by G. Bailey
How am I even alive?
I try to move my arms, only something that feels like seaweed is wrapped around them and my legs, making it impossible to move. I inwardly call out for Pitch, for Gage...for anyone just as darkness tints my vision, but no one comes.
By Selena, someone save me, or I will be seeing you soon.
Hearing the crashing of water nearby, I look up to see a brilliant light in the shape of an owl swimming towards me. The creature spins and slowly changes into a young man, covered in white light that burns everything around him away. The seaweed disappears from my skin when he reaches me. He wraps his arms around my waist and holds me close to him as he swims up. I’m sure I black in and out before the cold air hits my lungs. I open my mouth and spew out water while my eyes tumble over a beautiful man gazing down at me as I lie on a rocky beach.
“I, the God of Life, swear a debt of fealty to you, Princess Corvina,” the man announces clearly, his voice soft and calming. “I shall protect you with my soul and honour as a god from this day until your last.”
A connection like no other wraps around my soul. I feel the strong magic make a bond between us as images of white owls, wolves and deer flash through my mind. They merge together into the figure of the man standing right now before me.
“A-Ambrose?”
“Many call me Aeon but I always told you my real name. I am in your debt, Corvina, for releasing me.
Oh, my sweet actual god.
“You’re not a figment of my imagination?” I whisper, feeling more than a little bit crazy.
Ambrose is real...and the God of Life.
He’s the Statue of Aeon.
I run my eyes over his damp white hair that looks as soft as snow. His blue eyes are penetratingly bright and he is by far the most beautiful man I have ever laid eyes on. His clothes are strange, more like brown rags that are covered in holes, showcasing his muscular body underneath.
He certainly didn’t look like this in my dreams.
Trust me, I would never have woken up if he did and hopped straight in for a shower.
As though Ambrose can read my thoughts, he winks and stands, offering me his hand. Still feeling groggy about everything, I hardly notice my guys coming over until Pitch yanks me into a hug, and the others surround us.
Pitch leans back, searching my eyes. Zander, who must have just taken off his coat, places it over my shoulders and I flash him a reassuring smile.
“Are you okay?” Zander asks, worried.
“Who’s the pretty boy?” Jonah demands at the same time.
Well, I suppose it’s time for my guys to meet the light in my dreams.
“This is Ambrose, also known as the God of Life, Aeon, and he’s a friend of mine. He’s saved my life twice now,” I say lightly because I haven’t exactly got my head around it all yet.
“And I owe her my life. The beautiful Princess Corvina, kept my spirits up while I was imprisoned.” He looks at me, smiling. “Then she set me free.”
“What does that mean exactly?” Gage probes, his tone too friendly either.
Ambrose takes it in his stride and simply smiles at them like my guys are harmless pets.
“We have a dream connection. Something even I, as a god, do not know the reason for. Some magic, like these connections, are simply rare and unexplainable.”
“I didn’t know you were a real person. You always came to me as an animal and I assumed you weren’t real, to be honest,” I softly tell him, whereas all my guys tense up at the word connection. Reality dawns on me. Eva. Ronan. Sage. “Where’s Sage?”
Pitch frowns at me. “Sage was here?”
I step away from him, searching the island that is now nothing but broken rocks. On one pile of rubble is a head of pink hair I know all too well, and she doesn’t look awake. I step forward but Ambrose places a hand in front of me and his body glows a soft white colour. Sage floats into the air, covered in the same energy radiating from Ambrose, and floats across the water to us. Ambrose gently places her on the rocks behind us and I rush to her side just as she wakes up. There is a scar on her cheek that looks like a knife cut her deeply. Her fae wings are such a brilliant white colour, making every single one of her features seem so much more.
Sage was always beautiful but now she is enchantingly so.
“Someone go and get David, please,” I say, looking up at my guys.
Zander nods and shadowlocates while Sage looks at me in a daze. We have a million things to discuss, and I want to know everything that happened to her while she was gone. But we don’t say any of those as we hug each other in silence.
