by KC Kingmaker
My main concern was for the Glove itself. We had already become a mangled hand, rather than a unified fist.
Now I worried our squad was knocking on death’s door.
Chapter 24
Coralia
THINGS HAD CHANGED since my return to Shadowblade Academy. I felt a new, fierce determination that had been lacking before. I wasn’t going to wallow in despair or let the bullies get the better of me.
Three things lived rent-free in my head these days, vacillating in importance: Finding Myria, Sunny’s absence, and Venn.
I had vowed to explore Myria’s disappearance with renewed vigor. The problem was I didn’t know where to start with my search, who to talk to, or what questions to ask.
As far as Sunny Conway, he’d been reprimanded since my return. It gave me a week of unrestricted time to attend classes and roam the campus without fear of being terrorized. Even Genevieve Jade kept her distance. Maybe she’d been told I was off-limits until Sunny returned from his punishment.
I worried Sunny would resent me even more once he came back from his prison stay. The thought freaked me out.
And finally, I couldn’t get my mind off Venn. The Unseelie fae surprised me in numerous ways. He had been the one to come searching for me while I ambled through the Crust in a sorry state. He had given me the boost of confidence I needed to make it in a place like Shadowblade Academy, where I felt severely underprepared and outmatched. The few times I’d felt his touch, my body had reacted by zinging with nerves and sweaty anticipation.
Honestly, everything about the man sent me into a tizzy: His interesting lilac skin and those fascinating violet orbs which hinted at a life of sadness. The way he could sweep me off my feet, effortlessly, and had done so on multiple occasions. His talkative nature and the kindness he’d shown me. The aphrodisiac scent of morning rainfall and misty thunder permeating off his skin like a drug.
He utterly intrigued me. I was starting to think of him more as the days went on. So much so, it was starting to cause problems in my daily routine. When Venn’s mischievous smile flashed in my mind, I found myself tensing with excitement, my thighs squeezing together while my heart pitter-pattered erratically.
“Are you still with us, Cor Cor?”
Charli’s squeaky voice brought me back from my daydream. I blushed, facing away from her so she wouldn’t see.
“You’re flexing your butt,” she pointed out, which only made me cheeks flare harder. “Try not to, uh, try so hard.”
Luckily, she’d misread the catalyst of my anxiety and tenseness. She thought it was mere frustration from my shadowcasting practice, rather than my dreamy fantasies of Venn.
I pushed him out of my mind, as hard as it was, and nodded my understanding to Charli. My palms were out, frozen in place, arms stretched in front of me as I stared at the lamppost in the corner of our room. I peeked over at the open textbook on my desk, making sure I had the incantation right.
Seconds later, the thin shadow on the wall twitched. I gasped and repeated the incantation, focusing harder on the shape of the shadowy line, which was thrown by a skinny lamppost on my desk. The twitching turned into slithering, as the shade curved in on itself like a snake. I slowly circled my fingers into my palm and the shadow followed the gesture, contouring into an S shape before my eagerness caused me to lose my focus. The snake untwisted and snapped back into its natural, beanpole form.
Charli squealed behind me at a dog-whistle decibel. She clapped wildly and jumped to her feet. “Yaaas queen! You’re doing it! I swear, you’re getting better every hour.”
I let out a shaky breath and wiped the sheen of sweat off my forehead. I turned to her just in time to catch her leaping at me. She wrapped me in a hug and we laughed.
Charli was right: I was getting better. Since returning, my abilities had boosted along with my confidence and drive. Ever since jarring free of the Spectral Realm, and my encounter with Dreamwatcher, everything seemed to come easier to me.
Something inside had clicked. I couldn’t help but wonder if my encounter with the handsome, spectral apparition had caused the growth. Perhaps touching me, after he thought he couldn’t, ignited my powers somehow?
I didn’t have any logical explanation for it. I wasn’t going to question my newfound abilities. The only thing that mattered was I could shadowcast now, where before I’d been unable to. Not very well, of course, but practice was making me better. And Charli was the most patient, encouraging teacher I could have asked for.
