by KC Kingmaker
Minutes later, I was downstairs with Charli, munching on an empanada as we walked toward our first class together. Heavy quietness joined the morning fog as we marched toward Alchemy class, giving our trek a gloomy, ominous feel.
“Don’t worry, Cor Cor, you’ll do great,” Charli said, noticing my anxious vibe.
I gave her a weak smile. “Same to you, Char.”
What she didn’t know was that my nerves were due to everything except the midterms. At least for my first test, I had an ace in the hole.
PROFESSOR FRILLY HAWKINS paced around the desks of the laboratory, examining students with the stern demeanor of a commander on a battlefield. The tall professor had her hands laced behind her back, her posture rigid, her lab coat swishing. She made every Ghost nervous with her mere proximity.
Silence lingered over the room during the test, with only the clacking of Hawkins’ heels and the trembling clatter of vials filling the space. The task was a solo one, which meant absolutely zero student interaction.
We were supposed to craft the best, most useful poison or potion at our disposal. In theory, it was a simple test, but the execution—measuring the perfect amount of liquids, mixing them right, and not screwing up—was where things could get dicey. Afterward, we were to be graded on the efficacy of our alchemical composition and any mistakes we made in formulating the compound.
As we neared the end of the hour, I topped off my compound and watched as an inky black cloud spread in my tube’s dark green liquid. Then I stood with my hands folded on the desk, waiting patiently for Professor Hawkins. I felt like I was on Master Chef.
Before long, she came over with a kit and set it on my desk. The kit had droppers and six little Petri dishes. She dipped into my liquid, dribbled some into a dish, and mixed it with her own compounds. She repeated the process in her other dishes, using different compounds to turn the smokey-black liquid yellow, blue, and even pink.
At the sight of the pink liquid swirling in her dish, she cocked an eyebrow. She reached over to my notebook and read my bullet-point recipe. Then she retetested the liquids, clearly surprised at what she was seeing. I simply stood there studiously, trying to hide my smirk.
Finally, she said, “Umbralmera, Miss Hargrave? You made Umbralmera?”
I nodded diligently. “Yes, Professor.”
“This is considered a ‘lost’ poison, Coralia. How did you make it?”
Stone-faced, but with my heart hammering, I said, “I had a good tutor, ma’am.”
Her head tilted. “A good . . . ah, right. Donovenn Gable, the Unseelie. Did he fail to mention Umbralmera is found in its natural state in the Unseelie Court, and only there?”
My stomach dropped. He had failed to mention that.
Professor Hawkins crossed her strong arms over her chest, giving me a discerning stare. “It is exceedingly difficult to craft correctly. Here, you have a suitable chemical structure. The substance’s absorption rate is above average, given the tools you had to work with. Detoxification would be slow, agonizing, and most likely deadly.”
I blinked. My eyes glazed over at her explanation.
“Essentially, it’s an excellent alchemical composition, Miss Hargrave. Given its rarity and difficulty to craft, you did well. Congratulations.”
A smile broke out on my face. Before I could say anything or celebrate my victory, Professor Hawkins cut me off with a raised finger.
“However, you will be docked for utilizing a lost, ancient poison, rather than the typical compounds we have gone over in class. We don’t use Unseelie formulas.”
My smile fell just as fast as it had come on.
“In short, Miss Hargrave, you’ve passed your midterm, but you need some work on your discretion.”
Dammit. How is it possible that I pass my midterm and still get in trouble? Venn, you and I are gonna have to have a little talk about this.
FOR MY Physical Intent class, I had been working without a Phantom tutor for the past couple weeks while Dax had been absent. Charli sparred with me, but she couldn’t teach me the necessary styles an upperclassman could. I knew I was going into the midterm punching above my weight class.
As I changed into my super fancy, glossy-black, body-hugging, fae-tech onesie, I pushed my forehead against my locker.
Genevieve Jade walked by and said, “Good luck fighting a literal ghost, worm food,” and then snort-laughed with her goons as they exited the locker room.
