Magic Swap (Hidden World Academy Book 1)

by Sadie Moss

  I feel a little like Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz, waking up and realizing it was all a dream. Only… for Dorothy, there was no place like home, and for me… well, that’s kind of the problem.

  There is a place that was starting to feel as much like home as this world ever did. Maybe more so.

  I wish I could get into contact with the guys, if nothing else. Tell them what happened, and that I’m okay.

  I mean, they’re smart, and I’m pretty sure they can figure out why I just vanished from their sight, literally slipping through their fingers as we were making out. But they’ve got to be worried about me and wondering about Roxie, and I just wish I could communicate with them somehow.

  My parents think I’m traumatized from the “mugging,” and I don’t correct them. I stay in my childhood bedroom for a few days. It’s nice. My dad makes my favorite meals, my mom pampers me. It’s good to feel spoiled a bit. I play board games with everyone and just hang out, soaking up the family time.

  If only I could tell them about what really happened. I don’t like keeping secrets from my family. When I thought to myself that I wanted a bit more of my own independent life, I hadn’t meant a whole double life that I couldn’t talk to them about. I didn’t mean lying and hiding things from them.

  Oh, and of course, there’s Roxie.

  That—that—that bitch did a whole tap dance routine on my fucking life. I’m going to have to spend weeks fixing the shit she pulled. If she was in front of me, I’m not a violent person, but boy howdy would I ram her head into the wall a good few times. Maybe I could slam some empathy into her that way.

  Apparently, I am now dating Dean, which my parents are thrilled about, and which makes me want to hurl. Not because he’s repulsive or awful, but because that’s never, ever been how I’ve felt about him.

  I quit dance crew, which understandably worried literally everyone, and my friends won’t stop texting me, trying to figure out what’s wrong. One of them even asked if I was pregnant.

  Yeah. Fun times.

  Roxie also picked a totally fun and random major for me in college: organic chemistry. I have no fucking idea why she chose it—maybe it was as close to our world’s version of magic as she could get? She actually pulled decent grades in my classes, but I’m still gonna have to take an extra semester to get back on track, since there’s no way I can actually stick with that major.

  I’m not looking forward to explaining that to my parents. At all.

  At least winter break started a few days before I arrived, so I don’t have to worry about going through another round of finals in this world—especially ones I’m totally unprepared for.

  But with no studying or homework to keep me busy, I’m left with the burning question: what should I be doing?

  I know the logical answer to that question is that I should be taking steps to settle back into my life in the Dull World. This is what I wanted all along, isn’t it? To get back home?

  But now that I’m back, I feel antsy.

  I miss the guys like hell, so much that a painful ache forms in my chest every time I think of them. I hate that I was ripped away so suddenly. I didn’t even get a chance to say goodbye, not that it would make me miss them less now. But everything feels… unresolved. I still don’t know why Roxie swapped with me in the first place, or why she swapped us back now.

  Is this it? This is just the end? I’ll never get to know?

  A week after my return to the Dull World, I’m pacing back and forth in my room, trying to figure out what to do about any of this, when there’s a knock at the door.

  “Hey, gorgeous, you free?”

  Oh, fucking hell, it’s Dean.

  I like him, he’s a great guy, but not like that. And I’ve got no clue if Roxie was with him because she genuinely liked him, or because she just wanted a guy to sleep with, or because she thought I liked him and was trying to pretend to be me, but whatever the reason, it’s no bueno.

  I open the door, pasting a way too cheerful smile on my face. “Hey, sorry, I was just on my way to campus!” I blurt.

  Dean reaches for me, but I slip past before he can grab me. I’m not kissing him. No way. Not when I have three other men that I care about and want to be with—even if I might never see them again. I’m not going to be with someone I don’t feel that way about, not even for the sake of a charade.

  I hurry downstairs with Dean trailing after me and grab my shoes and backpack.

  “I’ll see you later, okay?” I tell him.

  “Yeah. Yeah… okay.”

  He looks confused and hurt, but he steps outside when I open the door for him, heading back down the block toward his parents’ house. I feel awful that he got dragged into this whole mess, and I know I should just break up with him, but I’ve been avoiding him instead. I don’t want to hurt him, and I hate that Roxie put me in a situation where I’m going to have to.

  After watching Dean disappear down the street, I go into the kitchen to say goodbye to my parents and brother.

  I told him I was heading to campus, which was partly just an excuse to avoid being alone with him. But I really do want to go. I haven’t been to my dorm once since I’ve been back, and I think I need to check it out.

  Roxie spent almost a whole semester in my life. She visited my parents often enough to keep up her cover of being me, but she was living in my dorm room. So whatever the hell she was up to, the reason she went to this world in the first place and screwed up my entire life—it’s going to be there. Not here where my parents could stumble across it.

  If there are any clues at all, that’s where I’ll find them.

  “Hey, guys, I’m heading out,” I say as Mom and Dad look up.

