by LJ Swallow
NIGHTWORLD ACADEMY: TERM SIX
L J Swallow
Copyright © 2020 by L J swallow
All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
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Contents
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Chapter 35
Chapter 36
Chapter 37
Chapter 38
Chapter 39
Chapter 40
Chapter 41
Chapter 42
Chapter 43
Chapter 44
Chapter 45
Chapter 46
Chapter 47
Chapter 48
Chapter 49
Chapter 50
Chapter 51
Chapter 52
Chapter 53
Chapter 54
Chapter 55
Chapter 56
Chapter 57
Chapter 58
Chapter 59
Chapter 60
Chapter 61
Chapter 62
Chapter 63
Chapter 64
Chapter 65
Chapter 66
Chapter 67
Chapter 68
Chapter 69
Chapter 70
Chapter 71
Chapter 72
Chapter 73
Chapter 74
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Acknowledgements
About the Author
Chapter One
TOBIAS
I promised Maeve no more secrets.
I thought I'd told her everything, but I forget I have a past that refuses to die. The brighter future I hoped for slips through fingers covered by the blood of my crimes.
This morning, I caused discord in the group because I still insisted on my mysterious meeting away from the academy before speaking to Theodora. I spotted Jamie's distrust, but at the time I thought I'd find answers to bring Maeve comfort and allow him to trust me more.
When I arrived at the house, I pictured Marie telling me she’s Maeve’s mother and then I’d return to Maeve with the truth. I’ve resolved to help Maeve in whatever way she needs me, but now if I tell her that truth, Maeve will never want or need me again.
I may be many things, but I’m no longer a coward—I will keep my promise to Maeve and not hide anything else from her. Yes, the news will destroy us and turn her life inside out, but this secret can't be kept any longer.
Even if the secret isn't mine to tell.
I barely remember the drive back to the academy, or the final words spoken to Marie, and I can't stay away to spend time thinking about the situation. Maeve and the guys are waiting for me, again looking to their unofficial leader for answers. Looking to me, the guy who once created hell on Earth for Maeve’s family.
Thank the stars Maeve has a circle hellbent on protecting her, because once the box of secrets splits open, the truth will engulf us all.
Chapter Two
TOBIAS
I fight the urge to tell Maeve the moment I return to the academy, but the group urgently want me to speak to Theodora about April and the tunnels. If I pulled Maeve to one side, the others would want to know why I held a secret conversation with her.
And I'm not ready for the bomb to explode yet.
I manage to shut down long enough for the quick meeting to assure them I'm visiting Theodora this evening, but Maeve senses my discomfort when I barely look at her and won't answer her worried questions in my mind.
Are you okay, Tobias?
I walk away without answering, sick with nerves.
Theodora is expecting me, but I haven't indicated why I'd like to speak to her. If my information about the tunnels helps keep the academy and students safe, perhaps I’m not totally lost, and I'll still have one foot in the life I cling onto.
I knock quietly on Theodora’s door, and when she calls me in, I find her sitting in the wing-backed chair beside the sofa that she usually favours when our chats are more casual. The brightness has returned to her eyes, but following the events disrupting her academy, the powerful lamia has lost the glow that surrounds her. Theodora’s hair is scraped back into a severe bun and her clothes business-like. She isn’t relaxing into her evening.
Theodora inclines her head towards the sofa, and I move over, picking up her knotted emotions. The most prevalent scares me—her despair.
“Do you have any information about April’s whereabouts?” she asks the moment I sit. "Sofia approached me this morning and I'm asking all professors before we declare her missing. I'm rather annoyed I've waited all day to speak with you."
I clear my throat. “I apologise. I had an emergency.”
“With Andrei?”
“No.”
Her eyes narrow. “With Maeve?”
Fuck. I fix my eyes on a brass lamp resting on her desk, the one resembling an old-fashioned lantern. I should’ve come straight to Theodora this morning and told her about the tunnels and April, but I weighed things up and came to what is probably the worst decision. My argument to myself for not walking straight to Theodora made sense at the time—whatever exists within the tunnels has lain there a long time and is constrained by Blackwood magic. The hard-hearted Tobias concluded April has died and we’d deal with the disappearance later.
Now these thoughts are another reminder how shit my behaviour and motivations can be.