I left with Charli, who split off with her designated Phantom, but not before giving me a pout of pity.
I glanced over at the men’s locker room to see the guys filing out, and then turned my attention to Professor Hudson at the front of class. My brow furrowed and I did a double take back to the men’s lockers.
Dax Kilmeade meandered out, fastening his gloves.
Excitement zinged through my limbs and my energy went from zero to a hundred. I nearly squealed, but managed to contain myself. He’s back!
Dax spotted me, gave a curt nod with his emotionless mask of a face, and approached.
“Look who decided to show up,” I said.
“Couldn’t let my pupil do her midterm alone.”
I put my hands on my hips. “Yeah, well, if I pass, it’s no thanks to you.”
He frowned, his dark face flickering with a look that told me he was sorry, or doubtful.
I felt I had to explain, seeing his expression. “You haven’t been here, Dax. You were supposed to teach me all the things. Now I have people like Vivi Jade barking up my ass, and even the other Ghosts who are well past me, and I have little to show for it. Little to defend myself with.”
“I’m sorry I’ve been absent, Coralia. It couldn’t be helped. I’ll make it up to you.”
“How?”
“By pushing you hard for the second half of the semester.”
I gnashed my teeth and nodded succinctly. It wasn’t exactly what I wanted to hear—my second half was going to be harder than the first? Damn. “Where have you been?”
“I can’t say. It’s classified.” At my frown, he added, “I have to be going back soon, in fact. So shall we get on with it?”
We took our positions on the mat, striking our battle stances. The midterm was supposed to show how much we’d grown as combatants since the first week. Not how well we could kill, per se, but how much we had developed.
For the most part, the Phantoms went easy on their pupils, while Professor Hudson watched intently and made little comments here and there.
Dax was not like most Phantoms. He gave me no quarter. Within two minutes, he’d put me on my ass twice. I was a panting mess, my hair disheveled, my tailbone hurting, and my side aching from getting smacked.
Finally, I managed to stay standing by our third skirmish. I avoided his swift attacks, pivoted, then went on my knee to try and trip him.
When I glanced up, he was on the other side of me and kicked me over like I was nothing more than a domino.
I groaned, dizzily staring up at the tarp ceiling. His hand came into my vision, reaching down to help me up. “When you dodge like that, keep your eyes on your opponent. Don’t move them to the ground. That’s not where your enemy is.”
I winced as I sat up. “Got it, chief.”
As I wobbled to my feet, Professor Hudson came to stand next to us. “Report, Phantom Kilmeade.”
My heart sank to my stomach. I had just gotten my ass handed to me and I knew Dax was too trustworthy and strait-laced to lie for me or buff my ego.
Dax took a rigid stance with his hands behind his back. “Ghost Hargrave has shown great advancement in her physical prowess. I daresay she’s shown more growth than any other Ghost, if only because she came into Physical Intent far behind the curve, not knowing a thing.”
I blinked, shocked. Dax was a man who seemingly couldn’t lie. Does he really mean it?
“Very well, Dax,” Jace Hudson said a bit more easily. “What are her problem areas?”
“Basically everything. Bu
t like I said, she’s shown great progress.”
Jace turned to me with a nod. “Good work, Ghost.”
I had mixed feelings about the whole thing, but I had passed. I was grateful.
How the hell is it that Dax and Professor Hawkins can both give me a pass but also chastise me at the same time?
SHADOW MANIPULATION with the handsome silver fox, Professor Gareon Lews, went well. Charli had helped me work on my technique since I’d come back from the Spectral Realm.
Shadowwalking was a bit of a dud, but I wasn’t the only one in that. Only half of the students could walk between shadows, and couldn’t do it at will. Apparently, I could only do it when a bully was sinkholing me into limbo.
It didn’t matter much, because the grade on the Shadowwalking midterm was based on our knowledge, rather than our performance.
