Elemental Fae Academy: Book Three: A Reverse Harem Paranormal Romance

by Lexi C. Foss

  For once, I allowed myself to have faith in a royal.

  Titus gave me a reassuring nod. “We’ve got this.”

  I believed him.

  Not because of the severity of his expression or the way he said it, but because I knew him. Claire’s chosen mate. Member of our circle.

  As a unit, the six of us were powerful.

  And we would prove that today, a certainty I felt all the way to my soul. We’re coming for you, Claire.

  I followed Exos and Vox through the Earth Quad, rage burning in my chest with each step because we couldn’t walk in a straight line, forced to avoid the writhing Earth Fae that were dying all around us. My instincts begged me to stop and help them, but my soul’s priority belonged to Claire.

  My mind reeled from having to face this darkness again, from watching others suffer while I survived. It wasn’t right. None of this was right.

  The ground trembled as I stormed along behind Vox and Exos.

  Vox glanced back at me with concern knitting his brow. “Save your power for whoever is behind this.”

  He wasn’t telling me to contain my gifts, not anymore. Vox had changed and so had I.

  But he was telling me to be smart about it.

  Cracks radiated out from each heavy footfall as I embraced my element. “Don’t worry,” I said through gritted teeth. “There’s plenty where this came from.” When I finally had a target for my fist, I’d revel in breaking every bone in the culprit’s body.

  Because someone had to be behind all of this. Plagues didn’t just happen. No, there was someone pulling the strings, and my instincts told me that puppet master was after my Claire.

  Exos paused when we reached Elana’s mansion. It didn’t surprise me that this was where he sensed Claire’s spirit, but it did confirm what we were all already thinking.

  Dark vines guarded the entrance, a maze of twisted earth magic that stood in our way.

  “Well, that’s new,” Exos mused.

  I didn’t share his amusement.

  “Get out of our way,” I commanded, storming through the earthy blockade. Vines snapped beneath my command, the earth rumbling in favor of its approaching master—me. Some of the plants retaliated, pinching me with familiar energy as if all my people were here, protecting Elana as their queen.

  Why?

  The magic and energy were wrong here. I sensed a well of power beneath the ground—a lot of it.

  Vox and Exos followed on my heels.

  “She’s here,” Exos said, certainty underlining his tone.

  But I didn’t need him to tell me that.

  Because I felt her, too. Imprisoned underground. Scared, but not alone.

  There.

  I knelt, intending to rip out the ground with my power, when pain spiked up and down my spine. Claire’s ethereal screams echoed up through the layers of earth and hit me straight in the chest. The ground began to quiver and quake, forming jagged cracks and spikes of harsh rock.

  “Get back!” I roared just as the columns of Elana’s manor splintered and the floor gave way. Vox swept us all out into the safety of the forest with a blast of wind just as the walls of her home came down.

  “Claire!” we shouted as one.

  But none of us could be heard over the roar of energy and power swirling up into the clouds.

  The manor… was gone.

  Claire

  Several Minutes Earlier

  “Well, this presents a slight problem,” Elana mused, glancing at my corpse of a mother. “You just had to reach out, didn’t you?”

  “What is this place?” I demanded, whirling around and flinching as more of that slime on the floor touched my shoe. Well, sort of, anyway. I wasn’t exactly corporeal, but even in spirit form, I definitely felt my surroundings.

  Like my mother’s icy fingers grasping my arm. “Go, Claire,” she urged. “Go!”

  But I couldn’t.

  I didn’t even know how I got here, let alone how to leave. So I focused on Elana instead and repeated my question with a haughty arch of my eyebrow.

  It earned me a chuckle from the bitch on the other side of the bars. “You think to command me, child? That’s adorable. You couldn’t even summon a spirit properly.” She tsked. “Oh, Claire. I had such high hopes for you. What will I do now?”

  Eat shit and die? I thought. But yeah, that wasn’t the best reply to this situation. So instead I folded my arms and assumed a casual position, similar to how I imagined Cyrus or Exos would do if they were in my shoes.

