by Jody Morse
“You see, my mother chose wrong. The King of Water would have been a sweet husband to her. He wanted to form an alliance between the two elemental kingdoms, but he also loved her. He was a good man. The King of Earth, on the other hand, was the furthest thing from good. The thing about my mother is that she never cared for good men. She always thrived on drama. At least that’s what I hear.” Her eyes met mine. “My mother died when I was just a baby, and it was all because of her elemental blood. She chose the King of Earth, who only wanted to become the ruler of the Royal House of Fire. He ended up killing my mother so that he would be the primary ruler.”
“I’m so sorry to hear that.” I swallowed hard. This story was intense… and completely heartbreaking. “So, since she married the King of Earth, does that mean that you also have an affinity for earth?”
Professor Ryan nodded. “Yes, I do. My father is—and remains—the King of Earth. But I have never had a relationship with him. After my mother died, he sent me to live with my grandmother—my mother’s mother,” she explained. “I have actually never had the misfortune of meeting the King of Earth, and I intend to keep it that way.”
“I understand.” What a hard life she’d had. It was in that moment that I completely trusted her with everything. She had told me so much about Elemental Blood and what it would mean for me that I couldn’t help but think that I could trust her. So, I found myself saying, “I just remembered that Avery actually did tell me who I inherited my elemental blood from.”
“He did?” She looked both surprised and intrigued.
I nodded. “Yes, it came from my grandfather, Rubeus Draco.”
Her jaw completely dropped. “Juliana, if what Professor Tate says is true, then that would mean you’re…”
“A dragon shifter?” I asked.
She nodded. “Rubeus Draco was one of the most powerful dragon shifters of all time, as well as one of the most powerful Air paranormal beings.”
“I am a dragon shifter. Well, I’m part dragon shifter.” I paused, debating how much I should tell her. Then I decided to just tell her everything. As it was, she already knew so much. “I need you to keep this between you and me because it makes things even riskier for me than my elemental blood.”
“What is it?” Professor Ryan asked, leaning in closer.
“I am The Chosen One.”
Her eyes widened. “Wow. Honestly, after seeing how strong your affinities are, I can’t say that I’m necessarily surprised. I am a little unsure as to why you’re telling me, though. This is information you should keep secret from anyone and everyone.”
“I know, but I trust you,” I admitted.
“You should become less trusting, Juliana. Your life depends on it.”
“I know.” I swallowed hard. “You’re one of only a handful of people who know.”
“Who else knows?” Professor Ryan asked.
“Headmaster Crane. Everly and the other Vixen. Ambur and Ondraia. Brett. Kaden,” I named off all of the people who knew the truth about what I was.
“Kaden Connor?” Her eyebrows shot up questioningly.
I nodded. “That would be the one.”
“And you trusted him with this information?” she asked.
“Yeah.”
“Interesting.” She sighed. “You really should be much more cautious about who you tell this information to. You just named off a lot of paranormals who now know—paranormals who could now put your life in danger, even if it’s not intentional.”
“I’ve been really selective about who I’ve told,” I insisted. “Most of the people who I just listed to you already knew. I mean, Everly was the one who told me. Headmaster Crane and Brett both already knew.” I paused. “And the reason I told you is because I could use the help of someone who knows more about this world and what I am. Avery was helping me. That’s actually the reason he took his leave of absence from the Academy. He went off traveling the world in search of answers about me.” The faintest hint of a smile hit my lips. It was so sweet of him to leave his job for so long to do that just for me. It made his death even more heartbreaking, knowing that he had truly sacrificed so much of his time just to help me find answers.
“You were closer with him than I realized,” she murmured.
I nodded. “Yes, we were closer than most realized. Between you and me, I think he might have been my soulmate.”
“So, the two of you had a relationship with one another, even though that’s off-limits around here.”
“Yeah. Please don’t tell anyone.”
“I won’t, but this is something else that you really shouldn’t be shouting from the rooftops, you know. If Headmaster Crane were to ever find out that you and Avery were romantically involved with one another, he’s likely to expel you from Paranormal Academy. And now that I know you’re The Chosen One, I think you getting an adequate education is more important than ever before. While most students are at Paranormal Academy because they need to awaken and learn to use their abilities, it’s essential for you to be here so you can learn how to get a handle on yours.”
“That makes sense.” I’d actually never thought of it that way before. I’d always been so concerned about unlocking all of my powers, but if I really was going to end up being this powerful paranormal being—the most powerful paranormal being in the entire world—then the truth was that I really did need to learn to harness my powers as they emerged.
“But now that I know how close you and Avery were, Juliana, there’s something else I think you should know.” Professor Ryan’s eyes locked on mine. “I could be wrong about this, but…” She trailed off.
“What is it?” I asked.
“Now that I know Professor Tate had elemental blood, I believe that may be the reason he was killed.”
I swallowed hard. “Wait. What are you saying, exactly?”
She shot a solemn look in my direction. “I think the raven shifter might have chosen him on purpose.”
