Second Chance Hope: a paranormal reverse harem academy adventure (Second Chance Academy Book 3)

by Ella J. Smyth

  I held out my palm and sent the slightest bit of energy into it. A tiny, white-blue marble appeared on my palm. I allowed it to grow to the size of a walnut before I stopped. The power contained in lightning was enormous. It didn’t take much to produce a bright shine.

  Lifting my arm to expand the light circle, I realized the cellar was huge. The cavernous area I was in led to another room. I willed the light to grow stronger. Through an archway, there were more rooms visible, all interconnected. Carefully, I finished stepping down the stairs and examined the area. It was completely empty. Passing some impressive stone supports, I moved to the next room. Also empty.

  It wasn’t as quiet as I’d first thought. Rustling and squeaking gave away the location of other living things. Rats and mice didn’t bother me too much, as long as they kept their distance. But there was something else. A groan. So soft it could have been a gust of wind outside. It came again. A wet, stricken sound that set my teeth on edge.

  Getting ready to strike just in case, I crept nearer. When I entered the third open area, my light revealed a dark lump in the back against the wall. I couldn’t make out any detail. But it was definitely the source of the pained sounds.

  I stepped closer, trying to see what it was. I really hoped it was an animal, but somewhere inside I knew it wasn’t. When I’d crossed the room and stood close to the curled up shape, it had stopped making any noise. The sudden silence pressed on me like a suffocating blanket. What if it was a trap?

  With a trembling hand, I brought the light closer to see what was in front of me. Something touched my ankle and grabbed hold.

  23

  Whatever had wrapped itself around my leg wasn’t letting go. In fact, it wiggled. I yelped loudly, and my energy ball went out. Trying to penetrate the darkness to see what had gotten hold of me, I was afraid to make any noise in case somebody came to investigate.

  I pulled and pulled when a word drifted up and froze me to the spot.

  “Please.”

  If I hadn’t been concentrating so hard, I wouldn’t have heard it.

  There it was again. “Please.”

  I forced myself to calm down and recreate the lightning ball. The grip on my ankle softened and fell away. My panic lessened, and I moved closer until I could see what was there.

  Before me lay a man, his hands tied in front of his naked upper body with what looked like iron manacles. I raised the light towards his face. When the blue-white shine revealed the person, I barely suppressed a shout.

  It was Sibelius.

  His eyes were closed, and his face gaunt and bloody. What had happened to him? He wasn’t moving, and I had no idea if he was dead or alive. I shook him none too gently by the shoulder. “Hey. Are you okay?”

  What a stupid question. He clearly isn’t okay. Girl, pull yourself together. He can’t hurt you like this.

  I drew a deep breath, then wished I hadn’t. The man clearly hadn’t showered in days and had probably soiled himself at some stage. I was surprised I hadn’t noticed the stench before.

  I tried again. “Hey. Demon. What happened to you?”

  My former teacher answered with a weak cough that shook his body. A pitiful moan escaped his mouth.

  I forced the ball bigger, hoping nobody would see the shine from the outside. My eyes widened as I took in the incubus’s injuries.

  Where the iron touched his wrists, the skin was peeling off. Black streaks ran up his arms. There were cuts all over his torso, some with gaping wound edges.

  He was covered in blood, still oozing from the various wounds. There were black bruises developing, and his chest showed odd depressions in several places. Probably broken ribs.

  I’d been wondering for days after the attack what I would do if I came face to face with my abuser. I’d wanted to hurt him badly, burn him with my power, destroy him for what he’d done. But now that he was in front of me, all I felt was pity.

  Kneeling down, I ignored the gross puddle under my pants. First, I’d have to remove the bindings around his wrists. I pulled at them for several minutes, but there was no way I could get them off.

  I sat back on my heels, staring at the man helplessly. “Sibelius.”

  He opened his eyes a little and recognized me. “Amber.”

  “Tell me how to help you. What can I do?”

  He moved his head from side to side, so weak that the movement was nearly imperceptible. Then he whispered, “It’s too late for me. The iron has poisoned me beyond rescue. If my injuries weren’t killing me already.”

