by Emma Dean
No Rest for the Wicked
University of Morgana: Academy of Enchantments & Witchcraft
Emma Dean
NO REST FOR THE WICKED
UNIVERSITY OF MORGANA:
ACADEMY OF ENCHANTMENTS AND WITCHCRAFT
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without permission, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.
Copyright © 2019 by Emma Dean
This is a work of fiction. All of the characters, locations, organizations, and events portrayed in this novel are either products of the imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
Contents
Author’s Note
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Other Books
Want Free Stories?
About the Author
Author’s Note
All of my paranormal books exist in the same universe. The more you read the more you see familiar faces. You don’t need to read them in any particular order, or to know any others before starting any of my series or standalones.
This series heavily features Kenzie and her foxes from The Chaos of Foxes series, but there is nothing from that series that is needed to read this one. Everything has been explained.
Last but not least, this is a slow burn reverse harem series. Don’t forget to share and review and recommend your favorite books.
And yes, there will be sexy sex in the series ;)
<3 Emma
Then this ebony bird beguiling my sad fancy into smiling,
By the grave and stern decorum of the countenance it wore,
“Though thy crest be shorn and shaven, thou,” I said, “art sure no craven,
Ghastly grim and ancient Raven wandering from the Nightly shore—
Tell me what thy lordly name is on the Night’s Plutonian shore!”
Quoth the Raven “Nevermore.”
- Edgar Allan Poe
No Rest for the Wicked
1
Mika flipped a page, studying Corbin from under her eyelashes, knowing he could sense her gaze regardless.
An entire week of this and she was sick of it.
Everything had to be put on hold because of this shifter and all that went along with that.
Corbin was a raven assassin. Now he was her personal bodyguard. And Mika was more than a little aggravated. She’d accomplished nothing in the last week because she couldn’t afford for him to hear or see anything she and the others had been up to the last few months.
At least classes were starting back up tomorrow. Now that she’d read ahead for almost every class, Mika could relax the rest of the semester. But honestly, she just wanted things to go back to normal.
When would the Council decide the threat against her was gone? And why would she need a bodyguard here on Morgana’s island?
All questions that would have to wait thanks to Corbin. It’s not like she could go breaking and entering for answers with an assassin as a shadow.
Her phone chimed, and Mika ignored the way Corbin peered at it. She read the message from Ethan and sighed slightly. She missed him. And she missed Lucien. But they’d left Morgana for spring break – all her plans shattered and gone once the Council and the dean had forced themselves into her life.
Lucien was wary of Corbin sniffing him out as another shifter. It was why she’d arranged for him to get a scent charm from Selene and Kenzie. Then Ethan had wanted to spend the holiday with his mother and she couldn’t fault him for being a good son.
It did make her feel lonely – more than she’d ever admit to anyone. Being this isolated, even with Audrey around, it reminded her of the life she’d lived before Morgana – constantly in fear.
Even Audrey’s presence didn’t really help, not when they had to watch every word they said together – the raven never letting her out of his sight, just as he’d promised.
She would see Ethan and Lucien tomorrow though. All she had to do was find a way to talk to them without the raven listening in. She may not be able to get things done with Corbin constantly by her side, but they could.
Mika studied the tattoo that peeked out from the raven’s sleeve for the thousandth time. The symbol was familiar, and she’d had to bite her tongue all week to keep from asking him about it.
She closed the book on Sumerian and reached for another. Mika barely glanced at the title. It didn’t matter anyway. Not when she couldn’t read anything she actually needed to with this guy around.
Her eyes flicked to that symbol again. A raven with a pentagram woven through it – the horned moon above its head. Mika only saw that symbol in one place – on a book about the Morrigan.
Was it a coincidence? Did Corbin know anything about the goddess? Or was it just the universe trying to play tricks on her?
“You like it?” Corbin asked, rolling up his sleeves to his elbows, exposing more tattoos.
Mika didn’t respond. She’d barely said two words to him all week. It seemed smarter to keep it that way. But she wasn’t going to lie to herself, she did like his tattoos. There was something brutal and efficient about them – nothing but deep black ink. They were also artistic which she hadn’t been expecting.
“Come on, dove. You’ve got to speak to me sometime.”
Mika turned back to her book and tried not to sigh. She could only read her blood magic books at night while the raven slept in the room next to hers. With that tattoo on his wrist, she didn’t dare read anything about the Morrigan around him.
