Magic Within: A Young Adult Urban Fantasy Novel (Bloodline Academy Book 1)

by Ahava Trivedi

  “There is one thing you can try but the chances of it working are very slim,” said a voice from behind us, from the thick shadows that now lurked in the cemetery. It was Aviar Quartz, Safi’s brother. He was the only one who’d stayed behind when the others left.

  “You’ll need to tell her what it is then, because every second counts!” demanded Ulric.

  “You need to give her your blood. Normally when they’re staked, they’re pretty much dead but you’re a Crystal Witch and a vampire. Your blood might be powerful enough to save her. I just don’t want you to…hold out too much hope.”

  I ripped my silver sucker from my pocket and made a deep gash in my palm, holding it to Natalie’s mouth. About half a minute passed and it made absolutely no difference. Despite the few drops that must definitely have fallen on her lips, she continued to weaken and her eyes had started to glaze over. “It’s not working!” I cried, loud enough so Aviar could hear me.

  “I told you I couldn’t be sure, no one’s ever successfully revived a vampire from their ultimate death,” said Aviar, not at all on edge. He was Pearl Quartz’s son alright.

  “I’m so sorry,” I whispered to Natalie. I knew she couldn’t hear me. Her body had already begun to shrivel and had reduced to a gaunt shell of who she’d been. She was really dead. Just like that. The only vampire I’d ever known who’d preserved their heart and their humanity long after being turned.

  I crumpled up beside her and sobbed. I cried for her death. I cried for the briefness of our friendship. My heart ached for the kindness she’d shown towards me and how that was what had gotten her killed. I cried for the self-pity of always ending up alone, no matter how much it seemed I wouldn’t. But most of all I wept because if I hadn’t been sent here against my will, she’d be alive. And yet for the many times she’d saved me from myself, I hadn’t been able to save her even once. At some point Ulric came and sat down beside us, trying to comfort me.

  “You did everything you could,” he said. His words were hollow to me. Everything meant nothing when it had ended the way it had. He took my hand in his and held it to his lips, kissing the back of it. I just felt numb. “Your hand,” he said, turning it so he could look at my palm.

  “What about it?” I managed to eek out.

  “It’s completely healed,” he said, looking at me, “is there a chance that cut you made…”

  “Healed too quickly!” I completed his sentence, “Before she got to drink from it properly!”

  “Yes, but Katrina,” he said, as I sprang up and ran over to the gates of the cemetery.

  “Aviar!” I called out, “are you still there?”

  “Here,” replied Safi’s brother coming to the gates.

  “Do you have your dagger?” I asked, hope growing within. I knew that certain witches and members of Superno and the S.L.A. carried them for spells and defense purposes if need be.

  “I do but as your werewolf friend was trying to say…” began Aviar.

  “Just give it to me, I need to borrow it,” I said, holding out my hand. Aviar silently withdrew his small dagger and passed it through the space between the metal bars. The slender blade was cold and heavy. The handle was ornately fashioned and weighted, studded with clear quartz crystals, as well as a rose quartz and some amethysts and two rubies.

  “What are you going to do? She’s gone,” said Ulric, trying to convince me. I ignored him and went back to Natalie. Or where she’d been. There was little left of her but a skeletal heap that blended into the rubble it lay on top of. Even the stake that had killed her, was flatly lying redundant on her remains. I took it and threw it as far away as I could.

  A few seconds later, when I heard a rattling as it hit the ground, I closed my eyes and drew a deep breath. With all the focus I could conjure, I slit my wrist, holding my arm out above her deteriorated body. The blood dripped steadily, falling onto the pile of bones. It wasn’t long before I began to feel very dizzy. I keeled over, still making sure that every drop fell on Natalie’s body. My blooming made me even more light-headed as swirls of white and silver also exuded and settled over where my blood dripped.

  “Something’s happening!” I said, as I saw the mound begin to take shape again. I slumped on the ground, with Ulric right by my side, trying to stem the bleeding. But with his back to it all, he didn’t see what I did. I saw the decay reversing as both my magic and blood worked to bring Natalie back. I saw her form rapidly come together. I even saw Aviar, drop his pride and walk straight through the gates of the cemetery and run towards me, right before I passed out.

