Crap! Not now, this can’t be happening right now.
The old hut groaned and swayed, and with a series of earth-shaking snaps, the clay walls cracked apart.
My heart raced a mile a minute. What do I do? What do I do?
Heavy branches fell from the ceiling, hitting me over the head and slapping me in the face.
The tiny window in the corner tore open. Big enough for an escape?
“Oh, no you don’t!” The blond lunged at me.
The walls caved in around us; the hut cracking apart. I sprang through a thin opening in the walls, tearing the loose roofing branches from my path.
Oh, god. My face, my arms, my legs. The scratches hurt, but I had to get through. I was already halfway there.
Hands gripped my ankles tight, and I kicked at the darkness behind, hitting something hard.
I fell to the ground outside, pain tearing into my shoulder as light flooded my eyes.
The roof gave way, burying the men and stifled yells filled the air.
My home! Those assholes. I hoped they got squashed like the cockroaches they were. Tears streamed from my eyes, blurring my vision. It was all gone, everything I owned was destroyed.
“I hope you stay in there, you monsters!” I yelled at the wreckage.
Boom!
What the hell are they doing!? This can’t be happening.
Dozens of men in jumpsuits rampaged the surrounding forest. Some in bulldozers, demolishing the tallest of oaks to the tiniest of saplings. I knew they were vultures, but this? Had they no respect for life?
The patch of forest I’d called home for a decade was being torn to shreds. The vine swings I’d lovingly twisted, the makeshift shower with pretty rainbow rock flooring, and even the hollowed-out tree where I kept my parents' old clothes, was now reduced to a compost heap.
Someone would pay for this. Big time.
A few of the enforcers caught sight of me, and their expressions soured.
“Don’t let her escape,” One of them called out, causing six of them to come tearing after me.
Crap, crap, crap!
I turned and sprinted into the forest. The foliage fanned out in an endless spread of green and brown. The densely packed branches snagged my dress, tearing it and scraping at my skin.
The pain demanded I slow down as my ankles twisted and contorted over the broken branches and jagged rocks, but I didn’t dare. Who wouldn’t pick a few cuts and fractures over eternal damnation?
After all these years, you’d think the villagers had finally forgotten about me. I kept to myself, took care of myself, and bothered no one. Ten years they pretended I didn’t exist and now this? Why now?
Maybe they're tired of the Void freak, haunting their precious forest. Or, maybe their stupid crops are failing again, and they needed a good scapegoat.
So, what do they do? They call the extermination crew.
“Stop, Void User. Wait!” one of them yelled, his voice echoing off the trees.
A thick patch of ivy and perennial vines covered the path ahead, angry thorns spread through it, just for fun.
With a hard swallow I tore through the patch, ignoring the pain shooting through my lower half.
Almost there, almost there, just a little bit longer.
My thin legs waded easily through the patch. Like it recognized me and spared me its full ferocity.
“Ahhh, stop!” Deep voiced cries filled the air, and something told me the enforcers weren’t offered the same kindness.
Growing up in the forest could make a grown man cry. Summers were harsh, and the Winters were brutal. But in here I was free; I was happy. I had loads of friends. Pixies, fairies, and even a few sentient trees.
Tears continued to course down my cheeks, and they wasn’t from the thorns biting my ankles.
How far would they go with their bulldozers? Would they get to the fairy settlements? My friends wouldn’t stand a chance; they’d no doubt still be sound asleep after last night’s firefly festival.
The thorns ended and the trees ahead thinned. I’d left them in the dusk for now, but for how long?
After a few more steps, tall buildings loomed in the distance, higher than Father Oak himself. And a wall of stale air wafted into my nose, stinging it a bit. My ear drums were assaulted by what seemed like angry music, screeching and banging. Human transport machines zipped around busy streets adding to the eternal racket. So unnatural. If this is the present, give me the past any day.
But this was freedom, my one way out. And yet… I looked back at the thick greenery, and pictures of Tonxy and Yolanda rushed through my mind.
