Oberon Academy- The Complete Series

by Wendi Wilson

  Or, more specifically, half-faery.

  I pushed open the shed’s door and slipped through the crack, quickly closing it behind me. Breathing a sigh of relief, I closed my eyes and willed the tension to drain from my body. I was going to be okay. I was pretty resourceful, and I’d figure it all out.

  A masculine chuckle rang out behind me, making my eyes fly open. I spun around, realizing for the first time that light was flickering inside the space. One of the candles that I’d left on the makeshift table had been lit. My eyes strained to search the dark corners of the shed, and movement drew them to the carpet roll.

  Only, it wasn’t rolled up any longer. It was spread across the dirt and the lump atop it was a person. A very large person.

  “What do we have here?” a deep voice called out as he rolled into a sitting position. “What’s a pretty thing like you doing in my shed in the middle of the night? Come to pay old Ernest a visit?”

  His shed? It was my shed. Had been for months.

  He climbed to his feet and my fear ratcheted up a few more notches. He was tall, much taller than me, and so wide around, he probably weighed more than three hundred pounds.

  How did someone even get that big in a world where there’s very little food?

  I shook off the errant thought as he lumbered toward me. I had to get out of there. I could feel the dark intentions rolling off of him. He wanted to hurt me.

  “Oh, you’re a purdy one, ain’t ya?”

  His words shocked me out of my frozen state and I whirled, pulling on the shed door. A beefy arm shot over my shoulder, a hand holding the door closed, while another arm circled around my waist. A scream ripped its way up my throat as I tore at his flesh with my fingernails in an attempt to free myself.

  “Oh, a fighter,” he purred into my ear, rubbing himself against my back in a disgusting manner. “I like it, baby. Don’t stop.”

  I froze and silent tears tracked down my face. The man chuckled again and his hand released the door. He moved it to my body, groping me in places I’d never been touched. I was disgusted by his lecherous pawing and attempted to push his hand away from my body.

  But he was too strong.

  As he continued to rub his fingers across my peaks and valleys, my frightened tears transformed into ones of anger. What was it with the men of the world? What made them think they could just take whatever they wanted, regardless of what I want? Was I some kind of pushover? Did I have a sign that read, “Abuse Me” on my forehead?

  No.

  “No!” I screamed, my anger exploding out of me in a rush of power.

  The man’s roaming hands disappeared as if ripped from me with a shout of fear. He must have scratched his fingernails across my back, because there was a stinging along my spine. Ignoring the pain, I twirled around to face him, my heart pounding and my hands fisted and my breath beating in and out in a staccato rhythm. Wind swirled through the small space and the candle sputtered out, leaving the two of us in darkness.

  I needed light. I needed to see his disgusting face and him to see mine when I reviled him for the disgusting sack of shit that he was. I wanted to see his pain when I kicked him in the balls.

  A small glow flickered in front of me, a tiny orb the size of a marble floating in the air. As I watched, it grew in size, getting bigger and bigger until the entire shed was lit up. I stared at it in awe, wondering what it was and where it came from.

  Movement caught my eye and I turned my gaze to the man. He was sliding on his back across the carpet that served as his bed, the wind still whipping through his greasy hair. His eyes rolled around in fear as whimpers of that same emotion bled from his mouth.

  “What are you?” I saw his focus move from my face to a spot over my shoulder.

  I whirled to see who was behind me, but there was no one there. And the shed door was still firmly closed. The man’s crying grew louder and I twirled back to face him.

  I caught a fluttering in my peripheral vision and turned again, still seeing nothing. But I felt something. A slight tug along my spine where the stinging had been.

  Ever so slowly, I turned my head to glance over my right shoulder.

  And that’s when I fainted.

  Chapter Seventeen

  17

  “December? December, wake up.”

  I heard the words, but it was something about the deep timbre of the voice that pulled me out of the blackness. I knew that voice. And something inside me called back to it.

  I opened my eyes, blinking a few times to clear them. Easton’s face filled my line of vision, his normally steely gaze filled with relief and something else I couldn’t identify. He turned his head to the side and I saw stars in an inky sky, making me realize I was outside.

  “What happened?” I groaned.

  The ground beneath me was unyielding, hard-packed dirt, and it wasn’t very comfortable. My head was elevated, resting on Easton’s thighs. His fingers moved, brushing back my hair and I nearly passed out again, it felt so good.

  “Well, you ran away from the academy, didn’t go where you said you’d be, and nearly got attacked before I could find you,” he answered.

  Everything rushed back to me at once and my body started to tremble. The shed, the man, his awful, groping hands.

  “Wh-where is he?”

  I sat up with those words, looking all around in a panic, expecting another attack by the giant Neanderthal. The shed was behind us and the school building was to our left. But it appeared as though we were alone.

  “I was nearby, combing the streets looking for you when I heard you scream. I saw light coming from the shed…then it just poofed out. When I opened the door, you were passed out on the floor and that human was leaning over you, stretching out his hand to touch you. I’m afraid I may have lost it, a little.”

  “What did you do?”

