Academy of Falling Kingdoms Box Set

by Marisa Mills

  “What would you know?” Viviane asked. “You aren’t even from here.”

  Hisses pierced my ear sharply. I looked down at my sword, even though the sound had come from elsewhere. The hisses grew louder.

  “Do you hear that?” I asked, practically yelling over the noise.

  “Hear what?” Jessa asked.

  I looked at Alexander, but his face showed only cold disinterest.

  “It must have been my imagination,” I replied.

  A shiver trailed up my spine, a slight tremor that started in the ground and ran up my legs. I drew my sword, just as a roar thundered from behind us. I had no idea what to do with it. I just knew that something terrible was coming.

  “What are you doing?” Jessa asked. She’d taken a step away from me, and Alexander’s eyes were fixed on me. He cocked an eyebrow quizzically.

  Then Viviane screamed.

  ***

  She pointed down the street, where I could just make out a dark shape tearing towards us. Tables exploded upwards, filling the sky with debris like confetti. A few of the braver mages stood their ground, shooting glowing arcs of offensive spells, but most of the crowd went wild with panic, trampling towards us. I sprang into action, running as fast as I could towards the break between two buildings. Viviane grabbed Alexander and pulled him with her. I didn’t know where Jessa was, but there were so many people screaming and running, time seemed to be moving too fast and too slow all at once. The demon’s claws shredded through the air and people and buildings. My breath came in sharp, heavy pants.

  More screams. I halted suddenly, and a few people stumbled around me in their haste to escape. I glanced back around the corner, looking for Jessa. The street was mostly empty now, except for a few fallen bodies, with blood soaking into their clothes. Viviane halted abruptly as the demon appeared before us. “Alexander!” she shouted, while drawing a pen from her bag.

  Alexander began drawing across his arm. Should I try that? I didn’t know any sigils yet. Sure, I’d seen a couple, but I didn’t even know what they did. I heard crying, and saw a young girl under a table across the street. I took a deep breath and raced across to her, scooping her up with one arm. But when I got up, the demon stepped straight into my path, glaring at me with red, fiery eyes. There was a flash of green, and then Jessa was there beside me. She spun around, doing what looked like the first few steps of a dance, and shouted. Sprigs of bright green grass flowered around the demon’s feet, but seemed to have no discernable effect at all. It was enough of a distraction for us to join the others.

  “Brilliant!” Viviane snapped. “That’ll save us!”

  Jessa winced, as the demon kicked out from the tall grass and stalked towards us.

  Alexander shoved Viviane behind him. “Run!” he shouted.

  Then, the prince moved to meet the demon. Silver light flashed forward from his palm, but the demon swept through it and batted Alexander to the side. He tumbled over a stack of crates and disappeared from view. Jessa spun around again, and a soft breeze flitted through the air, doing nothing. Viviane turned swiftly, extending her arm. The sigil painted on the palm of her hand crackled with golden power.

  “Stand down!” she yelled.

  The demon swiped at her with its claws and she stumbled back, slamming her elbow into the door of a nearby building. “Open up!” she shouted, pounding desperately on the door behind her.

  I didn’t have any magic, but I did know how to pick a lock. I pulled a pin from my hair and darted to Viviane’s side.

  “Cover me!” I shouted.

  I leaned close to the door and jabbed at the keyhole, listening for the clicking tumblers. Viviane screamed again, but this time I didn’t turn to look. Blood thundered in my ears. I heard the demon behind me, very close, almost whispering in my ear. I glanced behind me, and ducked just as it lunged, covering my head. Vines shot forward from the ground, wrapping around the demon’s limbs and bringing it crashing to the ground. It seemed Jessa had finally managed to do what she planned. She stood behind the demon, pale and gasping for air. I grabbed my pin and turned the last tumbler carefully.

  Click.

  The door burst open. Viviane and I rushed inside.

  “Jessa!” Alexander shouted.

  Jessa slipped in after us. Seconds later, Alexander closed and locked the door behind him. I looked around the house; the room was mostly empty save for some scattered furniture. My eyes darted towards the one window, but it was barred. There were no other exits.