  “You could start by explaining yourself,” I suggested. “I mean, we both know my mother’s evil. But you told me she was dead.” A thought occurred to me then, one I ran with without looking back. “Actually, you told me her body was never found and suggested she might be alive. Why? Because you had her in custody?” I tilted my head, feigning confusion. “Why hide her? Why not tell everyone you have the source of the plague?”

  Assuming my mother even caused it, I added mentally. Which I’m seriously starting to doubt.

  The way my mother’s expression fell with my comments confirmed my instincts, but I still wanted an explanation for all of this.

  Answers regarding the plague. A way to help the Earth Fae. Why it’s happening all over again now. My lips flattened. Wait a minute...

  Why it’s happening again now, I repeated to myself, my senses picking up on something I’d missed before.

  Elana.

  She was surrounded by spirits, their smoky tendrils chaotic and terrified as they tried futilely to swim away. As if she was sucking them all into her with a summoning spell…

  “How did you get here?” Elana demanded, ignoring my questions.

  Does she know I can see all those souls slithering around her? I wondered. She had to at least expect it since I was in my spirit state. Hmm, but it would be best not to confirm it.

  So I sighed, acting agitated. “Exos keeps trying to teach me how to navigate the spirit planes.” Not necessarily a lie. “He told me to seek out a soul I knew, and I thought I was going to Sol, yet somehow ended up here.” Well, that wasn’t exactly true, but it carried hints of the truth.

  Enough to lend confidence to my tone, anyway.

  “I have absolutely no idea how to get back to my body,” I added truthfully. “But since I’m here, I’d love to know what’s going on.” I arched a brow, glancing at my cowering mother and then back at Elana. “Did you find her lurking around campus? Because we’ve suspected she had something to do with Exos’s disappearance last month.”

  Elana’s eyebrow rose in a perfect example of surprise. “What disappearance?”

  I fought the urge to scoff, As if you don’t know.

  Instead, I said, “Someone took him and siphoned off his energy. He said it felt a lot like Ophelia.” I glanced at my shivering mother, her hand no longer on my arm. “You tried to kill my mate. You’re going to pay for that.” An empty threat, but I imagined myself saying the words to Elana, so they came out just as lethal as I desired.

  My mother opened her mouth as if to reply, only to wince as her jaw snapped closed.

  A strand of energy trailed from her lips to Elana as if she wore a muzzle tied to a leash. Could I see that because of my current state? Or had my powers grown?

  Elana smiled one of her trademark indulgent smiles. “Actually, I did find her recently. I just haven’t decided what to do with her yet.”

  I bet, I thought. “What was she doing?” I asked, wanting to see how far this lie would go.

  Elana waved a hand as if brushing the question aside. “What matters is that I’ve caught her and we can seek justice. I was just in the process of trying to find out what she’s done to the Earth Fae, in fact. This would serve as a suitable lesson for you, if you’d like to join our interrogation.”

  Man, she’s good.

  Still playing the part of perfect mentor despite the obvious red flags.

  But hey, why not play along? It wasn’t like I knew how to leave, and mayb
e I’d glean some important details along the way.

  “I’d love that,” I said, not lying. “As I clearly have no idea what I’m doing.”

  “I don’t know, Claire. You seem to be doing very well to me. Appearing in this form outside of the spirit planes, as you are now, requires a great deal of power. It’s something not even I can do.” A hint of envy flashed through her gaze, but she blinked it away behind her caring mask. “I have great hopes for you.”

  Uh-huh. To do what? I wondered.

  “Well, where were we, Ophelia?” Elana continued, her mask slipping just a hair as she focused on my mother.

  Fear radiated from my mother, her fingers clenching into fists as she fought the tendril of spirit hovering against her mouth.

  What do you really want to say? I thought at her, tempted to brush that strand away, to reveal her true words.

  It looked easy.

  Just flick it with a talon of my own.

