“This is so stupid,” Felixa of Haversey mumbled under her breath, and just hearing her say it aloud made me want to take the moment more seriously. “Who goes out and collects their own spell ingredients? That’s what the market is for.”
She paused and glanced over at the empty space next to Brynn, mouth gaping open.
“How dare you, Elijah of Haversey!” she gasped, putting her fingers to her chest and rearing back like the ghost had just tossed a grievous insult her way. “If you were so damn knowledgeable, you wouldn’t be dead, now would you?”
“Leave him alone,” Brynn growled as Trubble sighed and slipped over my head, activating his magic and sliding into place as a mask, allowing me to see all three ghosts present—his cousin, the thief, and the professor (what was he doing here anyway?!)—while the prince was conspicuously absent. My brother was a shadow, so as such, he was technically one of Hellim’s children though he had no official title. Shadows were born with inherent powers, not gifted them later. Trubble was definitely a mixed bag of skills. Me, I was just a kitsune with a weird twin. I’d had to work my ass off to get Ha’s blessing. I hadn’t been handed my powers like everyone else.
“Stop being so sour!” Trubble whispered inside my head as I watched Brynn and Felixa square off like they were about to have a fight.
“Spirit-whore,” Felixa spat, ignoring the butter yellow feather that drifted from her wing. “I should’ve known you’d stoop to bedding ghosts. You’ve always been a desperate social climber. Guess even a dead guy with noble blood is enough to get you to spread your legs.” She lifted her chin as the noble—Elijah—stepped up close to them.
“You’d better shut your mouth or Air—”
“Air isn’t here, Eli. He’s not here, you’re dead, and this bitch is never getting the throne.” Felixa smirked and crossed her arms over her chest as I watched in disgust. Gods, she was awful, wasn’t she? “The prince might agree to pity you as a second wife—but I’ve already been promised as his first wife. He’s taking a harem. Did he tell you that the last time he was fucking you?”
Brynn pulled back her arm and punched the blonde girl in the face as hard as she could, cursing and tucking her fist up close to her chest as Felixa stumbled back into her handler’s arms and came up swinging. With a single step between them, I threw an elbow into Felixa’s stomach and took her breath away, knocking her right back on her ass while she wheezed and gasped in the thin mountain air.
“We’re not here to squabble,” I said as Brynn fumed and shook.
“It’s happening,” the professor said suddenly, stepping up next to Elijah and staring off into the trees behind him. “Do you feel it? It’s the prophecy. Blood and ice. I can smell blood and ice.”
“Gods, mind whisperers are annoying, aren’t they?” Trubble scoffed, but I wasn’t about to brush off the man’s ramblings just yet. After all, a mind whisperer had predicted the fall of Vaenn, and she’d been disturbingly correct in her predictions.
“We need to go,” Professor Cross said again, turning to Brynn and reaching out a ghostly hand to grab her arm. “This is a staff order. We need to get out of here immediately. Don’t worry about the assignment. Just … run.”
“What?” Brynn asked, but the word had barely left her mouth when a howl shattered the quiet air.
Razor wolves.
This close to town? We were maybe six hours out at most. That wasn’t right. Then again, not much was anymore. When the shadows swarmed my kingdom and slaughtered my people, possessed the queen, drove me to the Amerin border fighting for my life … there’d been razor wolves everywhere, gobbling up the souls of the dead.
“Razor wolves?” Brynn asked, as an icy pit of fear took over my stomach. We had four spirits with us—including the crown prince, even if I couldn’t see him.
And I wouldn’t wish the fate of a razor wolf on any spirit but my worst enemy.
They ate souls.
And they lived hundreds of years.
They also weren’t above killing a living person just to see if they could get a spirit out of it.
“Let’s go,” I said, sliding my katana from its sheath. “Can you two fly down?” I started to ask the two half-angels, but that only would’ve worked if we’d been able to get a jump on the pack: razor wolves had wings, too. As soon as I heard the thunder of dozens of padding footsteps, I knew we were in trouble.
