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

by Emmeline Winter

  This was the moment I had been waiting for, wasn’t it? Ever since we’d discovered the existence of humans and their Earth, we’d spoken of the day when we would both ride triumphant to destroy them, when Adric would defeat them with his armies and take up the crown. Finally, my family could be reunited, I could lay down the burden of the crown, and our people would be safe at last.

  …Only…now that victory was so close I could reach out and brush its soft wings with my fingertips, I no longer wanted it. Because victory would mean betraying everything I’d come to love since the humans’ arrival. My next steps would need to be delicate, graceful. My brother was in an uncertain place, and I didn’t want to tip him further into the darkness surrounding him.

  Or maybe it wasn’t surrounding him. Maybe it was coming from inside him. Maybe he was the darkness. Without my giving them permission to do so, my feet carried me a few cautious steps backwards, until I was out of his grip.

  “Are you certain that is wise?”

  “Your first duty, Anatole, is to your people. Your second duty is to me, your family. Don’t tell me you’re thinking of betraying that.”

  “They are not what you think they are.”

  “Why? Because they’re fuckable, now they’re no longer a threat?”

  Rage sparked in me, and I opened my mouth to protest. A mistake. The worst one I could have made. It completely showed my hand. Before I could say even a single word to Adric, he brushed me off with a lazy wave and a bitter laugh.

  “Oh, don’t give me that look. I know what you’ve been doing with the little human Carolyn Connors. Did you really think you could hide your betrayal from me forever?”

  “It’s not a betrayal. I am trying to save you.”

  Trying to save us all, I wanted to say. After all, mother said that there was an evil coming towards Velkin, one that could destroy both of our worlds. I’d wanted to protect us all—Adric included—from falling prey to it. It wasn’t until this moment that I realized, like a shot to the heart, that Adric didn’t need protecting from the darkness. He was the darkness.

  “No. You aren’t saving us. You are falling to her, falling prey to the human menace. You are weak, just as I always thought you were, you fool.”

  “We could work together,” I said, trying to make him see reason. “With your powerful magic, we could usher in an age of peace. We could foster cooperation between the humans and the magic folk. We could—”

  All around us, the fireballs snapped, sparking green flame around us as Adric’s magic started to lose its tight control. Rage flickered in his eyes. “You would lead our people to their ruin and rob me of my destiny.”

  “I think you are wrong, brother,” I said, my voice as small as I could make it. I wasn't sure I’d ever said those words before, wasn’t sure I’d ever had the courage to say them in his presence. But now that I’d spoken them, there was no going back. The betrayal had been done, at least in his eyes.

  “Wrong? Wrong? You know what is wrong? Being abandoned by your own family and tossed into The Wilderness with nothing but the clothes on your back. Being betrayed by your own brother, who wouldn’t even try to save you.”

  “I was going to save you when I was king. I swore to you. And I mean it. But there is something inside of you that worries me, a terrible and monstrous darkness that—”

  “Enough!”

  A shot of powerful, uncontrolled magic the likes of which I’d never seen flew from the palm of Adric’s hand, hitting me straight in the chest. I flew across the room, smacking weakly against the far wall of the crypt and crumbling to the floor below.

  How did he do that? That kind of magic…It was dangerous, raw…Evil. Elves weren’t able to use magic against their kin. Not ever. He must have done something truly terrible in that forest to earn it. Trembling fingers reached to the back of my head, where I felt at a fresh, throbbing wound from the impact. My fingers came back bloody and my voice broke. “Brother—”

  “Do not call me brother. You have not earned the right. I will be King of Velkin and you will be there, at my side, every step of the way. Do you understand?”

  His rage was palpable, his power undeniable, and his will indestructible. And still, I couldn’t bow to him. He may have been my brother and I may have loved him, but there was nothing I wouldn’t do to protect Velkin. To protect Earth. To protect Carolyn.

  “No,” I said, forcing my weak body to its feet. Instinctively, my hand went to my sword. “No, I won’t. And I can’t let you.”