  “Who did this to you?"

  He didn’t answer, and his breathing grew more labored. Even with grime and blood marring his features, he was beautiful. His eyes reflected the light of my energy ball. A feeling of wonder, of contentment, grew inside of me. Arousal slipped into my lower belly and made me slick.

  I shuffled back a few paces. “Goddammit, you fucker. Cut it out.” Stupid sex demon.

  Sibelius sighed. “I can’t help it. It’s my magic leaking. I have no control over it."

  He coughed again, wheezing every time he drew a breath. Bloody bubbles appeared at the corners of his mouth. He probably didn’t have much longer.

  Even though I hated his guts, in the face of his death, my overwhelming feeling was pity. I moved closer and placed my hand over his.

  A small smile twisted his lips. “You have a tender heart, little human.”

  I frowned. “How can you tell? You don’t know me.”

  Another coughing fit racked his broken body. When he could speak again, he replied, “I’m an incubus. When I feed off my victims’ energy, it gives me strength. But I can also examine their soul.

  “I know who you are. When I siphoned your life energy, I knew right away you weren’t my intended victim. But I couldn’t stop. Your goodness, your energy, it drew me in. I enjoyed it probably as much as you did. I was truly sorry I was going to have to end you. Your familiar saved us both.”

  “He’s not actually a familiar. He’s just a cat.”

  The incubus smiled. “You’re wrong. He’s not just a cat. But I’m sure you’ll find out in due time.”

  He squeezed his lips together, suppressing a grown. “Would you hold me? I won’t last much longer, and being close to you eases the pain.”

  I hesitated, but what could he do to me now? As broken as he was, my life’s force wouldn’t be able to heal him. I stretched out my legs and pulled at his shoulder to move him into my lap. When I jostled him, he screamed, and I stopped. I was terrified to be causing more pain.

  But he shook his head, grimacing. “It’s okay, little one. I’m already feeling better being so close to you.”

  My nipples pebbled, and a wave of sexual arousal ran through me, but it was much weaker than before. He was fading fast. I placed my hand on his hair, stroking him the way I would pet my cat. In the light of my makeshift torch, his face relaxed, making him look almost peaceful.

  “Sibelius?"I whispered, afraid he was gone.

  He opened his eyes, looking straight at me. A trickle of blood ran down his chin. “If I were capable of love, I would have loved you. But at least my half-brother is going to provide you with all his human half can offer you, acushla.”

  My body stiffened like struck by lightning. What had he just said? Only one person in the whole world called me “acushla."

  As I stared into the demon’s face, my suspicion became a certainty. The dying incubus in my lap was Kiernan’s half-brother.

  While I was trying to come to terms with the new information, Sibelius’s breathing had become even more labored. My body had stopped reacting to his magic. It wouldn’t be long now.

  I watched him draw another breath and another. Then he groaned, his muscles spasming before going limp. I studied his face, but I didn’t have to check his jugular to confirm what I already knew. He was gone.

  Holding his head on my lap, I sat in the dark cellar, tears running down my cheeks. It had been awful watching the girl’s life being sn
uffed out by the horrific procedure the men in white had forced on her. But it had been on a screen. There hadn’t been smells or sounds.

  Sibelius had suffered terribly. He’d been tortured and brutalized to death. He’d died in a puddle of blood and piss and feces. The stench of death clogged up my nose, yet I didn’t want to leave him alone in the darkness.

  He hadn’t been a good man, but nobody deserved this. The cruelty of Sibelius’s death, the snuffing out of a vibrant living being, no matter how evil his deeds had been, shook me to my core.

  Eventually, I lowered his head to the ground. There was nothing more I could do for him. I had no choice but to leave him behind and get out.

  24

  By the time I was back in the open, all I was able to do was breathe and put one foot in front of the other. I could’ve walked straight into Lawson, and I wouldn’t have cared, numb and shocked as I was. I remembered how vibrant Sibelius had been in the classroom, how he’d engaged the students and taken joy in our learning.

