Reckless Witch: A Reverse Harem Bully Romance (Illumina Academy Book 1)

by Tarah Scott

  She’s strong, but wary. She doesn’t fear the magic. She fears the bond the blood pact will create among us, the power we will have over her. Little does she know the pact will increase her power over us.

  Blade shifts two of the stones that comprise the circle. We file through the opening and take up positions inside the circle. I stand to Leilah’s left, the south corner, and Raith stands opposite her, on the west side of the fire. Blade repositions the stones then stands to her right, on the north corner.

  “When we’re done, we go get Stony,” she says.

  I nod. She lifts a brow and looks pointedly at Raith and he angles his head in ascent. I half wish Raith wasn’t here. He said he wouldn’t come. Raith rarely changes his mind once he’s made a decision. While that often saddens and angers me, at least I know where he stands. His change of heart worries me. It’s got to be that he’s using the blood pact to punish Leilah for burying that knife in his heart forty years ago. There’s nothing I can do to stop him—from trying. If he hadn’t taken part in the ritual, Leilah probably wouldn’t have thought much of it. If he persists in punishing her, he’ll do something he regrets, something she won’t forgive.

  Blade picks up the cloth and tosses it onto his shoulder, then scoops up the paper and knife. He begins to murmur in the mysterious Fae tongue. After all these centuries, I still know only a handful of Fae words. The fire crackles and the small flame leaps into the air as if to break free of the pyre.

  The Fae are amongst the most beautiful creatures on earth, aside from angels, but they’re not of this world. Blade’s eyes slowly shift from their earthly blue to the gold unique to the Fae when they are immersed in Fae magic. This is when Blade is at his most pure. He extends the sheath of paper toward Leilah. She takes it and he gives a slight nod, an indication that she should read the words.

  She scans the document. Our Leilah is no fool. To read the words out loud while inside a closed circle with beings as powerful as us three gives power to the words even without the comingling of our blood.

  She gives an almost imperceptible nod, then reads aloud, “I swear to ask permission before leaving The Academy—for the next six months.”

  “No,” Raith growls.

  She meets his eyes squarely. “I will not indenture myself to anyone for a lifetime.”

  “Two years,” he shoots back.

  She snorts.

  “A year,” I quickly put in.

  She shifts her gaze to me. “Are you saying it will take more than six months to find who tried to kill me?”

  I should have known she would find a way to thwart us.

  I nod. “Six months.”

  Raith opens his mouth to reply, but I say to Blade, “If you are in agreement, nod.”

  He nods.

  I ignore Raith’s unintelligible mutter and instruct Leilah, “Repeat the promise.”

  She holds up a finger and pulls a pen from her back pocket. I stifle a laugh when she adds ‘for the next six months,’ to her written promise. She stuffs the pen into her back pocket, rereads the promise, then hands me the paper.

  I read, “I agree that Leilah Crowe shall be allowed to have her familiar at The Academy,” then hand the paper to Raith.

  He takes the paper and extends a hand to Leilah.

  She frowns.

  He says, “The pen.”

  Her lips thin, but she pulls the pen from her pocket and hands it to him. He scribbles something on the paper, then hands paper and pen back to her.

  She reads it, then looks at him, brows raised. “Really?”

  He shrugs. “You insisted we specify your familiar be returned to you.”

  Leilah scribbles something on the paper that I can’t make out, then she reads, “I swear to report to Raith every Friday after class for more lessons,” and shoves the paper toward Raith.

  Raith is acting as much a child as Leilah, but this form of punishment isn’t all that bad. She could do with more discipline. Raith is nothing if not disciplined.

  He takes the paper and scans it. The twitch at the corner of his mouth is slight, but I know him well. Ciarah—Leilah—has managed to amuse him.

  He reads, “I agree that Leilah Crowe may keep her familiar Stony with her at The Academy. Her lessons on Friday night will not last longer than two hours.”

  I bite back another laugh. It’s not easy to best Raith. Of course, Ciarah is one of the few people who can best any of us.

