Magic Exchange: A Supernatural Academy Romance (The Velkin Royal Academy Series Book 1)

by Emmeline Winter

We began walking towards the gates of the school, but not before I scooped her hand into mine and held it tightly. Dating wasn’t one of the things that my kind often did, but I’d accidentally walked in on Tormin watching enough romantic-comedies to know that this was something that one did.

  And I didn’t blame them. Holding Carolyn’s hand was a thoroughly pleasurable experience.

  “I told him I had some valuable intelligence to give him and would only do so if he loaned me the clothes.”

  “What intel?”

  The intel was regarding you, as a matter of fact, and whether or not you were, as he put it, “Available.” Of course, I told him that you were quite engaged and would probably be for some time. I had a feeling, though, that Carolyn didn’t appreciate a jealous lover, so I bit my tongue and dusted over the truth instead. “If I told you, it wouldn’t be so valuable, would it?”

  She laughed, and the warmth of that sound carried me all the way to Earth.

  ✽✽✽

  “Okay.”

  Tormin was the human expert, not me. So, if he’d have been the one invited to play a “video game,” he probably would have been better equipped for what that really meant. But I hadn’t been expecting to enter a sticky-floored, bright, flashing lighted, so-called “arcade,” in order to play this game. And even as Carolyn held the bucket of coins I’d acquired for her use in front of me, loading the game so I could play it, I had absolutely zero idea what, exactly, it was that I was meant to be doing.

  But the bright, golden excitement in her eyes was more than enough to convince me to stand there for another moment longer, atop the machine, if it meant that she would flash her brilliant smile in my direction once more.

  “So, it’s called Dance Dance Revolution. Really simple. All you have to do is hit the colored squares whenever one comes up on screen.”

  “This is absurd. You do it first,” I said, trying and failing miserably to sound commanding. I’d never admit it to her—or to anyone—but the machine…It was intimidating. With its wildly flashing lights and blaring music and emphatic arrowed directions, I feared it would best me. And the prince of Velkin didn’t often have the opportunity to be bested.

  “Oh, no. You said you wanted to make memories. You have to go first.”

  For a moment, I hesitated, wondering if I could possibly extricate myself from they scenario without seeming like a coward. When I discovered nothing, I squared my jaw and nodded once.

  “Fine,” I said, slipping out of the black duster coat Justin had loaned me. “But don’t expect me to like it.”

  Without saying anything else, she slipped the coin into the slot, and activated the machine in full. It took every ounce of my concentration, to hit the arrows at the exact right moment, and still, I somehow managed to trip over my own feet and barely score a handful of points.

  Soft, feminine, thoroughly amused laughter rang out from my audience.

  “You find this funny?” I asked, trying to split my attention between the screen and Carolyn. "Are you laughing at me?"

  “This is the funniest thing I’ve seen in a long time, Anatole. Yes. I am absolutely laughing at you.”

  “Well, you do it, then,” I challenged.

  “I’ll join as a second player.”

  She slipped in another pair of coins, and joined me on the illuminated dias. A new song began, and we both struggled to keep up with its pace. About halfway through, I glanced at her score.

  “You’re just as bad as me!”

  “I know! I loved it, but I was never any good at it,” she said, her laughter ringing out over the music now. I’d never seen someone take such joy in being so terrible at something.

  “And you wanted to watch me make a fool of myself, didn’t you?”

  “Yes, obviously! And it worked! Ah, you should see your face.”

  We played through the song, which ended rather abruptly as our abysmally low scores flashed upon the screen before our eyes. My arm slipped around her waist. I pulled her in close, muttering into her hair with a deadly smirk.

  “I could seriously get you back for this, you know.”

  “How would you get back at me?”

  My lips descended towards her neck, a feather-light threat and a tease. In this moment, there was no one but us, nothing but my lips against her skin. “You embarrassed me. I could easily embarrass you.”

  “Don’t you dare give me a love bite.”

  “Why not? You don’t want people to know you’re mine?” I teased.