“I will be okay now. I think,” Sage whispers to me. “But you need to stop her. Eva has created an army of light fae who were once shadowborn. I’ve seen this army. I saw Izora trapped within it. With the titans on her side, the fae worlds will fall, and soon after, so will the entire world.”
Gods, Izora? The titans?
I close my eyes for a moment as I let go of my best friend and Zander comes back with David.
David has a crying Sage in his arms in mere seconds. I gulp down the emotion thick in my throat as I look at my guys and Ambrose.
“My father must be warned. I have to go there, alone, right now,” I state, nothing but a tense silence answers me.
“Like hell you are,” Jonah growls first, and then all my guys are agreeing with him.
“The portal will only let me go through it. I will go and tell the king about Eva. Any signs of danger and I will jump back through the portal. I promise,” I plead with them. I may not like that I’m a princess but I won’t run away without at least warning the king. Queen Narah is safe in her kingdom, for now at least. Eva can’t get into the kingdom but with the titans on her side, who knows what she’ll be capable of now.
“The world needs warning about Eva,” Pitch agrees, “and her father will not hurt Corvina. If he wanted to hurt her, he would have done so by now.”
“Then we are in agreement,” I say, nodding at my guys.
Ambrose crosses his arms. “I do not like it. The king cannot be trusted, but… if you are hurt, our connection will allow me to feel it. No portal in all the realms can keep a god at bay.”
“And nor will they keep a Dark Fae Prince at bay. Our mating bond is much stronger,” Pitch all but growls, tugging me to him. “We should head to the academy and go from there.”
I rest my head on Pitch’s shoulder as he lets the shadows take us home.
We reach the portal only minutes later. I stare at my reflection in the mirror. Sage and David are on my left, and my guys, including Ambrose, dotted around me. Their expressions are all equally as grim. I know they are terrified of me going to Vasili alone. Sage is barely holding back her tears as David holds her to him. I turn around and face her.
“Sage, we have too much to talk about. I can stay with you. Just say the word, and we can hang out watching movies and gorging pizza all night. I’ll even eat your nasty vegetarian one.”
My best friend laughs and wraps her arms around me. David lets her go and we’re quiet for a long moment as we embrace. I thought I’d never get to hug Sage again. I was really beginning to think that perhaps she was dead. Now that she’s here, I don’t want to let her go.
I don’t want to lose her again.
‘You’ve got to tell your dad about your crazy-ass sister,” she reminds me, letting go as we approach the mirror.
“Eva must be stopped,” Ambrose chimes in. “We don’t know what other gods she let out when she unleashed the titans. For all we know, the Dark God is roaming the forest as we speak.”
“Thought the Dark God was your friend?” Pitch growls, his arms crossed defensively over his chest. “Or are you on a break now?”
“Pitch—-”
Ambrose lifts his hand to preempt me. “Fear not. I deserve scathing remarks to some degree.”
Pitch scoffs at the reply. “Some degree doesn’t even begin to cover what you deserve, Aeon.”
&nbs
p; “Okay, time to go. Bye!” I hug Sage one last time and kiss my grumpy dark prince on the cheek. “Please play nice. For me.”
He grumbles something intelligible, but smiles and kisses me back. I pat his shoulder and move on to Zander. Always the showy one, he wraps a hand around my waist and sweeps me off my feet, kissing me long and hard on the lips. I giggle and walk over to Jonah, who’s more the reserved one when it comes to public displays of affection. These are my guys and if shit goes down in Helios, I want them to know how I feel about them.
“So… don’t die?” Jonah says, pulling me into a quick hug. The pressure of his squeeze tells me that he is, in fact, worried. “And come back in one piece.”
“I always do.” I steal a kiss before he can turn his face away. He just laughs and lets go.
I stop in front of Ambrose and I don’t know if I should hug, kiss, or high five him. He’s a god, for goodness sake. He’s also been the constant light in my dreams since the day I nearly succumbed to darkness. Ambrose is more than a friend and I care about him more than I should.