All in all, I exceeded my expectations—and the expectations of my professors, I wagered—on my midterms. I breathed a huge sigh of relief afterward and met up with Charli at the mess hall for a well-deserved dinner.
The whole place was raucous. Students congratulated and cheered each other. The vibe was happy and fun.
Seeing Sunny Conway striding across the room toward me, however, sucked out all the fun. Sweat broke out along my brow as he beelined for our table. My foxy fox shifter bestie had dilated pupils. She turned away to focus on her cheeseburger, leaving me to deal with Sunny alone.
I hadn’t talked to him in a week, since the final day of his “penitence.” He towered over me. Students turned to stare and whisper gossip.
“I heard you passed,” he said, voice deep.
“Yup,” I croaked, trying to act nonchalant. I kept my gaze averted, because I knew it would give me away if I stared at his chiseled body.
He gave, what I assumed, was a congratulatory grunt.
“Thanks.”
A beat of silence passed. He didn’t move, and I debated asking what he wanted. But I stayed my tongue.
“I’ve been talking to Venn. And Dax, since he returned for midterms.”
“Okay?” I glanced over at him—just a quickie.
He pinched the bridge of his nose, clearly irritated. “And I want to . . . invite you . . . to join our Shadowball team.”
My insides did a tumble. “W-What?”
Venn came bursting out of nowhere, running up to stand behind Sunny. “Cordially, Sunny. Spirits save me. You’re supposed to say ‘cordially invite you.’”
Sunny sneered, tossing a glance over his shoulder. “Do you want to fucking do it?”
“No, no, you’re doing great,” Venn said with a wide smile directed at me. He winked and my tumbling insides started melting.
I was so damn confused. “What’s going on? Is this because of our little chats in—”
“No,” Sunny interrupted. “It’s because we need two teammates to fill the team, in order to compete this season.”
“Surely there are others who are more qualified? I don’t even know how to play the damn game.”
“We’ll teach you. Do you want it or not?” Sunny finished with a near-snarl, clearly uncomfortable in this position.
“Yes,” I said automatically. Then my curiosity got the better of me. “Can I ask who the other person you’re inviting is?”
His snarl shifted into a devilish smirk. “Of course, princess. It’s someone you’ll get along with great.”
Chapter 27
Coralia
I DOUBLED OVER, HANDS on my knees, wheezing. My lungs were tight. My calves, thighs, and butt burned. I was using muscles I wasn’t used to using, and my inadequacy was showing.
I was a fighter, for sure, but there were some things you simply couldn’t fight. Such as inexperience. I had lost a little weight, replaced it with muscle, and had become more toned since coming to Shadowblade Academy, mainly due to my Physical Intent class. Yet I struggled to run the length of the field because so much happened from one side to the next. It was like running through a warzone with mortars going off all around me.
In short, Shadowball was fucking chaos.
Following my midterms, the next few days leading up to the weekend were spent trudging to the field in the middle of the park green, learning the rules of the game, and getting my ass schooled. After midterms, students were given three days off from coursework, plus the weekend. It was like a mini holiday.
While Charli was out gallivanting with friends, and Bruce Kittenson was rolling around lazily in my bed, I had to work up a sweat on the Shadowball field.
I regretted accepting Sunny’s invitation, at least at the beginning. I had been so eager to please and reconcile our estrangement that it hadn’t dawned on me what I’d be getting myself into.
Shadowball, at its core, was like soccer. It was soccer with magic, which was annoying and pretentious as hell.
Games took place on a rectangular field with goals at either end. So far, so good. I understood that. There were five players to a team, with four on the field and one manning the goal. The positions even had soccer-sounding names like striker, goaltender, rover.
Every match took place during daytime, which was an important factor that made all the difference. It was called “Shadowball,” after all, because shadows were utilized. Depending on where the sun was lined up, the shadows on the grass completely changed the layout of the game. In fact, the layout could easily shift during the game, and it was hectic.
