by Kendal Davis
Ciara was out of bed now, wandering over to the window, where the low-lying fields behind the school stretched out. Where they had been struggling to grow at all last year, now they were verdant and lush. She had brought back the element of earth magic to the fae.
If only she hadn’t had to bring another mate into the world.
She was beautiful. Her long hair danced along her back, grazing her perfect curves as if it was another lover, taking pleasure in touching her. Her hips were rounded and lush. Would she someday bear fae children? It was a privilege reserved for the most powerful of us, and she was certainly that. Or, rather, she would be when she won her fae immortality upon graduation.
As usual, Ciara seemed to be able to read my mind. “I won’t allow anything to go wrong, this year or the next. Don’t worry, Owain; I can see you’re starting to.”
“Starting?” I chuckled at her, because it was either that or allow myself to panic. “I’ve been worried sick about you since the day I met you. It’s not that I think you can’t handle yourself. Obviously, you can. But you don’t seem to know the meaning of the word ‘caution,’ do you?”
“Nope,” she grinned. “And I’m not going to start to learn it now.” She faced us both as we started to dress. She was still stark naked, but she had the confidence of somebody who knew she was special. Teasingly, she arched her back, pretending to stretch. When she saw that neither Rook nor I could take our eyes from her pert nipples, she twinkled a smile at us, then let up. “You might not want to talk about Alder yet, and that’s ok. I don’t know how I feel about him, either.”
Rook glowered. “Oh, I know what I think of the guy.”
Ciara went on. “What I want to ask you, though, is if you know why I got moved to a new room. According to Evana, it’s never happened before. Yesterday, right after she transported her things in, she went down to the office to complain about it.”
“That sounds like her,” I said. “If anybody can get something like that changed, it’s her. You have a talent for surrounding yourself with people who get things done.” I was fully dressed now, in the gray trousers and crisp white shirt that made up my school uniform. That didn’t stop me from crossing the room to her and pulling her against me. I slid my hands underneath her plaid skirt, cupping her ass and holding her tight against me.
“Getting something done right now?” She returned my kiss with fervor. “Weren’t we up all last night doing this?”
“And we should keep practicing,” Rook moved behind Ciara and began kissing the back of her neck. “Until we get really good at it.”
“Oh, you are,” she breathed. “Come on, though. Why would I get moved to the oldest tower, the one that was constructed in the days after King Regis fell?”
“Look at you, my love,” I said. “You’ve been reading up on fae history?”
“I wish I could say that I learned that in our History of Magic class last term, but I already knew it from my training as the Tithe,” Ciara answered. “You know, they spent twenty years tutoring me in preparation for coming here.”
“They got a lot wrong,” Rook murmured, still kissing her.
“And we did as well,” I felt compelled to say. “For example, I never knew it was possible for a member of the Eternal Assassins to be identified. It is, above all else, a secret society.” I did not add that I was planning to investigate that in the library later today. I had to find out more about the marks that now showed on our wrists.
“I’ll just ask Alder,” Ciara said casually. Too casually.
“When will you see him?” I didn’t want to have to admit that I didn’t like him any better than Rook had.
“We will all see him at the first day luncheon,” she answered firmly. She could tell that we were hesitant, and that it was in equal measure to her own innate drive to claim him. “But we don’t need to go downstairs yet. Why don’t we order breakfast in your sitting room?”
Rook and I never needed to be asked twice to order food from the magical kitchens at the Academy. There was something about the castle that made everything taste far more delectable than anything we’d ever eaten, including our own mothers’ cooking. Not that I’d ever told my mother any such thing.
In the sitting room, I raised a hand and conjured a ball of light. As a water fae, I felt a particular ease in calling up our tray of coffee and fruit juice. Rook’s fire magic was the best match for conjuring plates of toast and freshly cooked breakfast meats. Food was just one of those things that was better here than anywhere else. The women always said their clothes were finer during their Academy years, but I was more impressed by the meals than what I wore.
I restrained a wide smile as I thought to myself that the lovemaking was better here than anywhere else. I knew the others caught it when they laughed with me. It was true. We all loved Fae Academy. We would do whatever we needed to do to stay here, especially something as simple as accepting a change of accommodations.
“So here’s my theory about the new rooms,” I said as we sat comfortable around the fire Rook had made on the brazier. “Either somebody wants to arrange new company for you, or there is something special about the tower itself. It’s a quad room, isn’t it?”
“That’s the weird thing,” Ciara said. “Evana particularly told me that we are supposed to get better rooms as we get older. But now there will be four women sharing that sitting room. There’s our bedroom on one side, and another at the other end.”
“Who’d you get in with you?” Rook munched his toast thoughtfully.
“I don’t know yet,” she admitted. “I guess I’ll find out today.”
“You’ll be a target this year,” I warned. “Everybody will remember the rumors from last year, and the first-years will hear them in about a minute.”
“No, they already have,” Rook said easily. “I have a second cousin who’s coming this year to study air magic. Young Finley is supposed to arrive today. Over the holidays, he started to tell me about the hot mortal girl with the pink hair. I told him to stick to what he knows.”
