I hesitated for a beat, ready to force out an untruth, and then fury gripped me. The vamps had already taken too much from me. I wouldn’t give them my identity as well. “Onyx.”
“Thank you, Onyx.” With that, he turned the corner, and once again, I was alone.
Chapter Two
It was during my long walk home to the projects when a sense of dread crept into my gut like a coiled snake and made the space under my chest its home.
I’d never told my name to a complete stranger before, human or fae. Just like the boy’s mother, mine always warned me it was best to keep my hair long, keep to myself, and never, ever tell someone my name or God forbid, where I lived. At least I had a human mother I could hide behind who worked long hours at a local burger joint and not in some vampire mogul’s house. My fae father, whoever he was, had left my mom pregnant eighteen years ago. I had him to thank not only for the target on my back, but for leaving us struggling to pay rent and put food on the table.
The sirens of police cars echoed in the distance, floating through the spaces between dingy apartments and dumpsters that reeked of poverty and struggle. But the sound didn’t come any closer, and by the time I reached my street about thirty minutes later, the wailing had faded completely. By then, I could expand my chest and actually breathe, even though what I had to do next weighed heavily on my shoulders. I’d have to tell Mom that we needed to move, in case that kid got caught and they tortured him for info on the purple-haired girl who helped him escape. I wouldn’t put anything past the vamps. Since the most elite of them ran the world’s biggest businesses, they could get away with anything, including making people, human or fae, simply vanish.
I grimaced as my building came into view. Cherry Street Apartments sounded like a nice, charming place to call home, but in reality, it was a crumbling cement building that smelled like piss just outside the creaky double doors. I held my breath as I crossed the threshold, debating on what exactly to tell Mom. Why did I have to be such a stupid idiot? Mom’s life was hard enough as it was.
“Mom.” I stepped into our second-floor apartment. She was supposed to have her day off today, so at least I wouldn’t have to wait the whole day to break the news. “I need to talk to you.” Closing the door behind me, I let my sneakers creak across the old wooden living room floor and turned the corner into the kitchen where Mom stood with one hand on the counter.
Our gazes met, and she swallowed hard, her hands tightening around the edge. Mom’s black hair was disheveled as if she’d woken up from sleep in a hurry and her eyes were bloodshot and rimmed with dark bags. The air thickened and the smell of brewing coffee filled the air, but even the hiss of the pot couldn’t distract me from the four black-uniformed men standing in the kitchen with her, badges shining.
“Mom?” My breath caught, and I stepped back. The four men were all human. They had to be in order to come out in the daylight. But that didn’t set me at ease. Quite the opposite. Their tight jaws and bulging muscles made the panic snake lash out and bite.
“You must be Onyx. You’re coming with us to Nocturna Academy,” the man in the lead said. His name tag read Moore.
No, no, no! The boy. He must’ve gotten caught and betrayed me. They probably promised to let him go in exchange for me, and then most likely kept him anyway. Greedy bastards.
Before I could move, the four men advanced, taking advantage of my shock. Their Supernatural Department badges shone in the pale kitchen light. Rough hands wrapped around my arms in a viselike grip, and my sneakers squeaked against the old tile as they pulled me back toward the exit.
Mom moved her lips, but no sound came out, and she made no move to stop the men. She was watching as the SD arrested me!
“What’s going on?” I thrashed against the two men who held me while the other two circled behind. I glimpsed one reaching into his pocket and producing a syringe before sweeping it out of sight. “Mom? Do something!”
“I can’t. Onyx, I can’t.” Mom stood there like a frozen statue. Why wasn’t she grabbing the steaming coffee pot or the kitchen knife? Why wasn’t she fighting my attackers? “They would’ve gotten you sooner or later. It had to happen eventually.” Mom turned away, cutting herself off from me.
“Why did you let them in?” I tried to lunge forward, but my captors held me tight. I swung my feet, needing to kick something, but Mom had cleaned the floor of empty containers and boxes. Tears of rage and heartbreak gathered in the corners of my eyes. “Mom! You can’t let them do this to me!”
