Moonstone Academy: Year One: A Mayhem of Magic World Story

by Nicole Zoltack

  “So? Red skin is better anyhow.”

  “I’m sure your horns are showing.”

  He laughs, and I smile. Dad only has red skin when he morphs into his demonic state. A lot of demons have horns no matter what form they take, but my dad can make his so small that they're hardly bumps on his head. His thick black hair conceals them perfectly. I have his hair color, as Mom is blond. Where my white strands of hair come from, I'm not sure. Dad's eyes are black unless he's furious. Then, they're as red as a vampire's. I have Mom's eyes, only mine glow all the time. I don't know if that's a half-werewolf, half-demon thing or not. Honestly, I love my eyes, so that those bullies like to mock them infuriates me all the more.

  “You’ll come?” he asks.

  I close my eyes, press a hand to my heart, my other hand holding the phone tightly, and shift my body through space. When I open my eyes again, I’m standing in the front foyer of my house.

  Well, I say house, but it’s a mansion. It’s the largest house in the entire human city. I still think it’s weird to live among the humans, given who we are, my parents and I. We might be able to pass as humans and walk among them, but we can’t be ourselves around them. They can’t ever know who we are, that we aren’t just the stuff of legends and myths. It would risk war.

  On the table is the map. I eye it and hone in on the spot marked off. Shadow Thicket. It’s near Ashburn Mountains. In Dad’s slanted script, he wrote, “Clearing.”

  Because I can mentally picture a clearing in the middle of a forest I’ve never set foot in before. I don’t even know if the clearing is in the middle of the forest or if it’s more to the north or west or southeast…

  “Bellanore?” Dad says, the phone still pressed against my ear. “Are you there?”

  “Still wondering what’s in it for me if I do this,” I mumble.

  “Still?” He laughs, but the sound is a little more forced this time. “I didn’t realize you wanted something in addition to a swapped weekend.”

  “You know me. Always pressing my luck.”

  “If I didn’t love you…”

  I close my eyes and try to reach out to the earth, to the soil, to the mountains. They’re so huge that it’s easier to connect to that than the forest, but then I find the forest, find the roots of the trees, and there… there… to the northeast is the clearing.

  Before I can double-check myself, before I can talk myself out of going for it, I make the leap into the unknown and teleport.

  When I open my eyes, I’m standing in a clearing. My dad is looming above the form of a man who is sitting on a rock, his hands and wrists bound. The man’s lips quiver, and I can smell the stench of fear on him. It’s like a tangy scent, a bit bitter.

  “Bellanore!” Dad says with a wide grin. “I told you you could do it.”

  I hang up my phone and shove it into the pocket of my skirt. It’s not a school day, so I’m not in uniform, but I tend to wear skirts and dress over pants.

  “I’m here, yes. We can talk about the terms of what I’m owed later,” I say with more bravado than I’m feeling because I’m sweating bullets. If I misjudged, if I teleported into a tree… I would be dead right now.

  But I didn’t. I’m here safe and sound, and if I can do it to reach one place I’ve never been to before, I can do it again.

  I can teleport anywhere.

  It’s such a feeling of wild freedom that I can’t help the wide smile stretching across my face.

  Dad smirks. “Sure we can,” he says in a tone that suggests the opposite.

  I ignore him and focus on the bound man.

  “Bellanore, this is Draz,” my dad says. “He’s an associate of mine.”

  “Do you always bound your associates?” I mutter, but inwardly, I am so very utterly pleased with myself. Dad called me here for a reason. He needs me. Not only that, an associate? Dad’s introducing me to an associate? This has to deal with his business!

  Finally!

  I clear my throat and wait impatiently for Dad’s response.

  Dad wanders closer to Draz and waves me over. I’m so hopped up on excitement that I teleport over to stand beside him even though it would’ve only taken me five steps.

  Dad smirks and lays a hand on my shoulder. “You know how you can smell sins?” he asks me.

  My eyes widen, and I nod.

