Ravensbane Academy
Book One
Dallysten Mackenzie
This is a work of fiction. Characters, institutions, an organisations mentioned in this novel are either the product of the author’s imagination or, if real, are used fictitiously without any intent to describe actual conduct.
First Edition © Midnight Dreary Publishing 2020.
The moral right of the author has been asserted.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted by any person or entity, in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, scanning or by any information storage and retrieval system, without prior permission in writing from the publisher.
Cover Design by Louisa Gray of Gray Creations
Editing by Ravenna Poe
Authored by Kate Bonham writing as Dallysten Mackenzie
Chapter One
Elke
“Welcome to Ravensbane Academy,” the perky administrator announced as my bags were put down on the top of the stairs. I closed the door to the car that had brought me here and turned to face the blonde. “We are so glad you’re here. I’m Mariel and I will be your guide.”
“Hi.”
“I know you’ve had a terrible couple of days,” she said, her voice lowering as she swooped her arm through mine and led me up the stone steps. “We’re here to help you. At this academy, we take care of our own. You’ll find friends instantly, I just know it.”
Doubtful. My life had been a ride through hell and back, and that was putting it lightly. Mariel was trying to be nice, so I was going to be nice back, but I could only pretend to be nice so much.
Mariel took me through the halls of the old mansion-like institution, the walls were made of marble as was the floor. I was walking on a red rug that ran down the entire corridor. Portraits hung on the walls with weird names and had a completely creepy feel to it.
“These are our founders, Marcel Ravens and Everard Bane.”
The portraits were creepy. The founders didn’t look like nice people. Mariel continued walking down the hall, pointing out to rooms but I was never going to remember them all. I tried to muster all the energy I had to be nice to her until she led me to the room I would be staying in. The thought of staying in a boarding school had never been one I’d wanted before but after the last couple of months of tragedy, I wanted to be away from everyone, and I wanted to be secluded. Ravensbane was one of the most secluded places in all of Britain. My aunt Ianthe had attended here and now she was a thriving make up artist in Hollywood. If it weren’t for her, I’d be on the streets. I just wish she was here with me now.
Inside this school it felt like a castle, medieval in a way and yet modern. Any moment now I expected a princess to walk down the hall followed by minions wanting to wait on her every command.
Almost instantly my expectation was realised when a girl in a tartan skirt that was way too short, and tight white blouse headed our way. Her blonde hair was perfectly cut into a bob above her shoulders and her makeup was on point. She had on black boots that went to just below her knees and I could sense an air of elegance and entitlement about her.
“Ah, now I was hoping you’d be on your way,” Mariel exclaimed when she saw her. “This is Tiger Lily, the school captain. She directly descends from Everard Bane himself.”
Tiger Lily shone an incredibly fake smile at Mariel and then looked at me. I could see her eyes assessing me in a way I didn’t feel comfortable with. This would be the Queen Bee of Ravensbane and probably the one that would cause me the most grief.
And she looked like a supermodel.
Just great.
“Tiger, this is Elke Sayer.”
“So nice to meet you, Elke. Follow me, I can show you to your room.”
My heart began to race as Mariel left me with the model. She spun on her heels and starting prattling on about the school and when it started. I couldn’t hear well as my mind raced as I tried to keep up with her. This school was too much…I was going to drown here, and the work would probably be too hard. Suddenly, I felt my eyes turn dark and I stopped walking before I heard Tiger call out my name, although she sounded so far away.
∞∞∞
My throat was dry and my eyes hurt as I tried to pull myself up from whatever I was on. It was soft, and I could smell a strong, masculine scent coming from somewhere around me - all around me.
My eyes shot open to see Tiger Lily standing over me, and a boy standing next to her, looking concerned.
“There you are,” he said, warmly. “You had us worried for a minute.”
“Uh…where am I?”
“My room,” he said with a smirk, he had a small dimple in his cheek and I felt my head get woozy again for a completely different reason.
“You must be in such shock,” Tiger said, almost concerned. “After all you’ve been through the last week.”
“Tiger!” the boy scolded her. “That’s not for you to say. She hasn’t told you yet, has she?”
Tiger Lily melted back, sad that the boy had told her off. I wondered who he was. He sure smelt amazing and that blond hair perfectly matched his bronzed skin. He could be a surfer, only this was England and I hadn’t heard of any beaches near here.
“What happened?” I asked, suddenly feeling a deep throbbing in my head.
“You fell,” the boy said, softly. “We called for the nurse to check you over. You could have hit your head. Tiger said you just went still and landed on your ass.”
Embarrassed, I tried to shy away from the bed and run to someone with no people. My go to whenever something went wrong.
“Stay, Elke. Let the nurse look over you.”
Tiger was at the door when the nurse came barrelling in. She was a thin woman, with brown wiry hair that stuck up at the sides as if she hadn’t brushed it down.