  No one had ever cared enough to come looking for me, ever. I didn’t know if it meant he liked me, but it meant that he at least cared what happened to me. And that was a wonderful feeling.

  “I punched him in the jaw, then Glamoured him to leave,” he admitted. “Why were you passed out? I thought maybe he hit you, but I couldn’t find any marks.”

  “I don’t…really…remember,” I said.

  “Start from where you do,” he encouraged.

  I released a deep breath and said, “Celeste gave me ride home.” I nearly choked on that last word, but carried on. “My foster parents were fighting and Todd said something about me and I knew I couldn’t go inside.”

  “What did he say?”

  “It doesn’t matter.”

  “December, tell me. What did he say about you?”

  My gaze dropped to the ground between us, to the small space between his legs and mine where we sat on the ground. We were so close, I swore I could feel the heat rolling off of his body.

  “He said something about imagining she was me when they…you know.”

  Even in the faint light of the night sky, I could see his face darken in anger as he said, “You can never go back there.”

  I nodded in agreement, though it did chafe a bit that he was ordering me around. Under normal circumstances I might have argued just for the sake of argument, but I was exhausted. So I let it go.

  “Anyway, I came here, to my secret hideout, but it was already occupied. I tried to leave, but he…he stopped me.”

  “Did he touch you?”

  His voice was filled with violence and, though it was not directed at me, I shivered a little. I wanted to deny it, but something inside me wouldn’t let me lie to him.

  “Yes,” I whispered.

  Easton cursed and ground a fist into the opposite hand before running his fingers through his hair. It was fascinating, watching all that emotion pour out of him when he’d been pretty much nothing but stoic with me previously.

  “I’m okay,” I said. “I screamed and something happened to him. This is where it gets a little foggy. I turned and he was across the shed, lyi
ng on the floor. Wind was whipping around us, but the door wasn’t open. And I remember thinking I needed some light and then there was light.”

  “Your powers are manifesting. Things will be unpredictable until you learn to control them.”

  I shook my head and waved off his words. I still didn’t believe any of their fairy tales. I was human. Period.

  “Anyway, I stood there, angry as hell, getting ready to kick him in the nuts.” Easton laughed, and I gave him a pointed look until he sobered and motioned for me to go on. “But the guy looked at something behind me, his eyes wild with fear, and I turned to see who was there.”

  “Who was it?” he asked when I didn’t continue.

  “No one,” I said as the memory replayed in my mind. “No one was there.”

  “Then what was he looking at?”

  I sucked in a sharp breath and scrambled up to my knees as I looked over my shoulder. Seeing nothing, I reached over and rubbed my fingers against the material of my shirt. Nothing.

  “December?”

  I looked at Easton and I could feel the fear rolling off me in waves. I continued to frantically rub my back, wondering if I’d hallucinated the whole thing.

  But, no, the man had seen them first.

  “December,” Easton repeated, waiting until I ceased my movements before asking, “Did your wings come out?”

  All I could do was nod.

  “Did you see them and faint?”

  Another nod.

  Then, in a shocking turn of events, he smiled. All the fear and panic seeped out of me and into the earth at the sight of that smile. Warmth and joy replaced it, making me smile back, even though I didn’t mean to.

  “What did they look like?” he asked. “I bet they’re beautiful, just like you.”

  My heart fluttered at the compliment, then immediately stopped beating. My head shook of its own accord and my hands started to tremble.

  “December? What is it?” he asked, climbing to his knees in front of me. “What’s wrong?”

  “They weren’t beautiful,” I said, stuttering a bit as tears burned at my eyes.

  “What do you mean?”

  My eyes flicked back and forth between his as I said, “Easton…they were black.”

  Chapter Eighteen

  18

  “You can’t tell anyone.”

  We walked down the dirt road, presumably heading to where Easton left his car to search for me on foot. The moon was high in the sky and gave us our only illumination. After I stumbled for the third time, Easton took my hand in his and held the other one out in front of him.

  A dull glow emanated from his palm, lighting the ground in front of us. It was as wonderful as it was terrifying. He wasn’t human.

  And neither was I.

  “Promise me you won’t tell anyone,” I demanded when he didn’t say anything.

  “I won’t tell anyone, December. I promise. But you do realize that it’s going to come out eventually, right?”

  “No. I’ll just make sure they never pop out again and everything will be normal,” I insisted, panic lacing my voice.

  His fingers squeezed mine, and a sense of calm swept through me.

  “Are you using your powers on me?” I asked, arching a brow.

  “What do you mean?”

  “I feel, I don’t know, a sort of warmth coming from you, relaxing me.”

  I watched his profile and saw the corner of his mouth turn up into a smile as he said, “No, I’m not using my powers. That’s just my natural charm pulling you in.”

  “Ha!” I chirped, attempting to disengage my hand from his, but he held firmly to it, refusing to let go…and I was glad.

  “Back to the problem at hand,” he said. “You live at a school full of Sylphids. They all have wings. Just like you. It’s not a big deal if they pop out.”

