Merlin's Supernatural Academy: Complete series (Books 1-4) : A Young Adult Supernatural Academy Series

by K L Rymer

  But it’s a good sign. We must be near the academy.

  The comet is not frozen per se. It still flares and burns, yet it remains immobile, and I stare at its flaming, rocky surface in awe.

  That big hunk of rock came from space after all.

  It’s alien...

  “Focus now, Bryn, and forget about aliens. You need to keep your mind on this planet...”

  I rattle my head, turning away from the comet, and now the tallest of the academy’s spires pierces the clouds.

  It’s a misty evening after all.

  Our enemy is just below...

  “So... this is the Boy Wizard’s school...” Brynmawr muses. “You know, he never asked my permission to use my image for his school’s emblem, you know...”

  I snort, “No, because you were too busy sleeping the last few thousand years... Besides, did the nation of Wales ask you, too, when they slapped you on their flag?”

  Brynmawr grumbles and plummets toward the ground, and I lean in to his streamlined shape. The wind rushes through my hair and ears, almost drowning out the sound of my pounding heart.

  This is it.

  We’ve arrived...

  Suddenly, a huge shard of ice shoots up from the ground, and Brynmawr veers to the left. It makes contact with the comet, shattering on impact when it hits the rocky surface.

  Alarmed, I peer down in time just to see that large, shadowy shape looming toward us, and I recognize those pale, frozen eyes immediately.

  Diafol...

  Of course, the bastard saw us coming, and he didn’t hesitate to attack.

  He hates our guts. Well, Brynmawr’s guts, and now he intends to spread them across the academy grounds.

  My dragon stole his pretty daughter after all...

  Another figure emerges from Diafol’s shadowy form, and the bile rises to my throat when I see that bearded visage.

  Matthew senior... flying a dragon.

  Well, if I be damned.

  It looks like war came sooner than I hoped, but this is my chance to beat them.

  “Brynmawr! Attack!”

  The Red Dragon throws back his neck and hurls a jet of hot flames at our oncoming enemy. Diafol does the same, and now it’s ice against fire.

  Classic.

  The two dragons battle while Matthew senior and I glare daggers at one another. The smug bastard’s smirking.

  “My... I’m pleasantly surprised. You’ve become rather skilled at flying, Daughter of Merlin...”

  I match his smirk though mine’s more like a snarl as I bare my teeth. “I could say the same for you. You’re not half bad yourself, Son of... I don’t know... Matthew Humphrey the II?”

  I bet he was an asshole too.

  Matthew III roars, producing a bolt of lightning from his fingertips, and it appears the apple really doesn’t fall far from the tree.

  Unlucky for him, I’ve been warring with his son for far too long now, so I know all the Humphrey’s tricks.

  “You insolent little girl!”

  He directs that bolt of lightning my way, and the moment my hair rises on end, I produce a red fireball and shift it into my sword.

  It deflects the lightning, and now all I can do is move my blade back and forth as Matthew senior sends current after electrical current my way.

  But dodging is the best I can do and it sucks. I want to plunge my sword into his chest and get Patricia’s soul back.

  Matthew senior snickers and I growl. What the fuck is he laughing at?

  “I would tell you to give up, but I’d be wasting my breath. No... my best bet is to keep attacking until you tire out, Daughter of Merlin.”

  I snap. “Stop calling me that! My name is Bryn! Mother fucking Bryn Williams, and don’t forget it!”

  Matthew’s sneer stretches. “Interesting... Did you know Williams is a Welsh name?”

  My eyes pop. Shit... it never occurred to me. Sure, you have Jones and Roberts too, which are also very popular Welsh names, but they’ve become so commonplace in the English speaking world now, you just don’t think about it.

  Williams is my mother’s maiden name too. Seems I’m more Welsh than I realized...

  “Bryn, focus!” Brynmawr shouts inside my head, and I mean shout.

  He makes me flinch.

  “Ow!”

  Matthew senior’s trick worked, and in my stupid moment of distraction, he sends a powerful bolt, knocking my sword from my grasp.

  No worries, I can make another one. The weapon comes from my magic after all, but Matthew senior could attack before I have a chance to weapon shift.

  Before that branch of lightning attaches to my body, another figure emerges from the east, and now Mattie and Gwyneira burst from the clouds.

  They knock into Diafol and Matthew senior, and now the latter’s lightning shoots toward the sky.

  Soon enough, thunder follows, and a small bout of rain pours from the heavens, but I don’t take my dripping eyes away from Mattie.

  He saved me in the nick of time.

  My hero...

  I gasp as Gwyneira closes her teeth around her father’s neck, and Diafol lets out a painful roar that booms louder than the thunder.

  Meanwhile, Mattie battles with his father, and its lightning against lightning, and they’re too evenly matched.

