Night Shade Academy

by Kelly Carrero

  Bethany’s hand clamped on my shoulder, pulling me back a little too forcefully.

  And that was when I lost it.

  All the rage, fear, and uncertainty came out in one cosmic-sized blast of air, throwing them a good few yards away from me—Bethany against the wall and Bishop inside the… whatever was behind the door.

  Not missing the opportunity to find out, I said, “Sorry,” then raced inside and around Bishop, who was now clambering to his feet.

  Scanning the room, I took in all the artifacts and books—lots of books. “What is this place?”

  Bishop stood by my side, hands on his hips and sighed. “This is our vault. It contains some of the most dangerous entities known to our kind. And you’ve just released one of the class D Demons.”

  “Please tell me class A are the worst, or they go all the way to Z.”

  He shook his head. “Apart from Orson Reeves, D is as bad as they get.”

  23

  I hated being referred to as worse than a class D, but I got why. Plus, I’d just released a Demon into this world, and who knew what kind of repercussions were going to take place.

  “You shouldn’t be telling her this,” Bethany said, stretching out a kink in her waist as she came into the room.

  “I think we’re beyond protocol,” Bishop said. “Zalia has released a class D Demon. And if I’m right, she didn’t do it on her own, which means we need to figure out who Zalia has been helping.”

  I frowned, pissed off at his assumption. “I haven’t helped anyone.”

  He raised a brown. “So, you did this on your own?”

  “No—I didn’t say that.”

  “Relax,” Bishop said. “We don’t think you did this willingly.”

  “Oh, don’t we?” Bethany said, waving that damn canister around, as if we needed reminding. “Because it sure as hell looks like Zalia is responsible.”

  “I’ve never even seen that thing until I woke up here—wherever here is,” I said, getting more than a little worked up. “How do I know that someone didn’t drug me and set me up to take the fall? I could give you a hundred names of people who have it in for me and wouldn’t be sorry to see the back of me.” I couldn’t actually name everyone who hated me at the school. The sheer number was far too much. And I didn’t make a habit of getting to know everyone who hated me. I had enough trouble trying to find those who would actually speak to me.

  Bethany crossed her arms over her chest. “In most cases, the simplest explanation usually turns out to be the correct one.”

  “There’s nothing simple about me,” I said, getting more exasperated. “I didn’t even know this place existed. I thought I was an ordinary Light Witch. When would I possibly have had time to find out all of this? And if either of your theories is correct, then someone here at the school isn’t who they’re pretending to be. How many people know about this vault?”

  They looked at each other, refusing to answer me.

  “Fine,” I said. “How about you two sort it out and come find me when you’re willing to include me.”

  I took one last look at my surroundings and headed out into the hall. Looking to the left then the right, unsure of which direction I should go in, and what I’d find if I went the wrong way.

  Ducking my head back into the room, I asked, “Which way do I go?”

  Bishop looked at Bethany, as if to say “See? She has no idea.”

  “Turn right, follow it all the way to the end, then go up the stairs, and you’ll come out in my office.”

  I screwed up my face. “Your office?”

  He nodded.

  “Fine. Whatever.”

  Following his minimal directions, I ended up hitting a dead end. Or so it appeared.

  Casting a small orb, I set it just above my head, giving me adequate light to see that what seemed to be a wall was indeed a door.

  A door with no handle, no keypad, and absolutely no way of getting out. I pushed every inch of the cement, tried propelling air at it, and almost let loose a explosion that would bring down his entire office and anything adjoining it, but quickly decided against it. I’d already caused enough problems; I didn’t want to give them any more fuel for the fire.

  Feeling defeated, I slumped against the wall, knees bent and arms resting on them, as I hung my head, wishing I could go back to the start of the year and refuse to go to school. Even though it was mandatory, I could’ve run away. I could’ve still been a Light and never found out about this side of me.

  I snapped my head up as Bishop came into view. “Could’ve told me how to get out.”

  “We could have,” he agreed. “But then I wouldn’t have known for sure that you came down here on your own.”

  “This was a test?”

  “Of sorts.” He held his hands together, a blue orb forming in his palms. He threw it toward the wall. With his fingers, he spread the orb into the shape of a pentagon, thrusting the glowing blue light into the door.

  A second later, the door popped open, revealing the inside of Bishop’s office.

  “What the…” I stared in awe at the hidden door that was a part of the bookcase in his office. In all the times I’d been in that room, I’d never once guessed there was a whole other part of the building behind a secret passageway.

  It made me wonder what else I didn’t know about this place.

  Hell, I really knew nothing about the world I grew up in. And to think that when I walked up those steps on my first day of school, I thought I was going to be one of the smartest students here.

  I didn’t know shit.

  Once I’d gotten my head around the whole idea of secret passageways and tunnels, I decided to press the impending issue. “So, now I’ve passed the test, does that mean you’re going to tell me what I released?”

  “It means that you’ll be notified when we figure out what was in that canister.” He went and sat behind his desk. “Until then, I would like you to stay in your room, and only leave if myself or Hunter comes for you.”