  Chapter 22

  We sat in a row, staring across at Nadasdy’s desk, where he was expected to grace us with his presence in the next few minutes. Ulric, Natalie and I. Madame le Boursier and Professor Duquette didn’t take their eyes off us but as usual, they were both hard, if not impossible to read. Duquette looked stunning but for the death stare she’d perfected and was using liberally on each of us. Le Boursier looked only at me with the same intensity as she had on the day I’d been admitted to Bloodline Academy.

  “I’ve spoken with the Supernatural Light Alliance and assured them that what happened was a one-off incidence. In all my years heading this academy, I’ve never seen such behaviour amongst students. Your inability to follow the most basic precautionary instructions was beyond comprehension,” said Nadasdy walking into his office. Duquette and le Boursier nodded fiercely.

  “I’m sorry, principal but would you be able to elaborate on which parts we failed at? Only, if I remember correctly, it was Lilith and her gang who kidnapped the High Priestess of Kat’s former coven, who nearly drank her dry and then staked me. As the temporarily murdered party, I feel outraged that we’re being blamed for what happened,” interrupted Natalie. Wow, whatever bringing her back had done, it had certainly made her braver. I loved it. As long as it didn’t get her killed all over again and from the way Duquette fixed her glare on her, I couldn’t be sure.

  “You’re right, Miss. Summers. Their behaviour was deplorable. My qualm with the three of you, is that you completely took matters into your own hands instead of seeking out a member of staff.”

  “Lilith, Riskel and Nyx, won’t be returning to St. Erzsebet’s Academy,” said Duquette begrudgingly.

  “Correct,” agreed Nadasdy, “for the first time ever at this academy…we’ve been forced to get rid of them.” Something told me he wasn’t talking about expulsion. I felt a shiver run down me.

  “I got the message from some of our profs that witch-hunting was accepted,” I said with nothing to lose. Afterall, I was the resident witch.

  “Most certainly not!” protested Nadasdy. Bullshitter. And, it is a crime against our kind for students to single out and attempt to deliver a fellow student, their final and ultimate death. Vampire students do not kill other vampire students. It’s a crime by every measure.” This time Nadasdy glanced at Ulric and then back towards Natalie and me. He sighed.

  “We do have some connections to the Dark Legion, you know that Miss Quartz. But let me tell you this. They have a much bigger plan in mind than telling amateurs to go around kidnapping and partaking of the blood of local witches.” Nadasdy smiled, a twisted smile.

  We walked out of Nadasdy’s office after countless, severe warnings from all three members of staff, two hours later. Ulric had covered Winnie’s tracks enough that her part in supporting Lilith had gone undiscovered. At least for now. From what I gathered, brother and sister weren’t even on talking terms. Most of what I got from Nadasdy and Duquette was that although they were unsure how to deal with me, they’d decided to keep me around as well as Natalie and Ulric. We’d tried to downplay how exactly I’d raised Natalie from her ultimate death but I could tell that they knew there was more to it.

  Safi and I had communicated the next day, before we’d been pulled in to see the principal and I’d learned Lorna was recovering well, although Safi was in big trouble with her mom for her inadvertent part in Lorna’s kidnapping.
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  There was also talk about the Circle of Quartz being dismantled as the incident had drawn the inevitable scrutiny of the S.L.A. and the coven had officially been declared unsafe. That must

  have sucked most for Lorna. What Nadasdy had told us about the Dark Legion had only confirmed what Safi and I already believed. That something big was brewing and unless the people at the S.L.A., smartened up a whole lot more, the world wouldn’t stand chance against whatever was on the horizon. I had my suspicions that the only reason Lilith, Riskel and Nyx had been banished, or worse, from the academy was because they had kept Lorna for themselves.

  “I’m going to get some well-earned sleep,” said Natalie, hugging me and parting ways.

  “I’ll be right with you,” I called after her.