  Draz’s eyes widen too. He’s an imp, I can tell just by looking at him. He’s human-sized, but that’s because he can manipulate his shape. Normally, he’ll be more like three and a half feet tall. His ears are pointed, like a fairy’s or an elf’s, and his nose is shaped like a button. His cheeks are as red as strawberries, and he looks like he would eat his hat if he could. His eyes are huge, almost double the size of a human’s. The whites of his eyes aren’t white. They’re black, his eye coloring almost gold.

  “Your father—” he starts.

  But Dad doesn’t let him say more than that. He places a hand on my shoulder as he says, “I need to learn if Draz here is being honest or deceitful. Do you think you can help me with that?”

  I blink a few times and then nod. “Yes, Dad, of course I can. Now, what’s this all about?”

  “You see, I was—”

  Again, Dad cuts off the imp. “Draz here was supposed to bring me a certain item. Now, he’s telling me that he can’t. I want to know why he can’t do what he promised me he would do.”

  “I told…” Draz hesitates. I think it’s because he suspects Dad will cut him off again, but this time, Dad lets the imp talk. “I told your dad the truth. There’s no way to get him what he wants. I will, though. When I can. If he’ll just give me more time, I’m sure I can get it for ‘im.”

  Ah, there it is. Pure as day. Draz is lying. Surely Dad can see that he’s sweating. It’s not from nerves. He’s trembling like a leaf. If there was any wind tonight, he would fall over even though he’s using magic to add at least two feet to his normal-sized frame. The stench of sulfur clings to him, the stench of not only lies but fear.

  Draz is afraid of my dad. He doesn’t want to disappoint Dad, but he also doesn’t want Dad to have whatever this particular item is. It hasn’t escaped my notice that neither of them is saying what exactly said item is.

  “Well?” Dad asks gruffly. “What’s the case? Is he lying or telling me the truth?”

  I stare Draz straight in his beady little eyes. He’s staring straight at me, but he’s quaking in his boots, or he would be if he were actually wearing boots instead of… Are those clogs? Even with my enhanced senses, I can’t make out what’s on his feet in the darkness of night. We’re in a clearing, but the clouds have covered the red moon, and I just can’t see his feet. Not that it matters any.

  I’m stalling. Dad knows it, and Draz is sweating even more now.

  “Well?” Dad repeats, his impatience growing.

  I hesitate. There’s a darkness around Dad. It’s always been there, but most of the time, around me at least, the darkness clings to the edges. Now, it’s illuminating him entirely in a dark aura that’s almost like a glowing halo of black surrounding him. It’s the same with Draz. Whatever they’re into, it’s dark and nearly evil.

  Or maybe pure evil.

  Dad is a demon, after all. Maybe I’ve been too blind to his sins because he’s my dad, and I want to believe that he’s not like the rest of his kind.

  Dad didn’t raise me to be naïve, but maybe Mom has the right of it by distancing herself from him.

  In a word, I’m utterly confused, but maybe I can try to figure out what’s going on. There’s no way Dad will tell me the truth.

  But can I really trust an imp of all paranormal beings?

  “He’s telling the truth,” I lie smoothly.

  Dad narrows his eyes. “Is that so?” he asks. “Well, then, I’m sorry, Draz. I never should’ve doubted you. You want more time? You have a day.”

  “A d-day?” Draz stutters. “I need more time than that.”

  “You’ve already had more time tha
n I would’ve liked,” Dad grumbles. “Bellanore, be a dear and untie Draz. The imp needs to go about and finish up our business.”

  “Of course.” I do as Dad directs.

  Draz watches me the entire time. As soon as he’s freed, he rubs his wrists, nods to me, and he promptly teleports away.

  Dad eyes me. “You sure about Draz?”

  I snort. “Are you sure about doing business with an imp?”

  “I know what I’m doing so long as I can trust my people.”

  I grin and rub the back of my neck. “I’m sure it just eats you alive that you can’t smell sins like I can.”

  “You would think all demons can do that, but no. We aren’t all created equal.”

  I fake a yawn. “If you don’t need anything else…”

  “You’re leaving already?”

  “I’m a bit tired. It’s not just smelling sins.”

  “No?” Dad asks, eyeing me critically.

