by Lucy Auburn
Phoenix Academy: Unbound
Lucy Auburn
Contents
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Author’s Note
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
35. It continues…
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Also by Lucy Auburn
About the Author
Copyright 2019 Lucy Auburn.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law.
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Author’s Note
This book contains violence, like the first book.
Phoenix Academy contains a reverse harem romance. I hope you enjoy!
Chapter 1
I wish somebody would sever this guy’s dick.
Sebastian would if he were here.
I’m trying not to be afraid. I want my heart to stop beating so fast, like a stumbling drunk headed home from the bars, falling all over itself and hitting things.
But I just can’t help myself. He has control of me somehow. No matter what signal I send to my arms and legs, I can’t break his release on my body and mind. I follow him into the darkness, against my will.
I try to fight the song, but unlike during classes with Shimmer I’m all alone this time. There’s no shirtless Lynx to distract me, no smirking Sebastian murmuring nonsense in my ears. It’s just me and the man in the demon mask, dragging a siren on a chain behind him, her mournful, enslaved voice pulling me along in its spell.
He’s going to kill me and cut the heart right out of my chest. And there’s nothing I can do to stop it.
You’re powerless, the song whispers in my ears, and I believe it. You’re alone and powerless, without your wings, without your demons. No one is coming to save you.
When Petra and the others used a recorded siren song to lure me away from the nightclub and towards the Phoenix Academy that first night we met, it was something soft and alluring, and I resisted it. I realize now that it was the wrong song from the start; they played regular phoenix-hypnotizing songs to me, and this guy is having his enslaved siren sing something else.
Something that pierces right through me and rips me apart until I truly believe that I deserve to have my heart ripped out of my chest.
“Fascinating.” Stopping near the west wall out of the school grounds, near a broken-down shed that looks like it’s seen better days, the masked man cocks his head at me. Those red eyes and sharp white teeth seem almost mocking.
“I’ve never had a Black Phoenix before, so I didn’t know the song would work. But look at you.” He reaches out a black-gloved hand and lets his fingers trail down my cheek to my clavicle. I shudder, but can do nothing to resist. “You’re harmless now, and so powerful at the same time. She’ll be pleased to have your heart.”
Reaching into the black robes he’s wearing, he pulls out a brown leather satchel. I let my eyes trail towards the siren, a demon who can spin spells with song, a chain wrapped tight around her neck. At least I can look where I want, even if my fingers twitch uselessly and my feet force me to follow him.
The siren is diminutive, small like my pixie instructor Shimmer, but grotesquely thin and sickly-looking. She has matted, lanky long hair and bright yellow eyes that sink into her skull. Her lips are chapped, her cheekbones hollow, but the song that slips from her mouth and wraps around me is piercing and strong with magic.
Powerless girl, the song whispers to me. Weak, broken girl, worth nothing, capable of nothing. The hatred of the song seems to be reflected in the siren’s sunken eyes, her twisted lips, a neck that’s bruised from the chain’s cruel embrace. You’ll die like you lived: in the streets.
The urge to lay down on the cool ground and give up completely is overwhelming. I’ve never felt such despair in my life, even in all my days of homeless hunger and constant fear. I would trade an entire decade on the streets to never hear this agonizing song again.
As I slump down towards the earth, though, the masked man’s voice sharply pulls me back to my feet. “Get up. Hold out your arms.”
The fucker. Though I don’t want to, I obey.
He pulls a long length of chain out of his brown satchel. It coils around his hands like a snake, alive with magic. Yanking me forward, he wraps the chain around my wrists, where it tightens hard against my skin and reforms into a seamless circle with no end or beginning. Grabbing the other end of the chain, he firmly wraps it around his palm, along with the siren’s leash.
“There. No tricks.” The voice that echoes against the painted black mask is hoarse and cruel. “Time to leave, my pretty new thing.”
I want to tug on the chains, to summon my demons and be surrounded by their fierce power, but I find I can’t do either. All I’m able to do is watch mutely as he reaches into his robes and tugs out something on the end of a necklace. It’s a tiny jar, small enough to fit in the palm of his hand, big enough to hold something dark red that smears against the edge of the glass.
It takes me a moment to realize that it’s a meaty sliver of a heart.
A phoenix heart, no doubt. These Grims really have the market cornered on ick and gross.