  Shane’s at the kitchen table, and I hug him and both of my parents tightly, as hard as I can. I have no idea what I’m going to find in Roxie’s—my—dorm room. I have no clue what she was up to.

  Who knows if we might switch back at any moment, throwing me back into the Hidden World again, this time for good?

  I need to remember this. If I never see them again—I need to remember every second of this goodbye. Their hugs. Their voices. Their faces. How much I love them, and how they love me.

  “Everything okay, Gabs?” Dad asks. “You seem like you’re in a rush.”

  “Oh, yeah, no, I just need to grab some of my textbooks so I can study over the break. Gotta keep up with all that chemistry homework.” I force a smile onto my face.

  Mom grabs my hand before I can turn to leave. “Honey… you know we don’t like to pry. And we’ve been trying to give you space. But… you seem so emotional and all over the place lately. We know something’s wrong, and it’s not the mugging, it was before that too. We just… we want you to know that you can talk to us, about whatever it is, all right?”

  Tears spring into my eyes, and I nod. “I’m okay,” I lie. “Really, I’m… I’m just sorting things out in my life.”

  Mom nods, looking a little unconvinced, and I hug her again. “Everything’s going to be okay,” I promise, and I try to ignore the guilt I feel as I say the words. There’s so much I wish I could tell her.

  I take a bus to my school, frowning slightly when I step onto the campus grounds and the atmosphere doesn’t change slightly around me.

  Of course it doesn’t. There’s no dimension bubble here.

  When I reach my dorm building, my shoulders tense a little. This is where Roxie was living while she pretended to be me, and I don’t know exactly what I’ll find when I get up to my room.

  I mean, I’m assuming it’ll be messy, if her dorm room back in the Hidden World was any indication. The girl does not like cleaning up after herself.

  But what else will I find? What was she up to? Will I be able to track down some hint of what brought her here?

  I’m ready for anything. Crazed diagrams with red string like a conspiracy theorist. A unicorn. A demon summoning circle. God knows what.

  But when I walk inside—

  I
freeze.

  The room is a mess, just like I expected. But this isn’t just the “rich college girl who’s too busy getting straight A’s to clean up after herself” kind of mess.

  Someone’s trashed the place.

  Books are scattered everywhere, and so are clothes. Shelves are shoved open. The mattress has been yanked off the bed and stabbed, like someone was checking to make sure nothing was hidden inside of it.

  I’ve seen Roxie’s type of mess. And this isn’t that. This is someone looking for something—frantically, angrily.

  Holy shit.

  I swivel my head to take in the entire room, overwhelmed, as fear creeps up my spine.

  Roxie was here, all right, but she didn’t make this mess.

  Someone else did.

  What the hell did my dimension twin do? Who did she piss off? Was this someone from my world who came after her? Or was it someone from the Hidden World, her world? Did someone follow her here? What the hell is happening?

  I finally get my feet to move, and as I walk farther into the room—I see it.

  Scribbled on the desk in red permanent marker, like she just grabbed whatever she could get her hands on and didn’t even bother to find a piece of paper, is an incomplete message:

  Help me. They’re taking me. Don’t trust—

  The messy scrawl dies out in a wobbly, interrupted line.

  My skin goes ice cold.

  Oh, no.

  THANK YOU FOR READING!

  Reviews are a book’s lifeblood. If you enjoyed Magic Swap, please take a second to leave a review (even a sentence or two makes such a huge difference!).

  And don’t worry, there’s more coming! Magic Chase, book two in the Hidden World Academy series, will be here soon!

  This thing isn’t over yet…

  I spent an entire semester trying to get back to the Dull World, but now that I’m here, I realize it’s not that simple. I can’t just go back to the way things were.

  For one thing, I left my heart with three gorgeous, incredible men, and I miss them so much it hurts.

  For another thing, Roxie didn’t swap places with me on purpose this time.

  Someone took her.

  That means she’s in danger, and I might be too.

  Maybe the smartest thing would be to just keep my head down, try to rebuild my life here, and forget I ever went to the Hidden World.

  But, come on. We all know I’m not gonna do that, right?

  Pre-order on Amazon:

  HERE

  In the meantime, you can dive into my complete reverse harem urban fantasy series, Magic Awakened, starting with the free prequel novella, Kissed by Shadows.

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  Also by Sadie Moss

  Magic Awakened

  Kissed by Shadows (prequel novella)

  Bound by Magic

  Game of Lies

  Consort of Rebels

  The Vampires’ Fae

  Saved by Blood

  Seduced by Blood

  Ruined by Blood

  The Last Shifter

  Wolf Hunted

  Wolf Called

  Wolf Claimed

  Wolf Freed

  Academy of Unpredictable Magic

  Spark

  Trials

  Thief

  Threat

  Hunt

  Clash

  Hidden World Academy

  Magic Swap

  Magic Chase

  Magic Gambit