“Elke, darling,” she started. “How do you feel?”
“I have sore eyes and a headache but that’s all.”
She put her hand against my head to check for a fever and then she looked into my eyes - really close.
“Can you walk?”
I pushed my feet over the edge of the bed and tried to stand. The boy came over to help me. Steadying me before allowing me to stand on my own. My legs were shaky and I felt my tongue and throat were very dry but I wasn’t going to keel over again.
“Can I have some water?” I asked.
The boy left my side and opened a little bar fridge, giving me a bottle of it. “Here.”
“Thank you.”
I opened it and sipped at the cold liquid. My throat and tongue were satiated but it only made my headache become stronger.
“Come, child,” the nurse placed an arm around my waist and led me out of the room. I turned back around to say thank you only to see Tiger Lily had blocked my view and was looking at me with a suspicious eye before I felt faint again and left with the nurse.
I wondered who the boy was. He was kind, not like Tiger Lily at all who I could tell was as fake as her name sounded. The nurse carted me to a large room with hospital beds in it.
“This isn’t my room.”
“No, but I need to monitor you for a while. I’ll take you to your room tomorrow. For now, you need to rest.”
I laid down on the closest bed and closed my eyes. What a way to start the new school. I knew by tomorrow, everyone would know what happened and I’d be labelled the freak.
So much for a fresh start.
Chapter Two
Elke
I’d come during the school holidays, most of the students were at home with their families which made
me sad. I had no family other than my aunt and she was busy living it up in Hollywood. I’d never felt so alone before, and it sucked.
“Hey there,” I heard a familiar voice from behind me.
It was the boy from yesterday.
“Hi,” I said, feeling my cheeks heat with embarrassment. What a way to meet someone. I finally looked up at him, and that smirk was present. “I’m sorry, I don’t know your name.”
“Oh, yeah, kinda forgot that,” he laughed. “It’s Stig Ravens.”
“Like the school?”
“Exactly like the school,” he laughed. “Marcel is my father.”
I looked at him, feeling laughter bubble in my throat. “Really, so you’re like hundreds of years old? How is that possible.”
Stig’s smile dropped and I wondered if I upset him. “Right…uh…my dad’s name is Marcel, he was named after our ancestor.”
“Oh well, it’s nice to meet you, Stig.”
“What brings you here?” he asked me.
“You haven’t heard?” I asked, surprised Tiger hadn’t told everyone.
“I have, but I’d rather hear it from you.”
“Well, my parents died last week in a car crash. I was the sole survivor. Kinda sucked actually, it was like the third bad thing in a month to happen so it topped it all off.”
“That’s horrible but I’m glad you survived.”
“Yeah, only it was my fault.”
He frowned. “How?”
“I was angry at them. They wouldn’t let me see my friends for Halloween. They said it was a stupid holiday and I needed to focus on schoolwork.”
“Right, it’s a bigger holiday in the US, right?”
I nodded. “Huge. All my friends were having a party and I desperately wanted to go.”
“You’ll see they don’t do much for it here. We do things very differently at this school.”
“I know, I mean a holiday around Halloween? I’ve never heard such a thing.”
He smirked at me again. “Yeah, it’s a week off but we launch into school directly after it for weeks and weeks.”
“Is it hard here?” I asked him. “I mean, are the studies hard?”
“Not very, and sometimes yes,” he laughed. “Sorry, that probably didn’t help.”
I laughed too. “Not at all, but I appreciate the honesty.”
“Want me to show you around?” he asked.
“Sure.”
He offered his elbow and I wrapped my arm in his and he led me down the stairs and onto the grassy field. I could see land all around which I hadn’t noticed when we drove in. There was nothing close by.
“Wow…it’s really pretty.”
“Sure is, and quiet which is great.”
“What else is on the grounds? Stables? A pond?”
Stig chuckled. “No, we don’t have horses or stables. We do have a pond that leads down into a lake but it’s forbidden to go into or even hang out around. I think it’s because it hasn’t been maintained and it’s not safe or something like that, but we can see it from some of the rooms in the building.”
“Fair enough, what else do you have here?”
“Well, we have the woods around the back. We’re allowed to go there, but not at night and definitely not when the school is pretty much empty like it is now. It can be dangerous, due to the wildlife that call it home.”
He seemed like he was thinking about the wildlife, maybe he was scared of the animals in there. Or maybe he’d had a hard time in the woods and didn’t want to take me closer. Either way, it sounded creepy and I probably want to venture that way anyway.
“Oh, and we have a pool, it’s in its own complex, by the other side. Closed during the holidays, sorry. This place is pretty closed off for the next week, but you have a few of us to hang out with and the food is better because they don’t have to make so much of it.”
“Why don’t you spend time with your family?” I asked him.
“No need, my family is kind of dysfunctional.”
I smiled when he laughed at the word. “That’s fair. So, what do you do for fun around here?”