My stomach churns at the knowledge that soon enough pieces of my own heart will be in similar jars, used to turn objects into gold and perform dark spells. I’d vomit if I had the free will to do anything like that.
No help is coming; fighting is useless, the piercing song sings in my head, dragging me down into darkness. All alone, die alone, weak little girl.
After everything, I can’t believe it’s come to this. As the masked Grim starts murmuring some kind of charm beneath his breath, and the heart-in-a-jar start
s glowing, I let my eyes slip closed. If nothing else, I at least don’t have to watch him take me away somewhere to kill me.
And to think, this time I actually wanted to stay at the Phoenix Academy, only to be forcibly dragged away.
I hear the murmured words, “May the power of this heart take me and my slaves back to—”
Then, suddenly, a muffled grunt. The sound of metal as a sword is drawn. I open my eyes, heart soaring at the expectation that Ezra will be standing a few feet away, taking down my attacker with his expert blade.
But it’s not Ezra fighting back the masked Grim with a sword, slicing through the chains he’s holding and freeing both me and the siren.
This is a new man, one I’ve never seen before. Tall and thin but well-built, with hair that gleams silver in the moonlight, he moves so fast that I blink and almost miss him more than once. In his left hand he holds a long, curving sword, while his right fist swarms with black energy that courses up to his elbow.
It’s only when he turns to the siren and commands her, “Cease singing; begone and return to your home,” that I realize who this is: another Grim. Based on the gold phoenix embroidered into the back of his tailored blazer, he’s the one Headmaster Towers just hired to work at the academy and teach me.
Branding. The academy certainly has that part down, even if they haven’t managed to keep their students from being violently murdered. Here’s a phoenix logo on your clothes, don’t stain it with your guts too much.
As the new Grim releases the energy in his fist, the siren disappears in a black shroud. Without her song I snap out of my involuntary trance completely. Suddenly I can move, can stumble away from the fight—but I can’t seem to summon my newly-discovered wings or call to the demons. Each time I try, the chains still wrapped around my wrists burn red-hot and sting my skin.
“Stay back!” the Grim teacher calls out, holding his sword in front of him, back to me. “I’ve got this.”
I’m more than willing to sit this one out, after the week I’ve had. I just wish he could spare a moment to get rid of these chains keeping me from summoning the boys for a fight. Although at this point, maybe they’re tired of having to step in and fight for me. I know I’m certainly tired of my weak ass getting saved.
The fight doesn’t last long. The masked Grim still has the jar in his gloved hand, heart piece glowing, his voice muttering things behind his mask. As I watch, disbelieving, he steps back from the sword-swinging teacher and vanishes in a blur of black smoke and energy.
It reminds me of something: the way the White Phoenix disappeared the night she attacked the school. I still don’t know how she did it, but maybe somehow she’s related to this masked Grim.
“Damnit.” The teacher sighs and sheathes his sword, pulling his black energy back beneath his skin like I’ve seen the shifter students here do dozens of times, so that his powers can’t be easily seen by people like me—and him. “I can’t believe he got away. No Grim should be able to do that so easily. It’s dark magic, and it drains the soul. Are you okay—Dani, right?”
He turns towards me, and I get the chance to study his face: late forties, hazel eyes, dark stubble on his chin and cheeks, little lines fanning out from the corners of his eyes and mouth. He wears signs of age on his skin and in his silver hair, but there’s something almost ageless in his face—like he could be older or younger at the same time.
Something about him makes a little flare of warning go off in my chest, but I ignore it. My instincts are probably just reminding me of what I already know: he’s a Grim. This one, though, isn’t out to crack my ribs open and steal my heart.
“I’m alright. A little tied up, though.” I hold out my chained wrists.
“Ah, here. Let me help with that.”
Drawing a knife from his belt, he slashes a shallow line in his palm and dips a thumb into it. Then he presses the bloody thumb against the chains and murmurs, “Release.” In an instant, the chains spring back to life and uncurl from around my wrists, falling to the ground.
“Thanks.” I watch curiously as he wipes the blood off on a black handkerchief at his belt, then pulls a small vial of black dust out of his pocket and pours it over the wound. The dust settles into his cut and seals the edges of it together, healing him. “Is that a Grim thing?”
