by Lucy Auburn
It’s all so much, too much to focus on.
So I shut it all out and narrow my attention to Meyer’s face. “You won’t get away with it.”
“I already am.”
There’s a feline scream; Laena sinks forward onto Ezra’s blade, shifting back into her human form, eyes glazed over in death. A commotion starts up in the dorms to my right. The students, no doubt, have noticed the flames flickering through the forest, the battle going on.
But before their alarm can turn into awareness, Meyer waves a hand, power dripping from his fingers. He doesn’t even look at them. “Forget your worries. Go back to sleep.”
I don’t have to turn my head to know that he’s effectively nullified every single student who might stand up to him. On the ground behind him, the headmaster, the only one capable of standing up to him, cries out in pain as Mateo digs his fingers into her chest, searching for her beating heart.
Meyer stands between me and the dying Red Phoenix. All it’ll take is the words of the spell, the blood dripping down my hand, and the rage in my heart. I can take them back. I can make them my boys again.
And then...
Then...
Meyer says, “It’s regretful it has to be done this way. But I tried to win her heart peacefully. She wouldn’t give it to me, no matter what I did. Those spells I used on her were peaceful, but her will is too strong. I can’t do it the peaceful way. So I’ll do it the gruesome way, just as other Grim clans do.” He’s looking at me intently. “It doesn’t have to be like this for you, though, Dani. Give me your heart willingly. Love me as a daughter loves her father.”
I teeter on a knife’s edge, the words of the spell bright in my mind even as my rage swirls in confusion and the wound on my bloodstained hand heals.
Lana’s crying stops as Mateo’s blood-covered hand finds its target. Petra snarls and snaps at him, only to get pulled back by Lynx’s strong hands, which circle her throat effortlessly. She claws at his arms, but he ignores the blood drawn by her wolf shifter attacks, his eyes hollow.
The heart in Mateo’s hand is bright red and pulsing with power.
I remember the demon-masked Grim’s words. “You’re harmless now, and so powerful at the same time. She’ll be pleased to have your heart.”
The heart of a rare, special Black Phoenix has incredible powers.
The heart of a rare, special Red Phoenix must have even more.
As soon as Meyer gets it he’ll be unstoppable. If I take the boys back now, I’ll have won the battle but lost the war. I’ll have them but no one else on my side. Everyone I leave behind will suffer under Meyer’s impossibly strong will to manipulate. I’ll lose them all.
No bright-eyed Olivia, even now hopefully being treated for her wounds. No stubborn Sam who dragged me out of my depression and forced me to leave my room. No lovable Liam who spotted me from the darkness and put his life on the line to save me. No tiny, scary Petra, who even now struggles in Lynx’s strong arms.
Meyer’s spell over the campus won’t be broken by taking the boys back from him and letting him keep Lana’s heart. It’ll take an impossible amount of strength and magic to defeat him, the kind of strength I don’t have on my own.
I could get them back and run away.
I’ve been selfish like that before.
But the last few months have changed me in ways I don’t even realize until I’m staring at the headmaster’s still-beating heart in Mateo’s hands, wreathed with power and promises. An instinct rises up in me, sharp and impossible, the same instinct that told me I can move time to my will and foresee people’s next moves.
It fills me as surely as my rage. The world stands still, even Meyer stands still, as something buried deep within me tells me what to do next.
Surging forward, I put my street rat, wallet-pinching hands in Meyer’s pocket and find what I somehow knew would be there: a tiny glass vial with a sliver of a heart inside it, undeniable proof that all his lies were just that. He’s been using phoenix hearts from the beginning, when and where he chose.
I grasp it in tight fingers and leap past him, taking advantage of my brief shining moment of power, then kneel by Lana’s side. Mouth twisting, I push Sebastian’s fingers off her shoulder, stab his hand with my little knife, and turn towards Mateo.
My moment ends. Time no longer stands still. The world explodes with sound and fury: Lana’s heart beats, Sebastian snarls and grabs the knife in his hand, Petra thrashes in Lynx’s grasp, Ezra slides Laena’s body off his sword and stalks towards Sam even as the tiger shifter tries to get away.
Meyer grabs for the space where I was and finds nothing there, but he’ll catch up soon and see what I’m up to; I have seconds at best.
I narrow all my attention to two things: the heart in Mateo’s palm, and the still-bleeding, grisly empty chest it was plucked out of. Meeting his mischief-dead eyes, I ask him, “Where’d your grenade pin go?”
He frowns. Glances down towards his belt, looking for a bomb I might’ve set off.
I take advantage of his momentary distraction to grab Lana’s heart from my hand.
It’s so warm. Wet with blood, and warm with it too, but also with power. The instant my fingers wrap around it, the heart pulses with power. Red flames lick up my wrist, not to burn me, but more like a friendly hello. My own black flames meet them, twine with them, dance with them; black and red, two branches of the same tree.
I push the heart into Lana’s chest. It beats.
Five more seconds.
Meyer is turning towards me, prepared to act, to give the demons new order.
One last, desperate time, I grab my power and slow the world around me. I can feel the way it drains me, how my flames flicker out, my heart squeezing with the effort. Grimacing, I push past it, surge to my feet, and grab Petra’s neck. I pull the rope around her head loose and drag her to the headmaster’s side.
Then I rush towards Sam, who’s scrambling to his feet to get away from Ezra’s sharp sword tip. Taking him by the collar, I jerk him in the opposite direction, and put him by Lana as well.
One more second to rearrange the scene. So I kneel by her side, make sure Mateo and Sebastian aren’t touching her anymore, and wrap my palm around her arm.
