Scholomance 3: The Devil's Academy

by Logan Jacobs

  I edged toward the similar blue velvet chair in the corner of the room, and I noticed a new uniform was laid out for me. It was all black, but what really stood out was the new cloak. The inside was crimson, there was a larger crest of Scholomance plastered on the breast pocket, and the fabric was elegant and thick, probably made for colder weather.

  I was about to get dressed, but then I heard a small noise that resembled a soft sneeze.

  “Cordelia?” I called out. “Is that you? Are you here?”

  “Of course, sir,” the loyal maid replied. “I’m still bound to you. Just because you changed rooms doesn’t mean you will lose me. I am always here at your beck and call.”

  “Good to know,” I chuckled. “I’m growing more fond of you with each passing day.”

  “Oh, sir,” she giggled. “You’re too much… but as much as I’d like for you to go on, I think you’d better hurry. The first game will begin in an hour, and you still haven’t eaten.”

  “Eaten?” I repeated. “I don’t think I’ll have time for that, Cordelia.”

  “You will if you dress and go down to the living room,” she tutted. “Now, hurry up! Your women are already eating.”

  “Whatever you say.” I grinned.

  So, I quickly slipped on my black collared shirt and matching dark pants and boots before I tossed on my ebony and crimson cloak. Then I headed back to the bed and tried to rouse Alexander from his sleep. I shook him a few times, and his large pointed black ears twitched, but he refused to open his eyes.

  “Wake up!” I demanded. “Let’s go, I need you for the first game.”

  He kicked one of his large rabbit feet in protest, and I shook him harder, but he only yelped and squeezed his eyes shut even tighter.

  “Come on,” I urged. “There’s no time to mess around.”

  Ugh, fine! the testy rabbit snapped as he squinted open his eyes to glare at me. But you owe me one.

  “Whatever,” I laughed. “Just get up, will you?”

  He huffed, stretched, and yawned, and then he followed me out the door and bounced down the small staircase. When I came down to the living room, the women were all digging into a breakfast that had been laid out on the black marble coffee table. They were all wearing the same hairstyle and matching uniforms with the same cloaks I wore over my shoulders. Their familiars were also enjoying the elaborate breakfast, and everyone’s heads shot up when they heard me coming down the stairs.

  “Cole!” Vesta grinned as soon as she saw me. “Hurry, grab a pumpkin muffin.”

  “Or a fairy cake,” Akira suggested.

  “Does it have real fairies in it?” I asked with my nose scrunched up.

  “Well, duh,” the black-eyed witch responded, and a wicked grin spread across her face. “The flavor is in their wings. Adds a sweet crunch.”

  “Pass,” I chuckled before I grabbed something that looked like a blueberry scone.

  Don’t forget to share, Alexander reminded me.

  “Oh, here you go,” I laughed as I handed him a corner of the scone. “Can’t forget you.”

  “So, are you guys feeling as nervous as me?” Faye asked after a moment, and the redhead chewed on her thumb nail as her gold-green eyes darted around the table.

  “Probably,” Akira muttered. “I can’t stop shaking.”

  “Wow, Akira,” Morgana breathed with wide eyes. “You were the last person I expected to admit that.”

  “Well, it’s the truth.” The short-haired witch shrugged. “Think about it, these games are just as cutthroat as our preschool exams. Maybe even worse, because our enemies know we are coming for them.”

  “And just as deadly as those tasks we were set to do last semester.” Vesta nodded.

  “Once again, we’re putting our lives at risk,” Faye sighed.

  “But we’ve got this,” I reassured them. “Come on… let’s enjoy this breakfast and wait for Vanessa to come banging on the door.”

  We chuckled and ate the rest of Cordelia’s breakfast. As soon as we cleared the table, we heard a heavy knock on the door, and before anyone could actually respond, Vanessa came strolling in.

  Today, she was wearing something I’d never seen before. It was a black gown with a bright red insert, and she had the Scholomance crest pinned above her breasts. Her dark hair was pulled up into a tight bun, and her cheeks were flushed.