What a waste of a week.
Though she supposed it could have been worse.
She and Audrey had practiced for hours and hours each day. Mika had pushed herself to run five miles a day. The length from the southernmost tip of the island to the northernmost tip was a little over eight miles. Across was just under seven.
One day she would be able to run the whole thing, but for now she kept it to a circle around the main school.
Corbin ran with her every single day without fail.
Mika would push herself to run the entire length of the school grounds if she thought it would tire him out, but when she was sweaty and breathing hard and her legs felt like jelly, he was still cool and unruffled, like they’d done nothing more than a brisk walk.
“I’m pretty confident you’ve already read that book,” Corbin murmured, studying her closely.
The raven rarely ever blinked. It was disturbing to say the least.
Mika looked down at the book on Advanced Latin and sighed. She slammed it close
d and stared at the raven openly for the first time all week.
His green eyes were so bright they practically glowed. Corbin had blond hair in a Viking style, the sides shaved off, and a blond beard to match. He was one of the hottest guys she’d ever seen with the physique to complete the package.
The physical requirements for assassins had to be out of this world, because for one of the smaller shifters, he was massive.
Perhaps their families had been close thousands of years ago – before the Marshalls had emigrated, before the Vikings had faded from existence.
“Are you going to finally say something to me?” Corbin asked, those green eyes twinkling.
Mika eyed the tattoos on his forearm again, staring at the symbol for the Morrigan outright. “You talk a lot for an assassin.”
He actually chuckled then. “So, I’ve been told,” Corbin admitted. “But I’m not here to kill you, so there’s no need to be quiet.”
“Yet.”
The smile dropped from his face and Corbin studied her the same way she’d been studying him all week – like an opponent. She could see the wheels turning in his head – the questions he no doubt wanted answers to.
Mika flexed her fingers out of habit, but the silver bones were useless now. She wore them anyway – a reminder of what she was capable of.
Instantly Corbin’s eyes went to that silver and his nose wrinkled ever so slightly. Did he smell the blood like Lucien could? Or just the magic?
“What makes you think I might have to kill you dove?”
Mika glanced at the stack of books next to her and considered the question.
The Council and the dean had asked her endless questions – how had she found each of the bodies? How did she know where the killer was? What had happened to Patricia’s ankles and fingers? Had she told Mika anything?
Mika hadn’t told them about the tunnels, or the hellhound she’d killed, or the seal to hell. She didn’t mention the blood dreams, or that she could hear the sound of blood pumping in veins when even shifters could only hear the heartbeat itself.
But Corbin had stared at her without blinking the entire time she’d been questioned. Mika still didn’t know if he believed her or not, but it didn’t seem like he’d mentioned any suspicions or doubts to the Council or Dean De Rosa.
“Why not a fully trained hunter?” she asked instead of answering his question. “Why have an assassin guard me?”
Corbin tilted his head and narrowed his eyes slightly as he studied her. It wasn’t at all like the way Lucien or Hunter did it. The movement was sharp and precise, and then so still she wasn’t even sure he was breathing.
A week and she still hadn’t seen his raven form.
“I was hired to do a job. So, I’m doing it,” he said quietly. “I didn’t ask why they needed an assassin. That’s not part of my job.”
“No, why should you ask questions?” Mika got up and walked through the stacks and past the language section.
All week she’d been reading her textbooks, studying ahead for the languages she knew she’d be taking next, generally getting ahead as much as possible while her brain chewed on all the mysteries in the background.
While she tried to figure out a way to do everything she needed to do with Corbin constantly by her side.
Maybe she could lose him at night – the only time he wasn’t constantly watching her. It would be a risk to sneak out, but she had to try. Because even using the ancient languages to talk with the others was a risk. Mika didn’t know what the assassins were taught in those secret schools of theirs – hidden in their pockets of the world much like the foxes and coyotes.
Would Hunter even come on Friday?
She stopped in front of the section on enchantments. Without hearing him, sensing him, or even feeling his body heat, Mika knew Corbin was just behind her at her elbow.
Reading up on raven shifters wouldn’t help her. She’d need a book or two from Hunter for accurate information on the most reclusive shifters. But the trees?
“There’s no actual threat, is there?” Mika asked, trailing her fingers along the shelf as she read the sections until she found what she needed.
Corbin didn’t say anything for once.
