Savage Monarchs (A New Adult Prison Academy Novel) (Nocturnal Academy Book 3)

by Margo Ryerkerk

  “Onyx?” Atticus asked behind me in a soft voice.

  “I’m okay.” I blinked. For a moment, I had felt like my old self, not this new girl with a heart of ice. Thorsten made me have feelings. Dumb, annoying feelings. He made me weak.

  I gritted my teeth. Stupid girl. Thorsten was a psycho who liked to play mind games, nothing more.

  “Onyx?” Atticus pressed again. Like Lily, he seemed to be the observant type. I had to watch out what I shared around him.

  “I’m fine,” I repeated. “Now, let’s resume this training.”

  Chapter 6

  Thorsten

  Onyx. I thought about her from the time I woke to the time I went to bed. And even in my sleep, she never left me.

  There I danced with her and kissed her, but the dreams never ended well. She either turned away from me, or ran toward a cliff and jumped off, or was dragged away by Vulthus. I just stood there, my limbs turned to lead, unable to move. I couldn’t even shout her name.

  I was a fool.

  Though I hadn’t seen her in weeks and I was no longer working at Nocturnal Academy, I was still trapped, and my obsession with her grew each day. Where was she? I couldn’t take the not knowing anymore.

  But at least I had a lead on her location. Onyx wouldn’t have gone far on her own. She must’ve had help. She was a Winter fae, shunned by the Summer fae.

  And so was Olwen Vinter, the fae man I had seen next to Vulthus at parties. A few months ago, rumors had flown about him attacking Vulthus when it had really been Onyx.

  Right after Onyx’s disappearance, I began to ask around about Olwen. He was the best bet for finding Onyx and certainly powerful enough to hide her. Since I turned up nothing, I had to ask Griffin. “Who is this Olwen that everyone at Nocturnal Academy believed attacked Vulthus?”

  Griffin shook his head. “He is the king of the Winter Court. Olwen has been loyal to us for twenty years and as Onyx Logan was in the building the night of Vulthus’s attack and later attacked Mei Wu with ice, we know that she was the perpetrator. His name is cleared. The hunt is on for Vulthus’s property.”

  I let my jaw go slack, hoping I appeared shocked and like this was news. A fire of rage ignited inside of my body. How dare they treat her like she was an object?

  “Are you angry that there was a Winter fae at Nocturnal Academy and you didn’t realize it the whole time?” Steinberg studied me carefully, and I nodded automatically, unable to find the words to respond. “It would’ve earned us a lot of goodwill if you had noticed.” Steinberg’s eyes narrowed.

  Did he suspect that I had known? Time to redirect his attention. “How come Olwen didn’t say anything? Shouldn’t one Winter fae recognize another?”

  Steinberg shrugged. “He wasn’t looking for a Winter fae I assume, and she’s only a halfblood. It’s harder to know with those which court they belong to.” Steinberg clasped his hands together. “Of course, Vulthus paid Olwen a visit after Onyx’s disappearance, but Olwen proved his innocence.”

  I tilted my head in mild curiosity, not wanting to give away how much I cared to discover more about the King of the Winter Court. Hope surged in my chest as I wondered if Onyx was with him. I hoped she was. Because as resourceful and clever as she was, the vamps would’ve captured her a long time ago if she had no help in her escape. It didn’t matter if she had made it across the state border or even into a different country, Lady Cardinal’s and Lord Vulthus’s reach was endless, and all vampires had been informed that his one-million-dollar prize was on the run.

  The best outcome was if Onyx had ended up under the wing of a powerful fae. Alone the thought made my shoulders relax. Unable to sleep and feeling sick every time I saw food over the last two weeks, I knew I had to find out if my intuition was correct for the sake of some peace before I went insane.

  I had to act, but how could I find Olwen?

  Through Vulthus.

  After my release from Nocturnal Academy and arrival at Steinberg’s mansion, I brought my request to Steinberg. “I want to spy on Vulthus.”

