by Eve, Jaymin
Supernatural Academy: Year Three
Jaymin Eve
Contents
Stay In Touch
Supernatural Academy Map
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
20. Asher
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
33. Asher
Chapter 34
35. Asher
Chapter 36
Chapter 37
Chapter 38
Chapter 39
Chapter 40
Chapter 41
Acknowledgments
Also by Jaymin Eve
Jaymin Eve
Supernatural Academy: Year Three
Copyright © Jaymin Eve 2020
All rights reserved
First published in 2020
Eve, Jaymin
Supernatural Academy: Year Three
No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, without the prior permission in writing of the publisher, nor be otherwise circulated in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition, including this condition, being imposed on the subsequent purchaser. All characters in this publication other than those clearly in the public domain are fictitious, and any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.
Cover: Tamara Kokic
Editing and Proofing: Lee from Ocean’s Edge Edits and Amanda Steele
Stay In Touch
www.facebook.com/JayminEve.Author
www.jaymineve.com
[email protected]
When you feel like you’ve been stripped to nothing but bone.
When you are tired and hurt and can’t go on.
You have strength. You have worth. You are enough.
Also … your bones are sexy.
This will all make sense after you read Year Three.
Supernatural Academy Map
Chapter 1
For the first time in many years, I contemplated allowing another person to join me in the bathroom while I changed my hair color. The yearly ritual was usually an act I committed alone, my time to erase the past and push for a new future. A new year to get it right.
Lately I’d been feeling a little off about the whole thing.
If the last two years at the Academy had taught me anything, it was that a new hair color didn’t change my fate. I couldn’t circumvent the truth of who I was, couldn’t change my role in this world.
No matter how hard I worked, I couldn’t seem to change a damn thing.
Still, the entire point of the different hair color—outside of the clean slate thing—was that it was the one thing I could control, the one part of my life that no one could take from me.
So the ritual continued.
This year I had chosen a color that meant a great deal to me, the color of the ocean when the sun’s rays hit it just right, turning translucent water into a hue of greens and blues—when it was so clear that one could see down for miles. The color of Atlantis, its jeweled tones casting calm across the city. The color of my third year at the Supernatural Academy.
Aquamarine.
I once again had the fleeting hope that this color would be kinder to me than pink and purple … wishful thinking at its finest. There was no way I’d ever say it out loud though, tempting the Fates when those bitches hated me.
Swirling the mixture one last time, I was impressed with the perfect shade of aqua staring up at me from the dish. I’d already done the base prep-work to strip the purple away. If only I could strip away the scars from the year of purple as easily.
“You okay in there, Mads?”
“Yep, I’m all good,” I called back to Ilia, not sure if that was the truth or not. Maybe if the nightmares would just leave me alone … if I got a decent night’s sleep … if there wasn’t a fucking god popping up whenever he felt like it to torture me. At least I’d ditched my phone so no more random texts, but he was still out there.
Biding his time.
Ugh. I needed to stop being such a maudlin bitch and accept that there was bad in every life, and I had a shit-ton of good as well. I needed to be happy about that. If I had one resolution this year, it was to find the happiness in whatever moment I could, because last year had been dark. Really fucking dark. I wouldn’t go there again. I could never go back to that place.
Determination filling me, I lifted the bowl of color and got to work. I had this down to a fine art, and due to whatever special nature in my hair, new color took hold and stayed with bright perfect pigments for as long as I wanted it.
An hour later, I shut off the hairdryer and went back to my room to find Ilia and Larissa both fast asleep on my bed. A chuckle burst from me, before I managed to choke it down. Ilia looked uncomfortable, her long body scrunched up against the headboard, red hair smushed on one side and springy curls on the other. Larissa’s head was in her lap, the new shorter blond strands tangled everywhere. Both of their mouths were open as they breathed deeply.
Guess I’d taken too long on my hair.
I ruffled the light aqua strands again, loving the feel of the silky lengths falling across my face. This new tone shifted the color of my irises from a deep blue to something closer to green. It was almost magical the way my skin and eyes adapted to the new hair, shading themselves to suit it. Some Atlantean/god power probably … one of the more awesome ones.
Stepping silently, I gently rearranged my friends so they were more comfortable, draping a blanket over them. Neither of them stirred at all, beyond exhausted, and I was glad we’d decided to forgo attending any of the New Year’s Eve parties tonight.