“I’d better get back there,” Ciara said, standing up and gathering a plate of food to take with her. “Do you think I should teleport?”
Rook and I spoke as one when we gave her an emphatic negative, which made her grin.
“I know, I was just kidding. I know the rules just as well as you do. No teleporting unless on direct instruction.” Ciara winked at us as she left the room.
“I wish we could stay in bed all day,” I mused, looking around the perfectly furnished sitting room that was so empty without her.
“In theory, yes, but in reality, I have javelin fields to prep. Want to go down the hill with me and take a look?” Rook was eager to get back into school life.
I declined, instead choosing to stroll the gardens around the courtyard at the back of the castle. They had been a blackened ruin only a few months ago, before Ciara connected with her earth magic and brought them back to life.
Now, though, there was something unstable, almost sinister, about the stones as I walked on them. I shook my head, wishing I could clear the fancies from it. I was a man of science, of scholarly knowledge. I didn’t make assessments based on fantasy. Cold, hard facts were what mattered.
But my first thought had been right.
I stood in the center of the courtyard, admiring the enormous pots of greenery and the bright vines that climbed vigorously along the arbors. It was beautiful, a monument now to life rather than withering death. But there was something…
It wasn’t the plants themselves. They were green and strong. It was the castle. For whatever reason, the gray stones of the Academy were fluctuating before my eyes. They kept distorting, as if I was viewing them from the side of a drinking glass, or through a prism. It wasn’t possible. The castle was the foundation of everything the fae stood for.
But somehow, for whatever reason, the very stones were bending. The castle was rejecting the earth magic that Ciara had brought with her from the
mortal world. It was failing. As I watched, it almost teetered, shimmering with the potential to fold and fall.
And who had I just left up there? Ciara had been on her way to her tower rooms, at the highest, most central part of the Academy. If it fell before she could summon the right spell of protection, she would perish.
There was no way this was an accident.
5
Ciara
I caught a sense of panic from Owain along our bond. It made me curious, as he was usually so unflappable. I could tell he was worrying about me. Without even pausing to think about it, I sent him a message of calm. Whatever came my way, I could handle it. It wasn’t just empty talk when I said that I was stronger than ever. My magic had grown as a result of last year’s lessons. More than that, I had gained confidence and a true belief in myself that hadn’t been there before I found my two mates.
A familiar heat rushed through my body as I thought of Rook and Owain. Now, though, I had Alder on my mind as well. If we claimed our bond, then he would be inside my soul as they were. I craved him as I needed the air I breathed. Nothing was more sure for me than the security I found with my men. Even the strength of the castle itself paled in comparison.
My head jerked up in surprise as I felt the stones of the Academy shiver beneath my feet. There was no way that had really happened. It had to be my imagination. No, there it was again. I had almost reached my new quad room when the gray stone floor began to ripple under my feet. I had to choose: would I try to leave the building, or seek safety in my room?
Neither.
I had been the Tithe for most of my life. And now, I was an Eternal Assassin.
As the most magically powerful member of our society, I was now the Slayer.
I had a duty to the school. Perhaps this wasn’t the time to think about actually killing anybody in the name of the Queen I’d sworn to serve, but I could certainly fit in a little problem-solving. Especially if the castle needed shoring up before the new first-years arrived.
When I reached my own sitting room, I found Evana already there, perched on the window seat. She lifted her head with alacrity when she saw me.
“Ciara, did you feel that? I swear the castle just shook.” She was matter-of-fact as always, but I heard a note of rising panic in her voice.
“I felt it too. And Owain is sending me warnings from down in the gardens.” I swept the room with my eyes, wishing I could think of what would cause this. “The castle is supposed to be immune from all attacks.”
To my chagrin, the answer came not from Evana, my best friend and perpetual ally. It was from the lips of Lily, the third woman of the new Assassin pledges, and one of my least favorite people in any world.
“Ciara, what a surprise,” she drawled. Her long, blonde hair swung out behind her as she made her way to me, the floor shaking under her expensively chic boots. “Do you think you might stop this earthquake, or whatever it is?” She sneered even as she requested my help.
“What are you doing here?” I grasped the edge of a bookcase to try to regain my balance.
“No time for stupid questions just now,” she reproved. “This is my suite as well, and I’d like it better if it stopped shaking.”
A look at Evana confirmed the reality that was dawning on me. No way. Lily had the other bedroom in our quad? Somebody in the office must really have it in for me.
Just think how much they might hate me if they knew I’d imprisoned our old Headmaster in the cellars. Was he the cause of this? If he could work magic of this magnitude, then I could hardly expect him to stay restrained down there for long.
Evana shook her head, her eyes meeting mine as she guessed my thoughts. “It’s not coming from anywhere in particular. It’s all over the castle. Every stone, as far as I can tell.”
Lily was just about to say something sharp when a brawny man appeared in the doorway, flinging the door open without an ounce of caution.
