the Lords of Phoenix Hall (a superhero dark bully high school romance)

Chapter Two

Completely on autopilot, I caught the dagger by the hilt and threw it anywhere that wasn't near me or Nina. In comparison to the rest of the class, it was uncoordinated as all hell. I was the supe equivalent of the kid who throws a ball with all their strength and it drops right at their feet. Thankfully for my Monday morning Combat grade, the dagger went further than my feet. Noticeably further than my feet.

I winced as I watched the blade sink into the back of Saint's shoulder and he turned to me with his eyes shining flames. He reached around and ripped it out of him, his gaze boring into mine.

"Oh, you're going to pay for that later," Nina whistled from our position with the rest of the plebs at the periphery of the melee.

I shrugged. "Like he needs a reason."

And he didn't. Like Vaughn, Saint enjoyed tormenting all those less powerful than him just for the fun of it. The Lords of Phoenix Hall didn't need a reason to make the plebs' lives as miserable as possible. In a weird twist of fate, the Villains actually spent less time bullying the plebs than the Heroes did. The Villains lived by their own code, and that code said that there was less honour in putting holes in plebs than in Heroes. The Heroes just enjoyed flexing their powers on anyone that didn't affect their PR rating or made them break a sweat. The plebs were perfect for that.

"Duck," Nina said, matter-of-fact.

I ducked just in time for a fireball to whizz over my head. My eyes shot to Saint who stared murderously at me.

"It was a lucky shot!" I called to him. "Give me a break!"

"Duck," Nina said again.

I was clearly not thinking properly because I just turned to her as though I needed that explained to me further. She wasn't looking at me, she was looking at the reason she'd said duck in the first place.

I followed her gaze and found Saint bearing down on me, his fiery red and orange wings flared behind him, his black leather super suit contoured to his body shape. From that angle, the light hit him from behind and it gave a whole new meaning to the fiery nature of that set of wings. He almost looked like an avenging angel. If an avenging angel planned to stomp you out of existence (if angels even existed).

I took a step back. Instead of Saint's knee taking off my head, it crashed into my chest. His weight drove me into the ground and knocked the wind out of me. Luckily, I didn't hear any bones breaking. As he leant down, his wings folded around us, almost cocooning us from the rest of the world.

"Be lucky you're so breakable," he sneered, his voice all gravelly-deliciousness. "Or I would set you alight."

For the next ten seconds, I could only stare into eyes that didn't just flicker but burned with an angry fire. The knife wound in his back would already have healed. He had no need to take out any vengeance on a pleb, particularly me. Coach said it was good for us plebs to get in some combat practice. Phoenix Hall didn't go in for that whole 'sidekick' schtick, but what else were they actually training us to do?

Short of them refusing to take non-powered kids of supers – which would have been bad for their PR – they were, in actual fact, training us up to be 'sidekicks' or mad scientists (hold or keep the mad) or the lady that womanned the computers back at base. It was inevitable. It even happened to the kids who had powers. In any dynamic where there were stronger and weaker members in a couple or group, there was going to be primary and secondary heroes/villains. And, let's be honest, secondary heroes/villains was just a polite way of saying sidekick.

The only group that maintained they went all Arthur and the Round Table were the Knights of Honour, and we all knew how honourable they really were. Just look at the heir to table; Vaughn himself. He was about as honourable as any thought I had about Saint Skryabin in the first ten seconds after seeing him.