After wringing my hands out like I had just punched a brick wall, I found Bruce Kittenson watching me. He perched languidly on the bed, an unimpressed expression on his little face.
“Oh come on, Brucey. That was pretty cool. Admit it.”
The cat tipped his chin to stare at the stucco ceiling.
I plopped down on the edge of the bed where he’d made his nest, and ran my hands over his soft fur. “Are you still making a big fuss about that? It’s been three days since I’ve been back!”
“Mrow.”
“I didn’t mean to abandon you.” I picked him up to hold in front of my face.
“Tssss.”
“It was Sunny,” I said, nodding emphatically. “If you’re gonna bite anyone, bite him. Please don’t give me that look. I’m tired of it.”
Clearly, I wasn’t going to win with my kitty. He let out another hiss and I dropped him. He dashed under the bed to hide, and my heart sank. I might have been neglecting Mr. Kittenson, even though I hadn’t meant to. Hard not to when I’m surrounded by people like Venn Gable and Sunny Conway, stealing all my focus, and I’m trying to learn to be a shadow wizard and assassin, and I’m being bullied and sent flailing into other worlds! Plus there are midterms coming up.
“You’re being a big baby,” I groaned, feeling defensive. His scolding, muffled mrow from under the bed didn’t make me feel any better.
“He’ll come around,” Charli said, joining me on the bed. She gave me a sheepish smile.
“Maybe you could . . . talk to him? You know, when you, uh, shift into a fox.”
Charli tilted her head and giggled. “We don’t exactly communicate in that way. We can’t talk to each other telepathically or anything.”
“Oh. And you don’t speak the same language I’m assuming?”
Another giggle. “No, silly. Our means of communication is more . . . instinctual. It’s an impulse. An animalistic urge.”
I shot her a roguish smile. “That sounds vaguely sexual, Charli.”
Her freckled cheeks lit up like a Christmas light. “O-Oh, no! I didn’t mean—”
I laughed and looped my arm around hers. “I’m just teasing, honey.”
“Oh.” Her blush faded. “Thank the spirits.” She tilted her head on my shoulder and we sat in silence. I’d been back only three days, yet I felt more at home than ever before. Is this what Venn meant when he said to make a home with us? Or did he mean, um, specifically him?
I couldn’t complain either way.
“Hey, Cor Cor,” Charli’s little voice piped up. “What was it like being in the Shadow Realm?”
My brow pinched together. “It was like a blanket over the world. A dark quilt that blotted out all the shapes I’d come to recognize—you, Sunny, the park, the buildings.”
“Whoa.”
I had forgotten Charli hadn’t been able to shadowwalk either. She was close, it seemed, and before long I knew she’d have it.
“Was it scary?”
“A little. Not as scary as the fall to the Spectral Realm though.”
Her head lifted off my shoulder. “The Spectral Realm?”
“Yeah. Professor Avery hasn’t gotten to that one yet, I guess. Maybe she’s saving it for after midterms.”
“You mean there are two worlds? Are they, like, stacked on top of each other?”
“It’s the place you go when you Slip.”
“Oh! Professor Avery has mentioned Slipping.”
“Yeah. There might be
more worlds for all we know,” I said with a shrug. It felt nice being the one with information for once. Charli was as excitable a student as she was a teacher. The girl had a thirst for knowledge.
At the imploring gaze from her big eyes, I continued. “The Spectral Realm was more . . . human, for lack of a better word. It wasn’t like the world was shadowed in darkness, but rather, the world twisted on its axis. It was its own place, with couches and walls and such. I even met someone there.”
“Who?”
Hesitance prickled up my spine. How much should I say? I suddenly wondered. I came to a quick decision, because not only did I trust Charli, I was also eager to talk about my adventure. “A handsome man with long black hair. I called him ‘Dreamwatcher’ because he said names were useless there. He didn’t ask for mine.”
“Whoa, that’s crazy. Do you think he was real?”
“Who knows? I mean, he seemed to think so. He called the Spectral Realm the place for lost souls, where they go to roam endlessly.”
