She nodded, turning her small smile on me. “Are you?”
“It was a day,” I said. My shoulders and legs were aching and exhausted, even though I hadn’t done anything to work up a sweat. I didn’t know why we were both so tired.
But it seemed like the guys were hovering around her. I frowned; they hadn’t joined us any other trips to visit colleges. Piper and I had enjoyed some sisterly bonding time, which had been increasingly rare lately as our schedules took us in two different directions. She had evil witches to kill and I had A.P. exams to slay, apparently. But this time was different. Either because they knew the shifter academy was my destiny, or because they couldn’t bear to let my sister out of their sight for long… Why were they suddenly even more protective than usual?
“Piper,” I asked abruptly. “Are you pregnant?”
Her lips quirked to one side, but she didn’t answer.
“Well?” I demanded, but I already knew the answer.
“I was going to tell you later,” she said. “I wanted to do something fun. Give you a My aunt kicks ass onesie or something.”
“Do they make those?” I demanded, even though it was not the most pressing thing on my mind. “Piper! You’re pregnant!”
“I’m pregnant.” She couldn’t help but grin when she said the words.
Despite how much some people thought it was a born shifter’s job to have all the babies, it had taken Piper a while to be ready to have children. And then, once she was, she had been trying for a year or so without luck. Maybe this is no world to make a baby in and that’s why, I’d heard her snap to Kai in frustration one day as the two of them were in the kitchen. He’d wrapped his arms around her, promising that they’d turn the world into a safe place for their babies, and she’d rested her head on his shoulder. I’d been on the hunt for a snack, but I’d silently retraced my steps, leaving them in privacy.
When Piper grinned like she was giddy about this baby, it made me giddy too.
“How far along are you?”
“I’m like two days past being able to test,” she told me. “I promise, I would not leave my baby sister out of the loop for long. Who knows if it will even stick.”
I settled my drink into my cupholder so I could reach out and grab her hand. She squeezed my hand back, giving me a teasing look before she said, “Okay, ten-and-two please before we crash.”
I laughed as I put my hands back on the steering wheel. “You drive like a bat out of hell.”
“I’ve got combat-driver training,” she said. “Which, by the way, is still on the syllabus at the academy.”
“Yes.” I did a mock victory pump of my fist in the air. It did seem fun; whatever trouble there might be at the academy, I thought it was worth it.
“You know what’s not on the syllabus,” she began mischievously, giving me a look I knew all too well. “What happened with you and Lex?”
“He kissed me,” I confessed, and my own giddiness rushed over me again.
“After all his talk about the strict hierarchy?” Her lips quirked up.
There’d been such instant chemistry between us. I wanted to ask her if I thought he and I were fated.
“I guess I’m pretty cute,” I said lightly.
“I guess you are,” she said. “As well as brilliant and badass.”
“Not everyone was quite so won over.”
“No, I imagine not,” she said. “A lot of people never wanted girls at the academy.”
“Why?”
She shook her head, her lips tightening. “You know how ridiculous the packs are.”
“Wait,” I said, trying to do the math. I counted on my fingers, lifting them off the steering wheel. “If I go to the academy, then I won’t be around when you have the baby, will I?”
“You’ll come home and see the baby,” she said. “It’ll be all right.”
“I want to be there for you.”
Piper rested her hand on my leg. “Girl, it doesn’t matter where you go. You and I are always there for each other.”
“I thought you didn’t want me to go to the academy to begin with.”
“I don’t like the thought of you getting hurt,” she said. “I’d rather keep you with me forever. But that’s my selfish side. I don’t want you to give up any of your dreams for me.”
“You think I’m going to get hurt?” By going to the academy, or by working the job that came after—the one that would have me chasing down covens and fighting in a secret war?
“Yes,” she said. “I think you’re going to break your heart—and probably some bones—if you go down this road. But I think it’ll be worth it.”
“You think Lex would break my heart?”
“I don’t know. I hope not.”
He didn’t have a cell phone—they weren’t allowed on campus, even if they’d worked—but I had given him my address to write me. I figured if a man actually sat down and wrote a letter, it was a pretty sure sign he had a thing for you.
She flashed me a sly look. “You’re more worried about breaking your heart than breaking bones?”
“Much,” I said. I’d trained with the men of her pack since I was little. No matter how careful they tried to be with me, I’d been bruised and bloodied from time-to-time by accident, and I’d seen how much more roughly they trained. I knew that kind of thing was waiting for me at the academy: grappling with sweaty, disgusting guys; taking hits that stole the breath from my lungs; getting hit in the face and spitting out my own blood. I wasn’t enthusiastic about the idea, but I wasn’t scared, either.
Plus I’d get the chance to punch some other people in the face. Jensen McCauley’s handsome, smirking face came to mind.
“Is Lex going to come visit?” she asked me.
“Would that be okay?”
“Like I said,” she shrugged, “make your own mistakes.”
I frowned, cocking my head to one side. I felt like she’d said that before, but I didn’t remember when. “When did you say that?”
“I say it all the time,” she said airily.
