by Bob Dattolo
Betrayal
Published by Bob Dattolo
Copyright 2021 by Bob Dattolo
All rights Reserved
Cover art by rock_0407 at Fiverr.com
This eBook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This eBook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each person. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return this copy and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the author’s imagination and are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
This book contains violence, cursing, nudity, and sex and should not be read by anyone under the age of 16. If you are offended by any of these, please consider another eBook for your reading pleasure.
Contents
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Chapter 35
Chapter 36
Chapter 37
Chapter 38
Chapter 39
Chapter 40
Chapter 41
Chapter 42
Chapter 43
Chapter 44
Chapter 45
Chapter 46
Chapter 47
Chapter 48
Chapter 49
Chapter 50
Chapter 51
Chapter 52
OTHER WORKS
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
BACK PAGE SUMMARY
Chapter 1
My picture stared up at me from the little card until a hit from the side had me laughing and putting it down, “What?!?”
My former roommate, Parece, laughed at me. Unlike what we experienced three days ago, she has actual humor in her eyes, “Seriously? You’re been looking at that thing for like 100 miles.” She swept her long braids over her other shoulder, a movement I’m becoming more familiar with.
“I can’t help it! I have no freaking idea how those researchers managed to get me my driver’s license!”
From the front seat, Samantha laughed, catching my eye in the rearview mirror, “Yeah, well, what do you expect? They’re freaking ancient, and when they talk, people listen.”
“But to get me my license? They came out of the blue with that, too.”
She shrugged, “They did, but you didn’t say no, right?”
“True.”
Angelica, our other passenger currently in the front seat, smiled back at me, “Besides, that was payment for them being able to test you. You saw how eager they were for that. Hell, they paid us to wait three days just for you to be willing to do it!”
True, they did. “I guess. I don’t get it, though. Yeah, I’m a freak of a dragon, but c’mon, really?”
Laughter from the three girls. My former classmates. Future classmates, too. One was an ally of sorts, the other two started out as enemies and ended up as…not quite enemies? So hard to say with the North American Magics Academy.
When being murdered by your fellow classmate and drained of magic is a semi-normal occurrence, you can count on everyone around you to be a threat.
Since all four of us are dragon shifters and have a ton of magical power, that makes us all incredibly dangerous.
As are the others that survived the year one trial. 40 out of 88 of us walked away at the end. 8 opted out and are magicless stricken, with the other 40 being killed during the trial. Either by the challenges themselves or others. I killed several myself, but I didn’t do it to drain them. I did do it; I just didn’t attack in order to do it. I was defending every time.
This world is fucked up.
Parece touched my license, “Put it away now. You can stare at it later. Now…what’s the deal with your scars? You never said why they think you have them?”
All three girls looked at my eyes, although Samantha turned back towards the road quickly enough. Thankfully. “They’re honestly not all that sure why I have them and why they don’t heal when everything else does.” I felt the 12 scars around my right eye on the ridge of bone. Four larger circles in the center top, bottom, and then the corner of each eye. Then eight more smaller ones along the bone in between.
Remnants of the mortmagi I had hammered into my head when I was nine. Long story there. Suffice it to say, our magic is reflected in our eyes and connected to them as well. Lose your eyes, you lose your magic. Have those fucking nightmares pounded into your skull, and you lose everything at the same time you’re changed into a stricken. Magic tears at your mind, removing every memory of your family. Who you were. Up to and including your name. Everything.
Legally, you’re no longer who you were. You’re prey to the magical world. Less than human. They can do whatever they want to you, and even if you beg a cop, the cop can laugh and walk away. No matter what they’re doing.
And the magical world hates us.
I’m the only stricken to ever manage to get my mortmagi out without dying and I healed my ravaged eyes. All with magic I never should have been able to touch again.
No idea why.
“You saw some of their testing. They wanted to go through so freaking much.”
“True. They hid a lot, though. They know we have two more years, and they didn’t think you’d want us to know all of your secrets.” Samantha calls it like it is. We may be going on vacation for three months in between the end of year one and the start of year two, but there is a chance that we’ll be at each other’s throats in three months.
I don’t want that, but I’m starting to see the reality of our weird life. I hate it, but I’m starting to see it.
“They did. They’re really just not sure. They looked at all of the videos of everything that happened to me in the trial. All of the injuries. They swore that some of them should have scarred or at least caused issues. They would have on every other dragon. Hell, Levi’s face is still scarred and won’t get much better from where I clawed at his face.”
Levi hates me. Because I’m a stricken to start. Then because I was the mystery stricken that killed his parents.
Oops?