  I nodded. “Can I get something for breakfast, though?”

  “Your sister can come and go as she pleases. Ask her to get you something before she heads off to class.”

  “And Nova?” I asked, looking at my watch. It was seven-thirty.

  He opened the laptop on his desk. “It appears you’ve formed a good relationship with her.”

  “As you expected,” I said. “We’re both outcasts amongst our factions. What’s not to love about each other?”

  Bishop gave me a look, telling me that was exactly why he’d put us together in the first place.

  Kayla had already left the apartment by the time I’d arrived without so much as a note asking me if I was okay. What happened to her not respecting my privacy?

  I grabbed what little food we had left in the fridge, which consisted of a half eaten slice of apple pie and an almost empty packet of crisps that had gone stale after being left open on the coffee table all night. There wasn’t even enough milk to make a coffee. And as much as I loved coffee, there was no way I was drinking it black.

  It was after midday before Hunter popped in, bringing with him a pizza, garlic bread, and two large coffees, and it took everything in me not to jump on him and squeeze the crap out of him.

  I guzzled half the coffee on our walk between the door and the couch. “You have no idea how much I’ve been hanging for a coffee.”

  He chuckled as he sat on one end, placing his coffee on the table as far away from me as possible. “I might have an idea.”

  I took another sip, savouring the taste as he opened the pizza box and picked up a slice of pepperoni. “Bishop told me what happened,” he said.

  “I’m still standing by my theory that someone drugged me, kidnapped me, and left me there to take the rap.” I grabbed a slice and took a bite.

  “If your theory is correct, then it would mean that one of the faculty was responsible.”

  “And no one is going to believe that,” I said, more
to myself than him.

  The door burst open and Nova and Kayla came in, relief washing over them when they saw me. “Holy mother of Light,” Kayla said, placing her hand over her heart. “You’re here.”

  “Where else would I be?” I asked. “I might be confined to this room for the rest of my life.”

  Nova took a seat on a cushion on the floor beside the coffee table and grabbed a slice of pizza. “There are so many rumours going around about you that we didn’t know what to believe. We both came as soon as class finished.”

  I frowned. “You guys have classes together?”

  Kayla sat between me and Hunter. “Yep. They do like us to mingle here. You know, part of the reason they built this place.” She grabbed the garlic bread and tore off a piece. “So what happened to you this morning? I’m guessing you didn’t run away with the mother of Dark or sacrifice Bishop to the Gods.”

  I chuckled. “No, I didn’t do any of that.”

  “Then what was it? And it better be good, because I almost had a nervous breakdown waiting until I could come find you.”

  I raised a brow. “You? Have a breakdown?”

  Popping another bit of garlic bread into her mouth, she shrugged. “It could happen.”

  There was nothing like having my sister around to lighten the mood. She was always the one with the careless attitude, carefree spirit, making a molehill out of a mountain. But she would never skip class.

  Giving them a run down on what had happened since I woke up in a secret part of the building, I waited for them to freak, get up, and walk out of my life, but both Kayla and Nova’s eyes lit up with rage.

  “Someone’s using you,” Nova said, jumping to the only explanation I could come up with on my own, and I hadn’t even told them my theory.

  “I’m gonna kill them.” Kayla ground her teeth together, her eyes taking on that look of rage that told me I should run. “Whoever is playing you for a puppet is going to get a wire around their neck, tightening ever so slowly until their head pops off.”

  “I’m not so sure we got the right sister after all,” Hunter said.

  Kayla chuckled. “Out of the two of us, I should’ve been the pick. Zali might have the skills, but I have the temper.” She frowned. “Have they worked out why only one of us is a SW?”

  “Not yet,” Hunter replied. “And we may never find out.”

  “So, this place,” Nova said, “what did it have in it again?”

  I shrugged, trying to remember the details. “Artifacts, statues, books, Demons, and about a million other things.”

  “And by a million, she probably means about fifty,” Kayla said.

  I rolled my eyes. “More like a hundred.”

  Nova shook her head. “What kind of books?”

  I shrugged again. “I don’t know. They were old and tacky.”

  “You mean original.”

  I stilled, wondering why I hadn’t thought about that when I saw them. After all, I was the bookworm of the family. Something had really messed me up down there this morning. “We need to get our hands on them.” Leaning forward, I looked at Hunter. “Don’t suppose you have access to the vault?”

  “I didn’t even know we had a vault until Bishop told me what happened this morning.”

  “So, does that mean you can or can’t get them?” Nova asked, staying on point.

  Kayla narrowed her eyes at him. “How do we know we can trust you, and you’re not going to go running off and telling Bishop?”

  His gaze swept over to mine. “Because as far as I’m concerned, the only people I trust are those in this room. And even then…”

  “Hey,” Kayla said, getting salty. “Maybe we shouldn’t trust you, buddy.”

  “I think he was talking about me,” Nova said. “And you’re right. I could be the one who is pulling her strings. And I could be trying to manipulate you into getting those books, so I can do something that will wreak havoc on Zalia. But I’m not.”

