by Lucia Ashta
“No!” I exclaimed so quickly I choked on my own saliva. The subsequent coughing fit made me hurt all over. “Ugh.” I sank back into the pillows. “You were messing with me, weren’t you?”
“Totally.” Boone ran a hand over his shoulder-length hair, tugging on the ponytail at the base of his neck to make sure it was secure. “I didn’t mean to make you cough though. Sorry.”
Waving a hand in the air, I scowled at the lot of them, taking my time staring into each of their eyes until they fidgeted—all except Adalia. “How many times do I have to tell you all? I don’t want you to treat me like I’m some damn porcelain collectible.”
“Then you’d better hurry up and get better,” Wren squeaked, eyes shiny, “because you’re freaking me out. You should have healed by now. You’re a shifter, and from how quick you are with your shift, I’d say a pretty powerful one. I can’t take you being like this anymore. I need you up and moving and sassing the crap out of everyone.”
She swiped a finger beneath each eye before tucking her face into Dave’s chest. He wrapped his arms around her and pulled her tightly into him.
“It’s what we all feel,” Boone said softly. “We need you to get better.”
Adalia, Leo, and Rina nodded. Ky’s affirmation swam in those copper depths I couldn’t wait to lose myself in.
“Well,” I said around a throat with an annoying lump wedged inside it, “I’m doing my best, I promise you that. Any more news on Jackass or Fury?”
Every one of my friends knew exactly whom I was referring to. I’d called Blondie a variety of colorful nicknames to brighten up my bed rest. Each day I came up with a new one.
And each day they gave me the same answer.
Today it was apparently Leo’s turn. “We haven’t heard anything more about Gorky.” Gorky Gower, AKA Jackass, AKA Blondie. “And they haven’t found Fury. Gorky must still have him. None of his other shifters have appeared on Sir Lancelot’s radar either, and you know what that means.”
Yeah, we all did. Sir Lancelot had the memory of an elephant and had lived longer than herds of them. As headmaster of one of the most prestigious schools of magic in the world, he had a wing in everything. He’d put feelers out to find Fury, Gorky, and his gang. So far there’d been no leads, and Gorky had vacated the cavern soon after we left it.
As far as my friends could tell based on what they saw before rushing me out of there, all but two of Gorky’s shifters had survived. Once my friends had determined we were overpowered and my injuries too severe, they’d done the sensible thing and retreated. Good thing I was passed out or I might have fought them on it.
I was going to find Gorky and put his head on a pike.
“Don’t worry,” Dave said. “This Gorky jerk will find you. No doubt he wants your pendant. He was looking at it like it was the Holy Grail. Of course, that was before my super badass and super-hot girlfriend kicked his ass.”
I pepped up. I hadn’t heard this bit before. “Who? Wren?”
Wren scoffed at me. “Yes, me. Who else?” Then she giggled like she was ten years younger, instantly making me want to ask the questions again.
“You should’ve seen her.” Dave squeezed Wren’s shoulder, beaming with pride. “She used her roots and branches as whips. She was everywhere at once, flinging those assholes in every direction. She picked Gorky up like he was a watermelon and threw him against the wall.”
Wren frowned. “Yeah, and he still got right back up. Those shifters are strong.”
“Well, at least two of them are dead,” Boone said. “So they’re not invincible. Ky ripped the head right off one of the grizzlies—”
Linda? I wondered hopefully.
“—and Leo disemboweled a wolf. I don’t think any shifter can come back from that.”
“Maybe. Look at me.” I gestured to my leg under the covers.
“Yeah, but you didn’t see this wolf,” Boone pressed. “Leo ripped out all of his insides.”
“Oh.”
“And the rest of us did some serious damage. I may have killed another of the wolves, and Rina might have too. And Dave did a number on the other bear, the female.”
Damn. So Linda was still alive and kicking, probably pumping some more iron even while we spoke.
Boone draped an arm around Adalia. “This girl had Gorky down long enough for us to nearly kill him. That sparkly magic stuff sure is awesome.”
“Super cool,” I told Adalia. “But I’m still going to have to beat you up once I get better. You never told me about it.”
She shrugged, settling into Boone’s side. “You have your secrets, I have mine.”
“What? I have no secrets from you. You won’t let me have them. And what you don’t give me grief about, Roberta does.”
Adalia’s opalescent eyes twinkled naughtily. “Hey, maybe Roberta should go home with you to help keep you safe.”
“Don’t you dare suggest that to her. I might be weak and dying and shit, but I’ll still find the way to hobble around to kick your ass. I can’t take another second of her … killer bunny-ness. I keep thinking if I say the wrong thing she’ll pick her teeth with my bones.”
A chuckle circled our group, but wariness rode it hard. None of us were entirely certain that wasn’t a distinct possibility. The only side of Roberta’s to be on was her good side. None of us had braved finding out what would happen if we got on her bad side, and I had no immediate plans to. I was a survivor.
