Daizlei Academy Omnibus Collection

by Kel Carpenter

  “Challenge her.” I swept my gaze from him to my cousin, hunched defensively where he’d left her .

  It was so out of place for her, so…her eyes twitched to the side and a cold realization descended upon me. Making a snap decision and wasting no time, I stepped over the edge and into the arena. Snow plumed a foot or two off the ground as I hit it with a soft thud. The ice itself seemed to crackle with the otherworldliness of something more.

  Or someone.

  “You’re looking a little pale, cousin. Are you feeling alright?” I asked casually as I took slow, exaggerated steps around her. She narrowed her stormy grey eyes, watching every move I made.

  “Fine,” she replied stiffly. There was something else to it, a hint of roughness beneath her tone that wasn’t just her. I cocked an eyebrow.

  “You sure about that?” I asked nonchalantly. In my gut I knew what it was. I just needed to lure her out a little bit more…

  “For fuck’s sake, what are you doing?” Oliver said angrily, stomping over towards her. For someone that was supposedly skilled in politics, you would think he could read body language well enough to know something was up.

  “I wouldn’t do that if I were you.”

  Blair’s breathing quickened as he crossed the space towards her and cupped a hand behind her elbow, almost…tenderly. I tucked that away for another time as I waited for her snap.

  I wasn’t disappointed.

  From the sideline, Johanna screamed for Oliver right as Blair’s eyes darkened to pits as black as hell.

  Bingo.

  Blair twisted in his grip and I anticipated her move just before it happened. She reached out to gouge his jugular, but I mentally pulled him away from her and tossed him over the lip of the arena. A spray of blood showered the air and I grimaced.

  She was faster than I anticipated. Faster, maybe, than even me.

  This was going to suck.

  Chapter 124

  I hoped he wasn’t dead, but it wasn’t like I had the time to check. Blair was already moving. I ducked just in time as a dagger came flying at me and I grabbed the second between two flat palms as she hurled them at me in quick succession.

  Both were aimed for my eyes.

  “You’re very angry,” I said, keeping my voice at a conversational tone and pace. For one, yelling would probably only piss her off more. Two, her senses might be heightened. If they were, then she was probably already going into sensory overload. “Want to tell me why?”

  Blair’s demon glared at me distrustfully, only flicking her eyes up to the ridge for the briefest of moments. “He’s not my signasti,” the demon replied.

  Shit. I had two choices here, and both of them had unwanted consequences.

  I could talk her down and let everyone know who her signasti was—and that she’s known this entire time. Or I could try to subdue her—which may result in a very real fight between demons.

  Goddamnit.

  “Oliver?” I asked, playing dumb. Blair gave me a pissy look and nodded. She knew that I already knew. Which meant her demon was privy to that as well. Crap.

  I wrangled the two options back and forth in my head needing to buy time and see if I could coax Blair out. There was no way she wasn’t fighting for control right now.

  “Okay.” I started edging my way around the circle. “What’s that have to do with anything?”

  Blair wasn’t having any of it. She walked opposite of me, never letting me get any closer than the farthest point from her.

  “He doesn’t touch me,” she snarled.

  Okay then. I was beginning to wonder how much of the bond madness had set in for her as well and she just couldn’t see it.

  Maybe with distance between them it was easier, but they’d stretched it much further than Aaron and I. And now they were in close proximity again. They’d also endured worse stress to it, but a string between two people can only be pulled so far before it either snaps or they are drawn back together.

  “How does Blair feel about that?” I asked, distinctly trying to avoid who her signasti was. Her demon growled.

  “She’s being dense,” it replied vaguely. I cocked my head. That was an awfully thought out answer for a being that only just surfaced. Different than Alexandra and hers, but clearly not united like me and mine. Somewhere in-between.

  We were going to have a talk if—when this was over.

  “Mhmm.” I forced myself not to look up over her head where Alec was standing over her. Out of the corners of my vision, I could tell he was trying to make sense of the scene in front of him. “Blair is a lot of things, but I wouldn’t call her dense, and I don’t think this is going to earn you any favors when she takes back over.”