  Unlike Headmistress Cardinal, Steinberg was open to my suggestions on what I did with my free time as long as I followed two rules. Rule number one: do the tasks he gave me. Rule number two: stay away from fae. He didn’t know that I would be breaking rule number two with my request.

  My sire nodded slowly. “Vulthus has always hated our family. It is best to know what he is planning. However, if you are caught, I will not take responsibility.”

  That was Griffin Steinberg. He wanted to mold me into a worthy heir, but if he had to, he’d sacrifice me and find someone else.

  That night, I borrowed a sedan with tinted windows and followed Griffin’s directions to Vulthus’s hidden stronghold in a dead part of the mountain forest. I parked deep in the trees and waited for Vulthus to emerge from his dreary, gray castle, certain that he would go to Olwen to look for Onyx.

  Onyx. I had to make sure she was safe. Maybe I wanted her to need me. Or maybe I simply enjoyed playing with fire.

  Night slowly turned to day. I waited in the safety of the car, shielded by the trees.

  A tinted black limousine left the garage of Vulthus’s castle close to noon. I jerked to attention and followed in my own tinted car, excitement pounding through me as I kept enough distance not to be discovered. I followed Vulthus deeper and deeper. When he got off the highway, I parked my car on a dirt road and followed him on foot. His car entered a trail with a No Trespassing sign, I knew we were close. Afraid of discovery, I waited for Vulthus to make his exit. He did less than an hour later while I remained.

  When night broke, I hiked up the mountain in the cover of darkness until the road ended and turned into a wall of pine trees and boulders. A small, old cabin rested up a narrow trail, one with bags of deer feed on the front porch. The place gave off a strange feeling of dread, like I shouldn’t be there. I continued hiking, but reached the top of the mountain without discovering King Olwen’s fortress. After several hours of exploring the area, I returned to the cabin and realized the simple house was not what it appeared to be. It was glamoured. The sense of dread that overcame me when I was near it was fae magic meant to keep me away.

  Despite my senses screaming at me to turn around, I headed toward the cabin under the waning crescent moon. The path was bathed in almost complete darkness, but that wasn’t a problem for my vampire sense. Still, I moved carefully and slowly, knowing that fae guards might be watching me, ready to embed my chest with a wooden arrow. Steinberg had warned me that the Winter fae enjoyed fighting with old-fashioned weaponry like bows and were excellent shots.

  As I got closer to the front porch, I strained my senses, listening for any sounds and watching for movements, but the house appeared dark and empty. I had to get in. I headed for the entrance, but as I reached for the door handle, the door shifted to the right and a feeling of disgust overwhelmed me, yelling at me to turn around. I blinked, disoriented, and I reached for the door handle again. Again, it moved and nausea slammed into me.

  Olwen had placed a powerful glamour on the house, all right, which meant I was in the right place.

  Gritting my teeth, I pressed on, refusing to give up.

  However, after what felt like an hour of trying and failing to fight the glamour, I had to conclude that this was pointless. I couldn’t enter this way. I had to find another method.

  Behind the cabin was a forest. No road led to it, and a deadly cliff protected the house at the back. I could not get around the sheer drops on either side of the home to reach the back door, which I assumed wasn’t as heavily bespelled. Even a powerful fae didn’t have unlimited magic and would not use more power than necessary.

  The solution would be to fly to the back of the house. I hovered off the front porch, hoping that I could simply go over the roof, but nausea and confusion hit me as soon as I started to drift over it. The sickness sent me crashing back down to the ground and pain erupted all over my body. That would not work, either.

>   I would have to make the longest flight of my life for a chance to reach Onyx.

  Adrenaline pumped through me as my body screamed at me to do it, reminding me that I had managed to levitate for brief spurts before. My mind, however, cautioned me that I wasn’t ready. I needed to prepare before I attempted this feat. If I failed to cross the distance between the cliffs at the back of the property, I would end up mangled on one of the mountains, bleeding out and probably unconscious until the morning sun freed me from my suffering.