  But we have the upper hand. Matthew senior is outnumbered. My best bet is to throw a flame ball at his head and knock him off Diafol.

  I want to see him splat.

  Before I even have the chance to form a red spark inside my palm, Diafol turns around and grips Gwyneira’s side, and her shriek splits the sky in half.

  My dragon reacts instantly and soars toward Diafol, and now he takes out his other side.

  It’s about to get messy up here. We’re stuck amidst a dragon war, and Mattie and I need to scat.

  If all goes according to plan, the others should be arriving at any moment. We have Diafol and Matthew senior distracted.

  And just as promised, the rest of Mendacious arrive like angels, and one by one they descend on the three grappling dragons, forming a circle.

  Gwyneira and Brynmawr pull away and join the circle, and the White Dragon has blood dripping down her beautiful scales.

  Azure flaps her blue wings, “Mum!”

  Gwyn’s getting weak, but she stays afloat, never taking her frosty eyes off her father.

  “It’s... it’s fine, dear... just stay focused now.”

  The blue dragon nods and looks upon her grandfather at long last. Diafol’s pale eyes regard her carefully, and his mouth stretches into a sneer.

  My eyes bulge when I look at his back.

  Matthew senior has vanished.

  “My, my... I guess I was right. You are as beautiful as your mother...”

  Azure freezes when she hears that ice-cold voice, and it’s plain to see that she is terrified. She’s only ever heard legends about her infamous grandfather after all.

  Luckily, Angelina’s there to comfort her as she fixes her burning eyes on Diafol. “You leave her alone...”

  “Ditto...” Brynmawr replies, never taking his yellow gaze off that Black Dragon. “This will be your first and last time you see her... There’s no way we’re going to let you live...”

  Diafol casts his bored, blue eyes around our horde of dragons. He looks upon Buddy, so big and strong. Then he finds Maximus, so golden and arrogant, and then he gazes upon Zelina, green and serpent-like.

  Then he glances at Elvira, who bares her fangs, and then Shadow Stalker, who hisses in warning...

  “Ready to die, old man...?” the younger dragon growls, and Diafol snarls at the insult.

  “Well, well... if it isn’t a shadow dragon. Well... two, actually.” He looks at Elvira, and Zahara points her navy crossbow.

  She’s not the only one who has shifted her powers into her weapon. Angelina points her blue shotgun. Damien wields his black pitchfork, and Felicity tugs the band of her pink slingshot. Nora has her green, snake-shaped dagge
r, Thomas his golden, dog-toothed dirk, and Jack his brass knuckles. The titan holds several rocks in his hands.

  I look to Mattie and we both nod, shifting into our swords. His burns white-hot while mine glows scarlet.

  We’re so prepared...

  Diafol continues his spiel, which is just something villains do before they know they’re about to die.

  “And here I was thinking shadow dragons went extinct. You’re both true shadow dragons by nature. M shadow is just merely a cloak. An illusion. A trick I learnt...”

  Shadow hisses yet again, and spittle drips from his lips. “We’re not as extinct as you’re about to be, Shadow freak...”

  Diafol rumbles in amusement, and now his cold gaze lands on the sweet, pink Sparkle Hearts.

  My heart plummets.

  Oh no...

  He’s found the weakest in our herd.

  Those frosted eyes widen in mock surprise. “And what’s this? A luckdragon? I thought they were the things of children’s stories... but appears not. Such a waste... a true rarity indeed... It’s just a shame I have to kill you...”

  Sparkles’ big, blue eyes light up in fear, and before anyone can act, Diafol shoots a thin shard of ice. But then Shadow flies in front of Sparkles, and the barb pierces the arm of his leathery, left wing.

  He roars, throwing his head back, but then he sets his red orbs onto Diafol once again, and oh boy... if I thought he was scary before...

  “You fucking bastard!”

  Shadow lunges for him at once, taking out his throat, and the other dragons follow suit. Soon it becomes a blood bath of scales, fangs, and claws, and I look to my fellow riders.

  “Everyone, jump off!”

  “You crazy?!” Nora shrieks above the sound of death, trying to keep hold of Zelina’s body. The serpent-like dragon takes a chunk out of Diafol’s side, and the gorgon vomits.

  I hate to do this to her. I’m aware Nora took the longest to take to flying, and she’s scared of heights. And I just asked her to jump off a dragon.

  It’s not like there’s a random bouncy house waiting for us on the ground, but I just have a feeling...

  How else did Mattie senior vanish?

  “We’ll die!” Thomas bellows.

  I grunt as a piece of dragon flesh hits me in the face. “We’ll die up here! Just do as I say! I think we can teleport mid-air! I don’t know... but trust me! Matthew senior just vanished!”

  They still look unsure. Even Matthew doesn’t look so confident, and he knows his father the best out of all of us. Yet Jack suddenly dives toward the ground like he’s going for a swim, and we all follow his example.

