Merlin's Supernatural Academy: Complete series (Books 1-4) : A Young Adult Supernatural Academy Series

by K L Rymer

Ooh, a vampire... who knew? That would explain her otherworldly good looks.

  “Let go of him, you disgusting half-breed!”

  Damien glances down at her nonchalant, and he looks bored out of his mind (as if roasting another student’s arm was an everyday occurrence). “Really? Half-breed? That’s rich coming from you, Ambrose.”

  The bleached blonde hisses and jumps to her feet, shoving him away. Damien releases his demonic hold on Matthew.

  My eyes bug out when I see the red mark around Matthew’s skin, and now I worry for my fellow Mendacious. Damien may be intense and scary, but I don’t want to see him expelled.

  Matthew glares at the demon and snaps his fingers, summoning a blond guy with white wings. An angel by the looks of it, and he also wears a red blazer, symbolizing his membership to the House Audacious.

  He slips in beside Matthew, placing his fingers around his blistered wrist, and the skin shines brand new once again. But the mage only has eyes for Damien. “You’ll pay for that, half-breed. Do you forget who my father is?”

  Damien smirks. “And do you forget who mine is, Humphrey?”

  Matthew visibly pales, and I see his Adam’s apple bouncing beneath his smart red tie.

  The demon’s sneer widens. “Didn’t think so... Now, go over and apologise to Tinkerbell.”

  “Ugh! Tinkerbell is a fairy, dummy!” Felicity snaps irritably, forgetting herself, and several students chuckle. She blushes and hides beneath the table once again.

  The demon and the mage hold a staring match for a good while. To my surprise, Matthew chortles next and strides over to our table. Damien and I fall in line behind him and watch as he drops down on one knee, taking Felicity’s hand, and her eyes grow as big as saucers (as if those blue beacons couldn’t get any bigger). “I apologise, and I promise that I will never, ever again throw mashed potatoes in your general direction.”

  Felicity blinks in rapid succession, fixing her wide eyes on nothing but Matthew. Her chest heaves, and it seems the jerk has left her breathless.

  Oh, fuck. She’s falling in love. Matthew’s only pretending to apologize. I hope she can see that.

  “I... I...” she peeps, keeping those shiny blue jewels on that asshole.

  Matthew delivers a charming smile and presses his lips to her knuckles. Now he rises back to his feet, meeting Damien’s inflamed eyes with another smirk, and the expression the demon shoots him next is enough to incinerate him to ashes.

  Matthew chuckles and saunters back to his table at last. Felicity hyperventilates, and suddenly her eyelids droop and she falls out of her chair like a love-struck idiot.

  Damien catches her by the scruff of her blazer, her feet dangling below her. “Not so fast, Tinkerbell.”

  “He’s... he’s so... dreamy... and... Tinkerbell is a fairy...” she mumbles, falling as limp as a ragdoll.

  Damien gives her listless body a shake before he passes her over to me, and now I carry her in my arms. “You best get her upstairs and splash some cold water on her. Classes are about to start.”

  What? Seriously? We didn’t even get to eat in the end. I’m starving. I’m sure Felicity will cope.

  Like the archetypal nosferatu that he is, Damien sweeps dramatically out of the room, and now the rest of us head to the counter to get some lunch. We have five minutes. So we best hurry. To my surprise, everyone leaves us alone and returns to their tables to finish their food.

  I smile to myself. I think our little rebellion worked in the end.

  Chapter 11.

  I sit to the back of Professor Jones’ History and Legends class with the rest of Team Mendacious. It’s not so bad since her classroom rises up like a typical lecture theater, and Mendacious have the highest vantage point. We can see over the heads of our rival houses, especially Matthew’s and Angelina’s lot.

  I don’t know who is worse—the Queen Bitch or her band of insipid followers. Or Matthew and his jerks.

  Matthew and Angelina are like the king and queen of the academy (or so they think). Matthew has Caleb, a self-satisfied angel, Darius, a shifter about twice the size of Thomas, and Macson, an Unseelie jerk.

  Angelina’s group consists of Jessika (a stuck-up Seelie bitch), Row (a perfect muse with ashen hair), and Laura (a woodland nymph).