Large furred bodies barreled out of the trees, some of them leaping into the air with snapping jaws, others skidding through the snow and kicking up powder. As they came, they brought their stench with them, this violent reek that tore at my nostrils and made my stomach churn.
“Try not to get bit!” Jasinda screamed over the chaos of snarling and loud clack of razor sharp fangs. “The infection could kill you in hours or less!”
Whipping the katana out of its sheath, I spun it and took off, straight into the fray. Running from razor wolves only worked if you had a head start. This close up, it was kill or be killed.
“You want me or you think I can do more damage on my own?” Trubble asked, but I wasn’t sure yet, so I left the mask on. If I wanted my brother to fight on his own, all I had to do was take it off.
Sidestepping a wolf the size of a small pony, I whipped my katana up under its chin, just barely avoiding jaws with the bite force of the giant crocodiles that lived in Nalahari. If they got hold of me, the razor wolves could sever one of my limbs with little effort.
If they got a hold of me.
I’d basically have to let them do it though. I was a child of Ha, the goddess of blades, swordplay, and weapons combat. She’d keep me safe in this fight. At least, she’d saved me and only me from the shadows in Vaenn, so she must have a purpose for me, right?
As I brought the blade up, I severed the wolf’s head and sent it flying across the clearing in a spray of viscous red. Even monsters bleed.
Smirking, I spun around and caught sight of the thief boy—Talon, was it—tossing out several glass bottles from his bandolier. They crashed into the wolves with varying results, melting the face off one, causing another to stumble and throw up, and a third to start bleeding from the eyes. Gods above and below …
He dropped out of a rather impressive jump directly behind a razor wolf, whipping out two knives and spinning them in his hands before he brought them in and stabbed the creature in the spine from either side, ripping the weapons out and coating himself in gore.
My eyes moved to Brynn, a pair of knives in her hands as well as she kept her wings tucked in close and focused on the monsters above our heads. One swoop and they could take our heads off. I’d have to watch her. Although she’d proven impressive in the fight at the dance house, the circumstances here were different.
Razor wolves were not shadows and couldn’t be exorcised; they had to be killed.
“Stay close to me, Brynn!” I shouted as she stumbled a little ways down the hill before being cut off by several wolves. The blonde girl was right behind her, teeth gritted in frustration, with only her Haversey steel for protection. And with both handlers tagging along behind them, it was an entire nest of sitting ducks.
Whipping my blade around in frantic circles, I spun and leapt back until I was in the center of the wolves threatening Brynn. With a whistle, I activated the runes on both Trubble’s head and on my sword, sending a wave of energy out as Masayoshi—that was my katana—glowed with the goddess’ blessing. Everything I touched bled, no matter where I hit it or how hard.
Wolves screamed and fell away from us as I flicked my tail and sneered.
“Heads-up!” the professor shouted as he tore his shirt open and closed his eyes, clutching Verstand’s metal eye in a tight fist. A swirl of wind swept up the snow around his feet as the tattoos on his chest shifted and peeled away, fluttering like pieces of paper in the supernatural storm. But when they settled? Monsters clawed their way to life—a black jaguar with eyes the color of my hair and runes like Trubble’s, a dog with red slaver dripping f
rom its jaws, and a bird with flames instead of feathers.
Holy Hellim’s Hell.
I’d never seen a mind whisperer with that many irezumi—the Vaennish word for living ink—before.
Throwing my sword up, I speared a flying wolf through the jaw and then chucked his corpse across the clearing. He slammed into a tree with the crack of groaning wood before slumping into the snow and leaking red.
The creatures were everywhere now, in shades that ranged from brown to black, from lavender to violet, and white to tawny brown. Their wings were membranous and hairless, like those of a bat, and their eyes had the square pupils of a goat.
“Ugly buggers, don’t you think?” Trubble asked, and I ignored him, drawing on his strength to throw up a shield around the people behind me. I realized too late that Brynn was no longer in it.
