What the hell was going on with his eyes?
I crawled away, toward the woods, to get out of the rain which was getting harder. I could barely see the school through the pounding rain but somehow, I felt my legs steady. I looked back and saw Stig coming out of the pond. His eyes were still red.
What the hell was he?
I ran…ran as fast as I could. Stumbling, and picking myself up, and running in between the trees. He called out to me, and I could hear him stumbling after me.
I ran until I couldn’t run anymore. I looked around, and realised I was in a clearing. There were tree stumps in a circle, and a fire pit that had been put out, but I could see the charred remains. What was this?
“Elke,” I heard his voice through the rain. “Please, let me explain.”
“Your eyes,” I said, turning to face him. His eyes were back to normal now, but I knew I hadn’t dreamt it up. “They were red.”
“I know this is a lot, but I need to tell you something.”
He was edging closer to me, and my heart rocketed up a notch. “What are you?”
Stig sighed, almost as if he were defeated. “I am succubi.”
Stig
“Say it again,” she said as she toweled off her hair and sat on the edge of my bed. I noticed she kept her distance, but she was willing to listen and I was thankful for that. “You’re a succubus, like a vampire.”
“I am not a vampire,” I ground out. “I hate how we get lumped in together like that. I do not drink blood.”
“What do you do then?”
“I absorb life force or essence,” I told her. “It’s hard to explain.”
“No…I get it. You suck energy out of people and vampires suck blood. Isn’t that like the same thing?”
Rolling my eyes, I let my head fall back against the wall with a thud. “No.”
“Okay so you’re telling me everyone here is like some kind of succubus?”
“No, we all have different…traits.”
“And now I’m here.”
“Yes. Ianthe should have told you all of this a long time ago.”
She looked confused, and I realised Ianthe still hadn’t told her.
“You know why you’re here, right?” I asked, kneeling in front of her. “We don’t let strangers in.”
I could see the denial in her eyes. She knew, but she didn’t want to know. She was fighting the truth. This was exactly why supers were not to be raised as human and not told until their teen years.
“No, you’re crazy.”
She stood up, turning her back to me, but I could see the way her shoulders moved, her chest heaving.
“Ianthe tried to tell you, didn’t she?”
“How is this even possible?” she asked me, her voice heavy with emotion.
“I’m sorry, Elke, but you do need to learn about this. Tomorrow night, you’re in for the shcok of a lifetime.”
“Why?” she asked, turning around. “What is so special about Halloween?”
“All Hallows’ Eve is a supremely supernatural event. It targets all of us, that’s why the school shuts down for the holiday. Only a few remain because they have no where to go.”
“That didn’t answer my question.”
“We are unable to control what we are. The shifters will shift and be unable to shift back, the merfolk will be unable to keep their legs, I will be unable to stop feeding off energies, and you…”
“Yes? What will I do?”
“Your powers have increased over the last few months, that’s why your aunt was trying to get you enrolled here. Tomorrow night, your true self will be revealed, and I need to help you understand before it affects me too.”
“What am I?” she asked me, her voice now shaky.
“I think you’re what Ianthe is…an Oracle.”
“A what?”
“Oracle, you have powers to see the future, and guide people on the right path.”
“That doesn’t sound so special.”
“It is, Elke, there aren’t a lot of Oracles anymore. They were hunted not that long ago.”
“Why?”
“I don’t know the real reason, all I know is the Queen wanted them gone.”
“Wait—the Queen?”
I sighed and sat down. “I can see we have a lot to get through tonight. Why don’t you go and find Ianthe and we can all sit down and talk.”
“Why are Oracles feared?” she asked me, firmly.
“Because they can tell you how to escape death, and how to defeat someone. They can see anyone’s future, or whether a strategic move will be fruitful. They were used in wars all the time but this Queen doesn’t like anyone who can prevent her from being the most powerful.”
She moved to the door and left my room. I tried desperately not to worry about the truths she would find out, especially about me. The way she looked at me when she saw my true eyes, that had been gut wrenching. I had a strong sense of needing to keep her safe and I had no idea why. I’d never felt a connection to anyone before, least of all here.
Elke
Ianthe sat across from me, next to Stig and Tiger who looked utterly bored and slightly annoyed she had been brought into this.
“I mean, I don’t know why she wasn’t told earlier,” Tiger said, aiming it at Ianthe. “Sending her here right before All Hallows’ Eve is really dumb.”
“Shut it, Tiger,” Stig ground out. “You’re here because we need you to help us.”
She rolled her eyes and sat back in her chair.
“Darlin’,” Ianthe started, turning to me. “I know this is hard. I know I should have come back earlier.”
“You mean before I killed my parents?”
“Wait—” Tiger sat forward again. “She doesn’t know?”
“Of course, she does,” Ianthe bit back. “But she knew them as her parents for years. They were her parents.”