Enchanting Magical Objects, Enchantments for the Modern Witch, How to Recognize an Enchantment…none of these were helpful.
No threat meant they were watching her. Mika honestly wasn’t surprised. She’d be suspicious of someone who’d found all three bodies and the killer too. Which meant…
Mika knelt down to the shelf on the bottom and pulled out How to Enchant Animals and Vegetation. “You’re here to watch me, and if I do something incriminating you’ll turn me in. If I turn out to be…dangerous…well, I suppose that’s why you’re here and not a hunter.” She shoved the heavy book into his arms. “Make yourself useful in the meantime.”
The flicker in his green eyes was a combination of suspicion and respect.
“If it’ll make you feel better, dove, I hope I don’t have to kill you.”
Mika grabbed a few other books. “It doesn’t.”
“And why is that?” Corbin took those books from her as well and Mika tried not to look surprised that he had.
“Ravens feel nothing,” Mika murmured, sitting down at the table and cracking the book open.
Four books should last her at least a few hours since she’d found that speed reading spell – and it had worked. Her table was far, far away from the study room where she’d met with Audrey, Ethan, Lucien, and Malachi that fateful night they’d sworn a blood oath to keep her secrets.
The same night Malachi had started pulling away from her.
Corbin sat across from her just as he had all week and set the books to the side. Then he went back to staring at her, not trying to deny anything at all.
And that was what she had to remember. That no matter how beautiful he was, how friendly he seemed – Corbin was a raven. They could turn their emotions on and off at will.
They said the active assassins never turned them on.
No matter how much she liked him, how much her instincts said she could trust him, or how bad the burning curiosity was, wondering if he was her raven…
Corbin didn’t give two shits about her.
“You’re not wrong, dove,” he whispered, so quiet the words were barely more than a sigh. Then the raven went completely still – as still as the dead, watching her as he always did.
And Mika wondered if he knew she could hear him.
2
Corbin was frowning. Mika ignored him as she entered in the right runes for Bay Coven into the portal. Hours of studying and she needed to see Claire and her grandmother before school officially started up again.
“This isn’t a good idea,” Corbin told her.
“Then you’re not a very good guard.” The portal opened and Mika stepped through before he could stop her.
The text from her sister had been extremely concerning. A quick message to Audrey letting her know where she was headed and why, and Mika hadn’t wasted any time getting to the portal. No one was waiting for her on the other side this time.
Mika added talking to Selene to the ever-growing list of things she needed to do once she finally got rid of Corbin. Maybe she could ask Selene why the Council had him guarding her – she knew a Council member or two apparently.
Corbin was nothing more than a ghost as he followed, eyes flicking everywhere – as if there was something in every corner to be wary of.
The Bay Coven building was silent on a Sunday evening and Mika kept a brisk pace as she made her way through. Per Claire there should be a car waiting for her outside the massive, ancient building in the heart of San Francisco.
Mika pushed the doors open and paused at the top of the steps, breathing in the San Francisco air. Thanks to one of Samuel’s new programs, the air was cleaner than ever, and it tasted like rain – reminding her of Ethan.
Fates, she missed him.
“Ms. Marshal
l?”
She looked down and recognized the car, but not the driver.
“I was hired recently,” the driver told her, opening the rear door to the BMW. “My name is Chuck. I’m a friend of Ash’s.”
Instantly the tightness in her chest eased.
Another change in their world thanks to the coupe Kenzie uncovered in Bay Coven. Female witches didn’t trust their males anymore. At least not here in San Francisco.
“He’s a squirrel shifter,” Corbin muttered.
“And?” Mika went down the stairs and held out her hand to shake Chuck’s. “It’s nice to meet you. Tell Ash I appreciate him looking out for my family.”
“Kenzie and Selene insisted,” Chuck murmured. He had gentle, understanding eyes. “It’s hard to argue with them.”
“Indeed.” The mantle of a high society witch fell over her like a comforting blanket – familiar. It was a welcome barrier between her and Corbin. “This is my…bodyguard, Corbin.”
No doubt news would travel across the school and this city like wildfire that she had a raven in tow. Mika wasn’t looking forward to the rumors she’d hear at the next Bay Coven holiday celebration.
Chuck didn’t say anything but his disapproving look toward Corbin was enough. Mika slid into the back of the car and crossed one leg over the other, adjusting her slacks ever so slightly. She looked out the window at the overcast sky. It was already dark.
