Phoenix Academy: Awaken: A Paranormal Reverse Harem Romance

by Lucy Auburn

  “I can help.”

  Dipping my right thumb into the pool of blood in my palm, I lift my hand up and press a perfect, circular thumbprint to her forehead. The instant I do I feel her soul fold into our connection, the disharmonious sixth to a star meant to have five points and no more.

  All that’s left is the chant.

  Somehow I know the words without looking at the book.

  “Spirit of darkness, second soul, your time is done. Your burden is over.” Two tears slip down her face as the power within her shrinks, darkens. The black veins mottling her pale skin recede inch by inch. “I cut your connection to the everlasting power of the arcane. You are Risen no more.”

  A shiver. A gasp. The white wings unfurling behind her shoulders snap back beneath her skin; she slumps forward, exhausted, the blood of my thumbprint dripping down the middle of her face.

  “It’s over,” I say.

  Around me, the four demons step back, cutting off their connection to her second soul, which is nothing but a tiny wisp of power now. But I can still sense them, and know that with just a simple word I could make any of them do anything I want. They would be forced to obey me. Feeling sick at that knowledge, I draw back and out of the bond, until it recedes to the low and present sense of where they are and a dim idea of what they’re feeling.

  The moment I do, their faces clear, and their expressions turn back to normal. My palm throbs, a welcome pain. Of his own free will, Lynx steps forward and starts to loosen the ropes that tie Victoria down, as she falls forward, energy leaking out of her like a sieve. He leans her back and looks up at me, suddenly stilling. “Dani?”

  “I don’t know what happens next.” I look to Ezra for guidance, but the look on his face is strange; he’s staring at me in something like wonder. “Will she die?”

  Lynx, as ever, has a response. “She’ll be human, for a while. Maybe a regular phoenix; I don’t know. But she’s not Risen anymore.”

  He’s staring at me like I have a second head; so is Mateo, the gun limp at his side, something strange on his face. It almost looks like reverence.

  Sebastian steps forward, cups my bleeding hand and takes the pain away. He presses his chin to my shoulder and murmurs, “You’re so much more than I thought possible.”

  I frown at all of them. “What’s gotten into you?”

  It’s Victoria who answers, a dreamlike expression crossing her increasingly human face as she jerks upright and stares at me.

  “Black Phoenix. You saved me.”

  Her fingers tremble as she reaches out her hand towards me, as if she wants to brush against me with her fingertips, like a pilgrim come to kneel before their idol.

  “And your wings are so beautiful.”

  Chapter 25

  “It seems really fucking unfair that I’m the only one who can’t see them well.” Craning my neck around, I try to spot what all the fuss is about, but my wings move when I do so all I spot is the curling edge of orange-and-black fire. “There’s got to be a mirror big enough to show me my own reflection.”

  “If there is, Mateo blew it up,” Ezra says dryly.

  “You’re welcome,” Mateo mutters. “That’s the thanks I get for taking the good grenades with me everywhere and saving everybody’s asses.”

  “How do I make them go away?” I imagine them unfurling into my body, and just like that they have; there’s a jolting tingle between my shoulder blades and they’re gone. “Huh. Weird.”

  Lynx grunts. “Little help here?”

  The other guys quickly swoop in to help him untie Victoria and heave her up off the creaky attic floor. She’s fallen asleep, and looks worse for the wear; her body is hollowed-out and impossibly thin, her dress torn and burned into shreds.

  Reflecting on the way Yohan’s voice trembled as he told her story, I wonder how he’ll feel to know that she’s alive.

  And a murderer.

  I grimace. “Maybe we should take her memories away.” It’s strange, how easy it feels to say we now, as if it’s a given. Unless it isn’t. “Or... Mateo should. Before you guys leave.”

  There’s an awkwardness in the air, one that isn’t helped by the various navigating the guys have to do to get Victoria’s listless body down the stairs and heave it onto the couch. They look at each other again, having one of those weird conversations that I’m left out of.

