When I open my eyes, I have to blink to believe my eyes. The trees are as green as if we’ve had months of rain and warmth, as if it is April instead of December. The grass underfoot is deep and bright, with flowers dotting the lush green carpet. Butterflies burst from cocoons and flit over the flowers.
“I must admit, I’m impressed,” a silky, feminine voice cuts in just as a blasting wind begins to blow. I’m jerked from my afterglow, and I spin around, expecting one of the Bellas. Instead, I find the beautiful enchantress who attacked me outside my father’s house.
The guys jump away from me, snatching for their weapons. I don’t know what happened to Cleo during our tryst, but she’s in my hand now, humming with power. I can feel her eagerness to fight, to impale this bitch, as clearly as if she were speaking words into my mind.
“Who are you?” Rocco demands. The woman stands in front of something that looks like a slash in the fabric of the universe—a long, vertical tear that she must have stepped through. All I can see through it is an endless void of darkness. It seems to have some kind of magnetic pull, like a black hole, because all around us, the trees are twisting, boughs straining toward the opening. Leaves and twigs break free and are sucked into the vacuum, along with the new butterflies with their crinkled wings and the petals of the delicate flowers.
That’s when I see Darius. He drops to one knee and bows his head, his voice reverent as he breathes, “Lilith.”
“I see that someone remembers me,” she says with a huff, her hair whipping around her face and blowing out behind her in dark streams. “This is what happens when men rule the world. The memorable women are forgotten.”
“What the hell is going on?” I ask, not sure whether to bow or attack.
“I’m not the villain here,” Lilith says. “I’m not the devil’s whore or the queen of sin. I’m simply the queen of the spirit world.” Her eyes dazzle, their power incredible and intimidating.
“Got it,” I say, eyeing the opening behind her. If that’s the spirit world, I want no part of it. It sucks in a branch and a palm frond like a hungry mouth.
“These sorcerers, as powerful as they are, cannot teach you what you need to know to take your place as the High Priestess when the time comes.”
“I think I made myself clear the last time you asked,” I snap, holding Cleo toward her, my own hair snapping and whipping around me, sucked toward the doorway.
Lilith lets out a tinkle of laughter. “My dear, weapons will not work on me. I’m immortal. Even a sword wielded by the High Priestess won’t injure me. Send me back to the spirit realm, maybe. I cannot be killed.”
“What do you want?” I ask, tossing my hair out of my face.
“If you truly want to learn how to control your powers, you must come with me. A priestess’s magic is neither light nor dark, but a balance of both. Only I can teach you what it truly means to the High Priestess. I am the original High Priestess, the one who bestows my powers upon a living soul. I hope you will consider my offer.” She smiles and spreads her arms wide, power radiating from her hands and shooting into the sky. “Our powers are more persuasive than even force.”
I feel a strong pull to Lilith, as if a gravitational force is leading me to follow her, pulling on me the way the doorway behind her is tugging on the world around us.
I step toward her, my feet moving of their own accord. The wind helps me along, drawing me closer and closer to this woman who wants me so much.
Before I reach her, Ryker leaps in front of me. “Lilith will take you into the land of the dead, but you need to learn light magic first. Otherwise the dark could take over within you.”
Lilith smiles at Ryker, and he stumbles, his eyes confused and unfocused, then drops to his knees. He looks up at her with those same blank, dazed eyes. “My queen,” he says.
Seeing him act like a puppet breaks my own trance. “Let him go,” I yell, slicing through the relentless wind with my blade.
“If you come with me, I will gladly leave your admirers in peace.” Lilith steps closer, reaching for my wrist. “Come with me to the spirit world, child.”
My own resistance crumbles the moment her cool fingers close around my wrist. The wind ceases to tear at me, though it still blows without stopping around us. Suddenly, I know that everything will be well if I go with her. Some intrinsic force is urging me toward her, and I know it’s right. The spirit world is where I belong. Lilith is who I belong with, who I belong to. My feet lead me forward, and a deep peace settles over me as I follow the raven-haired beauty to the doorway. It no longer looks ominous. Now that I see clearly, it looks dark and peaceful as sleep.
I step forward, but before I can step through, Darius knocks me to the ground, lifts his hand high, and plunges his snake staff into Lilith.
Chapter 23
When the snake’s head sinks into Lilith, something shatters inside me, and I scream. “No!”
Lilith tumbles into the doorway, and it shimmers violently before sealing shut with a wrenching wind and a burst of black smoke. I fall forward onto hands and knees, clawing at the air and choking on the smoke as the wind ceases, and the world around us falls silent.
“Jade,” Thorn says, falling to his knees beside me. He wraps his arms around me, hauling me up and into his lap.
“Are you hurt?” Darius asks, crouching beside us.
I slowly blink away the trance that came over me. I can’t explain the twisting feeling inside me, but it’s almost as if I could feel the cane impaling Lilith.
The only thing I can think to say is, “What… The… Actual… Fuck.”
“Exactly what I was thinking,” Rocco says with a halfhearted smile.
