Rule 9 Academy Series Boxset: Books 3-5 Young Adult Paranormal Fantasy (Rule 9 Academy Box Sets (3 Book Series) 2)

by Elizabeth Rain

  #

  I woke up to someone knocking on the downstairs door. I groaned. It was early afternoon, and I’d just lay down for a much needed nap. Daddy had retired to his basement lab to run some tests on one of his experiments. I knew he’d never hear the door. I thrust the covers back with a moan and sat up, staring over the rails to the kitchen doorway and the faint shadow on the other side of the window. My toes touched the hard plank floor, and I pulled them back with a hiss before I stood up with a growl. “I’m coming. Just hold up, will you?” I shouted, grabbing the stairs and climbing down from my bedroom loft.

  I yanked the door open and stared. Sadie stood on my doorstep, a grin on her lips. With a screech, I reached out and grabbed her in, wrapping her in my arms and pulling her close.

  “Sadie Cross, where have you been? I’ve missed you.”

  Sadie squeezed me one more time and stepped back, her dark brows rising in disbelief. “Yeah? I wanted to ask you the same thing. You know your father and Thomas have been bearish lately, worrying about you. Too bad phones don’t work underneath the water.”

  I couldn’t resist a harsh laugh. “Yeah, communication with the outside world isn’t what it should be. Come on, I need coffee and I assume so do you. I have bacon left over from breakfast, and fresh salmon if you’re hungry. I’m starved.”

  Sadie screwed up her face in disgust. “A bacon sandwich will do. You can keep the fish.”

  I giggled, pushing the button on the coffeemaker and opening the fridge. “You just don’t know what’s good.”

  “I spoke with Kimmy. She said Thomas mentioned you had stopped by.”

  I paused, snagging a pan from a hook over the island. I slanted her a glance, waiting for her to call me on my earlier foolishness, but she was just making conversation. Looking deeper, she seemed preoccupied by something other than my love life.

  “This is a social call, isn’t it? There isn’t anyone we have to chase down and kill, right?”

  Sadie shrugged, looking troubled. “No. At least not yet. Elise and her daughter paid me a visit the other day.”

  “Her vampire baby?”

  Sadie snorted. “Yeah, only apparently they grow fast. Her name is Emerald, and she’s like nine now.”

  I jerked as I piled bacon on a paper plate, covered it with a paper towel, and stuck it in the microwave to reheat. “You’re kidding. She’s like, what, less than a year old?”

  Sadie snagged another cup from the cupboard and poured herself a cup. “Yeah, that’s what I said. But this is Wyndoor, and different strokes and all. Anyway, something strange is happening there, and she wants my help.”

  “You don’t owe her anything. What is she thinking? How does it affect you?”

  “No. It has nothing to do with me and I really need my two weeks’ vacation here. I’m tired of chasing bad guys and trying to save the world.”

  I stared at the mulish expression on her face and smeared mayonnaise on a couple of slices of bread. In the bacon grease from earlier I plopped a fresh filet of salmon, inhaling deeply as it sizzled.

  I was smirking when I answered her. “So, in other words, you are going to help. When do you leave?”

  Sadie removed the bacon when the microwave dinged, daintily snagging a piece and shoving it into her mouth. She winced, answering around the hot bite, “I’m not. I just said that.”

  I plated my own seared salmon and sat down across from her. “Yeah, but you didn’t mean it. Danger calls to you. It’s in your blood and the chance to wrangle with a bunch of bloodsuckers is tempting for you.”

  “I’m sure Elise wouldn’t appreciate that comparison.”

  “No, but then Elise is different, I guess. She’s not as bad.”

  Sadie grinned. “That’s high praise coming from you.”

  I gave an indelicate snort and changed the subject. “So, what are your plans for the day?”

  Sadie’s expression grew thoughtful, and she stopped shoving food into her mouth long enough to scowl at me. “Depends. Why?”

  My friend knew me too well. “It’s a lovely fall day, the leaves are changing colors and there’s that crisp tang to the air…”

  “Uh-huh. What are you concocting in that little mind of yours?” Sadie asked, her sandwich hovering for another bite.

