The Nocturnal and Fae Prison Academy Boxset [A Complete Paranormal and Fantasy Series Boxset]

by Margo Ryerkerk

  I must’ve fallen asleep because a hand on my shoulder awoke me some time later.

  “Onyx?” Peony’s hazel eyes were clear now as I blinked the sleep from mine. “Where are we? Is this a part of the borderlands? Are we hiding from King Peter? Where’s Caleb?”

  I shook my head. “We’re in the wastelands. After you turned Thorsten back into a vampire, you passed out from all the strength potions you took. I opened the portal to the wastelands, but instead of banishing King Peter, he banished me.” I swallowed hard. “Then he must’ve thrown you through the portal after me.” Who else could’ve done it?

  Peony’s jaw dropped, then her eyes narrowed into catlike slits, and I found myself facing the same Peony I had first met back in Nocturnal Academy. “Are you effing kidding me?” she hissed. “You failed? How? Why?”

  I tensed as ice flooded my chest. “I tried my best. I didn’t want to end up here either. But here we are. We have to figure out how to get back and dethrone King Peter.”

  “The wastelands! We’re in the effing wastelands!” Peony shot to her feet. But her outburst of energy retreated just as quickly as it’d come. She swayed and grasped the opposite wall. “No! I finally found Caleb. I had a home. You took everything from me!”

  I rose, balling my fists. “Peony. This is not my dream scenario either. Do you think I want to be here? No, I want to be with Thorsten in the Winter Court. But this is our new reality. We have to work together. Otherwise, we’ll never get out of here.”

  “I wouldn’t be here in the first place if not for you.” Peony crossed her arms. “I wish I’d never met you.”

  I glanced away, unable to summon any more ice, for I sometimes wondered if I just caused pain to everyone I met. “I’m sorry.”

  Peony stepped closer, and I thought she was about to slap me. If she had, I would’ve let her. After all, she’d rescued Thorsten. She’d been selfless. She deserved to be angry. But instead of anger, her voice trembled with fear. “Nobody ever comes back from this place. We’re doomed.”

  “No.” I turned to her. “That’s what King Peter wants us to believe. He wants us to give up, but we can’t do that.”

  Peony raised her chin, her features hardening again. “We wouldn’t be here if not for your stupid vampire!” She shoved me away. “I should’ve never allowed Virgie to tell you where Vulthus was. If you didn’t go, your father wouldn’t have ended up in the wastelands and you would’ve never become queen. King Olwen would’ve known how to handle King Peter.”

  I breathed out as a few weak ice spikes formed in front of me, ready to stab. Despite the dryness of the wastelands, it appeared that I could still summon my weapons, not that it would help me here. I let the ice spikes fall to the ground where they melted into small puddles. “You’re right,” I said quietly, reminding myself that Peony and I were both hurting. “I don’t have my father’s centuries of experience. It was selfish to rescue Thorsten, but I simply couldn’t let him stay a cactus and let King Peter walk all over everyone.” Tears of fury gathered in my eyes. “If I hadn’t attacked, King Peter would’ve. He wants to destroy the Winter lands. He hates everyone who isn’t his slave. He’s worse than the vamps, turning on his own people. He doesn’t care that the Summer lands will crumble once he destroys the Winter lands.”

  Peony worked her jaw. “You are the queen of the Winter Court. You were our only hope! You should’ve planned better on how to get rid of King Peter, instead of focusing on Thorsten!”

  I nodded, struggling to stand as her words deflated me. A defensive, cold wall rose within me, eager to protect me from the truth. “You’re right, but you don’t get to judge me. I’d like to see how well you’d function if Caleb’s life was in danger. At least I didn’t take a loyalty oath to King Peter.” Right away, I regretted my words.

  Peony balked. “I’m not loyal to him.” She went quiet and studied her hands as if expecting them to hold the answer. “I’m...not loyal to King Peter. I can say it. I can think it, too.” Her eyes widened. “Coming to the wastelands broke my loyalty vow.”