  “Let’s go,” she said in a firm voice. “We need to prep you all before we send you off into the game.”

  We grabbed our familiars and obediently stood up to follow the professor out the door. Then we trailed after her down to the banquet hall, and when we stepped inside, the entire school, along with the other visiting students, were all waiting for us.

  The room grew quiet, and all eyes were on us as we joined the other groups of competitors. They stood at the front of the room, in the same spot where we’d first earned our wands, and as we moved forward to join them, my eyes landed on the opposing Scholomance team. They were wearing the same uniform, but instead of black cloaks, they wore crimson capes with the same academy crest on their breast pockets.

  Penelope smirked as soon as she saw me, and I could hear Akira scoff by my side, but I averted my eyes and focused on the other team of women.

  The Vipera students were all wearing deep emerald cloaks and smirks across their beautiful faces. They had their hair pulled up into neat buns, and their faces were clean of any makeup. I recognized the horned witch and Nyx, but I didn’t recognize the other two, at least not at first. One of them had caramel-brown skin, apple-green hair, and light, purple eyes, and I knew I’d never seen her before. When I looked at the last Vipera, though, there was something strangely familiar about her. She had silver, glittering hair and bright aqua-colored eyes. It took a long moment for me to recognize her, but then I remembered how her eyes had darkened when she looked at me in the banquet hall on that first day. Today, she didn’t even look in my direction, and I could tell she was too focused on winning to even bother looking our way.

  Damn, they are smoking hot! Alexander said.

  “Easy there, buddy,” I whispered. “They are our competition.”

  Sexy competition, he replied. When you win, do you get to fuck ‘em?

  “Uhh, that’s not how this works. I don’t think.”

  It should, but who the hell are those guys?

  I turned to look at the warlocks, and my nose scrunched up in disdain. The Mors students were all wearing white suits and didn’t even bother to wear any cloaks. I quickly spotted Bram and Malcolm, and that familiar rage coursed through me as I stared at them. They were with two other students. One of them was a tall man with light, sage green skin and a head of thick, brown hair and matching dark eyes. The other was a stern-faced warlock with bright orange-red hair and an ocean of freckles across his pale skin. One of his eyes was black, and the other was crystal blue.

  Each student of the opposing teams had their familiar at their feet, and I was a little disappointed to see they were all fully formed animals. The warlocks of Mors Academy had a crocodile, an overgrow tarantula, a markhor, and a bat-eared fox. The Vipera team’s familiars were also unique, including Nyx’s indigo cobra with bright sapphire colored eyes. The other Scholomance team had a group of impressive familiars as well, and I couldn’t help but notice the fur of Penelope’s red panda was more orange than red, probably to match her hair. The twins Ivy and Iris had a pair of panthers, one pink and one blue, to match the streaks in their hair, and the brunette named Beatrix had something that resembled an antelope, but its neck was unusually long.

  I stared at all the impressive looking familiars for a long moment, but then I reminded myself it didn’t matter.

  We were going to fucking win this.

  Theodora was the last one to enter the room, and all eyes turned to look at her. She was dressed in a simple black dress with a high collar and black leather gloves, and she glanced around the entire hall as she made her way to the front of the room. It was difficult t
o read her expression as she waltzed past the sea of different students. When she approached us, though, I could have sworn I saw her wink in my direction, but it could have been a trick of the light. Then she turned away from us and faced the rest of the pupils.

  “Attention, students!” she roared. “It is my immense pleasure to welcome you all to our very first game of the Ludi Mortiferum! Today, the objective is simple. The teams must work together to find an artifact in a snowstorm, and their familiars will help them along the way.”

  Thunderous applause broke out into the room, and I discreetly glanced at my coven. Akira smirked like she was having the time of her life, and I half expected her to start waving and blowing kisses at the other students. The rest of the coven, however, looked terrified and excited all at the same time.

  “Before we send off our teams into the nether region,” the headmistress went on, “I would just like to remind everyone of the rules… ”

  A deadly silence filled the air as students looked at each other in confusion, and Theodora’s lips twitched as if she were doing her best not to laugh.

