Saving Year Three: A Reverse Harem Bully Romance (Grim Reaper Academy Book 3)

by Cara Wylde

  “So, you’re okay,” GC let out a breath of relief, smiling. “You’re back, and you’re okay.”

  Was I okay? I couldn’t answer that at the moment. My body still felt dead here and there, and I smelled like shit. Now I knew I was covered in three things: the god’s poisonous ooze, the guts of the sacrifice, and my own blood. Oh, not to mention the rusty water that seemed to be a leitmotif in this hellish cavern, and the mud and worms of my grave in the forest.

  My grave in the forest…

  He’d done it. He’d killed me. Valentine Morningstar, my own father, had killed me.

  “Revenant,” I whispered. “That means… I’m not human anymore. I’m… immortal.”

  Francis nodded. “You’re just like me.”

  “Mila,” said Patty. “I’m afraid the prophecy was never about you. I see it now. A human will retire the most powerful Grim Reaper alive. You’re not human anymore.”

  “Patty, the prophecy isn’t real.”

  She swallowed heavily. “Don’t say that. Someone must do something about him.”

  “I’ll do something about him right now.”

  I was naked, covered in blood and tattoos, and I looked more like a zombie than a revenant. Maybe they were the same thing. I knew what I had to do, and I had no intention of taking a shower first. That would’ve been pathetic.

  If he could see me dead, then he could see me naked and undead.

  I teleported away.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

  Headmaster Morningstar wasn’t in his office. I took my time to look around, touch everything, smear his chair, desk, and papers with stinky blood. I sat behind his desk and waited for him.

  I felt at peace now. As I stared at the door, I let myself sink within and feel my own body. My organs were waking up, one by one, healing themselves, the degraded tissues stitching themselves up and becoming stronger. My muscles already hurt less when I moved, and my lungs filled up with air greedily. As for my aura and my string of life… I couldn’t see them, but I knew. Gone were the days when my aura was clear and beautiful. It was the color of mud and poison, it had the weight of a thousand bricks, and it reeked of pain and nightmares. My string of life was tied around my torso like a rope, coiled over and over, determined to give hell to any Reaper who would’ve approached it with his scythe. I remembered that time when Francis and I were partners in the Anatomy of Souls class, and we were practicing seeing each other’s auras and strings of life. His had been coiled around his neck, like a stubborn snake. Mine was the same, maybe even more stubborn than his.

  The door opened, and my dear father stepped into the office. He froze in the threshold. I welcomed him with a wide smile. There was dried blood on my teeth, like I’d just murdered someone and feasted on their flesh.

  “You…”

  “Surprise!”

  “No, it can’t be you.”

  “Oh, it’s me, I promise.”

  I didn’t move from my spot, and he didn’t move from his. I felt powerful, and the fact that I was completely naked didn’t mean a thing to me. For the first time in my life, I felt invincible in my own skin. I could bet he had no idea how to kill a revenant. Even I didn’t know how to kill a revenant.

  “It’s not possible. You’re dead.” His voice sounded weaker and weaker. It was clear he had great trouble wrapping his head around what was happening. “I watched you die…”

  “And then you dragged me into the forest and buried me.”

  “I teleported you into the forest, and Crassus buried you.”

  “Tell me, father, did you pay him separately for the grave digger services? Oh, by the way, his daughter is dead. Since it’s your fault, I think you should be the one to give him the news.”

  “What did you do? How did you…”

  I grinned. “I didn’t do anything. I’ve got loyal friends and lovers. But you wouldn’t know how that works, would you? You’ve always been so utterly and irreversibly alone.”

  “What are you?”

  “A revenant, they say. Cool, huh? Immortal, so… prepare to be hunted for the rest of your life. Because I will find a way to kill you, and when I do, there will be no escape, no loophole. You will be dead, and you’ll stay dead. I’ll make sure of it.”

  He frowned and finally closed the door behind him. He was safe for now, since I’d just told him I wasn’t going to kill him today. Human, revenant… I was still his daughter. Blood of his blood. I had no intention to break my scythe before I even graduated.

  “You should leave, though…”

  “I’m still Headmaster of…”

  “Not for long. See, I’m going to take a shower, have a nice breakfast, and then I’m going to pay the Council a visit. Fill them in on the latest news, how you murdered me, how I came back, how I’m not human anymore, and the prophecy is bullshit. Then, I’m going to ask for two things, and they will give them to me. One, Headmaster Colin will be reinstated. Why? Because you just can’t go around messing with the curriculum, preventing the professors from teaching us basic skills, murdering your own daughter, and still keep your job. You’ve crossed a line, Valentine Morningstar.”

  He banged his scythe on the floor and spread his wings wide. His whole body started glowing with unearthly energy, his skin retreated into his bones, and his black cloak whooshed around him, as if blown by an invisible wind. He was no longer a man, but a skeleton.

  “You know what? That doesn’t impress me anymore. You can’t hurt me, so cut the theatrics.”

  “You’ll regret this,” his voice boomed like thunder.

  I rolled my eyes. “Yeah, yeah. I’m not finished, so if you could just wait for your turn, that would be grand.”

  He took a step toward me, but I couldn’t give a shit. I crossed my legs and tapped my fingers on the desk.

  “As I was saying, that’s the first thing that will happen. Two, I have every intention to convince the Council to instate year four. Grim Reaper Academy is three years, but let’s face it: you fucked up the last one, didn’t you? You wanted to create soldiers, not Grim Reapers. Which makes me wonder… what is your goal here, father? What are you trying to accomplish? And if you want us to be soldiers so much, and fight instead of reap, then it’s clear to me that we must make sure the exact opposite happens. You have my word; the next generation of Grim Reapers will be the best the world has seen so far.”