  I nodded. “If one party is banished, fae oaths are broken.” We both paused for a second as my words sunk in, then I said, “Peony, I know you’re pissed, but we have to work together. How is your own magic feeling?”

  Her greenish-white wings fluttered wide. “Like shit. Weak. Like the ground here is sucking the life out of me. It’s just as bad as iron. I think I could work some magic here, but not much.”

  I nodded, guessing as much. Peony had no protection here. “It’s draining my magic as well. But do you think it’s better here than down below?”

  She tilted her head, looking thoughtful. “Yes.” She glanced outside to where a couple of miles away, a tall and dead mountain rose into the pale sky. “When I woke up earlier down below, I felt horrible. It’s not as bad up here.”

  “Then maybe we can work with this,” I said, trying to come up with a plan.

  “We have nothing we can work with,” she snarled. “We have no food or water. We’re stuck here until we die. We’ll never see Caleb or Thorsten again.”

  I rubbed my temples, feeling a headache coming on. “As great as life was under King Peter’s thumb, you’re free of your vow now. If you help us get out of here, you’ll still be free of it. Telling me how much I suck won’t get us anywhere.”

  She huffed out a breath. “I know.”

  I pointed to the puddles on the floor. “We have access to some water. And you have plant magic. We can grow food and drink. So long as we stay off the ground as much as possible, we should survive.”

  She twirled a blonde curl. “Yay. We can languish here for years or even centuries.”

  I gave her a close-lipped smile. “That’s not my plan.” I motioned to the mountain. “We should get on the top of that. From there, we should be able see the rest of the wastelands and find a way out.”

  Peony bit her lip. “According to Blythe, my teacher at Vasara, the wastelands are sideways to the rest of the faelands. You can’t just walk out. Can’t you feel it?”

  “Feel what?”

  “This place is different from the rest of the faelands. Like we’re not even in the same world.”

  I paused and took a breath of the cool cave air. Yes. The energy here was lower, like the world itself was vibrating at a low frequency. Back in the faelands, magic flowed through everything. Here, there was just listless death. A reverse magic, in a way. “I get what you’re saying, but we still need to try. We can’t just give up.”

  “Well, how do you propose we reach the top of that mountain?” Peony huffed. “We’ll die from exhaustion before we make that hike.”

  I smirked. “Obviously, we’re going to fly.” Her face went blank. “Please, tell me they taught you how to fly at Vasara.” I got my answer when she didn’t reply. Great. I’d get to teach her. I worked hard to maintain my smile. “Looks like you’re going to learn a new skill.” There was no way I was carrying her to the peak of the mountain.

  4

  Virgie

  After flying for hours on our winged mounts over the Summer lands, the landscape gradually gave way to autumn colors, bare trees, and then finally, patches of snow. Sela guided her Pegasus down from the sky and we followed suit.

  “This is halfway between the Winter and Summer Court. A perfect place for you guys to rest and regroup,” Sela said as we landed on a patch of bare ground. Surrounding us stood a ring of thick pines and a few autumn trees that offered a natural shelter.

  As I got off my Pegasi, I snuck a glance at the others, wanting to get a read on their moods. Blair rolled her wrists and neck, clearly glad to be on the ground. Caleb’s expression was unreadable as he stood next to his mount while Nathan was glancing back the way we had come from, squinting.

  I put my hand on his shoulder. “Nerissa will be fine. She’s smart and resourceful.”

  Nathan sighed. “She is, but so were Onyx and Peony.”

  “Don’t you dare talk about her in the past
tense!” Caleb hiked up his shoulders and balled his fists.

  I stepped between the two guys. “Please, no fighting. That won’t get us anywhere.”

  “Virgie is right. We need to work together, not turn on one another.” Sela opened the bag Nerissa had given us and pulled out five carrots, feeding each Pegasi one. As soon as the carrots were gone, they reappeared in the bag, making it bulge. One of the Pegasi snorted with contentment. Good. At least between the carrots and magical apples, we wouldn’t have to worry about food or water as the magical vegetables and fruits seemed to provide us and our steeds with necessary nutrients and fluids.