  “The teleporting like I did,” I fib.

  “Yes. You did do well. I told you to trust me, didn’t I?”

  “And I did.”

  “And I trust you too,” he says, his tone both softer and harder.

  “As you should,” I say smoothly.

  “Come here. Give me a hug.”

  I hug him, and he squeezes me tighter than normal. Does he suspect? Maybe, but too late now.

  I pull away, nod, grin, and I blink out of there, leaving him behind in a flash and teleporting, this time to Ashburn Mountains. I don’t know if this is where the imp will be or not, but I need to stay nearby, so I can try and sense him.

  I’ve barely a moment to even take a breath to settle myself from teleporting yet again when there’s the imp sitting on the stone in front of me.

  Draz gives me a big, old, impish grin. “I just wanted to say that I give to those who help me. What do you want? I always pay me debts.”

  “Is that so?” I ask dryly. In the back of my mind, I wonder if this is all a setup, if Dad is testing my loyalty. It wouldn’t surprise me in the least for Dad to pull something like that.

  “Yes. Name your price. Within reason. Or out of reason.” He shrugs and holds out his hands. “If you want something more than I think is fair, you can earn it by doing a bit more for me.”

  “I saved your neck from a demon,” I say dryly. “How much is your life worth? Because anything I ask for is going to be plenty fair.”

  Draz narrows his eyes. “You’re a demon’s daughter, all right,” he mumbles. “More than you are a werewolf’s daughter. So, Ronath’s daughter, tell me what it is you want most.”

  “No, not what I want most. What I want from you.”

  The imp flashes that grin again. “Of course. Whatever you want, Ronath’s daughter.”

  “I have a name.”

  “Indeed, you do.”

  I narrow my eyes. Hadn’t he heard my dad say it before? There’s power with a person’s name, so maybe it’s just as well he isn’t calling by mine.

  “Why don’t you tell me what my dad wants from you?” I ask smoothly.

  Draz swallows hard.

  “Or you could tell me why you don’t have it for my dad. Oh, wait… You do have it, and we both know that. Take your pick. What are you going to tell me?”

  I suck in a breath as the imp mulls things over.

  “And remember,” I say grimly, “I can tell if you’re lying.”

  “Your father… he’s weaving a tangled web,” Draz says. “It’s not something you want to get involved in. You can trust me on that.”

  “You’re an imp who’s in cahoots with a demon,” I say, my tone drier than the Sahara Desert. “Do you really think I’m dumb enough to trust you?”

  Gone is every trace of him being an imp, and his face actually looks earnest, and his aura glows with a brightness that screams innocence.

  “Please, for your sake, don’t look into what your dad is doing. Don’t look into it. Stop trying to find out. You won’t like what you’ll learn, and if he tries to rope you into it…”

  “He already did tonight,” I point out.

  Draz shakes his head. “No, I mean to actually be in business with him. You don’t want that. Please. I’m looking out for you. I… Eep!”

  He’s looking over my shoulder, and he’s gone in a flash, and I teleport back to my room before I can blink. I don’t want to know who or what Draz saw, but I’m shaking. My entire body is trembling, and I curl up into my bed. Not that I think I’m going to sleep anytime soon, but the night of the blood moon has certainly taken a turn that I never thought it would’ve.

  And to think that originally, all I wanted to do was to see the red moon. Instead, I feel like I’m Little Miss Muffet caught in a spider’s web, just waiting to be devoured.

  Chapter 6

  Robb

  You can’t believe the fairy tales.

  There’s no loophole.

  There’s no such thing as a curse breaker.

  I’m doomed.

  A curse is a curse is a curse.

  The moon is red tonight. It's red every year for one night. Why? I don't know. Ask a vampire. They might know. After all, from the word around campus, it seems that the vampires have some kind of ball on the night of the blood moon. The Red Moon Ball. I bet they probably round up a bunch of humans or maybe even enemies and drain them of blood until they're completely dead. Or maybe they hunt werewolves. Everyone knows vampires and werewolves hate each other, but honestly, I don't know any vampires personally. A vampire didn't give me my scar.

