Enchanted Academy Box Set

by L. C. Mortimer

  “Wait,” Jessica said, stepping forward to the girl who had pretended to be Peter. “I know her. Allie Gator?”

  “You know her?” Tinkerbell’s head practically swiveled around as she looked at Jessica in surprise.

  “She’s in my class.”

  Allie rolled her eyes.

  “Wait, Gator?”

  Now it was Hook’s turn to frown, and Allison’s eyes narrowed. So those two girls had a bit of a history, too.

  Instantly, Allison’s personality seemed to get even darker. The other fairies began flittering in their cages, shaking the walls and trying to jump away, but Allison stayed calm. There was a sense of anger that surrounded her, and Tinkerbell wondered how the two girls knew each other and what their history was.

  Obviously, it was something horrible.

  The two of them wouldn’t be looking at each other like that if they didn’t go back.

  “Jillian Hook.”

  “What the hell are you doing here, Gator?” Hook strode across the room to the cage. Her energy ball seemed to get bigger and brighter, but Allison barely looked at it. She was too busy staring at Hook.

  “I could ask you the same question, but I think I already know.”

  “I’m saving my friend, you asshole. You had no right to take him.”

  “Just a friend, huh? Does his, uh, girlfriend know about the two of you?”

  Don’t get sucked in, Tinkerbell wanted to say. She knew that Hook and Peter Pan were just friends. It was obvious that they cared about each other, but not in a romantic sort of way. That was how dark fairies worked, though. They would plant ideas in your head: dangerous ideas. They would do things that would make you question absolutely everything.

  Then they would destroy you.

  Hook just shook her head.

  “Let her out of the cage,” she said to Tinkerbell. “I want to fight her.”

  “What? No! You aren’t fighting anyone,” Jessica said. “They’re locked up. All we need to do is let them stay locked up until help arrives.”

  Shit.

  Jessica.

  Tinkerbell cringed at the revelation that help was coming. That was kind of their wild card, but Allison seemed neither surprised nor worried about that.

  “Help?” She shook her head. “There’s no help coming.”

  Now it was Tinkerbell’s turn to look worried. Luckily, Allison seemed overly confident and didn’t mind monologuing a little bit.

  “My father knows we need him, which is why his army is coming to defend the castle from invaders like you.”

  So there was going to be a fight.

  Was that it?

  “You’re locked in a cage,” Tinkerbell said. “You can’t get out. Why would you lock yourself up?” She shook her head because it was so stupid. The dark fairies had really been overly confident, hadn’t they? They’d trusted that they’d be able to trick the students from Enchanted Academy and that the girls would just let the fairies right on out.

  “I won’t be in here for long,” Allison said.

  The other fairies were strangely quiet during this entire exchange. Tinkerbell figured that must mean that Allison was their leader of some sort. She wasn’t sure why because Allison didn’t exactly seem to have a nice personality.

  “Why you...” Hook shook her head. Her energy ball disappeared, forgotten, and the room was cast almost into darkness. There was a light up overhead that cast a thin glow in the room, but it wasn’t much. Hook pulled her arm back, presumably to punch Allison.

  “I wouldn’t do that,” Allie said carefully, but it was too late. Hook took a step forward and swung, but right before her fist connected with Allison’s face, Allison simply stepped back into the cage.

  Hook’s hand hit nothingness: just empty air, but Allison darted forward and grabbed it, holding her.

  “You never should have messed with me,” Allison hissed.

  “I hate you,” Hook said. There was an air of sadness when she spoke, and Tinkerbell wished she knew what sort of sordid history the two had. “You’re the reason my parents are gone,” she said.

  Jessica gasped, so apparently she’d heard part of the story before.

  What had Allison done?

  “Your parents were cowards,” she shouted. “They deserved what they got!”

  Hook tried to jerk her hand back once more. Allison was holding her too tightly, though.

  “Hook!” Tinkerbell said. “Energy ball!” Maybe she could throw one at Allison.

  “She can’t make one right now,” Allison said in a sickly sweet voice. “Isn’t that right?” She looked over at Jessica, who looked shocked, almost horrified. “Little Hookie Poo didn’t tell you about her powers, did she?”

  Who was this girl?

  How did she know about Hook’s abilities?

  “Hook can’t do anything if you squeeze right...here,” Allie grabbed Hook’s wrist and squeezed it hard. Jillian Hook cried out in pain, obviously hurt by whatever Allison was actually doing to her. Tinkerbell thought she might be sick. She looked around hastily, trying to find something she could throw at Allison.

  Anything.

  The room didn’t have much, though. It had obviously been prepped for when the girls decided to steal fairy boys to keep them locked up. There were no weapons of any kind. There was nothing.

  Then she remembered.

  All semester, Hook had been trying to collect fairy dust from her. It had been weird at first, and then just kind of quirky. Tinkerbell hadn’t really understood why Hook had done it until they’d been walking through the forest and she’d realized that Hook could use fairy dust for things like, well, finding fairies.

  The dust had enabled her to see the school despite the fairy wards. It had helped her to find the fairy academy that was hidden deep in the woods.