  I laughed. “Well, a swim, of course. After the hike and a picnic. Come on, say you will. I haven’t been up to enjoy Hollow Top Lake since the last time you and I went when we first met. It will be like old times. What do you say?”

  She snorted, muttering around a mouthful as she reminded me, “I nearly died of hypothermia if I remember right.”

  “Details,” I breathed. “What do you say?”

  Sadie got up and topped up our coffee, taking the last half of her sandwich with her, and turning to lean back against the counter. “I say, what the hell, you only live once. Let’s do it.”

  After lunch, Sadie took off to pack snacks and grab what she needed. I found Dad elbows deep in beakers and slides in the basement, grumbling to himself. He gave me a squeeze and told me to be careful, but he was clearly preoccupied with whatever he was working on. Dad never changed. Upstairs, I packed my bag, adding thick socks and a light jacket. I grabbed my staff on my way out the door. I took the Kubota down the mountain to the blackened husk of our previous home, where we still parked our car since it wouldn’t have made it up the dense mountain trails.

  Sadie was ready and waiting when I pulled up to her house. “Where’s Carly?”

  “Mom’s on some kinda business trip. She’s going to be gone for almost my entire two weeks. Kinda sucks.”

  I reached over and grabbed my best friend’s rigid fingers and gave them a squeeze. “I’m sorry. Maybe you can spend a few days together when she returns before we have to be back at school.”

  She shrugged but didn’t answer. We drove most of the way in comfortable silence, admiring the colorful oranges and yellows of the changing foliage of the various hardwoods along our route through the tobacco root mountains. We kept our windows down to scent the crisp air, which grew cooler as we climbed towards the trail-head, part of the way up the mountain road.

  We parked in the semi-shaded lot with several other vehicles. Several other day hikers like us were loading or unloading packs and supplies. An equal number were on mountain bikes.

  It was a lovely fall day and busy this time of year. I knew these mountains more intimately than anyone, though. Give us a couple of hours straight up that rocky slope and only the diehards would keep pace with us. By the time we reached Hollow Top Lake, we’d be nearly alone. It was a strenuous hike for amateurs.

  We shouldered our packs and took the familiar trail. I realized then that usually Sadie led. But not here and not today. This was my home turf. It wasn’t Sadie’s.

  We talked early, while we still could, and before the steep rocky slopes robbed us of our breath and ability for conversation.

  I knew Sadie was itching to pick my brain. She’d told me part of what had been keeping her busy, and she’d be asking about my own adventures while I’d been gone.

  “So Tarus is it? How is that going? What did they want from you?” she asked casually. But I knew Sadie was being anything but nonchalant.

  “Oh, nothing major. They simply want me to take over as their queen.” I waited for the explosion, and she didn’t disappoint.

  “Come again? I thought your grandfather was king there, and that they exiled you and your mother when you were kids.”

  “Yeah, well, all that’s kinda true. I stayed behind when she returned with my older sister, Mirra, when we were just kids. She’d been exiled before when she had Mirra, but Grandpa dying and the lack of any suitable heirs has made them change their minds, and she cut a deal with them.”

  “How come you never talked about having a sister before?”

  “I actually have two. I knew about my older sister Mirra, though to be honest I’d mostly forgotten. I was just five the last time I was there. Pinna was a tota
l surprise. She’s my baby sister.”

  Sadie walked for a bit, digesting what I’d shared. But she wasn’t through. “So, do you want to be queen? It doesn’t seem like you. And what about Thomas? Don’t tell me you don’t have feelings for him. And he’s nuts about you.”

  I snorted, hopping nimbly over the trunk and branches of a small setting tree that had fallen in the last storm. “He’s an idiot is what he is,” I complained.

  Sadie laughed out loud at that. “Do you think so? He needs to get in line for that one, I’m afraid. I gotta tell you, girlfriend, I needed this—to get away from everything. I think we both did.”

  “That’s right. Why do you think I suggested it, just you and me, and no one else?”

  I imagined her nod, since I was leading. Her next question caught me off guard. “Why not your sisters? Surely one of them is more qualified than you to sit on the throne. I mean, you’re a… what do they call it…Onlander. Like me,” she finished proudly.

  It was my turn to snort. “Yeah, that’s not all you are, Sadie Cross.”