  So, I went back to Steinberg’s castle. The next night, as soon as I woke, I began practicing my flying in the nearby forest. I practiced for the entire week, first only being able to stay in the air for a minute or two, then five, then ten. At the end of the week, I could hover for over an hour. That had to be enough to clear the cliffs and reach the back of Olwen’s house.

  I didn’t see much of Griffin or his new courtesan Virgie that week. They attended a lot of functions and Griffin left me letters with tasks he wanted me to fulfil. It was nothing important. Clearly, he still didn’t trust me fully.

  On the seventh day, I ran into Griffin in the hallway. “Have you heard anything about Vulthus and his plans?” he asked.

  “No, sire. I saw him leave his castle in the middle of the day once.”

  “He is still sour about Jason freeing his fae. Please work harder at uncovering any information. The only good that has come of his property escaping is that he is now angry at the Wus. They won’t keep their place in the Elites for long.”

  “I will continue to spy on him,” I said, suppressing the smile and pride I felt at Onyx outwitting both Wus and Vulthus.

  I didn’t tell my sire that I was teaching myself how to fly. There was no need for others to know what I was working on. The Steinberg line was famous for being able to fly, but no vampire had ever mastered the skill before being fifty plus years old. It would be good to have a surprise weapon in my arsenal. It could mean the difference between life and death.

  On the eighth day, I was ready. I got in my car, drove toward Olwen’s mansion, and parked at the village nearest to the highway exit I needed. I ran the two miles, then at the bottom of the path, I levitated. Keeping an eye out for any traps, I flew up the steep mountain and across the great divide that led to the back of the cabin, amazed at how easy it felt compared to my practice back at Nocturnal Academy. Jagged rocks and death spread out below, but I wasn’t scared.

  Just as my muscles began to tremble with the first signs of exhaustion, I reached the tall pines at the back of the house. My theory about the cabin’s master not wanting to waste glamour on the back grounds was true. I glimpsed an empty cobblestone courtyard surrounded by ice statues. The fortress itself still looked like a cabin.

  Needing a break from flying, I lowered to the ground, my body hidden by trees. Another courtyard spread out below me and to my left, surrounded by old targets and dummies. A ginger-beared fae man with a quiver on his back stood at the edge of it. He faced someone in the dirt plaza who fired an ice arrow at a dummy. It hit, spreading ice over the dummy’s chest.

  Purple hair shone in the moonlight.

  Onyx.

  I was so relieved to see her that I became careless. I leaned forward to get a better look at her and pushed the branches apart, making a rustling noise.

  Onyx didn’t hesitate. She whirled and shot for me, her eyes hard. She was ready to fight at the slightest provocation.

  I dodged behind the trunk as the deadly arrow whizzed past me.

  She had tried to kill me.

  I gripped the tree trunk. Was this really Onyx or simply a doppelgänger? The look in her eyes had been as icy as her magic. This wasn’t her.

  “I’ll kill any vamp who sets foot near me!” My senses detected a bowstring pulling back.

  I hovered upward, still shielded by the tree trunk. I didn’t stop until I floated above the pines. I had done this to her when I had pushed her away, rejected and abandoned her.

  The male fae said something, and then they both ran across the cobblestone courtyard to the cabin. The door opened, and I caught a glimpse of a fancy marble floor inside that clashed with the log cabin look. A very impressive illusion.

  King Olwen stepped out, suited and stern-faced. He spoke with Onyx and motioned for her to enter the house. My suspicions had been correct. He was protecting her.

  He lifted his chin and glared straight at me. Every muscle in my body tightened, screaming at me to fight. Not listening to the impulse, I remained floating between two trees, reminding myself that no fae, royalty or otherwise, could see well in the dark. I remained completely still, and a second later, King Olwen disappeared into his fortress that was masquerading as a simple cabin.

  My chest relaxed a bit even as my gut contracted. Onyx was safe, and I was grateful for that, truly, but what had become of her?