  And it was still in her pocket.

  “Hook! Your pocket!” Tinkerbell shouted.

  Instantly, Hook reached in her pocket and yanked the little packet free. She thrust it forward into Allie Gator’s face, and the dark fae instantly screamed and let go of Hook’s wrist. Hook fell backwards and Tinkerbell rushed forward to get her.

  “My eyes!” Allie was crying. “My eyes!”

  Tinkerbell didn’t know exactly what fairy dust would do to a dark fae’s eyes, but she knew it would probably sting, and it had at least allowed them to get away.

  “Come on,” Tinkerbell grabbed Hook and motioned for Jessica to follow them. They hurried out of the little room full of cages and closed the door.

  “They’re going to stay locked up, right?” Jessica asked breathlessly. “We don’t have to worry about them escaping?”

  “No, they can’t get out,” Tinkerbell said. “They were so worried about it looking authentic that they actually locked themselves in. They won’t be able to break free.”

  “Was she telling the truth about the dark fairies coming to find them?”

  “There’s only one way to find out,” Tinkerbell said. “But first, we need to find the boys.”

  She heard a muffled sound just then, and it didn’t seem to be coming from the room behind them. She rushed forward to an opposite door and yanked it open.

  “Peter!” She cried out.

  He was there. He was tied up and gagged but he was there, and so were all of the other boys. Their eyes looked scared at first, but then relieved when they realized the girls were there to help them: not hurt them.

  Tinkerbell focused only on Peter. She pulled the gag out of his mouth first.

  “Tink,” he said. “I need to tell you something, I-”

  She cut him off with a kiss. She was too excited to hold back any longer and besides, Peter was her favorite person in the world. She had finally managed to save him and find him. She’d rescued him just as she knew he would rescue her if she ever needed it.

  He looked up at her, surprised.

  “What was that for?” He asked.

  “Being you.”

  “What’s happe
ning?” Jessica asked from behind them. “Are they kissing? Is that’s what happening? Because if they’re kissing, then that’s really sweet. Hey, Hook, can you cast another energy ball so I can see what’s going on?”

  Hook was silent for a long moment, but then she whispered.

  “No, I can’t.”

  Tinkerbell looked sharply at Hook. Even in the darkness, Tinkerbell could see her friend clearly. Hook looked distraught: devastated even.

  “What do you mean?”

  Hook held up her hand, but nothing happened.

  She snapped her fingers.

  Still nothing.

  She waved her hand around in a big, dramatic show, but still, nothing happened.

  Allison Gator had done more than just taking away the boy that Tinkerbell loved. She was a vicious fairy, and she’d also managed to take away Hook’s powers.

  Chapter 14

  “Well, this was a huge mess.”

  Helena Hex stood surveying the disaster that was rescuing Peter. As it turned out, Allison Gator hadn’t been lying about their parents coming to save them. That said, their parents apparently didn’t know they had come up with crafty plans to kidnap boys. Each of the girls had a fairy mother and a dark fae father, but none of the parents seemed particularly pleased with the execution of the plan.

  “I trust we can keep this between us,” one of the fairy kings said to Helena. I stood nearby, almost out of earshot, but not quite. Perhaps I shouldn’t have been eavesdropping, but it was just such a strange situation.

  We had saved Peter, for crying out loud!

  We’d gone through hell and back again just to save him, and now I was standing and watching a headmistress ice dragon shifter talking with a fairy king.

  It was all too much.

  It almost didn’t seem real.

  “I see no reason to involve the Darling Witches if you don’t,” Helena said carefully. “But you understand this means that your daughter is no longer welcome at Enchanted Academy.”

  “Understood,” the king said. “And the boy?”

  “He’s fine. All of the boys are fine. They’re a bit hungry and tired and scared, but they’ll all be quite okay.”

  The fairy king shook his head sadly.

  “You know, Helena, I should have suspected something like this was going to happen. She’s always been so curious about the old ways, you know? Even after the accident a few years ago, she still kept pushing and prodding.”

  Accident?

  What accident?

  Hook’s parents died three years ago, I remembered, and Hook seemed to blame Allison for whatever happened to them. Was she actually responsible? Was that the accident the king was talking about?

  “King, I can’t pretend to know how you should move forward,” Helena said. “But I do know that all magic carries with it a price.”

  The king nodded, but didn’t say anything else. The two of them stood looking over the fairy academy. The woods were bursting now with teachers from all of the schools. Some of the boys had parents who had come out when they’d gotten word that their kids had been rescued. Even the dark fairies were flittering about and trying to help. Apparently, none of the dark faes had been impressed with the girls’ use of their glamour.

  “She can’t use her glamour anymore,” Helena said.

  “We’ll see to it that she can’t.”

  “Good,” Helena said. “Because if I see your daughter near my school again, I’ll kill her, or I’ll turn her over to the Darling Witches. Neither one would look good for business.”

  She turned and walked away, but I kept watching the fairy king. He didn’t seem shocked at all by Helena’s announcement. In fact, he seemed almost resigned. Was he for real? Was this the way the world of magic worked?

  Part of me felt a little sick to my stomach.