  My brother’s eyes flickered to my sword, then back to me. I waited for the inevitable strike…one that didn’t come. Instead, his lips slithered into something like a smile, and he reached his hand up towards one of his fireballs before pulling it down with magic. His eyes gave a menacing twinkle as he waved me closer. “I think you can. Come here. Watch this.”

  When I hesitated, he breathed out a sigh of annoyance, as though this was all so silly to him, as if the conflict between us was little more than a brotherly quarrel. “Come here, Anatole. It’s not going to hurt you.”

  But he was wrong. Because when I stepped forward and closed the space between us, my vision focused on the green orb hovering in his hands, which displayed…unspeakable acts of cruelty. Cruelty against Carolyn. Her face contorted in pain. Her body bound by chains. Her lips screaming out for help that never arrived. Tears streaming down her face in wave after angry, futile wave.

  I didn't want to watch another second, but Adric’s magic kept me prisoner, holding my gaze in place as he let the images play out on a seemingly endless loop of fresh, torturous horror. “This is what I could do to her, Anatole. Scores of magical armies couldn’t stand a chance against the magic in these hands. What chance do you think the poor little mortal girl has? She will beg for mercy and fall apart the moment I touch her.”

  “I won’t let you.”

  “Is that so? How are you going to stop me?” My muscles wouldn’t respond to my own commands now. His magic was so strong. For the first time in my life…I was weak. Helpless. “And better yet, how are you going to stop the enchanted stone dragons currently waiting outside of her room? Yes. The castle is on my side now. Magic bows to stronger magic, that has always been the way, hasn’t it?”

  Adric extinguished the fire-orb in his hand, taking with it all of the images of Carolyn’s pain and suffering. Even though they disappeared, they lingered in my mind, burned into my consciousness like an scalding brand. My brother’s smooth voice whispered in my ear.

  “You can choose to join me, or you can see her destroyed and then join me. The option is yours. Save her life or let her die. Believe me. Your choice makes no difference to me. I'll have what I want either way.”

  Once, Carolyn had told me that I would never choose her over my people, that my sense of duty was too strong and my love for her too weak to ever abdicate my responsibility as their prince and future King. She was wrong.

  “…What will you have me do?”

  “Send her back to Earth. Leave her there with the rest of them. Then, return to me. And together, we will make a better world. I will give you the dark power that can do it.”

  “You don’t have to do this,” I reminded him, desperately searching his distant eyes for any humanity left in them. I found nothing. Nothing but emptiness and cruelty, barbed with ambition. A terrifying combination from anyone, but a deadly one when placed in the body of my brother.

  “It is the only way. Our mother is not the only one who can see the future. Now, go.”

  For the first time in my life, I did as I was told without question or complaint. I fled the crypts for the upper halls of the castle, where I let myself pace. I knew I needed to go to Carolyn’s chambers, to rescue her from danger as quickly as possible. But my heart screamed at me with every step.

  It was the one thing I didn’t want to do. It was my only choice. If I was going to save the woman I loved, then I needed to break her heart.

  Chapter Twenty-Three
r />   Carolyn

  Kyra and I didn’t speak anymore that night. I didn’t go into her room and try to tell her about the magical disturbance. I saw her once in the bathroom, brushing her sharpened teeth before bed. When I tried to talk to her, though, to tell her about the magical disturbance and make sure she hadn’t seen anything, she stormed into her bedroom, slammed the door behind her, and made absolutely no indication she was going to come out any time soon. So, instead of knocking and forcing myself into her space, I retreated to my own room, where I slipped on pajamas and fell into bed.

  Warring emotions fought for control of my heart and mind. On the one hand, I was a swooning catastrophe. I mean…Anatole had kissed me and danced with me and been human for me, something that I never could have dreamed he would do for anyone. On the other hand, magical disturbance sounded pretty dire. Even when I laid in bed, I made sure to keep my sword hanging from its hilt off of the nearest corner of my bedside table, just in case.