She didn’t reply. She didn’t even turn around to face me.
“We need to go,” one of guards standing behind me said.
I was on my own. Mom was too afraid to go up against these guys. If I got loose and grabbed that steaming hot pot of coffee, I had a chance at getting us both out of here. Then I could figure out what happened. Lifting my knee, I aimed for Moore’s groin as he held my left arm with both hands, but he was well-trained and shifted to the side, pulling my arm with him. I raked my knee against only air, missing by inches. Why didn’t I inherit any magic? My deadbeat father managed to fail me that way, too.
“Onyx. Cooperate and you will not be hurt,” Moore said in a voice that might be calming under other circumstances.
A needle jabbed into my shoulder from behind, and a burning sensation spread under my skin before invading my muscle. I gasped from shock and pain as the needle withdrew.
Hands of fatigue pulled the strength from my limbs and my knees gave out. Moore and the other Supernatural Department agent in front of me held me up with ease. The two nodded to one another, and Moore spoke, “There, there. Rest now.”
My eyelids drooped, heavy, and I let out a sigh. My heart rate slowed, and I took a sharp inhale as I realized they’d injected me with some kind of tranquilizer. “Hey, what…”
Neither of the guards answered me. I fought the urge to hang on to consciousness, to hang on to my shitty life that was going up in flames, but couldn’t. The last thing I saw was Mom giving me a final glance before she reached for her pack of smokes, stuck a cigarette in her mouth, and lit up.
My body felt like lead as I turned over on top of some neatly made bed sheets. I breathed in, wondering where the heck I was, but unlike the faint moldy scent of my tiny bedroom, this place carried air that was cooler. Fresher. Wherever I was reminded me of a cave even though I had never been in one before.
“I was wondering when you’d wake up, sleepyhead.”
The girl’s voice cut through the darkness behind my eyelids, wrenching me fully awake. I opened my eyes to find that I was in a bunk bed, on the lower level. The room was maximum the size of a few closets mashed together, with brick stone walls. That explained the cave smell. A small window opposite me, just above a dresser, looked out on an evening sky. Or was it an early morning? The horizon was pink. And was that a mountain in the distance? “Is this...a jail cell?”
“Do you see any bars or handcuffs? Well, can’t blame you for wondering. When the SD picks you up, what else can you expect?”
I craned my neck to find a girl with cropped red hair looking over the side of the upper bunk and down at me. I cried out and kicked as if the guards were still here, but a breath later, I realized it was just me and this girl in the small bedroom. Us, and a single dresser that looked as if someone had trash-picked it. Two garbage bags of clothes rested near the dresser, and the top of one was open, revealing my favorite black tank top.
“Are we—” I started, not wanting to finish. This place looked like a dorm.
“I’m your roommate. Welcome to Nocturna Academy.” The girl’s grin faded. “Sorry they picked you up.” Her slightly pointed ears told me that she too had fae blood. “I’m Blair. The Department caught me when I accidentally set the dryer at the laundromat on fire when I got mad at my boyfriend. Happens when I get mad. Never cheat on redheads. You know how it goes.” She climbed down the ladder and landed in front of me, extending her hand for a shake.
“I
s that a greeting or a warning?” I blurted, heart racing as I tried to process that I had landed in the infamous Nocturna Academy, where vamps and fae went to school together. Mom had told me about it. Vamps learned how to rule the world in secret. Fae learned how to be servants or worse.
“What do you think? Well, are you going to shake my hand or not?” Blair raised her light, plucked eyebrow, waiting. At least she was grinning and seemed to have a sense of humor.
“You set things on fire?” Elemental fae were very rare. Most fae stuck in the human world were of the light nature variety, like the boy I’d rescued. Or thought I had rescued. I shook Blair’s hand, cringing in anticipation, but besides feeling some normal body heat, nothing happened. If I was in Nocturna Academy, getting set on fire might not be the worst thing in the world. “My head’s spinning. I’m sorry.”