  “Hey,” Beast wrapped an arm around me.

  “I didn’t even hear you come over,” I told him.

  “I’m very sneaky when I want to be. Are you okay?” He looked at me carefully, searching my eyes. It was a harder question than it should have been.

  Was I okay?

  Not really.

  Everything had happened so fast and I was still wrapping my head around everything. So much had happened in such a short period of time, and there had been so many wild emotions involved.

  Peter Pan had been taken.

  Taken.

  He had been snatched up by fairies who wanted to hurt him in so many different ways. They had done everything they could to completely ruin his future and his chances at a good life, but that was all over now.

  “I don’t know,” I finally told Beast.

  “It’s a lot to take in.”

  “That’s putting it lightly.”

  He took my hand and led me to a nearby log where we could sit side-by-side. He cupped my face and kissed me gently. I leaned up into his kiss, not wanting the moment to end. These were the types of moments I lived for these days. These were the types of moments that made the world go round.

  “Everything’s going to be okay,” Beast told me.

  “How can you be so sure? I mean, Allison was right under my nose. I had no idea she was involved in Hook’s parents’ deaths...”

  “You couldn’t have known, Jessica, and you’re not responsible for knowing,” he said. “Hook is a really cool person. She’s a bit bossy and she can be a bully, but she’s been through a lot. Like you.” He bopped me gently on the nose with his finger, and I snuggled up next to him.

  He was right, and I knew it, but I still felt bad. I wish that I had somehow been able to stop everything from happening.

  I looked out at the little groups of people talking and chatting in the woods. There were fairies who were trying to decide what to do about the school building. Should they shut it down? Should they ward it again? Then there were others who were trying to figure out how they had missed it all.

  A couple of teachers from another school were upset that they hadn’t known their students were so wild and untamed.

  “Look at them,” I let my eyes wander over to Peter Pan and Tinkerbell. They were kissing and hugging next to a big group of trees, and I’d never seen either one of them look quite so happy or at peace.

  “They did it,” Beast said. “They managed to find their happy ending.”

  “What’s going to happen next?”

  He shrugged.

  “No ideas?” I pressed. “I mean, this was kind of huge.”

  “Things will be a little strange for a few weeks and then it’ll all go back to normal,” he said. “It always does. People will forget about this just as they forgot about what happened with Belle, and what happened with Wolf.”

  “I suppose you’re right.”

  It hadn’t been all that long since Belle had been caught in a magical and enchanted box and essentially trapped there. We’d managed to free her, but who knew at what cost? Who knew what it had taken? Then there had been Wolf’s little adventure. Her boyfriend’s grandmother had been kidnapped by my former roommate. Again, we’d saved her, and the whole school had been in an uproar about it and then...nothing.

  “People have their own lives,” he said carefully. “They’re busy. They’ll move on from this,” he said.

  But would we?

  I looked over and saw Hook leaning against a tree. She looked tired. I’d never seen her looking quite so lost or forlorn as she did in that moment and I wondered more than anything else if she was going to heal from this.

  She had lost so much, and it simply wasn’t fair.

  Chapter 15

  The night of the performance, I sat in the front row with Beast. I couldn’t wait to see my friends in action.

  “Drop your sword,” Peter Pan shouted. He was on stage. This was it. The lights were focused on him and the whole crowd was silent in anticipation. It had taken weeks to get everything just right, but the show had to go on, and it was.

  “Never,” Hook sneered. She was fully in charac
ter. Everything about her costume was perfect from her makeup to her shirt to the way her hair was curled just so.

  “That’s a pity,” Peter said. “I’d hate to have to kill you, pirate!”

  Hook leapt forward and their swords hit each other. Instantly, they were performing a carefully choreographed scene. I doubted most people realized just how much time they’d spent getting each action right. From the way he leapt forward to the way she moved back at the same time, it was perfect.

  All of it was perfect.

  Beast and I held hands as we watched the show, and I couldn’t help but think that this performance almost didn’t happen. We almost lost Peter. If Tinkerbell hadn’t been watching him practice that night, no one would have known what had taken him. Seeing the dark fae masquerading herself as Hook had been the biggest clue that they were looking for dark fairies.

  That had truly been the most obvious reason they’d managed to find him.

  And now he was there.

  Tinkerbell came out on stage in her costume and my heart leapt as I saw the way Peter glanced over at her and smiled. It was nonchalant and sweet, but it was obvious that he cared so very deeply for her. He lifted his sword and kept fighting with Hook. She still couldn’t use her powers, but she didn’t let that stop her from putting on an incredible performance.

  Beast squeezed my hand and I looked over at him. Sometimes it was hard to believe that I was dating someone like him. He had so many different layers to his personality and there was so very much to unfold. At the end of the day, though, it all came down to us.

  We might have had an unconventional start, but together, we were going to make this thing work. We had to.

  At intermission, Wolf leaned over. She was sitting on the other side of me, along with Red and Belle.

  “Pretty good, huh?” She grinned.

  “So good,” I agreed.

  “I’m glad everything’s okay,” Wolf said. She shook her head. “Hard to believe that it almost didn’t happen.”