“My bestie,” I legit growled, “will be remaining here or with her crew of killer offspring for the entirety of the break. If you suggest anything else, I’ll know.”
I injected an extra crazed twist to my stare until Adalia put a hand in the air. “Truce.”
But then I was pretty sure she whispered under her breath, “For now.”
I shot smoking death beams at her, but the tricky fairy had the ultimate distraction hidden up her fluttery, feminine sleeves.
“I found out how come Why’s so attached to you.”
“What? Really?”
She nodded contentedly as if she’d won a small victory. “Yep. Simple really. He says you’re black and white like him, which makes you just like him.”
“But I’m nothing like him.” I tugged on his pom-pom tail and he chuffed and flopped onto his back, demanding a belly rub. I didn’t bother pretending I wouldn’t give him what he wanted. With nothing better to do lately, I’d been indulging him far too much. He was spoiled rotten.
Adalia grinned, and I narrowed my eyes at her some more while I rubbed at Why’s fuzzy belly.
“According to him, you’re exactly alike. He says you’re family.”
“Aw, shucks.” Boone sniffled. “He’s a sweet bugger.”
We all took in the lazy, possibly narcoleptic, cupcake-obsessed cub. His legs hung limply in the air, his pink tongue lolled out of one side of his mouth and his eyes halfway rolled back in his head. The sheet around him was peppered with holes.
“He’s a menace,” I said, sighing in defeat. “Just a pretty fucking cute one.”
“Well, either way, you’re stuck with him,” Adalia said, far too happily. “He thinks you’re the best thing to come around since icing on cupcakes.”
I narrowed my eyes at her until I could barely see through them. “He didn’t say that.”
“He did,” she answered, but I could no longer tell whether or not she was lying. I suddenly got the feeling Adalia had a whole hell of a lot more going on behind that jovial face and peppy step than I realized.
Her grin widened until it was so bright you could probably see it from space. “He says you’re his person, and that you fit him as well as his horn on his head, or his tail on his bum, or—”
“I thought you said he talks like a toddler.”
“I get him. I hear between the lines. Life with him is about to get really fun.”
“What the hell does that mean?”
“Oh, look at the time. We’d better be going, My Prince,” she said to
Leander. “You have a portal to open to take the fae through to the Golden Forest.”
Leo looked between her and me before finally shrugging. “Yeah, I guess it is time. I don’t want everyone to be waiting on me without reason.”
As second prince of the fae, his subjects would wait all day long without complaint until he decided to show. But if he wanted to be a magnanimous leader, I was all for it.
“I suppose we should be going too,” Wren said to Dave. “We have to get to the airport.”
Wren and Rina turned doe eyes on me until I shooed them away. “Go. Have a fun break. And text me as often as you can. I’ll need the entertainment.”
Rina, Ky, and Boone were going with Leo and Adalia to the land of the fae. Though I’d tried to convince Ky to come home with me, Mom had thrown a fit about it, tossing around phrases like What do you think this is, a house of ill repute? And What will people say about my daughter’s virtue?
As soon as she’d started mentioning my virginity, which had expired a long while ago, I caved. I suspected the conniving woman knew exactly what she was doing.
Ky was to join the others in the Golden Forest, where Mister Mont was going to meet up with him and Rina to help figure out the pendant problem. As Ky and Rina’s dad was an expert on the supernatural community, it was a solid plan. It expanded our chances of finding a solution from just Sir Lancelot and the wizards to the knowledge of the author of the seven volume The Compendium of Supernatural Creatures. Add to that unimpeded access to the extensive library of the royal court of the fae and, well, it was help I couldn’t pass up.
“Where is she? Where is my daughter?”
That voice could only belong to one person.
“Hide me,” I ordered. “Take me to the boys’ dorm! Or, or … or to one of the vamps’ rooms. She won’t find me there.”
“Oh, she’ll definitely find you,” Dave said. “From what we’ve seen of her, that woman doesn’t give up easily.”
“She never gives up,” I whined, my grump coming out full-on. My mom and dad had visited me twice since I’d wound up in the healing wing. If I’d thought Mom had fussed over me before, I’d been dead wrong. If there were an Olympic competition in fretting, she’d win the gold, silver, and bronze.
“Jasmine?” her intent voice called ahead, weaving and winding through the sparse trees separating us from the healing wing like a missile seeking its target.
“Please hide me,” I begged. “It’s worth a shot.”
Wren shook her head. “Hell no. I’m not risking getting on your mom’s bad side.”
“Agreed,” Dave said. “Her bad side is like the dark side of the moon. Who knows what might happen there.”
“Fine.” I sighed in deep, devastating defeat.
“Mrs. Jolly!” Dave called out like the suck-up he was.
