His eyes rolled back, and he didn’t move. “Preston?” Blood continued to gush onto the grass, staining it red as the ground lapped it up. Behind me, the portal wavered before snapping shut. My heart raced. I had gotten out of the portal, but had taken Preston with me. Worse, he was seriously injured because of me. He might die if I didn’t get help soon.
“You—” There was so much hatred and accusation in that one word. Preston moved his lips, but no more words came out, and then his breath stopped and his gaze became unseeing.
I stood and backed out of the fairy ring, staring at Preston’s body, staring at what I had done. I had killed a fae prince and returned to the prison I had so desperately tried to escape.
Cruel Elites
Nocturnal Academy Book 2
1
I backed into the trunk of the nearest tree, my feet crushing the mushrooms that made up the fairy circle. The fae prince’s throat oozed thick blood, the ice spike melting in his wound. He twitched as the red stain expanded on his green shirt and merged with his blond hair.
My one escape from Nocturnal Academy Summer Prep. Dead.
I looked around. Think, Onyx. Lit with lanterns, the Outer Gardens looked peaceful, a stark contrast to the prince in front of me bleeding out.
No one was going to help me.
Drawn by the scent of what I’d done, the vamps, the ruling class, would arrive. And then it’d be all over.
How the hell had I summoned an ice spike? I was only half fae. But the mysteries of my magic didn’t matter. My crime would be punished. Once the vamps found me, they’d drag me away in chains for killing a staff member. Whip me until I was raw meat or even kill me.
Maybe that was better than being a breeder in the plague-ridden Summer Court. But that didn’t justify killing Prince Preston. Not that I had intended to take his life. I had been trying to get him off me...and then everything happened so fast.
Now, I was right back to square one. A prisoner of Nocturnal Academy. Even if I survived the fact that I defended myself from rape, I’d be facing down the first official semester of this hell school, learning to serve the vamps as a servant or worse.
I slapped my face, trying to snap out of my shock. Thinking about the past wouldn’t save me. I needed to clean up.
“Shit.” I searched the Outer Garden for any tools I could use to bury the body. A shovel. Even a trowel was better than nothing. But the fae students blessed with plant magic didn’t use trowels or shears to tend to the greenery. They only used their magic, smug and safe in their positions. They would end up creating gardens and pleasant decorations for their vamp overlords while the rest of us trained for the nasty jobs.
Wind rose from the lake far below, giving me an idea. The deadly cliff on which Nocturnal Academy was positioned made escape impossible. I had cursed the cliff countless times, but now it might finally come in handy. What I was about to do was barbarian. It was disrespectful, but necessary. If the vamps discovered me with Preston’s body, my life would be over.
Leaning over, I seized Preston’s shoulders, doing my best to avoid the blood sticking to his green shirt. His head rolled back, leering at me, blank eyes accusing. He twitched again. Perhaps a bit of life remained, which propelled me to work faster. I held down my vomit. The ice spike I had impaled him with had melted and thinned the blood at his throat. Even though I knew I shouldn’t, I couldn’t stop looking at the atrocity I had committed.
Taking a deep breath, I dragged Preston through the grass and away from the fairy ring he’d used to open a portal. I emerged under the full moon, which had begun to set. Hours seemed to have passed in this world as Preston and I had fought in the faeland. Grunting, I hauled the body inch by inch out of the trees and onto the cobblestone walkway.
“Disposing of the evidence?” a low voice asked, and I let go of my victim as panic surged into my chest.
At first, I thought Preston’s ghost was standing there, but then I noticed the young man’s much shorter hair as he emerged from behind a tree. He was also much taller and muscular than Preston. His stony expression made my heart leap into my throat. This man wasn’t Preston’s spirit, but one of the vamps. A guard in a black uniform who looked like a neatly shaven Nordic deity. His brilliant blue eyes trained on me as he towered over me.
I gulped and opened my mouth, but no words came out. I’d seen this guard around before. It was him who had allowed me to slip back into the academy after my botched attempt to flee. Unlike other vamps, this guard didn’t seem too bad, but he had too much filthy dirt on me.