“That’s kinda sad sounding.”
“I know, right?”
Charli stroked her chin, eyes narrowing in deep thought. “If that’s where lost souls roam ‘endlessly,’ how did you escape, Cor Cor?”
“I’m wondering the same thing myself, Char. No idea.”
“Spooky.”
“Very.” We paused for a beat, both of us lost in our thoughts. I broke us out of our fugue, saying, “It’s strange, but I feel like my ability to shadowcast has come from being in that place, Charli. Like Dreamwatcher awakened something inside me, or made my psyche click in a way it hadn’t been clicking before.”
“I believe that,” Charli said with a firm nod. “It sounds mystical and eerie, yet magic is often unexplainable. That’s the beauty of it.” She beamed at me.
I matched her infectious smile and pushed back against my headboard, drawing my knees up. “True. I like that. I finally feel like I might not spectacularly fail the midterms.”
“You’ll do fine.”
“It’s only because I have such a good teacher.”
She blushed, averting her gaze with dimples forming in her cheeks.
I reached out and put a hand on her shoulder, drawing her attention to me. “Char? If it’s all the same to you, I’d like to keep what we just talked about between us for now, okay?”
“Of course.” She nodded diligently. “Your journey to the Spectral Realm is not my story to tell, Cor Cor.”
I wasn’t sure why I wanted to keep Dreamwatcher a secret from anyone else. Maybe it was because he gave me a sense of purpose and ownership, like I finally had a secret no one else at the Academy had. He was forbidden knowledge until I let his existence be known, which I would do at a time of my choosing.
I had a hunch there was something important about him—that I just didn’t know the specifics yet. Why else would Slipping having brought me to him both times?
Or, maybe I didn’t want people to know about Dreamwatcher because I wanted to keep him all to myself.
I LEFT THE MESS HALL with a sandwich tucked under my Academy jacket. It had been a breezy day, and a successful one as far as my classes went.
The honeymoon period from my visit to the Spectral Realm and my return to the Academy hadn’t vanished yet. Resolve tingled in my bones, and a niggling thought stayed in my head. I became determined to change the trajectory of my time here.
I couldn’t live my life in fear of others. Not after finally seeing my hard work paying off. I didn’t want anymore hiccups to bring me down. No more backpedaling—I would only move forward.
To that end, I made my way toward Fort Nocturnus, the bureaucratic center and looming castle near the cathedral-like Glimmer Hall.
No one guarded the entrance to the castle, which I found peculiar. After taking a long look at the stone spires and medieval ramparts overhead, I took a deep breath and entered the courtyard.
A few students and faculty mingled around the entrance of the castle. No one batted an eye as I walked in, which led me to believe the fort—at least the first level—was not as off-limits as I’d believed.
Huge, sculpted gargoyles leered at me in the courtyard. Cherubic fountain statues nestled between the gargoyles, creating an unnerving contrast between the two sights, like light and evil playing off each other.
I made my way toward the basement cellar and the jail cells. Since I’d been there before, I knew the way. It made my skin crawl, bringing back dreary memories as I moved from the elegant red carpets of the first level to the damp, stony underbelly of the cellar. It was like walking back in time to the Middle Ages.
A man stood guard at the first room before the jail cells. Dressed in a black cloak and blackened leather vest, he was the very picture of a dark warrior. When I entered the room with a confident stride, he asked, “What are you doing down here, ma’am?”
“Wrist Hudson wishes for me to see the prisoner.” I raised my chin.
“We don’t hold prisoners here,” he answered. A black mask covered half his face, his voice muffled.
I nudged my chin toward the familiar red cloak hanging from a coat rack behind him. “That would suggest otherwise, sir. I know who it belongs to.”
“We hold penitents here.”
“That’s very religious of you.”
“What is it you want, young lady?”
“To see the penitent you’re holding. Wrist Hudson wants to make sure he does not fall by the wayside with his studies while he’s cooped up in here.”
The guard paused a beat. “What if I think you’re lying?”