  Another sort of monster did.

  As I pause my walk along the graveled moonlight path and stare at the blood moon, a tingling sensation washes over me. I’m being watched.

  Imperceptibly, I glance over my shoulder and spy Roald Jagger. As much as I wish to avoid the so-called "rough crowd," they don't seem to realize that I am not one of them. As much as they pretend that the lot of them are lone wolves, I am the one true lone wolf, and I do not mind that in the slightest. They, however, see fit to come and bother me at every turn, hardly ever giving me a moment's peace. It's a wonder that I haven't abandoned this venture that is Moonstone Academy because, in all of the time I've been here so far, I've learned precisely nothing.

  I continue to gaze upward at the moon, pretending I do not realize the others are stalking me, and just before they can attempt to startle me if that is their aim, I whirl around, my face and claws transformed.

  The lot of them jump back, and I cannot help smirking a bit.

  Once I revert my face back to him, I ask. "What is it you want?" My tone is a bit harsh.

  Roald hisses and reveals his long canines. “What’s gotten you in such a foul mood, Robb?” he asks. “We’re on the prowl for a bit of fun, and we thought you might want in.”

  As I often have to do around them, I close my eyes to prevent myself from rolling them. I’m sure it won’t be the last time. “And just what is this fun?” I ask.

  “Well…” Roald glances at Decker.

  It’s Elliot who answers. “We’re goin’ to Blood Haven.”

  “The vampires’ academy? Why under the moon would we do that?”

  “Because of their ball,” Decker says.

  “We want to crash it.” Roald flashes his teeth again.

  “Crash it,” I repeat numbly.

  “You do know what that means, don’t you?” Elliot asks, making it sound like I’m ignorant.

  “You all want to pick fights with vampires on their turf,” I say dryly. “That doesn’t sound smart to me.”

  “I would’ve thought that you had the look of someone who wouldn’t mind a go with a vampire,” Roald says.

  His tone is mild, but the glint in his eyes is dark. Even so, he doesn't scare me. He acts tough, but when it comes down to it, I don't think he's much of a predator. If I have to guess, he's the kind of werewolf who will back down from a fight and cower away rather than give in to his baser instincts and fight to the death.

 
Not that I’ve fought anyone to the death myself.

  Not yet at least.

  I might have to one day if I’m to survive.

  “Are you going to come with us or not?” Nia asks.

  “Why do you think this is a good idea?” I counter.

  Decker snorts. “Why do we need an excuse to beat up some vampires? They’re terrible, wicked creatures, and they should be put out of their miseries.”

  “Have you spoken with many vampires?” I ask.

  “No, but what does that matter?”

  “Not all vampires are evil. Not all of them kill—”

  Nia groans. “You actually mean to say that you don’t hate vampires?”

  “I’m supposed to hate them why?” I ask. “I’m sorry if I don’t just fall in line with stupid prejudices—”

  “Are you calling us stupid?” Nia growls.

  “Hardly.” I snort. “I called prejudices stupid. Keep up.”

  “I’m starting to get really sick—” Nia starts.

  Roald cuts her off. “Come or not, we don’t care, but you aren’t telling anyone that we’re going.”

  “He has more important things to do with his time like staring up at the blood moon and wishing he was a vampire instead of a werewolf,” Nia says with a sneer.

  I grin at her, flashing my teeth. “Actually, I don’t wish I was a vampire, and I also don’t have anything else to do. I suppose I might as well come along.”

  “Good.” Roald rubs his hands together. He looks so very pleased.

  Honestly, this is the worst of ideas for them. I don’t truly want to babysit tonight, but if I don’t, there’s going to be blood spilt. I can just tell, and I don’t think taking the rivalry to that level is a smart idea, not at all.

  “I haven’t been close to a vampire in months,” Decker says.

  “Why was that?” Roald asks.

  “I was thinking about attacking one.”

  “He only thought it because of my experience in Silver Ironwoods,” Elliot says smugly.

  “And what experience was this?” Roald hisses.

  “I almost bit a vampire in the leg,” Elliot says, proudly puffing out his chest.