Paranormal Academy

by Limited Edition Box Set

  “Prophecies are for children and weak people who need to be prodded to become strong. I don't need help to be strong. I chose that. I am that. Go tell your soft-souled prince kisser about your damn prophecy. Maybe she won’t need to push kids off ledges to feel good about herself.”

  “No thank you, she would probably push me off a ledge just for looking at her,” Eddy shook his head, held up his hands and backed away like I was the one about to hurl him off ledges.

  “Be glad there aren't ledges here, Ed. Or I’d be dangling you by your toes and watching you piss yourself.” I gave him a smile and turned toward the door labeled “Gemma’s Prison.”

  Just kidding, it was labeled five-oh-four but that was essentially the same thing.

  “Not anymore. Don’t forget I have magic now, too.” Gah, the guy was oozing with pride. As much as we hated the world we were raised in, you have to admit that having magic was pretty damn cool.

  “Baby magic, Ed. I can take it, get ready for some ledge dangling.”

  “Sorry, Gem, no ledges. Plenty of windows though.” He was already eyeing the one at the end of the hall as though it was lined with his death certificate.

  “No go, I tried those last night.”

  “Of course you did,” Eddy folded his arms over his waist and leaned against my door, fixing me with the know it all look he always gave me when I was being a pain in his side. “Bet you tried every door and even launched yourself off the bell tower?”

  “Naw, I saved that last one for you.”

  Eddy laughed, I laughed, and so did the girl who tore her way around the corner, an entourage of those damn Golden butt-kissers right behind her.

  “Throwing a nasty Drain off of the bell tower,” She sneered, “sounds like a great initiation activity. The higher they bounce, the higher the points. I call tubby behind you there.”

  Eddy only laughed, causing the girl to flinch over what she thought was a great comeback. She seriously didn’t know us very well if she thought those petty clap backs were going to do anything but leave her with welts.

  “Why waste my skills, pretty girl?” Eddy said. “I can make you bounce in other ways, just give me a chance.”

  Speaking of welts. The bitch had officially been slapped.

  “Ugh! Like I would… You can’t talk… How dare you?”

  “I guess the royal brat sucked her brains right out with that kiss, Ed.” It was true, and some of the Golden snobs in the back tittered until she gave them a look, silencing them and returning them all to sheep with hinges on their necks.

  They all nodded and scoffed in unison, looking like the chickens we keep for food.

  “Jealousy doesn’t look good on you, Gemma.” Damn, could her lip sneer anymore?

  “Really? Jealousy. You think I am jealous?” I laughed and took a step away from my door, closer to her.

  There was no way in hell I was going to let her see where my room was. I had lived with shallow bitches like her my whole life. Giving her easier access to some petty scheme was not on my day one in Academy hell list of activities.

  I would have to deal with her the way I dealt with all the others.

  “Honey, you live in your golden palace with your shimmering lies, and you think you know the world.” I took a step closer to her, all of her cronies stepping back as I lifted my hand. Her feet shuffled, but she didn’t step back, the hatred in her eyes didn’t fade. That’s fine. I had my own to match.

  “I do know---”

  “Do you? Because it didn’t take much for me to knock you off your tower, and it won’t take much for me to do it again.” I snapped my fingers, the magic that the weird queen had fixed going into hyper speed and whipping around us in a whirlwind of color.

  Her friends screamed, many trying to run away before the wind caught them, lifting them off their feet and around us like some psychopathic carousel.

  This trick was one I had done before, mostly to take down the Tarns that raided the sewers every month, burn them down as they had burned my parents.

  Make them pay for turning their back on their family.

  With my magic healed and whole, and thoroughly non-illegal, I was even more frightening. More powerful. More amazing. Which is why Eddy was staring at it with eyes that looked about ready to pop out of his head.

  They all tried to counter the attack, but I had years of practice. Their pathetic little sparks were doing nothing more than flinging uselessly around them.

  “You’re not knocking anyone anywhere. Unless it’s you sending yourself back to the sewers,” she said, her eyes boring into mine as her silken hair whipped around her head and into a rat’s nest. “You’re already on the fast track to that.”

  She smiled with a grin as long and slimy as her ego, her ugly ass shoes knocking against my boots as she moved herself closer.

  “I give you a month.”

  “What in the name of Imdalind is going on here?” Someone shrieked from the other side of my whirlwind before I had a chance to rebut, the furious voice matching Sia’s wide grin perfectly.

  Shit. I had no idea how many of their dumb rules I had broken, but it had to be more than a two.

  My magic sucked back into me like a rat in its hole, the whirlwind falling away and dropping Sia’s cronies to the ground like rocks. Heads against stone was normally such a pretty sound, but the furious scowl of the woman who was staring at me made them more like drum beats to my death.

  It was going to be really hard to carry out my plan if I was expelled.

  With the way she was looking at me, dressed in her fancy pants and a cashmere sweater, it was clear she had the power to do so.

  “Thank you so much, Professor Analine,” Sia said, her voice high and afraid as she rushed from me to her friends, helping a few of them to sit. “She cornered me and used her magic… I… I didn’t know what to do.”