  Raith hands the paper to Blade, who murmurs, “I agree that Leilah Crowe may keep her familiar Stony with her at The Academy, and the sigil shall be removed from her hand immediately.”

  Blade grasps Raith’s hand, slices a tiny, neat cut on the tip of his second finger, then smears a droplet of blood on the paper. I’m next. Blade is a master and I feel not the slightest pain with the cut. He smears my blood on the paper. His blood is next. When he grasps Leilah’s hand, I discern a small tremble in her fingers.

  A corner of Blade’s mouth lifts and I discern the small squeeze he gives her fingers. Leilah’s eyes lift to his and he makes the cut so quickly that her surprise comes an instant after the cut.

  She narrows her eyes on Blade. “You tricked me.”

  “Just a little,” he says. “If you will.” Blade holds the paper flat on his palm.

  She hesitates and my heart beats fast. What if she decides at the last minute not to go through with the pact? No, she wants my sigil off her hand. She wants her magic back. She wants her familiar. Still, she fears the pact.

  “There’s still time to call this off,” Raith says.

  She smears her droplet of blood onto the spot where our blood blots the paper. The flames leap up as if reaching for the sheet. Blade snatches it up in the nick of time, but the sheath of paper rips from his grip as if yanked by an unseen hand and the wind spirits it up and outside our circle.

  Raith curses under his breath. My tattoos heat and armor slides down my body like dominoes. I step closer to Leilah. Blade stretches his arms out at his sides and throws his head back. His eyes glow an even brighter gold as he chants in the Fae tongue. The fire leaps higher. Heat radiates off the flames like an inferno. I step in front of Leilah. Flames jump toward me. A feral growl splits the air. Raith leaps across the fire and up and over us to where the signed document whips on the current of air that grips it. My heart jumps into overdrive.

  The circle is broken.

  The flames call to me. I command my wings and they burst from my shoulders. I swing them around to cover Leilah. The flames surge toward Blade.

  Leilah thrusts out her right hand and shouts, “Fire, extinguish!”

  “No,” I shout, but too late.

  My wings are blown back by her magic. My sigil on her hand glows red hot. I command the flames back, but they are already retreating from her as if in fear. An unearthly shriek sounds in the instant before her magic meets the flames and the coals sizzle as if water has been poured onto them.

  Blade’s arms drop to his sides and he stumbles toward the smoking pyre. Raith reaches his side and catches him. Blade blinks. His eyes are again their natural blue.

  Raith’s gaze snaps onto mine. “What the fuck was that?”

  Before I can reply, Leilah sinks to the ground.

  Chapter Thirty-Seven

  LEILAH

  The blood pact that won’t die

  I am falling. A lone wolf howls through a whirlwind. Through the hair that whips around my face, I glimpse Raith and Ethan exchange glances. Blade’s now blue eyes shift toward the howl. When the contract flits across my vision, I grab for the paper but it whips out of reach. A hand closes around my wrist. I scream and twist, fighting to escape the iron hold. Wind shrieks. The hand yanks and I slam against a hard body.

  “No!” I shout.

  The vicious wind halts and strong arms encircle me. I jerk my head up and meet Blade’s concerned eyes. What— Beyond the circle where we stand, the contract floats through the air like a boat on water.

  “The contrac
t,” I cry. “If anyone gets their hands on it…”

  “You are lying to yourself,” Blade says.

  I look back at him. “What?”

  “You’ve always had the power.”

  Power? The Fae has lost his mind. I look at Ethan for help, but he just stares at me. Raith is the only one who seems worried. His jaw is set and his stare is so intense, I practically feel him drilling a hole through my brain.

  No, not my brain. My soul.

  I hate vampires.

  I look over my shoulder for the document, but it’s nowhere in sight. I look back at the men. “Aren’t you afraid of what will happen if someone gets their hands on the contract?”

  Raith’s lips pull back in a snarl. “Others are not who we need to fear.”

  I reel as if he’s backhanded me. I’m not the one who should be feared!

  “Why are you so cruel?” I demand.

  Blade shakes his head.

  “What?” I demand .