Chapter 7
Everything Professor Ryan had told me was just circulating through my mind like a carousel as I changed into a bathing suit. I opted for a simple black one piece, which had a deep V-neck cut in the front and accentuated my curves in all of the right places. I wasn’t going to lie. I wanted to look cute since Kaden would be seeing me in it.
I wasn’t sure what he was about to tell me, but I had so much of my own news now.
I had elemental blood.
I was apparently a paranormal princess. Well, practically.
And Avery had been murdered for his elemental blood.
The more I thought about it, the more I couldn’t help but think that, if Professor Ryan was right and Avery really had been murdered due to his elemental blood, it had something to do with me. What were the odds that he had been in the middle of telling me about our elemental blood when the raven shifter had carried him away to his death?
I shuddered and blinked back a tear at the thought of that. Somehow, it made it worse knowing that his death probably had something to do with me.
Sighing, I tried to push the thought away and then pulled a pink flowery sundress on over my head and glanced at myself in the mirror. The pink pattern was a nice contrast to the pink peekaboo highlights in my auburn hair.
I looked date ready. There was just one problem. I wasn’t even sure if this was actually a date.
For all I knew, Kaden only saw me as a friend. Maybe that was the real reason he hadn’t gotten in touch with me all summer or the majority of last school year. Maybe the feelings we’d had for one another in the beginning were just no longer there on his end.
But every part of me wanted to believe that wasn’t true.
***
Kaden was standing outside the Dining Hall, just like we had agreed on. His steel blue eyes poured over me as I headed towards him, and I saw it again: that look. The look that told me that the feelings he’d had from since the beginning were still very much alive. It was look that told me there was still someth
ing between us.
“You look stunning,” he said as I approached him.
A blush blossomed on my cheeks. “Thanks. You don’t look so bad yourself.”
A smile hit his lips. “I already got us some food.” He pointed down at a plastic bag he was holding. “I got your favorite.”
“Oh, and what’s my favorite?” I challenged as he began to lead me away from the Dining Hall.
“Pizza. One white slice with broccoli and a Hawaiian slice.” His eyes slid over to meet mine as he smiled.
“Wow. You actually remembered my pizza order.” I was sort of amazed. I would have thought that would be something he’d long forgotten about me.
“Of course I did. I always remember important things.”
I tried to suppress the smile that tugged at my lips. “So, where are we going for some privacy?”
“I had an idea.” His blue eyes locked on mine. “I was thinking we could go to the Enchanted Forest.”
I swallowed hard. “But that would mean breaking the rules.”
“Since when are you, Juliana Montgomery, opposed to breaking the rules?” Kaden asked, the slightest hint of amusement swirling around inside his eyes.
“True.” Breaking the rules to go to the Enchanted Forest was something the two of us had done on multiple occasions. We had done it on the night of the Halloween dance and the second time, the time that had nearly ended in us dying.
I wasn’t sure what it was, but something about going to the Enchanted Forest with him this time felt a lot riskier than it normally did. Something was telling me that I shouldn’t have agreed to go with him.
But I pushed my feeling aside because the Enchanted Forest was probably the most private spot where Kaden and I could possibly be alone together. And it seemed that, whatever he had to tell me, he really wanted us to be alone.
Plus, it also wouldn’t hurt if Everly didn’t see me talking to Kaden. She was super against us having any sort of relationship with one another, ever since he had joined the Dark Coven.
And truthfully? I definitely didn’t mind the idea of being alone with him myself.
“Okay,” I said, turning to him. “Let’s do it.”
He grinned at me and then, grabbing my hand, led me down the path that would take us to the Enchanted Forest.
I kept glancing over my shoulder the entire time to make sure that no one was watching us, but I didn’t see anyone.
Once we made it to the forest, I let out a relieved sigh. We had gotten here without getting caught. Hopefully, it would stay that way.
We walked past the clearing in the Enchanted Forest and headed in the direction of stream.
“I figured we could eat near our stream,” Kaden said, his eyes darting over to meet mine.
Our stream. His choice of words made the butterflies in my stomach begin to flutter.
The sun had already begun to set, and the stream was glowing pink. It was absolutely beautiful.
Kaden pointed his finger. A blue spark flew off of it, and a picnic blanket appeared on the ground.
As we sat down on the blanket, Kaden said, “So, how was your summer?”
“It would have been a lot better if I had at least heard from you,” I blurted.
“I’m sorry, Juliana. I really am.”
“Are you going to tell me what’s going on now?” Truthfully, I just wanted to cut to the chase. Once I got to the bottom of why he had ignored me for so long, I could figure out how I felt. Because right now, all I felt from him was betrayal and abandonment. I needed to understand why he had left things the way he had. What could have possibly been so bad that he couldn’t just talk to me about it?
“So, here’s the thing. I ended up going back to the castle.” His blue eyes held mine.
I felt the anger flood my veins. “You promised that you won’t go without me, Kaden.”
“I know. I’m sorry. But I didn’t want to bring you back there because I knew what it meant.”
“What did it mean?” I asked him with wide eyes.
“Putting your life at risk.” There was a genuine look of sincerity in his eyes as he spoke. “We had such a close call last time, Juliana. The absolute last thing I wanted to do was put you in that situation again. I know I broke my promise, and I’m sorry for that. But what I learned at the castle… Well, it was pretty life-changing.”