  She stared back impassively, giving absolutely nothing away.

  “That’s an if, not a when,” she replied coolly.

  Alright then, I guess it’s going to be like that. Snow started falling lightly into the wind. But the forecast didn’t call for snow. I briefly considered the possibility that it was Blair, but that kind of power…well, it would rival very few in the world.

  And that realization instantly made me wary, because if there were any who could control the weather…it would be Blair, whose very last name was Stormer.

  A chill went down my spine and the demon smiled knowingly.

  “Worried, cousin, that you won’t be able to force me back?” She flicked her eyes to the sky and smiled a bit more as the snow really started to come down. I bit my cheek, mentally cursing, but smiled lazily on the outside.

  “Not at all,” I replied as a mass of gleaming red hair appeared over the arena. I lifted my eyes from my cousin to my sister, pleased to see hers held a steely resolve before bleeding black. Not a trace of white in sight.

  “What are you—” The words were only partially out of her mouth when she turned and froze.

  Alexandra chose that moment to step over the lip of the arena and join us, casting a barrier of black fire over the pit.

  Blair paled, but did not cower or try to run. I didn’t expect her to, and I would have been disappointed if she tried.

  “This is how it’s going to be?” she asked, almost like she was giving as a warning. A chance to turn back now. I wondered what card she had up her sleeve that made her so confident, or if she was just bluffing.

  “It doesn’t have to be any way,” I replied. She shot me a scathing look and I shrugged. “You’re Blair’s demon. She needs you just as much as you need her, but if you go off vying for control and trying to kill people, she’s going to lock you away.” I held up my hand and Alexandra, currently merged with her demon, copied the sentiment.

  “You can’t possibly know that’s what she’ll do,” the demon replied with a glance at our outstretched hands. I smiled, completely genuine, but took no pleasure in what would come next if she didn’t cooperate.

  “Oh, believe me, I do.” I nodded, motioning to myself. “I locked my own other half away for years, as I’m certain she has been doing with you.” I took three steps toward her and she took one step back. “And she will continue to if you show her you can’t be trusted. So, your choices here are this: join with us as an equal so that we can help you, or fight us and find out how strong your other half really is.”

  I continued walking toward her with Alexandra until her back was completely against the wall, and our hands were only feet away. She had nowhere to go and no way out, and I didn’t for a second think she would stop fighting if she didn’t take the offer.

  Blair’s demon glanced between us and slowly extended her hand.

  But I wasn’t born yesterday.

  The wicked gleam in her eyes did not trust us. It didn’t trust anyone. I wasn’t surprised when her other hand went for a blade, but she caught me off guard when a flood of water came out of nowhere and condensed around me, forming a globe around my head.

  The images before me distorted through the liquid. One moment I was standing with my hand out in good faith, and the next I fell
to my knees, gripping my stomach as a slicing pain ripped through me.

  I gasped, accidentally opening my mouth and the water pushed its way past my lips and down my throat. I choked on the lack of air, a sudden panic filling me.

  She’s trying to drown me.

  No. Her demon half was trying to drown me.

  But she underestimated one thing: I was a matter manipulator, and no one played games quite like me.

  I mentally reached for my connection to this world and space around us, while my own demon pushed forward more. The water distorted my vision but the unseen strings around us flashed from black to white. I blew outward, mentally forcing the water out and away from me.

  It dropped like rain, falling on the fresh layer of snow.

  To my side, Alexandra and Blair were battling it out, but the shield that previously separated us from the training field had fallen. Patches of fire and ice dotted the arena in between sludgy piles of mud. I tore my eyes from the two viciously battling girls to the pain coming from my stomach.

  “You’ve gotta be fucking kidding me,” I growled. The bloodied handle of a dagger protruded from my stomach where I can only assume Blair had stabbed me.

  She owed me after this. Big time.

