CONVICTION OF THE DAMNED: SUPERNO ACADEMY BOOK ONE

by Tierney Storer

  “You don’t seem like much of a Princess.” Bette said, her bubble-gum voice twinkled above me. “You appear weak. Like a child.”

  I thought it was a bit rich considering she sounded like she ate candyfloss for every meal, but who was I to comment. I wasn’t about to get into a fight with a wolf.

  “I’ve been a Princess for less than a week. Maybe you need to cut me some slack.” And not chase me when you know I can do nothing about it you silly idiota.

  Bette ran a hand through her black as night hair, fiddling with a golden charm she had tied in it. It was the shape of a Siren and whilst I thought it was really cute, but I refused to compliment her on it until she showed signs of not being a total asshat.

  “This is cutting you some slack. If my brother had been in charge of my pack he would have slit your throats in your sleep the first night you came here.” Bette replied, her voice deadly serious.

  I didn’t know if it was stupid to ask, but I did anyway, wanting to try and figure out the reclusive Wolf Heir a little more.

  “But why would your brother want us dead? I don’t know him, and I’ve never done anything to either of you.”

  “You’re a threat to my crown, and that of the boys. Huan is very black and white when it comes to perceived threats. He would kill you before anything could happen with you and our crowns.” She shrugged, wrinkling her already messy uniform.

  I had to admit Bette hadn’t really interacted with us much. The only time we had seen her more than in passing had been Saturday night, when the Heirs decided we had to be locked outside of our dorm for over an hour and a half in the pouring rain. It was safe to say Kaida wasn’t impressed, but as it wasn’t the end of the world we never said a word in complaint.

  But now that I thought about it, Bette was barely even involved in that either. I wonder what she does all day?

  “I get that; but we’ve said we don’t want the crown. You don’t need to hate us Bette.”

  “Yes, but you’ve not denounced your claim in public, therefor you are still a threat, and should be grateful you have to deal with me and not Huan. Besides, I do not hate you; I have no opinion on any of you really.” Bette smiled, the wildness of her face diminished for a second, replaced by honey glazed angel.

  Whilst I tried to digest the fact I never wanted to meet this Huan, Bette began shivering again, her body slowly turning back from human into wolf.

  “Bye Laina.” She said, before exploding into the silver wolf once more and running off in the direction of the Green Room, howling as she went.

  “Bye psycho.” I muttered, clambering back to my feet, and heading into my potions class.

  ***

  There was a god damn video. Like my embarrassment at being chased wasn’t enough, someone had to go and film it. Asher had accosted me the second I had walked through the classroom door, his pretty face twisted up in apology as though he had any control over what happened.

  The video, which was less than a minute and mainly consisted of me running through campus looking terrified, had gone viral around the school in less than ten minutes. The last I checked there had been over five hundred comments, none of which were pleasant to read.

  To make the entire thing worse that hadn’t even been the first video or post about me or my sisters. Since the day we had arrived the entirety of the school’s social media had been flooded with hate comments, posts spreading lies about us, and even a few videos and pictures of us doing random things. It was a little creepy knowing so many people were watching us but seeing as all they could do was watch us in lessons I couldn’t complain too much.

  It probably helped that I was the least mentioned one. Kaida seemed to be a fan favourite in the first couple days, for her ‘wannabe goth’ looks. But the last few days had been solely focused on Dari, and all of her ‘psycho behaviour’.

  “I wonder what Annabella is like in the bedroom, I bet she fucks like a girl with daddy issues.” Allie quoted the most recent post to us all, as we hid in the back corner of our potions class.

  I had meant to pay more attention but after Professor Sparrow, a pretty Indian lady in her mid-thirties, had introduced herself she told us to talk in groups whilst she went around and spoke with each person individually.

  “Seriously? What does that even mean?” Dari groaned, sinking her head onto her arms as she lay over the dark wooden desk.

  The classroom we were in was in the basement of the Greenhouse, and it looked like a dungeon straight out of Harry Potter. The walls were dark and brick, the only light coming from candles and there were just rows upon rows of brown wooden desks. It was really rather boring and dark.

  “I think it’s a compliment in the sense they think you would be good at sex, but the way they’ve worded it and the fetishizing of people with daddy issues devalues any potential complement there. It’s just sexist shit really.”

  Kaida hadn’t spoken a single word until then, her eyes had never left her Portal as she read through every single thing her name had been mentioned in. I didn’t know why she bothered, but I figured she simply couldn’t help herself.

  “And if it makes you feel better Dari they’ve pegged me as a ‘’overbearing weak girl whose bark is worse than her bite.’ Or my personal favourite, ‘a boring freak whose fake attempts at modesty are completely redundant by the fact she likes to wear clothes a size too small’.”

  It wasn’t supposed to be funny but hearing Kaida being described that way tickled me.

  “They’re so far off the mark it’s not even funny.” I chuckled. Kaida sipped on her coffee, taking her jolly time to respond.

