**Chapter 64 - First Day of Year Two**
– September 15, 2030 – Blackbird-Coyote Island, Aerie Academy**
The dorm has officially seceded from reality.
It's now a private floating island the size of a small city, tethered to Aerie by a single titanium half-pipe that arcs across the sky like a promise.
We wake up to sunrise poured straight into our veins (same way we woke up the first day of freshman year).
Only now the sunrise is ours.
Remy is already on the porch swing that still smells like his grandmother, coffee in one hand, my waist in the other.
I'm wearing his old Calder-Tsatoke hoodie and nothing else, legs thrown over his lap, rings catching the light every time we move.
The new constellation above us (blackbird carrying sun, coyote tracks, dragon wings, fox tails, book pages, tiny black holes) has been officially named by the university:
**The Court of the Unbroken Storm.**
Students call it "the Pack Star."
Our wrist oath-marks glow soft violet and gold in perfect sync.
A new banner hangs from the dorm's highest spire:
**"Welcome to Year Two: Try Not to Break the Multiverse Before Finals."**
Remy kisses my temple.
**Remy (husband-voice, rough and warm):**
"Ready to go be legends again, Mrs. Tsatoke?"
I grin against his neck.
**Celeste:**
"Only if we get to break something bigger than the sky this year."
The island answers with a crack of thunder that sounds suspiciously like laughter.
Year two starts in thirty minutes.
Advanced Sky Rebellion is now taught by Kael and me (co-professors, because apparently overthrowing an immortal court qualifies you for tenure).
Mythic Combat Tactics has been replaced with "How to Run a Pack and a Pantheon Without Losing Your Mind" (guest lecturer: Luna Calder, who still cries every time someone calls me Luna).
And the Void Physics department is begging Kayo and Rowan to stop rewriting the laws of reality before breakfast.
We stand up together.
Two coyotes (one black-and-gold Alpha, one white lightning Luna) pad to the edge of the island.
The half-pipe bridge is waiting.
Below us, the entire university is already awake (dragons doing fly-bys, phoenixes dropping glitter bombs that spell "WELCOME BACK" across the sky).
Julian Bathory is on the main plaza holding a new sign:
**"YEAR TWO: STILL NOT OVER THEM."**
We drop in together (perfect tandem, married sync).
The wind tastes like forever.
Year one we owned the sky.
Year two?
We're just getting started.
Coyote Club rule number fifteen:
When you marry your best friend and accidentally become gods of a hidden university…
you show up fashionably late and remind the universe who actually runs this place.
The legend isn't over.
It just grew teeth.
And two rings.
Let's go.
The Multiverse Sends a Bill**
September 15, 2030 – Advanced Sky Rebellion 501, Tempest Arena, 8:03 a.m.**
Kael and I are co-teaching the first class of the semester.
The arena is packed (five hundred students, half of them upperclassmen who still flinch when I look at them).
Kael kicks his board, spins it once, and the entire storm tilts sideways.
**Kael (grinning):**
"New rule this year:
If you can beat either professor, you get to skip finals forever.
Good luck."
He gestures to me like I'm the final boss.
I'm leaning against the coping in Remy's black flannel, white coyote ears flicked up because I felt like it, wedding rings flashing every time I move.
Before anyone can even drop in, the sky tears open.
Not dramatically.
Bureaucratically.
A perfectly rectangular rift appears, crisp edges, glowing with the dull beige light of cosmic paperwork.
Out steps a creature that looks like a tax auditor had a baby with a black hole.
It wears a tie.
It carries a clipboard the size of a billboard.
It speaks in the voice of every DMV employee who ever ruined your day.
**Multiversal Compliance Officer #472-B:**
"Celeste Valentina Tsatoke, née Blackwing, Storm Queen, Luna of the Calder-Tsatoke pack, co-ruler of Aerie Academy, bearer of the Twin Thunder Crown, etc., etc.
You are hereby served with Notice of Reality Debt in the amount of 3.7 × 10⁹⁷ joules of narrative energy, 14 broken destinies, and one (1) stolen sky.
Payment is due immediately, or we will begin repossession of associated assets, including but not limited to:
- your husband
- your pack
- your dorm
- the concept of Tuesdays
Sign here."
It holds out a pen that screams when you touch it.
The entire arena is silent.
Kael's mouth is actually open.
Remy (lounging beside me in Alpha mode, arms crossed) starts laughing so hard he has to lean on me to stay upright.
I take the clipboard.
Read it.
Then I flip it over and write in perfect Deep Script across the entire back:
**"Bill denied.
Counter-offer: come and take it."**
I sign it with a lightning bolt that burns the paper to ash and sends the ashes back through the rift in the shape of a middle finger.
The officer blinks (all seventeen of its eyes).
The rift starts to close.
Just before it seals, I add:
**Celeste (sweetly):**
"Tell your boss the sky belongs to the students now.
Tuition is non-refundable."
The rift snaps shut.