  I grit my teeth as I wrapped my hand around the hilt, prepared to pull the sucker out and hope I healed fast.

  “Need some help?”

  I looked up to where Aaron had suddenly appeared. He kneeled in front of me, his face edged with concern. I pursed my lips against the snarky reply that wanted to come out. This wasn’t the time.

  “Sure,” I replied tersely, releasing the handle to be able to grasp my stomach and staunch the bleeding when he pulled it out. Aaron placed one hand on my shoulder and one on the dagger.

  “On three,” he said. I nodded.

  “Three.”

  “Two.”

  He pulled.

  “Mother—” I swallowed the rest of my insult as my body rocked forward into his.

  “Shhhh,” he murmured, wrapping his bloodied hand with the dagger around me. We didn’t move or speak for almost a minute while my cousin and sister fought behind me. I half expected to get stabbed in the back, but Aaron didn’t leave my side.

  “Can you help me up? I’m almost healed, but I need to end this so I can go lay down.” I kept a hand pressed firm against my stomach and wrapped the other arm around his shoulders, inhaling the scent of smoke and the wilderness while he lifted me.

  By the time I was standing, the blood had clotted and the wound in my stomach was healing, but it would probably be a few hours before I could move without pain. As it was, I had to bite the inside of my cheek to swallow my groan when I stepped away from Aaron.

  Blair and I were going to have some choice words very, very soon.

  “Alright, cousin. I’m royally pissed, so let’s—”

  My words broke off when I saw both Alexandra and Johanna fighting to subdue Blair. Together you would think it was a quick dispatch, but Johanna wasn’t fireproof like the rest of us and that made Alexandra have to hold back, giving Blair the upper hand.

  My cousin deftly blocked Alexandra’s punch and sent a kick into her stomach while casting a jet of water at Johanna to slow her down. In some ways it was impressive, how she managed them both while simultaneously staying one step ahead.

  In other ways, it was a vision and a nightmare of what she’d become if she never merged with her demon.

  She wouldn’t merely be a force to be reckoned with. She would be a force that the world would come to fear, should she ever fall as deep as I.

  You won’t let her.

  I swore it to myself, and then I brought her to her knees.

  Phantom hands wrapped around her, forcing her down. Her will thrashed against mine, causing the snowstorm to turn downright treacherous. Chunks of hail the size of coke bottles rained down on us, and I had to mentally umbrella the arena so no one was killed. The slush around our feet swirled together as if to prepare for another attack, but I was done playing this game.

  “Listen to me, cousin, and listen loud and clear,” I commanded without moving. I would fall to my knees if I tried and that wouldn’t look very intimidating. “You will merge because you have no other choice. Without each other, you will go insane and die, and I have lost too many people to let that happen.” I swallowed hard but didn’t take my gaze away from hers. This was a challenge like any other, and I would not lose. “If I have to do this every day with you, I will. Give me back my cousin.”

  Her demon stared at me like it didn’t have a care in the world, and part of me wondered if it really didn’t. The rest of me knew there was no point in wasting time to keep this up.

  She spat at the ground, making her decisions abundantly clear.

  I sighed and nodded to Johanna.

  She struck her temple once and Blair collapsed like dead weight.

  Her beautiful blonde hair turning grey and muddy in the wake of the already dispersing storm.

  Alexandra walked over to me, her obsidian eyes already fading to rusted brown. She wore a grim expression on her face and sported several shallow but already healing cuts of her own.

  “Well, I guess that confirms which parent this comes from.”

  Alexandra and I shared a look, but she didn’t reply. She didn’t need to.

  If all three of us were demons, then both our mothers were as well, which means it was someone further back that caused it. The question is who?

  And even more importantly, how?

  Chapter 125

  I was kneeling by the edge of Blair’s bed when her eyes fluttered open. Grey—not black. I breathed a sigh of relief and brushed a hand over my newly healed stomach. Thankfully, I’d taken the time to bathe and change clothes. The clean cotton t-shirt was as much for my benefit as hers.