  “think from the calibre of these social media posts I can safely say that the majority of students here are generic carbon copies of each other, and their opinions and ideals are just whatever bullshit they’ve read on Instagram. They’re all pointless people.”

  That was that then. Pretty much every student in this school was written off as nothing more than a nuisance by Kaida, and she would never change her mind. It may have been a little judgemental, but she was rarely wrong with her assessments of people. Usually when she said someone sucked, they really did.

  A sharp cough interrupted our discussion, and I flinched when I turned to find Professor Sparrow standing right behind me with one hand on her hip.

  “Whilst I understand social media is an important aspect of today’s culture I would appreciate if you could avoid messaging your little friends during my lessons. As we deal with a lot of dangerous things in here and I would hate if one of you ended up losing a limb due to lack of attention.”

  I tried to contemplate a school letting students mess around with things that bad and couldn’t figure it out. Until I spotted the red marks on Kaida’s neck and remembered exactly how the teachers at this school behaved in dangerous situations.

  “We were actually just reading about how the entire school hates us Professor.” Dari chimed in. “It was quite amusing seeing myself describe as an unhinged psychopath by almost the entire year.”

  Dari hadn’t even been joking, there had been far too many posts saying those words for my liking. Professor Sparrow chuckled, a small smile appearing on her chiselled face.

  “I wouldn’t worry yourself too much my dear; most students here are nothing more than entitled brats.” Oh shit, she’s sassy.

  Allie agreed with Sparrow’s sentiment, adding in her own ideas about how the students could do with being taken down a peg.

  “And I'm sure that the Darklight girls will manage to get their own back when they have mastered their own magic, and know enough of my Potion knowledge that they too can destroy the world with a single drink.” Sparrow winked, as she returned to her place at the front of the classroom and began diving into a lecture about the five basic potions we would be learning in her lessons.

  Dari

  Mental education was a lesson that I honestly couldn’t figure out. What did it mean exactly? The classroom was inside the giant cave that I had yet
to search around, and there weren’t exactly many clues before the lesson seeing as we had no textbooks or anything to go with. All we had to do was turn up outside of the cave and wait for further instruction, and so it was safe to say Kaida already hated it.

  “What the fuck kind of lesson plan is that? Just turn up… how are we supposed to prepare?” She seethed, as we waited in our little group for any sign of a teacher.

  Our group consisted of my sisters, Asher, and Tory. Allie was exempt as she was a Wolf, and they were ‘inherently fearless and already have mental shields. I didn’t particularly believe it, but when the Heirs arrived sans Bette I had to begrudgingly accept that I was stuck here without a good enough reason to leave. I wasn’t a Wolf, so I was going to be forced to take part in whatever bullshit this was. It helped that there were more students in the class, but as none of them had the balls to talk to us they were pretty much invisible to me.

  The four Heirs were laughing with each other, and a couple of boys I didn’t recognize, none of them noticing we were here just yet. When they behaved normally it was almost easy to see them as regular people, and not ginormous dickheads who were hell bent on picking on us. They were roughhousing and joking with their friends and each other, like any normal people would. No care for the fact they were within feet of the people they were supposed to hate.

  Their ignorance of our presence was quickly destroyed when Professor Azizi arrived and made a damn spectacle of introducing us.

  “Oh my, the Darklight sisters in my class! How wondrous. I'm excited to get inside your minds and see exactly what it is we were dealing with!” They were too damn happy for my liking. Even their hair was shoulder length and bright green; their dark eyes covered in a blinding blue shadow and their swimming costume a mix of every colour under the sun.

  Azizi reached out one of their long hands, shooting towards Kaida’s face with a gleeful squeal. On instinct I jumped between them, letting Azizi’s touch me instead. The second my skin contacted theirs I was frozen, trapped inside a single second in time. I was choking for air, desperately clawing my way out of the tiny box I was locked inside as I screamed and cried for help.

  “Dari!” I was yanked back to the present, my mind returning back to me only seconds after it had been taken, as Kaida pulled me away from my new least favourite professor.

  My hands were shaking as I turned to face Azizi, trying so hard to keep a grip on my temper and not smash their face into the side of the cave. They were a professor after all, and I wouldn’t get away with hurting them with so many witnesses.

  “What the fuck was that?” I snarled, crossing my arms over my chest to hide the tremors.

  Azizi looked me up and down with a small frown.

  “Miss Darklight I was simply going to start my lesson by seeing the depths of your mental shields. And as it took me less than a second to find your deepest fears I would certainly say that you have a lot of work to do in my class. So perhaps you spend less time defending your sister and more time working on looking after your own wellbeing.” Azizi turned their back on me and ushered the laughing class inside the small door at the bottom of the cave, not bothering to see if we were all following.

  Laina walked away with the rest of our friends, removing them from the situation before they could see me crack. Only Kaida stayed with me, the anger on her pale face as prominent as my own.

  “I think the professor is a Siren, which means they can get into our heads and see whatever shit they want to see. Every memory, the good and the bad, and from the looks of things they can see the things we fear most…”

  “Merda!” I kicked a lone rock, sending it flying towards the trees, “We’re fucked then aren’t we? I'm not taking part in that again. Azizi made me remember being locked in that fucking box.”