The guard gave me a cold smile, revealing his fangs. “Killing another fae is a high crime for your kind and punishable by death.” His utterly calm voice sent shudders down my spine. It wasn’t as if a vamp would be bothered by blood.
Preston twitched again.
I scrambled to seize my mysterious icy power, but it had left me. My legs trembled and gave way underneath me, sending me to my knees. Sobs escaped my throat. “I didn’t mean to. I swear I didn’t mean to.” There was no stopping the words from tumbling out.
The vamp drew closer. He wasn’t a teacher, but even the lowest vamps here were higher on the social ladder than the most powerful fae. We were the slaves. They were the elites we served.
“What happened?” The vamp’s dark voice slid over me, making me shake harder.
I scrambled to come up with a story. Telling him about me trying to escape was a bad idea, even if he probably already suspected the truth. “He attacked me. Preston tried to—” My gaze slid to my torn uniform, and the vamp’s expression darkened.
“He had no right,” the guard growled.
Taken aback by his response, I blinked before understanding what he had meant. “Guess I’m not as valuable to my future master if I’m deflowered, right?” I swallowed down the rage and disgust I felt. “I didn’t mean to kill him, just to get him off me.” Maybe this guard would tell the other vamps I was still a virgin. Virgins went for higher prices when it came time to sell us.
“It was self-defense, not murder.” He spoke plainly and without emotion.
Was it?
Pink grazed the horizon. Soon the sun would be up, and the vamp guard would drag me inside for my punishment. As if he had read my thoughts, the vamp closed the space between us. My shoulders slumped, my body giving up. “Go ahead and arrest me.” Exhaustion coated every nerve in my body. I was done fighting.
But instead of grabbing me, the vamp hauled up Preston’s body. “There’s a simpler way than tossing him into the lake. The guards will hear the splash. And bodies float.” The vamp’s forehead darkened as he took in Preston’s face. “This isn’t just any fae. It’s that Home Decor teacher. He’s the prince from the Seelie Court.” The vamp’s arctic blue eyes narrowed at me. “You killed a prince.”
So much for a lighter sentence. My body began to shake and I held out my hands pleadingly. “Please, don’t hand me over.” I couldn’t survive the torture the vamps would inflict upon me. “Please, make it swift.” I bit my lip. “You could say you were trying to rescue Preston, and I got in the way.”
He shook his head, his jaw hardening. “I am not killing you.”
“Please don’t hand me over to the headmistress. I’ll do anything.”
“Stop!”
I froze.
“Tell no one we spoke.”
I nodded quickly. “I won’t.” My gaze slid to Preston’s motionless body. “I really didn’t mean to—”
The vamp sighed. “I believe you.”
I blinked. Vamps never believed our words. I’d learned that in my few months here in Summer Prep.
“I overheard the staff saying the fae teacher might be looking for breeders for his realm. Wasn’t meant for my ears, but if that’s the case, you did well.”
I didn’t know how to reply. First, this vamp said he believed me, and now, he was praising me? Was this a dream? “What’s your name?”
He hesitated one beat. “Thorsten.”
Thorsten. A fitting name for someone who looked like a Viking. Before I could ask anything else, Thorsten opened his mouth and leaned over Preston’s throat. “There is still a tiny bit of life in him. This should work.” His fangs descended, and he bit into the nearly-dead fae’s neck. I clamped a hand across my mouth, holding down the scream rising in my throat. Thorsten sucked a few times, and I turned away, my stomach cramping. But Thorsten didn’t drag it out long. “He didn’t have much blood left.”
“What should work?” I dared to face Thorsten, who had blood at the corner of his mouth.
He lifted his hand and bit into his own wrist.
I winced, knowing how it felt to have teeth sink into my flesh, but Thorsten barely reacted. He held his now-bleeding wrist to Preston’s throat, letting his blood drip into the wound. After a second, he took his other hand and squeezed more out. “Leave him here. When the sun rises, the rays will destroy him.”
“How?” My brain was a fuzzy, non-working mess.