For the sport, shadows on the field were called “patches.” Players were not allowed to portal into the patches, but the ball could, which meant it was constantly disappearing and reappearing, moving around the field. No hands were allowed to touch the ball. The person kicking the ball into a shadow was not allowed to be the next person to touch it.
As a final “fuck you” to those, ahem, less adept at shadow manipulation, the shifting patches could also be manipulated to become mobile, to be used as defensive or offensive obstacles.
During the last run, it went down like this: Hudson’s Glove was doing a five-on-five scrimmage against Lews’ Glove. Dax sat in our goal. Sunny played lead striker and Venn played rover near the backfield. When an opponent got past me in the middle, Venn swooped in to stop him. He kicked the ball into a patch—meanwhile, Sunny and the opposing defender were sprinting toward an unmanned patch on the other side of the field. When the ball Venn kicked disappeared and reappeared near Sunny, the vampire outmaneuvered his opponent and got to it first.
I shot up the right side of the field to get in a support position if Sunny needed to pass it off.
The vampire was in a dead sprint against his opponent, veering toward the goal. The opponent brought a tree-branch patch to life and it clawed at Sunny’s legs. He leaped over the knee-high clothesline but lost the ball in the process.
I sprinted after it, chasing the defender. Before I could get there, something invisible tugged my legs and I somersaulted onto the green, head over heels. A rogue shadow had tripped me and suddenly the blue sky was rolling up and down. I had no idea where the shadow had come from.
The defender easily scooted the ball past my face-down ass-up body and passed it to a teammate. When the opposing striker went to take a shot at our goal, Dax leaped horizontally. The ball was going to go in just past his fingertips—
Our faithful goaltender manipulated an inky shade out of nothing and flicked it toward the ball, at the last second, as he crash-landed on his side. The small void swallowed up the ball and sent it materializing above a patch at midfield, twenty yards away, thus keeping the back of our net empty.
As all that was happening, I rubbed my scraped knees and wobbled to my feet.
That’s when I saw Genevieve Jade smirking cruelly at me from the other side of the field. I knew she’d been the one who sabotaged me and made me fall and look like an idiot.
Because of course the fifth man on the team Sunny had invited was Genevieve fucking Jade.
“I STILL DON’T KNOW why you let this one on the team,” Genevieve snee
red, jutting her thumb over her shoulder at me. “She’s useless.”
Our happy little group loitered on the sideline after the scrimmage with Lews’ Glove. The match had ended in a tie, two-two. I was sitting and panting, legs spread out, arms stretched behind me, but her words nearly brought me to my feet. Perhaps if I wasn’t so damn exhausted.
I scoffed. “Maybe if you weren’t undermining your own teammate—”
“What are you implying, little imp?”
“You know exactly what you did, Genevieve! You tripped me with a fucking shadow!”
She lifted her chin defiantly. “Can you prove it?”
“No, but—”
“I did nothing of the sort. I don’t know who gave you the pity-invite, but you don’t belong on this field with the real players.”
“Enough,” Sunny growled, stepping between us. He leered at Genevieve. “I invited her, Vivi. If you have a problem—”
“I do have a problem—”
“—take it up with Jace. He’s our coach.”
“Wrist, professor, coach . . .” Genevieve said, trailing off. “What other aspects of your life does Jace Hudson control, Sunny?”
He didn’t dignify that with a response. The tall vampire put his hands on his hips and stared Vivi down. He stayed silent, body tense. The man looked delectable in his jersey shorts that only went to mid-thigh, showing off every dip and bulge of his toned legs. It was hard keeping my eyes off his taut butt as he scolded Vivi, which gave me a stirring tingle inside. When he ran down the field with his long golden locks flowing, it made my heart do cartwheels. Dax and Venn wore the same gear—we all did—and it highlighted their impressive, masculine physiques just as nicely.
“Look,” Venn said, putting his palms out in a motion of surrender. “We need to be a cohesive unit like Hudson’s Glove used to be. Otherwise we won’t win a game this season. So why don’t we try to work out our differences and—”