  The last thing she needed to see when she woke was my blood from her hands.

  “How are you feeling?” I asked. She rubbed her head, cringing when she touched the spot where Jo had hit her. After Blair took a chunk out of Oliver, I don’t think she had bothered to be gentle.

  “How do I look?” Blair groaned. She moved to push herself up and I gave her the space, ignoring both Alexandra and Aaron’s slightly jumpy reactions from the doorway. They’d insisted on being here. Just in case she woke more akin to Lily…than me.

  “Like shit,” I shrugged. It was a given. We hadn’t bothered with her slightly dirty clothes or muddied hair. I thought she might appreciate the chance to hide, and taking a shower was a great way to do that.

  “Sounds about how I feel.” I nodded while she stretched her arms to their breaking point before relaxing back. “I think it’s safe to assume you’re here because we need to talk,” she continued. Blair scooted over on the bed to make room for me and shifted to sit cross-legged. “Well, you may as well take a seat.” She motioned to the bed. “All of you.”

  I rose to my feet and situated myself on the edge. Alexandra came around to sit on her other side, but Aaron remained standing. Stoic.

  “I’m sorry, but someone needs to remain vigilant until we know more,” he told her, apologetically, but firm. His eyes flicked to me, my stomach, before moving back to settle on her.

  “I get it,” Blair said softly. She was struggling more than she wanted to let on, but she was also being compliant. There’s a lot to be said for that when I was very aware of her still too-fast beating heart and reflexes. She was using her speed without realizing. Which meant her demon wasn’t far.

  “It’s nothing personal,” Aaron said, trying to assure her. She waved him off.

  “Please,” she said. “Don’t coddle me. I’m lucky it’s only you three and not chains in the dungeon after this morning, so spare me the pity. You have no reason to feel guilty.” She picked at a stray thread in the expensive sheets, trailing a short fingernail across it.

  “After everything that’s happened, do you really think we’d throw you in the dungeons?” I asked her. “I cause
d an earthquake and you guys didn’t do it to me.” I thought maybe if I appealed to her logical side she wouldn’t feel quite as bad, but Blair was a realist. She reached out and placed a hand to my stomach.

  “First, you’re the Shifter Heir’s signasti. Second, I stabbed you. In their culture, that’s more than enough reason to be executed,” she said without emotion. There wasn’t a trace of fear in her when she looked expectantly at Aaron. He sighed deeply but nodded his head in agreement. “So yes, I am lucky this was the reception I woke to.”

  Right at that moment, a heavy pounding and a roar more animal than human echoed from the other side of the door. “Blair!” Alec yelled.

  Damnit. I told Johanna to keep him out of here…

  “Is that…” Blair’s face paled as her voice trailed off. She knew who it was. I didn’t need to tell her. Still, I nodded. She swallowed hard. “I don’t want to talk to him.”

  “I know,” I said. Behind Aaron, the door rattled and then came a loud thump. On the other side, I could hear Jo speaking under her breath in another language, probably cursing to herself.

  “Do you know who he is?” Alexandra asked.

  “Yes,” Blair said without hesitation.

  “But you never told him you knew?” There was a hint of judgement in her tone. Her eyes flashed between Blair and I, like she blamed us somehow. Like it was our fault we didn’t jump for joy that we had found our soul-shackled partners.

  I bit my cheek and kept my thoughts to myself.

  “Yes,” Blair repeated. There was a harder edge to her tone, daring Alexandra to say what she clearly thought when she didn’t know the half of it.

  “How?” Aaron asked from behind us. I suppose it was natural for him to wonder, given our situation. But this wasn’t about us, and her problems with Alec weren’t the thing we were here to discuss.

  “I don’t really think this is our business, and we have slightly more pressing matters,” I interjected, ignoring the brief flash of Aaron’s eyes.

  “But if the bond madness is causing—” I cut Alexandra off with a sharp glare of my own.