Soul Bound: A Paranormal Reverse Harem Romance (Arcane Arts Academy Book 1)

by Elena Lawson

  “What are you thinking?”

  “I don’t know, honestly,” I replied, scrubbing my hands over my head and mussing my hair. “We’re screwed either way. What about you?”

  Taking a deep breath, his grassy green eyes met mine. “I think if we’re screwed either way, I’d rather not have Harper’s blood on my hands.”

  I raised an eyebrow, but honestly, I was relieved he was making the call for us. My shoulders drooped as some of the tension drained. “So what do we do?”

  “The only thing we can.”

  21

  Harper

  “I completely bombed that test,” I whined to Bianca when we came out of Incantations Friday afternoon.

  I’d tried to focus on studying when I finally got back to the library, but my mind was elsewhere—like on the way Elias’ hair shone with bits of copper in the firelight of his hearth. How he always rubbed his jaw when he was flustered, as though exhausted by whatever plagued his mind. And then of course, there were the other things. The less pleasant thoughts about sharp-toothed wolves and snake-like men.

  It didn’t help that in History class, right before Incantations, Elias had all but completely ignored me, even though I raised my hand twice to answer his questions. He’d chosen others. Was I being stupid?

  Yeah, I’m probably being stupid.

  But I couldn’t help it.

  “Well, maybe if getting coffee hadn’t taken you nearly an hour then you’d have had more time to study,” Bianca said in a told-you-so tone. “What’d you do, get lost?”

  I lifted one shoulder in a half shrug. “Sort of.” I sighed, hefting my books higher in my arms, my stomach in knots at the thought of eating lunch. “When are we leaving?” I asked, changing the subject to something more promising.

  Bianca flashed me her winning smile and I could tell she was immeasurably excited to have someone to bring home with her. I didn’t think she had many friends at the academy, either. “Right after class, if we can swing it!”

  When I thought about it, I hadn’t seen her do more than wave to a few other students or say hi. And she mostly only did that when the ‘student’ in question was a beautiful African American guy named Marcus. He had come-hither eyes, lips that looked pillow-soft, and some of the best cheekbones I’d ever seen on a man. If I hadn’t noticed Bianca’s interest in him, I’d have been drooling over him, too.

  We passed him in the hall and Bianca lengthened her strides, her hips swaying a little more than they did normally. She had it bad. “Are you ever going to actually talk to him, or are you just going to stare at him forever?”

  She gasped, jumping as though stung. “Shut up,” she squeaked, adding, “He could’ve heard you,” when we were further away, glancing back to watch him as he rounded the corner back toward the male dorms. Funny, I never took her as being shy.

  “I’ll talk to him,” she said. “When the time is right.”

  “And by that, you mean when you manage to grow a pair of lady balls?”

  Two other girls walking near us swiveled their heads, shooting us looks that managed to be shocked and disgusted all at once before they migrated further away.

  “Harper!” Bianca scolded, herding me into the cafeteria as if I was an ox in need of prodding. “Don’t you have even the smallest filter?”

  I pouted. Shook my head. “Mmmmm, no, don’t think so.”

  She rolled her eyes, dragging me behind her to the serving line, muttering. “Of all the roommates...”

  * * *

  In Bianca’s borrowed jeans that were a size too big for my non-existent booty, and three inches less of height, as well as a borrowed soft black turtleneck, we rushed through the hallways toward the staff wing.

  It felt weird wearing her clothes, but when I told her all I had were the ratty old jean shorts and tank top she first saw me in, she had insisted, saying I couldn’t wear my uniform off academy grounds because that’s just sad.

  I was inclined to agree. I couldn’t wait to get out of the damn thing. The blouses were particularly uncomfortable, always coming back from the laundry too stiff and starched.

  “It really is too bad your feet are so big,” Bianca said to me with a smirk. “I’d have lent you some leather boots that would’ve looked killer with that sweater.”