  “They will never agree to…”

  “I think they will. I’ve recently traveled to a parallel universe where the students of Grim Reaper Academy were just about to finish year four. If it was possible there, it’s possible here. And I saw something else, too.” I grinned and gave him a moment to think. Not that he could have ever guessed. “You don’t like GC and Pazuzu. In this parallel universe, I was dating Sariel and Francis, too. It got me thinking… why not?”

  He sighed. “You really do have a talent for choosing the worst partners.”

  “On the contrary, father. I couldn’t have chosen better. Thanks to them, I’m alive. I’m here, and we’re having this pleasant conversation. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have a meeting to get ready for. Before I go, is there anything else you want to tell me? Because I have this feeling that we won’t be seeing each other for a while.”

  He relaxed, tucked his wings inside the long slits of his cloak, and his appearance slowly returned to normal.

  “You don’t know why.”

  “Why… what?”

  “Why I’m doing all this. Why I’ve trained you to fight, why I locked the gates of the Academy, cut all connections with the outside… Why I want supernaturals and humans to never mingle. And the fact that you don’t know gives me power. So, go ahead, my daughter. Do your worst. You will never take me down. Because I see what’s coming, and when you see it too, you’ll know I’ve been right all along.”

  I shook my head in disbelief. Despite everything, he insisted in his delusion. I knew why he did everything he did – for pow
er. Personal power, and nothing more. He didn’t care about anyone, supernatural or human, he only cared about himself.

  “See you later, Dad.”

  I teleported out of there. And I knew that by the time I came back from the Council, he’d be long gone. A fugitive. His time would come, though. Until then, I had other things on my mind. I had to convince the Council to reinstate Mason Colin as Headmaster, get rid of the Unseelie guards that were suffocating our school, and find the one who could kill Valentine Morninsgstar. Because that person sure wasn’t me.

  Me, I was a revenant. And I had to figure out how that worked, too. Was I supposed to bring blood sacrifices to the Great Old One, so he’d keep me alive and immortal? No. This doesn’t change anything. The monster has to go. It either has to die, or return to the dimension it came from. But if the god died or left this universe, what would happen to me? What would happen to Francis? Dust to dust and ashes to ashes?

  Back in my room, I found Corri’s bell and rang it three times. She materialized out of thin air, her wings flapping incessantly.

  “Mistress! What happened to you?!” Her almond eyes bulged out of her tiny head. She pressed her hands to her chest as if she was about to have a heart attack. “Whose blood is that?”

  “Mine. And someone else’s…”

  She flew around me a couple of times, getting closer and closer with every lap, her little nose sniffing me suspiciously.

  “Is it really you? Mistress, you smell…”

  “Dead?” I laughed, and it sounded pretty hysterical. “Don’t worry, I’m getting better.”

  “You’re getting better?”

  “Yes… less dead. In a few days, you won’t even tell the difference.”

  “Oh my God, Mistress! You’re undead!”

  “Cool, huh?”

  “N-not… not cool at all.”

  I rolled my eyes at her. “Look, I’m taking a shower, then I have a few things to take care of. Be a good pixie and go find GC, Paz, Sariel, and Francis. Tell them to meet me right here, in my room, with tacos, Oreo cheesecake, and wine. Throw some champagne in there, too.”

  “Err… what are we celebrating?”

  I smiled at her on my way to the bathroom. “Me getting my well-deserved harem of four. Oh, and you might want to find a place to sleep tonight. This particular party isn’t for pixie eyes.”

  THE END

  Thank you so much for reading! Please take a moment to leave a review on Amazon. It would mean the world to me!

  Join my reader group on Facebook – Good Girls Gone Wylde

  Pre-order Book 4 now!

  Seizing Year Four

  Amazon US | Amazon UK | Amazon AU | Amazon CA

  Want more Academy Romance by Cara Wylde?

  Check out Lure Academy – a paranormal M/M/F romance standalone (not bully)!

  Lure Academy

  Amazon US | Amazon UK | Amazon AU | Amazon CA

  Lure Academy. A place ruled by demons of love and lust. A place where cambions – the offspring of incubi and succubi – come to learn how to control their powers and use them to protect mankind. Lure Academy is the only place that curvy, insecure Sophie can finally call home.

  Sophie’s first day at the Academy is equally exciting and frightening. She will attend the Midnight Ceremony and choose a mentor who will help her tap into her hidden magic. The problem is that the second she meets hot, dangerous Kain and sexy, mysterious Alexi, Sophie realizes it will be impossible for her to make up her mind. What if she chooses both of them? Would it be too much for her, a young and inexperienced apprentice, to handle?

  Kain and Alexi are the best cambions Lure Academy has. They’ve been secretly attracted to each other for months, and now it so happens that they want the same thing: to possess Sophie. Will she bring them together, or tear them apart? Every time the three of them meet, sparks fly and the air around them becomes heavy with desire.

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  Cara Wylde loves to write about strong, feisty women and their hot Alphas who will do anything to make them happy. Her books are filled with romance and just a dash of mystery, suspense, and that eerie atmosphere she fell in love with reading too many gothic novels. With a master's degree in Comparative Literature, she can't help but play with tropes and themes from various genres, trying to come up with fresh perspectives on the paranormal characters her readers love so much. Vampires, shapeshifters, demons, witches... Cara will always make sure they get their own twists.

  When she's not writing, Cara is reading, planning her next story, or daydreaming. Oh! And also studying and reading Tarot. If you’re interested, you can visit her Tarot Website.

  Sign up for Cara’s newsletter and be among the first to learn about new and upcoming books, special promotions, free stories, and giveaways.

  SIGN UP FORM

  Drop by to say “hi” on Facebook or follow on Instagram. For more books and reading order, check out the Author Website. And don’t forget to join her reader group on Facebook – Good Girls Gone Wylde.