“Then bring it up with Wrist Hudson. If that’s the case, I’m sure I’ll be a penitent myself before too long.”
He let out a muffled chuckle. Then he stepped aside. “Maybe I’ll do that. For now, just be quick about it. As I said, the young man is not a prisoner.”
Call it whatever you want, buddy. If he can’t leave . . . I call that a prisoner. I nodded and marched past the guard before he changed his mind. Passing the lit torches on the wall, I stopped once I reached the initiation cell.
Sunny Conway sat against the back wall, head tipped against the stone. Veiny arms draped over his drawn knees. He looked relaxed compared to his usual noble demeanor. Not defeated, just bored. His eyes opened before my feet came to a halt. “Ah, what is this? A visitor?”
“Hello, Sunny.” A shudder ran through me. I reached into my jacket and took out the sandwich. “I’ve brought you some food.”
He cocked his head. “The human girl shows pity on the poor vampire?”
I wrinkled my nose angrily. “I have a name, Sunny.”
“I’m aware.”
“Say it.”
“Coralia?” he muttered. “It’s not like your name is a curse. Or maybe it is, since my Glove has seemed cursed ever since you first arrived.”
I poked the sandwich through the bars in the cell, wagging it. “So you don’t want the food?”
“If that’s what you think it will take to ‘break bread’ with me, you’re sorely mistaken.”
I shrugged and pulled the sandwich in, starting to unwrap it. “Fine. I could eat more.”
He glanced up and down my curvy body. “I’m sure you could.”
I bristled. “Fuck you, Sunny.”
I immediately regretted my outburst. I’d come here to try and learn why Sunny despised me so we could fix it. To kill him with kindness. The new strategy had been on my mind all afternoon. I didn’t want to screw it up by letting him push my buttons so easily.
He chuckled. “Do you honestly believe a sandwich will satiate me?”
“I have no idea.”
“It won’t. No, unless you want me drawing on your blood again, suckling at your neck . . . perhaps you miss that arousing sensation, and that’s why you’re really here?”
I gritted my teeth, hands flexing. I couldn’t stop the warmth that gushed inside my belly, my body betraying me. “You’re a dick, Sunny.”
“And you
sound bitter, princess.”
“Says the guy snapping at me from inside a jail cell.” I tucked the sandwich away in my jacket. Smugness filled me when I saw the vein in his forehead pulse.
There was a moment of silence as he leered at me. He filled it before I could deviate from our animosity, speaking in a lazy tone. “What do you want from me, princess? I’m busy.”
“I want to know why you hate me!” I blurted.
He said nothing, leering at me through those amber eyes dancing in the shadows.
“I was hoping we could let bygones be bygones,” I added in a hopeful voice. “Put our differences aside.” It was silly of me. I knew Sunder Conway preyed on hope and weakness. They gave him strength and power.
“I’m sorry to dash your dreams,” he sneered, then turned away to face a wall.
I backed away from the bars. My first interaction with Sunny, since the shadow sinkhole incident, was clearly a bust.
But what should I have expected? He obviously believed I was responsible for putting him in there.
I wouldn’t let his rude attitude discourage me. I would just have to try again another time, perhaps when the wounds of that event weren’t so fresh and tender.
I left him with a parting word, hoping it would sink in. My hands gripped the bars and I leaned my head forward. “I’m not the reason you’re in here, Sunny. You are the reason you’re in here.”
Sighing, I walked away. Before reaching the curve in the hallway, I glanced at him over my shoulder. “But I think you already know that.”
Chapter 25
Sunny
CORALIA CAME TO VISIT me the next day. And the next. And the next. For the final four days of my “penitence,” she slogged through the murky hallway in the basement of Fort Nocturnus, hoping to find some kindness inside me.
Each time, she was rebuffed.
No matter what I said to the girl, or how much I pissed her off or saddened her, she always came back with renewed determination the next day. Usually, she tried to bring me a peace offering of some kind: food, one of my textbooks for class, a bottle of wine she’d swiped from a fellow student. None of it worked. Well, I took the wine so I could drink away my boredom one night.