Cursed Magic: A Paranormal Academy Romance (Daughter of Nyx Series Book 1)

by Charlie Daniels

  “Yes and no,” Declan says. “But that’s Paxton’s story to share… when he’s ready.” Declan gives me a pointed stare, and I nod, accepting the answer—I can empathize, after all.

  “And I’m sorry too, Serena. It’s sometimes hard to remember that what we’re told isn’t always the truth, you know?” Rory says, his eyes moving to mine. “Even with the Alliance, we were told the Dark will always want to kill us. And that’s what we believed—until we met you. But when you sent Paxton flying, those ideas came back.” He looks away guiltily.

  I lean back against the cushions with a sigh, counting the lights in the ceiling. I’d probably be that way too, if I was in their shoes. “I get it, and I would have thought the same, but I don’t want to hurt anyone.”

  I twist my head to look at Dane and raise my eyebrows. “I thought we were going to be bonding and learning about each other,” I say, changing the subject. “But seeing as you all know one another, I guess it’s just me that needs to catch up.”

  He nods, and I turn to Paxton, grinning at the magic flowing around him. “I was right when I guessed you were a paladin, wasn’t I?” He nods, and I grin. Paladins are created, not born like some people. The power is given to those who are heroic by nature, who live by a strict code of honor and are superior warriors. To be a paladin is a great honor and a tough burden.

  “Paladins are pretty rare; I was honestly surprised…” My words trail off when he looks away, sadness filling his eyes. “Ah, never mind. What about you?” I turn to Rory.

  He puffs out his chest, and a whirl of wind flows around the room, ruffling my hair. “I’ve been blessed by the power of air from Aeolus...”

  I wait for him to continue, but he just shrugs, allowing the air around us to die down. Dane huffs out a laugh, and I turn to see him roll his eyes. “What the doofus doesn’t want to say is that he also has the power of divination. It comes and goes as it pleases, so he never really knows when it will hit or what it will be about. But it’s usually about one of us or people he’s close with.”

  Rory’s ears turn pink.

  “Why is that a bad thing?” I ask him.

  “Because it’s not a manly power. It’s not a wind sword or an air scythe,” Declan answers for him, and Rory shoots him a sharp look.

  “Okay…” I turn my attention to Rory as he picks at invisible lint on his pants. “But I still don’t get it. Wouldn’t that be handy in battle? You’d make a great strategist if you could learn to trigger it on command…” I trail off as Rory’s eyes snap to mine, a frown forming on his face. I backtrack, “You don’t have to listen to me. I mean, it may not be manly like being a paladin, but you get to protect your friends in a fight by helping them win. I don’t see what could be bad about that.”

  He continues to stare at me before jumping to his feet. He makes his way out the front door, closing it roughly behind him. Sourness forms in my stomach and I glance between the three remaining men. “What did I do? Should I go apologize?”

  They shake their heads as they look to the front door. “From what I’m feeling, he’s on the phone with Declan’s dad, asking to change one of his electives to Divination.” Dane’s lips twitch as he looks to me. “We’ve been trying to get him to sign up for the class to learn to control it, but he wouldn’t. He didn’t think it was a power worth learning to control… until now.”

  His eyes soften, and I look away, focusing on Declan and the cocky smirk on his lips. “Do you want to guess what my powers are?” he asks. The beans rustle beneath him as he leans back on his bean bag.

  My eyes roam over him as I take in his aura, and all I can think is that he was born for royalty. I picture our examination yesterday and how easy it was for him to take the lead and adapt to change. How he is much softer inside than he appears. I continue to examine him, appreciating the broadness of his chest, and Dane huffs out a laugh. I direct a glare at him, and he holds his hands up either side of his grinning face.

  Turning back to Declan, I mull over who his god could be, but it’s the fluctuating black and gold outline at the edge of his aura that gives him away.

  “Persephone,” I say, and his eyes lose their teasing edge as he leans forward, a questioning look in his eyes. I continue, “You’re adaptable, like to lead, you show your love to those you care about, and if I’m not mistaken, you have the power of suggestion,” I say, referencing the way he smooth-talked the woman at the temple into allowing me on their team when they made the decision official.