Maybe. Her words did give me a sense of déjà vu, like I’d lived through this moment before. But until recently, Piper had been in protective-and-bossy mode. Now that I was almost eighteen, she must be letting go.
Plus, she’d have another person to mother soon. I glanced at her stomach, which was still perfectly flat. She slipped off her heels and pulled one foot up onto her thigh, massaging it absently.
“Do your feet hurt already?” I asked.
“They shouldn’t,” she said. “These shoes suck. It feels like I ran a marathon in them today.”
When we got back to the house in Blissford, it was the early hours of the morning. The sunrise was just beginning, a finger of pink and yellow poking across the pines, the sky above still deep and dark.
The guys’ car pulled in behind us. As I slid out of the passenger seat, Callum crossed the grass between us, holding out an envelope to me.
“What’s this?” I asked.
“That boy with the crush on you asked me to deliver a letter,” he said, and then, as if he saw the worry flash across my face, he added, “a first letter. He didn’t want to wait for the weekly mail call out of the academy.”
“Boy with a crush on me?” I repeated. “Callum, what did you say to him?”
Callum raised his hands, widening his eyes innocently. “I didn’t say anything.”
“Good.”
“Which was very effective,” Callum added. “He got a bit frazzled by me just staring him down, started blathering on…”
“Callum!” I scolded.
Callum shrugged, the cheeky expression about his face telling me just how much he enjoyed intimidating my first crush.
“What did he say?” I demanded, curious.
“I’m not sure I should tell you when you don’t approve of my methods,” he said. “But all right. He started talking about how he admired your mind, and how he hoped our packs could be allies, and then someth
ing about cadre and how it was all right because you weren’t coming to the academy after all…”
“But I am.” I frowned. “Maybe there was some kind of misunderstanding.”
“Maybe I misunderstood,” he said. “It was a lot of word salad from him.”
“Do you have to scare the boys I like?” I demanded.
“Yes,” he said. “You can handle yourself, I know. But Lord, is it ever funny.”
“You’re a jerk,” I accused him.
He slung his arm around my shoulders as we headed for the house. “Yes.”
“But I’m going to miss you when I go to school.” I slipped my arm around his waist.
“You are going to be so missed around here,” he said. “I can’t imagine the place without you.”
I chewed my lip, thinking about the baby, about how the war was unavoidable, about how sooner or later, the covens would come again to my sister’s door. How did I make sure I could protect my pack, my niece? Should I be here? Or should I leave so I could learn even more how to fight, how to be ready for the war?
“But,” Callum continued, as if he knew just what I was thinking, “No matter how much we’ll miss you, I think our people need you.”
“Even if they don’t want me?”
“Especially because they don’t want you,” he said bluntly. “They’ve got a lot of learning to do. And you’re the one to teach them.”
I had a lot of learning to do, too. I knew that.
“Thanks, Callum.” I squeezed his waist. The lights shone out of the first-floor windows of the house, illuminating the wide front porch, the welcoming front door. I’d always have a home to come back. Like Lex had said, I was lucky to have this family.
Up in my room, I kicked off my flats and threw myself on the bed. I wasn’t sure if I was in more desperate need of a nap or a shower, but both could wait until I’d read Lex’s letter.
Maddie—
I don’t really know how to write a note like this. I don’t want to be cheesy, and I don’t know if you feel it too, but I’d like to see you again.
Even though I am 100% sure you’re trouble, Maddie Mae.
Good trouble?
Time will tell.
I’m off every third weekend from the academy. I’d like to see you on my weekend pass. I leave the academy on 4pm those Fridays. I could be there by 10pm. Let me know.
Best,
Lex
I grinned as I folded the letter back up and tucked it under my pillow. Typical Lex. He didn’t exactly say anything too complimentary—he called me trouble, for crying out loud—and yet here he was, willing to drive six hours to see me.
“Yeah, I could tolerate that,” I said out loud, to no one. I’d write him back once I’d gotten some sleep, even though I felt a surge of restless energy as I turned into my pillow. I was grinning like an idiot.
I pulled my fleece blanket up to my chest, curling up, and closed my eyes.
Lex’s handsome, grinning face under those tousled curls came to mind.
Then, for some reason, I thought of Jensen, shirtless and smug and gruff.
Just as sleep started to wash over me, another face came to mind, with unnatural silver eyes and a flicker of a certain smile.
I sat up, startled awake, as adrenaline coursed through my body. Who the hell was that? Why was I thinking of him? I wracked my brain, trying to remember ever seeing a boy who looked like that. I would’ve remembered him.
I lay back down, but as I stared at the ceiling, I couldn’t shake the strange, tense feeling that I was forgetting something, something that I needed to remember.
Mystic Academy
Scarlett Haven
Dying is the best thing that’s ever happened to me.
No, seriously. It is.
Death rescued me from my semi-abusive step-family and brought me a whole new life.
I’m immortal now—a vampire. That’s crazy to say out loud, but it’s true.
Cayson is my savior and my soulmate apparently.
