles and opened it the rest of the way with ease. One by one, small bodies emerged from the ground, and I was astonished by how many there were. Thirty or more.

One waited behind until the others were all out in the open. He did a quick sweep before exiting the small space himself, being careful to close and lock the cellar before setting his eyes on Kai. And the moment he did, the bravery Janet spoke of finally melted away, and he was suddenly a kid again.

“Hey, it’s okay,” Kai consoled him when tears fell in sheets down his face. Both arms went around Kai’s waist like the kid would never let go.

The sight of it made my throat feel tight, holding in my own emotions as I tried to imagine what must have taken place here, how terrified these kids must have been. There was so much I didn’t know, so much I didn’t understand, but if the entity I encountered myself a month ago had anything to do with it, I wasn’t sure I wanted answers.

Most of the children were making their way back toward the house where the other hives were still working. Kai stayed behind with the one who stuck to him like glue.

“It’s over now, Malu,” Kai promised.

“I thought they were gonna kill us,” the little one sobbed. “It took over Ms. Rebecca and Ms. Patricia. They were so nice to me, but when the darkness got into them, they … they attacked Ms. Janet and the others.”

Kai rubbed Malu’s back while he hugged and consoled him. “Well, you did everything right. You ran someplace safe, and then waited for me, just like we talked about.”

“I wasn’t sure you’d come,” Malu choked out.

“Don’t ever think that. I’ll always come for you,” Kai assured him, and I had to wipe my eyes. It got to be too much seeing how much this kid relied on him, how relieved he was to have Kai show up for him.

“You know what?”

Malu peered up when Kai asked the question. “What?”

“You did well tonight, and I think the guys could use a strong pair of hands like yours assisting with clean-up.”

Malu’s eyes lit up. “You really think they’ll let me