  “Of course I do. Would you let me do the same? Give you a love bite so everyone knows you’re mine?”

  My reputation as an impenetrable fortress of a prince chafed against the question. But my heart, and not my reputation, answered. “Yes, I believe I would.”

  My lips didn’t ache to kiss her skin, but her lips, so I moved to capture hers in mine. But just as I went to do so, a group of shadows crossed behind us, drawing my attention away.

  The moment I looked in their direction, I wish I hadn’t. Several familiar faces from the new Royal Guard of Velkin stood at attention, decked out in ill-fitting human clothes, staring at me with ashen cheeks and wide eyes. The leader nodded once in a bow. The rest of them followed.

  “Your Majesty.”

  “What is it?” I asked, my patience short. Surely they couldn’t be here to collect me, could they? I’d only taken a short trip to Earth, nothing more.

  “There’s been a series of magical disturbances. Your family has noticed your absence and require you to come home at once.”

  My heart tightened. And so did my hand around Carolyn’s. Magical disturbances could mean anything…But if my brother was out there, I had a dark feeling of what it actually would be. I refused to show my fear in front of them, though. Carolyn didn’t need to worry. I plastered a false smile across my face.

  “Of course. Is it alright, Carolyn?”

  “Yeah," she said, her gaze skeptical, but trusting. "Come on. Let’s go.”

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Carolyn

  It wasn’t long before the royal guards had taken us back to Velkin, and we left the mortal world behind. I wasn’t sad to see it go, to watch as it dematerialized in a haze of magic, just like I wasn’t sad to leave it behind the first time Kyra had magicked me away. This time, though…I actually felt like I was saying goodbye. Like I was choosing to go to Velkin instead of just going because it was a convenient means of escape.

  Like a rush that mirrored the magic swirling around us, my love for Velkin swam to the surface. It was no longer just a place where I hid from my mother and my past. It was my home.

  …Which might have been a good revelation if I hadn’t been totally wracked with terror about the words magical disturbance and the sudden arrival of an entire contingent of soldiers. The possibility of everything going catastrophically wrong was enough to tilt my entire world and suck the joy right out of finally finding a home.

  Once we’d arrived back at Castle Bloc, Anatole dismissed the soldiers and began leading me up towards the student chambers’ wing of the castle. He didn’t say anything or even try to. With every step and every glance in his direction, I became more and more convinced that something was wrong.

  “Magical disturbances? Should I be worried?”

  “There’s nothing I wouldn’t protect you from.”

  Not an answer. I wasn’t going to let it go.

  “Yeah, but still. Do you need me? I could bring my sword and go with you—”

  “Magical disturbances happen all the time. It’s nothing to worry about.” Abruptly, he stopped in the middle of the empty hallway and bent down to kiss me, capturing my lips with his own. Against my better judgment, I let myself melt against him, savoring the warm desperation of his lips pressing me and his fingers threading through my hair. Then, he pulled away. I searched his face for any explanation, but found nothing. He was as closed off as ever, as unreadable as a stone. “Go find Kyra and I’ll see you back in your room soon en
ough.”

  “Are you sure?”

  Across his face, there was a flicker then of something I couldn’t quite place. It unsettled me, but he touched a soft kiss to my forehead, which was almost enough to quell the sensation. “I’m sure. Now, go before I change my mind and spend the night kissing you instead of doing my duty.”

  A small laugh escaped my lips, unbidden. I rolled my eyes. “Like you’d ever pick me over your duty as a prince.”

  “Carolyn, I would choose you over anything. It just so happens that my duty as a prince and my duties to my heart happen to coincide in this scenario. Now, go.”

  And so, I did. It would have been so easy to hide behind a suit of armor and wait for him to walk a few paces ahead so I could try and tail him, but even if the whispering portraits didn’t rat me out before I had the chance to see what this magical disturbance really was, I’d probably never make it past the back gates of the castle before he caught me and sent me back.