That didn’t mean the Academy wasn’t filled with celebrating students. Many had returned to kick off the New Year’s festivities before we started our new school year on the second of January. How the hell I’d been here for two years already… There was no denying my life had changed in almost every way from the first moment I was kidnapped by Ilia.
For the better. So much better. I’d take the pain just to feel all of the love.
With my bed fully occupied, I left the room, wandering pretty aimlessly through the halls of the magic users’ tower. It was quiet, none of the usual witches and wizards dashing about. Even the common area only had three people in it, all of them watching a Christmas movie. It was still the season apparently.
Eventually I found myself heading to my favorite place here. The one building that drew me more than anywhere else. Or at least the people inside of it did.
The Atlantean mansion.
The Atlantean-five wanted to be with me tonight, not just because they got a kick out of my hair transformation, but also because it was my birthday. I’d told them I’d be by later after I hung out with my girls and drank some fey wine. The birthday thing really wasn’t a big deal. I was pretty much the only one in my group of friends who even bothered to acknowledge the day of birth. Atlanteans were just not into
it, and since we were almost certain most of us would live for hundreds if not thousands of years, it felt silly to keep caring about a number.
Some habits … rituals … they were hard to break though. Like my hair. Even if I was having the strangest feeling that maybe this would be the last year I changed the color.
Why it would be the last was still to be determined.
Taking the final set of stairs down to the common area of the dorm, I felt my spirit pick up at the thought of settling in for an all-nighter watching movies with my boys. I loved when we hung out together, family style. I couldn’t wait to see Asher, my love, the sexy fucking god of an Atlantean, who did things to my body that were probably illegal. Not to mention the things he did to my heart.
I had a dream, one that I didn’t linger over during these trying times, but deep down I knew: I wanted to spend my life experiencing the world with Asher Locke.
With our family. Our brothers.
Axl, spouting off whatever cool random fact he was studying that week; Calen, flirting and asking me a million questions about Ilia, who he was lowkey obsessed with; Rone, strong and silent, but always with these moments that were so damn sweet my teeth would ache; and Jesse, my current pain in the ass problem. He would be brooding, doing his angry-at-the-fucking-world thing he had going on. Jesse and I were close, probably closer than any of the others outside of Asher, but lately he’d been withdrawn and absent.
I hadn’t said anything, because I had an idea what was upsetting him, and he was entitled to feel all of the feelings. I deserved some of his anger. I’d leaned hard on Jesse when I thought Asher was dead. We’d gotten super close, and while I loved him, it was the love of a family member, not the love of a soulmate.
I just wasn’t sure he felt the same way.
Only one brooding Atlantean owned my heart and soul, and that was Asher. I just needed to find Jesse his own perfect match and he’d understand.
Icy winds brushed across my bare arms as I stepped out of the magic users’ dorm. The weather had been more unpredictable lately—Axl believed it was the newly “unlocked” powers of Asher, Connor, and me. He was working on a spell to end the erratic weather inside the Academy, but he was only in the initial testing phase.
My feet moved faster as I dashed through the commons, noting that it was much busier here. Partying had a lot of hungry supes around, and I marveled at the magical appearance of food on the tables.
I could definitely destroy a burger—
“Maddison!”
I jumped as a tiny fairy appeared before me, brow furrowed and hands on her hips as she examined me closely.
“Mabs,” I said, recovering quickly, smiling at her. “Where have you been? The library has felt empty without you.”
Mabs was the literal queen of the fairies, an ancient, immortal, and frankly scary supernatural creature who had been the keeper of the Atlantean library for many years. It had taken us a long time to find it, but since the true Atlanteans were back inside the library walls, she was free to leave. It had been a few weeks since I saw her last.
“I went to visit some old friends,” she told me, a look of confusion still on her face, “but your … energy, it drew me back.”
She waved her tiny hands across me, gossamer wings flapping rapidly. She was dressed just in a thin, almost transparent white gown, and I wondered if her magic kept her warm in the frigid air or if she was immune to the cold.
“Your soul is dark,” she murmured, and I made a coughing gasp sound.
“What?” I blinked at her, trying not to panic. Did she just say dark? Uh, that was definitely not a flattering color for a soul. I mean … how freaking dark was it? Like light gray? Or … brown, maybe? I mean, as long as it wasn’t black, I had a chance, right?
Her tiny, perfect face scrunched up, like she was thinking hard.
Fuck.