I knew they weren’t. There had been so many times I knew for sure I wasn’t their child, but the alternative was crazy. Now, here I was with the woman who gave birth to me. The woman I resembled but had never told me I was hers.
The woman who was what I was – an Oracle.
“There are things you need to know about being an Oracle.”
“Like?”
“It’s not easy to control your sight. Images will come into your mind, and you need to differentiate what is good and what is bad, what is necessary to know and what is unnecessary. It takes a while to figure out, and a while to look past the blinding headache.”
“Great.”
“This is a lot to take in,” Stig started. “But you need to know what you’re in for. We won’t be able to help you tomorrow night.”
“Why not?”
“Because we will be a danger to you, unable to see past our true desires.”
“And what is Tiger?” I asked, looking over at her. She looked away, silent. Was she ashamed? I had never seen her ashamed before. She didn’t really seem the type to be ashamed of what she was.
“It doesn’t matter,” Stig said. “We need to focus on you. What is your earliest memory?”
Strange, but I tried to think back to when I was younger. “I don’t know, maybe a birthday party.”
“What is your worst memory or dream?” Ianthe asked me. I looked over at her, the memory fresh in my mind.
“You know what it is.”
“Go back further,” she urged.
I thought back to another bad memory. My skin prickled as I remembered the day I caught my father in bed with my nanny. I’d loved Clarissa. She had been fun, and always made me smile. So when she left me in front of my TV for too long, I’d gone looking for her. Only she had been under my father.
“I was nine, I think. My father was sleeping with my nanny. I got really angry and all of a sudden my father was shoved off her and she was swept up in a —”
“A what?” Tiger asked.
“A tornado…inside our house. It was like a mini one and she was stuck in it.
”
“What?!” Tiger looked to Ianthe.
“I remember this,” Ianthe said. “We had to do a lot to cover it up in the town.”
“Yeah, we moved the next day. I remember my dad was yelling at me to stop, to put her down but I didn’t understand what he meant.”
“She’s an elemental,” Tiger said, sitting back in her chair and looking at me with shock.
“A what?” I asked. “I thought you said I was an Oracle.”
“I feared this,” Ianthe said. “I thought maybe it was just a freak accident, maybe her powers were too strong but if her father is indeed an elemental, it could only be one of two men.”
“Two?” Tiger exclaimed. “You slept with two elementals?”
“What the fuck is an elemental?” I screamed, slamming my fists down on the table, knocking everything off it. I looked around, as did everyone else.
“The power of All Hallows’ Eve is interfering with her powers,” Tiger said. “I don’t want to be around when she explodes.”
She got up from her chair and left the room without another word. I looked to Stig and then to Ianthe who both looked worried.
“What’s happening to me?” I asked, tears welling in my eyes. “I’m scared.”
“I know,” Stig said. “But we’ll help you get through this.”
I trusted him. Somehow, I trusted him and I knew he would keep me safe.
“I think you need to rest,” Ianthe said. “You need your energy to get through tomorrow night.”
“I need to know more about what I am.”
“In time you will. I’ll come and get you in a couple of hours for a crash course,” Stig said. “Come on, I’ll take you to your room.”
I nodded and let him lead me away from Ianthe, from my mother, who I couldn’t stand to be around right now.
“You’ll come and get me?” I asked, as he laid me down on the bed.
“Promise.”
I closed my eyes as he closed my door, leaving me alone.
Luther
Fuck.
An elemental in this school on All Hallows’ Eve and she didn’t know what she was or how to control it. This place could burn to the ground if her powers were as powerful as I thought. I jumped down from the window ledge of the building. I’d seen them all take her to this room to talk and had stalked the outside to get a good vantage point.
How the hell was she going to be safe from any of these assholes tomorrow night? They couldn’t teach her how to control powers she hadn’t realised yet. She was going to be completely alone.
Fuck Stig and his protective brother act. I knew he liked her, but I also knew Tiger would never allow him to be with an outsider. Those two were destined, since birth, and I knew they would end up together no matter what he said now.
How the hell could I protect her if she didn’t even know me. She was going to end up in a lot of hurt if her powers exploded with the mystical energies of All Hallows’ Eve.
I headed back to my room and tried like hell not to think about all the ways I was going to hurt Stig if he ever led her down the wrong path. For years I’d been here, keeping an eye on the place and avoiding my responsibility back at home. For years, students had come through and gone, and noen of them I had cared about.
None.
Until her.
Could it be Elke Sayers was my destiny?
Chapter Five
Stig
Ianthe was reading a book in the library when I returned. She had been a legend in this school, even decades after she left here, and yet now, I couldn’t stand to be around the woman. How could she have abandoned her child to let her learn about who she truly is like this? For a career in Hollywood?
“She fell asleep.”
“Good, she’ll need as much energy to battle the powers of the moon phase.”
I sat there, looking at her read the book. It was killing me that I didn’t know enough about Elke, let alone her mother. I needed answers. “Who is her father?”