  “Barricade the door!” Alexander ordered. “I’ll draw the sigils!”

  Without hesitation, I grabbed a table and dragged it across the floor, being careful to give a wide berth to the silver lines Alexander was making on the floor. Jessa helped me brace the table against the door; her arms shook as she did it. Doing magic must have really worn her out.

  Viviane carried over two chairs and wedged them against the table. All the while, the demon screamed outside. Its shouts were punctuated by the sound of limbs thrashing against the door and the splintering of wood.

  I felt as though I was being watched, as if someone was watching me from inside my own head.

  You…be…

  Who was that? Was that voice coming from my head like the hisses had? I glanced down at my sword, before backing away from the door. That was all the furniture. Hopefully, it would hold long enough for someone to come rescue us.

  Alexander had finished his sigils. They didn’t look like much—a star, a circle, and some scattered symbols. “You need to make sure all the points touch,” Viviane said. “If that corner doesn’t connect, you might trap the demon in here rather than preventing it from entering.”

  Alexander didn’t question her; he crouched down and made a few more lines, drawing the points of the star more firmly together.

  Jessa leaned against the wall, breathing hard. The door buckled with a sharp crunching noise and daylight filtered in. I swallowed and drew my sword, unsure what I would even do with it. I’d already seen that an ordinary sword did little against demons, and in my hands, this sword would never be anything other than ordinary.

  “What now?” I asked.

  “We hope my sigil keeps it out,” Alexander replied. “I’ve never tried this kind before.”

  Crash!

  “It should,” Viviane said.

  But hers never worked, and she seemed to know exactly how to draw them. What if the demon came in anyway? Jessa didn’t look well; I doubted she would be able to stop the demon, especially when it had taken her a few tries to begin with. Viviane’s sigils weren’t working, and I couldn’t do magic. If Alexander’s sigil failed, we were screwed.

  You—

  “What about me?” I muttered.

  Crash!

  “Did you say something?” Alexander asked sharply.

  The door split apart, scattering the furniture across the floor. With a burst of sound and light, the demon swept through our makeshift barricade. My heart pounded so loudly that I heard it in my ears. We crouched inside Alexander’s sigil as the demon stomped closer.

  “How do we know if it works?” I asked, backing away.

  “When it steps past exterior lines or not,” Alexander said, his voice hoarse. Sweat shone from his brow.

  Fire…

  I glanced at the fireplace; it was empty and filled with nothing but cinders. I was good at making fires with flint and steel, but I had neither of those with me. Or was the creature trying to tell me it was going to set us ablaze? I could barely hear the voice above the noise, and I wasn’t entirely sure whether the words came from my sword or from the approaching demon. The demon placed a foot inside the sigil and halted abruptly. Smoke curled around its blackened hooves, and it pulled back with a howl of pain. It milled around at the edge of the sigil, swiping and roaring at the air as if it had reached some invisible barrier.

  “Oh, good,” Jessa rasped.

  “Sure,” Viviane said,
sounding relieved. “Now, someone can just come by and seal it away.”

  The demon backed away and disappeared through the open doorway.

  “We should stay here. It might be waiting for us,” Alexander said, holding up his hand. “Demons can be very deceptive. It wouldn’t be unheard of for one to feign defeat and attack us when our guards are down.”

  “That sounds good to me,” Jessa said, sinking to the ground.

  “Are you all right?” I asked.

  “Fine,” she said. “Just tired.”

  Thud!

  “What was that?” Viviane asked sharply.

  “It sounded like it came from the wall,” Alexander said, turning around slowly.

  The walls were made of some sort of painted over stone, as best as I could tell. “Do you think it can get in?” I asked.

  Probably. They…proper…construction.

  “I don’t know,” Alexander said.

  Jessa stood shakily, gripping my arm. I gulped.

  Thud!

  A brick moved. Alexander crouched to the ground, hastily drawing another sigil.