  “Don’t change the subject.”

  I sighed. “Well, I think either of my sisters is more qualified than I, for so many reasons. My oldest sister Mirra loves Tarus, and being part Seascrill, I think she would be a great candidate to bring the best of both races and worlds together. But Tarus Council comprises a bunch of elders with a set of antiquated laws they refuse to change. Only Sylvan are permitted to sit on the Council. Seascrill aren’t allowed membership on the Council or permitted to hold any ranking position. They are outcasts to Tarus. If not Mirra, my vote would be for Pinna, who is full Sylvan. I’m only half, but I’m also the oldest, and apparently being part Onlander isn’t the social stigma being a Seascrill is. They see it as beneficial for me to be queen and have connections to the on land world and all the goods and services available from there. You ask me? I think it’s all screwed up.”

  We reached a fork in the trail, where the trek up grew more treacherous and only the truly hardy forged ahead. This was where most turned back. I took the fainter path without pause, the steady crunch of Sadie’s heels behind me comforting to my ears.

  “What are you going to do, then?”

  “I’m going to refuse the crown, and at that point I don’t care what they do. I don’t owe Tarus anything.”

  Sadie hummed, “I know that’s what you said you would do. But I hear something else in your voice. Are duty and heritage getting in your way?”

  It was something I’d shied away from thinking about. “There’s more. I think the Tarians and the Seascrill are bucking up for a war of sorts, a battle for their rights. The Seascrill want them, and the elder Tarians want to maintain the status quo and keep things sacred the way they are now.”

  “Change is part of life, you know that. Sounds like the Seascrill have the right of it.”

  I nodded, grimacing when a branch seemed to fly out of nowhere and smack me in the forehead. I needed to watch where I was going. “The Council doesn’t see it that way. I think it’s going to come down to war.”

  “Where will you side?” Sadie asked, sounding curious.

  “With myself. I don’t think heritage should enter into it in this case. The Tarians need a firm wake-up call, and the Seascrill can’t seem to find a peaceful solution.”

  “Maybe that’s because they don’t think there is one,” Sadie mused as we covered the last few feet of the trail and burst onto the long rocky beach that surrounded Hollow Top Lake.

  I finished as we grew to a halt. “Yeah, that’s what I’m afraid of, too.”

  The lake spread out before us, smooth as glass, the sun reflecting across its surface and making us shield our eyes. Towering expanses of lodgepole pine and juniper spread along the north shore in a green carpet of forest as far as I could see.

  “We go right?” Sadie asked.

  I nodded, sniffing the air, scenting water and breezes carrying the smell of rotting leaves and wood and something else sweeter. I angled to the east along the shore, following the fainter trail there. We emerged onto a smaller, private beach on the other side of a large outcropping of rocks that ran nearly to the edge of the water. It afforded us a measure of seclusion and a large sun-kissed boulder to use as a perch.

  I knew Sadie appreciated the privacy even more than I. She was a bit of a prude and I knew she most likely had a suit on beneath her clothes. As a Sylvan, I was more practical. It was just the two of us, after all.

  I jumped onto the flat surface of the boulder and stared out beyond the expanse of the substantial mountain lake, past the heavy forest on the far side to the faint dark spot that was the deceptively smaller Deep Lake beyond it. It had once been home when I was small. Now it would be my prison, if I let it. It was up to me to make sure that didn’t happen.

  Sadie moved alongside me, following the direction of my gaze, guessing at my thoughts.

  “I know you feel responsible, like it’s up to you to fix things. But you have other duties, Sirris, to your family and friends here. And to yourself.”

  I turned away from that dark speck on the horizon. Today I wasn’t there. Instead, I was on the edge of a different lake and a favorite swim spot with my best friend. I was going to laugh when she dove in and came up screaming. I forced my lips to curve into a smile. “Sometimes it’s easy to forget that, Sadie.”

  Sadie’s own expression turned pensive. “Yeah. I know.”

