Fae Rose Academy: Year One (For The Purely Divine Book 1)

by Quinn Ashwood

  "W-What's going on. Why...why do you look like that?"

  "Oh, so now you're seeing our world? Are you finally awakening your true fae vision, naive little princess?" he questioned with a sinister smile.

  My body was shivering as the ice continued to crawl up my body.

  "No wonder your mother hid you away. She didn't want you to be in the same predicament as her. The heartbreak almost killed her, but she couldn't move on after the light king killed the dark king. Her beloved was gone and she would have no choice but to marry the light king, but lo and behold, she was pregnant. A woman of light and a man of darkness, a forbidden love that led to his demise. She ran far away to escape her marriage, freezing herself and allowing centuries to pass until the universe awakened her from slumber. If only time could heal a broken heart."

  He laughed again, clapping his hands in praise. "Freezing her body did nothing but stall the pregnancy, and in the depths of the Fae Rose Forest, she gave birth to the future heir of the Rosadette kingdom. She knew if her child was found, they would both perish, so she went down to the scum lands and abandoned her child in a place no one would bother looking. Then she told the two families she trusted with all her heart of the child's whereabouts, and hoped one day, her child would find her when the time was right. One family was of royalty, the other of rich glory. The royalty watched from afar, unsure of the child's potential, while the other moved closer and even sent their own child to protect her."

  I stared at him in horror, the dots beginning to connect.

  Alicia and the headmaster were the family of royalty. Camilla's family is the rich one.

  "Patiently, I waited...waiting and waiting for the day my sweet mother would bring us together and let us marry like past generations. Everything was perfect. I had the rose, I'd done my part of being a decent son of power. I'd finally get the queen I deserved and gain the power handed down to my father to give to me when I took the throne to be mine. All I needed was you to cooperate, but no. You fucked everything up!"

  The ice was at my waist now, and I had to think of something fast to get out of here before I was a frozen block.

  "Now the last petal is on that rose. My last chance to have you in my possession. I won't let that two-faced prince get you. He didn't work hard to claim your rose. He doesn't deserve you in the slightest. You're my ticket out of this peaceful living and into a world I can craft into my own! A world where only the strong prevail and the weak will cower to my ruling. All you have to do is be a quiet little puppet as I work my magic of pure perfection! We are purely divine beings, but only the perfect can walk around these lands, and all those that are imperfect shall either bow in total submission or perish!" he screamed.

  "I won't be by your side!" I shouted. My body was burning hot, my patience with his foolish rambles of selfishness triggering my rage.

  "You've always treated me like a tool, and now I see why! Your true intentions are loud and clear, and though I may not know anything about my heritage or mom, I can confidently say that I won't be your queen! Let the rose wilt! Let it die!"

  "I'll freeze you in eternal slumber before that rose can wilt! No one will have you. Prince Rainer will not claim you!"

  Regardless of what I knew about this rose or its significance to my life, I remembered one thing we learned during Floral Manifestation.

  "Roses and any plant of creation thrive on positive words. The same goes for acts of kindness. When a rose is but a seed, give it the nutrients, water, sun, and love it needs, and it'll grow. Tell it how beautiful it will become, feeding it words of encouragement and compassion, and it will rise from the soil and blossom into a radiant beauty. However, feed it negative words, neglect it from its sources of growth, and it will remain a seed and never sprout roots. Your actions and words will determine whether something lives or dies. Even with the magic touch in the palm of your hand, if your intentions are not pure of life, nature will never respond to your calls. Keep this in mind."

  The pendulum began to glow as it started to move in a clockwise swing. Faster and faster, its power grew by the second as the ice quickly rushed up to my chest and arms.

  "I hate you, Prince Xavier Rose!" I declared with all the rage within me. I let it ooze out of me as I yelled my truth. "We will never be together! Let the universe hear my anger. You are a horrible person who never tried to accept me as your equal. I deserve more! I deserve the world! I will not be frozen in time like my mother! I will rise from the deceit and hate you tried to swarm me in, and will be loved by those who want me in their lives. We will never be meant for one another! I hate you and I pray the universe ensures our paths never intertwine!"

  "Shut up!" he screamed, the ice reaching my neck and beginning to swarm my head. I lifted my head up before it was impossible, accepting my fate, that I was about to be frozen.

  "I, Rosadette Campbell, will see the fae world for what it truly is! Show me the truth and let my heart be with the person that adores me. The person that will cherish me. Water, feed, and make me blossom into who I'm meant to be! Let me walk on the path destined for me!"

  Those were the last words I could say as the ice finally encapsulated me. I felt the chill of the ice creeping into my bones, and even with my senses beginning to fade, I could hear Xavier's manic laughter.

  My heart was slowing, but my magic was bursting through my body, begging for release. I let my conscious drift, focusing all the energy within me on the person that had always seemed to be there for me when the world abandoned me in darkness.

  Prince Rainer. No matter what or who you are, please...save me from the darkness.

  I prepared myself for death, but suddenly my body was falling. I crashed into a body of water. The shift from cold to hot had me fighting to get to the surface, and with a gasp, I was fighting for air while my body fought the shocking shift of temperatures.