Mornings of laughter, evenings of berry picking, and nights of dancing under the sparkling stars morphed to the image of pixie screams, fairy wings littering the forest floor, and agonizing death.
I froze, my heart racing. Those damn enforcers. If they hurt them, I’d… I’d… I’d kill them all! See how they liked it.
I couldn’t leave now. So what if they terrified me? I was no coward.
Maybe I could run along the forest’s edge, enter from another side and warn the fairies before the enforcers came.
I turned, decision made to do just that. I’d only made it about thirty steps, when a cold, hard wand jabbed me in the back of the neck, freezing me in place.
My heart stopped. No. Please, not yet.
A harsh masculine voice behind said, “Raise your hands and turn around slowly.”
I turned and faced a lanky enforcer with a wand pointed at me. The bastard’s expression was grim yet pleased.
Black orbs formed in my hands and I bent my knees, shifting to the balls of my feet.
I’m gonna wipe that dirty grin off his face if it’s the last thing I do.
A whooshing sound rent the air and another enforcer came out of nowhere, riding the wind. A grimy hand wrapped around my neck from behind, choking the life out of me.
“If you resist, I’ll snap your neck, Void User,” he barked.
“I didn’t touch the crops!” I choked out, and my orbs disintegrated. I grabbed for his hands, yanking at his fingers to no avail. “Let me go, you bastard.”
The Enforcer in front jabbed the spiky tipped box into my belly. It tore through my dress and dug deep into my skin like a lethal injection. With one click time froze, and the world spun like a merry-go-round from hell.
Right then the only thing that existed was me and the earth-shattering pain that now radiated from my belly.
Oh, my God. God, God, God, God! I opened my mouth to scream, but only a tiny whimper escaped my lips before everything went black.
CHAPTER THREE
Aria
I woke up on the cold damp ground of a tiny jail cell. The grey dingy walls reflected a bleak hopelessness, and the room was dark and ominously silent. Outside the thick rust reddened bars stood a dreary brown wall that seemed to stretch forever. I sat up, my arms cramping from the metal handcuffs that strangled my wrists.
“Let me out of here!” My screams echoed off the walls and traveled down the infinite hallway.
What could I possibly have done to deserve this place? The stale air stank of death and decay. Oh God, I wanted to hurl. My throat burned for water like I hadn’t had a drink in days and my stomach growled viciously, begging for the tiniest scrap of food.
If those assholes hadn’t destroyed my home, I’d be there now eating the smorgasbord of summer fruits I’d picked. The sweet juices, the crunchy texture, all running down my throat.
“I’m thirsty! I want out of here! Someone, please!” Tears ran down my cheeks, soaking my chest.
Loud footsteps came banging toward my cell.
“Hey! Somebody please, I don’t belong in here. I didn’t kill the crops!” I cried, stifling back a dry throated cough.
Two enforcers came right up to the bars. The blond and redhead who’d broken into my forest hut.
I stood, trembling. How dare they. I was going to kick their stupid faces in.
“You a
ssholes!” I ground out, forcing my arms through the bars. I’ve got to grab one of them. Just one; at least one has got to feel the hell they’ve put me through.
“Looks like it can’t channel the void when it's hungry,” the redhead said, with a smug expression smearing his ugly face.
“Let me out of here” I yelled and they both just stood there, barely out of my reach. Mocking me with their closeness.
“Good. It was worth starving her then,” the blond replied.
Pointing to a dark blotch on his cheek, the redhead sneered, “See this, girl? See what you did to this gorgeous mug?” He thrust the key in the lock, yanked open the grill, and grabbed me by the arm pulling me up to his rough sweat-drenched face.
“You’re gonna pay for this tenfold. We’re under orders not to touch you. But where you’re going, they eat bitches like you alive. I only wish I could be there to see the look on your pretty little face when the hazing squad’s got you cornered and all you’ve got to defend yourself is a boil curse and a broom handle.” He laughed.
“W-where am I going?” The words shook their way off my lips and my legs trembled as I fought to mask the fear in my voice.