Instead, she was with the prince and his cousin, fighting off the wolves with knives.
Well, she and Elijah were anyway.
Airmienan was glimmering with a black light and taking sweeping throws at the razor wolves above us, hitting them with bursts of magick that obliterated their insides and rained awful down on the clearing. It was easily one of the most disgusting things I’d ever seen.
“Let me go and I’ll hold the shield over the weak ones,” Trubble said, but I didn’t like the fact that I’d be stripped blind, unable to see the spirits fighting alongside of me. Besides, if I took the mask off, I was suddenly as fragile as the spirit whisperers’ handlers. It was my twin’s protection that made it so I was able to take a mortal blow and live.
But then … I trusted in my goddess. She had plans for me; I knew she did.
Ripping the mask off and tossing it into the snow, I watched as Trubble burst forth in a blur, now the same size as the wolves. White runes glimmering on his forehead, he burst into the pack and started tearing the beasts apart with his rows of double teeth. Getting bit with those things hurt; I knew from firsthand experience.
Refocusing my attention on Brynn, I raced over and leapt up, cutting a wolf down from the sky with a violent swing, dropping to my knees in the snow with the katana held out behind me. A quick spin put me back to face the pack, my heart thudding in my chest, every nerve in my body alight. If I died here today, Trubble would be set free, a wandering shadow like all the rest of them.
I had no idea what he would do if that happened.
Wrong train of thought, Dyre, I told myself as I swung my weapon in a wide arc, spattering several other wolves with blood. With the magic of Ha bright and active, those hits were enough to split the creatures’ skin, making them howl with the pain.
The wind carried the sound around us the same way it ferried the stench. My nose burned with the stink of rot as the mournful scream of the monsters seemed to shatter my eardrums.
As we slaughtered them, their bodies shuddered and shook, bellies splitting open and spirits streaming out. I couldn’t see any now, since Trubble was gone, but I could feel them, hear their mournful cries echoing in the wind.
The sound and sight of so many spirits at once knocked Brynn to her knees with a gasping breath. I saw her grab either side of her head as the energy in the clearing swirled around her, so many of the lost souls desperate to cling to something in this world.
And Brynn of Haversey, she was very easy to cling to.
Her scream shattered me inside as I saw her feathers sloughing off, her hair whipping around her face. Blood leaked from her eyes, nose and mouth as she was assaulted by ghosts, overwhelmed. As I was fighting my way back to her, several wolves moved in as one, a coordinated attack from behind, from the front, and from above.
Magick obliterated the razor wolf in the sky, and with a quick flick of my wrist, I sent my katana across the twenty or so feet that separated us and watched as it speared into one of the wolves.
But the last wolf … I wasn’t fast enough.
“Talon!” Brynn screamed, blood speckling her lips as I grabbed a handful of Trubble’s fur and swung myself onto his back, watching as the scene exploded into grisly color. The thief ghost had slid in front of Brynn to protect her from the pack and as Trubble and I raced toward them, he was dragged back through the snow, his face crushed by the wolf’s jaws. With a sharp slurping sound, the creature breathed him in and consumed his spirit.
My brother slid in the bloody snow and I leaned down, grabbing my katana from the carcass of the wolf I’d killed before sitting upright … just in time to be snatched from Trubble’s back and lifted into the air. I brought Masayoshi up and around, slicing the wolf from snout to stomach before he dropped me back down, just in time to grab Brynn around the waist and keep her from stumbling, bloody and disoriented after the wolf that’d eaten Talon.
Shoving her behind me, I found the razor wolf alpha in my face, her mate locking his jaws around my brother’s throat and shaking. In the distance, I heard the shouts of other students and staff just before a fire whisperer appeared in the clearing, dressed in a professor’s uniform, and lobbed a ball of flame at the wolf attacking Trubble.
But the alpha … she was still directly in front of me.