  “Not just like me. I saw them, Easton. Dozens of pairs of wings, all colors of the rainbow. But none of them were black. The only beings that have black wings are…”

  “You’re not one of them,” he says when my words trail off, anger lacing his voice. “Besides, they all have black eyes and yours are the color of a clear, summer sky.”

  I wanted to laugh at his corny line, but I couldn’t. Something inside me squeezed, causing a fluttering feeling in my belly. I tamped down the feeling and focused on what he was actually saying instead of how he said it.

  He was right. My eyes were blue, not black, and all Zephyrs had black, soulless eyes.

  “Why do I have black wings?” I whispered.

  “I don’t know. We’ll talk to Rowan, if that’s okay with you. We can trust him, December.”

  I nodded, agreeing with him. I knew I could trust Rowan, and had from the moment I met him. Then I remembered that he lied to me.

  “How do I know he won’t lie to me again?” I asked.

  “What did he lie to you about?” Easton asked, pulling me to a stop.

  “He never told me Oberon Academy was full of faeries, that he was one, or that I was one. He let me enter the school completely blind, only to be shocked senseless when I found out.”

  He cocked his head to the side, peering at me through the dim glow of his hand.

  “Would you have believed him?”

  “That doesn’t justify lying, Easton.”

  “I never said it did. And while I agree that he omitted certain information, he never really lied to you. If you had asked him, he would have told you the truth. He just wanted to give you time to adjust, to become part of the school, and for your own powers to emerge a little more fully before he dropped the truth bomb on you.”

  “Okay, I can buy that. I don’t agree with it, but I could believe he thought he was doing the right thing. But what about Shaela? She was supposed to be my friend.”

  Something in my chest pinched as I said the words.

  “Everyone at the academy was under strict orders to keep themselves Glamoured to look human. Rowan didn’t want anyone to scare you off before you were ready to know the truth.”

  “Still,” I said, knowing my voice sounded pouty, “she should have told me.”

  “She wanted to, December.”

  “How do you know that?”

  “Because I heard her arguing with Rowan in his office.”

  “You did?”

  He nodded. “She said it wasn’t right, keeping secrets from you and she wanted to tell you the truth. But Rowan has a lot of authority and when he told her not to say anything, she literally couldn’t.”

  “What do you mean, literally?”

  “It’s called a binding. He used his magic to bind her, making it impossible to tell you anything about our world.”

  “That’s awful,” I murmured, hating that my opinion of Rowan was sinking so rapidly.

  Easton pulled me to a stop. He released my hand and, letting the glowing light in his die, placed both of his on my shoulders.

  “December, he did it for her. She knew that if she told you, you would freak out and run away. Just like you did today. But she also couldn’t stomach lying to you. I don’t know how much she told you about herself, but you’re really her only friend.”

  “She said something about her ancestor being a trickster who got ousted from a council. I don’t know, I didn’t really get it.”

  “Yeah, the Fae have a long memory. Anyway, it’s not my story to tell. I just wanted you to understand that Shaela never meant to hurt or betray you.”

  “Okay,” I said.

  The warmth of his hands on me was starting to do things to my insides. I had never liked being touched, but Easton Oberon’s gentle fingers were like…magic.

  “What about you?” I asked.

  “What about me?”

  “Do you have any friends?”

  “Sure. I mean, there are Fae I get along with, but I’m not really close with anyone.”

  “Because you don’t let them get close?”

  His face hardened as he replied, “Most of them only
want to be my friend because of what they think my name can get them.”

  “Which is?”

  “Popularity. Better opportunities to rise in the ranks. Wealth. Things like that.”

  His hands slipped from my shoulders, trailing down my arms until his fingers laced through mine. With a light tug, he pulled me a step closer.

  “You don’t think I’m after any of those things?” I whispered as he closed even more of the distance between us.

  “No,” he whispered back. “I know you’re not.”

  He was so close, I could feel his breath on my face. What was happening? I thought he didn’t like me.

  But if he didn’t like me, why had he spent God know how long searching for me? Punched a guy in the face for me?

  Why was he closing the distance between us, so close I could feel the heat rolling off his body?

  “December Thorne,” he murmured, moving in even closer, “can I kiss you?”

  His lips brushed against mine before I could form a coherent thought, much less give him an answer. He pulled back and gazed into my eyes after that first tentative touch. I stood frozen on the spot, still not really sure what was happening.

  But also not wanting it to end. Ever. Something about the touch of his lips to mine made me feel…alive. Like I’d been sleepwalking through my whole life, and that brief brush of his mouth woke me up.

  As if hearing my thoughts, his lips crashed into mine. He released his grip on my hands and snaked his arms around my waist, pulling me against him. My hands found their way into his hair, the white-blonde strands as silky and smooth as I’d imagined.

  His tongue darted out to lick at the seam of my lips. The feeling shocked me, and I jumped away from him, gasping for breath. He held up his palms in supplication.

  “Oh, God, December. I’m sorry. I don’t know what got into me.”

  I shook my head. “It’s not your fault,” I said. “It’s just…”

  “What?” he asked.

  “That was my first kiss. You just surprised me, is all.”

  I was glad for the darkness because judging by the heat in my face, I was ten shades of red.