  “It’s interesting…” I say, tilting my head at him. “With Persephone as your gifting goddess, you could have easily ended up with the Dark. It says a lot about you.”

  Declan lifts his chin, looking across at me with an unreadable expression. But as he does, I notice something else—a hint of scarlet in his eyes—and I know I’m missing something. He spends a moment like that until he says, “Now that you know all about us, how about you tell us about you and your powers, Serena.” His voice holds a hard edge, and I smirk at his obvious irritation.

  I shrug and glance down at my hands. “I didn’t exactly tell you the truth yesterday when you asked what my powers were.”

  “Why am I not surprised?” Declan mutters.

  Dane shushes him, sending a firm kick into the side of his beanbag for good measure. “Go on, Serena.”

  I chew on the inside of my cheek. “Mistress, you are walking a thin line…” Lore warns.

  “I know.” Taking a deep breath, I release it and summon one of my powers—the only one I’m willing to reveal. A green ball forms in the air, flickering like a flame. “I have the power to curse.”

  The guys draw in a collective breath.

  “It doesn’t require anything but a thought or to be spoken aloud.”

  They draw closer, cornering me. My back touches the cold bark. The sun shines down, hot and bright—too bright. I speak, I curse.

  I shake my head and force a laugh, burying the memory and moving my attention back to Dane. “Although, you should note I don’t have the power to give out lifelong curses.”

  But my reassurance does nothing for Declan who continues to watch the green ball with mounting fear. “What does that mean, exactly?” he asks.

  Slipping on my trademark mask, I quirk my eyebrow at him and allow the ball to float toward him. He shuffles back, shooting me a dark scowl.

  A chuckle slips from my lips, and the tension in my chest lessens. “Anyone want to try it out?” I ask. A tap on my shoulder makes me look back, and I snort. “Dane, you really need to stop believing in me. Who says I don’t want to curse you to go bald or something?” I disappear the ball. “I was only joking.”

  “No,” he takes my hand and opens my fingers, urging me to conjure it again. “I want to see what you’ve got. Something light. Come on,” he says, his expression eager.

  My eyes narrow at the challenge in his voice, and I smile, already knowing exactly what I’m going to curse him with. I summon another green ball, this one only a fraction of the size of the first. Dane watches it warily but doesn’t pull away from me as I lean forward until my lips are against his ear. I push the floating ball into his chest and feel his body tremble next to mine as it works its way through him.

  “For twenty-four hours,” I whisper, drawing out my vowels, “I curse you to mind speak with me, to share all of your thoughts and feelings with me.”

  I draw back, watching as the green glow fades deeper into his chest. He looks down at it, then up at me again. I feel it solidify inside him, and his wide eyes taken on a green tinge.

  “Did it work?” He quirks an eyebrow. And then I hear him: “I don’t think it worked… Oh shit. She’s smirking. It’s working.” He groans, and I cackle, rubbing my hands together.

  “Do I even want to know why Serena looks like the cat who ate the canary?” Rory asks, hesitating at the front door before shuffling around me to his beanbag on the floor.

  “Serena can curse people; it’s her power,” Declan answers.<
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  A sense of utter dismay reaches me, and I place a hand on Dane’s knee, patting once. “It’s not fun having your thoughts and feelings used against you, is it Dane?” I raise my eyebrow, and he frowns as his mind flicks through ideas to shut me out.

  I remove my hand from his knee. “Sorry, buddy. There’s no way to shut me out once I’ve cursed you. But there is an escape clause.”

  His eyes widen as they flick over my face. “Escape clause? Thank fuck.” His eyes widen. “I mean… Damn. Fuck. Damn, Serena!”

  “Promise you won’t try to read my feelings again, and I’ll lift it.”

  He nods, and I search his thoughts, sensing the truth in his words. So, I place my hand flush against his chest and pull at my power inside him. He flinches as the bond breaks, and my magic flows from his chest and back into my hand.