Ignoring that he had broken the promise, I leaned in closer to him. I was curious to know what he had found out. “Tell me more. Did you get inside the castle?”
“Yeah. It definitely wasn’t easy. My veiling spell didn’t work, so I had to cast an electrical spell on the guards to knock them out just to get past them.”
“Wow,” I whispered. Electrical spells were intense. They were enough to kill humans, and they could leave certain paranormal races unconscious for weeks, or even months, on end. We had been taught to only use electrical spells in the most dangerous situations—like the time Kaden had used one to kill the dog-like monster that had attacked us when we’d gone on a Mission in the Blackwood Forest.
Knowing that Kaden used electrical spells so freely sort of made me question if there was a reason he had joined the Dark Coven. The tactic was used more often in dark magic.
Was it possible that Kaden actually was a warlock? I wanted to believe that he was good, but this really didn’t look so good for him.
“So, what happened once you made it past the guards?” I asked him.
“This is where things start to get really… strange, Juliana.” He took a deep breath. “This castle seems like it belonged to the raven shifters. That must be the reason so many seemed to be outside the castle the day we went together. We thought they were planning some sort of attack on the castle, but I’m pretty sure now that they were actually guarding it,” he explained. “When I went inside the castle, the raven shifters were everywhere.”
“And they didn’t do anything to hurt you?” I was sort of surprised, to say the least. “Those raven shifters saw straight through our veiling spell.”
“I used a different veiling spell when I went back,” Kaden explained.
“I didn’t know there was more than one,” I commented.
“Yeah, there’s a dark magic one.” His steel blue eyes met mine, gauging them for my reaction.
“I see.” I swallowed hard, not wanting to accept what he was telling me. But so far, with everything I was learning, Kaden was beginning to seem like he was getting deeper and deeper into dark magic.
“I learned from my brother that certain paranormal races—the bad ones, like raven shifters—sometimes only respond to dark magic,” he told me. “That’s the reason our veiling spell didn’t work that day. I wasn’t sure if I would be able to get past the raven shifters this time on my own, but I knew I needed to be more careful without you there to ask the dragon to close up the portal again. It was a really close call last time. I went prepared with what I knew would work.”
I nodded my understanding.
“This is their Royal House, Juliana,” Kaden explained to me. “The raven shifters, I mean. This is their Royal House and the palace that they call home.”
“Yeah, that all makes sense,” I replied with a nod. “But what I don’t understand is why you had to stop talking to me because of all of this. So, you found the Royal House of the raven shifters. That’s s little crazy, but it doesn’t really seem like a reason to cut me off. Not after everything. I mean, you promised you wouldn’t go there without me. Then you did go there without me… and you cut me off because of what you learned. I just don’t really understand any of this.”
“Because I haven’t finished telling you what happened while I was there,” Kaden explained. “I saw their King. The King of the Raven Shifters.”
“And?” I asked with wide eyes, wondering what this had to do with anything.
“It’s the Headmaster, Juliana. Headmaster Crane is the King of the Raven Shifters.”
I couldn’t even say I was surprised, becaus
e I wasn’t.
My lack of surprise must have been written all over my face, because Kaden asked, “Why don’t you look shocked?”
“I always knew Headmaster Crane was going to be something dark,” I replied with a shrug. I paused. “And that’s why he has such a bird-like last name. Because he’s a raven.”
“Yep, exactly,” Kaden agreed with a nod.
I wasn’t going to lie. This still didn’t seem like a good reason for Kaden to cut me off. If anything, I couldn’t help but feel like he should have done the opposite. We had discussed Headmaster Crane’s mysterious paranormal race in the past. When Kaden found out, he should have told me what it was.
“He saw me there that day, Juliana,” Kaden said then, interrupting my thoughts.
“He did?”
Kaden nodded. “Yeah. My veiling spell seemed to work for every raven shifter in the whole entire castle… except for him. And I’m pretty sure I know the reason. He’s the only raven shifter who can see straight through dark magic. And I can’t seem to figure out why. From everything I’ve read and from everything Corbin has told me, dark magic works on just about anyone. I’m not sure why Headmaster Crane is the exception.”
“So, what did he do when he saw you?” I pressed.
“He actually talked to me,” he replied. “He told me he was going to let my being there slide, as long as I never came back. And there was something else, too.” His blue eyes met mine as he explained, “He told me to stay the hell away from you. He threatened to destroy me, and my family, if I didn’t listen.”
“He did?” My eyebrows shot up questioningly.
“Yeah. So, that’s the entire reason I disappeared the way I did. I’m sorry. It’s really not what I wanted. It’s still not what I want, but I don’t think we should be seen much together on campus, outside of our classes and any group projects we might get assigned to,” Kaden explained. “I don’t want to piss Headmaster Crane off more than I already have.”
“I completely understand,” I replied with a nod. “We obviously need to be way sneakier than we’re currently being.” I paused. “What I don’t understand is why Headmaster Crane doesn’t want you to be near me. It seems like such an odd request, doesn’t it?”