He grins at me, the expression somehow making him looks youthful despite the wear and tear on his face. “It’s one of many ‘Grim things’ I’m going to introduce you to. Nice to meet you.” Holding out his uninjured hand, he gives me a handshake, firm but casual. “I’m Leo Meyer. You can call me Meyer—or Leo if you’d prefer. You appear to be my new student.”
“Is it that obvious?”
“I can smell the phoenix all over you,” he says, like that’s a normal thing to say. “And see the Grim spirit in you trying to awaken—though it’s buried, like it’s been kept dormant too long. Not to worry; I’m here to change that.”
Despite his friendly demeanor, I have to admit, it’s strange to be alone with a Grim in the woods. Meyer is the fourth I’ve met, and the first three all tried to kill me. Even though Headmaster Towers told me in a rush yesterday that I’d be studying under a Grim she’d managed to hire, I still don’t understand how he can be here at the Phoenix Academy, like there aren’t centuries of war between the two paranormal species.
Some of my nervousness must leak out of me, because I blink and I’m surrounded by demons.
Well, not just any demons. They’re my demons. And not completely surrounded; there are only four of them, after all, though they all look quite formidable as they come into being in the woods around me, weapons drawn, fighters’ stances ready.
“Another Grim.” Ezra narrows his eyes at Meyer. “Make us corporeal, Dani, and we’ll fight him off for you.”
“He saved me,” I tell them. Meyer looks at me in confusion, and I realize what’s going on. “I guess he can’t see you, either.”
“Can’t see who?” Meyer asks, sounding confused.
“My demons. Four of them became anchored to me the night I died about a week ago. They’re incorporeal most of the time, and only I can see them, but if I try hard enough I can make them corporeal too.”
I glance around at each of them: Ezra with his sword, Sebastian with his poison-tipped knives, Mateo holding a gun and what’s probably a grenade, and Lynx with coils of rope wrapped around his fists, ready to use brute strength to kill for me. “They just... showed up. Stuck to me. I don’t know how it happened. Maybe you can explain that to me.”
“I can,” he says, and it’s a relief to have answers. “But you’re going to have to get rid of them. Permanently.”
Chapter 2
“I don’t like this guy,” Mateo mutters, eyes narrowed. “Who’s he to decide Dani should get rid of us?”
“It’s what we’ve been discussing and planning all week.” Ezra sounds tired; his mouth is a thin line and there are shadows beneath his eyes. I wonder for the first time if they ever sleep when they’re in that nowhere place. “I’m sure he has his reasons.”
Not hearing them, Meyer overlaps his voice with Ezra’s. “I’ll explain it all to you in our first class together. For now, let’s get you safely back to your room.”
“What about that guy in the mask?”
“Don’t worry about it.” Meyer’s voice is absolute and firm. “I’m working with your headmaster to set up additional wards to prevent anyone from traveling onto school grounds with this new form of dark magic running rampant. I thought the spellwork could wait until morning, but clearly it can’t. I’ll get her and we’ll work through the night to make sure you’re safe.”
His words are reassuring, but I still can’t help feeling a little wary about the fact that he’s a Grim. “Why did you decide to come here and help us? It’s not like the academy is friendly with, well...”
“Murderous Grims?” He sighs, then rakes a hand through his silver hair. “It’s true, Grims have been at war with phoenix for as lon
g as either side can remember. But things change. Customs are rewritten.”
“That’s vague,” I point out, unable to hold my tongue.
“You want the naked truth? Fine: my clan kicked me out.” His mouth thins further. “I broke the rules, fell in love with the wrong woman, and paid for it. I lost the only person I’ve ever loved and my family, not to mention my clan, my line of work... everything. So when your headmaster found me, washed up and all alone in a bar in New Jersey, I had nothing left to lose and everything to gain.”
“Oh.” As I speak Lynx is peering at him, eyes narrowed; he must be reading his soul. “I’m... sorry to hear that.”
Shaking his head, Lynx says, “I can’t really see much. That’s not uncommon with Grims. But he’s not evil. Not exactly a knight in shining armor either, but nothing that suggests he eats phoenix hearts for breakfast.”
Well, that’s opaque. But even if Lynx told me his soul was shot through with muck, there’s not much I can do about it. He’s the only Grim the headmaster found to teach me, and she won’t exactly fire him on my say-so—and I doubt they’d look past me running away a third time. Even I’m started to get tired of my flaky antics.