Disruption: An Academy RH Paranormal Bully Romance (Fallen Fae Academy Book 5)

by Rachel Angel

  Almost noon.

  She left the table and headed to the kitchen where she rummaged through the cupboard for something quick and easy to eat but could find nothing. She considered heading to the campus cafeteria for a quick bite but questioned the wisdom of going out while Ethan and Colin were gone.

  Then again, she couldn’t let herself go hungry until they returned.

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  She rushed up the stairs, hopped into a pair of tight blue jeans, tucked the white button down shirt in and slipped a black leather belt on. Hurrying back down the stairs, she stopped just long enough to glide into a pair of flip flops and headed out.

  The campus was quiet as she made her way to the cafeteria, but once she entered the large room, she was assailed with the cacophony of the hungry.

  She nonetheless got in line, mulling over the possible choices; lasagna, shepherd’s pie or meatloaf. She finally opted for the lasagna accompanied with a slice of garlic bread.

  With the tray in hand, she looked out at the overflowing cafeteria. All the tables were full and as she walked through the row of tables, she noticed April sitting alone at a table by the bay of windows.

  Barely glancing at April, Harley passed by the table as she looked to the tables beyond.

  “I saved you a seat,” April called out.

  Harley looked back at her, her eyes narrowed in suspicion. “Why?”

  April shrugged. “Why not?”

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  Disruption (Fallen Fae Academy #5) Seeing little other choice, Harley sat down facing April.

  “Good choice,” April said looking at Harley’s lasagna. “The lasagna is particularly good today.”

  “Is it?” Harley droned.

  “Your new and improved kitchen seems to have inspired the chefs. They’re actually adding flavor to their dishes. Not that I want to criticize the previous glamouring, but it did leave a lot of room for improvement.”

  Harley took a bite of her lasagna and had to admit that April was right, but she said nothing.

  “I think it’s the cheese they’re using,” April went on. “Provolone probably. Or something like that.”

  Harley looked up at her old friend. “Did you really invite me to sit down to have lunch with you so we could discuss the new lunch menu, or did you have something more pertinent to talk about?”

  April shrugged. “I thought we might just chat… you know, about nothing in particular…

  about this and that.”

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  “Those days are over, April,” Harley said, hearing the rebuke in her voice. “You made sure of that.”

  “I’ve noticed that you’ve been keeping those big and beefy guys around,” April said. “That’s a good idea. A lot of people want to get to you.”

  “People?” Harley said flatly. “You mean dark faes.”

  “If you prefer,” April said. “Anyway, it’s probably a good idea you have protection around you at all times.” She looked around. “Speaking of which, where are your lovely and handsome bodyguards?”

  “They’re just outside,” Harley lied. “The smell of the human food in here doesn’t sit well with them, as improved as it may be.”

  “You know,” April said. “It’s been pretty dull at the dorm since you’ve been gone. It’s just not the same without you there.”

  Harley shrugged. She didn’t really care one way or another if April found it dull.

  “Did you know that Cici and Ashley spent some time in our room?”

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  Disruption (Fallen Fae Academy #5) Frowning, Harley looked at April. “What do you mean ‘spent some time’?”

  “I was heading back to our room and I saw them walking out, giggling like two idiots. They didn’t even bother with any glamouring. They were just their ugly troll selves.”

  Harley chuckled. “That’s kind of funny coming from you. I mean, when you peel away that veneer, you’re pretty ugly yourself.”

  April grinned. “Believe it or not, there are varying degrees of ugliness, even among dark faes.”

  “Allow me to be skeptical.”

  “I’ll allow,” April said with a chuckle.

  “Besides, their ugliness wasn’t the only issue I had with them. I mean, do you remember their fashion sense?”

  Harley giggled as she remembered how brightly colored Cici and Ashley liked to dress.

  “Like that time Cici wore a lavender suit trimmed with canary yellow.”

  “Yeah,” Harley said. “I remember that one.”

  “Damn,” April went on. “The poor thing looked like an Easter egg.”

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  “Oh, April,” Harley said, almost forgetting that April was no longer her close friend.

  “Well, anyways. I don’t know what they were up to, but I’m sure it’s no good. As long as I can remember, they’ve always been like this. They always have to push things too far. I’m not cool with that.”

  “You’re not?” Harley said with genuine surprise. “Isn’t your whole reason for being to push things too far and make life crap for all those around you?”

  April simply shook her head as she reached out for Harley’s garlic bread and took a bite.

  “That’s garlic, you know,” Harley said.

  “Yeah,” April quipped. “I know.”

  “Aren’t you, like, I don’t know, allergic to garlic or something?”

  April laughed. “That’s vampires, Harley, not faes. Faes can eat whatever they want.”

  Harley let out a belly laugh, and just as quickly, felt thoroughly sad. She missed laughing with April. She missed her friendship. She missed the fun they always had together.