“Personally, I go for runs around the grounds or I read and study. I’m pretty boring.”
“What about Tiger Lily?”
“She likes to play the piano or draw. She won’t bother you while the holidays are here. She keeps to herself.”
“I can’t tell if she’s a popular girl or just mean.”
“She’s both, but she’s actually pretty nice when she’s not around her friends. They’re both at their homes now so she’ll be pleasant until they come back. But if she does bully you, let me know. I personally think she is like that because her mother has pretty high standards for her.”
“Familial pressure, I get it. Did her mother go here?”
“Yeah, most of our parents did. It’s a generational school, most teachers also attended.”
“Wow, close knit.”
“Very.”
“I truly am an outsider then,” I laughed. He didn’t laugh with me, instead, he seemed to be thinking. I wondered what kept his attention from me.
We walked around the grounds a few times, before he led me inside again. It was beginning to rain…again. All it had done was rain while I was here.
“This is the food hall,” Stig announced as he led me into a huge ballroom laid out with long tables. There were handfuls of students sitting on the tables eating. A buffet was sitting at the front of the room. Stig led me down the narrow walkway until I could smell the food.
Bacon, eggs, wilted spinach, bread, sausages, tomatoes…you name it, it was here.
“Wow.”
“It is pretty amazing,” Stig said. “Dig in and don’t be a girl, fill that plate up.”
I giggled and took a plate from the side before dishing up. Stig found a table for us to sit at, away from everyone else. Tiger was sitting behind me and I could feel her shooting daggers at me. I knew she had a thing for Stig. He was incredibly attractive, with a strong jawline and a muscular physique. His dark brown eyes were alluring, making me want to tell him all my secrets.
There was a boy looking at me with interest sitting by the wall. He had thick rimmed glasses and a smattering of light freckles over his nose. Stig turned around to see what I was looking at.
“That’s Palmer. He’s harmless enough but a little weird.”
“He’s looking at me weird.”
“He’s just trying to figure you out. We don’t get people starting school during the year very often.”
I focused on my food.
“The girl at the end of the table we are on is Maura, she’s really nice and someone you can ask for help with assignments. Then there’s the guy sitting at the end of Tiger’s table, that’s Luther, he’s trouble, stay away from him.”
I chanced a glance at Luther and could see the dark and stormy expression he gave me before he looked away. No problem there, I thought.
“Who is that?” I asked, looking toward the girl at the front of the table across from us. Stig turned around and sighed.
“I didn’t realise she was still here. Her name is Kestrel. She usually goes home with her family. She keeps to herself. I don’t really know her well because she runs off every time I talk to her.”
“She probably likes you,” I said.
“Doubtful, I think she may bat for the other team.”
“Oh,” I replied, understanding immediately. We ate in silence for the rest of the sitting until someone came to take our empty plates.
“Are you okay if I leave you for a little bit? I have a few things I need to do.”
I nodded and smiled, although it kind of sucked. He was the only decent kid I’d met so far. Knowing me, I’d probably get lost.
“Sure, I’ll go for a walk.”
He smiled before he took off. I hadn’t realised everyone had left the food hall except for Luther. He was watching me, and for some reason I felt drawn to him. Frightened, I ran from the food hall
and toward my room. I’d only been in it for a few hours since the nurse allowed me to leave early this morning. It was a basic room, a double bed in the corner, with a desk and a wardrobe over to the other side. There was a brochure on the table and a place where you could keep food. A piece of paper had been left on my bed advising of the rules for keeping food and what I was allowed to keep in my room. I could get fridges and even get more furniture at my own expense.
I only had a year at this school until I would graduate, but already I felt safe here which was something I never felt at a school before. There was a stack of books sitting on my desk chair that looked like school books.
No thanks!
I could wait to see what they were. Instead, I grabbed my jacket and headed out to go for a closer look around the grounds.
Stig
The headmaster, Joan, was standing at the bookcase, looking over files she kept there when I burst in. I couldn’t believe how stupid they were all being, allowing someone in the school who didn’t know what she was or what the school was. It wasn’t just stupid, it was dangerous.
“Stig,” she said, moving back to her desk with the file and closing it before I could see the name. “What can I do for you?”
“How the hell can you admit someone who doesn’t know what she is or where she is?” I rounded on her.
“She is too dangerous to be in the human world, Stig. We can help her.”
“How? She doesn’t know her true powers, she fainted when she got a burst on her first day.”
“She was simply overwhelmed, you would be too.”
“Classes are all about what we are, how do you think you’ll explain that one?” I asked, sitting down opposite her.
“She’ll know by the time it starts up again.”
“How can you know that?” I asked before I realised.
All Hallows’ Eve brings out our true natures, it’s a high we can’t control. One of the main reasons why kids went home was because it was hard to be around others and not want to do them harm.
All Hallows' Eve (Ravensbane Academy Book 1) Page 1
