Spirited: A Reverse Harem Fantasy Romance (The Academy of Spirits and Shadows Book 1)

by C. M. Stunich

  “You look adorable,” Jasinda said when the seamstress muttered something about my seriously big butt—I'm sorry to say this, but she was a total witch with a B—and stood up, leaving me to study my reflection.

  Long white hair, big black wings, and a tightly fitted coat that managed to accentuate both the large swell of my breasts and the narrow curve of my waist. The skirt … wasn't half-bad with my bronzed legs and those fabulous flubbin' Royal College boots.

  “You're a dream and a nightmare both,” Elijah purred, peeping his head through the screen. I'd have punched him if I wasn't so preoccupied by his stupid cousin telling me he loved me. And like, several days too late, too! Pre-death romantic confessions were always preferred.

  Then again … I felt this fire in my belly that I hadn't felt in days.

  Airmienan of Hekkett, the crown prince of Amerin, had literally just admitted his feelings for me. And he'd … he'd died with a ring in his pocket. A ring. For me.

  My eyes started to water, but I blinked several times to clear them, taking the black newsboy cap—an optional part of the school uniform—and jamming it over my head.

  “Why a nightmare?” I asked Elijah as I stepped down off the platform and helped Jasinda grab the rest of our garment bags. Vexer was right there, of course, taking them carefully from my hands and making sure his long, hot fingers brushed mine, sending chills through me.

  “Because you have that silly I-don't-fuck-spirits rule,” Eli said and I rolled my eyes, ignoring his smirk and waltzing past Talon and Air like I didn't have a thing to say to either of them. Air … definitely had at least one phrase coming his way, but I wasn't about to say it with all these people around. That'd have to wait until later.

  “You never did get to hear the punchline to my dirty joke,” Talon said as he took up walking beside me, inked fingers idly teasing the vials of poison on his bandolier. “Want to hear it now?”

  “Not particularly,” I said as Vex took up my left side, Jasinda on my right.

  “It's Talon again, isn't it?” Jasinda asked, because she'd heard me tell him to shut up at least five times a day for the last four days.

  “It is,” I replied, trying not to enjoy Vex's wings bumping against my own as we walked. He was so … flubbing chivalrous and … kind of awesome. I had to admit, I missed him at night. I missed Air, too.

  I was going to have to do something about that.

  “You said you liked my dry sense of humor,” Talon inserted, tossing me a grin that was sharper than the knives he had strapped to his thigh. “So maybe I'm just getting a little too wet for you?”

  “Good one,” I muttered with an eye roll, popping open an umbrella before we stepped outside, just in case. It seemed like the rain might’ve slowed down, but an Amerin spring was always an iffy thing. “Did you stay up all night coming up with it?”

  “Nah,” Talon said as we moved along the cobblestone paths, away from the Thread District and toward the city side gate of the Royal College. Vexer had invited me out for dinner and drinks, but I … there was something else I needed to do tonight instead. Flub these rules about him not being allowed on the Royal College campus! I wondered if there was some way to make an exception? Maybe I could get him a part-time job teaching about the travelers' god, Reisender? It was a rare blessing. Not the rarest blessing, but pretty damn close. Surely the academy could use another expert in the subject? “Just a couple of hours.”

  Elijah chuckled at the joke, but Air stayed quiet, his sea green eyes watching me like a hawk.

  Speaking of hawks … well, lion/peregrine falcon hybrids to be exact, I turned to Vex.

  “This is where we part ways for the night,” I said, and he nodded, looking me over with those silver eyes of his like he'd already made a decision about something important but had forgotten to inform me about it. Oh well. I liked him anyway.

  “So it is,” he said, reaching up and hooking the wooden hangers with my leather garment bags over the edge of the decorative arch. With his hands now free, Vex stepped forward and placed his palms on either one of my hips, the warmth and feel of them making me shiver in the best possible way. I could live with ghosts if I had to. I could fight my way through this. But I needed an anchor to the living and I was tired of putting all of that burden on Jasinda's shoulders. She was my handler, not my emotional punching bag. And she was hurting, too, from Air's death.

