Spirited_A Reverse Harem Fantasy Romance

by C. M. Stunich

  Tapping my fingers against the front of the desk, I felt my mouth curve into a small smile as Brynn of Haversey appeared under one of the stone archways with her handler, looking nervous as fuck as she chewed her lower lip and shifted her large, black wings nervously behind her. Her long white hair rested in a braid down her back, swaying slightly as she took a spot in the back row, third seat down.

  Just like I knew she would.

  Okay, so my powers aren’t entirely useless, I thought as I tried to get a read on her mind and found her … completely blank. The corner of my lip twitched in a slight smirk. She was blocking me on purpose. Clever trick. Smart, too.

  But that wouldn’t stop me from doing what I needed to do.

  I was done with this building, sick of being stuck in one place. I was meant to travel, to experience things, to study and learn, share my knowledge with the world. I wasn’t the queen’s pet—not that I often had much useful information for her anyway—and I wasn’t quite ready to give up on life either. Even if I was dead.

  No, Brynn of Haversey was a mediocre spirit whisperer … but only because she had untapped potential. In reality, she was a walking, talking weapon just waiting to be unleashed. It was already clear with all the spirits she carried that she was on her way to being one of the most powerful whisperers in the country, if not on the entire continent.

  Luckily for me, that meant she could act as a point of binding for a number of spirits. All it took was a bit of focus from the ghost himself and a spark of magic from her. Perhaps, I should’ve asked before taking the liberty of arranging such a moment for myself.

  But … I was quite desperate.

  Seriously fucking desperate.

  And I wanted out.

  Keeping my focus trained on Brynn, I waited for her to get settled, searching the room for her three tag-along spirits. I could sense them in here, but I couldn’t see them. Good. If it was only the crown prince that was hiding, someone might be tempted to seek him out. But a cluster of random spirits? Most people would overlook that—at least for a while.

  Maybe Brynn and her crew would figure out that resurrection spell that was running through their minds on repeat? Fascinating thing that. And I so desperately wanted to be a part of that research. Any spirit would, really, which was good reason to keep it hidden. The Double Blessing on that girl was bad enough. If word spread too quickly or reached the wrong ears, she could be in for some serious trouble. But the gods liked their favoritism and their symbols known, so while it was a good decision not to announce such a thing, it was also impossible to keep it completely secret.

  Reaching back, I grabbed the container of spook dust and moved it forward, silencing the chatter in the room almost instantly. Taking a small handful, I tossed it over my head and waited for the expressions in the room to change from bored or nervous or apathetic … to interested.

  “Good morning, everyone,” I said as I scanned the room and found the Vaennish prince, Dyre, sitting in the front row with the fox around his shoulders. I didn’t know much about this prophecy of mine, other than that he was in it. And two seats down from him, a blonde half-angel that I also recognized. So, today was indeed the day then? I’d thought it was possible, but I wasn’t sure. “My name is Professor Cross, but you’re welcome to call me Spicer so long as the dean isn’t present.” Several students in the room chuckled, and I smiled.

  Focusing on Brynn of Haversey, I sent out a thread of magic, a probe that would push on her mental shields and, if I wanted it to, delve as deeply into her mind as I needed to go. That is, if she let me. But someone with as much magic as that girl, she’d put a stop to it right off the bat with a little surge of her own power. And the magic circle I’d drawn under her chair? That should take care of the rest.

  “Don’t get too comfortable. Before we get started on anything in here, we’re going to get to know each other out there.” Pointing my finger toward the stone arches, I gestured vaguely in the direction of the forest side gate to the Royal College. “You’ll be broken up into groups of five—four first-year students with a sixth-year student to mentor. And then … then we’re going into the woods.”

  I winked, just before I shoved forward with my power and made Brynn gasp, her handler reaching out to comfort her, just before those shields of hers snapped into place exactly as I thought they would, making my stomach lurch and my head feel dizzy. All it took was an ember of her magic, and that circle I’d drawn would flare to life and readjust my point of binding.

  For most people, it wouldn’t be quite so easy.