  It’s starting to get old.

  “Guys? You’ll be incorporeal again soon. Better to take care of things now.” I glance out the front door. “Before the police arrive. Though you’d think they’d be here by now, since Mateo decimated half the block.”

  He gives me a roguish grin, like the destruction is something he’s proud of—and he probably is. “You’re welcome. Again.”

  “We’ll leave when you’re safe,” Ezra says. Sebastian has a frown on his face and is glaring off into the distance, like the two of them just had a weird, silent fight. “Once we get you back to the academy. Until then, a Grim might show up and hurt you.”

  Something burns in my throat, tight and painful like grief. “You’d think they wouldn’t want to kill one of their own.”

  Licking his lips, Lynx gently points out, “Grim clans don’t consider Black Phoenix family anymore. They view killing them as a kind of duty, and record their date of death as the day they die and become a phoenix.”

  Great. Not that it’s exactly different from what my life was like before—I’ve never had a true, real family, not one that mattered. But it still stings a little to know those two Grims who tried to kill me could be long-lost, shitty cousins.

  Guess I won’t be attending the family reunion.

  A knock at the front door ends our conversation about next steps or family relations. Grimacing, I motion for the guys to step back. “Of the five of us, I look the least crazy right now.”

  It’s true; we’re all a little blood-splattered and dusty, but the four demons have the worst of it, whereas I’m healed. The only somewhat suspicious thing about me is the blood splattered on Ezra’s jacket, which is covering up the tatters of my torn shirt.

  At least I have experience dealing with the police. I’m sure I can think of some wild explanation for the grenade that tore up Sara’s backyard and destroyed half the fences around it. Pasting on my best this shit was an accident face, I open up the front door ready to disassemble and explain.

  And blink up into Headmaster Towers’ worried face.

  “Oh, Dani!” She rushes forward, putting her arms around me and squeezing me tight enough that my recently-healed chest complains. “We were so worried about you.”

  Glancing over her shoulder, I spot three squad cars on the street, and a crowd of nosy neighbors standing on the sidewalk, far enough away from the house to avoid getting blown up but close enough to get a good look.

  There’s also Liam, standing casually on a corner, and Petra, standing at the end of the driveway looking up into the night sky. Overhead, a hawk cries out, and I feel a thin thread of relief at the knowledge that they’re safe now.

  “I went out of town for a few hours, and look what happened.” Stepping back, the headmaster gets a good look at the blood on my borrowed jacket and shakes her head. “I’m so sorry Dani. I should’ve told you sooner. I was just afraid we’d gotten it wrong, and I wanted to bring an expert in.”

  I have no idea what she’s talking about. “I’m sorry, what?”

  “Well, clearly you’ve figured out you’re a Black Phoenix, and it’s why you ran away again. Our scanners detected the necromantic activity here—and the neighbors called the police about the noise. But Dani, you never should’ve had to face the Risen on your own. We brought someone in to take care of it. That’s why I was out of town—to hire a Grim to deal with the threat to our school, and stick around as a teacher to help you with your powers. It was hard to pull off, given the wars between our kind, but I found someone.”

  I feel like my head is spinning. “Maybe we should sit down to talk about this. If t
here’s a chair intact in this place.”

  Walking towards the living room, I spy the demons arranged against the remains of the back wall, and consider whether I should warn the headmaster about them. But the instant I think of it, I see that light is streaming through them again, and realize they’ve gone incorporeal.

  Though there’s something else that needs attention. As the headmaster rounds the corner, she stares down at the occupied couch and gasps, hands coming up to her mouth. “Oh no.”

  “Does she seem familiar?”

  Nodding, Lana Towers gets to her knees beside the couch and tucks Victoria’s hair behind her ears, face crumpled in grief. “You did it. You took away the energy that kept her alive past her time. And now...” She sighs, placing her fingers against Victoria’s throat as if she can sense the weakened beat of her heart. And maybe she can. “Well. It’s for the best. Now she’ll have some time to say goodbye before it’s all over. I’ve been informed all sorts of things by our new Grim instructor, including the fact that White Phoenix rarely survive long once they’re no longer propped up by a necromantic connection.”

