A red torrent gushed from his flesh. He made a gurgling sound as he fell backward, and we both tumbled out of the portal. Blood sprayed all over my face and chest. The air grew cooler as we tumbled to the hard ground, back into the fairy ring in the garden of Nocturna Academy. Crashing on top of Preston, I took a gasping breath as another pain zipped across my shoulder blades, and the silvery glow vanished from the edges of my vision. Frost covered the grass around us but melted quickly.
Preston’s wings retracted now that we were back in the human world.
His eyes rolled back, and he didn’t move. “Preston?” Blood continued to gush onto the grass, staining it red as the ground lapped it up. Behind me, the portal wavered before snapping shut. My heart raced. I had gotten out of the portal, but had taken Preston with me. Worse, he was seriously injured because of me. He might die if I didn’t get help soon.
“You—” There was so much hatred and accusation in that one word. Preston moved his lips, but no more words came out, and then his breath stopped and his gaze became unseeing.
I stood and backed out of the fairy ring, staring at Preston’s body, staring at what I had done. I had killed a fae prince and returned to the prison I had so desperately tried to escape.
Dear Reader,
We hope you enjoyed Onyx’s adventures. We were very excited to create a fantasy world where fae face off against vampires. We love stories about underdogs!
The Nocturna Academy series has three more books that we plan to publish rapidly between November 2019 to December 2020.
Book 1, Cruel Elites will be released at the end of November.
To hear about our newest releases and receive a free short story, please sign up to Margo’s and Holly’s readers groups. (We will never share your personal details and will only notify you periodically about new releases, sales, freebies, giveaways, and bonus content.)
Read more
Dear Reader,
We hope you enjoyed Onyx’s adventures. We were very excited to create a fantasy world where fae face off against vampires. We love stories about underdogs!
The Nocturna Academy series has three more books that we plan to publish rapidly between December 2019 and January 2020.
Book 1, Cruel Elites will be released at the 5th of December. You can preorder it here.
To hear about our newest releases and receive a free short story, please sign up to Margo’s and Holly’s readers groups. (We will never share your personal details and will only notify you periodically about new releases, sales, freebies, giveaways, and bonus content.)
About Holly Hook
Holly Hook is the author of the Cursed Academy books, which will be completed as of November 15th, 2019 and the Alpha Legacy series, a 7-book YA paranormal romance. She is also the author of the Destroyers Series, the Barren Trilogy, the Flamestone Trilogy, and the Twisted Fairy Tale series, among others. She lives with two obnoxious cats
Click here for Holly Hook’s Amazon page.
Contact: [email protected]
Facebook: Holly Hook Author
Subscribe to my newsletter here
http://www.subscribepage.com/e3w3s2
About Margo Ryerkerk
Margo Ryerkerk is the author of The Cursed Fairy Tale series and The Dark Legacy Series, a YA paranormal series about magic, love, coming of age, and friendships. After completing a BS in Psychology, a MS in Marketing, and a two-years stint in the fashion world, she became a full-time author and can’t believe she gets to spend her days creating stories. When she’s not writing, she loves to read, travel, and dance to pop anthems.
Raised in Austria, Margo now lives in the USA with her husband and her Pomeranian.
www.MargoRyerkerk.com/contact/
Also by Margo Ryerkerk
The Dark Legacy Series
Dark Legacy, Book 1
Mirror Sacrifice, Book 2
Spirit Snatcher, Book 3
Phoenix Call, Book 4
Phoenix Unleashed, Book 5
THE CURSED FAIRY TALE SERIES
The Nutcracker Curse
The Bluebeard Curse
The Hansel and Gretel Curse
The Djinn Curse
Click here for Margo Ryerkerk’s Amazon page.
