Night Shade Academy

by Kelly Carrero

I stabbed at my food, suddenly not so hungry. “What would happen if word does get out?”

  He scratched the side of his face then grabbed a box and opened it, balancing it on his lap, the smell of teriyaki chicken wafting through the air. “We can’t be sure you’d be safe. People will come after you. That’s why its imperative you learn as much as you can before word gets out when everyone goes home at the end of the year.”

  I frowned. “The end of the year? What about Easter?” We may have been supernatural beings, but we still celebrated certain human traditions that appealed to us. And chocolate appealed to almost everyone—human or not.

  “We will have to figure something out because there’s no way Bishop and the powers that be will allow you to be compromised.”

  “So, you’re just going to deny everyone from seeing or speaking with their family for a whole year?”

  “Pretty much.”

  No longer hungry, I placed my food on the coffee table. “You can’t do that. It’s not fair.”

  “What’s not fair is what will happen if people find out what you are. It won’t just be your life that will be in danger, it will be everyone who surrounds you.”

  “Send me somewhere else where no one can be harmed.”

  “No can do.”

  “Why not?”

  “We already told you. The safest place for you is right here within the wards of the school. No one can get in, and no one can get out.”

  Defeated, I picked up my box of food and began to move the pasta around with my fork. No matter how much I hated putting anyone else in danger, I understood what they were trying to do. It made sense, but that didn’t mean I had to like it. Or not feel guilty that I would be the reason why so many families would go without seeing each other for such a long time.

  “Don’t suppose you got any dessert?”

  Hunter leaned over and grabbed a box off the table. “Apple pie and chocolate brownie.”

  “Now you’re talking.” I snatched the box off him and dug into the desserts. I may not have been hungry for food, but dessert wasn’t food, right?

  We spent the rest of the night talking about anything and everything. I learned a bit about the Darks and more about the Lights and their involvement with the infamous war. And we unfortunately kept coming back to Shadow Walkers.

  I was one in a million or more. Part of a species within our species that were able to do things we shouldn’t be able. And it brought fear into my soul that I was one of them.

  Eventually, we talked ourselves to sleep, and I woke the next morning, my sister holding my nose. Gasping, it wasn’t a very pretty moment when my hands and legs flailed, as I lashed out at her. Of course all Kayla could do was laugh, but poor Hunter copped a foot to the head.

  14

  “You are such a bitch,” I said, holding a napkin against Hunter’s bloody nose.

  Kayla grinned. “Yeah, but you love me.”

  Hunter took the napkin from me as I got up, a smile spreading across my face when I saw Kayla’s bags already in her room. “So, you’re not scared I’m going to try to kill you in your sleep?”

  Hunter raised his brows, as he glanced down at the bloody tissue before returning it to his nose. “Zali, I think you’re the one who needs to sleep with an eye open with this one around.” There wasn’t an ounce of seriousness to his tone, which I was grateful for. The last thing I needed was for him to think Kayla would actually try to kill me in my sleep and make her go back to the Lights.

  Kayla grabbed two cups of coffee off the table and handed me one. “Sorry, Hunter, I didn’t know you’d be sleeping with my sister.”

  I almost blew my coffee through my nose. “You are so evil.”

  She shoved herself between the two of us and put her feet up on the table in front of us. “Really? ‘Cause I’m pretty sure you’re the evil one.” When she saw the horrified look on my face, she said, “Jokes.”

  “I think it’s a little too early for humour.”

  Hunter stood. “As much as I’d love to stay and hear more of your sisterly love, I should go see Bishop.”

  He made his way toward the door and opened it. “I’ll come by before class starts if there’s any amendments to your schedule.”

  I nodded. “Thanks for last night.”

  Hunter smiled, giving me a slight nod. “Have fun, girls.”

  As soon as he left the apartment, Kayla bounced to the other end of the couch and put her legs up, knees bent. “So, what happened last night?” She wiggled her brows.