  Heeled boots, I was sure. “Yeah, too bad,” I said sarcastically. Anything more than a two-inch heel and it would be downright dangerous for anything in my immediate surroundings. Even two inches might’ve been pushing it. “Think I’ll stick to my flip flops.”

  She snickered at me and urged me to hurry up with a jerk of her head. “Come on, Uncle Sterling doesn’t like to be kept waiting.” She sped up, struggling with the awkward weight of Blanche in her arms. The rabbit watched me with her unnerving red eyes, looking painfully bored with the whole situation.

  “What? I thought we were portaling out ourselves?”

  “Nah. He insisted on escorting us. I’m sure we have your criminal record to thank for that.”

  Ugh.

  “At least we don’t have to wait in line to use the portal room. It takes over an hour sometimes if you don’t get there straight after class. My uncle’s office is the only other place in the building you can portal into and out of unless you go beyond the wards.”

  I bit my cheek and rubbed the bit of sweat on my palms off on my borrowed jeans. “Will he be home this weekend?” I asked, my voice coming out higher pitched than I’d intended.

  She tucked her wavy blond hair behind her ears. “Probably not. He usually has Council stuff to attend to on the weekends. He only really comes home to sleep, if he does at all. It’ll just be us and my brothers—oh, and Pierre, but he’s like a ghost. You won’t even notice him.”

  “Pierre?”

  “Security,” she explained. “And there are a few servants, and the boys’ nanny. But they all keep to themselves. None of them have ever ratted me out for anything.”

  I wondered what they would’ve ratted her out for. Aside from the flask she kept in her vanity and the odd curse word when we were alone, Bianca seemed pretty tame. But then again, I was sure I seemed pretty tame, too, until I was ready to tackle a guy for trying to steal a few pieces of jewelry.

  But that was different. I lived by a set of very simple rules: mess with me, I’ll tell you off. Mess with my family, and all bets are off. I supposed now that I had someone to call a friend, it would now be ‘friends and family’.

  I hurried to keep pace with Bianca as she cut around the last corner and walked up to her uncle’s office door. “Ready?” she asked.

  “Let’s go.”

  She pushed the door open, not bothering to knock. “Uncle Sterling,” she called, walking through the modestly sized waiting area and up to the main door of his office. I had been in such a rush to get away the first time I’d been in his office that I’d neglected to even notice the little waiting area between one door and the other.

  “Yes, come in.” His voice was muffled on the other side of the closed door,, but we heard him clearly enough, and Bianca strolled inside with me lagging a few feet behind her.

  Headmaster Sterling had just finished writing something down on a sheet of paper at his desk, and he flipped it over as we entered so it was blank side up. “Ready to get going?” he asked, flashing Bianca his teeth in what could only be described as something halfway between a smile and a grimace, rising from his seat.

  “We are,” Bianca replied, returning a brighter smile than she’d gotten. “Thanks again for letting Harper stay the weekend with me.”

  Sterling narrowed his eyes at me, and beneath his salt-and-pepper beard I saw his jaw twitch. “Of course, my dear. I know the both of you will be on your best behavior,” he said, looking at me pointedly.

  I bowed my head, the discomfort settling over me like a mist of ichor.

  “We will,” Bianca trilled, elbowing me in the ribs.

  “Yes,” I grunted. “We will.”

  Sterling moved to a
blank space of wall behind his desk. “Then let’s get you two on your way.”

  Bianca gave me a reassuring look and bumped her shoulder against mine as we moved into place behind her uncle. Headmaster Sterling cast the sigil to open the portal and drew the lines for the doorway around it. His magic was strong, and the swirling lines of the sigil glowed a strong, vibrant gold.

  The portal opened up in a matter of seconds. The ornate wallpaper faded away to reveal a grand entryway with parquet floors, a spiral staircase, and a chandelier dripping crystals from the ceiling.

  Bianca must’ve seen my mouth fall open because she laughed and said, “Wait’ll you see my room.”

  Sterling moved aside for us to go through. I stuck close to Bianca’s side as my feet stepped from plush carpet to cold, hard tile. “You’re not coming?” she asked him, disappointment making her words low and clipped. More a statement than a question.

