by S. L. Morgan
“He didn’t have to.” She became more hostile in her response. “After my cousin and husband died in the raid of House Silvers, I vowed to myself that one day, I would personally make Darius Edgewater suffer like he did my family, House Silvers, and the owl shifters. I’m here for that,” she looked at me, “and to help you. Both of you.”
“My mother is the evil that’s coming for the school,” I said.
“That’s because they murdered her after destroying your family with fire.”
“God,” I covered my heart, “Is that why I’m scared to death of fire?”
“You weren’t in the fire, or you wouldn’t be sitting in front of me right now,” she said. “The fact that you are living, breathing, and the last remaining supernatural of House Silvers, tells me that the oracle did quite a bit to keep you alive and hidden from the dark coven and the evil it conjures for power.”
“She scrambled both our brains. Some of my memories returned, but Jenna can’t remember anything. She only has a sense of longing for the truth of who she is and who her family was. Turns out, she’s a pretty important immortal, and my father is the reason she’ll never know anything about her family or House Silvers.” Dom covered my hand, “My God, Jen, I’m so sorry, and I know those aren’t even the right words for all of this.”
“You don’t need to apologize for any of this,” I said. “You aren’t responsible for what your father has done.”
“You haven’t been approached by or attacked by anything dark?” Constance asked me.
“Yes. I’ve noticed something wasn’t right about this school since the day I got here. Shadow creatures, the first takedown we had after the school started killing innocent kids.”
“How did you manage to escape all of that?” she asked.
“I didn’t. It tried to possess me, but I fought it off mentally. I caged that bastard up in my head, and kept it from taking full possession of me.”
“You did what?” she practically yelled.
“You heard her,” Dom answered.
“That’s the most dangerous thing you could have ever done!”
“How so?” I answered, feeling a bit defensive. “I locked it up. Dom managed to pull off a risky move and worked with his cousin and my witch friend, and together, they expelled it, and Ethan’s owl killed it.”
Silence.
Awkward Silence.
“Say something,” Dom insisted. “What aren’t you telling us?”
“A dark spirit can’t be destroyed, only returned to where it came from.” She looked at both of us, “What you believed was the owl killing whatever took possession of you—which I’m sure was the darkest thing hell could conjure up to take a highly powerful supernatural like you—it merely sent it back with the knowledge it gained from being in the mind of the daughter of an alpha shifter and a supernatural with extremely strong fairy, vampire, and witch genetics. All of these genes combined into one supernatural has never been heard of until…you.”
“So, what are you trying to say?”
“You don’t have full access to all of those genetics, do you?”
“I’m starting to believe the oracle made sure I didn’t.”
“To protect you,” Constance answered. “If you had access to all of your powers at once, the darkness would take you before you knew how to use them.”
“Why does the darkness want me and Dominic to merge our powers?”
“Do you mind if I try something?” she asked me.
Dom and I looked at each other. I trust her. Do you?
He nodded, yes. Nothing terrible was coming off of her. It was just her sadness and the revenge that she wanted. Who knew how powerful she really was, though? She sure knew a whole hell of a lot about Dom and me. Her cousin married into my dad’s family, so it felt that we had a good fairy on our side, sprite or not.
“Go ahead,” I said.
She reached for my forehead and closed her eyes. I did as well, only to find my wolf curiously watching and sensing her reading into my opened mind.
She pulled back and smiled at both of us. “Those powers were locked away purposefully by the oracle. She believed—like Mark Rossi and Jenna’s father—that with your memories taken after you found each other, you would both never find or sense your true mateship again. Dominic’s alpha powers were her failsafe way of keeping all of your potent power locked up. He’s the only way to access them. Have either of you felt the calling to merge your powers?”
I sighed. “On more than one occasion. Are you saying this can never happen between either of us?”
“Not until you are ready to use them,” she answered. “You can hardly control the fairy side of your powers, what makes you think you can control all of the supernatural powers out there that you carry all at once? No supernatural could even train you on this.”
“Jen and I will eventually become one,” Dominic said civilly.
“Then we need to find a way to end this dark coven and the evil that is filtering into this world by your slain mother once and for all. I guess it’s a good thing it’s coming for us then?” she eyed Dom and me.
“You think we’re ready for an attack like this?”
“No,” she shook her head. “House Silvers was filled to the brim with stronger immortals and three times the size of all the students here at Immortal Academy, and they were all destroyed by mere mobs of supernaturals who were guided by darker powers, not the dark powers themselves.”
“Then how exactly is any of this good that it’s coming for us?” Dom growled.
“Because it’s going to happen either way, and Jenna is more special than the strong powers she holds within her. I think we might have a chance.”
“So, this is just a shot in the dark?” I asked. “We’re going to get slaughtered if evil itself is coming after us.”
“You are more determined than all of House Silvers combined, Jenna.” She smiled. “Your life has not been easy, and you’re not as pure and as trusting as they were. You have your mate at your side now, and there’s a reason for it. Whatever you do, don’t doubt the anger, confusion, and frustration that’s been brewing inside you for all these years. That will drive you to win this and not be defeated.”