  Act, ask questions later or not at all seemed to be her new mantra. I could hardly blame her after what I’d done. I had lied, telling myself that being cruel to her was the only way to protect her, that if I didn’t break her heart, she’d stay at Nocturnal Academy and become Vulthus’s latest victim. But Onyx wasn’t foolish. She would’ve gotten out. I didn’t need to crush her. My worry for her wasn’t the only reason for my brutality. No, my primary concern was myself. I didn’t want to grow too attached to her and lose her. I couldn’t bear going through that again. Not after losing my mother to pills. Not after nearly losing my sister to a car accident. Not after trading my humanity for Steinberg to save my sister.

  I was damned. Unable to handle fate’s blows anymore, I had been the one to administer the blow with Onyx. Now, I wasn’t so sure that I had done the right thing.

  Chapter 7

  Onyx

  Practicing combat in the basement gym felt good. I went there twice daily: after breakfast and after dinner. Olwen was often gone, out on business day and night. Or perhaps he was out mingling with the vamps, watching other fae like Blair being abused and doing nothing.

  Training helped to chase the horrible thoughts away. Every time Blair’s dead eyes came back to me, I focused extra hard on shooting my targets with ice arrows, throwing ice daggers at hanging sandbags, and impaling the wall with tiny, deadly ice spikes. My pain and desperation turned to rage, which I unleashed with my ice.

  And after several days of practice, I was getting good.

  “You’re almost ready to go out there and put what you learned into practice,” Atticus said at the end of that week, peeling himself from the gym wall. “King Olwen is very pleased with your progress.”

  I hadn’t seen Olwen in days. “You’ve talked to him?”

  Atticus nodded. “He wants to—”

  The basement door flung open, and Olwen stepped inside, bringing the air of magic with him. The air crackled with his power as he trained his blue stare on me. He was all business as usual. Cold. Calculating.

  “Onyx. I’m glad to see you’re making progress and have learned how to hone your powers.”

  Despite the compliment, everything tightened inside of me. “Thank you,” I said cautiously.

  “I’m glad to see that despite growing up in the human world and attending a useless academy, the warrior tendencies of our kind have not been lost on you.” An absent look came over his face before his gaze fastened on me once again. “However, all members of the Winter Court are required to prove themselves, to prove that they can fight for their kind. In times like these, this tradition is more important than ever. There is a test you must pass to be truly accepted as one of us.”

  My heart raced, but I swallowed, knowing that showing fear was not acceptable. “What is this test?”

  “In the faeland, a Winter Court warrior must go out alone and kill a rival, typically an invading Summer fae. But we are not in the faeland so your task will be to kill a vampire.”

  I let my breath catch. I had already killed a Summer fae, but did Olwen know? So far I had held off on telling him, afraid doing so would ear
n his wrath for bringing more enemies to his house, but now… “I already killed one of our enemies.”

  The room went completely silent. Atticus’s jaw dropped.

  Olwen took a step closer. “A vampire?” he asked in a voice that could freeze a whole lake.

  “I killed a Summer Court fae.”

  His eyes flashed, and a dangerous smile curved his lips. “Who?”

  Finally, I spoke the words I thought I would never utter. “Prince Kallan Preston.”

  Olwen nodded, and his chest swelled.

  “You’re not angry?”

  Olwen snorted. “Of course not. The Summer Court took plenty of my offspring. It is only fair that my only remaining child kill the prince.” He cocked his head. “You had something to do with Headmistress Cardinal arresting his sister Petra, didn’t you?”

  I nodded. Maybe I wouldn’t have to do the test. “She was about to reveal my heritage.”

  Olwen put a hand on my shoulder, and I struggled not to flinch at the closest thing to affection I’d experienced from him. “You’re my daughter. Smart. Strong.” He removed his hand. “Even though I’m proud that you finished the prince single handedly, you did so before being an official member of my court. You must still prove yourself by killing for me.”

  My dinner rose in my stomach, but I managed to ask, “Which vampire?”

  Olwen gave me a smile that was all teeth and no warmth. “Your victim should be a wealthy vampire of your choosing. Several live in this area. Surely after your stay at Nocturnal Academy, you will find a suitable victim. Do not go after Vulthus, however. Bringing him down will require careful planning. Atticus will drive you into the city at sunrise. From there on, you’re on your own.”