Five hundred students lose their minds.
Kael recovers first, wipes a tear, and shouts:
**Kael:**
"Class dismissed!
Professor Tsatoke just declared war on paperwork!
Extra credit if you bring me the head of an auditor!"
Remy kisses me in front of everyone, slow and proud.
**Remy (mind-to-mind):**
"Coyote Club rule number sixteen:
When the multiverse tries to repo your husband,
you remind it who taught the sky how to say no."
I grin against his mouth.
Year two is officially weirder than year one.
And we're just getting warmed up.
The legend isn't slowing down.
It just upgraded its enemies list.
Let's go collect.
Homecoming, Hot Springs, Arkansas – September 15, 2030, 9:47 p.m.**
We portal straight from Aerie to the ridge above Hot Springs, the same spot we bound our first oath.
Remy kisses me slow under the same stars that watched us become legends, then heads to the Calder pack house to check on the wolves and drink sweet tea with Luna Calder.
I head down the mountain toward my parents' place on the edge of town.
The air smells like pine and creek water and childhood.
I'm in human shape tonight (white coyote ears tucked away, just Celeste in Remy's flannel and ripped jeans, rings catching moonlight).
I'm halfway down the old service road when the night goes quiet.
Too quiet.
No crickets.
No wind.
Just the soft click of a safety coming off.
A man steps out of the shadows.
Early thirties.
Black tactical gear.
Silver stakes on a bandolier.
Crossbow loaded with hawthorn bolts dipped in holy water and something that smells like concentrated death.
His heartbeat is steady.
His eyes are dead.
**Vampire Hunter (voice flat, professional):**
"Celeste Tsatoke.
Strigoi.
Moroi.
Storm Witch.
Whatever you're calling yourself this week.
The Order of the Ashen Veil has a warrant.
Kneel and I make it quick."
I stop ten feet away.
Tilt my head.
**Celeste (quiet, almost curious):**
"You know I don't drink blood, right?
I'm literally solar-powered now.
Also married.
Also co-ruler of an interdimensional university.
You sure you have the right file?"
He doesn't blink.
**Hunter:**
"Doesn't matter.
You're on the list.
Abomination."
He fires.
The bolt is fast (faster than human).
I'm faster.
I catch it mid-air with two fingers, lightning crawling over the wood until it turns to ash.
**Celeste:**
"Rude."
He drops the crossbow, draws twin silver kukris, and moves (insane speed, perfect form).
He's not human.
Not fully.
Some kind of augmented hunter (blessed, cursed, rebuilt).
He's fought things like me before and won.
He has no idea I'm not a thing like anything he's ever met.
I let him come.
First blade aims for my heart.
Second for my throat.
I shift (not into coyote).
Into him.
Exact copy (same height, same scars, same dead eyes).
He freezes mid-swing, staring at his own face wearing a soft, amused smile.
**Celeste (in his voice):**
"Hi.
I'm a Blood Wizard.
I don't drink blood.
I don't burn in sunlight.
I don't follow your rules.
I'm the contradiction your order has nightmares about."
I let the copy dissolve into violet mist and re-form behind him.
My hand rests gently on the back of his neck.
Lightning dances across my wedding rings.
**Celeste (my voice again, soft):**
"I'm here to see my mom.
I'm tired.
I just got married.
Walk away."
He spins, desperation finally cracking his calm.
Kukri comes down in a killing arc.
I sigh.
And Blood Shift again (this time into the white coyote, ten feet at the shoulder, lightning crackling between fur).
He stumbles back.
I lower my head until one golden eye is level with his.
A low growl rolls out (thunder in coyote throat).
**Celeste (mind-to-mind, pack bond strength behind it):**
"Last chance.
Leave.
Or become a cautionary tale they tell new hunters about the Luna who ate an entire strike team and still made it home for tamales."
He runs.
Smartest thing he's done all night.
I shift back to human, dust off my flannel, and keep walking.
Mom's porch light is on.
Dad's already standing in the doorway, arms crossed, smiling like he felt the whole thing from the kitchen.
**Dad (dry):**
"Leave any pieces for me to clean up?"
**Celeste (grinning):**
"Not tonight.
I'm trying to be a good married woman."
Mom barrels out, hugs me so hard my ribs creak.
**Mom:**
"Your husband just texted.
Said to tell you the pack is fat and happy and he saved you the corner piece of frybread."
I laugh into her shoulder.
Home smells the same.
The night sounds come back (crickets, wind, distant coyotes singing).
The hunter is already a memory.
And somewhere in the distance, the Order of the Ashen Veil just added a new line to their most-wanted file:
**"Do NOT engage Celeste Tsatoke alone.
Preferably do not engage at all.
She is polite until she isn't."**
I walk inside.
The legend followed me home.
But tonight, I'm just Celeste.
Daughter.
Sister.
Wife.
Luna.
And nobody is ruining my tamales. "War in space and with the lost city of evil and death "