  "Intruder!" a high-pitch voice declared.

  "Sio, wait!" The harsh, deep voice made my whole body tingle. Trying to get my bearings as I found my footing in whatever I'd fallen into, I quickly opened my eyes, and they only widened when they locked onto those familiar shifting jewels.

  The man from my feverish dream. The sexy fae that pulled on every heartstring in my body and looked at me with intense passion.

  There was no doubt in my mind about who he was, especially now that I'd seen the truth of Xavier's appearance.

  "Prince Rainer," I whispered, tears pooling in my eyes.

  "Rosadette," he whispered, his eyes quickly scanning my body. In a flash, he was before me, and I tensed up at our closeness. He didn't frighten me, but the movement reminded me of what I'd just experienced with Xavier, my fear obvious in my widened eyes.

  Enough for Rain to notice.

  "What happened? Why are you cut all over and how did you get here, Rosadette?"

  "Her sight has awakened!" the high-pitch voice declared. I couldn't move my gaze to what I recalled was the fairy that attacked me in my feverish dream.

  In fact, I was afraid to move. If I looked away, would he disappear or would I awaken centuries later in an ice crystal, like my mother?

  Is she alive? How does he know about my past and I don't?

  "Rosadette." Rain's voice was but a whisper, and he lifted his hands to be in my peripheral vision. "May I?"

  He wanted to comfort me. To have some type of skin to skin contact.

  To prove that this was truly real.

  I could only manage a slight nod, the slight move enough to give him permission to lay his warm hands against my cheeks. More tears filled my eyes, and I let my walls fall as the piled emotions of fear, anger, shock, and sadness hit me at once.

  "Xavier's evil. He has my rose. He...said he was going to freeze me like my mom. The light king killed the dark king. My mother was pregnant with the dark king's child. I'm that child. He...doesn't want you having me. He wants to rule everyone and only those who are perfect can walk among the land of the fae," I rambled in one breath. "I was frozen. So
cold. I wished to be with you and I got here. I don't get any of this...everything was scary...I'm scared, Rain."

  I could see how distraught he was in the lines of his expression, but the anger that flooded his eyes was stronger. Protective anger.

  He pulled me into his arms, and it didn't seem to matter that he was completely naked. Where we were didn't matter to me, or that we were both drenched in warm water with steam surrounding us.

  In his arms, I felt safe, and not suffocating with all that had occurred in mere minutes.

  "I want to tell you everything, but I need to confirm one thing."

  He pulled back to look into my eyes. "Do you trust me?"

  "With my life," I said without a hint of hesitation.

  His grin was like watching the sun rise from the horizon. He took my hand, leading me out of what seemed to be a fountain bath. With a few steps he was wearing simple clothes, and our surroundings changed until we were in a dark room.

  Before we took a step forward, he turned around and scanned my body. Slowly, he reached out to press his right hand to my left cheek, and a sheet of magic fell upon me, healing my wounds and drying my wet body.

  I looked down to see my outfit had completely changed, my body now donned in a long red dress and my hair now down. I felt a heaviness on my head, and I lifted my hand to up to feel the prick of what must have been a crown.

  I gave Rain an odd look. He merely smiled in return as he turned away to look forward. His hand sliding into mine, he guided me towards a platform that was in the middle of the room, and as we climbed the three steps, I noticed the gorgeous glass dome that covered a glittering rose.

  This rose was magnificently beautiful, a sparkling purple with silver, gold, and red glitter on its petals. It didn't even seem real, like a work of art created for display purposes, but the fine details and burning magic of life that resonated off of its enclosed space was enough to prove it was real.

  "Rain...what is this?"

  He turned to look my way, his eyes filling with tears of pride and admiration.

  "This is your rose, Rosadette. Your heart is symbolized by a rose." He let go of my hand and walked down the stairs of the platform to look my way. He then went on one knee and looked up at me like a knight would to his queen.

  "Princess Rosadette of the Rose Kingdom. I, Prince Rainer of Fae Rose Kingdom, can finally show you the truth of this world. Your heart was in the hands of a man that wanted to shield you from the truth. It's now my turn to love you and help you discover the truth of your heritage and role in this world. Many lies have been told to hide your identity from those who seek your death. With you completing your first year and escaping the clutches of Xavier, I and those who are on your side can reveal your destiny."

  He rose up and walked up the stairs until he was before me once again.

  "This is going to be confusing...and you may not love me for holding so much from you, but allow me the opportunity to explain in a safe place. Whatever your decision, whether to discard me or forgive me, I will protect you from the forces that wish your demise," he vowed.

  I took a long look at him, the man that had defended me on that platform against his own people, the man I'd begged to return to at the brink of death.

  Yes, there was deceit and foul play here, and it would take time and explanations to determine why this came to be, but at the end of the day, this man still had the same heart.

  The heart that was willing to love me at my lowest and highest peaks in life.

  "Do you love me?" I whispered.

  It was all I needed to know before I made my decision.

  "With all my heart," he truthfully declared in confidence.

  There was not a pinch of deceit in his words, and it sprouted a smile on my lips as my tears fell down my cheeks.