  “I have to get going.” Sela stepped away from the Pegasi and dropped the new carrots back in the bag. “I have to do damage control at the Winter palace. I doubt I’ll be back before five days.”

  “Can I stay here?” Blair asked. “I want to help, but I think I’ll be more useful here.”

  Sela nodded. “Yes, I think that will be the smartest move.” She glanced at Caleb. “Good luck with the wastelands portal. We should stay in touch, but I don’t think using spies would be wise as it might tip someone off to your location.”

  “No, it’s not,” I said. Spies had been convenient at the Vasara Center, but this was a different ball game, especially since I had the feeling that it wasn’t just King Peter, but also the Winter Court who wanted us dead. They’d be devastated that their only heir was banished to the wastelands, and we’d get blamed. Still, if spies weren’t an option… “How will we communicate?”

  Sela paused. “Ideally, we’d use live recordings to pass messages that can travel on their own.”

  I felt my eyebrows knit. “So we’d use something like the magic that the fae media has to capture images, but more powerful like the recording King Peter made for Onyx. Can we even do that?”

  Sela walked back to her horse. “I’ve never attempted it before, but I’m sure between the four of you, you’ll figure it out. I really have to get going. The Winter Court is my priority. General Alden will need to see me.”

  “Thanks for everything,” Nathan said, the only one who managed to be polite during Sela’s brisk departure. I understood that the Winter Court had to come first, but still, how could she just leave us here without any clue what to do? I watched as her Pegasus rose high in the air and disappeared, then I faced the others. Nathan had removed the tent from the bag and was unfolding it while Caleb was sitting on a boulder, staring into empty space. I had a feeling that neither of them would be up for some brainstorming, which left me and Blair.

  I didn’t know Blair too well. She’d only attended the two-month long Summer prep back at Nocturnal Academy before she was sold to a sadistic vampire. After Onyx had executed him, Blair had come to stay with Onyx so she could heal mentally from her ordeal.

  I gave Blair what I hoped was a friendly smile. “Looks like we’re on our own.”

  She let a fireball dance across her palm. “Don’t look so glum. Just because we’re not royalty doesn’t mean we’re helpless.”

  That might be true in Blair’s case, but my mental power wouldn’t come in handy, or would it? “Blair, fire can carry things, right?” Blythe had mentioned that elemental fae always had unique magic. “When you used that plant-killing potion back in King Peter’s throne room, it seemed to carry the potion’s effects to all his trees.”

  Her green eyes went from confused to eager. “Yes. Are you thinking that I could use my magic to send a live recording to Sela? What about the wastelands? Could we send a message there and communicate with Onyx?”

  A tingle of excitement ran up my spine. “Maybe. But first we need to figure out how to create such a recording.”

  Nathan walked over to us, and I turned to him. “If we send a live recording to the wastelands or to the Winter Court, do we need to open the portal for that?”

  He ran his hand through his long blond-green hair. “Yes, but just a tiny bit. It would require way less magic, and it also shouldn’t raise the alarm.”

  “Perfect. Do you know how the media create their live recordings?”

  Nathan pinched the space between his brows. “It’s similar to what you humans call electricity. Basically, you need energy that is moldable and that can flow.”

  “Like Blair’s elemental fire?”

  Nathan took in Blair’s fireball. She grinned, and it morphed into a tiny bird. It vanished from her palm only to reappear on her shoulder. “Yes, that should work, especially since you seem to have a good grasp on your elemental magic.”

  Blair beamed as if no one had told her this before. I remembered that she had used to struggle with controlling her magic back in Nocturnal Academy and had been punished for that more than once.

  “But,” Nathan continued. “We still need to figure out how to get the recording into the fireball and how to get the fireball to find the correct person. If our message gets in the wrong hands—”

  “It will be catastrophic,” I finished, and we all fell silent. “What if I could compel the fireball to find the person we need?” I could use my mind to influence people, so why not objects?

  “We could test that,” Nathan said.