  “She’s lying!” my mother screeched as the rope disappeared, my heart skipping a beat in the process.

  Shit. Did I do that?

  But I didn’t have time to worry because my mother took center stage, words spewing from her on a wave of truth that unsettled my very soul.

  “It’s not a plague. It’s Elana. She’s feeding off the Earth Fae like she did the Spirit Fae. It’s dark magic, Claire. She siphons the elements, borrows them, kills them. It’s not me. But I figured out what she was doing when she forced me to bond to Mortus, using spirit compulsion. I broke free by going to the Human Realm, but I met your father, and then she came for me. I had to leave you, Claire. I had to leave both of you behind. But she’s framed me for all of this.”

  It all came out so quickly, so harshly, that Elana didn’t have time to stop her.

  Mostly because I seemed to have her strand caught in my mental fist.

  Something her thunderous expression told me she’d noticed.

  Oops.

  Sorry, not sorry?

  I swallowed as the calm-mentor veneer disappeared, revealing a darker expression, one that caused the hairs along my arms to dance in warning. Her lips peeled apart into a sneer that had me instinctively reaching out to Exos. Only, I couldn’t find him. Or Cyrus. Or Vox. Or any of my mates.

  Oh, they were there. But not. Like I’d somehow left them in my current state, similar to when I’d ventured into the blinding white light.

  Shit.

  I should have evaluated that earlier, but I’d been distracted by my mother and Elana.

  Now, however, it became far too clear that I was on my own to find a way out of this.

  “I could try to deny it, but what would be the point?” Elana took a step toward the bars, her eyes on my mother. “You’ve been such a disappointment to me, Ophelia. Over and over and over again.” She tsked, the sound reminding me of nails on a chalkboard.

  An ice dagger shot from her hand toward my mother’s chest, one I instinctively manipulated with my fire to melt before impact.

  Elana snarled, sending another that I quickly deflected before creating a sheet of flames meant to protect my mother from further assault.

  “You’ve been holding out on me,” my former mentor accused, changing tactics and focusing on me. “If the fae knew how powerful you’ve grown…” She trailed off, tapping her jaw. “Well, I imagine we’d share an execution chamber. It’s what the fae do to those they consider different. It’s all about the balance, trying to avoid wars between the supernaturals, because they all fear true power. Which you and I both possess, Claire. In abundance.”

  She took a menacing step forward to wrap her fingers around the bars, completely unfazed by the heat flaring from the fire shield I’d created.

  “I know what it’s like,” she murmured. “Not being accepted by your own kind, being called derogatory names like Halfling or Weakling. Being a Spirit Fae with access to only one element painted me as insignificant to most. They either teased me or pitied me.” Her lips flattened. “It wasn’t an easy existence, knowing I couldn’t tell anyone my true nature. Knowing if anyone found out my father was a Midnight Fae that I’d be burned alive. It’s not like I chose my parents, but the fae don’t care, Claire. They discriminate against anyone they fear.”

  I swallowed. Because what she described matched what Exos, Cyrus, and Kols had told me. Abominations, they’d said. And I was fully aware of how the others had treated me as a Halfling, like an unwanted roach among a sea of butterflies.

  But they’re different now, I told myself, recalling the ball. They were… nice.

  Because they liked me?

  Or because of my ties to my mates?

  “You know it’s true,” Elana said, astutely reading my thoughts. “They wanted to banish you to the death fields just for existing, Claire. But I’m the one who made sure that didn’t happen. I’m the one who protected you, offered to mentor you, vouched for you. Because I don’t believe in prosecuting someone just because of her birth. I value your power, Claire. I want to see how high you can climb.”

  “Don’t listen to her,” my mother interjected. “She just wants to use you, Claire. Like she—” She cut off on a gurgle, water spilling from her mouth.

  Fuck! Her lungs were overflowing with liquid. I focused on the element, calling it to me and begging it to bend to my control. But Elana had a firmer grasp, her age and experience far surpassing my own.