  “Okay, so now I don’t trust you.” Kayla scrunched up her nose. “Why would you do that?”

  “Because she’s trying to make a point,” Hunter said. “None of us should fully trust anyone.”

  “And we should always question each other’s motives and not just take everything at face value.” Nova grabbed another slice of pizza. “Which is why I have this idea.”

  “Do tell,” Kayla said, leaning forward with a gleam in her eyes.

  “Right now, Zalia has all this magic that she barely knows what to do with. She’s open to manipulation, and there’s one thing the Darks have learned that will help ground us…” She trailed off when Hunter shook his head.

  I glanced between them. “What is it?”

  “Nothing,” Hunter said.

  Kayla scoffed. “Yeah, right, it’s nothing. Tell us.”

  Nova lifted her arm and peeled back the sleeve of her shirt, revealing one of her kitties. “Get a familiar.”

  “What the what?” Kayla said.

  My face drained of blood. The thought of having a living creature buried into my skin made me want to puke. “There is no way I am getting a familiar.”

  “You might not have a choice.”

  24

  Turns out I did have a choice, and I made the right one.

  A month had passed without the world ending. I’d fallen into a somewhat normal routine without anything going wrong—no more strange phenomenons—and I was starting to gain a little more control of my power. I could now stand the brush of Hunter’s skin against mine without feeling as if I had a raging inferno on the inside.

  Every bit of contact between us still gave me a rush of giddiness and burning desire, but we still had to refrain from getting too close—no matter how much we wanted to.

  I’d returned to classes with other students. I was no longer the topic of every conversation—just every other—and I especially looked forward to my one-on-one classes with Hunter, who still hadn’t managed to get any books from the vault.

  “What’s your excuse this time?” I asked, trying to avoid the repetitive offensive magic he had me doing.

  “I don’t make excuses,” he retorted, throwing a ball of flames at me. “But breaking into the vault isn’t going to do either of us any good.”

  Seeing the fireball zooming toward me, I decided to let it enter me instead of pushing it to the side like he’d wanted. I’d done it a few times, and each time he chastised me for doing it wrong. I didn’t think the rules applied when it came to me. “Bishop wouldn’t take you away from me. He’d be worried I’d flip and kill everyone.”

  Hunter chuckled, his smile warming my heart. And he didn’t have a go at me, so that was a plus.

  I had to look away. Too much of a good thing wasn’t good for my evil, possessive soul that I was trying to tame.

  “Again,” he commanded then hurtled another fireball toward me.

  This time, I threw my hands up into the air, sending the flames shooting into the sky to never be seen again. Or more likely, hit the wards surrounding the place and fizzling the flames before they reached the human world. “When can we try something harder? This is too easy.”

  A few moments passed, then Hunter sauntered over to me, a devilish look in his eyes that made my breath hitch. “How about we try it the other way.”

  I swallowed hard, trying to maintain my breathing at a slow and steady level, when my heart pounded faster with every step closer he took.

  Holy mother of Light, I had it bad.

  “What did you have in mind?” I asked, my voice coming out with a husky treble that made me want to shoot myself.

  “Well,” he said, as he took a few more steps closer, stopping barely a foot in front of me. “We’ve spent so much time trying to work on your outside control, so maybe we should try spending some time learning your inner control.”

  I was afraid I knew exactly what he was going to do, and it wasn’t because I didn’t want him to touch me. I wanted it more than anything in that moment, but I
was terrified of what I might do.

  He reached for me, and I took a step back, trying to put some distance between us. “I’m not sure that is such a good idea.”

  “We need to work on your control at some point, and what better way then what we already know strips all control you have over yourself.” Hunter took a step closer.

  I mirrored his steps until my back hit a tree, the tips of his fingers hovering over my cheek.

  A blaze raged inside of me. I could almost feel his skin against mine and just the thought of it had me barely reigning in my fire. “I’ll burn you.”

  “No, you won’t.”

  A whimper left my mouth, as my emotions went into turmoil. I ached to be touched but at the same time was terrified by what I would do. I didn’t trust myself, and I couldn’t bear hurting him. “Please don’t.”

  My heart practically pounded through my chest as he pushed his luck in a way that only an insane person would.

  “Breathe,” he said, my mind turning his words into a seductive whisper.

  I was done for.

  This was way worse than an accidental brush against one another or a friendly touch. This was going to be my undoing. They were going to kick me out of Night Shade for sure.

  “Close your eyes.”

  “Oh, hell no,” I said with that same husky tone.

  The corner of his lips tipped up, and I snapped my eyes shut, squeezing them tightly.

  “Relax,” he whispered, his voice sounding even closer than before, throwing gasoline on my fire.

  I held my breath in anticipation, hoping that I would learn to control myself in the next two seconds because I couldn’t bear the thought of never being able to touch him—or any future crushes for that matter.

  The tips of his fingers brushed across my cheek, making my knees go weak. My eyes shot open.

  25

  Fire consumed me and Hunter jumped back, flapping his arm around as flame snaked its way up toward his shoulder.

  “Shit,” he yelled.