  I hate them all. Honestly, I never would have thought I’d be so disappointed the day I met supernaturals in the flesh. Are they all so... what’s the word... basic? Every one of them has the latest smartphone and other high-tech gadgets. For all their talk about how awful humans are, they sure like to imitate us. Hypocrites.

  Mendacious have little in the way of technology, but Thomas does seem to love his laptop. I bet he’s your typical go-to guy when you’ve got a tech problem. (I will have to make a mental note the next time I have computer troubles.)

  Professor Jones prattles on, brandishing a long pointer as she shows us a map of Wales. Besides this map is the supernatural world. Strangely enough, they overlap and look eerily similar with the same mountains, the same rivers, and the same large bodies of water. The reason Wales resembles much of the supernatural world is because the country is a bridge between realms. Well, according to the professor.

  She goes into a little backstory about the magical world and its connecting history to Wales. Many human historians had a lot to say about Merlin, and judging by Professor Jones’ tone of voice, he still appears as an enigma, even to her.

  He’s been called wizard, sorcerer, prophet, bard, and even the Son of the Devil, which I doubt. There’s no way that sunny demeanor was borne of evil though there are legends he was the progeny of gods, too.

  “King Vortigern fled to Wales after his defeat by the hands of the Saxons, and here he decided to construct a fortress. Every day he would start to build his wall, but it would always collapse the following morning. Even the best stonemasons in the land had no advice to give to the king, so instead, his counsellors advised him to seek a boy without a father and use his blood mixed with mortar to stop the fortress from tumbling. This boy, of course, was Merlin Ambrosias, or as he prefers Myrddin Emrys.”

  I perk up. Hold the phone...

  “Myrddin revealed to the king the real reason why his fortress kept falling. He explained that the fortress had been built upon an underground pool. And underneath this pool were two slumbering dragons—one red and one white...”

  Instinctively, I look to Matthew who sits near the front of the class. He shudders in response to Professor Jones’ revelation, and I can’t take my eyes off him. He definitely knows something. After all, he had a similar vision to me.

  He turns next, giving me the profile of his handsome face, and I meet that cold, gray iris. After a brief pause, he looks away, and now I watch him speechless.

  So he does know about our intertwined fates? Well, if his behavior is anything to go by.

  “Everything Myrddin had told Vortigern was true, and the dragons awakened and fought once more. After this, the king rebuilt his foundation, and the fortress never fell again. And thus the king named his fortress Dinas Emrys after Myrddin which means ‘Ambrosias Fort’.”

  She doesn’t say what happened to the dragons, but according to my talk with the Boy Wonder himself, one of those dragons is still asleep under that hill. And I have to be the one to awake it.

  As for the White Dragon... that remains a mystery.

  The class ends and the students rise, ready to head to the next lesson. That’s when I overhear a conversation between Angelina and Matthew.

  “That was so boring. I could feel my eyes glazing over. Thank god,” Angelina says.

  Matthew scratches the back of his head. “Er, yeah, sure... I was falling asleep.”

  She smiles, squeezes his arm, and then flaunts out of the room, throwing her designer bag over her shoulder. Her bitches follow after her.

  “Angelina, wait!” Laura the wood nymph cries out.

  I keep my focus on Matthew. Eventually, we lock eyes again, and now his gaze is prolonged, deli
berate. Almost challenging. I sharpen my eyelids, and we stay that way for a while—two mortal enemies. It’s as if we’re the only two left in the room.

  My concentration is broken by Zahara which is just as well. Macson the Unseelie has just nudged Matthew, and now they head out of the classroom.

  The Unseelie girl smiles knowingly, and I think she may have noticed my showdown with Humphrey. Not that anyone could have missed that. We were so obvious. “Interesting class today, hey? Dragons... kinda cool.”

  “Yeah. Some of us have taste, unlike Angelina. Her idea of entertainment probably involves reality shows about the rich and famous,” I reply.

  “You got that right,” Zahara scoffs.

  “So, Damien, what should we do today? Ooh, we could steal everyone’s right shoes!”

  I look over and see Felicity tailing Damien down the steps. The two have become somewhat friends, to put it lightly, ever since he stuck up for her several weeks ago (even though I was totally the one to stick up for her first, but never mind).

  At least she has gotten over her crush on the mage.