  But Vex …

  “I'm going to kiss you,” he said with a shrug of his big, muscular shoulders. My heart started to thunder, and I found my throat was tight with anticipation. “Unless you tell me you'd rather not …” Vexer trailed off and reached out, running a single thumb across my lower lip as I groaned and let my lids fall closed. “No objections, I see,” Vex laughed, the sound rumbling through his chest and into me as he pulled me close, enveloping me in his musky scent. His wings wrapped around us, creating a cocoon as Jasinda quietly, surreptitiously stole the umbrella from my fingers. Vexer even took my own wings into the embrace, granting us this single moment of peace in a chaotic world. It was just the two of us in there, two hot bodies and two hot mouths … no distractions.

  Vex leaned in and pressed his lips to mine, taking control of the kiss with his tongue. There was a tussle there for a moment, but … it felt too good to surrender. I wanted it. I wanted him and the rapid thump of his heartbeat, the cadence of his breath, the slight scrape of his stubble against my smooth cheeks.

  My fingers curled against the front of his sleeveless black tunic, our mouths exploring, tasting … comforting. Everything about the kiss brought me to life in ways I hadn't realized I needed to be saved. And in doing that … it felt like Vex was reminding me that there was no such thing as too late.

  “I have to go,” I whispered after a while, pulling back and realizing that Jas had already left, wandering away to give us privacy. I spotted her up ahead, glancing at the signs for the 'self-guided student tour'.

  But of course that's what she was looking at.

  No student in their right mind wanted to do two orientations—one that was mandatory on top of one that was self-guided and just for fun.

  Well, nobody but Jasinda of Brynn of Haversey.

  “I don't want you to go,” Vex growled, using his hands on my hips to pull me closer. He didn't seem to care that we were being watched by three spirits. Maybe because he couldn't see them? But I did. And I was in love with at least one of them. I think I had a crush on another. And the third … he was just a bum-hole who liked to tell dirty jokes, though I had to admit—he came in pretty handy in a fight. “Let me take you back to the inn and … let me fuck you, Brynn.”

  My whole body went white-hot as I pulled away from Vexer—with serious effort—and tried not to hyperventilate from the rush of hormones.

  “Maybe … some other time,” I said as his gray eyes held my gaze and refused to let go. “Jas is waiting and … I need to talk with Air about something.” I tried to glance at the prince in question, but my attention was locked on Vex's face and I found that I couldn't move, not until he turned away and faced the row of houses across the street, running his fingers through his hair.

  “Some other time,” he said, his voice low and deep. When he flicked one last glance back at me, I knew that that was going to be a promise he wouldn't soon forget.

  Jasinda had already disappeared into one of the buildings by the time I caught up to her, jogging across the cobblestone path in my uniform and feeling completely … out of place. I wished Air were here to experience this with us.

  And then I reminded my stupid self that he was, in a way.

  “You like the skirts better, don't you?” I asked as I started up the steps to the imposing stone structure where Jas was hiding. Air gave me a look, but his blue-white eyes (Goddess, I missed their usual sea green color) crinkled at the edges.

  “Does that come as a shock to you?” he replied, and Elijah and Talon both rolled their eyes. But they'd have to get used to a little flirting between m
e and Air. Flub, they'd have to get used to a lot of flirting.

  Airmienan was dead, but he wasn't gone. He was still here, and even if his fingers were as cold as ice, I wasn't going to let him slip through mine.

  “Not particularly,” I said as I followed the stupid self-guided tour signs to one that pointed into a nearby classroom. That's where Jas was, reading a handwritten poster that discussed the benefits of a class on spirits and how all whisperers were required to take it. Pretty sure I recognized Ame, the Royal Spirit Whisperer’s fancy cursive. Figured.

  “This is fascinating,” she breathed, touching her fingers to the thick vellum page stuck to the wall. “Did you read this, Brynn?”

  “Not really interested,” I said, as I took in the strange room with the stone pews and the odd-looking gate that took up in the center portion of the back wall. I wondered what was in there? But it was hard to care much about that or anything at all really with Air's confession and Vex's kiss on my mind.