  He tucked his hands behind his back and looked down at her. “I have too much to see to this evening. But I’ll do my best to join you for dinner.”

  She nodded solemnly. “Alright.”

  I truly hoped for her sake that he had nothing to do with what happened to my father. That he wasn’t the monster I thought he might be underneath it all. Bianca wasn’t the type who would fare well as an orphan if her uncle was ousted from the council and sent to Kalzir. What would even happen to her? To her brothers?

  I couldn’t think about that. Knowing the truth had become a necessity. I needed to know how my father died, and if the person—or people—responsible were brought to justice. Even if it was Bianca’s uncle, I couldn’t let him get away with it just to save her some misfortune, could I?

  In a perfect world, I wouldn’t have to worry about such things. But our world was far from perfect, and I tended to be exposed to the most flawed parts of it. As though I was made to withstand the harder things in life. Cut from some other cloth.

  Sterling did another one of his smile grimaces and sealed the portal, leaving us staring at the inside of a front door that was double my height and wider than my reach if I extended both arms as far as they’d go. This was not a place for a street rat. But, I supposed, that wasn’t what I was anymore.

  I was a student at the prestigious Arcane Arts Academy. And Bianca Matthews was my friend.

  “Show me around?” I asked her with a note of impatient excitement, already wondering which of the many hallways led to her uncle’s office.

  She set Blanch down with a pat on her head, and the fat rabbit hopped away. Bianca swept her arm in a wide arc over the grand parlor, allowing the disappointment to fall away from her expression like dead skin, making room for one of her brilliant white smiles. “Please, do follow me,” she said in a mock British accent, and I laughed at her ridiculousness.

  Bianca dragged me through all twelve-thousand square feet of the mansion. Showing me the staffed kitchen that smelled of fresh spring greens and herb butter, the library, the sitting room, the drawing room, and the family room. Those last three all looked the same to me aside from the color of the furniture.

  There was also a dining room on the main floor, and an exit leading out to a tennis court and a pool inside an enclosure that was a monstrosity of glass. The light reflected off it was near blinding. Up the wide, curving staircase were the bedrooms. She gestured down the hallway to the left at the landing. “Uncle Sterling’s bedroom and private office are down there,” she said, and I made a mental note.

  “My brothers are in the loft apartment.” She gestured to a narrower staircase leading up to yet another level. I could hear the pew pew of video game gunshots, and a young man groaned as he was obviously shot, blaming the game for being so damn laggy.

  “I’ll take you up to meet them in a minute,” she said, grabbing my forearm to drag me the rest of the way down the hall. “I want to show you something.”

  I was in awe of her room, blinded by the brilliant white of the walls and fuzzy white carpets. As my eyes adjusted, I saw that the white was interspersed with shiny black decor and soft pink fabrics. A bright yellow bedspread adorned her king-size bed. A mountainous pile of black and pink pillows sat atop it.

  There was an en suite bathroom to my right. A walk-in closet to my left. And a balcony at the other end of the cavernous room.

  “Come see,” she said, and I followed her out to the balcony. The moment she opened the door, the breeze blew in warm steam and I peered outside to find an enormous scoop of water suspended in the air outside the door. The water roiled and bubbled gently.

  A magical hot-tub. Of course, she had a magical hot-tub. Why wouldn’t she?

  “My uncle did it for me a few weekends ago. I asked him for one of those glass-bottom ones that the humans have, but he made me this instead. Isn’t it awesome?”

  I gulped, clutching onto the doorframe. There was no deck. No sides or railings. No bottom. I looked down through the water, finding the stone walkway twenty feet below where the water ended.

  “Won’t you fall through?” I asked Bianca, wary. My stomach did backflips.

  “Of course not,” she chided. “Come on, I think I have a bathing suit that’ll fit you.”