  But I’d been living at the college for a long time with nothing to do but study and eavesdrop. That, and Brynn was a natural focus point, drawing spirits to her like a moth to flame. And she had the heat of power to support that light, a wealth of strength inside of her that even she wasn’t aware of.

  With a small snap and dizzying little flutter in my belly, it was done.

  That easy.

  My grin morphed into a slight smirk.

  Even if the visions I’d been having were nightmarish in quality, it was worth the risk.

  I’d rather go with Brynn of Haversey and find out what those bloody flickers of the future entailed than sit around here gathering dusts and cobwebs for the gods only knew how long.

  “Stand up,” I said with a clap of my hands, pushing off the edge of the desk and striding to the front of the dais. I took a deep breath, even though I didn’t need one, and caught Brynn’s gold eyes from across the crowd. “And check the posters on the back wall: I’ve already assigned your groups.”

  There were a few moans here and there—mostly from the younger students—but the class was a good mix of young adults ranged age seventeen to twenty-one, much less dramatic than a normal secondary school group would be. Thank the gods—I couldn’t abide by teenagers.

  “Brynn,” I said, pausing at the end of the row as she stood with her handler and waited for the crowd around the posters to thin out.

  “Yes?” she asked, turning to face me with one cocked brow and a wary look settling over her features. “What do you want?”

  I grinned at her. Couldn’t help myself.

  “Why,” I said as I dragged out the moment for my selfish suspense, “you, of course. And that’s why I just bound us together.”

  I didn’t quite expect her to punch me.

  “You can’t do this,” Brynn was saying as I rubbed at my jaw and wondered how ballsy a student really had to be to punch at teacher—even a dead teacher—on the first day of class. “I don’t want you following us around.”

  “Well there’s not much to be done about it now, is there?” I asked as she folded her arms over her chest and her handler looked at me with blatant disgust, shoving a fall of blue-black hair over one shoulder, dressed up in a fishtail braid just like her whisperer’s.

  “Do the spell again and re-bind yourself somewhere else,” another voice said, and a moment later Elijah of Haversey, the prince’s cousin, reappeared at her side. He fluffed his wings up and stood close to her, close enough that their feathers mingled in what most certainly did not appear to be an accidental caress. Hmm. Lovers then? They were both actively trying to shield their thoughts from me. I’d have to wait for them to let their guard down if I wanted to know for sure.

  Which … Gods, what was wrong with me? Of course I didn’t want to know.

  Even if we didn’t have much of an age gap, there were boundaries. I was a teacher; they were students. Period. End of discussion. What they did in the bedroom was none of my business.

  “The mineral I used for the circle,” I said, pointing back at the seat. “Is none other than the silver ash you were looking for the other day. Once you’d mentioned it—”

  “I didn’t mention it,” the handler, Jasinda, inserted, narrowing her blues eyes on me, “you stole the thought from my mind.”

  “Skimmed it accidentally because you were thinking so hard about it,” I corrected, lifting a finger and then rubbing a
t my sore jaw again. Within a few minutes, the pain would fade completely. But it was nice to feel anything at all, so I wasn’t complaining. Blocking off normal emotions and feelings was what turned a spirit into … something. I’d rather feel pain than lose my sense of self. “And unless you want to offer up some silver ash, the pinch I used on that circle was the only pinch I had. Besides, I can help you keep your thoughts shielded, protect the prince and the resurrection spell from other mind whisperers. I’m not the only one on campus, you know.”

  Brynn of Haversey just gaped at me as the boy with the bloodred hair flickered into view on her other side, looking me over like he was considering cutting my throat in my sleep. Even as a ghost, I wouldn’t put it past him. It’d still hurt and to be fair, I’d probably deserve it, too.

  “I say you exorcise him and then beg the queen for forgiveness. I’m sure with Air’s blessing, she’d grant it.” The dämon man smirked at me as I tucked my fingers in my pockets and canted my head to one side.

  “I won’t invade your privacy,” I promised, but Brynn was already raking her fingers through her white hair and pacing.