  I picked up the empty desert container and threw it at her. “Get your mind out of the gutter.”

  She shrugged. “A girl can dream.”

  With a smile on my face, I shook my head. Nothing like having your twin to pick up your mood.

  Kayla sighed. “All jokes aside, how are you doing?

  “As good as can be expected.” I took a long sip of coffee, letting the chocolaty undertones warm my soul. There was nothing like a good coffee to wake me up in the morning, or to settle my nerves, or any other excuse I could find. I was a coffee lover, through and through. One of the many things I shared with my sister.

  “I can’t believe they let me stay here with you.”

  “They think you’ll ground me, so I don’t freak out and kill everyone.”

  She snorted out a laugh. “You? Kill everyone, let alone anyone? I mean, what do they expect you’re going to do? Bore everyone to death with your spells?”

  I chuckled. We both knew I could do far worse with my knowledge of spells, but Kayla always thought there were better things to do with her time than stick her nose in a million books.

  “I’m serious,” she said. “What happened?”

  I frowned. “Didn’t they tell you? Didn’t anyone in the school tell you?” I couldn’t believe I wasn’t the talk of the whole school yet. I mean, people had to know what went down. That type of thing couldn’t stay a secret for long.

  She shook her head. “Nope. They just said that you tested positive for some DNA throwback making you a Shadow Walker. Then they offered me to move in with you, and of course I jumped at the chance. There was no way I was going to tell them they had the wrong girl, and you could never be what they’re claiming you to be when they were offering to let us live together.”

  I bit the lip of the coffee cup, as I tried to find the courage to shatter all her preconceived beliefs about me. Eventually, I said, “The Darks are a little different to the Lights.”

  “Yeah, no shit. They’re a little evil.”

  “Well, yeah.” I paused for a few moments to gather my thoughts before continuing. “Remember how I told you about the Lights not being what they pretend to be, and the Darks had to turn to evil to regain some kind of power after the Lights stole it from them? Well, the Darks also have this weird game or tournament where they fight against themselves to establish hierarchy within their House. Then they pit them against the other two houses to establish the dominant house each year.” I could barely believe I was able to break the spell forbidding me from talking about the dogfights. I guess it was a perk of being a Shadow Walker.

  Kayla’s brows shot up. “Are you serious? Brody was right?”

  I nodded, as I swallowed another mouthful of coffee. “They put me in the ring on my very first day, and as you can guess, I got my ass kicked. Or more accurately, ass handed to me within the first few seconds. Anyway, fast forward to yesterday and I was going up against a girl who’s been a bitch to me ever since my first day. She was kicking my ass more so than the others. I mean, she was stomping on my face and kicking the shit out of me when I was already down…” I stopped when I saw the look of anger take over Kayla’s face.

  “I’m going to kill the bitch.”

  “Relax. I doubt she’d ever try that again because while I was getting my ass kicked, the Shadow Walker in me emerged, and I almost incinerated the bitch. It was only thanks to Hunter that I reined in the wall of fire closing down on her.”

  She
frowned. “How does that make you a Shadow Walker? You’re not the only Witch who can control fire.”

  “When there’s a spell cast on the school that doesn’t allow us students to perform such spells, then yeah, it kinda does.” I then added, “Oh, and the fact that I can also crawl across the ceiling was a bit of a giveaway.”

  Her eyes bugged out. “You couldn’t lead with that?”

  I shrugged. “I thought you’d appreciate a nice, steady build up.”

  She shook her head in disbelief. “That’s some freaky demonic shit.”

  “I know, which is why everyone is freaking out. It’s why Hunter was brought in. And it’s why they’ve stuck me up here away from the other students.”

  Kayla swallowed hard and stared at me for the longest moment, making me wonder if I’d been wrong, and she was going to hightail it out of here—twin sister or not.