  Even after what he’d done to me, his final moments had erased my anger towards him. No human being deserved this kind of end. No, scratch that. No being, whether human or not, deserved this.

  In his final moments, Sibelius had been far more human than the people who’d done this to him.

  I didn’t know how I made it out of the cellar without collapsing. Halfway back to my dorm, the reality of what had just happened hit me like a ton of bricks. My hands were sticky with Sibelius’s blood, and the stink of his death had soaked my pants and soiled my jacket.

  My stomach kept heaving, but I reached my room without throwing up. Opening the door carefully to avoid waking Beth, I grabbed a towel and rushed to the showers. As I stripped, I caught a glimpse of myself in the mirror. There was blood all over me. Sibelius’s death had left its stains not just on my clothes, but on my skin and my soul. The washing machine and the shower would take care of the first two, but the deeper taint on my conscience might never be washed away.

  I don’t know how long I spent under the water, scrubbing at my skin, dully watching pink water circling the drain. It seemed so unfair that somebody’s life had been snuffed out, and the last of his essence, of his being, ran into the gutter until there was nothing left of him.

  Somewhere in the back of my mind, I knew I was in shock. By the time I was finished, I was shivering with cold. I rubbed myself dry, scrubbing hard to create friction so I could feel something.

  Another epiphany hit me. Sibelius was gone, murdered. We had no clue who’d hired him to take out Beth. Whoever had done this to him was inside the Academy, cleaning up loose ends. They were so dangerous, they’d overwhelmed a being as powerful and skilled as a demon assassin.

  The shivers were intensifying, strengthened by the realization of what I was up against. I wished I’d never gone exploring.

  As I leaned on the sink in front of a scratched mirror, a frightened eighteen-year-old girl stared back at me, breaking under the weight of something she hadn’t asked for. My eyes were red. I must’ve wept again without realizing.

  I was bone tired. There was a fatigue in my body that went way beyond being up in the middle of the night. When my vision became fuzzy, and I swayed on my feet, my survival instinct kicked in. It wouldn’t help Sibelius or anybody else if I passed out from exhaustion. Maybe tomorrow I’d have a clearer head.

  I snuck back into my room and slipped under the cover. Staring at the ceiling in the dark, I willed myself to fall asleep, to forget about all of it. But I was equally afraid of what would happen if I closed my eyes. What if I dreamed about what I’d seen? Would Sibelius haunt me?

  Slug jumped onto the bed. Before I could stop him, he had burrowed himself under my cover, his big warm body snuggled tightly against me. It wasn’t until he licked my cheek, I realized I was crying again.

  “How do you always know what to do, Slug?” I whispered.

  He responded with a barely audible crackling noise from his hindquarters. That, and the sulfurous smell from underneath my bedcover, was the thing that broke through my numbness. I cracked up, trying to keep my giggles down unsuccessfully.

  “Oh, shut up, you two. It’s bad enough you’re feeding him shit to make him fart like that, but now you’re waking me up as well?”

  “Sorry,” I stage-whispered.

  Beth grumbled and rolled over while I still chortled quietly. Slug purred unapologetically, the noise reverberating through my chest. While I was still grinning, my eyes slipped shut, and I fell asleep.

  I woke up before the sun had risen. I must’ve only gotten a few hours sleep, but I was wired and ready to do something. There was a heap of things I needed to talk to Julian about. The list. Farkas seeing him in the crystal ball. Sibelius.

  It was way too early, but I couldn’t wait any longer. When I got to Julian’s room, I hammered on his door, assuming he was asleep. But there was no response. Eventually, I gave up.

  Where was he so early? We didn’t usually hang out all the time, but it was weird I couldn’t find him. Was he okay? After what I’d experienced last night, fear gripped my throat, choking me with apprehension.

  Without thinking, I melted his doorlock with a well-aimed zap and walked inside. There was no sign of Julian. His bed was unmade, but I couldn’t tell if he’d slept in it. I moved to his mattress and touched it. It was cold, so he hadn’t been in it recently.