  Was there some kind of joke no one else was in on?

  “Oh, that was only a small jest,” she laughed. “There are no rules! May the blood thirstiest and most skillful group win.”

  Vanessa turned around and approached our coven, and her pale blue eyes darted between us before she gently pulled me aside.

  “Your objective is to find a golden chalice somewhere in the mountain,” she whispered into my ear as she pretended to adjust my collar. “You must set your familiars free and allow them to help you guide your way. Be careful of snow beasts and traps… and may Satan be with you all.”

  “Thanks, Vanessa,” I murmured.

  She flinched, and I wasn’t sure if it was because I used her first name, or because she realized she’d given us a useful heads up.

  “Is everything alright, Professor?” Theodora asked Vanessa with a cocked eyebrow.

  “Yes, Headmistress,” Vanessa coughed as she stepped away from me and then roughly pushed me back to my coven. “I’m just adjusting Mr. Cole’s collar… he can’t go into the games looking disheveled. It wouldn’t represent us well.”

  “Ahh, well spotted.” Theodora nodded before she turned to look at the massive crowd and raised her hands up into the air. “Now, let the game begin!”

  As the headmistress’ voice echoed throughout the large room, the gathered students began to cheer, clap, and holler at us.

  Then a deep purple smoke appeared at our feet as our bodies were twisted and turned in the air. My stomach lunged upward as we spun through realms and abyss until finally, we all came crashing down into the snow. I landed face-first into the white slush, and when I glanced up, all I could see was a deep gray sky and a tall mountain directly in front of us. A sudden bolt of lightning split the sky in half, and the violent rumble made snow from the top of the mountain cascade downward. Ice pellets rained down on us, and the ferocious wind screeched and howled as if nature herself was trying to convince us to turn back.

  But there was no going back now.

  “Fuck me sideways,” Akira growled as she pushed herself out of the snow. “That was one of the worst experiences of teleporting ever.”

  “I-It’s f-f-freezing,” Vesta said through chattering teeth.

  “Yeah, no shit,” Akira grumbled, and she wrapped her thin arms around herself. “You’d think they would have provided us with more suitable clothing.”

  “Theodora would never make things easy for us,” I said as I gently released Alexander into the snow.

  I hate the snow, Alexander whined, and he huddled at my feet as his large ears drooped around his head. It’s clinging onto my fur for fuck’s sake.

  “Too bad,” I replied, but I could already feel the frozen temperature numbing my face and fingers. “We’re all going to have to deal with it… and you’re going to have to lead the way.”

  Alexander pouted, but he started to bounce off into the snow and toward the mountain. My coven released their own familiars, and we slowly followed them as they headed in the same direction. It was nearly impossible to see through the growing snowstorm, and the farther up we trekked, the harsher the wind grew, and the more difficult it became to navigate onward. Now, I was beginning to understand why the animals were meant to lead the way. Their senses were more adept at dealing with environmental obstacles.

  “I wonder where the other groups are,” Akira cried out over the wind. “Aren’t we all supposed to be heading into that mountain?”

  “Yes,” I called back as shards of ice tore at my cheeks, “we need to find a chalice somewhere in there.”

  “How do you know it’s a chalice?” Morgana screamed over the growing snowstorm.

  Before I could answer her question, a flash of orange light hit Akira in the back and sent her flying forward. She landed face-first into the snow as she snarled. We didn’t even get a chance to help her up, because the first thing she did was twirl around and aim her wand in the same direction from where she’d been hit.

  “Stupefaciunt!” she yelled.

  Even over the violent wind, we heard a scream and then a loud thump, like something heavy hitting against a rock. I squinted my eyes and tried to see through the blizzard. I saw a glimpse of blue, and immediately I knew it was Nyx. She was struggling to stand, and behind her, I saw dark burgundy hair heading toward us. There was a small wolverine by Nyx’s side and a bear cub that ran by Esther. Even through the snowstorm, I knew Esther had her wand raised and was about to attack, so I quickly aimed my own wand at her, and without hesitation, I flicked my wrist.