“All I’ve been told is to remove that negative emotion, that all it will do is send off dark enchantments I conjure up.”
“Do not use those emotions to bring your enchantments to fruition. Any enchantment or spell that is done out of negativity, anger, or bad emotion will be just that. All bad.”
“Wait,” I said, “I did do two specific spells to two fairies with those emotions driving me, so what the hell did I really do?”
“I was afraid of that,” she said slowly. “To which fairies?”
“Melanie and Eileen,” I answered.
She rubbed her forehead slowly. “They will go darker than what would’ve ever been expected of them. The charm will reverse itself. It’s only a matter of time.”
“Oh, holy shit,” I said, gripping my forehead.
“This is why you don’t have access to those powers, Jenna. Your revenge in fighting for what’s right is what will win this, not using all of that anger and frustration to spell your enemies. That is a very grave and irreversible mistake.”
“So, I just totally screwed us.”
“We need to work on better ways to channel your magic. Better ways to fight with it.”
“We don’t have much time,” Dominic said. “I was out there with the spirit of Jenna’s mom, but it’s not her mom. It’s dark, deadly, and desperate.”
“Then, we can’t waste time.”
“How do we go about any of this when school is in session and my uncle the murderer is running this joint. For all we know, he has us right where the evil wants us.”
“That’s exactly what he’s doing. His mannerisms have changed since I first arrived here. He’s very distant with all the supernaturals, yet very close with the president like he was Mark Rossi. He’s making plans
, and he’s preparing the sacrifice.”
The sacrifice? Oh, we were all so freaking dead if I didn’t pull some rabbit out of my ass and figure out what the hell to do with whatever powers I had.
Chapter Thirty-Six
“Both of you need to listen to me,” Constance said. “This is very important. We must act like this conversation never took place and that nothing is about to happen, even though we know it will eventually.”
Dominic leaned forward and rested his elbows on his knees. “We don’t have much of an option after everything you’ve said. It sounds like all the odds are stacked against us.”
“We have Jenna,” she said.
“I obviously have no idea how to take that. I’ve already turned two leprechauns into future dark fairies, I have zero access to the powers we need to take this threat down, and the only one who can help me get those powers is sitting right next to me, but I can’t use that, now can I?”
“You're defeated already?” she asked.
“After everything you’ve told us, how could I not feel that way? You just said my entire family—my very powerful mutant family—was wiped out by less than what we’re dealing with at the school.”
“Jenna’s right,” Dom said. “Even if we had everyone here ready to fight, Jenna’s not ready, and she’s apparently the only one who can beat this.”
“We can beat it together,” Constance stated firmly.
“You have a lot of hope in a bunch of students who are stuck back in Supernatural 101 classes,” Dom said. “Even if we had the students willing to learn and train for this, they’re not ready. Half of the shifters in my unit alone can’t survive the fairy courses we run them on, much less some dark, diabolical enemy.”
“You would do anything to save her life, am I correct?” Constance grew more solemn.
“Of course, I would,” Dom insisted. “That doesn’t change the fact that I can’t teach all of this to a school of students overnight. Like Jenna said, we’re up against a darker enemy, and we have less power. It sounds to me like House Silvers had every arsenal out there, and they still lost to my dad and my uncle when they ushered in some dark witch coven.”
“They did have every power imaginable, and they possibly could have defeated this enemy, but they weren’t prepared,” she said.
Dominic stood up, ran his hands through his hair, and gripped his thick, wavy locks tightly. “Now, you speak fairy to us? You’re all over the place, lady.”
“I’m your professor,” she tried the rank of command game.
“A professor?” Dom laughed. “This school is a joke, and if you think you can pull some teacher versus student rank on me, that ended the moment you decided to pull Jenna and me in here alone and reveal every dark secret there is to us.”
“I’m trying to help both of you.”
I stood next to Dom. “Helping us by doing what? Making us want to run the hell away? It sounds like this evil shit is headed straight to Dom and me to get our powers.”
“My question is this,” she said as she stood up. “How did it know to find both of you here? Was it you because you trapped the demon in your mind?”
“I saved the students here by doing that,” I pressed.
“No,” Dominic said, reaching for my hand. “Jenna didn’t do anything wrong. This thing was waiting for her. It has to be the reason she and I found each other so easily—discovered that we were mates.” He looked at me. “It all started happening once I began seeing you as my mate. When you should have died in that water when we were on that quest…it was happening then.”
“God, you’re right.”
“It lured both of you here. The school is what called you to it outside of Mark Rossi’s wishes,” Constance said. “This school is haunted in its own way. You know that, right?”
“We’re learning a lot and quite fast,” I said, “but define haunted in its own way. Do you mean the same evil out there, or is this a new thing?”
“The school holds the residual deaths of the supernatural students who died.”
“Residual deaths? How is that possible?” Dom questioned skeptically.