  Ulric and I stood in the foyer alone. Our eyes met and the golden flicker in his, made me feel warm, like I could take on the world. We stood there awkwardly, clueless what the other was thinking. Not wanting to go our separate ways and yet unsure of what else to do, we walked outside.

  “I’m sure Winnie will come around,” I offered, as we stood in the silence of the courtyard. I wasn’t so sure she would.

  “Hmm,” replied Ulric. He took my hand, turning it in his and tracing a finger over where I’d made a deep cut in my wrist to bring Natalie back. “It’s healing nicely. You can barely tell that twenty-four hours ago, you almost bled out.”

  “Right,” I replied.

  “That warlock – the one who’s Safi’s brother –he saved your life. He’s earned my loyalty for the rest of mine.”

  “Aviar Quartz, is his name,” I said. What I wanted to do was ask him more about why he felt so indebted to Aviar. I wanted to know how he really felt about me. “I guess it means I’ll be around to bug you a little longer,” was all I said.

  “True, although, with the cemetery back to how it was before, I will miss chaperoning you back-and-forth.”

  “There’s a lot more to do than that, now,” I said and Ulric nodded pensively.

  “For the past few years, I’ve seen the light dim and the darkness grow. Whatever’s coming is going to wipe out the side that’s least prepared. And I have a feeling what happened with us last night was just the beginning,” said Ulric in a whisper as he looked around. It was my turn to agree. “Like my sister, it would have been so easy for you to turn against them all. But you didn’t.”

  “When I saw Lorna suffer the way she did, I knew which side I wanted to be on – which one was really me,” I replied, as a realization dawned on me. Even if my coven hadn’t believed in my light, I had found it. Though I wish I hadn’t found a taste for blood to fully be able to summon my magic. “I don’t know how but I’m going to help make sure light magic prevails,” I said, feeling a rush through my whole body as my blooming began to tingle.

  “And I’ll be right there with you,” said Ulric, “all the way.” I looked into his gleaming eyes and knew that he wasn’t just talking about fighting the darkness.

  THE END

  I hope you enjoyed meeting Katrina Quartz in the first story of the Bloodline Academy series! The second book in the series, DARK SPARK, will be out in February 2020 and up for pre-order really soon. To sample the first chapter, just flip the page!

  Her inner witch is growing stronger. But her vampire’s just waking up…

  DARK SPARK

  Chapter 1

  “Don’t forget to answer only if you’re spoken to. And, give short answers – one word if possible,” said my professor, Etienne Devin. His almost black eyes, gleamed at me, intensely.

  From the time we’d left the academy, Professor Devin had been instructing me on exactly how to answer for the hearing at the Witches Council. “Miss Quartz, it’s very important, so please pay attention. On the chance that they shut us out, you’ll be representing St. Erzsebet’s,” he tried again. I nodded, although I was sure he picked up how non-plussed I was about the whole thing. “I don’t want you to be caught off guard,” he concluded, his fingers steepled together as our black stretch-limousine crept through New Orleans. Even through the darkly tinted glass of the windows, I could feel the heat of the sun, penetrating inside.

  “Oh, blah, blah, Etienne, get me a violin, you’re too kind,” my other professor, Professor Duquette, chimed in. Checking that her hot-pink nails were satisfactory, she shot me a condescending glance, her close to iridescent eyes, menacing, yet gorgeous. “Look, sweet-pea, here’s the thing in language you’ll understand,” she said. Her lips were flushed with a matching gloss, the same as her nails. “You don’t like us and the feeling’s more than mutual. We have our reasons for keeping you on with us but other than that, we’re here today because you and your frenemies, completely bombed at the first semester by getting tangled up with your former coven. Now we want to see exactly what those a-holes at the S.L.A. have decided to do about the perceived slight of the academy students involved.”

  “Exactly,” agreed Devin, whose concern had been veiled in wanting the best for me in not wanting the S.L.A and its Witches Council to pin something on me that I hadn’t done. I knew this was all a lame ruse. They didn’t care about me. Whatever the Witches Council could say or do, it was clear that I had helped to rescue my former High Priestess. Even if I was blamed for her kidnapping in the first place, I was at a point where I knew the truth. I didn’t care two hoots. And neither did the vamp profs at the academy. Their desperation wasn’t through feeling responsible about me, it was to keep an eye on what went down.