  Breathing out a sigh of relief, Dane leans back and remains silent before twisting to look at me. I shake my head. “If you were trying to speak to me, I couldn’t hear you. I told you, I can set the curse and then break it. Most times.” I grin and watch as he sputters.

  “So, Dane, care to tell me what your powers are and what you’re not going to be doing from now on?” I sing as I lean back against the couch, and the guys laugh at the dark look he sends me, then them.

  A small semblance of peace settles inside me at the comradery we’ve grown to share, or that they’ve included me in.

  It’s nice.

  Too bad it can’t last.

  Chapter 8

  My feet pound the Forest floor as I rush from the starting line. I sprint as far as I can manage before I stop for the first time. My entire body is shaking with adrenaline and fear as I stare around me, ensuring I’m not being followed before moving on. Why is he doing this? Why can’t he just choose one of us to go?

  A crack behind me.

  I take off again, ducking under branches and smacking into the tree branches as I escape deeper into the Forest. Tormented screams ring out behind me, following my every turn. Darkness creeps in around me and the scent of moss fills my nose, but I can barely breathe over the tightness in my throat.

  It’s a fucking game to him. He’s toying with us.

  I push myself to keep going, my legs and chest burning.

  I won’t kill my friends. I won’t do it.

  But their faces at the starting line flash in my mind, with grins malicious and hungry, and my eyes fill with unshed tears. They would kill me. All of them, if it meant they came out alive.

  A scream echoes out from directly ahead, causing me to freeze. My eyes dart around my surroundings, but I can’t see anything through the suffocating darkness. At the sound of a rustle, I turn on my heel and flit between two broad trunks, only to trip on a root and land in a puddle.

  I spit mud from my mouth, and scramble to my feet, hoping nobody heard me. I place my hand down to push myself up, but it touches something warm and wet. My eyes whip to the area, and I clamp that same damp hand to my mouth to muffle the scream that wants to rip from my throat.

  I wretch when the stench of blood hits me, and I push up, slamming into a tree behind me. I turn my back on the corpse, sucking in the decaying air to clear my senses only to shudder at the lifelessness in it. I can’t keep running like this. I need…

  Light calls to me from between the trees. I head straight for it and sigh with relief when I reach the small open area bathed in moonlight. Thank the gods. My feet lead me toward the center of the field where one large tree resides, its branches and the moon creating a halo around it.

  Coming to a stop under its leafy canopy, I lean against the trunk as my chest heaves, trying to draw air to my aching lungs, but it never feels like enough. My legs wobble beneath me, and I collapse to the ground.

  My eyes close as I rest against the bark, huddling into the sanctuary its thick roots give me. I focus on my breathing and my pounding heart, trying and drown out the screams around me.

  I don’t know how much time has passed or how long I’ve been sitting against the tree, but the sounds of my friend’s screams no longer greet my ears. And for the first time, I’m thankful for them to be gone, that there is nobody left to kill.

  I’m a fucking terrible person.

  “There you are, Serena. Why don’t you come and play with us?”

  I flinch from the voice calling from ahead. Eli swaggers toward me, the rest following closely behind him, emerging like demons from the shadows that make up the Forest: Eli, Micah, Rosie, and Cassidy—my best friends. The ones who were meant to be by my side through thick and thin. Also, the ones to turn on me first in this little game of kill or be killed.

  “Yeah, Serena. Think you’re too good for us? Come and play!” Cassidy cackles as she skips toward me. Her hands are dark, dripping with something that shines in what little light there is.

  Rosie steps into the ring of moonlight I sit in, but lets out a cry and jumps back as her skin sizzles as if the silver glow burned her. The rest of them pause when they reach the same point, and I thank all that is holy for the powers of my goddess.

  “You will be safe wherever the moon touches.” A decades-old memory, but her words still float into my mind as if she’d told them to me every day of my life.

  Rosie eyes the moon with utter hatred. “You can’t hide in there forever, Serena. Eventually the sun will come up, and you will have to come out.” Her eyes hold a dark glint as she paces along the outside of the halo like a wild animal stalking her prey.