I just don’t know how he feels about me,
“Good luck, Your Highness.” He bows, giving me his answer.
No hugs, kisses, or high fives—got it.
It’s probably best until I find out more about him. He did just spend the last century locked up in Tartarus for starting a war.
“You’re all acting like I’m going into battle,” I say jokingly.
The guys frown at me, as do Sage and Ambrose.
Cleary now isn’t the time for jokes.
Gage steps forward, placing his hands on my shoulders.
“If you get into any trouble, Corvina, use our bond and we’ll come to you.” His lips brush my forehead, I lean into his touch, my palm pressed to where Ronan had stabbed him. “Pitch has a portal close by.”
“And it links to both kingdoms,” Pitch adds, throwing a smug grin in Ambrose’s direction.
The God of Life just rolls his eyes.
It’s going to take time for all my guys to get along, that’s for sure.
With a reassuring smile, I step through the portal.
The air is knocked from my lungs as I emerge on the other side. I don’t enter the king’s throne room as expected, but instead, I’m falling through the air. My wings help break my fall before I hit the floor.
I straighten up, dusting a hand over my clothes and looking around. The mirror I should have walked through has been smashed. The shards spread over the floor towards the dais. I’ve never seen the throne room empty before. There’s a coldness to the air that lifts the hairs on my body. All the candles have been blown out, recently too, going by the smell. I touch the nearest one and the wick is still warm.
What’s going on here?
“Corvina, you must go!” the king bellows in a whisper, seizing my hand out of nowhere. “Take this and leave. Do not come back until I send word that it is safe.”He removes his crown and thrusts it into my arms.
“What’s—what’s going on?”
He drags me towards the throne, his robes are torn and disheveled. “No time for answers. I must send you back to the academy where you will be safe.”
“Is it the titans? Have they really come back?”
King Ulric stops in his tracks and looks at me, his eyes darkening. “They have taken over Helios. I fear they will penetrate my gates soon enough. We have been betrayed.”
“I’m so sorry! Eva forced me to bleed on the Sacred Stone,” I hurriedly explain, the panic in my voice shows through my trembling body. “She had Sage, and she was going to kill her, and—”
“I understand.” Reaching out, he tucks my hair behind my ear, cupping my chin. “Corvina, I have made mistakes that cost my kingdom and I dearly, but my biggest regret of all was giving you up for a daughter. If I possessed half the love, and selflessness as you, perhaps things would have been different. Perhaps you would have truly thought of me as your father, and I would have been deserving of the title.”
He pushes me up onto the dais. A bright white light emerges, wrapping around the Throne of Luna, and I can see the academy on the other side. I turn around to face the king one last time, but he’s no longer looking at me. His gaze is drawn to the entrance of the hall where Queen Narah and Eva are walking through, a pack of wolves prowling in their wake. In the blink of an eye, Narah is plunging a dagger into the king’s stomach over and over again. I stand by the portal in utter shock, watching helplessly as she stabs the King of Helios nineteen times exactly.
“Now your debt is paid,” she hisses, throwing his corpse to the floor. The doors open again and Light Fae prisoners are ushered into the hall, chained and terrified. “Your king is dead. Princess Eva is the Queen of Helios and my future heir to the Throne of Luna. All will bow to us or die.”
Eva glances my way then and sneers at me.
Grabbing one of the prisoners by her long silver hair, she spins her around, and my heart freezes. While the prisoners fall to their knees and submit to their new rulers, Izora Dawn, now chained with fae wings fluttering behind her, refuses.
“But I thought you wanted to meet our father?” Eva snarls, and I realise the comment isn’t directed at me—-but at Izora. “I suggest you say hello while you can. Go on now. Don’t be shy.”
Using dark magic to pin Izora down, Eva forces her to bow beside the king’s dying body. I watch their eyes meet and the king’s blood-covered lips part, but nothing comes out.
Only a scream from Izora.