  Eventually, she breathed, the softness in her eyes returning again. She leaned forward and grabbed my free hand. “Whatever happens, we’ll face it together. Nothing has changed between us, you got that?”

  I nodded, a sigh escaping my lips, grateful she still had my back like I’d originally thought. “I’m afraid,” I admitted for the first time since I’d found out. “There are going to be people who will try to use me.”

  Squeezing my hand, she said, “We won’t let them.”

  My eyes pooled with tears that were threatening to spill. “That’s what Hunter and Nova said. Speaking of Nova, Hunter thinks she’s a Seer.”

  Kayla drew her brows together.

  “Apparently, they’re pretty rare but they do exist,” I explained. “Nova gets these snippets of visions and has these feelings about things or people. Anyway, as I said, it’s pretty rare but might also be helpful.”

  “I knew I liked that girl.”

  I smiled. She wasn’t like so many of the Lights, who would’ve turned their back on me the second I was cast to the other side like Brody did. I was beyond grateful I had a twin sister to share this burden with.

  Kayla went as far as to open a suitcase and get out one pair of shoes before we headed to our first class. And if I knew anything about her, I knew she probably never fully unpacked in her last room. The girl was always so messy, a stark contrast to me, the neat freak.

  But that was us: Light and Dark. Blonde and black. Good and bad.

  We evened each other out.

  Although Kayla was allowed to live with me, she wasn’t allowed to amend her schedule to mirror mine. She still had to follow the timetable given to her on her first day, which left us heading in two different directions, Kayla to Light’s history, and me to the art of potions where I found myself in a room filled with Vampires and Wolves.

  15

  Spotting the teacher crouched down in front of a cupboard filled with bottles of herbs and various other liquids, I strode up to him, trying to ignore the whispers of the other students. “Um, excuse me Mr…” I paused as I scrambled through my paperwork, trying to find out what his name was.

  “Jefferson,” he said, not bothering to look up at me.

  “Mr. Jefferson—”

  “No, not mister, my name is Jefferson, or Jeff for short.” He stopped what he was doing then peered up at me. The moment he realized who I was, he stood. “Zalia…”

  “I don’t know if I’m in the right class. I mean…” I looked at the other students. “There’s no Witches in here,” I whispered.

  The corner of his lips tipped up. “I can assure you, you are in the right class.”

  A vampire from the back row called out, “Do you think only Witches are entitled to do magic?”

  I furrowed my brow. “I think we’re the only ones who should.”

  Various forms of laughter and sneers filled the air, and a Werewolf from the front row snapped, “Typical Leech. You think you’re above all the rest of us when you don’t know shit.” She had a pack mate on one side of her and a vampire on the other, who gave her a fist bump, confusing the hell out of me.

  “Oh what? Didn’t you know we’re all friends?”

  “And we can do spells?” another guy said.

  “Potions,” Jefferson corrected. “You can do potions. Conducting spells without any source other than yourself is still out of reach for anyone but the Witches.”

  “But we both have teeth, something the Witches don’t,” the wolf girl said, baring her canines for me to see.

  “And this Witch has something none of you have,” a vampire girl said, kicking out the empty chair beside her, then cocking her head for me to take a seat beside her.

  “Oh yeah?” Wolf-girl said. “A stick up her ass?”

  The rest of the class burst out laughing, except for the vampire girl and those sitting close to her.

  “That’s enough, Emma,” Jefferson said. “Zalia, please take a seat.”

  Yeah, he could’ve asked the class to shut up before it reached that stage, which made me wonder if he got something out of watching me being made fun of. I thought the teachers were supposed to support me and try to keep me from doing something stupid. This teacher was failing miserably.

  When they quietened down, the vampire girl said, “She could burn this whole place up before you’d get a chance to sink your fangs into her.”

  Could I?

  “Holy shit,” Emma said. “She’s the Shadow Walker.” Her voice was barely a whisper, but it echoed through the silent room.