  For hours they continue to taunt me, telling me how they plan on killing me, giving me the details on how they killed every single one of our classmates. And their excitement only grows as the sun begins to rise and the moon begins to set.

  As the sky brightens, I feel their powers swirling in the air around me, reaching, testing whether it’s safe. And it is—the last of my shield fades away with the first ray of dawn.

  “Come on, Serena. You always were one to back down when it came time to really hurt someone. You never enjoyed it as much as we did, but now I guess you won’t have to.” Micah strides toward me and the others follow.

  Fire licks from his hands and forms a long whip that he uses to strike out at me. It sears the grass, and I scramble away when it catches one of the roots encasing me, setting it alight. Micah laughs and continues his assault, but my powers remain frozen, unwilling to be used on someone I call a friend—once called a friend.

  He lashes out again, and this time, the whip catches my arm. I let out a screech and stare down at my bubbling, blistering skin.

  “Fight back, Serena!” Eli says. “Don’t make this boring for us.”

  “Serena, you need to protect yourself or you will be killed. Use the power I gifted you, child. Save yourself!” My goddess’s voice urges.

  “Okay,” I whisper.

  Tears slip from my eyes as I hold my hands out before me. Eli, Rosie, Micah, and Cassidy all pause to watch the green glow that erupts from my palms. Four, flickering balls form, and for the first time, I sense doubt in Eli’s eyes.

  “What… what is that?”

  I push the balls outward in one quick motion and they fly into my opponent’s chests. They look down at themselves, then up to me, first shocked, then smug.

  “Guess your little trick didn’t work,” Rosie says.

  They advance again, and as they do, I speak: “I curse you to relive every blow you’ve dealt, every amount of pain you’ve inflicted, every death you’ve caused. Only then shall you find peace in your own deaths.”

  I want to look away as their eyes widen; I want to cover my eyes as screams rips from their throats. But I do neither of those things. If I’m to kill, then I deserve to watch them die. It’s my punishment.

  “Look away, Serena. You do not need to watch this.”

  “No!” I turn my anger, my sorrow to the sky. “This is your fault! Because of you, I’m a monster.”

  “Serena, don’t—”

  “Leave me alone!”

  Phantom k
nives slash at their skin; invisible hands pull at their hair. Blood trickles from their wounds, watering the earth until it is soft, red mud. Eli falls, writhing against the forces that strike him until he vomits. Rosie falls into a heap, her head only hanging on by a thread of skin at her neck. Micah’s eyes find mine, remorseful and pained, before he too succumbs to the ghosts wreaking revenge on his body. And finally, Cassidy is still.

  The sun is high above us as their souls finally leave their bodies, and I sink to my knees, trembling at all I’ve caused. Their lifeless, horror-contorted faces stare back at me. All is quiet inside my mind.

  I’m a monster.

  My eyes snap open, and I sit up with a gasp. A light breeze from my open window blows inside, chilling the sweat beading on my skin. The adrenaline rushing through my veins begins to slow as I fist my tangled sheets in my hand, slowly remembering where I am.

  Academy of the Light.

  House.

  Bed.

  I focus on the objects around the room, saying their names until I truly believe I’m there and not in the Forest. A fluttering of wings draws my attention as Lore lands on the end of the bed.

  “Mistress?” her voice quivers in my mind, and I see the horror reflected in her eyes.

  “You saw, didn’t you?” I ask, and I close my eyes, waiting for her disgust.

  But I don’t feel that. Instead, her love and compassion floods my system and tears prick my eyes from behind their lids, and I draw in a shaky breath.

  “You have nothing to be sorry for, Mistress. What happened… what you had to do wasn’t your fault. And I’m sorry I didn’t close off our bond, but I…” She trails off as she eyes me guiltily. “I wanted to make sure you were okay. You barely sleep. You barely eat. And when you’re awake, you get this haunted look in your eyes; it’s like you’re not really here.”

  She hops over to me, and I stroke her feathers, loving how soft they feel under my fingers. “Every day, Lore. Every day I relive that moment; it’s like I’m there, experiencing it all over again. It never stops.”