  “Really?” a voice asked from behind me, making me whirl around so fast that I had to clamp my hands over the black pleats in my skirt to keep my panties from showing. The way the ghost in question smirked at me, I was pretty sure he'd already seen them. “You should get interested—and quick. Whisperers are so narrow-minded; we could learn so much from each other, don’t you think?”

  The man stood up, his dark hair spiked up in a ridiculous manner, like he'd dipped his fingers in hair gel and slicked them right up the front. He was young, handsome, and sporting the prettiest sapphire eyes I'd ever seen, similar to Jasinda's but with a hint of turquoise around the irises.

  And the fact that I could see a ghost's eyes close enough and well enough to even make that observation spoke to how powerful this guy was, maybe even as powerful as Elijah of Haversey. Maybe more powerful.

  “Why are you dressed as a first-year?” he asked, sporting a teacher's uniform: same white coat that I was wearing but with epaulettes on the shoulders instead of leather accents. All the buttons were undone and his black tie was hanging loose, his bare chest showing in all the right places. Also, I was pretty sure that he had tats. Lots of them. Maybe not as many as Talon but certainly more than Vexer. “You look a little old to be a first-year,” he continued, moving over to us and ignoring Air's look of warning.

  “What do you want?” Air snapped, obviously feeling a lot more confrontational than usual. I supposed I didn't blame him. He'd had to watch me kiss Vex, an act that honestly probably ranked pretty high up there on the cruelty scale. I shouldn't have done that, not the way I just did. Dating multiple guys was fine; it was normal and expected in Amerin. But not after one of them had just died and confessed his love.

  Clearly, I was a mess.

  “Yes, clearly, you very much are,” the newcomer said and I flicked wide eyes over to him, hoping like Hell I hadn't really just said that aloud. “Not aloud,” he continued, circling around me in his academy issued boots. He might be calling me old, but he looked way too young to be a professor. “I'm just good at … thoughts. And prophecies. Oh, I'm really good at prophecies.” The man paused and looked first at Jasinda as she snapped the cord on another spirit charm and sighed in relief to see who we were talking to.

  Her thoughts were probably something along these lines: teacher, Royal College, safe.

  Too bad she was wrong about that.

  “But I don’t think it’s happening tonight,” the man continued, sliding his fingers nervously through his hair. Ah, and now I could see why it stuck straight up all the time. “No, no, it's not time yet,” he murmured as I raised a brow.

  “What do you mean you're good with thoughts?” I repeated because … had he just seriously read my flubbing mind?!

  “I don't read minds per se,” the man continued, lifting his sapphire eyes up to me and smiling. “When you think specific thoughts, I can pick up on them.” He shrugged his right shoulder loosely. “But I have more important things to worry about,” he continued, propping himself up on the edge of the staff desk. “Like a prophecy that isn't quite ready to come true.”

  “I don't believe in prophecies,” Jasinda said, but she didn't exactly sound sure of herself, and the man shrugged again. “Who are you?”

  “Who am I?” he echoed, blinking for a moment in the direction of the vaulted ceilings. They were painted to look like clouds, both angels and demons soaring through the gray-gold mist. “Professor Cross.” He paused and smiled at me … and then winked. “But you can call me Spicer.”

  We were standing in … the Royal College.

  In a classroom that taught a curriculum on ghosts and spirits.

  And I had a dead professor—a sexy dead professor—that was hitting on me.

  Interesting.

  Footsteps pounded up the steps and into the room before I could tell Professor Cross to go to Hell, and the fox-masked guy reappeared … Only, he didn’t have a fox mask on this time.

  Haversey’s tits, he’s flubbing beautiful!

  My mouth gaped open as the guy stopped short and shoved his hands in the pockets of his black sixth-year jacket. Around his shoulders, a small purple fox with way too many flipping tails was relaxing, clearly bored out of its mind as it gazed at us with copper eyes. It had white designs all over its head, runes that I … felt looked vaguely familiar. The katana was in a sheath on the guy’s back, his lavender hair combed neatly and stuffed under the same black newsboy cap I was wearing.

  This guy … was a student?!

  He slouched and stared at the lot of us like we were insane.

  “Right on time,” the professor murmured and I cast him a look that clearly said shut the flub up. He ignored me, running shaking fingers through his hair again. “Right on time.”