  “There is no privacy already! And now you want to tag alone for the ride? Sorry, but I’m not exactly thrilled about any of this.”

  “Blood and ice,” I said and she paused, watching me as I reached a hand up and put my palm to my chest. My ink was going wild today, further conformation that I was right, that this was happening. And soon. “All I have are flashes of faces, blood, snow. I think it’s happening today.”

  “Your prophecy?” Elijah asked and I nodded, slicking my fingers through my hair. It was a bad habit, but better than what a lot of mind whisperers resorted to: cutting, drinking, snorting spook dust, committing suicide.

  Oh.

  Wait.

  I had done that last one … but only once, in a moment of weakness.

  “So can we avoid it?” Brynn asked, and I smiled. It wasn’t a happy smile though.

  “Trying to avoid it could make it happen. Trying to make it happen could make it null and void. It could make something worse happen. Just … be alert, is what I’m trying to say.”

  “What use are your prophecies if you don’t know when or where or even why you’re being shown them?” the thief boy scoffed.

  “I’m not being shown them as a blessing,” I said, feeling very much like the teacher educating his student. “It’s a side effect of Verstand’s madness. My god’s faults bleed into me. Seeing these visions is a curse.”

  “And falling right into them is an inevitability?” Brynn asked, pausing her pacing as the blonde girl waiting on the steps cleared her throat dramatically, obviously frustrated that we were the last group to leave. Wasn’t she going to be surprised when she saw me tagging along? I hoped it didn’t cause any further animosity between the two spirit whisperers. But, fuck, it probably would, wouldn’t it?

  “Nothing is inevitable,” I told Brynn, gazing into burnished gold eyes, rife and brimming with power. “Just stay sharp, pay attention, and hope the blood that’s spilled … isn’t yours.”

  “I can’t believe we got stuck with that girl,” I said, even as my eyes followed Brynn of Haversey up the side of the hill, my tongue sliding across my lower lip. I wasn’t fooling anyone—least of all my brother, Trubble. I didn’t … well, couldn’t hide anything from him. He’d probably been able to read me inside our mother’s womb.

  “The snooty blonde one? I agree. She’s insufferable,” Trubble said, curled around my shoulders and watching the two half-angel women glare at each other as they trudged up the path and into the snow. We’d spent all day on flat ground, in the relative warmth of the sun. But now that we were starting our ascent into the mountains, scattered bits of snow chilled the air and clung to the limbs of trees.

  “No, I mean the other one,” I grumbled as Trubble and I lagged behind the two spirit whisperers and their handlers. It was easier this way, if my brother and I kept to ourselves. First off, he was hard to explain. It wasn’t the simplest thing in the world to tell a stranger that my mother had been sleeping with the king of Vaenn and a spirit at the same time, that my brother and I were twins. He from the spirit’s seed and me from the king’s. “The clumsy one,” I added, just seconds before Brynn tripped and seemed to magically right herself.

  The ghosts.

  She had a whole horde of them with her, didn’t she?

  I didn’t care to look.

  “You are so full of it,” Trubble said, yawning as he took in the surrounding forest with interest. The woods down here in eastern Amerin were nothing like the thick, dark nightmares up north. “You’ve wanted to mate with the girl since the first moment you laid eyes on her.”

  “Don’t say mate,” I grumbled as we climbed the mountain, following the rather simple path. This whole excursion was a joke, a useless exercise attempt to create some sort of bond between students. And assigning me as a sixth-year mentor? That was just plain silly. “I don’t want to mate with anyone.”

  “You’re a virgin,” Trubble scoffed and I had to resist the urge to reach up and smack him. When he bit me, it hurt. “Of course you want to mate. You’re practically desperate for it.”

  “And you’re a whore,” I told him because there was only one day a year that he was able to shed his fox form and walk amongst humans. And he didn’t exactly do a lot of walking during that twenty-four period. Instead, he spent the whole time scheming on how he could get girls on their backs.

  “If you like her, you should just tell her instead of skulking back here like some sort of mouth-breathing creeper boy from school. Be a man, Dyre, and confess your feelings.”