  If there was something out there, some problem we needed to face, some kind of magical disturbance dangerous enough to send a fleet of royal guards to protect the prince from Earth, then I needed my best friend at my side. She would know what to do. So, I high-tailed it through the corridors back to our shared dormitory, ready to tell her everything.

  Once up to our small tower, I raced through my bedroom. A sound stopped me. A quiet, flickering sound that shook my very heart in my chest. Crying.

  My feet slowed and I moved towards our shared bathroom. I knocked.

  “Kyra? Are you in there?”

  She didn’t answer me. A brief shuffling behind the locked door followed, and a moment later, it swung open, revealing my best friend like I’d never seen her before: wet-eyed and sniffling, but trying to put on the bravest face she could muster. At the sight of me in my human clothes, she balked, but it was nothing compared to my confusion. Her hair was unkempt and wild, her outfit imperfect and ripped at the hems. I’d never seen her like this.

  “Where have you been?”

  I turned the question back on her. Yes, maybe there was some kind of danger hurtling towards us, but she came first. I couldn’t save the world from danger without my best friend. Not without Kyra. “Where have you been?”

  “I was…” Stepping back into the bathroom, she collapsed against the rim of the bathtub, as if the strength had suddenly left her body. Her face melted from the weight of fresh tears. “I was with Tormin.”

  She went silent again, leaving me in suspense. Whatever happened, it couldn’t have been good. No one cried like this when they’d had good news. At least, Kyra didn’t. Kneeling down to the cold tiles so I could be at her level, I probed her for more information.

  “And?”

  “We both want the same thing. But I can’t allow him to give everything up. I just can’t, Carolyn. Not for me.”

  “Maybe he doesn’t want to be a prince. Maybe he wants you instead.”

  But my own fears about Anatole rang out in my heart. Fears that I desperately tried to crush. I knew, in my heart of hearts, that Anatole would do what was best for his people over me. I just didn’t want to believe it. And maybe if it was true for Tormin and Kyra, it would be true for us, too.

  “He’s too good a leader and a soldier to be saddled to me instead.”

  “Have you ever considered that, maybe, nothing bad would happen?”

  Kyra sniffled, but narrowed her gaze at me. “Is that why you’re letting yourself fall head over heels in love with Anatole even though it’s a bad idea? Because maybe there’s a slight chance that nothing bad will happen?”

  Her words cut straight through me. I swallowed back the pain. No. No, not after all we went through tonight and not what we’ve been through together so far. Nothing bad will happen. I have to believe him when he says he’ll protect me…And I have to believe in myself, that I’ll be able to protect him right back. Thoughts of the night rolled over me like hot steam, and I couldn’t help but confide in her. It probably wasn’t the right thing to do. She wasn't in the mood to hear it. But I wanted to share this moment with my friend. I needed to.

  “He kissed me.”

  “I know,” she said, easy as breathing. “I know that he loves you. And that’s what worries me. When someone loves you, Carolyn, and when you love them...It’s an invitation for them to hurt you. You have to know that.”

  “But he won’t hurt me. Not anymore, not now that we’re—”

  She shot to her feet, suddenly towering over me for the first time in our friendship. I knelt on the ground as she lorded over me, casting a long shadow across my face. Her voice was sharp enough to cut glass. “Now that you’re what? What promises has he made you? Whatever promises there are, I’ve made them to Tormin and broken every single one of them. They don’t mean anything, Carolyn. And it’s going to break your heart when something happens.”

  Pain, like the heat of a too-close fire, spread out all across my body. The cold of the tile beneath me did nothing to cut through the sensation. Grinding my jaw, I took in deep, measured breaths as I tried to remind myself—and explain to her—why she was wrong.

  She had to be wrong. Right?

  “I can tell you’re upset. You’re projecting what’s going on with you and Tormin onto us, but Anatole and I aren’t…” My voice wavered. I swallowed and did my best to press on, forcing my words to march in a straight, certain line. “That won’t happen to us. We’re stronger together than we are apart.”

  Kyra shook her head. A few stray tears fell. “Then you’d better hope no one ever manages to separate you two.”