  "Then kiss me," I whispered. "Then you'll explain everything to me, for I won't be entering year two unless I know all I need to in preparation for what's to come."

  "As you wish, my love and majesty," he whispered, and with those solemn words, he kissed me like my life depended on it.

  Time to seek the truth behind the web of lies or lose it all to fate.

  I will strive towards the purely divine path, but at what cost?

  TO BE CONTINUED.

  JULY 3RD, 2020

  https://books2read.com/FAEROSEACADEMY2

  TURN THE NEXT PAGE TO READ THE FIRST CHAPTER OF DAGGERS AND SMOKE!

  https://books2read.com/WILLASILVERS

  DAGGERS AND SMOKE BLURB

  Willa Silvers.

  Academy Investigator.

  Top agent at the Magic Elite Investigators Department.

  If only my real biography were half as glorious as the one in my head.

  Instead, I’m Willa Silvers, a clumsy, disaster-prone eighteen-year-old and daughter of two powerful M.E.I.D. agents. Naturally, expectations are high as I, the Infinite Level Mageri Mage, embark on my investigatory career, but I’m already running into complications.

  With my unwieldy magic that has a mind of its own, and being paired with the powerful, sexy, rich jerk who couldn’t care less about "partnership", I hope completing our assigned mission is no problem. Silly assumption.

  Our mission? Locate four ancient daggers, hidden in the depths of four of the most elite academies in the world. It’s our job to dedicate one year to the search for each mystical dagger by attending the various schools and blending in as students.

  The catch — because there’s always a catch — is that we're not the only ones after these legendary weapons and if each one isn’t retrieved within the designated year, the entire world will be annihilated by eternal life-sucking smoke.

  Daggers and smoke...a lethal potential future for all of us if I make a single mistake.

  PROLOGUE: DAGGERS AND SMOKE

  "Hurry! This way!"

  "Run!"

  "Fire! Fire! Evacuate all the students on the premises!"

  "Willa...are you seeing what I'm seeing?"

  How could I even answer when I was still in a state of shock?

  I had spent a year within the walls of Smokeywood Academy, one of the four major institutes of magic and combat.

  Smokeywood Academy, one of the four carriers of a collection of four sacred daggers. We needed these daggers before the biggest crime organization in the world used them to destroy all aspects of life.

  I was watching its very core be engulfed by blazing flames and black smoke. Screams echoed around me as I stood at the golden gates, unsure whether to stand and watch the rest of the academy fall or dive into action and attempt to claim the first set of daggers that we'd been attempting to locate all year long.

  "Willa. You have to get out of there. Help evacuate anyone in front and leave! That's an order from the heads."

  "We can't leave the dagger, Adam. I know exactly where it is. I feel it."

  "You must be feeling the smoke inhalation! Willa, I'm dead serious. Get off the property and return to headquart...this..."

  The signal to my earpiece suddenly lost connection, only confirming my suspicions.

  I'm not the only one here to claim the powerful twin blades.

  Pulling the earpiece from my ear, I allowed it to drop to the ground like a piece of trash. Stepping on it and squishing it like the end of a cigarette butt, I let my beating heart calm as I zoned out the screams and cries for help.

  Only one voice mattered now, and even though I still hated his guts, he’d somehow laid his mark within my heart.

  "You do you, Willa. I'll always be there to pave the way out."

  "If only he was here now," I whispered under my breath as I took off the teal blue and gold blazer and tossed it behind me.

  Where it landed, I would never know. My body jolted forward into a sprint as I raced right into the burning institute.

  I knew the exact location of the item in question, and the closer I got to it, the stronger the buzzing in my ears grew in expectation.

  The daggers of chilli
ng power and prosperity. The weapons that ended wars and brought peace with the four leaders that placed them within the academies they built in honor of their victory.

  Dying here would potentially leave them wide open, but I wasn't going down that path unless I knew those daggers would be in the right hands.

  Turning a sharp corner, I immediately skid to a stop - a second away from impaling myself on a pile of broken wooden beams.

  "Shit," I breathed heavily, looking for another way around the cluster of debris. There was no way I'd get through it, but who said I couldn't just fly right over it?

  With a playful smirk, my body tingled with delight and began to lift with ease, like a fairy godmother slowly ascending into the air to grant one's wish.

  This place always reminded me how "magic" was on the down-low. It was the only school that carried a one percent population of magic users, and we were called the gifted elite.

  Except for me. I was Willa, the Academy Investigator, but only the admins knew that minor detail.

  Landing on the cement floor that was filled with cracks, I pushed off the ground to run at full speed, the buzzing sound almost unbearable.

  I was ready to rush past the chamber room, but my body seemed to forcibly stop, my legs giving out before I could process what happened.

  "What the hell?" I stared at the ground, the buzzing now a piercing siren sound. It made me feel woozy, and I clenched my stomach in annoyance, but one look to my right and there they were.

  My eyes widened, realizing that the chamber looked to be the only thing still intact. It made no sense because the rest of the building was burning. But then again, do magic artifacts that can potentially save the world really make any sense?