She closed the book and turned around to face me. “Like I said it could be one of two men.”
“How can you not know?”
“It was a crazy party, what can I say?” she replied, a smirk on her lips.
“That’s disgusting.”
“Lighten up. I was young and spirited and free of a terrible father who tried to control me.”
“Okay, so give me some names.”
“You know the dangers of who she is could be solved if you spoke to your father.”
So she knew my family. It shouldn’t surprise me, she’d always been a trouble maker. “My father wouldn’t care.”
“And your stepmother?”
“She wouldn’t stop her mission to rid the world of your kind for me.”
Ianthe shrugged. “You could always try.”
“Names.”
“Dallas Shadows or possibly Gage Waterkin.”
“Great, two of the grandest elemental families, just perfect.”
“There were no names that night, not at the time anyway. I only had visions of who they were later.”
“Who do you think it is? Does she look like any of them?” I asked.
“Well…yeah. She sort of looks like Dallas, definitely inherited his attitude.”
“I was sure she got that from you.”
Ianthe rolled her eyes. “I get it, you are judging me, but at the time, I didn’t know if she carried the gene. My father was an Oracle but very limited with what he could do. My mother was human. My grandfather, however, didn’t have the gene, much to the dismay of our family and he was treated very poorly.”
“I heard the Oracle gene was special, only given to a select few in the family.”
Ianthe shrugged. “I got my powers very early. It made me angry, because everyone looked at me with such disdain afterward. I hated who I was for a long time.”
“You tried to protect Elke by not telling her.”
Ianthe nodded. “I thought that if she didn’t know about this world, her powers wouldn’t bother her. That it was all in her head.”
“That’s pretty cruel,” I said. “But I don’t pretend to understand your reasons.”
“When are you going to tell her who your family really are?” Ianthe asked me. “I can see she trusts you, is that why?”
“What? Tell her my father is the co-founder of this place and the strongest succubi in the world? Or the fact he’s shacked up to the Queen?”
She smiled, and looked back down at the book. “No love lost there.”
“He left my mother for a hotter, younger and more powerful woman. I have no respect for him, no matter his accomplishments.”
“You like my daughter, don’t you?”
“She’s a good person, I just want to help her.”
“No, it’s more than that. I could tell from the way Tiger looks at you, and then looks at Elke. It’s okay, we’re allowed to express our feelings for others.”
“Did you love any of the men you were with?”
Ianthe shrugged, unfazed. She must be used to this kind of judgment. “Sure, but I wasn’t exactly the kind to stick around. Less hurt that way.”
“One day you may just wake up and hate that you didn’t let someone in.”
“You are very wise for someone so young.”
I’d been told that a lot, especially by my mother. “We need to figure out what to do about Elke.”
“Do you have a witch or warlock here?” she asked me.
“They are home with their families. If you mean to bind her powers, you’re crazy.”
“She won’t have you or anyone else here able to assist her tomorrow night, and there is no way to know how to control her powers in one day.”
She was right. I knew she was, but every idea she’d had so far had led to this point. I didn’t want her to win.
But this was Elke, and she needed to be protected.
“There is someone who might be able to help. Someone who is still here.”
“Who?”
“The kids name is Palmer. He’s a nice kid, a bit of a geek, but he’s also the son of an elemental and a witch.”
“Perfect, where is he?”
“How about you leave it to me? He’s a bit skittish.”
Ianthe held her hands up. “If you think he’s up for the job. I also heard there’s another student here that could help.”
“If you mean Luther, forget it. He’s a loose cannon. I’d never trust him to protect her.”
Ianthe smiled. “Possessive too, you sound too good to be true, Stig.”
I growled as I left the room to find Palmer. Ianthe was one of the most annoying people I’d ever met, not just because she was forcing me to focus on my growing affection for Elke, but because she reminded me a lot of my stepmother.
I headed down the hall to the tower. For some reason, Palmer loved to stay up in the belltower. That was how he’d earned his nickname of Quasimodo. He was tinkering away with a piece of machinery when I climbed up to the landing. He sat near the dormant bell, looking up at me with shock.
“Stig…I uh…I”
“Relax, I just need to ask you a favour.”
“Okay.”
“You have mastered your binding spells, haven’t you?”
Palmer nodded.
“I need you to bind someone’s powers tomorrow night.”
“Uh,” he stopped tinkering and stood up. “I won’t be able to do much tomorrow night, as you know.”
“I need you to bind the spell to someone and anchor it to an item so it doesn’t break.”
“Who am I binding?”
“Elke.”
“The new girl?”
“Yes.”
“She doesn’t know what she is, does she?”
“She does now, but we don’t have time to delve into it. Can you do it or not?”
“What is she?” he asked.
“Oracle, and an Elemental or so we think.”
Palmer’s eyes widened. “That’s trickier. I will have to get my book, but I can do it.”
All Hallows' Eve (Ravensbane Academy Book 1) Page 3
