Whatever he’d been about to say was drowned out by the sound of high-pitched screaming.

What the—?

Everyone in the entire cafeteria slapped their hands over their ears, myself included. The pressure in my head swelled like my eardrums were going to explode and bleed. Then, the screaming waned in volume, becoming a hissing sound like a teapot about to boil.

“Shit!” Rage burst out from the lunch line, diving under a nearby table. He reached underneath and pulled out a long, sleek sword as he shoved something into one ear. He switched the sword into the other hand and put his other hand up to his ear…

I was still processing why he was touching his ears when Rage said a word that made my blood run cold.

“Selkies!” he hissed. “Call the palace. We’re under attack.”

Selkies. Seal-shifters, who mortals mistakenly called mermaids or sirens, had once guarded this island. Why were they here, and why were we under attack from them?

Rage turned to Justice and cocked his head toward the kitchen. Justice nodded.

As the doors of the cafeteria blasted open, Justice leapt over the counter and reached for me.

“Nai, come on!”

I followed his lead, ducking to the ground, my heart pounding against my chest.

Why were the selkies attacking?

“Let’s go. There’s an exit behind the kitchens,” Justice whispered, tugging me forward in an army crawl.

“Huh?” I scrunched my face and stared at him. Did he think I couldn’t hold my own in a fight? “The school is under attack. Why would we run?”

More importantly, was this an alpha test I’d fail if I was a coward?

Justice gripped my underarm tightly. “You don’t understand. The selkies’ call—”

Just then, a beautiful melody picked up and carried throughout the air.

Chapter 9

The complex melody dipped and then soared, the beautiful singing nearly spellbinding—

“Nai!” Justice bellowed, pulling on my arm.

I shook my head, wanting to hear the music, but my attention caught on the other shifters. Every single one of them stood rigidly, staring at the air in front of them. Nell, Honor, Kaja, evil Barbie, they all stood… frozen. Everyone except for Rage.

“What’s wrong with them?”

Pivoting to face Justice, I frowned. He held a squished piece of foam between his thumb and forefinger, but he—like most of the other students—gaped slack-jawed at the doorway, from where the song flowed.

Frozen.

“Justice!” Rage sprinted forward as a stunning woman stepped into the room.

Her arms outstretched as she sang, water ran in rivulets down her legs, leaving small puddles where she walked. Clothed in a gauzy white dress that left little to the imagination as it clung to her soaking wet form, the woman wore her pale green hair down, hanging in loose clumps, resembling seaweed. Without breaking her song, she pounded a fist on the wall.

A dozen men entered dressed in slick black sealskin armor. With their swords drawn, they split into teams of two and advanced on the alpha heirs.

Selkies were a proud race of shifters. The females had spellbinding voices with the ability to sing in high frequencies—like mind-numbing, ear-bleeding noise. The males were fierce warriors. Why were they attacking us? We were just innocent kids at a school.

I grabbed the foam earplug from Justice’s hand and stuck it in his ear as Rage skidded to a halt beside me.

“What are you still doing here?” he growled. I could see the yellow bit of a balled-up earplug sticking out of his ears. Then, he looked down at me, gaze zeroing in on my ears. “The song doesn’t affect you?”

I had no idea how to answer that, but we didn’t have time to discuss it now.

Two of the selkies charged us, and I scanned the area for something—anything—I could use as a weapon.

“Here,” Rage snapped, shoving his sword at me, his only weapon.

I wanted to ask him if there were more deadly weapons secretly scattered about, but there was no time. Hopefully, he had something else to use against our attackers.

Hefting the weapon, I shifted my stance and zeroed in on the two selkies.

A fireball soared through my peripheral vision, startling me. I glanced at Rage, who was conjuring another sphere of live flame.

“I hope you know how to use that.” His gaze dropped to the sword, and he shook his head.

Like he didn’t believe me capable and he was mad he had to babysit me.

“You worry about your fireballs,” I snapped. If he thought I’d spent the last nineteen years in Montana picking apples, he had another thing coming.

The selkie warrior on the left dodged the fiery mass and lunged at me with his machete. I stepped forward and swung to meet his blade. The clash of metal rang through the cafeteria, interrupting the female’s song. I slid in closer and followed up with an elbow to my opponent’s nose, smiling at the satisfying crunch of bone and spurt of black blood.

He grunted and doubled over.

Rookie mistake.

Both hands on the hilt, I rotated and clobbered the man right in the temple with the pommel.

As he dropped, I spun to meet my next foe.

Only, no one was there. With a moment to breathe, I scanned the cafeteria, trying to absorb the scene. All of the students still stood rigidly, staring at the singing woman while Rage, Justice, Honor, and Noble, all with little foam earplugs, fought the selkies. Maybe Justice had been busy shoving earplugs in his brothers’ ears. If the cafeteria was equipped with swords and earplugs hidden under tables, then maybe this was a regular occurrence.

Rage hurled another ball of flames, his lip curled in disgust. But magic could be just as hard to wield as a sword, and the flames crashed two feet from its intended target, extinguishing on the ground upon impact.

I pried a deadly machete from the unconscious male selkie’s fingers and closed the distance between me and Rage. “Here,” I said, returning Rage’s blade now that I had my own. “I hope you know how to use it.”

Take that, asshole.

He plucked it from my hand, giving me a small glare. “You worry about yourself. I’ve got this.”

He rotated and swung the massive blade in one fluid movement. The two selkies advancing on us screeched and tried to get out of the way of its deadly arc.

One of the selkies darted to the side, but the other…

The metal slid through him from shoulder to hip like a hot knife cutting through butter. One second, he was standing; and the next, his knees buckled, and his torso toppled forward.

Rage obviously didn’t need any help. Which meant I needed to protect the frozen students, specifically the five Harvest girls whom I’d grown to love. If Evil Barbie got whacked during this attack … oh well.

Miss Mariah Carey was keeping everyone entranced. Only those with earplugs seemed fine. I should probably have pressed my father further when he spoke of selkie powers.

Spinning around, I spotted a large kitchen knife on the counter and scooped it up.

Jackpot. Could never have too many weapons.

I glanced across the cafeteria and spotted Kaja, frozen but safe in the corner with Nell. Her other three sisters stood just behind them. No selkies were advancing on them. However… my gaze landed on Honor and Noble, who were cornered by four selkie warriors.