“All of it is connected. The immortal souls have been consumed by the beast who lurks in the waters in the forests. Those souls have left their marks on the walls of this school.”
“I sort of saw—or should I say met—my dad in some limbo afterlife land. He mentioned that one of the supes who died here was at peace after a pure coven of witches came in and wiped this place.”
“But residual evil was left behind,” Constance said, looking around her office area. “I feel it even now. It not only lives and breathes in the walls of this school, but it’s all around us.” She looked at Dominic and me. “It’s around both of you right now.”
Dominic eyed her. “Is this a threat to us?”
“It called you both here together to help free the souls.”
“What are you, a witch now?” I asked, knowing this is how witches talked, not fairies, especially sprites.
“Listen to me,” she said. “You both were exposed the minute one or the other began to pick up on being true mates. Sadly, it had to come to this. You both had to come together for the souls of the immortals who are gone. Kill the host, and you’ll free the souls.” She started pacing in front of us. “If you both free those souls, you might have a fighting chance against the evil.”
“All I’m hearing is crazy, fairy talk,” Dominic said. “We were brought together because fate knew it should be this way.”
“Exactly,” Constance said. “You are the answers to beating the evil at this school, the ones who destroyed House Silvers, and—”
“We get it,” Dom said. “Any ideas on where we start? Jenna used her fairy magic to protect the shifters, and her roommate is the leprechaun she turned nice with her wrath. Jenna could be dead by morning if that leprechaun goes dark like you said.”
“I will arrange for the fairies to stay with me tonight in House Fae. I will order that now and mandate that we stay together for our protection.”
“How do you think that’s going to blow over with Edgewater?” I asked.
“He’ll have to follow it, especially if it is ordered over the intercom.”
“We’re going to need every last supernatural in this school fighting with us,” Dominic said. “How long before you start bringing in every strong-ass witch coven and fairy out of their hiding places to help Immortal Academy battle this? We need all the covens in here as soon as possible.”
“That’s not an option,” she said. “No one can get in or out of Immortal Academy without the dean’s approval. On top of that, the school went on an enchantment lockdown. Edgewater did that this morning. No one can come in or out of this school.”
“Are you kidding?” I asked in frustration. “So, we’re literally stuck here to either fight or die?”
“Stop believing this is going to kill all of us,” she pleaded, then she looked at me as if she were my own mom. “You can do this, Jenna. You and Dominic need to go speak with your friends and start planning things.”
The building shook, and the ground rolled under our feet, throwing me into Dominic and Constance into the wall.
“What the hell was that?” Dominic asked, steadying me and reaching to help Constance to her feet.
“That’s the school threatening us. We have to go our separate ways.”
“Then I guess that’s it for discussions. I feel like we’ve gotten nowhere.”
“You needed to know what I had to say. You both did.” Constance looked at me, “You have more fight in you than all of House Silvers did, more than even your mother and father. Don’t doubt yourself for one second. Both of you work to fight for this, and you will beat it.”
Dom grabbed my hand, “Okay. We’re going to get out of here. Make sure your fairies don’t go dark, and then maybe we will have a chance at all of this. Trust me, she’s not fighting this alone. I’ll be by her side until this is over.”
&nb
sp; “Now you’re talking like a true alpha.”
“I’m talking like someone who is fed up with all this shit and pissed off that the weight of the world is on his girl’s shoulders. I’m not going to let Jenna think for one second this battle is hers to fight.”
“Dom, I can handle this.” I squeezed his hand, “We can both handle this.” I looked at Constance. “We can’t have you fairies turning on us. Can you work some enchantment to protect yourselves so we can fight?”
A scream came from outside and on the upper floors. We all looked around, and then the sound of feet, stampeding on the floor above our heads, made us look at each other with a knowing expression.
“It’s already happening, isn’t it?” I asked.
“Yes,” Constance answered. “Last night, it took the magic of the witches, tonight it turns the fairies against all of us.”
“And now,” Dom spoke up, “the shifters will leave this school in their animal forms and prepare to rip the throats out of any fairy who comes near us. Send that warning out to all the fae. They’re all as good as dead if they head into the forest.”
“The forest?”
“It’s where we’ll sleep tonight,” Dom said in answer to Constance. “You’ll turn next if that’s what’s happening.”
More screaming and wailing came from above our heads.
“We’ve got to get out of here,” I told Dom. “We have to take the witches with us.”
Dom gripped his forehead. “We can’t herd everyone out into the forest like that. There are too many students.”
“I’m not leaving Vannah.”
“The witches and vampires will fall to possession too,” Constance said.
I looked at Dom. “We have to go now. We could lose everyone if we don’t act fast.”
“You have them cloaked, Jen. We need to fight. Running and planning is no longer an option. Though, you, the masters, and I might play a little game by luring the dark ones out into their own traps.”
“I will try to reverse the darkness in the ones I encounter,” Constance said. “I will also use the fairies who have withstood the evil to help ward off anything that comes for the school.”