Facebook: Margo Ryerkerk
Goodreads: Margo Ryerkerk
Email: [email protected]
Instagram: MargoRyerkerk
Wonderland Academy by Melanie Karsak
Wonderland Academy: Corbin
Wonderland Academy: Corbin
Wonderland Academy, Book 1.5
Melanie Karsak
http://www.MelanieKarsak.com
Blurb
Novel Description
Welcome to Wonderland Academy. Don’t lose your head.
Corbin Liddle has always known magic was real. His grandmother Alice raised him on stories of Wonderland. With Wonderland on the brink of war, Corbin is called to perform an important duty. Alice Lacey Crane, a girl from our world who knows nothing of Wonderland, is the key to the magical kingdom’s future. It’s up to Corbin to protect her at all costs. Even if that means risking his heart.
Join Corbin in this flipped point of view story, Wonderland Academy: Corbin, Book 1.5 in the Wonderland Academy Series.
Chapter One
Nan’s Bar and Grill
I wrapped my hand around the mug of beer and lifted it, taking a long drink of the dark liquid. There was one good thing about this place, the Guinness on tap. My eyes flicked toward the back of the bar. From where I was seated, I could catch a glimpse into the kitchen. Once more, I spotted her yellow hair. Make that two good things.
Noticing the waitress headed my way, I averted my eyes, looking out the window once more. It had been raining for the last three days. The town, with its dull autumn hues, dark skies, and perpetual rain, was depressing. Sitting along Lake Erie, the place was eternally shrouded in mist. The dark waters lapped against the rocky shoreline. I couldn’t remember being in a more depressing place.
“Here you go, hun,” the waitress said, setting down my plate. “Want another beer?”
“Yes, please.”
She smiled at me. “With manners like that, of course.”
Was it really so hard to say please? Al, my grandmother, had pounded manners into me. And when I didn’t remember, a birch switch tidied them up around the edges. If there was one thing Al couldn’t abide, it was bad manners.
I huffed a laugh then looked down at my dinner. American pub food wasn’t much different from back home, but this was the first time I’d ever eaten a salad topped with French fries, steak, and cheese. I studied the dish. I was famished, so it would have to do.
Once more, I looked through the slats in the partition back to the kitchen. She had made the food. I’d seen her working at the oven, preparing the plate. She was quick at her work. Quick, quiet, and beautiful, with her stained apron, messy bun, and all. She hadn’t noticed me. She never looked into the bar. When she did take a break, she’d sip her coffee and stare off into the distance, her mind always somewhere else.
I pitied her. A bullet train was speeding her way, and she didn’t even know it.
Grabbing my fork, I took a bite. Crunchy, salty, cheesy, greasy, and delicious. I polished off the last of my beer as I ate.
“Here you go, my dear,” the waitress said, setting down a fresh mug.
“Thank you.”
“Irish, right? I didn’t want to ask before. Thought it might be rude.”
I nodded.
“What in the world are you doing in this Podunk middle of nowhere?”
I flicked my eyes toward the kitchen for just a moment.
Watching out for her. “Just passing through.”
She nodded. “I’d pass through too, if I could. Wave if you need anything else.”
I inclined my head to her, then turned back to my meal. The dish went down a lot easier than I expected, topping off a stomach too full of stout. My head swam, but not
more than it should have.
I eased back into my seat, sipping my drink, then pulled out my pocket watch. It was nearly midnight. The barflies at the bar were whooping it up as some late-night TV host joked. The light in the kitchen went dim, and soon, I heard the rattle of pots and pans as she cleaned up the kitchen for the night. By twelve-thirty, she and the bartender—her mother—would leave. I nursed my drink as the bartender washed up the last of the dirty cups then pulled off her apron. She chatted with the waitress, then turned and headed to the back.
“Lacey,” the bartender called. “Ready?”
I couldn’t hear the girl’s reply.
Lacey.
They had told me her name was Alice, just like Granny Al. But no one called her that. I was glad. I’d come all this way expecting to find someone just like my grandmother: bullheaded, loud, and tough as nails. Instead, the Alice I’d found was…sad.