  I hadn’t meant to make Kaida flinch, but I was too pissed off at having one of the scariest things in my life being replayed like it was nothing.

  “They made you feel your memories again? Of the box?” I nodded as she blanched, berating myself for not keeping that little anecdote to myself. Our foster father had been a bad man, and that was an understatement.

  One of his favourite punishments for our time outs was to lock us in a box in the basement and leave us there for hours on end. I had only been in there a handful of times in the years I had lived with the man, but it was enough to make me claustrophobic for life.

  Kaida had been in there at least once a week that I knew off, so I never once complained.

  “I'm sorry, I shouldn’t have said anything. Azizi just spooked me a little; I didn’t mean to fuck with your head.” I could do with a double whiskey and a smoke…

  “Don’t ever apologise for talking about things that upset you. I would rather you spoke to me than kept it to yourself.” A small smile tugged up the corner of Kaida’s mouth, but it didn’t quite reach her eyes.

  If we could have run from the lesson and never took part again then we would have. But neither of us were the kind to back down from a fight and seeing as Laina was still inside we had no choice but to join in.

  “I had a slight plan I think, to keep Azizi out of our heads for a while.” Kaida whispered, as the pair of us walked through the door into a large locker room. “It’s not the best plan but it’s the only thing I can think of.”

  Like everywhere else in this school the locker room was made of white marble and tiles, with multiple rows of benches, lockers, and individual changing rooms. The class weren’t inside, and their voices could be heard through another door at the far end of the room, so we headed that way to join them.

  “What’s the plan?” Kaida didn’t answer me with anything more than a wink and all I could think of was the stupid professor who had inadvertently caused a viper to target them for their next kill.

  I had to take a second to admire the beauty of the place when we arrived. The high ceiling and walls were made of a dark wet rock, various platforms floated around the air in different shapes and sizes and a giant waterfall was coming through the ceiling, dropping into the pool at the bottom. There were plants of every colour spread around the walls, and the platform we were all standing on had nothing but a giant diving board type ledge at the one end, and a small bucket of black satin blindfolds sitting on the edge.

  The whole thing was stunning, and if it weren’t so high up and triggering my fear of heights, I would have loved it. The students were standing around in a semi-circle with Azizi at the centre, and as I slipped into the throng silently Kaida made her way right towards our Siren professor.

  “Professor; sorry to interrupt I wanted to clarify that you are going to be using your Siren powers to delve inside our minds? If so is there a confidentiality agreement, or anything, that prevents you from using or sharing anything you find.” Azizi didn’t seem to mind the interruption and took a small step towards Kaida in excitement.

  The Heirs were watching the exchange curiously; none of them smart enough to notice Kaida was laying a trap. Even Mikel, who could no doubt feel whatever Kaida felt, didn’t understand what she was doing.

  “But of course, Miss Darklight! Anything I see is bound to me and me alone, so you do not have to worry. Magic prevents me from spilling anybody’s secrets, so rest assured if I find something juicy, like who your crush is, that I won’t be able to share! You have nothing to fear.”

  “Good to hear; but I'm not the one who’s scared, you should be.” And with that Kaida snatched Azizi’s bare wrist and gripped on so tight that it would leave bruises.

  I didn’t know what my sister was showing our professor and I was glad of it. Kaida’s mind was not a pleasant place to be, and her memories were even worse. Barely thirty seconds had passed before Azizi was groaning and whimpering in fear, as they dropped to their knees and began to shake. A small trickle of blood left their nose as they quivered.

  Kaida dropped Azizi and stepped back, venom coating her words.

  “The next time you decide to take an uninvited peek into
my sister’s fears, then I will come back and show you what true fear feels like and make no mistake that what you’re seeing is only the tip of an exceptionally large iceberg. I have pain beyond even your wildest dreams and no objections to making you feel ever last bit of it.” Kaida snarled, storming away back to me.

  Azizi didn’t get off the floor at first, too busy trying to control their ragged breathing and trembling body. But when they managed to weakly get back to their feet they asked Mikel to take over for the rest of the lesson, and practically ran off towards the staff room in tears. If I had the capacity to feel bad I would, but the part of my head that felt empathy was still locked in the box from my nightmares that they had made me relive.

  Maybe I can sneak a couple of drinks at lunch?

  “What the hell did you do to the professor?” Mikel demanded, the leftover terror from Azizi making him uncomfortable, as he shifted on his bare feet and ran a hand over his dreads.

  “I showed them a childhood memory seeing as they were so desperate to see something. It isn’t my fault they couldn’t handle it.” Kaida shrugged, turning her attention away from Mikel and absentmindedly staring at a sharp brick on the nearest wall.

  Mikel stared at Kaida for a minute, his dark brow raised in question, before turning back to the shell-shocked class. I had no doubt whatever emotions he could feel radiating from Kaida were not something he wanted to mess with right now and considering the state of the last person who had irritated her, even he knew it wasn’t smart.