  “Poor Leilah,” he murmurs. “Doesn’t know how to face the truth.”

  I yank free of his hold. “Fuck you.”

  “Don’t tempt me,” he murmurs, and desire streaks through me with such intensity my breath catches.

  “I told you she hasn’t changed,” Raith says.

  “Changed from what?” I demand, but he just shakes his head. “You guys may not care if someone tries to use our blood pact against us, but I do.”

  Raith gives a harsh laugh. “She’s incapable of telling the truth.”

  Fury whips through me. I want to hit him more than I’ve ever wanted anything. Warm fingers close around my left hand. I start and snap my head up. Ethan’s so close I can see his green eyes swirl.

  “Do you think we can hurt you?” he asks.

  I snap my gaze onto Raith, who stares through obsidian eyes. “He can,” I say.

  “No.” Ethan says. “He doesn’t have the power. None of us do. We never have.”

  My surroundings spin and dizziness assails me. “He has already hurt me.” A phantom knife pierces my heart and I fall to my knees.

  “We aren’t the ones who can hurt you,” Ethan’s voice is far away, like the wolf’s howl that sounds again.

  I jam my eyes shut and shake my head violently—

  The wolf howls.

  My eyes snap open. Raith, Blade and Ethan are kneeling over me. I’m lying on the ground.

  Blade smiles gently. “Glad to have you back, love.”

  I seize his arm. “Did you hear that?”

  He frowns. “Hear what?”

  “The wolf.” I start to push upright. The world tilts.

  Ethan slides an arm beneath me and eases me into a sitting position. The trees make a slow spin.

  “Take a deep breath,” Blade urges.

  I do as he instructs and, thankfully, the spin slows and then stops. “What happened?”

  “We were going to ask you the same thing,” Ethan says.

  “What did you expect?” Raith says. “She used her magic while wearing your sigil.”

  I stare stupidly.

  “You should have let us extinguish the fire,” he says with a trace of impatience.

  “Fire?” I repeat. Then remember. “Where’s the document?” I glance wildly around the small clearing.

  “Easy,” Blade soothes. “We’ve got it.”

  “Where?” I demand.

  He looks at Raith, who pulls a folded paper from his back pocket. I snatch it from his grasp, open it and scan the contents. The words are the same, handwritten notes and all.

  “What happened, Leilah?” Blade asks.

  A dream, that’s what happened. A goddamn dream. I look up at Blade. “I guess Raith is right. I shouldn’t have used magic while wearing the sigil.”

  Raith’s brows shoot up and I know he’s surprised that I agree with him. I don’t care. I can’t admit that I’m shook up over a dream. I hand the document back to Raith and start to stand. Blade gasps my hand and pulls me to my feet. I stumble a pace and he catches me. I look up and meet his eyes. He stares down, and his compassion causes my heart to lurch.

  I push away from him and he sets me at arms’ length, still grasping my shoulders. “Okay?” he asks.

  Thankfully, I feel steady, and nod. He releases me, though I’m almost sure I glimpse regret in his eyes.

  “I suppose it’s time we fetch that familiar of yours,” he says, and I want to throw myself back into his arms and cry.

  Chapter Thirty-Eight

  ETHAN

  Just when we thought things would get easier…

  We pull up to Miriam Crowe’s house in Raith’s MacLaren. Thankfully, Raith drove. He barely shifts the car into drive when Leilah jumps out of the car and races toward the door. We three follow at a more sedate pace and enter the house to find her, kneeling on the floor of the kitchen, her arms around the pig. Her familiar is snorting loudly, clearly as pleased to see Leilah as she is to see the creature. I release a silent breath and hope the pig will help Leilah better settle into The Academy.

  Leilah, at last, rises and faces us. When she extends the hand marked with my sigil, I sigh.

  Her eyes narrow. “A deal’s a deal.”

  I grasp her hand and revel for an instant over the warm silk of her slim fingers in mine. Then I press the back of my hand against the sigil and the mark disappears. Her eyes widen slightly and I know she’s sensing the natural flow of her magic. I can’t blame her for missing that strength. I couldn’t live without my fire.