Before I can attack, a hand reaches out from the portal and drags me back in. I plunge into the light, clutching my father’s crown to my chest, wondering how in the name of Selena I’m going to stop this madness…
My fate is in the darkness,
And the war there is real…
In the Enchanted Forest, one girl desperately needs to find a way to stop the fae war before it’s too late. With her sister raising titans and gods, the light in her dreams turning out to be a lie and her men in grave danger…life at the academy has never been this dangerous.
A mirror once spoke of a girl born in hate who could stop a war…
But does that girl stand a chance against the power of the fae?
Shadowborn Academy is a Dark Reverse Harem Paranormal Fae Romance for 18+. In this world, not even the shadows can be trusted…
Once upon a time, I dreamt of pure light even in the darkness of my court. I soon learned that with the Throne of Luna comes a heart full of darkness that one can never escape. I tried to in the beginning until I realized where there is darkness, there is power, and so I chose to embrace it. I let it fill my heart with strength while I vowed to never bring a child into such a lightless world. As time went on, the darkness overthrew my sense of reason, and I craved an heir to one day ascend my throne. So I lured the Light Fae King into my chamber, and together, we created the very heir who now rests in my womb.
Or at least…she did.
Pain unlike anything I have ever experienced drags me from my slumber. I’m crying out in agony before I even know what part of me is injured. My hands fall to my stomach to protect my unborn child, but the pain turns into panic when I find nothing. There is no bump. No babe kicking away inside my womb. There is only a line drawn across my stomach and a pool of blood surrounding me.
Hoping this is only but a nightmare, I hold onto my empty womb and carefully push off the bed. Whimpers escape me with each agonising step, and the room blurs as I stumble over to my daughter’s crib. I know she’s gone before I even reach it, yet a small part of me hopes, prays, begs Selena to not let this be true.
He can’t have taken her from me.
As I peer into the crib, I hold a hand to my mouth to suppress my screams. A human child with pitch-black hair sleeps soundly where my daughter should be. Next to him is a white note stained in droplets of blood, and I pick it up with trembling hands, my whispers escaping me:
I scream as dark magic blasts out of me, hitting and devouring eve
rything in the room in my grief. I scream for so long until nothing but ash surrounds me and I fall to my knees.
My child is gone. He took her. He took my unborn child from me!
A small cry catches my attention in the haze and I open my eyes to see the human babe floating in the air, covered in tendrils of dark magic. He embraces the power. Little wings appear from his back. Without even realising, I crawl over and pick him up, holding and shushing him in my arms. His gold eyes look up at me with all the love of a newborn child, and while I should feel love for him in return, I feel nothing.
“I will protect you, Alastair Pitch, but first, there must be war.”
The heavy weight of the crown rests in my bloody hands as I stare at the Enchanted Forest stretching endlessly before me. The wind whips around the trees, brushing the ground with new-fallen leaves and the heavy moss-scent of the forest tries its best to comfort me.
But nothing can do that right now.
Pitch’s hands rest on my shoulders, waiting for me to break the spell of silence I’ve made. He doesn’t need to ask me what happened. The crown is the only answer anyone needs. The blood coating my hands drives home the truth furthermore. The Light Fae King is dead.
Blinking back my tears, I turn around and look up into the pity-filled eyes of the man I love.
My shadow. My home.
“The king is dead. Queen Narah killed him,” I say softly, the words feeling wrong and foreign on my tongue. The way she stabbed him nineteen times will forever be etched in my mind. “Eva has taken over the Light Fae Kingdom with the Titans and Narah. She also holds Izora prisoner, who’s really King Ulric’s daughter, which totally makes her my sister.”
“Shit, Vina,” I hear Zander mutter nearby before he rests his hand on my arm. I briefly look at him before another hand falls on my back and I turn to see Gage.
“What do you need us to do next?” he asks quietly. His question lingers in the air between us just before Jonah steps forward and locks his gaze with mine. The still blueness of his eyes makes me pause. They give me hope that there is a light in this dark fucked up world.