  “Nothing. Go away, Tinkerbell,” the demon snaps, exasperated, his coat billowing like wings behind him.

  The pixie doesn’t take the hint though and continues to follow him, trying her best to keep up. Just as they leave, I hear her pipe, “I know! Let’s switch around everyone’s shoes! So that way they walk around with the wrong shoes on the wrong feet!”

  “I said, no!”

  Zahara snorts. “I love it when evil comes together for the common good.”

  I still don’t think Felicity is evil, just mischievous, but I have seen that wicked gleam in her eye at the prospect of stealing people’s shoes. She has an odd fascination with shoes, especially the left one. Maybe she has some kind of foot fetish, who knows, but it’s starting to get a little creepy, and now I feel for Damien. Shoe theft probably seems like kid’s stuff to him anyway. I don’t even want to know what he considers fun.

  Zahara and I exit the lecture theater and stroll up the hall. Up ahead I see students huddle around a bulletin board, and, of course, my curiosity is piqued. What are they looking at?

  “Halloween party! Whoohoo!” Mascon cheers, and already they start making plans.

  I groan. Let me guess. Mendacious isn’t invited...

  “You guessed right,” Zahara confirms, reading my mind once again. “Our house never gets invited to parties. Least of all for Halloween. The other houses throw one every year. It sucks.”

  I’m not too concerned, considering I’ve been invited to a party at Bangor with Sophie and Megan, but it’s not fair. I wonder if some of my fellow Mendacious have even stepped foot into a party. Thomas is a bit nerdy, and Nora awkward, and Jack... well, too quiet. Then there’s Felicity who lacks any social grace, and then there is Damien too. Zahara I can imagine has gate-crashed one or two parties in her life. It gives me an idea then.

  I yank a flyer from some kid’s back pocket and wave it at Zahara. “Care to crash a Halloween party?”

  Zahara’s black lips curl with a sneer. “It’s like you read my mind...”

  Actually, it’s more like she reads mine, but I wrap my arm around her shoulder and discuss strategies.

  ...

  Later in the Mendacious common room, Zahara and I tell the others all about our plan. None are willing, of course. I do see that little flash of rebellion in Felicity’s giant, jewel-like eyes. I think she’s been hanging around with Damien far too much lately.

  Speaking of the devil, he contemplates what we say in his dark corner, nurturing his mysterious aura. His ember eyes glow like a cat’s, and it still gives me the heebie-jeebies. The others gather themselves around the fireplace.

  Nora’s the first to protest. “Absolutely not! It is one thing to barge our way into the main dining hall, but not this... This is Angelina’s party. She will roast us alive if we dare show our faces.”

  “Who gives a shit? I can take her on.” I smile at Zahara.

  Thomas shakes his head, typing away at his keyboard. He’s forever doing assignments of which we already have a hundred to do (combined with my hundred at Bangor, too). “Not possible. Angelina Ambrose is a vampire. She far surpasses you in strength. They say one vampire is equal to twenty-five humans.”

  I fold my arms. “Well, thanks, Captain Obvious, but that’s beside the point. I won’t be terrorized by bullies. Anyway, we have Jack. Just look at him. He’s broken that chair.”

  The titan sits on top of a pile of springs and stuffing now. A shame. It was a nice chair. Again, he says nothing, brooding as usual.

  “Well, I think it’s a wonderful idea. My first Halloween party!” Felicity squeals, raising her arms in excitement.

  “More like your first party ever, Tinkerbell,” Damien mutters from the shadows, but the pixie just dismisses him good-naturedly.

  I shake my head and stand before them now, blocking the heat from the fireplace. “How about this? You can all come with me first to the human world. I’ve been invited to another party at my other school. Go there first and meet some nice decent people for once in your life. Then after a few drinks, we crash Angelina’s get-together. You’ll be too drunk to care by that point anyway.”

  They all stare at me as if I’ve got three heads. Even Damien’s chin pops loose, and Zahara is just as dumbstruck.

  Thomas’s eyes burn bright gold, and I just wish I could see that wolf for once. Wolves are supposed to be tough. “You... you want us to go to a human party? In the human world? Are you crazy?!”

  His shout echoes through the room, but I shrug. “Yeah... so? I don’t see the problem. You’re all half-human anyway. Sure you may stand out, but it’s Halloween! The students at Bangor will just think you’re in costume.”