They shouldn’t have been beating and raping me when I managed to gain my powers back and broke free.
“We saw that.” Angelica shifted in her seat, sipping soda from a huge cup, “What’s he doing over break? He say?”
“Umm, not that I heard? I’m sure he told someone but it’s not like we hang or anything like that.”
More laughter from the girls. “No, you don’t hang.” Parece snorted, “He’s gonna fucking kill you. Or try. It’s been three days, and I’m still shocked that you saved
his ass. You could have been done with him and killed him. You could have left his ass there and let him lose his magic. Instead, you risked your own magic to save him. I just…damn.”
“I know. I know he won’t stop coming for me. It’s like what I said? He can’t change his mind if he’s dead. He can’t change his mind if he’s without magic. You can’t tell me that he wouldn’t have still tried to kill me if he didn’t have magic. That wouldn’t have stopped him.”
They each gave me a look.
“Riiight. A norm against a dragon? Any of us could kill a norm. We’re all stronger than one in our human form. As a dragon? They could hide in their house, and we’d still get through it and bust their ass wide open. That’s without our magic. So yeah, he could have still gone after you, but you could have killed him without really trying. Now? Now he’ll be there for the second year unless something freaky happens.”
“I know. I’ll cross that bridge later. I guess.”
“Yeah, you do that.” Our driver snorted and smiled at me.
It’s so weird being in the car with them. I was shocked when Parece asked me to join them. They wanted to go around the country for three months and vacation. After making it through year one, they wanted to do something fun. Something way less stressful than what we just experienced. So…yeah, here we are.
Speaking of, “Okay, where are we going again?”
Angelica pointed at the phone in the holder, “Currently? Or overall?”
“Umm, both?”
“Fine. We have three months. We’re hitting LA for a bit. Samantha will show us the sights. Then we’re heading across the country to Florida. We’ll spend some time there. Then up to New York. Then back over to Montana in time to start the second year.”
Samantha held up her hand, “Subject to change at any time!”
“Right.” Angelica tapped her raised hand with her soda, “Definitely that.”
“We still not visiting anyone’s family? I mean, hell, we can stop in at my parents’ place? I’m sure they’ll let you guys stay over. They’d love to meet you.”
Laughter from all three of them again. I’m on a roll.
“Riiight. You figure out who they are yet?”
“Umm, nope!” My smile hides the pain. At least a little. The girls can smell it, but it’s kinda oldish pain.
“Still no hints, right? We were there for one of the conversations with the researchers about that. It’s like they were trying to guide you to find them?”
“You guys picked up on that?”
Nods and agreement from each of them.
“So, it wasn’t just me? Good to know. As for that? I’m not quite sure what they were saying. Not really. I get that my parents were mages. I pretty much figured that out already. That’s kinda what I remember from when the stricken spell raped my brain. I know the researchers and the cops that found me know who they were. Are. Yet they won’t tell me. Legally, I’m not that girl any longer even though I am.”
“You still gonna kill them?” Parece asks the important questions.
“If I ever figure out who they are, and I think I can manage it? You damn well know it. I have no fucking clue if they did that all to me because I ended up with white eyes and white in my hair, but if they did? Fuck them hard for that. Oh no, our nine-year-old daughter isn’t a mage, she’s a dragon. Quick, get the razor fucking knives and ram them into her eyes! No, I don’t think so. If I can figure out who they are? They’re the first two names on my list of people to kill. And I plan on taking my time if I can. Making it last. I want them good and insane by the time I let them slip away. I want them to regret every fucking minute of their lives up to that point.”
Parece patted my leg, “Oookay, take it back a few hundred notches? The truck smells like rage, and it’s getting to us.”
Too true, even I can smell it. “Fine. Sorry.”
“You don’t have to apologize. I just don’t want it to fuck up our trip now that we finally got to start it.”
“Okay. I’ll calm down.” It took many, many deep breaths to return at least a little towards being calm and centered again. “Okay, where were we?” Ooh, okay, “The researchers? Yeah, they were hinting at things. I just don’t get it. I’ve thought about what they were saying again and again, and I think they were just sort of setting things up somehow. Maybe there were clues there, I’m just not positive. Nor am I sure why they’d want to give me that information.”
Angelica tossed a napkin at me, “Seriously? They want to give you that information so that you think favorably of them.”
“You’re asking me if I’m serious? They’re however many thousands of years old. They’re so powerful and old that they gave up their territories just to become researchers for our race. They’re not a council, but they might as well be. At least somewhat. Why would they want me to know that information and think favorably of them?”
