Paranormal Academy

by Limited Edition Box Set

They both ended up on the other side of the ball, facing each other. She held one envelope, while he had the other two.

  He glared at her, turning and stalking away. Ming Mei Li had witnessed the entire thing and rushed toward him, while Teagan was nowhere to be found as Darby scanned the crowd.

  She didn’t care. She didn’t have time to watch them, and knew she had to move quickly.

  She found a quiet corner of the great hall and tore open the envelope.

  This final clue, the last you need

  There is no time, there’s only speed

  Don’t walk, don’t fly, the winners ran

  All the way back to where it began

  But empty handed, they were not

  Prepare to share your steps and plot

  Prepare to share your steps and plot? Darby thought. She assumed that meant the story of how she’d gotten there—where the clues were hidden, how she’d found them. Luckily she had not been like Mei Li or Teagan. She had not cheated to get to where she was, but rather found all the clues on her own, through merit.

  Where it all began? Well, she knew that. The Corcavado suite, in Cabinet room.

  She read the clue again, feeling like she had missed something. But then she noticed the phrase, “there’s only speed,” and this sent her on a sprint toward the staircases.

  She burst into the Corcavado suite a few minutes later, having rushed all the way there, as fast as she could.

  But it was empty.

  She sunk into the nearest chair to catch her breath, pulling the clue out and reading it again.

  All the way back to where it began… All the way back to where it began…

  “Maybe the dining hall,” she said out loud to herself. That had been where she first received her invitation to the Corcavado suite, though she didn’t know what it was at the time.

  She heard voices outside and recognized one as Ming Mei Li practically biting off Flynn’s head over something. She knew that the three of them were together and had an idea.

  She put on her best smug face and stepped out of the Corcavado suite.

  The three of them stopped dead in their tracks.

  “Looks like only two of you are getting into the school after all,” she said, grinning at them. “Fight amongst yourselves… if I were you, I’d probably leave Teagan behind, as we all know she didn’t get a chance at this assessment through any sort of effort of her own.”

  Teagan glowered at her, but Mei Li glanced at Flynn, fear in her eyes. She suddenly knew exactly what Mei Li was thinking—that Flynn could possibly choose his unextraordinary sister over her, as would be his right. He had found two of the clues for the other two, after all.

  “But who knows,” Darby said, reading the three of them. “Sibling love runs strong, doesn’t it?” She grinned as she walked past them. “Oh, I forgot,” she added as casually as she could.

  She could feel the three of them staring at the back of her head.

  She tossed her hair, flipping her head halfway back so she could see them. “Yeah, the spot where you meet the professors is a little tricky to find. Concealed, if you know what I mean. You might want to read the clue a few more times.”

  Ming Mei Li glared at her, Flynn narrowed his eyes suspiciously, and Teagan merely stared at her with her mouth hanging halfway open.

  Darby forced herself to walk slowly down the steps, listening for sounds of argument above her. She had reached the bottom of the staircase, and had considered that her act didn’t work, when she finally heard it.

  “So what do we do now, Flynn?” she head Mei Li ask. “We all need a spot in the Botânico Program.”

  Darby didn’t dare listen to more. Instead, she sprinted down the next set of staircases, trying to think of the fastest way to the dining hall.

  She was halfway there when Brielle, Quinn, and Griffin found her.

  Darby!” Brielle whispered. “We’ve been looking for you. We need your help.”

  “Can’t,” Darby said, barely pausing. “I have to get to the dining hall to win my place at spy school.”

  “It’s about the bottle,” Quinn called out behind her. “We know where it is. And we need to get it now, before someone moves it.”

  Darby stopped running and turned to face them. “The bottle,” she said. “The bottle, the one that was used to poison Fiona?”

  Quinn nodded.

  “And you’re sure?” Darby asked. “And it has to be now?”

  Brielle nodded emphatically. “I’m so sorry, Darby, but I think you’re the only one who can get us into the room.”

  “We just passed the dining hall,” Quinn said. “Are you sure that’s where you’re supposed to meet?”

  Darby shook her head, thinking about the other three still upstairs. She had a small lead on them now, but they would figure out fairly quickly that she had lied to them about the meeting spot.

  Quinn and Brielle were now saying that she wasn’t supposed to meet in the dining hall either. She racked her brain trying to think of where the assessments began. What was she missing? How on earth could it not be in the dining hall, when that was where she first received her invitation to the assessment?

  “Griffin,” she said, making a decision. “I need you to tail Flynn, Mei Li, and Teagan. Keep me aware of their movements. They’re currently upstairs in the Corcavado suite, so you’ll have to be careful not to be seen.”

  He nodded, then jetted off toward the staircases.

  She looked at Brielle and Quinn, handing them the envelope. “Read this and let me know your thoughts while we walk to get that bottle.”

  11

  Neither Quinn nor Brielle had any idea about the clue.

  After discussing it for several minutes, Darby put them all out of their misery by asking how they tricked Teagan into showing them where the bottle was.

  “So first,” Brielle said, “we allowed Teagan Cormac to overhear us saying that the Dean had figured out who had poisoned Fiona. And that he intended to search the suspect’s household to find the small hourglass-shaped bottle sometime tonight.”

