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. “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 were 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 you 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 hand 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. He 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.
Vexer leaned 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.
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's 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 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 he 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 house 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 sea green eyes 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 me 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 poster that discussed the benefits of a class on spirits and how all whisperers were required to take it.
“This is interesting,” 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 think about; there's a lot to be gained when taking cues from others.”
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 green 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.
“Why are you wearing a first-year's uniform?” he asked, dressed in 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. “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 suppose 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 cruel scale. I shouldn't have done that, not the way I did it. 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 issue 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.
“But there should be seven of us,” the man continued, sliding his fingers nervously through his hair. Ah, and now I could see why it stuck straight up all the time. “Maybe 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, holding his katana and looking 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 ask.
“My name is Dyre,” he said, pushing his mask up and showing off a very pretty face. A stone-cold and frowning face but a pretty one nonetheless. Bronze eyes shimmered as he held his sword out to the side and looked between me and Jasinda. Clearly, he couldn't see any of the others.
“Dyre?” Jasinda echoed as I took in the guy's black sixth-year uniform. He was a student here? “As in … the prince of Vaenn?”
Whipping my head back around, I stared at the man like he was deranged.
“You're the lost prince?” I blurted, because the country of Vaenn had been dark for months, no messages, no signs of life. Everess had even tried to send a group of soldiers to visit the palace … and they hadn't come back. Well, they hadn't come back alive. One of their ghosts had shown up, but he hadn't been of much help. He hadn't even seen what'd killed them. He'd been riding a horse one minute … and a spirit the next.
“We have to go,” Dyre said, his voice as cold as ice. “Now.”
“Not yet,” Professor Cross said, hopping off the desk and looking irritated as he planted his hands on his hips and blinked at me. I figured he must be an early grad—someone that started their Royal College career at seventeen and finished by twenty-three. Tack on the extra two years for graduate schooling … and my guess was that he was somewhere between twenty-five and thirty. So really, we weren't all that far apart in age.
Maybe I would call him Spicer?
That is, if I found a reason to stick around. Really, all I wanted to do was get to back to our new place and have a private talk with Air. That's it. Me and Air. And those three little words … I love you.
“If you're not going to leave,” Dyre said, looking between me and Jasinda like we were the insane ones spouting nonsense. Really though, that was Professor Cross. “Then I'll just go and let the shadows and the razor wolves have you.”
“Razor wolves?” I asked, feeling this icy pit of fear in my stomach. I had four spirits behind me—two of which were really important to me, one of which I liked, and the other … well, I'd just met him but I didn't wish the fate of a razor wolf on any spirit but my worst enemy.
They ate souls.
And they lived hundreds of years.
I couldn't condemn even Professor Cross to that sort of nightmare.
Another set of footsteps sounded outside and Dyre swung, launching his katana at the newcomer … only to pull it back sharply when Vexer rounded the corner, panting. If he was caught on the Royal College campus, he'd get two weeks in jail. That's how serious they were about it. No questions asked, not trial, just a straight toss in the slammer.
“There are razor wolves … and shadows,” Vex said, moving further into the building and turning his back to me, keeping his front facing the door. “And they're everywhere.”
“It's a swarm,” Dyre said, spinning his sword in a circle and exhaling a long, cool breath. “The same swarm that destroyed my entire kingdom.” He flicked his eyes back to mine, but they were grim. “I'm the only survivor and I was trapped in a room with … three other people.” His frown became even more pronounced as he took in Vex, Jasinda, and me. Obviously, he couldn't see the others.
“There,” Spicer said, but he, too, was frowning. “All present and accounted for. Now, we just have to hope that we don't, you know, die.”
“Ready to play the numbers game?” Dyre asked Vex, pulling his mask down over his face as the two men backed even further into the room, turned, and then each grabbed a hand from me and Jasinda. “Are you ready to run?”
To Be Continued …
Academy of Spirits and Shadows, Book #2 - Preorder Now!
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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 s
ilver 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.
“Shit.” I run my fingers through the ratted, tangled strands of my hair, all mussed up from lying in the grass and reading all afternoon. “And you think this is gonna impress Brandon?” I whisper under my breath.
Spirited Page 19