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  “You helped me get back at them,” Harley said softly, remembering why she had liked April so much. “After that trick they pulled on me at the gallery, you helped me teach Cici and Ashley a lesson.”

  “Yeah,” April said with a nostalgic sigh.

  “That sure was fun.”

  Harley looked at April, seeing all the wide-eyed innocence she’d seen that very first day. She was so bright and bubbly, so full of cheer and life.

  For a long silent moment, they looked at one another.

  “Don’t look at me like that, Harley,” April finally said. “Geesh, you’re making me feel self-conscious.”

  Despite April’s protest, Harley continued to look at the girl who’d once been her best friend.

  “What?” April said. “What are you staring at?”

  “Why?” was all Harley could say. It was a question that plagued her mind ever since she’d learned of April’s true identity. She couldn’t help wondering why April had turned to the dark side.

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  April looked down at her empty plate, then, while glancing across the room, she took a sip of her soda, averting Harley’s gaze.

  “Why, April?” Harley repeated.

  April shrugged.

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  Chapter 19

  Harley

  “Well,” Harley said as she finished off the last of her lasagna and took the last bite of her garlic bread. “Thank you for saving a seat for me.” She stood and picked up her tray.

  “Where are you off to?” April said.

  Harley looked at April who had also gotten to her feet. Why do you care? she wanted to say. “I have a class in twenty minutes.”

  April followed Harley as she handed her soiled tray to an employee and headed outside.

  “Why are you following me, April,” Harley said, though deep inside, she was actually happy to 249

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  have April at her side. Despite learning that she was a dark fae, she still found a degree of comfort being with her old friend.

  “I thought you might want to help me investigate what those ugly trolls wer
e up to,” April said.

  “You mean Cici and Ashley?” Harley said.

  “Investigate what? Just go back to your place and see what they did.”

  “I did go back to my place,” April argued.

  “There was no sign of them being there at all.”

  “Then I really can’t help you,” Harley said as she headed to the Magical Devices class.

  “Oh,” April let out. “Maybe the investigation will be easier than we thought.”

  Harley looked at April then followed her gaze to see Cici and Ashley coming toward them.

  Though they were dressed in typical Cici and Ashley fashion, their true dark fae ugliness was on full display.

  “Well, if it isn’t the bright light of the fae world,” Cici said as she shot an up and down glance at Harley. “Where are your two goons?”

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  “They’re keeping a respectable distance,”

  Harley said. “They were suffocating me a little too much.”

  Ashley came up close to Harley. “I don’t think you really know what suffocating feels like,”

  she whispered. “It would be my pleasure to show you.”

  “Do you really want to tempt your luck?”

  April said, coming up to the pair.

  Ashley backed off and scoffed.

  “Don’t bother with her,” Cici said. “When she finds out what we did, she’ll suffocate enough.”

  Sensing a bluff, Harley ignored Cici’s comment, but April was quick to face Cici.

  “What is that supposed to mean?”

  “Oh, April,” Cici said. “You are such a poor excuse of a dark fae. You know, you really make all of us look bad. You never did get the hang of it.”

  “I saw you two walking out of my apartment,” April said. “Why? What were you doing in there?”

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  “Having a little bit of fun,” Ashley said with a snicker.

  Harley clung to the hope that they were just fooling around, trying deliberately to get under her skin. But with every passing comment, she sensed there was something going on.

  Cici and Ashley glanced at Harley.

  “You’re awfully quiet for someone who has so much to lose,” Cici said.

  Ashley looked at Cici and laughed. “Maybe it’s because she knows that she’s already lost it all.”

  “You know, for two ugly trolls with no redeeming qualities, you sure seem to have a lot to gloat about,” Harley said.

  “And why not?” Cici said. “We just accomplished the impossible. We just took away one of your most treasured items.”

  “What’s that?”

  Cici shot Ashley an overly dramatic look of shock and surprise. “Oh,” Cici said. “Did you hear that? She hasn’t even noticed that they’re missing.”

  “What’s missing?” Harley said, growing increasingly frustrated with their silly game.

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  “Not ‘what’, silly, but who,” Ashley said.

  Harley’s heart began to pound with fear.

  Ethan and Colin. Had Cici and Ashley seen them head off to the faery realm? Had they stopped them… done something awful to them?

  Closing her eyes, she instantly regretted having sent them off. If something happened to them, it would be her fault.

  “You know,” Cici went on. “You’re quite careless with those you claim to love.”

  “Stop with the riddles, already,” April said.

  “What did you two do?”

  Giggling, the two dark faes looked at one another and took a step apart. Cici brought her hand, palm up, between herself and Ashley who also brought her hand up, as if forming a small platform.

  “Why don’t we show you,” Cici said.