  “Can’t you draw that all over the room?” I asked.

  “No!” Viviane snapped. “Do you have any idea how much power that would take?”

  No, none at all. I didn’t even understand how sigils really worked. There had to be something besides just the drawings, or Viviane wouldn’t be having such trouble. But drawing a sigil in front of one spot of the wall probably wouldn’t help.

  Sword…you doing…

  Was the voice helping? I frowned, unsure. I tightened my grip on the sword and raised it in front of us. Bricks collapsed inwards, and a demon claw sprung forth, ripping its way in. Alexander darted back, his sigil incomplete. All at once, the demon burst into the room. Viviane shrieked. Without warning, blue fire erupted along the edge of my sword. I took a deep breath and swiped my blade through the demon. It was a strange feeling, like I’d struck something that wasn’t entirely solid. Though my swing was fast, the edge of the blade slowed; it was like trying to cut through water or mist, something that shifted and moved even as I sliced through it. The demon caught fire and roared, tossing its head back in rage. Alexander and Viviane remained frozen before it. Fire licked up my wrist, burning my skin. I dropped the blade, letting it fall to the ground with a sharp clang.

  A man with brown-blond hair burst into the house. I recognized him but couldn’t put a name to his face. He had to have been one of our professors. Sigils glowed on his arms, their purple light gleaming. “Professor Conrad!” Jessa exclaimed.

  “Get back to the Academy!” he barked.

  The demon tore away, ripping its way past the mage and darting from the house. Viviane and Alexander looked to me, and I looked blankly back. Then, I dropped my gaze to the sword, still smoldering on the ground. Whatever the voice was, I was probably sure it had just saved us. But why?

  I sheathed the blade, its flames now gone. I expected it to be warm, but it felt like ice against my fingertips. When I touched the cold steel, a tiredness swept over me, like the thick fog that sometimes settled in the Scraps. The kind that was heavy and damp.

  “Let’s go,” Alexander said.

  I didn’t argue.

  Jessa looked like she could barely stand. Viviane and Alexander led the way back; I trailed behind them, matching my pace with Jessa’s. That way, if she fell over, I could grab her.

  “Summer,” Viviane said suddenly. “Where did you learn to pick locks?”

  I was so tired, I didn’t even feel like answering her.

  “It’s Wynter,” I said, hoping she would drop it.

  “So where did you learn that?” Viviane asked.

  “Um…I knew a locksmith,” I said. “He taught me.”

  Viviane glanced over her shoulder at me and narrowed her eyes. “Your sudden use of fire was very impressive,” she said. “Miraculous, even.”

  Why wouldn’t she stop? We’d just been attacked by a demon! How could she still have enough energy left to feel like interrogating me?

  “Viv, please,” Alexander said.

  Viviane turned her attention to Alexander and linked his arm with hers.

  “I’m glad you could do it,” Jessa whispered, her smile weak. “I—I wish I could do that.”

  But I was pretty sure I hadn’t done it. The magic, talking sword had just spontaneously decided to help. But I couldn’t tell them that, because mages who listened to the voices in their heads went crazy, and I didn’t want that to happen to me.

  “The vines were really impressive,” I said.

  Jessa winced. “I was trying something…bigger.”

  She’d still done better than Viviane had. I thought about telling Jessa how I felt, but after the demon attack, it seemed too mean-spirited. Finally, we reached the Academy. I hoped we’d be safer within its walls. Maybe not. At the moment, I was having a hard time caring. Above everything else, I really just wanted to climb into bed and sleep for about ten years.

  Fourteen

  I DIDN’T GET TO SLEEP. Not right away. Professor Conrad, the man who’d rushed in to save us, told the faculty about the attack, and they wanted to question us. So I joined Jessa, Alexander, and Viviane in repeating the story to Du Lac and Celeste. By the time I returned to the dormitories, word had already spread throughout the school, and we were ambushed by half the girls in my dorm. Viviane had been there too, and I hoped she’d tell the story and spare me from having to. She had, but even then, I had to answer a dozen questions. And it was strange. I wasn’t used to having so much attention. When I woke, it was late evening and the setting sun cast long, orange shadows across the floor. Viviane was gone. Jessa was still sleeping, but there were a couple of other girls in the dormitory—Kris, Tatiana, and…

  I floundered on the last name. I thought it might be Marina.