I whipped Masayoshi in her direction, but she dodged at the last moment, baiting me to follow up with the swing and turn toward her. As I did, another wolf came flying at Brynn and I had to make a choice.
Her or me.
Fuck.
Why am I crushing on this girl again?
Turning, I swung my katana and severed the head of the wolf that was lunging toward Brynn, even as she struggled to fight off another onslaught of spirits. For a split-second our eyes met and I prayed that she was worth her weight in gold. Her beautiful eyes certainly promised that she was.
The alpha slashed me across the middle with a vicious bite, spilling my blood and intestines to the snow, making it steam. I fell to my knees as my brother let out a wild scream, so much more beast than human, and several more staff members surged over the crest of the hill toward us.
The giant wolf moved in for the kill, and Brynn was there, leaping in front of me and plunging both her knives into the alpha’s head at the same time. I was alive just long enough to see it collapse onto its side.
Before I did the very same thing, slumping into the heat of my own blood.
The last thing I saw before I passed out was the Amerin queen … and a sleep whisperer who touched two fingers to Brynn’s forehead … and dropped her body into the red snow beside mine.
As my eyes closed and my spirit fled my wounded flesh, all I could see … was blood and ice.
To Be Continued …
Author's Note
Thank you so much for reading everyone! This concludes the first book of three in The Academy of Spirits and Shadows!Haunted is already available for pre-order and releases February 2018. Book three, Spooked, will be available soon! This is my favorite of all my books I've written thus far. I know I say that a lot, but I truly hope you enjoyed the first arc of Brynn's story. If you enjoyed this whimsical tale, please don't forget to leave a review on Amazon or Goodreads, and make sure to check out my other fantasy romance reverse harem reads such as Allison's Adventures in Underland or Pack Ebon Red. Turn the page for some previews! Love, C.M. Stunich
The Academy of Spirits and Shadows, Book #2 - Preorder Now!
The Seven Mates of Zara Wolf, Book #1 - Read Now!
Deep in the Louisiana bayou, The Wild Hunt rides.
Epic Kitsune Urban Fantasy.
We're all mad for you here.
Flip the page for an excerpt of chapter one.
CHAPTER ONE
Down The Fucking Rabbit Hole
A book.
That's what starts it all, the bloodshed and the violence, the romance and the sex.
A goddamn book.
“Are you seriously reading right now?” my younger sister, Edith, asks as she stands next to me in a silver dress covered in sequins. Her hair is twisted into a bun and secured to the side of her head with about a hundred bobby pins. The design
looks like a snail shell to me, but I decide not to say anything.
I close the book in my hands—some whimsical fantasy of a life I'll never lead—and watch her eyes latch onto the cover.
“You're reading for fun?” she asks, bending down and snatching the book from my hands before I get a chance to grab it back. I knew I should've brought my Kindle outside instead. At least then she wouldn't have seen the werewolves on the front cover. “This whole thing?”
“Sorry it doesn't have any pictures in it,” I joke as I rise to my feet and give her a smirking grin in response. “I know that's the only type of book you can read.”
Edith rolls her eyes and swipes at her forehead with the back of her hand.
“Whatever, it's hot as hell out here and we have a party to get to. Come on.”
I roll my eyes right back as soon as she turns around, and take the daisy chain out of my own hair, tossing it onto Edith's perfectly coiffed head without her noticing.
“This is a big deal tonight, so try not to screw it up for me,” she says as I cross my arms over my chest and follow her from the backyard, past the pond and my father's prized koi fish, and into the house.
“How could I possibly ruin a high school party? Isn't the whole point to screw up?”
“Seriously, Allison?” she says, yanking the sliding glass door open and stepping inside. She kicks her flats off near the door and heads for the stairs, probably to put on a pair of heels that would most certainly break my neck if I put them on. “And no tennis shoes!” she shouts down, just before slamming her bedroom door and making the whole house shake.
Spirited: A Reverse Harem Fantasy Romance (The Academy of Spirits and Shadows Book 1) Page 26