  I looked around, hoping to find a clue. Lifting up the pillow and covers, I found nothing. Then I went to my knees and peeked underneath the bed. Bingo. Amid dust bunnies and discarded socks, there was a piece of paper. I picked it up, swallowing hard. I fought back the rising sense of dread and forced myself to look at it.

  Names were listed in two columns on the sheet, similar to the table I’d found on the USB drive. I knew every single person on here. Next to each name was a date. Kenzy’s name was paired with the date when she’d left the Academy.

  Halfway down the list was Luke’s name with last week’s date, and further down was Julian’s name. The date next to it was yesterday’s. My eyes widened as I realized what I was looking at. This was a listing of kids who’d been abducted or were going to be.

  And yesterday’s date meant Julian had been taken. My heartbeat ratcheted up as I went through the rest of the names. Thank God, Lance’s name wasn’t on it. I needed to find him now.

  Lance didn’t answer, either, when I rapped on his door. Looking around to check that the coast was clear, I sent enough power into the lock to burn out the mechanism. I’m getting good at this lock melting business.

  Entering the room, I prepared myself for the worst. But Lance’s bed was made, and the bag he used to carry his school materials was gone.

  Shit. He’s probably left for class. What time is it? The first period was Tech-Mag, and if Lance was already gone, I had to hurry to get there in time. Seriously, the last thing I wanted was to go to lessons as if nothing had happened. But I still had to play their game, and being late or even skipping class was not tolerated at the Academy.

  I had no choice. I stuffed down my worry and anguish, and as quickly as I could, made my way to the Tech-Mag classroom. I was about to round the corner to reach the entrance on the other side of the blockhouse, when I heard a familiar voice.

  They say fright feels like your blood freezing in your veins. I’d always thought that was a stupid cliché. But that’s exactly what it felt like in that moment.

  I froze to the spot, panic rising in my throat and my heartbeat ratcheting up. The voice of the man who was in deep conversation with Lawson was the one that had tried to murder me. It belonged to Strickland, the former teacher who was supposed to be on the run.

  25

  The only reason I’d felt safe after Strickland’s attack had been the knowledge he’d never dare to come here again. That’s what Farkas had told me.

  Yet here he was, not even hiding his face. Probably because he knew full well, none of the students would report him. Because who would the
y report him to? There was only one reason why he was free to move around the Academy.

  I knew it. I knew the whole time Farkas is dirty.

  There were no other students around because the class had already started. I was alone with Lawson and Strickland. Their voices carried the short distance to where I was hiding behind the corner.

  “Did you take care of that fucking pervert fairy?”

  I couldn’t hear what Lawson said in response, but Strickland guffawed, slapping the security guard’s shoulder before they moved away.

  I watched them until they were out of sight. Then I ran for the classroom door, hoping I wasn’t so late it would earn me a punishment.

  I was lucky. The Tech-Mag teacher had his back turned to the class as he laid out an array of electronic equipment on his desk. Something dropped, and as he bent down to pick it up, I slipped into my seat. To my right were two empty seats. One was Kiernan’s, the other Julian’s.

  I swallowed hard, fighting back tears. At least Lance was present at the other side of the classroom. He had his head down, scribbling into his notebook. I tried to get his attention, but the teacher straightened up and saw me waving at Lance. Mr. Whitehall raised an eyebrow but said nothing.

  Tech-Mag was a weird class. What we learned here was called “technical augmentation.” Basically, we took regular, non-magical pieces of equipment and made them… more.

  We’d already boosted an ordinary flash drive to hold massive amounts of information, although the only one in the class who’d managed to push its capacity to several terabytes had been Lillian. Better not to think of her, though. She’d disappeared and might be dead as far as I knew.

  My thoughts spiraled down after that. Death was all around me. I was scared and didn’t know how to help anybody, not even myself. My internship with Ms. Farkas had yielded no results so far. Kiernan and Julian were gone. Lance kept his distance, although sometimes I felt his gaze on me. My heart grew heavier by the minute.