  The hours ticked by. He didn’t show up. I did everything to try and distract myself. I tore through a handful of book chapters. I attempted—and failed—to do homework for my Human-Velkin relations class. But around the time the clock struck two, my heavy eyes started to fall.

  I was somewhere half between asleep and awake when the door to my bedroom crashed open, and a voice shook me from my dozing.

  “Carolyn!”

  Blinking the sleep from my eyes, I couldn’t help the smile that came to my lips at the sight of him, approaching the bed with quick, fluid steps. “Hey. Where have you been? I was getting—” I didn’t finish the thought before he’d wrapped his arms around me and scooped me out of bed, hugging me to his chest in a tight, almost desperate embrace. A surprised laugh bubbled to my lips, even as I returned his hug in earnest. “Hey! What’s wrong?”

  “I just wanted to hold you, that’s all.”

  “Well, come on. Let’s get into bed and you can hold me all night.”

  I tried to tug him back into bed with me, but he stood firm, barely letting me so much as budge in his arms. The hairs on the back of my neck stood on end. Something wasn’t right. I wasn’t entirely sure what was wrong, but something set me ill at ease.

  “No,” he snapped.

  “No?”

  “No, I mean…” He pulled away from me then, but kept me at arm’s reach, inspecting me at the small distance. Indecision tore at the corners of his expression. Then, as quickly as I noticed it, it disappeared. “I have a better idea.”

  “What better idea?”

  “I want to take you back to Earth.”

  “We’ve talked about this,” I gently admonished. Sure, going home to play Dance Dance Revolution was one thing. Going back for any extended period of time… I wasn’t sure I wanted that. Even worse, I wasn’t sure I was ready for that. Maybe returning to Earth needed to be done in small doses. Having Anatole at my side didn’t suddenly erase everything my mother had ever done to me or the way people ignored it for so long. It didn’t erase my reasons for running away to Velkin or make going back any easier.

  But Anatole cupped my face in his soft, gentle hands. A wildness invaded him, one that I’d never seen him exude in all the time of knowing him. “You deserve an escape, Carolyn. Let me give it to you. Please.”

  “Okay. If you want,” I said. Whatever it was that had caused this mood, maybe I could cure it by going along with him.

  “Pack everything. All of your things. We could make it a nice, long trip.”

  He went for the door. But a nagging in the back of my brain forced me to call out to him. He was hiding from me, just like he used to. Only now, instead of a mask of indifference, he wore a smiling mask meant to express everything was fine. Well, I wasn’t so easily fooled.

  “Anatole. What’s happened with the magical disturbance?”

  A pause. Then, he answered. “It was a fluke. Nothing to worry about. An overreaction by our new Royal Guard.”

  “Are you sure? You don’t seem like yourself.”

  “Yes. I’m sure. Now, pack your things and meet me at the gate when you’re ready.”

  ✽✽✽

  I did as I promised, packing my stuff into two trunks and leaving a note for Kyra that I was alright and with Anatole. I guessed I should have been excited. I tried my best to put on a brave face. After all, the guy I loved—a prince, no less—wanted to take me on a vacation, wanted to whisk me away on some fairytale adventure.

  A cloud hung over me, though, one that kept me from fully embracing the excitement of the moment. He was a good liar, a skilled liar, one who never let his guard slip or fall for even the briefest of moments, so I couldn’t be sure…But I felt in my gut that things weren’t right.

  It was in the little things. The way he clung to me too tight. The way he said my name. How he refused to hold my hand as the magic took us to Earth.

  And when we arrived, it was landing in the middle of Central Park, staring up at his face, and realizing he was now looking at me the same way he’d been looking at me the very first day we met. With hatred. With contempt. With all of the love one might give a cockroach right before squishing it.

  My heart turned to ice and shattered. The small distance between us seemed like a million miles. Somehow, I knew that if I reached out to him, he’d step back.