I rose, set some cash on the table, then pulled on my jacket. The waitress waved as I headed out the door.
It was pouring, the rain coming down in heavy sheets. I pulled up my hood and headed to the parking lot in the back. Slipping into my truck, I shook off the rain then waited. A few minutes later, the back door to Nan’s Bar and Grill opened.
The bartender and the girl—Lacey—rushed to one of the cars parked outside. I waited until they’d pulled out of the parking lot to follow.
Watch her. Keep her safe.
That’s what they’d told me. It didn’t take much imagination to guess who I had to keep her safe from. Wonderland’s operatives were everywhere in Overthere these days. How much the Queen of Hearts knew about Lacey, I had no idea. Very clearly, the girl knew nothing. But still, I watched.
Watch her. Keep her safe.
That’s what they told me to do. That’s what I’d always been told I would do. So that’s what I did.
Following a discreet distance behind their rusted-out Mustang, I drove down the streets of the little town to the bridge that crossed Tuxedo Creek. It was dark, but I could see the telltale shimmer of the mermaid who lived in the stream. Like all mermaids, she crossed the barrier between this world and Wonderland through the water. Thus far, she was the only Wonderlandian I’d seen. Since she was staying put in her creek, I let her be. But she was there all the same.
Crossing the bridge, we came to Lacey’s neighborhood once more. I turned off the lights of my truck and coasted to a stop just down the street from their house. They pulled the car into the driveway of the dilapidated two-story house then ran to the door to get out of the rain.
I was either getting to be a very good spy, or this girl needed all the help she could get. She never suspected I was watching her. Not once did she look my way. She always had this flat expression on her face, like her mind was elsewhere. Where, I didn’t know.
Yawning, I slid down into the seat. The porch light went out. A few minutes later, a light flickered on upstairs. The odd, upstairs lighting confused me at first, but then I realized she’d strung Christmas lights on her ceiling. I spotted her silhouette against the curtain. She’d let her hair down. The lights went out.
“Goodnight, Lacey,” I whispered.
Watch her. Keep her safe.
I set my pocket watch on the dash of the truck. Just below the face of the watch, numbers ticked down. Soon, I’d need to go back to Wonderland. Soon, we would both be headed to Wonderland.
But she had no idea.
One day, we’d meet. One day, she’d know my name. But how would that sad girl react when she finally realized I’d known her all this time? That I knew everything about her, things she didn’t know about herself. I stared at her dark window. An ill-feeling gripped my stomach. No. It wouldn’t go like that. When I finally spoke to her, she wouldn’t be angry or sad, because I was going to do whatever it took to make that girl smile again.
Chapter Two
Mario’s Sacred Quest
I woke up late the next morning, my neck cramped from the weird angle I’d slept in. I’d spent two weeks camping out in this truck, and I still hadn’t found a good position in which to rest. I eyed the driveway. The car was still there. She wouldn’t leave until it was time for her shift later that night.
I yawned tiredly then got out to stretch.
Across from Lacey’s house was a rundown shell of an old gas station. The building was still intact, but the paint was peeling off, the windows covered in thick dust. The pavement in the parking lot was broken; grass and weeds had taken over once more. The long-dormant gas pumps rusted, a bent streetlight hanging over them. The place had been abandoned so long that when they’d repaved the city street, they’d poured a new curb, blocking the entrance to the parking lot. Nature had retaken the space.
I headed across the field/parking lot to the abandoned building. Slipping around the back, I found a door with a rusted chain and padlock. Checking my surroundings, I pulled out the wand hidden in my back pocket.
“Into pieces,” I said, aiming the wand at the lock. The lock and chain shattered with a cloud of rusty, red dust. Opening the door, I slipped inside.
The old, cracked black-and-white checkered linoleum had seen better days. The place looked like someone had shuttered the doors in 1950 and hadn’t looked back. From the chrome chair behind the ancient cash register to the yellowed poster of a pinup calendar girl half-hanging on the wall, everything screamed of a different era.