“They drug all the fae they bring through the tunnels and up the mountain.” Blair released me and flicked her gaze to the small window, one that looked sealed into the stone and impossible to open. Even if we could open it, there would be no squeezing out unless we managed to shrink ourselves to the size of rabbits. And though I didn’t know much about the fae world since my deadbeat father never bothered to show up and talk to his half fae daughter, I was pretty sure that wasn’t on our abilities list.
Despite this, I climbed off the bunk bed and stared out of the window to discover we were surrounded by a mountain range. The Rockies. I had heard rumors before that Nocturna Academy was nestled deep in the mountains, atop a plateau and well out of view of ordinary humans. Apparently, that was true. “Shit.”
“That sums it up.” Blair frowned. “Thankfully, summer prep is mostly us fae catching up before the main classes start. Most of the vamps won’t be back until fall which is when we get our majors assigned. If you need help with anything, let me know.” Her emerald eyes sparkled, and I was grateful that she seemed rather happy to have a roommate and not sulky that she had to share the tiny space.
However, as nice as Blair appeared, the thought of spending my spare time inside these gray walls, hiding from whoever roamed the halls, made invisible bugs crawl over my skin. The bricks felt as if they were getting closer, squeezing the air from the room. “It’s nice to meet you and all, but I’m not staying.”
Blair pressed her lips together. She seemed cool enough, but I wasn’t here to make friends and learn how to serve the vamps. I’d take the first chance I got to slip out of here. Then, I’d find a place of my own, maybe even move out of Colorado. Mom worked such long hours that I had been running the household anyway. I even took care of the grocery shopping and paid the bills for her. Well, I had.
Blair crossed her arms. “Don’t you think we’d all leave if it was that easy?”
I shrugged. I didn’t care what went through the heads of other fae. For all I knew, they enjoyed serving the vamps, drawn in by promises of riches. It sure seemed like an easier life than constantly hiding and being on the run. “Where’s the exit?”
“No idea. The only ones who use it without being drugged are the vamps. It’s somewhere in the castle, that’s all I know.”
Great. My roommate was useless. I pulled open a drawer. Balancing on it carefully, I pressed my palms against the window, staring at the outside world. My heart, now free of whatever drug the Supernatural Department had pumped into me, pounded, desperate to escape my ribcage. I turned my stare downwards. Far, far below, inky water spread out in a giant ring, interspersed with jagged rocks and a few pine trees that stuck out of the lake. We were in a castle, on a cliff. A cliff! I took a sharp breath.
Blair’s dark look confirmed that Nocturna Academy was isolated and inescapable.
At least for now. I climbed down from the drawer. “Can you show me around?”
Blair chuckled. “Sure, but we’d better wait until sunrise. The vamps are more active at night, and a few of them are in summer prep because they pissed off their parents or flunked their classes. Avoid them as much as you can. You’re lucky it’s a Saturday, and we don’t have classes yet.”
Lucky indeed. I took a deep breath and focused. I was at Nocturna Academy, the place I’d been working to avoid my whole life. To get out, I’d learn the layout of this darn school and run before the vamps could destroy my life.
Chapter Three
The weekend flew by. I barely blinked and already it was Monday. With the vamps having the right to leave the academy on the weekends, I hadn’t run into any of them or anyone else really. I had chosen to mope in my bunk bed after Blair had shown me the massive castle that imprisoned us. With its multiple floors of classrooms, indoor gardens built on fae slave labor (according to Blair), oil lamp lighting, and drafty corridors, Nocturna Academy screamed both privilege and fortress.
Now that it was Monday, I could no longer hide underneath the covers.
“Get up!” Blair shook me as if there was any chance that her old school alarm clock that screeched like a banshee hadn’t woken me up. “You don’t want to be late for Lord Sullivan’s class.”
With a groan, I threw back the covers and rose. I massaged my lower back, which ached from sleeping on the springy bed. I might’ve only had a mattress when I lived with Mom, but I would take that any day over a bunk bed. Mom. Mom, who had done nothing as the SD took me away. Mom, who just watched. I swallowed hard. I knew she was only mortal and no match for four muscled guys who were probably heavily armed, but the irrational part of me wished she had put up a fight, that she had done something to stop them.