  “Ophelia, you’ve well and truly served your purpose here,” Elana said, her tone holding a wicked edge that frosted the air with power. “When I present your remains to the fae, they’ll bow at my feet in worship, thanking me for finding the one who plagued their kind. Maybe I’ll do it just in time to save the Earth Fae from their fate.”

  My mother’s eyes went wide, her expression a plea that slashed my heart.

  No!

  We weren’t finished here yet.

  I needed answers.

  And it seemed my mother possessed them all.

  She began to convulse, drowning on the liquid clogging her airways. But the element refused me, Elana’s grasp on it decidedly strong.

  An element she shouldn’t even be able to touch, I thought, frowning. Unless it’s not water at all, but something else entirely. Something like dark magic.

  My gaze widened.

  Shit.

  I couldn’t fight her Midnight Fae side. But I could use my own gifts to fight her.

  Like earth.

  Roots danced beneath the concrete floor, begging for my attention. I caught two of them and thrust them upward right beneath her feet to dislodge her stance.

  She tripped to the side, her concentration momentarily distracted.

  I mentally latched onto two more roots, sending them upward to grab her, only she dodged and sent a flicker of smoke to encircle the limb. It immediately snapped, the agony from the ground nearly bringing me to my knees.

  But I wasn’t done.

  Stones and dirt and earth responded to my call, dismantling her floors and creating a bumpy terrain that threw her off guard. She fell with an Oomph.

  And my mother sputtered beside me, finally able to breathe.

  I knelt beside her, unsure of how to free her. The bars were iron, thick, encrusted in fiery magic. And not the element I adored, but a harsher essence that seemed to answer to Elana alone.

  She leapt up with a roar, a horde of inky strands writhing around her.

  Earth Fae.

  They were scrambling, screaming, trying to escape.

  But she was sucking on them harshly, absorbing more and more of their power.

  Is Sol among them? I wondered, my heart catching in my throat. Aflora? How many others?

  I had to do something, anything, to stop this madness.

  It couldn’t continue.

  I wouldn’t let her take down the Earth Fae as she had the Spirit Fae. Sentencing a faeling to death because of her bloodlines and abilities was wrong, yes. But Elana’s response, her torment, her violent reactions, made it all so much
worse.

  There had to be another way.

  I refused to accept her path, to agree with such a fucked-up mentality.

  This can’t be the solution.

  My arms spread wide, my elements joining and thrashing inside me, urging me to intervene, to fix this. To help the Earth Fae trapped around her aura. To free my mother. To find another method of coexistence. To take down the bad influence who threatened the source of elemental good.

  Heat engulfed my being, my fire stirring passionate and hot.

  Ice cascaded down the walls and along the iron, penetrating the brutal energy and winding around it in wintry ringlets.

  Rocks rumbled beneath my feet, answering to my call and vibrating with vengeful need.

  A breeze kissed my cheeks, whirling in rapid circles up and down the corridor, searching for a way to break me free.

  And my spirit thrived, my essence reaching out to all the dying souls floating in this dungeon, to lend strength for survival and life.

  Vitality, I realized, calling upon the source as I closed my eyes. They need vitality.

  Chaos erupted as Elana chanted foreign words, her own magic battling mine and springing deathly hollows all around us.

  Visages of ghosts, howling in pain, painted the ghastly dungeon. Their mouths gaping in hunger as they slowly began to crawl into our reality, their presence disturbing the balance between life and death.

  Everything began to shake.

  The foundations of the building around us unable to hold because of such power and wrongness.

  I grabbed my mother, calling the roots to fold around us, to craft an impenetrable hold, and demanded the souls beneath the earth to latch onto my essence.

  They swam in waves, eagerly leaving Elana for the safe haven I created, my water flowing in a spring above my roots to hold the falling debris off of us.

  But there was too much.

  The power too great.

  Energy hummed around me, my mother cringing beneath the violent onslaught. I couldn’t hold us much longer, had to do something, to save us all.