  “But enough mopey, feeling-sorry-for-ourselves talk. I didn’t travel all this way to just break a sweat. Let’s swim.” I had barely finished speaking before my fingers were at the hem of my shirt and peeling the worn cotton upwards over my head. I didn’t stop until I stood naked, the sun trying to warm me even as the stiff fall breeze made goosebumps spring up. Sadie averted her eyes, reaching for her own flannel shirt and whipping it over a whipcord lean body encased in a dark navy one piece suit.

  She looked up at me all of a sudden and laughed, her eyes lighting with mischief. “I win!” she screamed, and took a running jump off the rock, sailing several feet into the air before coming down into the waist high water with a splash. With a matching smile, I joined her, my dive angling down and away from shore. I rose several feet further out, my legs already fusing, my fins already stirring up the sediment on the lake-bed.

  Sadie rose from the water like a Valkyrie, her dark hair whipping, and uttering a string of profanities so long and colorful I nearly blushed.

  With a chorus of giggles, I gave a casual flip backwards, completing a nimble somersault beneath the water, my fins slapping the water so loud when I rose it sounded like a gunshot in the quiet solitude of our rocky sanctuary. “It’s wonderful!” I stated.

  “It’s freezing!” Sadie hissed, her arms crossed around her shoulders and shivering, her lips already turning blue. My Dragon Shifter friend would not last ten minutes in the icy waters of the spring fed mountain lake.

  She actually managed fifteen before she was swimming for shore. I called out as she pulled herself onto the relative warmth of the rock to dry before she pulled her clothes back on. “I’ll be right back. One more circuit.”

  I dove beneath the surface, my gills pulling in the water and changing it to oxygen I could use. I moved along the lake bed, making a swift circle of the lake. At its deepest, it couldn’t match the depths of Deep Lake, but here I was free and unlikely to run into anything more dangerous than a shy sea-sprite. I surfaced minutes later next to Sadie, pulling myself unashamedly up beside her and flopping like a fish, sunning myself. My fins had already reformed into long pale legs and delicate feet. I shaded my eyes and stared up at Sadie, who sat cross-legged on the rock and held a cup of hot coffee from the thermos she’d packed cupped in her hands, enjoying its warmth.

  After I dressed, we pulled out snacks and ate facing each other, with Sadie facing the lake. I’d brought along a tuna wrap with plenty of greens and vegetables. Sadie enjoyed cold, leftover chicken, making me smile at the smears of barbecue sauce left b
ehind on her chin.

  We were almost finished when I watched Sadie’s expression change and harden with a familiar gleam. The last bite of my sandwich went down hard as I turned to see what had grabbed her attention.

  In horrified wonder, I watched as several Seascrill emerged from Hollow Top Lake, heavily armed and grim with purpose. These were not the three from before. This was a troop of at least ten, and they looked lethal with their hand-bows at the ready and their long knives drawn.

  I leapt to my feet, facing the lake beside Sadie, who had snagged up her crossbow. I pulled my staff in front of me, grateful we were both at least armed. But in our little hamlet, surrounded on three sides by the boulders at our side and back, they effectively blocked the only way out. We were effectively trapped. I’d been a fool to assume we were safe beyond Deep Lake.

  “What do you want?” I growled. Sadie remained silent at my side, looking confused by their lavender skin and dark hair. Her eyes widened when she noted the sixth webbed digit on their hands, tight-knuckled around their weapons—a clear mark of a Seascrill.

  A large male, head and shoulders above the rest, stopped a matter of feet from our rocky perch and looked up at us with a sneer. “You. Gone and out of the way. You have no business assuming the throne.”

  They sounded so final that I sucked in a deep breath, trying to still the tremors of fear coursing through me. Sadie and I might have been a match on land against three or four of them. But ten? We didn’t stand a chance. They didn’t look like they were in any mood to be reasonable, either. But I had to try.

  “I don’t want the throne. I never did. I have every intention of turning it down.”

  His expression never changed. “Fine talk. But Tarus Council has other plans. We aim to make sure they have no opportunity to change your mind.”

  “They won’t…” I started.

  A slow, dark smile teased his dark lips. “I agree. We mean to make sure of it.”

  Sadie hadn’t moved beside me, and I realized she was no longer looking at the soldiers who had formed a semi-circle around us. She must have realized how dire our circumstances were as well. I felt the pull of her gaze as she tried to gain a smidgen of my attention.