Spearwood Academy Volume Two (The Spearwood Academy Book 2)

by A. S. Oren

  "Do you have your eyes closed?" asks Dante, as he comes to ride next to me.

  I turn my head in his general direction, I force my eyes open, and frown. There are no glowing ghosts around us, yet.

  "You can speak now, no screaming at us or I will force you into silence again."

  "We could get into serious trouble for all the rule breaking we have just done. I have no idea what kind of punishment we will receive for this, but it won't be detention."

  He laughs. "I liked you better when you were carefree, now you have the same rod stuck up your ass like the rest of us."

  "When have I ever been carefree, Dante?"

  "Just a few hours ago. You didn't let anyone stick you in a corner. That's why you're Fire to me."

  I shake my head. "No, you started calling me that because I started a fire in my parents green house. We wanted a bonfire, but did it inside."

  He says nothing for a moment and then laughs, again. . "Really, that's the lame reason they made you believe?”

  My hands grip the reigns tighter. "It's not lame, I love that memory."

  "It's not real though."

  "Stop it. I'm not the crazy one. Dad did something to you guys and now you are all acting nuts."

  "Are you sure he didn't do something to you?" he asks.

  'Well, at least they are on the right trail,' says the voice in the back of my mind.

  "Of course not. Dad would never do that to me. I still can't believe he did it to you guys. He knows you are off limits, but I guess he must have had a valid reason for doing so in the first place."

  "You think so?"

  We enter a clearing a smaller than my bathroom cabin stands in front of us. A waterfall, gives off a strange glow. It lights up the entire clearing. Dante rides into the clearing and gets off his horse near a lone tree. I wrinkle my nose. We're going in there? A bulldozer just needs to come through here and tear this place down. It won’t be big enough to hold us and I'm fairly certain it should be condemned.

  I get off Maryann and tie her to the tree with the others. "Are we seriously going in there? It looks dirty and like it will cave in on us if we move too much."

  "What? Dirt bothers you now, princess?" asks Lusk.

  I look at him. He has been calling me that since I woke up from my nap. He's never called me princess before.

  "Why do you keep calling me that?"

  He shrugs. "It's what I call you, just like I call him," he points to Horace, "Charming."

  I touch the wood of the cabin. "Ugh, this place is going to get my dress dirty." Dante opens the cabin's door and we all step over the threshold. My mouth falls open. The inside doesn’t match the outside. Everything looks new and bigger than it should be.

  "Why haven't I ever been told about this place? It takes a group effort in order to create magical places like this."

  "You seriously have no memory of coming here before?" asks Horace, as he leads the way up a flight of spiral stairs.

  "Of course I don't, why would I? I think I would remember a place like this. I've always wanted to see one in person. I wanted to make my doll house one, but dad wouldn't let me tempt the magic on my own."

  The Corruption is Evident

  The first flight of spiral stairs leads up to a massive library and sitting area. The fireplace already has a roaring fire, as if the place had been expecting us.

  I take a seat on the long and curved couch. "Why are we here? You've all essentially kidnapped me. I don't even want to think about what Mr. Perlow and my dad will do when they've figured out that we broke so many of the rules at once."

  The most of the others sit down, but Paden and Dante remain standing. Both of them are frowning, with their arms crossed over their chests.

  "I didn't do this to her, I swear. Her mind has been warped," says Paden.

  "How much of her is still the Avalon we know though?" asks Dante.

  Paden takes a step toward me." I know everything about her old self. My father has had a watch on her since she was a child. Maverick was one of them. Avalon, answer this question. Who is your favorite Harry Potter character?"

  Here they go again, talking like I'm not even in the room. I wrinkle my nose at the thought of Harry Potter. I never really cared for the books. "I don't know, I don't like reading fiction. Ginny, I guess."

  "Not even a few hours ago she would have said Hermione," says Paden.

  Maverick rubs his eyes. "Not to mention she only ever read fiction books when we went to school together.”

  "We need to know how deep they went. I have a question that only she and I know the answer to," says Amr, with a sigh. "Who am I to you?"

  I frown. What does he mean? "You're my best friend. I don't know what you're wanting from me. Why are you guys acting like I am the one who is insane?"

  He shakes his head. "They took everything."

  Triton nudges Amr. "What was she supposed to say?"

  "This morning, right after we escaped you guys, we found out something pertaining to her and me. The reason I wasn't affected by her pheromones, is because I'm a close relation to her. We're twins.”

  "What?" We all say in return.

  I shake my head. "I think I would remember if I had a twin, Amr. Besides, I've met both of your parents and you've met mine, you know that. Quit acting crazy."

  "I'm not acting crazy, Avalon. We didn't know each other as children. You were left at a barn when you were a baby and a farmer took you in and cared for you."