  “What are we doing here?” I asked, trying to keep my voice—and my hopes—light. Maybe this was a joke. Maybe there was something I was missing. It couldn’t be…What I thought was happening couldn’t actually be happening.

  Anatole didn’t even bother to meet my eyes. Apparently, I wasn’t worth the attention. “Carolyn, I’m afraid things have changed. I have changed.”

  “What do you mean?”

  With a wave of his hand, he closed the portal between worlds behind him. Its glowing blue aura disappeared, leaving us with only the light of the overhead park lamps to guide our eyes. It gave him a ghostly, otherworldly glow…Too beautiful and too dangerous, like the eyes of a tiger in a darkened forest. “You can no longer return to Velkin.”

  I blinked. The words shuffled around in my head over and over again, making less and less sense each time I turned them over. When I finally managed to speak again, my voice was brittle, barely audible over the rustling of leaves and the breeze around us.

  “Why not?”

  Instead of answering, he reached into the pocket of his robes and withdrew a small envelope. “There’s an account and a linked card here in your name that you can use at your discretion, to start a new life away from your mother.”

  “Where will you be?”

  “Back in Velkin. Here. Take it.”

  He extended the envelope again, but my jaw tightened at the sight of it. We were supposed to be a team, a partnership…I felt things for him I’d never felt for anyone. And he was just blowing me off? He was trying to keep me here on Earth?”

  “What? Like a severance package? You’re firing me from saving the world?”

  “No,” he said. And finally, his eyes met mine. Cold stone stared back at me without any hint of feeling or emotion. “I’m leaving you.”

  My vision tunneled. It grew darker all around me. A chill bit the ends of the wind. I felt like a machine caught in a loop, unable to move forward. “…What?”

  “I will be returning to Velkin.” He paused, with purpose. “On my own. And you will be staying here. There isn’t anything complicated about this.”

  Desperately, I tried to square the kind, funny, kissable man who’d held me in his arms and danced with me with the man standing in front of me now, barely making eye contact and addressing me as though I were some formality to be handled. “What happened to you? Is the magical disturbance—”

  “The magical disturbance does not concern you. And neither does Velkin any longer.”

  “I’m not worried about Velkin. I’m worried about you.”

  “I’m no longer your concern either.”

  A wave of hot bile ran up my throat.

 
“This is why you brought me to Earth, isn’t it? Why you pretended you loved me? You wanted to get intelligence, you wanted to—”

  “No. That’s not it.”

  “Then what was it?”

  “I wanted to use you. And now I am bored. You are nothing to me, human.”

  “Wish me well? What does that even—”

  But before I could get the answers I wanted, he was gone.

  And I was very, very, very alone.

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  Anatole

  The transition of power could have been bloody. Brutal. When Adric made his official invasion—with me by his side— he commanded not only a legion of exiled creatures who had, for too long, been imprisoned in the Outer Regions, but a small fleet of dragons and, of course, all of the dark magic that had been cordoned off outside of Velkin for too long.

  But Mother and Father bent the knee. They took Adric’s beatings for the people, placing themselves at the front lines of the surrender and allowing him to take them prisoner. If not for Adric’s dark magic, I would have looked away. Unfortunately, I would have to live with the memory of their bloodied, bruised faces for the rest of my life.

  In the weeks since Adric took over Velkin and placed himself as the new King, I’d been relegated to the position of puppet. My body worked for him, stood at his side and played my part to help the people accept their new ruler. But my mind? My mind never stopped fighting against Adric, never stopped fashioning and creating plans to defeat him.

  He never let anyone as close as he did me. Which meant I was perfectly positioned to kill him. And one day…one day, I promised myself, I would have the pleasure of doing so. It was practically a death wish, which actually made the prospect even more tantalizing. A world without Carolyn was not one in which I wanted to live.

  But there were little rebellions, too. Like this. Like tonight. When I finally was able to sneak down to the dungeons where my mother was being kept. My father…no one knew where he had been sent. I tried not to think about what that meant. I focused on the things I could change. The things I could help. Like my mother.