“Hello! Are you deaf?” Blair waved her hand in front of my face, and I snapped out of it. I had no time for self-pity or ruminations. I grabbed my school uniform and pulled it on. The white shirt, gray blazer, and pleated black skirt fit me perfectly, molding to my body. I hated the effect the outfit had, highlighting my B cup chest, my hips, and my waist, making me look like a woman. I wished I could go back to wearing my jeans and hoodie and blend in. I had heard that while vamps looked down upon fae, it didn’t stop them from tangling with us sexually. And that was the last thing I needed.
“Don’t forget these.” Blair threw something at me, and I reflexively caught the black piece of clothing. Over-the-knee stockings. Great.
“You’ve got to be kidding me. I’m not wearing these.” I was not going to advertise my body.
Blair sighed. “You must. If you don’t, the first time, they’ll cut your meals for a day, the second time, it will be much worse…”
“How much worse?”
She busied herself with her school bag. “They might bite you or whip you. I don’t suggest finding out.”
The way her shoulders were hunched, I guessed she had received at least one of the punishments she had mentioned. It was obvious how uncomfortable she was, and I didn’t want to make it worse by asking. Instead, I pulled up the black stockings and groaned. I looked like a stripper. Why couldn’t I have legs like Blair? Then at least I could pretend that the stockings were long socks, sort of what soccer players wore.
“What about breakfast?” I grumbled as I followed Blair down the dark corridor that was beyond creepy. The floor and the walls were laid out of gray stone and only a few candles illuminated the way, creating a lot of shadows everywhere. Our tower didn’t even have the luxury of oil lamps.
“We overslept breakfast.”
Blair didn’t look at me, and I knew immediately she was lying. I might’ve spent less than forty-eight hours with my roommate, but I had picked up that no eye contact meant she was holding back.
“Really? I slept past your eardrum shattering alarm?”
She cringed as we walked down the covered corridor that led to the rest of the castle. “I figured it might be best if we go straight to classes on your first day.”
I fell silent, not quite ready to find out what horrible thing might’ve happened at breakfast that Blair was shielding me from. Would the other kids haze me? Throw yogurt on my uniform and get me in trouble? I didn’t expect a warm welcome, but Blair’
s words made me steel myself as I followed her down the wide, red-carpeted stairs that led to the floor below where the classrooms were. The fae and the vamps were in two separate towers. Blair’s and my bedroom was on the first floor of the fae tower, with two floors above us. Apparently, your social standing decided what floor you were on, with lucky us being on the lowest one. I knew that as a magicless half fae I wasn’t worth much, but I had thought that Blair’s unique fire abilities would get her a higher place in the hierarchy. Well, maybe not if she didn’t know how to control her fire.
Before I could ask her whether she was receiving training on her element, we reached the main section of the castle, which consisted of winding corridors lined with heavy wooden doors and oil lamps. A chill still hung in the air. My poor legs broke out in goosebumps, and my stomach turned. Yeah, Blair had the right idea when it came to skipping breakfast. We ducked into Lord Sullivan’s classroom and the bell rang, and by bell I meant an ominous gong, as if it was necessary to remind us that we were in Dracula castle. The classroom was half empty, but full of wooden desks, and lit with a single chandelier that sported globe lamps. I counted eight students besides Blair and myself. Everyone was dressed like us, save for two boys who wore red blazers and black pants. I stared at their identical bronze skin, gelled hair, and cruel faces—twins. Twins were extremely rare among magic wielders, which made them very special.
But they weren't fae.
“Like what you see?” one of the boys winked at me, revealing the tips of his fangs, and Blair snatched my arm, digging her hot fingernails into my skin. She pulled me away from them and toward two empty desks on the other side of the room.
“Ouch,” I hissed. It wasn’t as if I wanted to talk to those guys. They had trouble written all over their faces, and a dangerous, predatory gleam in their eyes, even if they were smoking hot. My body betrayed me by tingling in all the wrong places.
Academy of Magic Collection Page 37