  “Who are you?” I asked the Fox Guy because I hadn't seen him since … All Haunts' Eve, and I'd been too upset about Air's death to bother asking after the mysterious blade whisperer.

  “Who are you?” he shot back, oh so maturely, pure arrogance radiating out of a very pretty face. A stone-cold and frowning face but a pretty one nonetheless. Bronze eyes shimmered as he looked between Jasinda and me. Clearly, he couldn't see the four spirits surrounding us.

  “I asked you first,” I retorted, crossing my arms under my breasts. Yeah, I could be just as mature as the next bum-hole.

  “That’s the guy from the Vibrant,” Talon said, cocking his head to one side and sending his small red braid swinging. “He’s a serious fucking badass.”

  “I’m just looking for the student dorms,” Fox Guy said, reaching up to stroke the fox’s head and getting an awful looking bite in exchange. He cursed in a language that I vaguely recognized as something from northern Vaenn, yanking his bleeding hand back and sucking on the wound with a surly expression on his face.

  “For sixth-years?” Elijah asked, crossing his arms over his chest and mimicking my pose. “Tell him he’s way, way off.”

  “Of course he’s way, way off; he’s an idiot,” the fox said, yawning and flashing a tiny pink mouth with a double row of razor-sharp teeth. Like, two rows on the top and two rows on the bottom. “So why don’t you point the idiot in the right direction and we’ll be on our way?”

  “You’re a … shadow,” I said, feeling a tightness rip through my throat. Taking a small step back, I bumped into Air’s ice-cold form and felt him put his hands on my hips. Another shadow. After watching the boar monster gore the love of my life, I was just about done with flubbing shadows.

  “Who are you talking to?” Fox Guy asked with an exasperated sigh, his slanted eyes and pale skin a clear sign that he was indeed from up north, from Vaenn. The dark country. So what was he doing here? “More ghosts?”

  “Yes, more ghosts,” the fox snapped, standing up and then sliding over the boy’s head, the runes on his forehead activating with a shimmer of white light until he became the flubbing mask I’d seen before.

  Whoa.

  Color me impressed.

  “That’s … phenomenal,” Jas
inda said with that violent gleam of academia in her sapphire eyes. “Do you have permission to keep him on campus?”

  “He’s my idiot brother,” Fox Guy said as he seemingly took in the four spirits with me with a slight curl of his lips. “We’re bound together; I couldn’t be on campus without him … unfortunately. You’re Jasinda and Brynn of Haversey, aren’t you?”

  And that’s when I realized it.

  Shit.

  Air wasn’t invisible.

  Air needed to turn invisible! That was the rule when we were wandering around campus, that he keep himself hidden. The entire staff had been informed that I had ghosts with me that were not to be bothered, probed, or exorcised. And students were never allowed to exorcise spirits on campus—some of them still worked here.

  But …

  “Relax,” Fox Guy said with a scoffing snort, waving a pale hand in our direction. “I already know the prince is dead.”

  “You what?!” I shrieked as Air stepped around me and lifted his chin in that haughty way of his. Part of me was excited to see that—it meant he was feeling more like himself. The rest of me was in a panic. War time wasn’t good for anyone. And if a hostile country found out that Airmienan was dead, they’d be on Amerin’s borders in a heartbeat.

  “I’m Dyre of Ha,” the guy said, his voice this low, even tone, like mist on a cool morning, just drifting across the cobblestones. It managed to be both menacing and mysterious. And Ha? That was the name of the goddess of blades, swordplay, and weapons combat. Unlike every other god in the pantheon, she was the only one that required dedication and expertise before she granted her blessing.

  For a sixth-year student to have a blessing from Ha was unheard of. I knew for a fact—because Jasinda loved to recite facts—that there had never been a student in the Royal College that was an official blade whisperer. There’d been students training to become blade whisperers, but that was it.

  “Dyre?” Jasinda echoed as I took in the guy's tall, lean body, corded and tight with muscle. He was built for destruction. As I looked at him, I couldn’t help but think of the woman I’d seen with the melting mask. This guy, he’d been viciously protective of her. What was up with that? “As in … the prince of Vaenn?”