  A small puff of green smoke appeared above their palms and as the smoke faded, Harley saw the dark and blackened place she’d been brought to when they had dragged her to the dark faery realm.

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  The smoke smelled of the realm, bringing back memories of her time in the horrid place. A shiver ran down her spine as she remembered the fear and the hopelessness she’d felt.

  But why were they showing her this?

  “Does this bring back a few pleasant memories, Harley?”

  “What’s your point?”

  “You know, what you went through on your journey through the dark realm was nothing. You saw the lighter side of the darkness.”

  Harley shrugged, still not understanding why they were showing her this.

  “Take a closer look, Harley,” Cici said. “See anything you like?”

  Harley looked into the dark fae world and saw movement… fighting. Was it Colin and Ethan?

  She couldn’t make them out. They were far away and relentlessly fighting an onslaught of dark faes.

  “They’ve been fighting like this for hours, Harley,” Ashley said. “How long do you think they can keep this up? How long before they falter and fall and succumb?”

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  Disruption (Fallen Fae Academy #5) The two warriors finally turned to face her, showing their identity. It wasn’t Ethan and Colin at all.

  It was Kingsley and Oak.

  Harley let out a loud gasp as if someone had punched her in the stomach, causing Ashley and Cici to laugh uncontrollably.

  “How do you like that?” Cici said.

  “What are they doing there?”

  “Your lovers are just so predictable, Harley,”

  Cici said. “They crossed into the human realm and headed straight for your old dorm room. It was just too easy to trick them into thinking we were you and April, and just one little bite of a delectable desert and they were putty in our hands.”

  “You’ll notice how much more toxic the environment is for them,” Ashley added. “We wanted to give the crowned prince and general a real challenge.”

  “You’re not going to get away with this,”

  Harley said.

  April chuckled. “You know, this is the Princess of Spring you’re talking to. I think you 255

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  guys might have pushed her too far. There’s no telling what she’ll do to you now.”

  “Nothing,” Ashley said with a snicker.

  “There’s nothing she can do.”

  Harley stared at them in disbelief.

  “Don’t look so crestfallen, dear,” Cici said.

  “They had it coming. I mean, with what they did to us. Play us, betray us, mock us. No. I’m telling you. Kingsley and Oak deserve every tortured moment that they’ll experience.”

  “Harley has magical powers beyond anything you two idiots can imagine,” April said.

  “Doesn’t matter,” Ashley said. “Kingsley and Oak in a highly specialized prison. There’s no getting out. It’s strengthened with the highest magic in all the faery lands.”

  “Why are you doing this?” Harley finally said, finding her voice shaky and tense.

  “In times of war, many things must be done,”

  Ashley said with a sinister grin.

  “So, then, what do you want?” April said.

  Cici and Ashley looked at Harley.

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  “As it turns out, you are the biggest prize on this campus,” Cici said.

  Harley looked at them, her breathing ragged and short. She had no idea what they meant, but she knew it wasn’t good. Nothing with them was ever good.

  “I heard through the grapevine that an exchange may be possible,” Ashley said.

  “Yes,” Cici added. “It appears that a sacrifice must be made in order to ensure Kingsley and Oak’s safe return to their respective kingdoms.”

  “A sacrifice?” Harley said.

  The ugly trolls burst out laughing as they looked at the torment on Harley’s face.

  “This is priceless,” Ci
ci said. She looked to Ashley. “Why didn’t we think to do this sooner? I just love that lost puppy look in her eyes.”

  Ashley quickly silenced her laughter and turn cold hard eyes to Harley. “Yes, dear. A sacrifice.

  You in exchange for them.”

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  Chapter 20

  Harley

  With their laughter trailing in the breeze, Cici and Ashley left while Harley just stared at them, stunned.

  “What just happened?” Harley whispered to herself, almost forgetting that April was still there.

  April put a comforting hand to Harley’s shoulder.

  “They want a sacrifice,” Harley said. “Like what? They slit my throat and drink my blood?”

  April let out a light chuckle. “No. I think you’ve watched too many movies, Harley.”

  Harley looked at April and reluctantly smiled. “Then what do they mean?”

  “I think they’re asking you to change allegiance,” April said.

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  Disruption (Fallen Fae Academy #5) Harley stared at April who held her hand out to her.

  “It appears that it’s time you came to the dark side,” April added.

  Staring at April’s hand, Harley shook her head. “I can’t do that. All the kingdoms. The wars.

  The twins. Colin and Ethan. This academy. April, I can’t. I can’t abandon all this.”

  “What alternative do you have?”

  “I don’t know.” She slapped April’s offered hand away. “But it is not that.”

  April squinted as she looked out at the sundrenched campus. “It’s a beautiful day, isn’t it?”

  Harley looked up at her. “Really? I’m being asked to go to the dark side, and you want to comment on the weather?”