  Damien chuckles in the corner, and we all turn toward his shadowed form. I put my hands on my hips. “What’s so funny?”

  He stops, and all of a sudden I find myself staring into the windows of hell again. “I’m in though I don’t know how Tinkerbell and Goliath are going to pull it off.”

  He’s right. I hadn’t thought of that. One’s too big, and the other’s too small.

  “Well, can’t we just whip up a spell and make them appear a little more... you know...”

  Damien arches a brow. “Normal?”

  “Yeah... that word...” I scratch my head. I really didn’t mean to offend.

  Thomas growls in annoyance, tearing himself away from his laptop. “Not that any of us are a mage, but we don’t need magic. All supernatural beings are trained in the art of camouflage. That way we don’t expose ourselves to humans.”

  “Camouflage?” I muse. “Come on. Let me see.”

  One by one, they all exchange a glance and transform before my eyes. I gasp.

  Zahara’s black orbs have vanished, and now I look into a very human-looking pair of honey-browns. Her ears are rounded, hiding the fact she is Unseelie. Nora’s hair is no longer sentient and wiggling, and Thomas’s hair is less... wild. Jack is just your average tall guy now, around six foot six, but passable for a human, and Felicity... hot damn. Whereas she was cute and sweet like a china doll before, now she’s a beautiful goddess. She still has big eyes, but she passes for a human now, just a ridiculously gorgeous one.

  Damien wolf-whistles. “Looking good, Tinkerbell.”

  Felicity turns his way, giving him a seductive smirk, then says in a breathy voice, “You too, Damien...”

  I face the demon, and there go my dry panties.

  Before me stands the hottest guy I’ve seen in a while. All clad in black and the total gothic vibe just makes him all the hotter.

  He still has shoulder-length hair, but now that the constant shadow of darkness has vanished from his form, I see that angular jaw, those sexy, curved lips, and vivid green eyes.

  Damien cocks his head in amusement. “Seriously, Bryn Bryn. Could you be more obtuse?”

  I avert my eyes, my brain a little frazzled. “Sorry... just... shoc
ked.”

  He sniggers again, and it seems like we have all come to a collective agreement. Even Nora and Thomas appear to have changed their minds.

  “Well, I guess we’re all going to Bangor then,” I announce.

  Chapter 12.

  The human world works a little differently than the supernatural. Time moves slower, so by the time I’m done at the academy, I make it to Bangor and have my classes there.

  Sure my days are longer, and I have less spare time and sleep, but I get to have two degrees.

  For some inexplicable reason though, Halloween falls on the same night, the same hour. Something to do with Halloween being a bridge to the supernatural realm, so the timelines align.

  I just try not to think about it too much, lest my head will explode.

  I stand in my room at the academy dressed as Merlin. I have a fake beard and a blue, velvet cloak with stars. And don’t forget the staff too. (I think the staff is supposed to be for a Gandalf costume, but it will do for Merlin too.)

  Look, I just don’t do pretty or sexy. Not my thing. Just think of me as that little girl who turns up to the princess party dressed as a hotdog. I do have my Sailor Moon outfit, but I really don’t feel like being the object of any boy’s desire tonight.

  I’ll probably lose the beard. It’s sweaty and makes my face itch.

  Gelert seems to approve as he whines atop his place on my four-poster bed. The others totally don’t know that I have a ghost dog in my dorm room. Not that he takes up much space and all.

  He comes and goes, but he often likes to visit me, especially when I’m stressed. Myrddin has been so busy lately; he hasn’t left his office for weeks, so the dog has sought me out instead.

  Sometimes Thomas gets a sense of him, and his eyes will glow when he picks up on that dog smell. I often wonder if the wolf that Gelert had killed had, in fact, been a shifter.

  You may find this surprising, but wolves... real wolves are not that malicious, and wouldn’t purposefully seek out a baby. If it had been a real wolf, then it must have just been really hungry, so much so that it forgot its fear of humans for the chance to eat. But I find it hard to imagine that there was not easier prey at the time. Wales is abundant in wildlife (and probably more so in the thirteenth century). Plus, wolves often hunt in packs. So it had to be some murderous, scumbag shifter in his wolf form. One that had a grudge on the prince and his babe.