Time jerks.
We drop back into the real world.
Angrily, Meyer demands, “How do you keep doing that? It shouldn’t be possible for you to go where I can’t foll—”
Holding the jarred sliver of heart in my palm, I murmur the dark spell I learned in the one book Meyer couldn’t keep from me. “Turn this flesh to power, turn this power to my will. Transform, transport.”
It’s a dark spell, so I expect dark energy to pool out of my hands at the words. But when the sliver of heart lights up, I don’t feel darkness or necromancy. I feel a calling of kinship, a bright song of thanks from the dead.
And my wings surge behind me, made not of fire but pure energy. They grow to a shield around us, pulling Sam, Petra, and the headmaster into their embrace, protecting us from outside forces even as Lana’s chest begins to heal and she stirs into awareness.
The spell I’ve cast asks a question in my mind. Where?
In answer, I imagine the only place I’ve ever thought of as safe. As the spell settles into place, I stand up and step back, towards the shield.
Shifting back to her human form, voice hoarse, Petra asks, “What are you doing?”
“The only thing that’ll save us all.” Glancing down at the headmaster, I add, “Protect her.”
I move away from the three of them. Sam calls out, “Wait!” Closing my heart off, I ignore him.
Energy swirls around them. They disappear, far away to safety, leaving me alone with Meyer and the boys.
I turn to face him and meet Mateo’s dead eyes instead.
“That was a mistake,” Meyer says. “You’re getting in the middle of something you don’t understand.”
He flicks his fingers. A hand clamps down on my arm; pain
shoots through me at Sebastian’s touch. My legs go out from under me as Lynx expertly sweeps me off my feet and tightens rope around my knees. I feel the cold press of Ezra’s blade against my neck, and Mateo steps in front of me.
All their faces are expressionless as dolls. My hand aches; the healing cut is still sore enough for Sebastian’s power to multiply it. The blood that drips from that hand is Lana’s and mine alike.
Closing my eyes, I mouth the words of the spell, hand curling as I push rage out from my center and towards my fingertips. Return what is mine. Restore what was stolen. Reforge what was unbound.
“Thankfully, I have an easy way to rectify mistakes,” Meyer says.
I open my eyes as a warm, dry palm presses against my forehead. Mateo doesn’t even crook his lips to smile at me.
Meyer flippantly tells him, “Take her memories of all this, so we can start all over again.”
“Yes, Master.”
Rage spills from my hand out into the world. Blood coats my palm. I stare up into those familiar brown eyes, desperately looking for a sign that he recognizes me, that my will is strong enough to conquer Meyer’s brute strength and experience.
Nothing familiar looks back at me. The sword pointed at my neck digs in deep enough to draw blood, and pain explodes at the cut, far more pain than is natural. I moan, and Mateo doesn’t even react.
In an emotionless voice he says, “Forget.”
35
It continues…
Start reading the sequel, Phoenix Academy: Forged, now!
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Read Next: Fae Like Me
If you like new adult romance, especially urban fantasy and paranormal romance with a kick, check out my Selena Pierce series!
I just learned I’m a part fae succubus. And I need to find the men to sate my sexual appetite...
Here I thought I was a normal college girl with a high libido. Turns out that’s wrong—I’m so much more. I have powers, and if I don’t learn how to control them, I’ll wind up killing someone.
Baton Rouge has never been so hot as it is when I meet Leon and Naomi. And Tae Min, Petyr, Elah, Vincent: all fae. Here to guide me into my new life.
A life that includes hunting down the demon summoner who framed my best friend for murder. Catching bad guys, meeting dark fae, making a harem—my new life is different.
Worst of all, now I know my parents lied to me. I was never theirs. And my real parents?
Well, they’ve got a hell of a surprise in store for me.
Life isn’t easy for a fae like me.
Read Fae Like Me now!
Read Next: Three for a Witch
Looking for a standalone reverse harem romance? Look no more!
Three for a Witch has heartache, action & adventure, and of course some steam.
After catching my boyfriend screwing my best friend, I have only one place to go: home to my witchy aunts, their magic and our coven.
I was supposed to cry my broken heart away. Instead I did a spell to draw three men to me: Orlando, Roman, and Jack.
They were my best friends when we were kids. Then something more when we were all fourteen. And I still long for them.
But things have changed since we were kids. There are cracks and missing pieces. And somewhere out there in the woods, a darkness lurks… a darkness coming for us all.
I just hope we can reunite in time to face it, or we might not live to see tomorrow.
Three for a Witch is a complete, standalone novel with no cliffhangers in sight.
Read Three for a Witch now!
Also by Lucy Auburn
Phoenix Academy
Phoenix Academy: Awaken
Phoenix Academy: Unbound
Phoenix Academy: Forged
Phoenix Academy: Reborn
Coleridge Academy Elites
The Snake in the Grass
The Pawn
The Knight
The King
The Queen
Selena Pierce
Fae Like Me
Hell Sucks
Godspring
Seven Trials
The Black God
Wild Heart Chronicles
Primal
Feral
Savage
or… get all of the above as the
Wild Heart Bundle (free!)
Standalones
Three for a Witch
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About the Author
Lucy Auburn is an urban fantasy/paranormal romance writer who lives in the Southwest. She loves writing interesting stories about strong women. Some of the writers who inspire her include Patricia Briggs and Sarah J. Maas.
She values her privacy and does her best to keep her online life and her real life separate.
Catch up with her…
www.LucyAuburn.com
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