Preston’s wound slowly closed, though his eyes remained unfocused, dilated, and dead. Thorsten put him back down on the trail and turned to me, glowering. “He is in the process of turning. A new vamp doesn’t wake for three days, but my blood will be enough to let the sun burn him away.” With that, Thorsten grabbed my shoulders. As if I had burned him, he let go of me abruptly. “Return to your room.” With that, he strode to the closed doors leading back into the castle.
For a moment, I gaped, trying to process what had just happened. Apparently not only humans, but faes too could be turned. Why had Thorsten helped me? “Hey.”
He whirled around. “What?”
“Thank you.” I swallowed hard. “You’re not like the other vamps.”
A growl emerged from Thorsten’s throat as he advanced on me, taking huge strides, his blue eyes turning as cold as the icy dagger I’d summoned. I backpedaled into the bench, and Thorsten leaned down, only stopping when his face hovered inches from mine. A few red lines—a sign of vampire hunger—flashed in his irises.
My mouth fell open.
“I’m just doing my job.” A muscle throbbed in his jaw. “You’re lucky you’ve made it this far. Don’t throw yourself at every guy offering you a ride out of here and maybe you’ll stand a chance.”
My gut contracted. Thorsten was right. I was a hot mess. I’d killed another fae, committing a high crime.
“I’m not a whore.” The words tumbled out, shocking me. What was I trying to do, prove that I had morals, even though I was a killer?
A shadow flitted across Thorsten’s face. “We’ll see.” He straightened, running a hand through his hair. “You need to stay on the straight and narrow from now on. Don’t expect mercy again.” He turned away and strode through the door, letting it slam shut behind him.
I stared at the door for a long moment, feeling stupid that I’d trusted him for even a second. Nothing in this life came for free. Would this vamp come back and demand payment? Thorsten was an enigma. Until I knew what his deal was, I had to be extra careful around him.
My gaze slid to Preston’s body. His wound had almost closed, Thorsten’s blood working like a charm. Once the sun rose, Preston would be taken care of, which meant I only had one problem—Thorsten knew about my strange magic. He could choose to reveal it at any moment. Against reason, I prayed he kept my secret.
If he did, all I had to do was pretend to be an insignificant half fae with nothing to offer but my body. I’d have to convince everyone that I was harmless, that it wasn’t me who had taken down a pureblood prince. And I’d have to do it through the entire school year.
The tangerine sun peeked over the horizon, casting pinkish rays through the trees. The lanterns of the garden faded, then shut off completely. Faint heat settled on my skin, but did nothing to offset the heavy cold inside of me.
Preston’s body began to smoke. He grunted once, as if he was asleep.
As the light intensified, lines of embers and ash spread first across his cheeks, then down his neck, under his shirt, and along his arms. A seething noise filled the air, drilling its way into my brain. Thorsten had meant for me to watch this, the poisonous fruits of my labor. What would he ask of me when the time came? He hadn’t seemed interested in my body, and given his stoic manner, I guessed he’d ask for a favor that would help him rise through the ranks. Whatever it was, it wouldn’t be safe.
Embers spread and turned to ash. Preston twitched. Thrashed. But it was too late. I wanted to turn my head away from his agonized throes, but I couldn’t. Orange and gray overtook his flesh, eating, sizzling, until his throes stilled, leaving a coal-colored, burnt mummy in his place. With one final seethe, Preston’s body and clothes exploded, scattering ash that landed on the cobblestone and danced in the mountain breeze.
The wind carried away the ash, merging it with the garden and the mountains, but the sights and sounds of Preston’s body burning would stay with me for the rest of my life.
2
“First day, Onyx. Great start,” I said into the mirror. I dabbed concealer underneath my eyes half-heartedly and brushed the tangles out of my dyed purple hair. I considered tying it back, but I hated my pointed ears, the giveaway of my half fae heritage. My small dorm carried a biting chill this morning, and I brushed my hair quickly, hating the empty bunk above mine. It was a reminder of—
“Stop it,” I told myself.
Fall term started today at Nocturnal Academy. It was the official start of the school year. And we, the Summer Prep students, were expected to welcome the new teachers and the vamp students who had returned from yacht vacations on the Mediterranean Sea and hiking in the Alps. Both of which they enjoyed at night time for obvious reasons.