“You’ll soon find out,” the blond replied. Both men grabbed me, sinking their grimy calloused hands into my arms, and pulled me down the passage. My bare feet stumbled and dragged over the rough ground as I kicked and twisted in their arms.
“Take your hands off me!” I growled, but their vise like grips only tightened. “Ow! I said take your hands off me!”
Cell after cell passed. Each one dirtier and dustier than the last. Thankfully, no one was in them; it’d kill me to see anyone else forced into such a filthy hole.
We neared the end of the hallway and a bright light came from the opening. It was almost enough to bring a hope to this dreary hell. Almost, but not quite.
What was ahead?
Would they haul me up into a courtroom, push me into the stands and brow-beat me into a confession? All over some stupid crops I’d never even seen? They’d railroad me, I just knew it. I wouldn’t see daylight for years. Oh God, someone please help me!
I struggled, kicking and screaming as we entered the landing leading to what seemed like a mile-long upward staircase. I punched the blond, and he fell backward, his back smacking into the wall.
His brow furrowed, and he came at me, grabbing my hair.
“Ah! Stop!” I yelled, scraping at his fingers.
Yanking me by the hair, he hauled me up the stairs, every step a new agony as my hair ripped, sending bursts of pain straight to my tortured soul.
“Wait. Stop. Stop!” My screams echoed off the walls, my voice cracking.
At the top of the staircase, they pushed me into a room and threw me onto a hard wooden chair so fast it gave my butt splinters.
I didn’t think it was possible, but I missed that filthy cell. This room with bare concrete walls and chipped up flooring looked like a messy construction site. The windowless walls groaned, bearing cracks, burns, and bruises from wars long passed.
Clack! A table was thrown to the ground in front of me and it clattered over the choppy ground, sending pebbles flying into my already sore shins.
“What in the hundred hells is wr—”
“Shut up! You’ve lost the right to speak.” It was a tall older man who spoke before he slammed a chair down at the other end of the table and sat.
Okay, now I was screwed. This guy’s frown lines had frown lines. He might have been old as Methuselah but he was anything but frail, boasting a thick chest and arm muscles big enough to rip someone’s head clean off her shoulders.
I swallowed hard and my shoulders sank.
He wore a grey suit and red bow tie, his grey hair combed back severely. This was no courtroom but, by the look of the two enforcers standing in the corner eyeballing me, this was worse. Way worse.
The old man plopped his elbows on the table, cupped his hands under his chin, and studied me.
“Do you know why you’re here, Miss Kolgrim?”
“Because you idiots are too incompetent to know an innocent woman when you see one?” I said.
“So you deny murdering Henry White?”
My jaw dropped. “M-m-murder? I didn’t murder anyone!”
Dead crops I could handle, but a dead person?
The old man reached for a worn briefcase on the floor, flipped it open, and pulled out several pictures. He flung them onto the table and they scattered across the surface.
My heart stalled.
Every damning picture showed the same gruesome sight. He must have been forty, maybe forty-five, sporting a green jacket and black shorts, his skin black and blue all over with boils so big it distorted his face, arms, and legs. If it wasn’t for his clothes, he could have easily been mistaken for a goblin or troll in such a state.
His lifeless body lay nestled in the grass near a Mugwort patch. Lilly’s patch.
I gasped. My hut couldn’t have been more than a few feet away.
“I have no idea what happened to him. I’ve never laid eyes on that man before!” I said and the old man raised a silencing hand.
“Henry White was a famous explorer of exotic locations. He wasn’t a wizard, but humans like him sometimes hear about magical communities. He went to see the pixies,” he stated. “Now you expect me to believe he’d wind up dead, twenty feet from your home, covered in boils, and you had nothing to do with it?”
“Why would I hurt a passerby?” I argued. “He was no threat to me.”
“She attacked me just fine!” The redhead snarked from the corner. “She’s completely out of—” The old man raised another hand to the redhead’s face and he went silent, his gaze falling to the floor.