  “It was Brielle’s idea,” Quinn said cheerily.

  “I knew Teagan was the weakest of the three,” Brielle said, wiping some pretend dust off her shoulder. “And I knew she would crack so, so easily. So, of course upon hearing this she panicked, then snuck out of the ball. All we had to do was wait and follow her.”

  “And she led you to the dressing rooms near the auditorium?” Darby asked.

  “Exactly,” Quinn said. “But she couldn’t get past the lock and into the room. She tried for several minutes. And then—”

  “Then Ming Mei Li came to her and asked what she was doing,” Brielle interjected. “She was holding an envelope and said she didn’t have one for Teagan because there were only two, because you had snatched one of them before Flynn could grab it. Good job by the way.”

  “Thank you,” Darby said.

  “So Mei Li convinced Teagan to leave,” Brielle continued, “which Teagan did—reluctantly, I should add. I don’t think Mei Li knows that Teagan left the evidence in her dressing room.”

  “Good,” Darby said. “If Mei Li knew, she could probably have gotten Teagan into the room. So what do you need from me?”

  “After they left,” Quinn said, “we tried the door, but we also couldn’t get in. It’s impenetrable, we’re pretty sure. We couldn’t transport in. We couldn’t transform the door through normal faerie means. And then we realized that you are the best at earth faerie magic. You always have been far better than either of us. We just need to figure out how to unlock the door, then you can go back to your race.”

  “It’s here,” Brielle said breathlessly, stopping in front of a door.

  Darby walked up to it, jiggling the doorknob. The lock seemed firmly in place.

  She closed her eyes, summoning everything she had. She opened her eyes and saw it—two vines on either side of the door, growing from the huge stone pots of dirt and flora on either side.
<
br />   She pushed the vines under the crack of the door and, letting them rise up, she poked the ends blindly at the door until she found the lock and knob. Sticking one of the vines into the keyhole, she pushed around a bit. Within less than a minute, she had unlocked it.

  She recoiled the vines out from under the door and turned the knob. “Opened,” she said.

  “Good job,” Quinn said as the three of them plunged into the room, searching for lights.

  “Check the drawers and trash cans,” Darby said as Brielle flicked on lights. “Let’s find this quickly.” She was starting to panic and wondered if she should leave again and get back to the assessment race, though she still had no clue of where else to go.

  All the way back to where it began, all the way back to where it began...

  And what if the other two could not find the bottle? They needed that too. They were nearing the end of orientation and she would be on her way back to see the King the very next afternoon. She would have to tell him the whole story of what happened. But what if he started a war with the other faerie clans over it?

  They quickly turned out all the drawers and rifled through the trash cans with no luck. “Look under things,” Darby said, her panic quickening.

  What if Teagan wasn’t as stupid as they thought, and she had set them up to distract Darby from the race? For whatever Darby had said earlier, Teagan had somehow gotten a place in the assessment, same as her. The professors must have seen something in her.

  And anyway, Ming Mei Li might have been involved. It didn’t take a genius to see that she had some brains.

  She heard a noise of footsteps down the hall and a few seconds later, Griffin burst into the room.

  “Tried to text you, but I got no reply. They’re headed to the dining hall,” he said breathlessly. “They are just as stuck on the clue as you.”

  Darby exhaled. “Good. There’s still a chance then. Head over there and let me know when they leave. I’ll check my phone this time.”

  Griffin nodded and left as quickly as he’d come.

  The other three searched for several more minutes in silence. She knew she didn’t have much more time, but she hadn’t yet heard from Griffin still, so perhaps there was just a little bit more...

  Suddenly, she spotted a beautiful gem, a rose quartz, sitting on a bookcase, toward the back. As the gem glinted at her, it seemed just a little too perfectly proportioned. Immediately, she knew where she had seen it before.

  “I found it,” Darby declared. “The rose quartz crystal. Teagan must have transformed the bottle into this.”

  The other two looked at her like she was crazy.

  “Quinn, go find Professor Kane and the Dean.” Quinn nodded, stepping quickly from the room.

  She turned to Brielle. “I need you to watch this,” Darby said, pointing at the crystal. “Guard it with your life until Professor Kane gets here. Tell him it’s the bottle, transformed, and tell him that it’s Teagan’s work. He’ll be familiar with it.”

  “Where are you going?” Brielle asked.

  “Back to where it all began,” Darby said.

  12

  She knew now exactly why Teagan had gotten into the assessment, and exactly where the assessment for the Botânico Program had begun.

  The three professors had been assessing her the entire week, since she had met them at the presenting ceremony.

  Hadn’t she even told herself that Ragna was the most likely to have forced Professor Wu to extend her an opportunity, despite what seemed like his own very personal dislike of her?

  And when Professor Wu had walked around in evaluations, he had seen Teagan do two things, but only criticized one of them. The other—seeing her transform a small stone into a glinting, perfectly proportioned crystal—had received nothing but approval from him.

  Darby pushed open the large doors to the auditorium where the presenting ceremony had taken place at the beginning of the week.