Ryker stalks away to inspect some vibrant greenery.
My gaze wanders from one man to the next, finally stopping on Darius. “Did you kill her?”
He grimaces. “She can’t be killed. She’s been around as long as the devil himself.”
“Okay,” I say, rubbing my temples. “And it’s probably safe to say she’ll be back?”
“I have no doubt.”
“Super,” I mutter, then take a deep breath and shake my hair back. Part of me wants to stand, but I feel too safe in Thorn’s arms right now, and I need that a little longer. “So, tell me what you know about this lady. I need to know what I’m up against.”
“Legend has it that Lilith was the first woman, created for Adam. She refused to be subservient to anyone, even Adam, so she was thrown into hell. God made a new woman for Adam—Eve. That’s about the gist of it. She’s extremely powerful, maybe even more so than Lucifer himself.”
“What does she want with me?”
“It must be your magic. Jade, your magic is the energy of life itself, the power of all creation. Look around you. Look what you did.”
I glance around at the butterflies dancing over blooms that burst to life in the middle of December. I saw them, and in some way I must have known it was me, but I didn’t really think about it until this moment. I made a mini-spring occur in minutes. I brought things back to life. Maybe even brought them into existence in the first place.
Okay, I can see how the powers that be might feel threatened by that. After all, weren’t the gods supposed to be in charge of creation?
Suddenly, a cold knot drops into my belly. “What if she goes after my dad?”
“We’ll put another ward in place on his house just in case,” Darius says.
“Good thing he never leaves the house,” I say, my voice trembling slightly.
Thorn’s arms tighten around me.
“You’re safe,” he murmurs.
“I know the last few months have been hard,” Darius says, smoothing my hair. “But I promise we won’t let anything happen to you.”
I sigh and lean my head against his hand. He’s been my comfort these last few months—my only comfort.
“Let’s get you back to your room,” Thorn murmurs in my ear. I nod, climbing off his lap with some reluctance.
As we start back toward the dorm, Ryker’s eye catches mine. I see longing there, but also pain as he looks between me and the others. “I should go check on the trials,” he says.
“Come with us,” I implore him, offering a tentative smile.
His lips press together for a second, and then he shakes his head. “You have three guards. You don’t need me.” Before I can say otherwise, he turns and strides off toward the Great Hall.
I can see the tension in his shoulders, and a part of me wants to run after him, to tell him that I do need him.
“Give him time,” Rocco says, resting a gentle hand on my lower back. “He’ll come around. He’s been through a lot, Jade. You have to be patient with him.”
“What do you mean?” I ask. “What’s he been through?”
“That’s not my place to tell,” Rocco says. “When he’s ready to share that, he will.”
“How can I understand him if he won’t tell me?”
Rocco shakes his head. “Patience, Cinderella.”
“You’re not supposed to call me that anymore.”
“Actually, I think I won that bet,” he says with a grin. “You ready to pay up?”
I gulp at the memory of what I promised him. “Can we take a rain check on that?”
He laughs and throws an arm around me. “Whenever you’re ready,” he says. “But you’re just postponing the inevitable.”
“I am, huh?” I ask, giving him a saucy smile.
“Face it, we’re gonna fuck,” he says. “It was always gonna happen. It’s just a matter of when.”
I check over my shoulder, glad to see that Thorn and Darius are deep in conversation and appear not to have heard that. We arrive back at the dorm too soon. I’m not ready to be alone, and apparently no one else is, either. Everyone is in the common room, celebrating the end of the term and recounting their most harrowing and hilarious trials from the day. No one pays us any mind as we head upstairs to my room.
“Sure you don’t want to cash in that rain check right now?” Rocco asks with a wink.
“I thought you had Bella for that,” I tease, trying to sound like it doesn’t bother me.
Rocco scowls. “You know she had us all enchanted with your magic,” he says. “No way would I touch a Bella if I was in my right mind. I should have known something was up the second I started considering it.”
“I’m glad to hear that,” I admit.
“Why’s that?” Rocco asks, raising an eyebrow. “You saying you want to be my girlfriend instead?”
“That might come with expectations I’m unable to fulfill,” I say as we reach my door.
“Inevitable,” he reminds me as I turn the key and step inside.
Peering out from inside, I see three of the men I’ve come to care about so much. A little pang goes through me that Ryker isn’t here. I vow to talk to him soon, but for now, I have more on my mind than Ryker, or how I secretly want all the guys with me the way they were today, except all the way, and with Darius involved.
“Can we talk a little more?” I ask the professor. “I’m a little shook up, and I want to be ready next time Lilith shows up.”
“Sure,” he says, nodding and stepping into my room. I smile at the other two, give them a flirty wave, and close the door.
“What do you want to know?” Darius asks, pulling me back to reality.
“Where did she come from?” I ask, pacing back and forth. “Did she go back there? To the underworld?”
“My guess is yes, she returned to the spirit world,” he says.
“And she wants to drag me down there with her,” I say. “Does that mean I’ll be dead?”
Darius frowns. “Not necessarily, but it can be very dangerous for mortals for obvious reasons.”