  In the corner, Lynx makes a hmmm noise, and I get the sense that he’s filing this new piece of information away in his brain, alongside his knowledge of sturdy rope knots and his penchant for taking his shirt off when he’s bored.

  “But Dani.” Rising to her feet, the headmaster gives me a troubled look, her hands reaching out to rest on my shoulders. “We sensed the activity here, but I had no idea it came from you. How in the world did you do this alone?”

  I look over towards the corner, considering my options.

  Ezra. Lynx. Mateo. Sebastian. They’ve each somehow touched me and changed me, even though it’s barely been a week, and they’ve spent most of it as incorporeal ghosts. It seems unfair to lie about them, to take credit for things I couldn’t have done without their help.

  “About that.” Clearing my throat, I take a deep breath and reach through our connection to tug on them each and make them corporeal. Somehow, it’s gotten easier with practice—or maybe my second death changed me. “There are a few people I’d like you to meet. If I come back to the academy, they’ll be coming with me. At least until we’re sure it’s safe there again, and they can... go home.”

  Ezra clears his throat, and the headmaster turns slowly towards them, eyes wide. “Sorry about the destruction in the backyard.”

  Mateo shoots her a rakish grin. “How do you like my handiwork?”

  Chapter 26

  “Well.” Headmaster Towers manages to look only mildly scandalized, and more than a little curious. “I didn’t realize you’d gotten so far in your demonology abilities already. I’ll have to tell Meyer about this before he begins your instruction. I suppose you’ll be needing a series of rooms.”

  Mateo smirks, murmuring something to Sebastian about how one big room could do the trick. I try to ignore the fact that I can hear them.

  “Actually, they pretty much just vanish when I need sleep. Although...” I have an idea, and latch onto it. “I wouldn’t mind moving, given that the other students in the dorm I was assigned to seem to think I’m a murderer.”

  “They what?”

  “They think I killed Kayla,” I tell her, tamping down on my anger as much as possible. “I heard them talking about it—those students who helped me move think that I’m some kind of killer.”

  “Well, fuck.” There’s something odd about hearing the normally prim and proper headmaster curse, but it seems to fit the moment well. “We’ll have to do something about that, now that the threat is taken care of. I’d thought that telling the students too much about the deaths would alarm them, but clearly I was wrong. This all turned out to be much worse than I’d feared.”

  She looks over at Victoria, eyes shadowed, and I get the sense that there’s even more to the story I haven’t heard yet.

  But I’m too tired to find out.

  “So I guess I’m not dropping out of school.” Looking around at the destruction of Sara’s house, I start to feel like I’ll never have a home. “What are we going to do about this?”

  “I’ll take care of it. You don’t need to worry anymore, Dani. Not about any of it.” Reaching out, she lightly squeezes my arm. “I’ll have Petra assign you a new dorm room in the upper class halls.” Glancing over at the four demons casually leaning against the wall, she adds, “Maybe more than one room, if this is going to become a habit.”

  Looking over at them, I find myself hoping it doesn’t.

  They’re the only four I could ever imagine having this kind of bond with.

  But I know it has to end, and the dread of that makes me close me eyes, think small thoughts, and wish them away into that nowhere place again, so I can be alone with my emotions.

  Before they’re gone, Ezra says, “We’ll see you in the morning.”

  And I believe him, even though he hasn’t always told me the truth.

  “How strange,” the headmaster says as they vanish. “Your jacket disappeared too.”

  I’m too tired to be embarrassed by exposing myself accidentally. “I guess it went with them.”

  “Here.” She pulls off her blazer and tucks it over my shoulders, enveloping me in its warmth. Beneath it she’s wearing a thin blouse, the kind with careful pleats and silky fabric that’s so expensive it has to be dry cleaned. Then she pulls her phone out and gets straight to business. “Well, let me get the cars to come around, and call some people to handle the mess out there. We’ll get you back to Phoenix Academy and start your training the right way, Dani, I swear it. And I’m sorry I left you out in the dark before.”