“For a smart girl, you are one dumb bitch sometimes.” She smiled as she said it and her scent didn’t change to one of animosity, so I took it in stride. “Their jobs, their lives, is researching. You’re a dragon that shouldn’t exist. None of us have white hair or eyes. No mage does, either. Every one of us fits into one of the affinities. Except you. White stripes in your hair. White eyes. As far as they can tell, your affinity is magic. You can cast spells from all of the others and have the same ability to handle something like fire that a fire mage does. Or ice like an ice mage. All of us have strengths and weaknesses like that. Except you. You’re the only one of us that’s a dragon and human hybrid. You’re the only one with your freaky magic. Of course they’re gonna want to be on your good side, even if it’s only because they want to study you more.”
Fuck. “I guess.”
“No guessing about it. That’s why they want to do it.”
Samantha changed lanes and caught my eyes again in the mirror, “Now, what’s the deal with them saying they wanted to pull you from the academy?”
Now that killed the conversation for a bit.
Chapter 2
Another napkin came my way, “Spill it. What were they saying? I wasn’t clear on that.”
“Umm…they weren’t happy that I’m a freak and I was at risk in the trial. They didn’t like how close I came to dying. How close I came to losing my magic. They’re trying to see if they can get me out of the second- and third-year requirements due to being one of a kind.”
“Fuuuuck! Is that what they meant?” She sounds so impressed. “That’d be crazy. When will they be able to figure that out?”
“No idea. They wanted to do it for the first-year trial, they just didn’t think they could do it without me being required to become a stricken again.”
“Right. Do you mean how you are right now? Still?!?”
“Umm, yeah?”
She snorted, “You’re too funny. You had the perfect opportunity to change your name when you got the license. Why didn’t you take it? You had to get that they were pressuring you.”
“Yeah, I got that. I could have, but…what am I gonna hide by doing that? I don’t really think of it as a curse like you guys do. I told you about that. Call me that all you want. I don’t give a shit. Besides, if I changed it, what would I have changed it to?”
Parece squinted at me, “Huh…no…no, I think you didn’t change it for another reason.”
“Umm, what would that be?”
She sniffed, smile forming, “Yeah, I can smell that, you know. You don’t want to change your name because you have a name that you want to change it to. Just not yet!”
“How the hell did you figure that out?”
“What? She’s right?” Angelica looked back over her shoulder at Parece. “How the fuck did you figure that out?”
My former roomie shrugged, “I could be wrong, but I’m betting that she wants to change her name once. When she figures out who her parents are, she wants to kill them and take back what’s hers.”
Huh, good for you, Parece. “She’s right.”
“Damn, that’s crazy. I didn’t pick that up at all!”
Samantha nodded, “Yeah, me either. That’s your plan? Kill them and take back what’s yours? Including your name? What about your first name?”
“Since I have no idea what that was, I can’t really say. I may identify more with Maddie by then, so I may keep it? I want the last name, though. Well, unless it sucks. Then maybe not.”
Silence for a bit. “Back to the other thing? What will you do if they can get you out of year two and three without losing any magic?”
Fuck. I did not like Angelica’s question. They let me stew over it for longer than I expected. Finally, I sighed, “I’m just not sure. I’d love to walk and not have to go back to that madhouse, but…that’ll leave Kaylee there alone. I get that you guys don’t want to be allies with her, but I also know that almost everyone that lived through that fucking trial is middle-level or higher and more aggressive than she is.”
“You got that right, she’s afraid of her own shadow.” Samantha hit it on the head.
“Right. So, yeah, if they give me that opportunity? I may try to skip it and go anyway.”
“You’d go just so you can try to help Kaylee survive through it?” Angelica’s shock is mirrored by the other girls.
“It’s not a definite, but that’s how I’d be leaning. As it is? They have no idea if they can get approval to pull me out or not. That’s not their decision, so even the idea could just be a pie in the sky thing.”
Parece settled back on the seat, staring over at me, “You’re too much, you know that? You know that literally none of us would do that, right?”
“I know. I get it. You gotta look out for yourself. I wouldn’t even blame you if you did. At all. For me, though? I don’t know, I just feel like it’s worth it. At least at the moment when it’s only a possibility. Talk to me again if they show up and tell me to my face that they can get me out without having to go through the trials and I still get to keep everything.”
Samantha shook her head, “Yeah, no. We may not have spent a ton of time with you, but you’re just altruistic enough and insane enough to not accept it if it’s offered. Fuck, you saved Levi and barely made it across that final beam with two seconds to spare. A kid that haaaates you. Kaylee begged you to save her and is only alive because you busted your ass for her. I’m not seeing you leaving her behind.”