An ominous gong went off, reverberating through the stone walls. How did the staff manage to make that sound fill the entire school, anyway? “Students, report to the hall immediately,” the headmistresses voice boomed. It was filled with authority and sounded like silk running over a knife blade.
I dropped the mascara I had been about to put on and threw on my gray blazer that was wrinkled. Hopefully, I wouldn’t get punished for my uniform’s appearance. I hadn’t had the heart to go down to the laundry since the events of a few days ago.
I slammed my dorm door shut and rushed down the red-carpeted stairs that led to the main castle. As luck would have it, two girls were also descending the steps. Both girls were on the desired third floor reserved for high status fae.
The first, a catlike blonde with corkscrew curls, gave me a once-over. “What puddle did you come out of?”
The second girl giggled. She had big curves, deep brown eyes, and very dark brown hair. An exotic beauty, who if she was human, would probably be a mix of Caucasian and Asian. “You really should put more effort into your appearance if it’s going to be your only asset.”
“Listen to Virgie.” Peony’s eyes darkened. “A fae like you has no other place in this world.”
I thought of my ice powers and shuddered. Peony and Virgie had both gone to summer prep too, and Peony had seen me wilt plants with frost by mistake. “Why the whole shebang? Aren’t we just welcoming the other students?” I asked, trying to distract Peony.
She snorted. “Yes, we’re welcoming the other fae students. Oh, and the vamp students who know people and will report their impressions back to their makers.”
I cringed at the reminder that Nocturnal Academy taught vamps how to rule and the fae how to serve. It had been that way since a bunch of fae fled their realm and got trapped in the human world thanks to a war in the faeland.
Virgie nodded. “From now on, everything you do will affect the value of your contract. And the lower the value, the less desirable your future master.”
Great, knowing my luck, I’d probably get into a fight or be caught red-handed as a killer on the very first day. The teachers had surely noticed Preston’s absence by now.
We reached the bottom of the staircase where a mass of fae students in gray blazers and black s
kirts and pants waited in the wide corridor. Summer Prep only had about two dozen fae, but now it seemed like a hundred had gathered, likely brought in overnight. Some blinked sleep from their eyes. One fae guy seemed to have put his pants on backwards, his brain probably still muddled from whatever he had been injected with. The vamps drugged the fae they brought in through the tunnels, no exceptions. They didn’t want us to see any escape routes.
I glanced around noticing that most fae were females. How jealous I was of the guys who got to wear black pants that covered their legs while we girls were required to put on black stockings that made us look like strippers. In theory, the guys could be sold to lovesick vamp mistresses, but it was the female fae who tended to get the short end of the stick.
Excited whispers made waves through the crowd. I shook my head, disgusted. Did the other fae really want to meet the vamps? What was wrong with them?
“Silence. I am Lord Sullivan, your History teacher.” Middle-aged and with parted, tarlike hair, Lord Sullivan swept into the corridor, his black robe swishing around him. He clapped his hands once, and silence fell as everyone faced the smug vamp. He’d brought a wooden stick with him, which he whacked against his open palm. “Students, assemble in two lines. Follow me. Mr. Chad, take up the rear, please.” Lord Sullivan flashed his fangs before he strode away with long steps, and we trotted after him like the good flock of sheep we were.
I glanced back to find our gym teacher Mr. Chad staring at the legs and asses in front of him, running his tongue over his fangs. I rolled my eyes. What a creep.
Lord Sullivan took a few turns before stopping in front of a set of double doors. They were made from dark wood and had fancy golden knobs. I had never been in this part of Nocturnal Academy and had no idea what awaited us inside. Sullivan shoved the doors open, and I gasped. The ballroom in front of me was magnificent. Vaulted ceilings, chandeliers, gilded elements, and a marble floor spread out. The center was free of furniture and looked like it was meant to be waltzed across, while each side of the room featured about ten tables.
The Nocturnal and Fae Prison Academy Boxset [A Complete Paranormal and Fantasy Series Boxset] Page 11