  “Conligo!” I shouted over the snowstorm.

  The bright light hit the horned witch, and she froze in place. Her red eyes burned through the snowstorm, and even from this distance, I could sense her anger and resentment.

  “Let’s get to the mountain,” I shouted.

  “But which way?” Akira demanded. “We can see the mountain, but there obviously has to be some kind of secret entrance.”

  “Wait!” Faye yelled. “I can hear Lily! She says we need to head east. There is a small open archway that leads inside.”

  I hadn’t even noticed our familiars had disappeared from view.

  “And where the hell is east?” Akira shouted, and snow was clumping up on her dark eyelashes. “We don’t have the sun to guide our way.”

  “But we do have Cole,” Vesta cried out as she turned to look at me, and her eyes were the same shade of silver as the stormy sky above us. “Can you sense which way is east?”

  “Give me a second,” I replied.

  I closed my eyes and tried to feel for the right direction, but it was challenging to concentrate with the biting cold and the howling wind. Not to mention there were groups of bloodthirsty witches and warlocks behind us.

  “Alexander, can you hear me? We don’t know where to go.”

  My heart dropped when I didn’t hear a response. We had to move quickly, though, and just as I was beginning to lose hope in my furry familiar, I heard him call out to me.

  It’s to your right, he directed. Hurry! I can see those warlock fuckers approaching.

  “I know where to go,” I called out to my coven. “Follow me!”

  We treaded upward through the snow and pushed onward. Moving through the thick slush was a challenge, but soon, we would be in front of the mountain. We were so close to finding the entranceway I could feel it, but before we could get inside the small archway, something growled behind us.

  The sound was loud enough that we heard it over the blistering wind, and when I slowly turned around with my wand out, I saw a towering, white gruesome creature. It had thick fur, and its face appeared as if it were made out of a rubbery gray texture. But that wasn’t the strangest thing about this beast. The odd part was his face mostly consisted of an enormous, round mouth with multiple sets of teeth and a tiny pair of coal-black eyes, and the monster had no nose, only small slits that served
as nostrils.

  I pulled out my wand to attack it, but the beast quickly raised a massive paw and swatted at Faye.

  She screamed just as I uttered the first spell that came to mind.

  “Volant!” I shouted.

  The beast went flying back, and it howled as it crashed into the snow several feet away from us.

  Before it could regain its bearings, I hoisted an injured Faye upward and dragged her into the mountain. As soon as we stepped inside, the air felt strangely damp and not as cold. It also looked like we were in a building, not a cave. There were stairwells, balconies, and furniture in here, which truly caught me off guard, and all our familiars were huddled into a group with bored expressions on their faces.

  “What the hell?” I muttered. “What is this place? I was expecting rocks and grit.”

  “It would seem this used to be a dwelling for snow Wiccas,” Morgana breathed in a dream-like voice as her blue eyes darted around. “How fascinating… I’ve only read about these places in books.”

  “Great,” Akira grumbled as she brushed snow and ice from her hair and cloak, “but who cares? Can we get a move on, please? Damien just told me we need to find some kind of hidden doorway.”

  “It’s amazing how they can sense these things,” Morgana mused.

  Faye groaned in agreement, and I couldn’t help but wince as I stared at the three perfectly symmetrical cuts along her chest.

  “How are you doing there, Faye?” I asked.

  “Fantastic,” she muttered, and her face was twisted into a grimace. “But I’m with Akira on this one. Can we please just find the secret passageway before any more animals or opponents attack us?”

  “Too late,” an echoey voice cackled.

  I spun around and saw one of the warlocks standing there at the mountain opening. He was the one with the bright orange hair and freckles, and he smiled a yellow-toothed grin as he took a step closer. At his feet was a small red and yellow spotted crocodile with stubby legs and a slim snout, and it parted its jaws to growl at us.

  “What the hell are you even doing?” I chuckled. “You do realize that it is us five against you and your little pet.”