It had been like that at Granny Al’s home too. Except there, everything had screamed Wonderland. As a boy, I hadn’t known anything about Wonderland. I’d just thought Al was…eccentric. No. As a child, I’d thought Al was crazy. And my da just as bad. It was no surprise my mum had run off and left us. Maybe it was because Al and Da were so peculiar. But maybe it was just because of Wonderland.
“All of this,” Mum screamed. “All of it. I’m done with all of it!”
From my room in the back of Granny Al’s house, I heard the sound of china shattering. I was six at the time. From as far back as I could remember, Mum and Da had fought like they hated one another more than they loved each other. And for some reason, I knew Al was at the heart of it.
Grabbing my teddy bear, a stuffed brown bear I’d loved so hard I’d worn his button eyes off, I crept from my bedroom to the kitchen to find my mother tossing all the teapots and teacups onto the floor.
“I’m sick of it. All of it. The two of you are driving me mad. I’m taking Corbin and leaving!”
They hadn’t seen me. The teddy stuck under my arm, I clung to the doorframe and watched the scene unfold, my body frozen with terror at the thought she’d take me from Da and Granny Al.
“Pssh,” Al said, blowing air through her lips. “You want to go, go. But you are not taking that boy.”
My da sat quietly at the kitchen table.
“Albert,” Mum railed at him. “Someone tried to kill you today. Kill you! The two of you are going to get us all murdered. And for what? Fairy tales.”
Al laughed then turned to my dad. “Well, Albert?”
“Lottie,” Da said gently to Mum. “I told you when we got married—”
“You didn’t tell me everything. Hell, you didn’t really tell me anything!”
“The boy is not going. So you might as well be on your way,” Al said dismissively.
Red-faced, tears rolling down her cheeks, my mother grabbed her purse and the suitcase sitting at her feet. “This is your last chance, Albert. Leave this place. Leave her and come with me. We don’t have to live like this. Corbin doesn’t have to grow up like this.”
“Lottie, please,” my da said, pain in his voice.
“Ugh,” Mum screamed angrily. She snatched her keys out of the candy dish then marched out of the house.
“Lottie,” Da called, racing after her. The screen door slapped closed behind him.
I could hear them arguing in the yard outside.
“You can come out now, Corbin,” Al said. “Be careful of the broken glass.”
Tiptoeing around t
he shards, I went to Granny Al and climbed into her lap. She was a frail thing, all her bones jutting out. Even then, I knew she was old, ancient. But what I didn’t know then was that time in Wonderland worked differently.
“Is Mum leavin’?” I asked.
“Yes, I think so.”
“Is she going to come back?”
“I don’t know.”
“She didn’t even say goodbye.”
Al pulled me close and kissed the top of my head. “I know.”
“Why is she going?”
“Because…” Granny Al began then paused. “Because some people are born seeing the world black and white. And other people are born seeing the world as a kaleidoscope of moving colors. Your mum sees only black and white.”
“And Da sees the colors?”
“Yes.”
“Do you?”
Granny Al laughed then whispered in my ear, “I’ve seen colors no one even imagined yet.”
“Do I?” I whispered in a small voice.
“Hmm,” Al said thoughtfully. “I don’t know. Want to take a test?”
“Is it hard?”
“No. Not really. Let me show you something. Tell me what you see. All right?”
“Okay.”
She rose, moving me onto her chair. She then removed the teacup she always wore on her belt. Holding it by the handle, she waggled her fingers over the rim. A moment later, I saw something strange. Glimmering pink and gold light steamed out of the cup. Granny Al whispered under her breath and pointed the magical light toward the broken china on the floor. A moment later, wisps of magic flew all around the room. And before my very eyes, the shattered pieces of the teacups and teapots wiggled to life. Slipping across the floor, they reformed once more. When they were done, they flew off the floor and back into the cupboard, the door on the cabinets clapping closed with a bang.
Academy of Magic Collection Page 46