  Gritting my teeth, I ignored my brother as best as I could and kept walking, wishing there was more than one day a year that we were able to get more than eighty feet apart. It’d be nice to have a break from him. As it were, I was about ten seconds from tearing him off my shoulders and throwing him into a snowdrift.

  “The air seems much thinner up here,” Brynn’s handler, Jasinda, was saying as she took the lead and sucked in a deep breath. “Is anyone feeling light-headed?”

  “I’m fine,” Brynn huffed, but she looked like she was damn near falling backwards and about to go rolling the rest of the way down the hill. Maybe her ghosts were keeping her upright?

  “If you keep staring like that, she’s bound to notice your interest sooner or later—it’ll just come across as creepy. Say something. Ask her out.”

  “They can hear you, you know,” I snarled, but my brother was too busy fluffing his nine tails to pay me much attention. “I don’t want to ask her out. She has enough boyfriends already.”

  “That’s ridiculous,” Trubble said with a yawn, biting my ear in playful warning. “If you like the girl, then it doesn’t really matter how many other lovers she’s got. What’s Amerin law allow again? Nine? Or is it a dozen?”

  “Leave me alone, Trubble,” I growled, but the sound only served to draw Brynn’s attention over her shoulder. Our eyes locked and I felt my entire body grow hot, my palms going sweaty … just before she slipped on a rock and fell backward. Without thinking, I darted forward and managed to catch her, my arms sliding through ridiculously cool patches in the air that must be spirits.

  “You just touched another guy’s balls,” Trubble added helpfully as Brynn readjusted her footing and smiled at me.

  “Thanks,” she said, putting her hands on her hips and taking a deep breath. Just standing this close to her made my heart feel like it must just beat right out of my chest. Ever since that night in the Vibrant, when she fought off the gashadokuro, I’d been interested. There was something about her that fascinated me, even as she annoyed and frustrated me at the same time. Because she did. She was clumsy and weird, and I had no idea why the queen would entrust her with the crown prince. Seemed a tad ridiculous to me, but what did I know?

  I was only here temporarily and only because I needed to find some way to save my family, restore my mother’s thro
ne, bring my country back to life. The Royal College was a means to an end. I was Vaennish; I didn’t belong in Amerin.

  “My little brother has a crush on you,” Trubble blurted as I reached up and covered his tiny head with my hand. He bit me, but I just gritted my teeth and pushed myself through the pain, moving past Brynn’s surprised face, past her handler, and walking quickly enough that I ended up next to that noble brat Felixa and her handler.

  She gave me a wary look and narrowed her eyes, but I ignored her.

  All I wanted to do was get this stupid assignment over with, find the mushrooms on our Spell Supply Treasure Hunt List, and head back to campus. Group bonding exercises weren’t really my thing.

  “ Stop being so antisocial,” Trubble muttered when I let go of his face and sucked the blood from my wounded palm. “A day’s hike there and back, what’s the big deal? Can’t you at least pretend not to be a weird for that length of time?”

  I refused to acknowledge him this time and finally—finally—he settled down like he was going to sleep. Meanwhile, we continued up the side of the mountain until we reached the short peak. This was just the beginning of the range. Up ahead, snow covered triangles drove into a gray sky, the sun reflecting off the blinding virgin white with a glaring intensity.

  “Jassy, you have the list?” Brynn asked in that husky voice of hers, hooking her thumbs in the straps of her pack and breathing way too hard for such a short climb. She was terribly out of shape. But also curvy and round in all the right places, with bronze skin and hair the color of snow. And those wings? As black as night. I wanted to touch one so badly, see what the silk length of a feather might feel like against my fingertips.

  “Got it,” the Amerin girl said, presenting both the provided list and a notebook with ridiculously detailed drawings and notes in it that laid out the mushrooms’ prime growing locations. Wow. In this, at least, I was impressed. “We should be at a high enough elevation to find this one.” The girl tapped a long finger against the image of a solid black mushroom with white spots. “It’s the most difficult one to find, so if we start there, we can work our way back through the simpler fungi.”