  Great. So, this is how it was going to be. The bitch was sobbing now. Amazing considering two seconds ago she was threatening me.

  “Oh, please,” I groaned, folding my arms over my chest and tapping the heavy toe of my work boots against the tile floor. “You weren’t singing the same song ten seconds ago--”

  “Because I was scared for my life!” She shrieked before I could continue, causing this Analine woman’s face to blanche. “I think she still wants to kill me.”

  “Aw, fucking hell…”

  “Language, Ms---” Professor Analine stopped mid sentence, her eyebrow lifting as she waited for me to finish for her.

  Like hell if that was going to happen.

  “She’s a Drain, Professor. They don’t have last names,” Sia continued to sob, not even bothering to correct the slur that everyone else had been actively avoiding. Analine didn’t move to correct her either.

  So, I can’t swear, but bitchy mc-bitch here can call me .

  As if I needed another reason to take this monarchy down.

  “Very well, as term has not begun, and the rules have not been explained I will not be handing out punishments for either of you. But watch yourself Ms...” She paused, smiling right at me, emphasizing the fact that I didn’t belong to some family or title. “I would hate for your stay with us to be unceremoniously cut short.”

  I had a feeling that wasn’t going to happen, given the very bizarre conversation I had had with the Queen. You know, the one that had landed me here on some kind of twisted prison sentence, but I nodded anyway. I had no interest in fighting either of these two.

  Well, fighting. I really wanted to slap Sia across the room, see how far I could make her soar.

  “Is that clear?”

  “Sure… ma’am,” I added that last part on when her eyes narrowed like she was going to shoot lasers at me.

  “Wonderful,” the professor said with a grin, “We will turn you into one of us yet.”

  I nearly snorted. Eddy, however, was forced to swallow a laugh and sounded like he was choking on a rat bone. Both Professor Analine, Sia and her cronies looked
at us like we had lost it.

  “Well, thank you for all your help, professor. Now, if you’ll excuse me,” Sia said, stepping past me, nodding once to the Professor and slipping into her room, all four of her shadows following behind.

  Which would have been fine, except that her room so happened to be the one right next to mine.

  So much for keeping the meddling medusa out of my life.

  “What is this? Some kind of joke?” I shrieked, loud enough that I was sure they could hear before I dodged my way inside, pulling Eddy in after me. I had no clue if guys were allowed in girls dorms, but who the fucked cared anymore.

  They had roomed me next door to the devil incarnate. All bets were off.

  “I swear if one thing of mine is out of place, she’s going to feel it in the morning.” I snarled, going right to the mess of papers they had given me yesterday, the ones I had thrown on the desk with the full intent of forgetting about their existence.

  “You can’t help but think that this was on purpose. What was it that the Queen said to you again?” Eddy said, sinking down into the overstuffed chair and putting his feet up on the little table right in front of it. I still had no idea what the thing was for, it was far too low for anything practical.

  “That this year will be challenging, but will lead to the future that so many desire?” I still wasn’t sure what that meant, the woman was a mystery.

  “No, before I left, the whole thing about enemies with different skills and allies where you least expect it…” He waved his hand in the air, expecting me to continue, but I was frozen, the paper I had been searching for in my hand.

  You better believe I was scowling at it.

  Period One: History of Imdalind with Professor Analine Krul

  Period Two: Basic Skills and Harnessing of Power with Professor Georgio Gregario

  Period Three: Wind Based Powers and Control with Professor Analine Krul

  Period Four: Healing and Defense with Professor Etma Diarius

  “Fucking hell,” I snarled, letting the paper drop to floor like a dead leaf. Sure as hell felt like a dead leaf.

  “What is it?” Eddy asked, it didn’t escape my notice that he was chuckling.

  “I have two classes with that woman tomorrow, and judging by the last name, she’s a member of the freaking royal family.” Screw chuckling, he was full on laughing now. “This isn’t funny, Ed.”

  “Sure it is.” He said, kicking off his shoes and spreading his toes through the holes in his socks. “Think about what we came here to do. We may have been the only two from our group to get through that masochistic shit show, but here we are. Not only do we both have magic, but we have the son, the nephew, and a niece of the King and Queen right here. You want to make a point? We are in the right place to do it.”

  “We are in the right place to end everything.”

  I had said from the beginning that the queen was a fool to bring me here. She claimed to see the future; well I was going to give her quite a show.

  I was going to have fun doing it.

  *

  Imdalind Academy: Year One Releases July 8th 2019

  School is in session, and magic is about to get real. Join Rowan and Gemma at Imdalind Academy.

  Grab your copy, here. → http://smarturl.it/ImdalindAcademy1

  Strange Academy

  May Dawson

  Copyright © 2019 May Dawson

  All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means without the prior written permission of the author except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

  This is a work of fiction. Characters, incidents, and dialogs are products of the author’s

  imagination and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events is strictly

  coincidental.

  1

  We stopped to gas up at the last town. It was tiny: a diner and a gas station with two pumps. I got out of the passenger side of the Rover while my sister was swiping her credit card. Her back was to me, her long blond hair pulled over one narrow shoulder.