“We’ve spoken to the villagers who live on the outskirts of your forest and they say you're an unstable Void User. They say you once destroyed an entire field of their crops and terrorized their children. All while your parents refused their attempts at sending you to Reform School.”
“Those villagers were crazy,” I blurted. “Everything my mom and dad did was to protect me, and I didn’t terrorize anyone!”
“But you agree you can’t control your powers?”
“Well, yeah, I’ve had an accident here and there, but I would never actually kill someone!” I protested, standing up.
“Sit down, Miss Kolgrim!” He commanded, and I slowly slumped back in my chair.
These bastards. The gods themselves couldn’t convince them I was innocent.
“Miss Kolgrim, we are here to protect the entire magical community and as you can imagine it’s a lot of work. You didn’t make things easier on yourself by attacking my men when they came to talk to you.”
“Talk?’ My eyes flew open. “They destroyed my home.”
He waved a hand, dismissing what I said. “That was unfortunate, but we couldn’t have you staying in the forest, could we?”
“And what about the pixies and fairies, did you kill them too?”
If even a single wing had been detached, I’d show him a real murderer and it would take more than two enforcers to stop me.
The old man sighed with a pained expression on his face. “Your friends are fine, Miss Kolgrim. But unfortunately, I can’t say the same for you. The higher ups have come to a decision. Having a rogue Void User on the loose is dangerous enough, but one that can’t even control her powers is madness.” He slid an old folder from the briefcase, pulling out the contents and slapping it on the table.
Pictures of a massive gothic style building and snooty looking people dressed in silly uniforms covered the table.
“What in the hundred hells is this?”
“You have a choice to make, Miss Kolgrim,” he said. “This is Ravenwell Academy, a college of sorts for wizards and witches who have already completed the eight Trials of Youth. You haven’t completed yours. Nevertheless, you’ve been accepted to study magical manipulation so you can learn to better control your Void.”
�
��And if I refuse?”
“If you were dumb enough to refuse, and I hope you’re not, we would be forced to send you to Alcadene.”
My mouth went dry. No, not there, anywhere but there. My hand clenched around my arm, nails sinking painfully deep into my skin. It hurt but I couldn’t stop myself.
Alcadene, the oldest and most notorious wizarding prison. Within those accursed walls, escape was impossible, joy non-existent. Every wizard, witch, or halfling unfortunate enough to lose one of those so-called ‘trials’ were all stuffed in there, suffering perpetual tortures, until they literally rotted from the inside out.
He had me beat, and by the smug look on his haggard face he knew it.
“When do I start?” I sighed.
“You’re in luck, Miss Kolgrim. You're just in time for orientation.”
CHAPTER FOUR
Aria
So, this is it, the gates to hell? Cast iron, big and black. Nice touch.
The sun shone brightly, illuminating every inch of the unending greenery that was the Ravenwell school grounds. But somehow, even the sun wasn’t strong enough to burn away the shadows that clung so desperately to the sultry old buildings that spread across the campus.
God. I really don’t want to go in there. I should just turn and run, before it’s too late. Only problem was the big, stupid Enforcer to my right. It was the blond one too. Bet he’d be too happy for an excuse to drag me by the hair again.
My whole life gone to shit all because some asshole thought it’d be a good idea to use me as a scapegoat for his crimes. Why me? My fists clenched. Whoever did this, I hope they burn in hell.
My hands clamped down hard around my backpack straps, my eyes darting in every direction. There had to be a way out of this.
Guys in blue vests and girls in white blouses and plaid skirts marched through the Academy gates, spell books in hand, their heads held high. Could they actually be happy to be here? Proud to call this ‘noble institution’ home? Poor suckers had no clue what it meant to be free, but I did.
For the last ten years I’d reveled in the freedom of my forest life. I may not have had a fancy education with stuffy classrooms and snooty professors, but I had Dad’s old book collection and that was the only teacher I’d ever need.
Chased by Darkness: A Reverse Harem Academy Romance: (Four Kings Academy Book 1) Page 2