  “So, what should I say? About Lilith and the gang?” I asked, referring to the vamps who had orchestrated the entire plot to kidnap and kill the High Priestess. The same students who were now missing from Bloodline Academy with the knowledge of all the staff, including the principal, as to what had become of them. Something they hadn’t shared with any of us.

  My roommate Natalie and I had feared the worst for their fate. They had been the enemies. Our enemies. But the swiftness with which they hadn’t been seen and nor heard from had still been concerning. Natalie suspected that they’d been delivered their final deaths by none other then the professors and the school’s security team.

  “You’ll say what you know,” replied Professor Duquette with pursed lips.

  “Which is?” I persisted.

  “That they were expelled for their gross misconduct,” said Professor Devin sharply. Our ride was a silent one as we wove our way out of the city and towards the sprawling swamplands along the great Mississippi River. The slight prickle of the heat despite it being January, had told me that a storm was coming to an otherwise cloudless sky.

  “And we’re off to a great start. The least they could have done was to have had this thing after sundown. But of course, they wanted to give us the finger before we’d even set foot anywhere near them,” Duquette said, rolling her eyes and turning away with disgust.

  Even I agreed with her. It did look like a power-play, calling vamps to attend a hearing at noon. But I could hardly blame them. Vampires on S.L.A. territory at night, and that too, such powerful ones, would have been like putting two, rather darkly inclined foxes between the chickens. Devin made me feel more uncomfortable than Duquette. At least with her acidic demeanour, I knew where I stood. He continued to watch me, with interest. Like I was a specimen at his disposal, there for him to study.

  We approached and turned onto the long path that led up to the Supernatural Light Alliance Head-Quarters in Louisiana. I’d only ever heard of this place and even looking around, couldn’t quite believe it existed in plain sight. It reminded me of my old coven from the outside but was on a much larger plot of land. About twenty houses worth the one I’d lived in whilst I’d been a member of my coven, the Circle of Quartz.

  Our limo pulled up right outside the large estate and two uniformed security guards immediately walked over to us. The driver, a human worker at Bloodline Academy, who had said not a word throughout and looked like he was under some sort of vampire compulsion, arbitrarily rolle
d down his window.

  “What’s your business here?” asked one of the security personnel. He was a handsome guy with bright white hair and purple eyes. Definitely a shifter of some kind, though not a werewolf.

  “On business,” managed our driver.

  “And what would that be?”

  “We have a witch who’ll be attending the hearing in the Crystal Wing. We’re her guardians,” replied Duquette, looking put out to be talking to the shifter. I flinched. Since when were they my guardians? I briefly thought about Babette, my other High Priestess and adoptive mother.

  Technically, although Lorna, the High Priestess who’d been kidnapped by the now missing vamps, was also my adoptive mother, it had always been Babette who fit the term best. I wondered if Babette would be at the hearing. What did I care? She hadn’t even tried to make contact once since it had all gone down with Lorna. That was actually inaccurate. Babette’s absence went back further than that. She hadn’t been in touch since I’d found myself at Bloodline Academy. Some mother she’d turned out to be.

  “All the folks who’ll be attending the hearing, get out of the car, please,” said the shifter. We stepped out into the day and he checked each of us, scrutinizing every part of me the most. “You, go through the main entrance, the Crystal Wing is marked with signs. It’s all the way down at the other end of the hallway,” he instructed me as another shifter, one who was a werewolf, joined him. “You two can come with me,” he stated to Devin and Duquette.

  Devin flashed me a look that said, remember what we told you, and I walked up the wide stone stairway to the main double doors. Inside it was refreshingly cool. There was such a lightness to the feel and energy of the place that its’ magic enveloped me and was very palpable once inside. I felt bright as my arm tingled and my own blooming reacted to its environment. By comparison, I realized how much darkness I’d gotten used to at Bloodline Academy.