"I don't know where to start." I pull on my bottom lip. "We've discovered tunnels beneath the academy. They end at a stone wall below Petrescu."
Her expression remains unmoved. "We?"
"Me, Maeve, the others—"
"And April," she puts in. "Was she with you?"
"Yes. No." I sink back and push a hand through my hair. "Maeve senses something behind a wall deep under the academy. We think this is linked to her visions of the academy fire. To the Blackwoods."
Again, Theodora's lack of response confuses me. "And what did you find?"
"Nothing. Well..." I reach into my pocket and pull out the rune Andrei found. "This confirms the Blackwood connection. Maeve saw April use these at the end of the tunnel in a vision and somebody attacked her."
Finally, a wide-eyed response. "Attacked Maeve?"
"No. April. In Maeve's vision. You asked me if I know where April is, and I don't. But I think somebody harmed her. There's witch blood on the rune."
Theodora holds out her slim-fingered hand and I place the rune in her palm. She studies the symbol impassively before handing the stone back. "Blackwood, yes. Perhaps April is our spy?"
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I blink rapidly. "April? I don't think so."
"Then how did she possess Blackwood runes?"
"She found them; the way Matt found the grimoire?"
"Hmm." She wrinkles her nose. "I fail to see how and why more Blackwood items are inside my academy."
"What do we do?" I ask.
"About April? Don't worry, I'm sure she's fine."
Did this woman listen to me? "About the tunnels, Theodora. I honestly think there's a threat down there that's attracting the Blackwoods. Something is trapped and the Dominion want it released."
She smiles and her eyes crinkle at the corners. "Dear boy, if something were trapped beneath my academy, don't you think I'd be aware?"
I clench my teeth at her condescension. "Yes, but—"
"I'll speak to the Confederacy and ask them to look into your discovery, but I'm sure this is nothing."
I shake my head. "Maeve's visions. The fire. The heartbeat."
"As I said, I will ask the authorities to investigate," she says tersely.
"And will you evacuate the students before something happens?"
Theodora's mouth parts. "I think not. I'm not making far-reaching decisions about the academy based on Maeve's imagination."
"Her magic, Theodora, not her imagination. Maeve is stronger than we thought."
"Elaborate, Tobias." She waves a hand at me and pushes away discussions about tunnels. "I sensed unease when you walked into my room today and that hasn't dropped now you've told me about the tunnels. What else has happened?"
I swallow. “I visited Maeve’s aunt today. She had information that will affect Maeve greatly, and when she discovers the truth, Maeve could react badly.”
Theodora tips her head. “Her aunt? Did she have a vision about the academy again?”
I’m on the verge of putting my head in my hands. “I have so much to tell you, Theodora, and I don’t know where to start.”
"Perhaps at the beginning, Tobias?"
I've always found Theodora more imposing than a woman with her slim frame and gentle nature ordinarily would be. Her ability to meld friendliness with a personality that demands respect creates the perfect head professor. I've also heard she's a formidable enemy and fought hard to protect her family and friends during the Purge. Somehow, she's remained as comfortable with life in the twenty-first century as in the fifteenth. Not all the elders do.
People once thought I'd transitioned well from a Victorian vampire to a life teaching modern-day kids.
People who don't know the truth.
Theodora knows that truth, but not everything. I'm forbidden to reveal my identity, but that instruction must be overridden now, and I’m honestly terrified by how Theodora will react.
“Very well,” I reply.
Repeating Marie's words cements the situation into reality. The event I've hidden from myself and others now fills my mind and, although I gloss over this and attempt to focus on Maeve's true identity, Theodora can't dismiss this the way she once did. The professor thinks I killed a couple of witches and at first was hesitant about my teaching here. On one occasion the Winterfall massacre came up in conversation, and Theodora believes that a man capable of unrestrained evil would never re-join society.
There was never any connection in her mind.
My words not only destroy her trust in me, but also in those who oversee the world she helped create after the Purge. These people in Confederacy authority placed the person responsible for the Winterfall massacre into the midst of her students.
As I flatly recount my day, Theodora moves to stand behind her desk as if she’s safer from the threats closing in on her academy. Her composure drops away, friendly aura dropping into disgust and anger as the truth wipes away her reality too.
“Maeve’s aunt must attend the academy immediately and explain everything to myself and Maeve,” she says harshly. “And I am standing you down from teaching duties indefinitely.”