  Caleb joined our group, eyeing the fiery bird. Apparently, he’d been listening from his position on the rock. “My royal magic should allow me to get the recording into the fireball. I may also be able to open a tiny portal into the wastelands without much training. It won’t be big or stable enough for any of us to get through, but should be enough for a small object.”

  “That’s great.” I smiled. We were all on board, working together.

  “We should get a good night’s sleep so that we can practice with a clear mind tomorrow.” Nathan took my hand and led me toward the tan tent, which was now assembled and much larger than the folded bit of cloth Nathan had been working with. I wanted to protest, but a yawn overcame me, and suddenly, I felt very tired. Nathan was right. We’d all been running on adrenaline, and the daylight was rapidly disappearing. A good night’s sleep would do us all good.

  The tent blended in with the bleak borderlands and despite being made of cloth, was very sturdy to the touch, thanks to the magic of the fae that had created it. While from the outside the dome tent looked like it could maybe fit a maximum of two people, it turned out to be much bigger once I stepped inside. There was a little corridor that split into two zipped areas, which I guessed to be rooms. I unzipped one and found two sleeping bags, which about now seemed like the biggest luxury I could ask for. I turned around to face Blair and Caleb, who had followed us. “Are you guys okay sharing a room or should we split it by gender?”

  Caleb snorted. “I’m not that fragile. I don’t care who I’m sharing a room with. Just make sure not to keep us up all night.”

  I felt my cheeks heat at his implication and turned my face away.

  “I’m fine, too,” Blair said. She looked a bit uneasy, but I had the feeling that had to do with Caleb’s mood and not him being a male. Before I could double check, she opened the room on the right and headed inside. Caleb followed her, zipping it shut.

  “All right,” I said and stepped into our room. Nathan zipped it shut and put his hand underneath my chin, tilting it up so that I met his eyes.

  “We’ll get through this,” he said.

  “We will.” I smiled. “But no more talk of worrisome things tonight.” With that, I began to unbutton his jacket.

  5

  Virgie

  Nathan growled as I kissed his neck, nibbling a trail down to his collarbone. His hands went to work on my heels and dress, which were soon discarded, as were my lacy undergarments. Despite being naked in the chilly borderlands, I didn’t feel cold, but like every inch of me was on fire. My heart pounded as I hooked my thumbs into Nathan’s pants and slid them down with his underwear. I tore his shirt off him, sending a few buttons flying.

  “Careful. I might need to wear that one again,” he chuckled, then gently lowered me onto the sleeping bag as he stroked my sensitive
wings. His mouth roamed over my body, trailing kisses down my throat, drawing tingles and fire with each brush. Soon, his tongue circled my nipples that hardened in response, then worked its way down my stomach and finally in between my legs.

  My core tightened, begging for a release. Nathan’s swift fingers and tongue delivered. He tried to roll onto his side, but I held him back.

  “Nathan, I want you.”

  “Virgie,” he protested.

  I shook my head. “I’m ready. We’ve been waiting long enough.” Slowly, I guided him between my legs and lifted up my hips. He slid into me deliciously slowly. I expected pain, but all I felt was a tightening sensation. Once I got used to it, I wrapped my legs around his hips and gently rocked my hips against his. I was relaxed from my first climax, and soon the tiny bit of discomfort morphed into pleasure. I wanted more. I shifted so that Nathan hit the spot inside of me that felt so good, and soon my world shattered into a thousand radiant colors as a wave of pleasure crashed over me.

  “Are you all right?” Nathan panted.

  “More than all right.”

  He shifted so that now we were spooning. His arms explored my body and his lips caressed my nape as his movements became more and more urgent. My core tightened as well, and I climaxed for a third time as he came inside of me. Only then did I realize that we hadn’t used protection.

  “Nathan?” I slid a bit away to look into his eyes. “We didn’t use birth control.”

  He froze, and then his features relaxed. “I’m clean. Like I said, dating was never a priority for me. As for birth control, I don’t think we need to worry about it, given the Barren Plague.”