  No matter how much I wanted to hide, I had to own this shit. “The one and only.” I did a stupid little curtsy and all.

  “Please take a seat, Zalia,” Jefferson said.

  I scanned the room, stopping on the empty chair next to the vampire girl. It was either her or between the wolf girl and the vamp boys at the back.

  I opted for the vamp girl who didn’t appear to want to kill me. Then again, there was the old saying, “keep your friends close and your enemies closer.”

  That was something I had to remember. I could no longer take anyone at face value.

  Slipping into the seat, I gave vamp-girl a friendly smile before turning my attention to Jefferson, who was gathering the ingredients for a spell I knew all too well. I’d learned it when I was seven. If learning how to make a basic sleeping potion was the level these guys were at, I had nothing to worry about.

  Vamp-girl leaned across and whispered, “Don’t pay any attention to Emma and her friends. She tries to act tough, but we all know her bark is worse than her bite.”

  I chuckled at her little wolf joke.

  “I’m Leila,” she said.

  I smiled. “Zalia.”

  The rest of the lesson didn’t improve. I was beyond bored by what Jefferson was teaching, and to think that Bishop had changed me to this class was mind-boggling. There was nothing I would learn that I hadn’t already learned.

  But as Hunter had said last night, they needed me to focus on the supernatural stuff before I attempted to get back to the human world.

  Something told me I would never fit in—even with the human world.

  The bell rang and we all stood, ready to leave after having already packed up. “I heard you were born a Light,” Leila said, in a tone that was anything but snide.

  I nodded, as I slung my bag over my shoulder.

  “It must’ve been a bit of a shock. And then to be shoved into the world of the Darks after being raised with certain beliefs must’ve been extremely hard.”

  “Leaving my sister was the worst,” I said, heading toward the door with Leila walking beside me. “But they’re letting us stay together now, so that’s a plus.” I always tried to look on the bright side, but damn it was getting hard these days. These little snippets of good were what I had to hold onto in the darkness I’d been thrust into.

  Damn, I was being melodramatic.

  “That must make it a little easier for you.” She stopped in the hallway. “Well, I have to head this way.” She cocked her thumb in the other direction. “If you ever need a friend, someone to s
it with, or to drain the blood from a certain blonde wolf, then come find me.”

  I chuckled. “Thanks. I might just need to take you up on that.”

  Leila grinned. “Later, Zalia.” She spun around and headed down the hall.

  I pulled out my schedule and looked for my next class. Defense Magic.

  This was more my style.

  Turned out, it wasn’t much better than potions. It didn’t cover anything I didn’t already know, and by the end of the day, I was livid.

  I stormed into Bishop’s office without an invitation, catching him off guard. “You can’t expect me to perfect my skills if you keep sticking me in classes for seven year olds.”

  He put down his pen and leaned back in his seat, clearly comfortable with my presence, a stark contrast to the night before. “You need to learn to mix with the other Houses and strip down all the preconceived ideas you have about them.”

  “What’s that got to do with me learning how to control my Shadow Walker side?”

  “Everything.”

  16

  “What exactly does that mean?” I said, lowering myself onto the seat on the opposite side of Bishop’s desk.

  “It means exactly what I said. More than likely, there will come a time when you need the support of the other factions, and where you stand with them right now will leave you without a hope in getting any form of allegiance with them,” Bishop explained. “Whereas if you can see the other factions for what they really are, and they can see you for what you really are, then you will have friends in places you will need.”

  “So, you put me in classes with them so I’m not actually learning the subject they are there for, but to learn to fit in and see them as people rather than their labels?”

  He smiled. “Now you’re getting it.”

  “It actually makes a lot of sense, but don’t you think I should also learn a bit about what I am and how to harness my… darker side?”

  “And you will. That is why Hunter is here. He’s one of the best that’s gone through this school, and will easily fit in and adapt to life alongside you. He will teach you as well as any teacher at this school could.”