  She immediately spotted the three professors standing on the stage, and three students standing in front of them.

  She heard the doors open behind her again and spun around.

  “Darby, I’m sorry,” panted Griffin as he bent over and pressed his hands into his knees. “They tricked me. They must have known I was listening to them. They must have come directly here.”

  Darby exhaled, releasing the energy that had stored up in her chest. “It’s not your fault,” she said. “They were just playing the game.”

  She looked to the stage again, where all six of them were now watching them. She narrowed her eyes at Ming Mei Li, who now wore a smug smirk on her face. She knew it had been her idea to trick Griffin. She knew it.

  But she wasn’t done fighting for her spot. The last part of the clue pulsed in her mind.

  But empty handed, they were not

  Prepare to share your steps and plot

  Darby walked toward the stage, determined to convince the professors.

  “Darby,” Ragna said gently. “I regret to inform you that you didn’t make it on time. You’re in fourth place, and we only have three spots in the school.”

  “I have one of the envelopes,” Darby said, holding up her clue. “If I recall, one of the rules was that we couldn’t work together on the clues. So how did all three of them get here, if they weren’t allowed to work together?”

  “Yes,” Professor Simmer said. “All three admitted that they didn’t have the third envelope. We decided to let that slide.”

  Darby raised her eyebrows. “It’s not just this clue,” she said. “I saw Flynn Cormac take three clues from the forest square. Neither Ming Mei Li nor Teagan Cormac ever even landed there.”

  “Tattle telling, are we?” Professor Wu asked. “Interesting. And what of your own shortcuts, Darby Fitzgerald?”

  “I didn’t take—”

  “Having your bodyguard spy on the other students,” Professor Wu said, as if he were politely pointing out a spot of lint on her uniform. “Lying to other students to buy yourself more time.”

  Darby shook her head, feeling at a loss for words.

  All six of them stared at her, waiting for her response.

  “It’s not the same thing,” she finally said. “I didn’t break the stated rules.”

  “Your royal highness,” Professor Wu continued, in a tone that she now understood to be condescending, though it sounded perfectly cordial to the naked ear. “If you were to have gained a spot in the Botânico Program, the first thing you might have learned is that as a spy, there are no rules. There are objectives, and there are people who meet those objectives without getting caught. The rules are meant to be bent. You are in fourth place. Please leave.”

  She huffed in disbelief. So that was it—no spy school for her. After everything she had been through, after everything she had done—Flynn Cormac had beaten her.

  She tried not to think about what this meant for her, her family’s legacy, her crown.

  A week ago, Professor Wu had casually stated it was unfortunate that, “the crown does not fall to the head of those most deserving.”

  What if other faeries heard of this incident and believe the same? What if they believed her to be the weaker of the two options.

  She looked at the other three. Teagan Cormac glared at her, probably still sour over her earlier comments. Ming Mei Li smirked wickedly.

  But Flynn? He had a look of pity on his face. And it was easily the worst of the three.

  Dejected, Darby saw no choice but to walk out of the room, holding onto the little dignity she had left. There was no point in arguing with them. Professor Wu had rooted against her from the beginning, for reasons she did not understand. The other two professors could not or did not intend to overrule him or back her up, regardless of how much either of them might like her.

  She turned her back to them, walking down the front steps of stage left. But before she could make it to the back of the auditorium, Professor Kane walked in with a stern look on his face, holding the r
ose quartz crystal in his hands.

  “Professors, I need to borrow both Ming Mei Li and Teagan Cormac. It’s urgent. They are wanted in the Dean’s office.”

  Darby watched as the two girls glanced at each other. Teagan looked like she had been punched in the gut, while Ming Mei Li had already zeroed in on Darby.

  Darby tilted her head in an exaggerated movement and smiled sweetly at her.

  Mei Li’s face turned to fury, but Darby’s eyes had landed on Flynn’s face. He had a sadness in his eyes as he watched his sister walk down the steps toward Professor Kane.

  Darby turned away. She felt nothing for him but anger. He had declared war on her family and he had let his sister and friend attack her household multiple times.

  She turned to Professor Kane and made a bow to him. “Thank you, Professor.”

  He nodded back in acknowledgment. “I will keep you updated,” he said gruffly.

  She nodded again in thanks, then moved toward the back, where Griffin, Quinn, and Brielle were hanging in the doorframe.

  “Did you make it in time?” Quinn asked hopefully.

  Darby shook her head. “But I got something better,” she said as the four of them moved into the hallway. “My truest friends on my side, protecting me and helping me every step of the way. And tonight, I got to return the favor to one of them.”

  Epilogue

  “Guess what?” Darby waved a large, opened envelope at her ladies-in-waiting, which now included Fiona, who had been discharged from the hospital ward late the night before.

  “Good assessment scores?” Quinn asked. “I mean,” she said sheepishly, “aside from the one.”

  “Much, much better than that,” Darby said. She paused for dramatic effect.

  “Are you going to tell us?” Brielle asked.

  “I. Got. In!”

  All three of her ladies’ mouths dropped.

  “To spy school?” Brielle asked.

  Darby nodded, squealing as she sat down.

  Griffin grinned as he joined them.