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Anatole

  From the moment the magic brought us back to Velkin, I knew that something was wrong. No, not something. Everything. Magic Folk didn’t, by nature, have an extra sense for feeling out anger in the air, but it was something that, after years of battle training, I’d developed a keen sense for. I could sense it in the air, feel the ill will and intentions vibrating through the air.

  It was a sensation I used to feel—and ignore—every time my brother Adric was around. It was one Carolyn never gave off, no matter how hard I tried to pin it on her back when I believed the worst of her. And it was what I felt now, as I walked through the hallways of Castle Bloc, away from Carolyn.

  The feeling was strong. It radiated. I grabbed onto it with everything in me and followed it. I knew not what the rest of the castle was doing or what, in fact, this magical disturbance actually was. I could only assume that the disturbance I felt was the same one. And I couldn’t let it go.

  Slowly, I made my way through the castle. Down the staircases. And, eventually, into the crypts of the castle itself. The walls were made of dark stone here, so dark that they practically swallowed up all of the light from the torch I carried. My every step cracked against the walls and bounced back, until my own movements began to spook me.

  No one ever came down here. Ghosts haunted these corridors. The bones of the dead—those killed in battle, those who died after their thousands of years of life came to an end, those who had captured one of our rare illnesses—rested in the intricately carved tombs I passed. Even with my sword at my side, I couldn’t help the chill that ran down my back. Superstitions ran deep in my people, and the cosmic punishment that would come to those who disturbed the sleep of the dead was one of those ingrained into me from birth.

  But there was a darkness here. And I needed to seek it out. If it was here, that meant it was a threat to my people and to Carolyn. I had a sacred duty to save them.

  Finally, I reached the center of the crypt. Usually, as the deepest point of the castle, this chamber was the darkest of all. Not tonight. Tonight, bright green fireballs, sparked and sustained by magic, hovered in the places where torches once hung, illuminating the small chamber, where a figure stood, staring at the coffin of the Great King Lyonidus, who had been one of our greatest rulers until a witch stole his heart. The figure was barely more than a gaunt shadow, but when he spoke,
I knew who it was.

  “I was wondering when you would find me.”

  “Adric?”

  He was banished, a banishment that had been bound by the most powerful magics that the King could wield. No one had ever come back from a banishment until the curse had been lifted. Yet, there my brother stood, in the flesh.

  Or, at least…someone like my brother stood there. When he turned around and the green light of the chamber caught his skeletally thin face, covered in silvery scars, I barely recognized him. Not because of the superficial changes, even. But because of the black emptiness of his eyes, which bore into mine.

  “Don’t sound so dire,” he scolded, opening his arms wide for me, as if everything were perfectly normal, as though this wasn’t a reunion that broke millions of unwritten and codified rules alike. “Aren’t you going to embrace me?”

  “Of course.” After all, banishment or no, laws or no, he was still my brother. One of my best friends and greatest allies. In spite of all he had done, I still loved him. Throwing my arms around him, I held him to me and prayed that I had the strength to say all that I needed to say. Darkness seeped out of him, pouring like blood from an open wound. Something had happened to him in the time since he’d left the palace; he needed saving. I could feel it in my bones. When we parted, I kept him within arm’s reach. “It’s just…You are banished.”

  “Banished? I was never banished,” he said, his voice nearly sing-songing the words. “I was only sent on a brief vacation.”

  “I was going to bring you back when I was king.”

  His voice grew a sharp edge. His grip on my shoulder tightened. His smile, though, remained. Why wouldn’t it, after all? He’d won. At least, I could tell he thought so. “I tired of waiting.”

  “How did you break the magic? Your banishment was bound.”

  “There are deep magics in the Outer Reaches. Magics that I used. I am more convinced than ever of Father’s incompetence. The fool doesn’t know what kind of power he has denied himself. But don’t fear, brother. I will be a powerful, powerful king. Together, we could end this human menace.” He placed a hand on my shoulder, which felt more like a stone weight than any kind of brotherly affection. “We will.”