  I shake my head again and stand up. "I'm really tired of all this. Dad told me you would all be acting strange, but I didn't believe him. He said you would be back to normal in the morning. I'm going to go now and find my way back to Spearwood, so I can get some food and go to sleep. I can't wait for this night mare to be over."

  I start to move forward and Paden pushes me gently back into the couch. "I'm sorry, but you're not going back there until we figure out all that is wrong with you and how to fix it. Now, please stay seated."

  I frown. "You guys can't keep me here. Eventually dad will come looking for me. He always talks to me before I go to bed for the night."

  Paden’s eyes go to my chest. "You're not wearing the crystal I gave you, where is it?"

  "What crystal? You've only ever given me this, in terms of jewelry." I hold my left hand and show him my engagement ring."

  "The moon has been out for a while now, why hasn't she changed? The crystal was the only thing keeping her from transforming," says Triton.

  "Transforming?" I ask. They're acting like I'm some kind of werewolf.

  "Your curse," says Dante. "You're forced to transform at night if you aren't wearing that crystal. Your transformations cause you pain."

  I lift an eyebrow. "I transform at night, huh?" I look down at my body and then back at them. "I'm pretty certain I am still in my human form."

  "Transform something for us then, your arm," says Dante.

  I sigh and raise my arm for them. With little concentration, my grey dragon scales rise up through my skin and my nails grow into long mother of pearl esque talons.

  I clench my teeth as a fire of burning pain moves up my arm and through my body. Instantly, the scales go back under my skin, which looks bruised all over. I grab my arm and pull it to my chest. What the Hell? This has never happened before. I've never had pain while transforming. "That hurt. Transforming has never hurt before, or left behind this bruise.”

  "Apparently they didn't get rid of all the side effects of the curse," says Triton. I ignore his voice.

  "Her scales were grey," says Horace.

  "It's not like I get to pick the color. It's either white or grey with the air element. You know that," I say through gritted teeth. The pain is a dull throbbing ache now, all over.

  "Avalon, you're scales are gold. We've all seen them with our own eyes. Our dragon forms don't change color, ever. Something has been changed within you to make that happen. You weren’t solely just air before, you were undecided," says Bullock. />
  "I know I’m not that great at using air magic, but I've always been air. That's why Dad hired you to be my air magic tutor."

  Dante rubs his forehead. "You keep saying Dad, who are you talking about?"

  I roll my eyes. "Well, my name is Avalon Roseman, so that must mean my dad is Oliver Roseman, the Head of the Governors."

  They all go stiff. "I didn't think you were serious when you told us your full name back there," says Dante.

  "Well I was. Please can I go now? I know I can't fight all of you, but that doesn't mean I won't try. I can't stand these psycho versions of you. I have no idea what Dad was trying to do when he experimented on you, but I don't think it worked. He's getting an earful tonight. He knows you guys are off limits for his experiments."

  "Avalon, stay seated and be quiet," growls Dante. His voice once again manipulating me into doing as he says. He turns to face the others. “Does anyone know what he did to her?”

  Paden nods. “He warped her mind. Took memories out and replaced them with new ones. He did a really good job, but warping is never perfect. There has to be pieces of her old self still hanging around. That old part of her will fight, I just know it.”

  ‘You better believe I will.’

  My eyes go wide at what the voice says. How can I hear my own voice, speaking separately from my thoughts? I shake my head. Now that’s just crazy. Almost as crazy as these guys. I hope my dad finds me soon and changes them back to normal.

  “How do we fix her?” asks Triton.

  “I’m not broken and even if I were, I wouldn’t want your help.” I glare at him, swallow hard, and look toward the fire.

  “He obviously wants her to dislike Triton,” says Horace.

  “Why do you hate me so much?”

  I don’t even look at him. I can’t believe he is acting like he doesn’t know. “You know what you did.”

  “Obviously, I don’t, or I wouldn’t be asking.”

  “Drop it. We have more pressing matters to discuss. Like how we are going to get her back to her original self,” Dante’s irritation takes me by surprise, I have never heard him get this way. “What reason would he have for doing this to her? What advantage would it give him?”

  “Taking away her undecided elemental ability is something that one of the Ancients wants. A different one wants her to remain undecided. There is talk of war, but I don’t know what it is for,” says Bullock.

  “How do you know all this?” asks Horace.

  “I’m an Outcast. They speak in front of me as if I’m invisible and stupid. They sought me out and captured me because they knew of my abilities when it comes to magic and air magic. They don’t know I heard them, but while transporting me, they said I was in the school for the sole purpose of when she came along. They didn’t know if they would have to capture her with force or not. This was the last year she had a choice in the matter. Eventually, she came willingly, so they didn’t have to take her from her home. As for someone to fix her, I think I know of someone. A sea witch that has a shop in New York, she’s known for being able to cure or curse anything.”

  Dante runs a hand through his hair. “Then we need to figure out how to get out of here and get her there. It seems like Roseman has plans for us as well. We need to get out of here if we want to avoid his grasp on us.”