  She did have one, but it was too small in the chest and too big on the bottom. It did the trick, though. And after hyperventilating for the first five or so minutes, I found the weird magical hot-tub wasn’t all that terrifying after all.

  If you pushed your feet too deep into the water, near the bottom, it would move lower, expanding to fit your added length. Making it virtually bottomless.

  And, salty? The water was a strange consistency and made us more buoyant than normal. We could float at the surface without doing any awkward paddling or holding onto the ledge of her door frame. As the sun fell over their property and painted the back garden in hues of orange and pink, I felt all my tensions beginning to release.

  I wanted to just be in the moment. Not worrying about tomorrow—or later tonight, when I would sneak away after Bianca fell asleep—or anything else. It was just us, the hot roiling water, and the decanter of bourbon Bianca swiped from the dining room.

  “So, what do you think? Glad you came?” Bianca asked after a while.

  I sighed, sinking a little lower into the steamy water, being careful not to look down. Every time I did, I felt a wave of vertigo threaten to tip me over.

  Heights and I didn’t play nicely together. “Very,” I replied, feeling more hair slip free of the loose red bun I’d piled atop my head.

  Sitting back up, I looked out over the property, realizing I hadn’t the slightest clue where we were. “Where is this? Are we still in West Virginia?”

  Bianca followed my gaze. “No, we’re in Oregon. That mountain over there is Mt. Hood. Portland is a couple hours’ drive that way.”

  “And I’m assuming you don’t have any neighbors out here,” I said, thinking how if mortals saw a giant floating ladle-full of water, they might have a few questions.

  She laughed, tipping the rest of her bourbon down her throat. “No, but it’s warded, see?” She pointed out into the distance, and if I squinted hard and focused, I could just make out the light shimmer of the dome covering their entire property.

  Wow.

  I knew some witches warded their homes, but it was usually only for short periods of time, and the wards would never be that large. They must have had a power source somewhere in the house that it drew constant energy from.

  We learned that at the academy. How they imbued the very stones used to build it with conduit magic. They acted much the same as solar panels do. Except they got their energy from all the magical bodies in the academy, sucking up whatever little bits we exuded, and directed the power where it was most needed—mostly the wards.

  Basically, the building protected itself. Which was pretty darn cool.

  It must’ve been nice, though. Growing up in a place where you didn’t have to hide your magic. Using it whenever you wanted. Being able to practice. Not having to hold
all that wild energy inside of you all the time.

  “That must take a lot of power,” I mused.

  She shrugged, frowning. “It’s a luxury given to all council members,” she said with a note of distaste, pouring herself another finger’s width of bourbon. “All the council members’ places of residence are warded like this. Perks of the job, I guess.”

  “You don’t get to see him much, do you?”

  “No. Not in the last few years anyway,” she said, taking a sip. “We used to do all kinds of things together. He taught me how to ride.” She pointed to what looked to be a stable far off in the distance. “And how to swim.”

  “What changed?”

  Her steeped tea eyes met mine, and the corners of her mouth pulled down into a fleeting frown. “Beats me,” she said.

  “Heads up!” someone shouted from inside Bianca’s room. I looked up just in time to kick myself back before two boys took a running jump into the hot tub. Water sprayed up in their wake, stinging my eyes with salt.

  “Your brothers, I assume?” I said from the edge of the tub before their heads popped back up.

  Bianca cuffed them both on the back of the head. “Dimwits!” she chided them. “I thought I told you not to come in my room without asking.”

  “But you didn’t tell us she was here!” one of them whined.

  The boys were about thirteen, maybe fourteen. They’d be coming into their powers any time now. They had the same golden blonde hair as their sister, the same slender frames, and warm brown eyes. They couldn’t have been any more than a year apart in age.

  “I’m so sorry,” Bianca said. “These are the two nitwit brothers I told you about. He’s Louie,” she said pinching his cheek. “And he’s Eddie. The two biggest pains in my ass.”

  Completely ignoring their older sister, the two of them turned their attention to me.

  “Is it true you can make lightning come down from the sky?” the one called Eddie asked.