“And we have no idea when she’ll return.”
“I’m sorry,” he says, stuffing his hands in his pockets.
I stop in front of him. “Why do you do that?”
“Do what?” he asks, looking confused.
“You always look so uncomfortable around me,” I say. “Are you making your hands busy so you won’t touch me?”
His Adam’s apple bobs as he swallows. “I don’t think that’s relevant.”
“It’s relevant to me,” I say, stepping closer to him. I know he’s been resisting this, but we’ve been dancing around it all year.
“Jade…” He says, but his hands fall on my hips when I step even closer, leaving only a whisper of space between us.
“Tell me you weren’t even a little bit jealous when those guys were touching me,” I whisper, my lips skimming over the stubble on his chin. “Tell me you didn’t want to touch me again, too.”
“I did,” he admits, his eyes falling closed. “But…”
“But nothing,” I whisper. “You can touch me.”
“You’re half my age.”
I slide my hand behind his neck, my body coming alive at the touch of his skin. “Kiss me.”
Darius opens his eyes, searching my gaze. “This is dangerous, Jade. I shouldn’t be alone with you.”
“I won’t tell,” I whisper, letting my hand rest over his hammering heart.
With a soft groan, he lets his lips meet mine. I melt against him, parting my lips and letting his tongue enter. As Darius kisses me, something inside comes alive, a crackling energy, a pulsating heat coursing through my veins. It rises in my chest, moving through my limbs, warming my fingers and toes, making everything tingle.
“Take me to the bed,” I whisper.
Darius’s arms wrap around me, and he lifts me off my feet and strides to the bed, laying me down and fitting his body on top of mine.
“Remember what I showed you,” he reminds me.
With no more words between us, Darius kisses me slowly, passionately. Something deep in my core is waking up, a magical power, an essence that I didn’t know I possessed until he unlocked it.
I wrap my legs around his hips, grinding my clit against the hard length of his cock. I need him inside me, need this power unleashed. I arch up, but he pins me to the bed, rocking against me.
“More,” I whisper. But I know that no matter how much magic I have, he has more. He won’t be swayed. His hands pinning mine to the bed tells me he’s the one in control.
He won’t give me more than this. One day, I’ll make him lose control, but not tonight. Tonight I’m too far gone. My whole body is hot and aching for him. His mouth drops to my neck, leaving kisses, chasing shivers over my sensitive skin. Every nerve in my body comes more alive with each kiss, every touch. A need burns inside me like nothing I’ve ever felt before, and I feel the combination of my own power with my magic. It’s addictive. I drive my wetness against Darius’s shaft until I find the perfect rhythm. Pleasure builds inside me until I can’t hold back. As I find release, I feel stronger, more powerful than I’ve ever felt before. And I love it.
Maybe being a sex goddess won’t be so bad after all.
* * *
Thank you for reading Academy of Sorcery, Term 1: The Unleashing. To order book 2, click here. (I always set my preorder dates far out to give myself plenty of time, but don’t worry, I’ll pull it forward!)
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Keep reading for a short excerpt from Athena Phoenix’s solo title, Clash of Queens.
Excerpt from Clash of Queens I
Slipping my arm through Caius’s, we start walking toward the exit of the restaurant. “I wonder what it’s like to be human.”
“What do you mean? We are human.”
“I know, but to be… normal.”
Caius silently reflects on my question as we walk out into the warm evening air. It’s fall and humid here in
Nashville.
“You mean, like to have a house, and a car. A boring day job that makes you want to stab your eyeballs out?”
I giggle. “Yeah. They have families, and…”
“Ahhh. You want kids?”
“I don’t know,” I say instinctively. Because truth is, I don’t. “It’s not really something I’ve thought about. I mean, what if I do become queen? I won’t live forever. I’ll need an heir to pass the throne to. Kalene just got lucky.”
“She certainly did,” Caius says. “So you need an heir, huh?” He clears his throat. “Well, I’m sure someone would volunteer to help with that.” He has the snarkiest grin on his face and pokes himself in the chest with his thumb.
I push him off, and we both start laughing. “So what’s going on with Soren?”
“GDF business.”
“Come on, can’t you tell me anything?”
“You know I can’t, Cady cat. Even if I did know, which I don’t. Some things are beyond even my security clearance.”
People are eating outside a restaurant ahead with rows of tables set under ornate street lamps that illuminate sidewalk cafes and shop windows.
The proximity of people hushes our conversation about secret supernatural matters. The lull is nice, though. Peace and quiet is in short supply for me, and I’m sure, for Caius as well.
“I can’t remember the last time I could just take a walk with nowhere to go. It’s kind of nice.” I unlace my arm from his, letting it dangle beside me.
“Yeah, it is.” His gaze lingers on mine while I’m focusing on the sidewalk ahead, but I can feel him staring. And I don’t really mind.
“How’s the boyfriend doing?” he asks.
“Last I heard, Chase is okay.”
“Does he ever tell you anything about his missions?”
Academy of Sorcery: Term 1: Unleashing Trials Page 19