  “It’s okay,” I tell her, even though it really isn’t.

  She’s not the reason I’m returning to the academy, anyway.

  When I get into the minivan idling for me on the driveway, I’m not alone. Three familiar faces stare at me from the backseat, and another sits on the bucket seat next to me.

  “We thought you would want some company for the ride back to the academy,” Petra says from the seat next to me. “Sounds like you had a rough day.”

  “Yeah.” Reaching into my pocket, I pull a torn lanyard string out, followed by the cracked case holding what remains of Olivia’s partially-melted ID card. “I’m sorry.”

  She stares at the hand that holds it out to her, then inexplicably bursts into tears. “I’m the one who’s sorry! I never should’ve gotten mad at you.” Throwing her arms around my shoulders, Olivia awkwardly tries to hug me despite the headrest in the way. “When we thought you were in trouble—or worse, dead—all I can think is how I shouldn’t have accused you.”

  “Yeah Dani,” Sam says, reaching out to squeeze my shoulder. “If you’d asked us to get a book for you, we would’ve.”

  Trapped behind Sam’s outstretched arm, Liam complains, “Why do we have to sit in the back when there’s a perfectly good empty seat up front?”

  “Underclassmen get the bitch seat.” Leaning forward, Petra pokes the driver’s shoulder. “C’mon, let’s go. We’ve got to get her out of here before someone else shows up to murder her for her tasty bits.”

  The driver, who I’m just now realizing is Kade, grunts and puts out his cigarette in the ashtray, rolling up the window. “You lot make me want to drink again.”

  Of all the things I left behind this time when I ran from the academy—friends it turns out I like more than I thought, help in the form of the headmaster and the teachers—the one thing I don’t regret missing is Kade’s Group Combat class.

  “So,” Sam says, sounding excited, “I heard you like, have special powers and stuff.”

  “Yeah.” I swallow, aware of the fact that my new discovery about what I am means I might very well be related to the exact people Sam and the other shifters train to defend against. That includes those who attacked the students over the summer and killed Yohan’s sister. “And here I thought it wasn’t going to get any weirder.”

  “Oh trust me,” Petra sa
ys, wild grin on her face, “the weirdness is just beginning.”

  “You’re sure this is where my new bedroom is?” Following Petra up the stairs, I get the distinct feeling that I’m being punked. “This is where the headmaster’s office is.”

  “We’re going past that. To the original upperclassmen rooms.” Her hand trails along the wall to our left, fingers lightly skimming the wallpaper. I wonder idly how many layers of paint are beneath the floral design, how many times this old place has been scraped to its bones and reshaped for a new era. “You’re going to live across the hall from me. And Sasha, but you probably won’t see her much. There are only four rooms up here, each with their own bathroom, and only upperclassmen get them. So you’re kind of an exception.”

  “Oh.” This seems strange: a kind of reward for doing the one thing the headmaster warned me not to do, run away. But maybe she feels bad about the whole almost-murdered thing, which seems right; she should feel bad about it. “What happened to... Er, what will happen to Victoria?”

  A troubled expression crosses Petra’s face. “I don’t know. I think Yohan gets to decide that, if she doesn’t wake up again.”

  There’s a sudden pain in my heart, a kind of muted stabbing sensation, and I don’t know if it’s pain at the knowledge that the tortured beautiful White Phoenix will die, or just an echo of her claws digging into muscle.

  “Here we are.”

  “Wow.”

  Stepping into my new room, I take note of the wide space, the door to the bathroom—something the dorm was missing—and the extra large bed.

  Mateo got his wish.

  I also take note of the keypad by the door, suggesting there’s more security here, as well as the tiny window that looks out onto a three story drop. If I try to run in the middle of the night, I’ll have to slip past the headmaster’s office and rooms to do it.

  “Do I need a key or something?”