  Kris, dark-haired and petite, glanced my way. I could sense more questions coming, and I really just wanted to disappear for a while and clear my head. So I slipped from my bed and headed to the library. Hopefully, it would be quiet there.

  I needed to think.

  Guilt gnawed at my stomach. I wished I’d been more useful. Logically, I knew it would have been impossible to take down the demon myself, but I still felt like it was my fault somehow. At least the others had some training and magical ability. All I’d done was lift a sword I didn’t know how to use. People were congratulating me like I’d done something amazing.

  What if the demons were after me or something? That couldn’t possibly be it, could it? I mean, even if I could hear them, it’s not like I’d asked to talk to them. And I wasn’t even a real mage.

  I thought of Jessa, still fast asleep. She’d collapsed into bed and not moved in hours. Celeste had said Jessa would be fine, but what if something went wrong? What if she never woke up?

  I didn’t know where Viviane was, probably with Alexander. I hoped they were both all right. And then, there were the flames. I had no idea how those had happened. I had the sinking feeling that the voice in my enchanted sword had made them happen, and that…

  That wasn’t good. Was there a demon in my sword as well? But why would a demon fight another demon? All I knew was, I didn’t belong here, and the longer I stayed, the more chances that somebody would get hurt. I just had to find Dorian’s stupid journal so he’d let me leave. I’d had enough of the Floats.

  There were too many people to try sneaking into the archives, so I wandered through the shelves and let my finger trace over the titles of the books. Growing up in the Scraps, I’d only seen a few dozen books in my whole life. And most of them were Gabriel’s, which I hadn’t been allowed to read. I wished I could just tumble into one of soft sofas lining the study areas and spend a year reading, but I knew that was never going to happen. Eventually, I pulled out a thick, heavy book which promised to be about different places and kingdoms. I carried the book over to an empty seating area and curled up in a chair with i
t. The opening pages featured a large map of Reverie. I picked out the places I knew. The Academy and the forum. Rosewood.

  Down below I found Plumba. The Scraps.

  I narrowed my eyes and ran my finger around the border of Reverie. An idea was beginning to form. Maybe I could share some of this wealth with Briar and Sterling. All I had to do was figure out where to drop things so they would find them.

  We lived a mile from the Dregs. More or less. That was still a lot of territory. I needed to narrow it down some way.

  The Gardens had been too far to walk to, as had Beryl—the realm on the other side of Plumba. But the Scraps were a large area. Gabriel had once said that the subway was transportation of some kind. That meant there had to be a logical reason for it being placed there. There had probably been something there once. A city or a town.

  I flipped several more pages until I found one of the Scraps. There were only three towns. I pursed my lips together and tried to think. I didn’t know of any towns in the Scraps. But I knew the Market. That would probably be considered a town, wouldn’t it?

  The Market had been within walking distance, but going there on foot was an all-day affair, which was why my uncle never went often. I flipped back to the other map and put my finger on the place between the beginning of the Dregs and where I thought the Market might be. Five miles between the two. Assuming they were in a straight line, if I dropped something off the edge of Reverie…

  I would have to look. Carefully, I ripped the map from the book, folded it up, and placed it in my pocket. My best bet would be to walk Reverie’s border and see if I could find any distinctive landmarks. And there might still be time. It was dark, but it wasn’t late. I flipped back to the map of Plumba and surveyed it once more.

  A throat cleared behind me.

  When I looked up, Alexander was standing near me with a knowing smirk on his face. Had he seen me steal the page from the book?

  “Hey—um, hello,” I said, flustered.

  “What are you doing?” he asked.

  Alexander leaned over me, so close that I felt the warmth of his body with mine. My breath gave an awkward, embarrassing hitch.