  The wind fluttered the leaves in the trees. I could feel someone watching me, but we were still eleven miles from the academy. It wasn’t wolves, not yet.

  I glanced over my shoulder at the little wooden shop and single auto bay behind us. A man leaned against the dusty window, smoking. Well, that seemed intelligent.

  The guy straightened from the window and, after giving me a long look, disappeared into the shack.

  “I don’t remember this place being so creepy,” I said.

  Piper settled the nozzle into the gas tank. “We’re eleven miles from haunted, Maddie. What’d you expect?”

  I hadn’t been to the academy since Piper had helped to start it, many years before. Once war ignited between the packs and the covens, Piper and her men had returned to Virginia. The school was important, but protecting the pack was their top priority.

  Well, they all claimed the pack was their top priority, but sometimes I thought killing witches was what they cared about the most.

  “Where are you girls headed?”

  Piper ducked low enough to hide her exasperated sigh. We couldn’t tell the truth. Oh, just heading out to the hidden academy at the old asylum. He’d probably assume we were ghost-hunting, which would have been fine if this guy didn’t give off such a creep-vibe. My instincts prickled, the hair rising at the back of my neck.

  If this guy followed us, he’d end up dead in the woods.

  I twirled my hair around my finger. Tension tightened my chest. I’d trained an awful lot for a fight, but I’d never been in one, not for real. “Going to visit Grandma.”

  Piper flashed me a look over the car. She hated when I twirled my hair. You don’t get to control me down to my nervous tics, I’d told her once in a fight. I just want people to take you seriously, she’d said.

  We were both petite and blond. People had a funny way of underestimating us. That worked for Piper, the shifter queen who ruled over the three Virginia packs. But I wasn’t Piper.

  “There’s not much down this road,” he said, stubbing out his cigarette in an old coffee can. “Sure you aren’t lost?”

  “Sure you aren’t about to go up in flames?” Piper muttered.

  My sister’s the sweetest girl in the world, most of the time, but she doesn’t exactly suffer fools.

  “We’ll be okay,” I promised.

  “Cell phones don’t work out here.” He sauntered toward us. He was older, his brown hair thin at the temples, his face weathered. He was old enough to know how two girls on their own might feel about a man saying there was no way to call for help.

  I was starting to feel less and less concerned about his safety.

  “Oh, we know.” Piper said, leaning against the car, her posture relaxed as she waited for the tank to fill. She glanced over at me, and her lips quirked up in a smile. “We can never get ahold of Grandma.”

  “You two are sisters, huh.” It wasn’t really a question. His eyes flickered between the two of us. “You’re both really pretty.”

  Piper lifted the nozzle out and slipped it back into the pump. I hadn’t heard the pump click off. She must want for us to get out of here, even though she looked calm as ever.

  A pick-up truck pulled in then, a little bit too fast; it went by so fast that it flung grit from the pavement into my face, and I squinted as it lurched to a stop. It blocked the exit, parking parallel to the road. Then the engine cut off, and the only sound was once again the desperate rattle of the leaves in the wind.

  We could still back out onto the road, but it wasn’t the kind of parking job that makes a woman feel good about the world.

  The pickup doors opened, but Piper was already throwing open her car door. “Well, better get those flowers to Grandma. She’s been so under the weather.”

  “Hang on one second.” The old man was suddenly right by my side, and he caught my
wrist in his hand as I started to duck back into the passenger side. Ahead of me, the pickup doors were swinging open. Two guys began to get out of the truck.

  I didn’t bother to take my wrist back from him. He could have it. Instead, I stepped in toward him, slamming my elbow into his face. His head jerked back, but he held onto me as he stumbled. I ducked to slam my left fist into his solar plexus. He huffed out his breath, doubling over.

  The from the truck came running toward us, shouting something like we were the bad guys here.

  Piper threw her elbow on the roof of the car, stepping up onto the running board so they could see her face despite how short she was. Her lips peeled back from her face as she growled at them, a long, dangerous rumble. Her canines popped out, long and dangerous, as her face began to transform. Long, deadly claws scraped against the paint, creating a shrill noise.

  The guys suddenly changed their minds and reversed course, running for the pickup truck.

  I yanked my elbow away from the guy who had dared to attack us and slipped into the leather seat. I slammed the door between us.

  We left the old creep in the gravel as we pulled out. The pick-up truck kicked up dust as it left us behind, fishtailing across the road as they accelerated down the long country road.

  “Grandma,” Piper said, shaking her head to herself. She seemed amused by the whole time, but then, she’d been in a whole lot more dangerous situations than I had. “Silly girl, mixing your fairy tales. Don’t you know we’re the big bad wolf?”

  2

  When we turned off the road onto a narrow dirt track that led through the tangled green branches of a forest, I pressed my forehead against the glass. I barely remembered this place.

  Piper was already rolling down the window on the driver’s side. She said, to no one in particular, it seemed, “Piper Northsea. I’m bringing my sister for the prospective student tour.”