I’d show him the dark side of the moon…
“She’s over here, Mrs. Jolly.” He waved both hands like he was flagging down a damn helicopter.
“Oh, thank God,” Mom said, my dad trailing behind her, looking harried. I thought I spied an eye twitch.
“I had no idea where you were. I thought the academy had lost my daughter. It wouldn’t surprise me given all that’s been happening to you. Just look at you.” She swept her hand in front of her, sensible heels making quick work of the distance separating us, demolishing my elusive sense of freedom.
“How are you feeling today? How’s the leg? How—?”
“Excuse me, Mrs. Jolly,” Leo interjected since it was clear my mom wouldn’t stop, not even to draw breath. “But we have to be going. The fae are waiting on me, and Wren and Dave have flights to catch.”
“Oh, of course, my boy,” she said like she and the prince of the fae were great friends. “Go on. Now that I’m here to take care of my Jasmine, there’s nothing to worry about anymore. I’ll take such good care of her over the break that she’ll be right as rain by the time the new term rolls around. Assuming she’s coming back.” She turned back to face me. “Your father and I have been discussing the safety of the school. Look at how terribly you’ve been injured. This never would have happened if you’d stayed at home, where I could watch your every move.”
“Bye, Jas,” Rina said. “Take good care of yourself over the break. We’ll be in touch. Bye, Mrs. Jolly, Mister Jolly.”
My mom turned to wave at my cowardly, retreating friends, and while her back was turned I amped up my pleading puppy eyes to full wattage. I was pretty sure I even got my lower lip to tremble to make my last-ditch final plea more convincing.
Dad caught my act but said nothing, though I might’ve detected an amused glint in his eyes. My friends just shrugged, grimaced their sympathy, and waved.
When my mom turned back around to face me, Ky caught my eye and blew me a kiss.
It sank all the way into my heart, along with a whole heaping load of squelching disappointment.
“And this pandacorn,” Mom continued without missing a beat, “look at him with his horn. He’s a danger to you. He can’t stay with you. We’ll have to get rid of him. Maybe Melinda will look after him.”
Why snapped his head up and growled.
What. The. Hell? He understood her?
My mom waved a hand at him, the loops of fine golden bracelets on her wrist jingling with her movement. “See! A danger. Am I right, Gray?”
Gray—my dad—knew better than to disagree with my mom. After all, while I was away at school, he had to live with her full-time.
“A danger,” he muttered, tipping his head at me in apology.
I couldn’t entirely blame him. He’d probably surrendered ages ago. Since my injury, Mom had taken her momness to a whole new level.
“Why has to stay with me,” I announced.
“Why?”
I couldn’t tell exactly what she was asking: was she repeating his name in disbelief or was she asking me for a reason? In retrospect, his name probably wasn’t as clever as I thought at the time.
I went with an answer that would settle the matter for good. “Why has to stay with me because I’m his person.”
“His person? What kind of nonsense is that?”
I started to tune her out, exercising the skill I’d have to call on again and again over the month-long winter break.
For the first time in my entire life, I couldn’t wait for the vacation to end so school could start up already. At least I’d have Why to keep me entertained.
I planned on getting hold of Jabar the moment Mom looked the other way. He had a shit-ton of explaining to do.
While the others were searching for answers, I’d be doing the same. The sooner I got this pendant off me, the better.
I was ready to take my life back—and return Selene hers.
With solid friends and a boyfriend on my side, along with a pandacorn cub, I had everything I needed to make my remaining terms at the Magical Creatures Academy as magical as advertised.
Now, to survive winter break with my parents and get this blasted pendant off me.
The Voice, and any other pricks who wanted to take what wasn’t theirs, were going down.
I was going to make sure of it.
I didn’t know how or when, but the supernatural community was my world now.
The bastards trying to take it over could fuck the hell off.
Want More?
The next book in the Magical Creatures Academy series is:
POWER OBJECT
Book Two of Magical Creatures Academy - Next Level
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Is Power Streak your first book in the Magical Creatures Academy series? If so, Rina has her own complete trilogy that precedes Jas’. Read the start to the Magical Creatures Academy in NIGHT SHIFTER.
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Selene also has her own complete trilogy!
Read about half siren, half angel Selene
as she fights to make her way to the
Magical Creatures Academy
&nbs
p; in SIREN MAGIC.
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Are you curious about the origins of the Magical Creatures Academy world? Well, it all begins in the Witching World, a complete 6.5 book series. It continues in the Magical Arts Academy, a complete 13 book episodic series.
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Power Object
POWER OBJECT
Magical Creatures Academy - Next Level:
Book Two
New rule: When you find a shiny, pretty necklace, do not put it on.
Jas has long known about magical objects. She just never thought the pendant her summer fling left behind would be one.
Now Jas has to figure out how to master her pendant … before it masters her.