  She pulls her hand free and regards me. “You’re sure I can use all my magic now?”

  “Give it a try,” I say.

  She lifts her hand, palm up, and a swirling ball of multi-colored energy appears just above her palm. She smiles in kid-like delight and bounces the ball off the floor twice before closing her hand around the energy. The ball disappears.

  “We should get going,” Raith says.

  Leilah shakes her head. “Not just yet.”

  “Leilah,” he growls.

  “Don’t get your knickers in a wad,” she says. “I figure that while we’re here, you all owe me a look around.”

  “Owe you—” Raith begins.

  “I’m not an idiot, Raith,” she cuts in. “Miriam was my grandmother, for fuck’s sake. You all want me to believe that she consorted with Shadows. As her only living relative, am I not due the right to see the evidence for myself?” Raith hesitates and she adds, “You said she blew a hole in the basement. I want to see it.”

  His mouth thins and I start to say she’s right, but Blade says, “She has a point, Raith. She needs to put this to rest. If she were anyone else, you know we would present them with the evidence.”

  Raith’s eyes lock with Leilah’s. “No funny business. Understand?”

  She angles her head and starts to turn. He grasps her arm. Her head snaps up.

  “We collected all the remains of Shadows—that we located.” He hesitates. “The Shadows are…crafty.”

  Her dark eyes widen slightly.

  “We can never be certain they are truly gone,” Raith adds.

  Leilah’s expression softens.

  “If anything happens—anything at all—you are to stand down and let us deal with it,” he says. She opens her mouth to reply, but he shakes his head, and growls, “It’s that or we leave this instant. Don’t make the mistake of thinking I can’t carry you out of here.”

  Stony half growls a squeal and Raith looks at the creature. “You know I am right.” He ignores the familiar’s snort and looks at Leilah.

  She gives a single nod and he releases her, though I am certain his grip lasts a heartbeat longer than necessary.

  “I will lead,” he says. “Ethan will follow, then you, then Blade.” He looks at us and we each nod.

  Raith crosses the kitchen to the basement door and eases it open. To my surprise, the pig squeals loudly. We all look at the creature as it morphs into a sparrow.

  “Stony,” Leilah cries. “You don�
��t have to.”

  The sparrow swoops toward Leilah, then shoots across the room, past Raith and through the open door. Raith reaches inside and flips on the basement light.

  The sparrow chirps from the basement and a smidgen of tension eases from my shoulders. Reuniting Leilah with her familiar is probably the smartest thing we’ve done since she’s come back into our lives.

  Raith’s eyes shift to me and I start toward him. Leilah follows with Blade taking up the rear. We descend the stairs. We reach the basement to find the familiar back in pig form and sniffing around the five-by-five-by-five foot hole in the concrete floor of the basement. As was the case when we first investigated, there is no debris. It’s as if the blast sucked everything down into the earth.

  Leilah draws a sharp breath but says nothing as she slowly circles the hole. She drops to a squat on the far side and extends a hand over the hole.

  “Leilah,” Raith growls.

  She shoots him a thin-lipped look. “I’m just seeing if I can sense any magic.”

  She closes her eyes and her expression relaxes. We remain quiet until she finally pushes to her feet.

  “Sense anything, Stony?” she asks. The pig gives a low snort and Leilah finishes her walk around the circumference of the hole. “Who found The Shadows?”

  No one answers. She halts and looks at us.

  “We did,” Blade says.

  “After someone else found this hole.”

  It isn’t a question.

  “If you’re implying that someone planted The Shadows, then, no,” Blade says.

  Her head snaps up and her eyes lock with his. “You can’t know that.”

  “I can,” he says quietly.

  “How?” she scoffs. “Because the great Illumina told you?”

  Blade releases a sigh. “Because I’m the one who found The Shadows here.”

  Her mouth falls open in surprise. “No—”

  He nods. “Yes. I’m the one who investigated Miriam.”

  Chapter Thirty-Nine

  LEILAH

  Damn Fae