Mystic Academy is a lot different than my old high school. And the girls… well, they bring a whole new meaning to the word bully.
Nothing will ever be the same again, but it’s a good thing. I think.
Copyright © 2019 Scarlett Haven
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means without the prior written permission of the author except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
This is a work of fiction. Characters, incidents, and dialogs are products of the author’s
imagination and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events is strictly
coincidental.
1
Tuesday, November 5
12:27 pm
I hope she suffers.
I dread lunch every day.
At least Monday through Friday.
And it’s not the ‘eating’ part that I dread.
Every day, I sit in my little corner of the cafeteria reading something from the Kindle app on my phone and praying they don’t come over.
They are the cheerleaders. The mean girls. They’re pretty, popular, and they have a vendetta against me. Why? I don’t know. But my stepsister, Cassie, is the leader.
Cassie has hated me from the time my dad and her mom got married four years ago. Since they said “I do,” she has made it her goal in life to torture me.
At this point, it would truly be easier to tell you what she hasn’t done to me. She’s cut my hair, she’s poured her hot soup on my lap, she’s pushed me down the stairs which caused me to break my arm in three places, and most recently, she tried to run me over with her car. I had to jump into the ditch to avoid her, which was full of muddy water from a recent rainstorm. She drove away laughing, not even attempting to check on me.
I’ve tried telling her mom, but I swear her mom hates me almost as much as Cassie. She always claims I’m being ‘dramatic.’ Even my own father sides with his wife over me. And you know Cassie and the step monster make it all seem like an accident.
Yeah… because her shoving me down the stairs was an ‘accident.’
School is just as bad as home. Cassie pushes me and trips me all the time. Once, she even got her jock boyfriend to shove me into the school dumpster by the cafeteria. I had to wash my hair three times to get the soured milk smell out.
I’m hoping today I’ll be ignored. That’s all I want. I just want to sit down peacefully and eat my sandwich without fearing what she’ll do next. I want to read this book, and I want to pretend like I’m living the life of a fictional character instead of me.
I should have known that would be too much though. As I take a bite of my food, something rains down on my head. It’s wet and soggy. I look up in time to see that a couple of the football players are pouring trash over my head. And not just any trash—they’re pouring trash with everybody’s uneaten food over my head. I cover my face to keep it out of my eyes, nose, and mouth, but there’s only so much I can do.
Once the trash is empty, I sit there with goulash dripping down my hair and onto the floor. The sound of Cassie and her friends laughing assaults my ears and, for a moment, I wonder what it would be like to murder somebody. It would be easy. I could just slip into her room and smother her with a pillow. I could even pretend to be sad at her funeral.
But then I realize—I can’t murder somebody. I wouldn’t last a day in prison.
“Oh, wow, Riley.” Cassie sets her mouth in a pout, putting a hand to her chest. “I didn’t see you there. I’m so sorry. I seemed to have dumped my food on you.”
She then proceeds to dump her food over my head too, then she tips over her chocolate milk.
I’ve had it with her.
“Oh, she’s getting mad. Look how red her face is,” one Cassie’s friends says.
I go to get up off my chair to do something. I’m not sure what—maybe punch Cassie. Or wipe some
of this food on her. When I try to get up, I end up slipping on the food and I fall down.
Laughter rings throughout the cafeteria.
I hold my head up as much as I can from the floor, not letting Cassie see how much it bothers me. I’ll save my tears for later. Thankfully, the bell rings and I don’t have to endure any more of Cassie’s abuse.
Cassie never gets in trouble. Her aunt, my step monster’s sister, is the principal of the school. Cassie always play the ‘it was an accident’ card. One time, she even convinced her aunt that I was the one who started it and I got detention for a week—a week.
My life is so unfair, but I refuse to let it get me down.
I wait until everybody is out of the cafeteria before attempting to get up again. I can see the cafeteria ladies frowning, but they’re probably frowning at the mess, not at the abuse that I just experienced.
Everybody loves Cassie. She is beautiful—5’9”, long blonde hair, blue eyes, and a killer smile. I don’t think the girl has ever had a pimple in her life. She’s charismatic and outgoing. And she is nice to everybody, except me.
It takes me a few attempts to stand. I grab my phone and bag from the table, holding them with my clean hand as far away from my messy body as possible, and I head toward the nurse’s station.
The school nurse always takes pity on me. I think it’s because she feels bad for me.
I can barely see through the smudges on my glasses, but know it would be worse if I took them off. I'm nearly blind without them. The nurse’s station isn’t far from the cafeteria and I walk inside.
“Oh, dear. Cassie again?” she asks.
I nod.
“Go use the shower and I’ll find something for you to wear and set it in there for you,” she says.
I give her a grateful smile, sitting my bag and phone down, and then head to take a shower.
Something has to change. I can’t keep living like this. I miss class at least once a week because I’m dealing with Cassie drama. I’m lucky my grades haven’t suffered. I can’t go to the principal, I can’t go to my dad, and my teachers just turn a blind eye to everything. I think that’s why I’m still passing all my classes—because it’s their way of trying to help me in this horrible situation.
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