  They are serious about this? They are actually planning to run away from Spearwood. They truly have gone insane. Nobody has ever run away from Spearwood and lived to talk about it.

  Horace pushes his glasses up the bridge of his nose. “How are we going to get out of here and to New York without being spotted? It’s not like we can just walk out the front gate and be home free.” He thinks for a second. “We could use a Void. Bullock could you transfer us there on your memories?”

  “Yes, I should be able to transfer all of us, but we need to get further away from the boundary of Spearwood. We are still too close, the Watchers would detect the use of such powerful magic.”

  Dante begins to pace, his hand to his mouth, as he thinks. “They will be looking for us and there are Guardians at the base of the mountain. We will most likely have to fight our way through, which means we don’t have to hold back anymore.”

  They are serious. Do they have death wishes?

  “Should we do full transformations or only our wings?” asks Maverick.

  “Both, not all of us can do the full transformation yet.”

  “Are you really serious about this?” I ask. “I wasn’t aware you had the college level training to pull off full transformations. Though, since he,” I gesture to Dante, “seems to have mastered the Voice, I shouldn’t be that surprised.”

  “There still seems to be a lot you don’t know. I guess that’s a good thing, it means that Roseman doesn’t know them either,” says Horace.

  “If you think I’m going to participate in this asinine plan, then you have another thing coming.”

  Amr sits forward and puts his hands together. “She’s right, how are we going to get her to follow us, when she’s not in her right mind?”

  Dante stops pacing and looks at me. He frowns and I give him a glare that should put him six feet under. “Leave her to me. It won’t be permanent, but I should be able to draw out the pieces of her old self that still remain. Hopefully she can keep her hold over this new version until we get off the mountain and through the Void. Once we’re in New York we will have to figure out another way to keep her from running. I don’t know if I will have enough power at that point to continually use the voice on her.”

  ‘I won’t let you down, Dante.’

  My heart hammers in my chest. There’s no mistaking my own voice. Is this the part of me that they say is the real me? She wants to go against Dad’s wishes. “You won’t get away with this,” I say to them all, including myself.

  Taking Back Control

  Dante kneels down in front of me and takes my hands in his. His amber eyes look into mine. “I know there is the old Avalon in there somewhere, I want her to come out now and take control of her mind once more.”

  A heat rush takes over my body and my head pounds with the rhythm of my own heartbeat. I close my eyes and my body falls back into the couch.

  “Avalon, are you okay?” Someone calls, as my consciousness begins to wake up.

  “I think you broke her, Dante,” says Horace.

  “She’s fine, she’s just gaining her control back. It will take her a second to rise to the surface,” says Dante.

  I open my eyes and grab at my head. I’ve had too many headaches today for my liking. The guys stand over me. “What’s your full name?” asks Amr.

  “Avalon Clementine. Thank you, I’m not gone. Roseman has just suppressed me and my memories. I can still see and hear what is going on, but I didn’t have control over my body. The thing he replaced me with did. It was horrible. You should hear her thoughts. All she cares about is her appearance and the fucking love triangle Roseman has her believing. How much time do I have?”

  “I don’t know how long my Voice ability will last on you, could be ten minutes, or could be half an hour, depending on how strong the new embedded personality is.

  My skin starts to burn. The moon still has a pull on me. “We should get outside. I don’t know what he did to change my dragon form and stop the transformation while she’s in control, but with me it doesn’t feel like it is working.”

  Mirren picks me up, cradling me in his arms. I put an arm around his neck, while he carries me down the spiral stairs and out the door. I jump out of his arms and onto the ground. The wings have already pushed through the skin on my back and rip the dress in two. It falls off me and my talons tear at my skin, trying to get as much of it out of the way as possible. Not having this happen for the past day was nothing less than a miracle, but I guess miracles can’t last for long.

  My body triples in size as my golden scales move to cover my three spiked tail and hind legs. I hold in the roar like scream that wants to erupt from me, I
know that things could be listening and I don’t want my pain to give away our location so soon. The transformation comes to an end. “You’re scales are back to normal,” says Horace.

  ‘Well, at least you will always be able to tell who is in charge of my body.’ I broadcast to them as I take a moment to sit and regain composure of myself.

  “You transforming changes my plans a tad,” says Dante. He moves to stand near me and places a hand on my shoulder. “With you in this form, we could ride on your back and you could fly us down the mountain. We will still have the Guardians to contend with, but now we have more of an advantage over them. How many of you can do a full transformation?”

  Both Maverick and Paden raise their arms. “So can I, that makes four dragons total then. The rest of you, transform what you can, and use all the strong magic maneuvers that you know.”

  I lie down as flat as I can get, so that they can climb up on my back. With all eight of them on my back, they are heavier than I thought they would be, but nothing that I can’t handle. ‘Ready?’