My panicked thoughts were cut off as she shook away that pained expression, flying a little higher so we were eye level. “No, no, no. Calm down, Maddison. Your heart is going to pump out of your chest. It’s not dark in an evil way. There’s a heavy pressure inside your essence … it’s dragging you down. Your spark and joy is fading.”
“Fucking hell, Mab,” I breathed, hand on my chest. “Way to scare the life out of a chick.”
My soul was metaphorically dark, not physically. I could work with that.
And I didn’t disagree. I’d felt it for days. Drowning in my fears ... and the fucking dreams would not leave me alone. I’d almost lost everything last year, more than once, and I think I had some sort of PTSD, because the fear that this year would be even worse was terrifying me. Funny part was, I couldn’t even remember what I dreamt. Just that it was red and fiery, and I woke up terrified and exhausted.
Fun times.
“I’m trying to capture the happiness,” I told her. “ I promise. It’s just … hard, you know?”
“Don’t let them win,” Mab said fiercely. “If you let them get inside your head, you’ll have lost the battle before it even begins. You can do this, Maddison. You would never have been blessed with your path if you did not have the skill, courage, and power to walk it.”
I wanted so desperately to believe her, but she hadn’t been there. She hadn’t seen the way the gods handed our asses to us last year. It was pure luck that we’d made it out alive. Luck and Sonaris, who I now owed a favor to. A favor he could call on at any time.
Hence the nightmares.
“He could ask me for anything,” I murmured, realizing that a large part of what was pressing on me was that. “I should never have given him that sort of power over me. I might have risked everything, and I feel like I didn’t even try and fight as hard as I should have. I could have pushed through my fear, stepped further into the underworld and found the Hellbringers. I should have fought the gods then and there!”
I was just short of shouting at this stage, but she didn’t seem bothered by it. If anything, there was a different look on her face … almost like excitement.
“Don’t wait for him to come to you, then,” she said, lowering her voice. “There’s a way to destroy the gods, you just said it out loud. Now you need to figure out how to bring that plan to fruition.”
Hellbringers.
The mythical creatures who could supposedly kill a god were never far from my mind. The one weapon that I might wield.
“It’s too late now,” I murmured. “I can’t get back into the underworld. Well, even if I could, it’s literally littered with gods who are probably not very happy with me. They’re not going to let me stroll in there and find the very beings who can destroy them.”
Mab smiled, a little intriguing smile. “There is another road into the underworld, accessible by the living. It will be difficult and dangerous. You’ll have to take a journey that no supernatural being has survived before, and you won’t be able to do it alone. But you can survive this.”
“Will you help me?” I pushed.
Her lips pressed into a thin line. “I wish I could say yes. I want to help you more than I can tell you. But I’m sorry. I can’t. I can’t be trusted with original magic, and it’s littered throughout that place. Just … trust me, it’s better I’m not there.”
I wanted to ask more questions about that, because there was a lot she wasn’t saying. But this wasn’t the time.
“So who do I need?” I asked. “Asher?”
She paused. “Yes and no. He will be vital to this journey. But he is not all you need.”
Fuck’s sake, Mab. This shit was like trying to pry secrets from the dead.
Thankfully, before I could lose my shit at the ancient, powerful, possibly crazy fairy, she started to talk again. “Right now you’re not ready, but you will be soon. The path will open to you when the time is right, so for now train your powers and bond with the other two born of both worlds.”
Useful. Thank you. “How long do I have to train?”
Her eyes glazed over. “I don’t see everyt
hing. It looks like there’s one time only that the doorway will open for you. I sense that you’ll be nudged in the right direction. When the timing is perfect.”
I sighed. “You can’t give me more information?”
She shook her head, focusing on me again. “No, I can’t. As I said, I don’t see everything, and I also don’t want these words to reach ears they shouldn’t. Evil lurks in the darkness. I have faith, though, that you’ll learn everything when it’s time for you to know.”
Ah, yes, that old caper. Pretty sure it was time for me to know now. Or even five years ago.
Before I could say another word, Mab vanished, doing her too-powerful-for-her-own-good thing. To be perfectly honest though, I was glad she’d found me. Her visit had lifted a weight from me, only a minute amount but the sliver of hope that she’d given me cracked some of the darkness in my psyche. If Mab said there was a shot at defeating the gods, then I would trust her.
A shot was more than I’d had ten minutes ago.
Chapter 2
“Holy gods,” I gasped, head thrown back, hands clenched around two pillows as my legs moved against my will. “Ash, seriously. Fucking hell.”