“You need to get control of this, mortal girl,” Alder snapped. He was even more delectable than I remembered from yesterday’s meeting. He was so tall that he had to duck his head to enter the room. “That’s why I called you back to school early.”
“You what?” I felt the confidence draining from me. I’d been so sure that I was in control of my own movements these days, since I’d shucked off the political caretakers that had been my world before I came to Fae Academy.
“Fix it,” he hissed. “Only you have the ability to balance the elemental forces that hold the castle together.” He was next to me now, sliding his hand around my waist with a shocking familiarity that made me wish we were alone. I could see his muscular forearm as he held me, full of vigor.
“I’m not sure I know how to do that,” I demurred, casting around for an idea.
“I’ll share my own earth powers while you do this. Come on, now. You have to focus and shift the forces into alignment again.” As he spoke, he opened his mind to mine with a recklessness that I’d never felt before from anybody.
“I can feel it...wait a second.” I raised my hands and conjured a light of earth power to help me visualize the task. “There. That might help.” I wasn’t sure I’d done the job completely, but I had to step back from him. His magic was too strong, too wild for me.
“That will last for a short time,” he conceded. “You still have much to learn.” He did not grant me space; instead, he stepped close to me again.
“And are you planning to teach me?” I deflected my nerves by teasing him archly. “You didn’t sound all that keen on it before.” I rubbed my arms, wishing I could lean back against him and luxuriate in his hard body. Instead, I tried to avoid contact, which only made me want it more.
“I am your professor, that much is certain.” He stared down at me with intense green eyes. “Whether we will become mates is less clear.”
Lily smiled lasciviously at us. “Aha. This is the earth man that you conjured up for yourself? What a treat for all of us,” she said.
He ignored her, but I couldn’t. “It isn’t as if I created him from clay,” I argued. “He says he used to be an air fae, then found his powers replaced.”
Evana nodded. “I can understand that. The earth affinity had to manifest in the fae somehow. It must have been quite a shock.” She did not smile at him, but merely observed with an eye toward evaluation.
“None of you know what a close call that was. I could not wait even a few hours to call you back to the Academy, not when I felt this coming.” Alder scowled at us as if we were unruly adolescents.
“So you planted the wish to return early in my mind?” I was thinking out loud. “And how am I supposed to hold this spell? When all the students return for the welcome luncheon today, they will be in serious danger. I haven’t learned how to handle this yet.”
“I told you, Ciara. I’m here to be your teacher.” His eyes went to my lips as if he was remembering the kisses we’d shared yesterday. Then his gaze moved lower on my body, resting on my breasts, which I knew were more rounded than those of a true fae woman. I could swear he was rifling through my memories of my lovers touching me all night. The thought made me blush. He did not.
Lily had flopped into an overstuffed chair. “Fine. So you’ve saved the day again, mortal, with your super awesome affinity for earth magic. Yawn.”
Alder corrected her. “It is possible for Ciara to work this particular spell because she has power over all four elements, not just one, pretty fire mage.” He lifted an ironic eyebrow, appraising her. Then he turned to me again. “I will speak to the new Headmaster, Professor Thermophilus, about your class schedule. There is much to be done.” With that odd exchange, he left the room. He was too graceful to lumber, but too large to do anything else.
More than anything else, the lasting impression he left was that he knew everything about me. Was it because I had created his new magic? No, that was giving myself too much credit. I had only called it up from its resting place in the world.
Evana looked serio
us. “He’s a man of few words, isn’t he? He didn’t tell us how long he thinks the spell will last, or whether we need to do something else. You, I mean.”
Lily broke in. “Evana, you or I might not be the Slayer, but we are powerful in our own right. I won the prize for first-years, remember? And you sure spend a lot of time studying, so I guess you must have something to offer. It’s not all about Ciara all the time.”
“For me, it is,” said Owain as he stepped into our sitting room through the door that Alder had left wide open. He looked as if he had run all the way from the gardens. “What did you do to stabilize the stones?” He looked around the room with concern. “And why do I sense that the conceited new professor has been in here? I didn’t see him on my way up.”
“He probably just teleported,” Evana said. She loved tying up loose ends. “He’s a faculty member, so he’s allowed, of course.”
I slipped easily into the safety of my water lover’s arms, wishing I could duck the responsibilities that awaited me this year.
No. That wasn’t who I was.
I might not be one of the fae, not yet. But there was no way I would let anything happen to the Academy, not if I could stop it.
When we sat in the bustling Great Hall for the welcome luncheon, I kept expecting more surprises, but there were none. The staff table was staid and decorous, even including the rough forest man who seemed to occupy my thoughts constantly. The new first-years were fresh-faced and enthusiastic.
“Were we ever that young?” I asked Evana as she sat to my left at the table for second-years. After this meal, we would still be together, just at the air affinity table. Air had been my first power to manifest, and I had to sit somewhere.
She snorted. “Young? These fae may be new to the Academy, but they are far older than your mere twenty years. I see some people that I’ve known for hundreds of years. I think that’s a woman I used to work with, over there.”