“Of course,” I say and stare at my shoes.
“I'm in two minds whether to allow you to stay here at all, but if something does exist beneath my academy, I need you here.” Her hard eyes meet mine. “This cursed connection to Maeve is for a reason.”
Do I thank her or agree? I moisten my dry lips and look away.
“I am furious that the Confederacy have allowed this situation. I knew you’d killed witches, but this...” Her hand flies to her forehead. “I have the most notorious killer in recent years teaching relatives of the people he killed.”
What can I say?
“I’m not only talking about Maeve, Tobias. Witch families are interconnected by blood or association. Once the witch elders discover this...the academy is ruined. Nobody would trust my judgement again.”
“With all due respect, Theodora, I believe the situation in the tunnels is of greatest concern now.”
Theodora drops into the chair behind her desk, elbows on the smooth wood and head in her hands. “Why is this happening? I’ve overseen this academy for many years, and never have I faced situations like this. Disappearing and murdered students are enough to deal with but this!”
“I agree that we speak to the Confederacy council about the situation.”
“We?” Her jaw tightens. “You may keep your role as Maeve’s protector from a distance, but you are not a part of this academy any longer.”
I swallow. This academy is more than a place of employment. The Nightworld academy was my second chance; my home and connection to a new future. To Maeve. “But you’ll bring in others to investigate?”
“I have no choice,” she snaps. “But until I’m told otherwise, this academy continues as normal.”
I jerk my head up to look at her. “Is that wise?”
“You speak of spies and betrayal. I can explain away Confederacy visits, but how would I explain the decision to close the academy?”
“But, the... thing... whatever the hell is behind that wall is no longer dormant. Maeve can hear something.”
“That is a change in her, not the academy. I will ask the Confederacy to send powerful witches they trust to investigate. Then I will make a decision based on their advice.”
"You're putting the students in danger, Theodora." Have I sent her into shock and she's stopped thinking straight? I’m also wary about Theodora involving the Confederacy because the corruption Alaric investigates could be high up, but what choice do we have? This is a direct threat to the students and academy, however much Theodora downplays the situation.
Pursing her lips, Theodora gazes at the window and for a moment her thoughts fade from me. "Maeve. A Winterfall," she says in quiet awe. "This puts a new perspective on her situation here." She looks back. "As I said, Marie must attend the academy at once to confirm this story and to speak with Maeve."
"I agree."
"A Winterfall," she repeats. "This is fortuitous, considering the current situation."
"In what way?" I ask cautiously. "Is this why she can hear the heartbeat?"
Theodora's face twists in disgust again. "I have nothing more to say to you, Tobias. Your lies destroyed the relationship we formed."
But I catch a flash of something unusual amongst the turmoil of anger and confusion in her mind.
Hope.
For what?
I'm forced to listen to more of Theodora’s ire, but a picture Maeve’s face won't leave my mind's eye. The situation is out of my hands—Theodora, Maeve’s aunt, and the Confederacy will take over. Will they give Maeve the help she needs, because she won't want help from me?
I'm mentally exhausted, an unusual state for me, and I can't face more of this today. I tell myself I'll need all my energy for tomorrow's onslaught, when I share the truth with Maeve too.
Or maybe I'm the coward I deny.
I leave Theodora with a heavier heart than when I arrived this evening and walk through the night towards my rooms.
The sun has already set on the day that tore my life in two.
Tomorrow that
life will be in pieces.
Chapter Three
TOBIAS
I'm awake before dawn and spend an hour standing on the balcony connected to my rooms as I watch the sunrise. I should worry how many more I'll see once the world knows my true identity, but that's the farthest thing from my mind.
Maeve.
Do I talk to her somewhere neutral to us both? Not here. In public?
Theodora banned me from the academy with immediate effect but agreed I could retrieve my small number of belongings from my classroom, including my chest of family items. The one where I re-locked the Blackwood grimoire inside; I'm not leaving that unattended.
Maeve’s strong, but that won't be enough. How could anybody have the strength to cope with what I’m about to tell her? Worse still, what if Maeve's inevitable hatred towards me interferes with what we need to do to combat the threat?
So many fucking questions with no answers.
One thing I do know is Maeve needs somebody to turn to once I've spoken my destructive words.