  Mattie and I grab hands then jump, and we leave it all up to Brynmawr and Gwyneira now to save the world.

  I trust our dragons will know what to do. They trained those babies after all. They’ve got this.

  Angelina freestyles next, but luckily for her, she can make herself levitate (she can help some of us too while she’s at it).

  Then Damien leaps off Shadow, grabbing hold of Felicity as he yanks her off Sparkles. Then Zahara joins in, and before long Thomas and Nora are plummeting right along with us all.

  The world rushes by as we’re all freestyling now, but we could not stay up in the sky. We’re riders, and we have no place fighting in a dragon war.

  But that ground sure is coming up fast...

  Time to act.

  Before I hit the ground and go “splat”, I finally teleport, winding up in the exact same spot where my brains would have likely smashed just seconds ago, yet I don’t move for the life of me.

  Mattie stands beside me, looking just as thunderstruck.

  What the...? Who knew we could teleport like that! I guess that’s how Matthew senior disappeared, the coward...

  One by one, the rest of Mendacious appear, and now we all watch our brave dragons from the castle courtyard. Felicity whimpers for Sparkle Hearts and Shadow Stalker, burying her face into Damien’s chest, and I swallow, taking Mattie’s hand again.

  I meet his gray eyes, a tear running down my face.

  It’s all up to our dragons now.

  Chapter 25 - Bryn

  We found Diafol’s corpse dumped in a field a few miles away from the academy, and there was barely anything left of the beast.

  He suffered the most painful of deaths in the end. After all, it was one dragon against nine, and those babies had been preparing their whole lives for this war.

  And it all ended in the blink of an eye.

  We all knew the exact moment he’d died... The shadows had lifted around the academy, bringing light back to the castle grounds again, and it was like a breath of fresh air had blown through the land.

  Hopefully, if his shadows have died in the supernatural world, then they have died in the human world too.

  Now people can stop jumping off bridges, and I don’t mean that lightly. There were genuine stories of people taking their own lives on the news because their worlds had been plagued by darkness, and a shiver runs up my spine.

  But it has nothing on the guilt.

  If only we could have saved those poor souls sooner, they may still be alive now.

  But we have to count our blessings. We managed to save billions of other lives, and now we can all sleep easier at night knowing that humanity won’t perish.

  After all, we saved the world...

  And in the nick of time too. There was talk of another world war. With all the protests and fights on the streets, people were going crazy and hurting each other, all because of Diafol. All because he believed that humanity should go extinct.

  But in the end, look at where his extremist views have gotten him. Torn to shreds by a hungry horde of dragons.

  And hungry they were... There’s barely anything left of him. Who knew dragons were cannibalistic all along.

  A shame. I do think Diafol and I could have come to some understanding. I did see a hint of a small spark in his frozen, pale blue eyes when he joined me in class that day, learning all about the humans who were trying to save the planet.

  Humans everywhere are trying to change the world. Sure, as a collective, they’re totally destroying it, but others are trying to make a difference.

  I could understand his frustrations. His home was a glacier, and that glacier is melting every single day—I bet Matthew senior didn’t even have to look that far for him in the end.

  The ice would have been pretty thawed...

  Speaking of Matthew senior, he’s vanished. Most likely hiding somewhere like the coward he is.

  Don’t worry, we’ll find him. It’s as they say: you can run but you can’t... Oh, you know how it goes.

  I stand with the rest of House Mendacious as we gaze upon that giant, rotting corpse.

  It’s disgusting. There are no two ways about it. You know how your cat brings you home a dead bird with all its organs hanging out? Well, it’s just like that, but bigger. And the smell... it’s like rotten cheese.

  But we have to ensure that the bastard is really dead. It’s what Myrddin would want us to do, and we’re his army (the last thing we need is a zombie dragon on our hands).

  Damien did us all the honor of searching for a pulse, yet it wasn’t as if he had far to look. The moment we turned that giant cadaver, his heart fell from his broken ribcage, and it was bigger than a pig.

  Diafol’s killers surround us, looking proudly upon their kill like a gang of giant, smiling cats (because your cat always looks smug when they bring you home that dead bird).

  The only one who doesn’t look proud is sweet Sparkle Hearts. She’s so pure, she’s even crying for the bastard who tried to kill her.

  Azure looks disgusted too since he’s the grandfather she never knew. Gwyneira doesn’t appear ecstatic either.

  He was her father after all; no one needs to see their parent in such a sorry state.

  But the good thing about dragons is that they’re truly as tough as their scales. They’re pretty much killing machines. It’s
in their DNA.

  The happiest dragon of all, of course, is Shadow Stalker. He was the first to plunge his teeth into Diafol after he almost killed Sparkle Hearts, and that pretty much sealed Diafol’s fate.

  Don’t mess with a member of our horde, okay? Our dragons have become a close-knit family now.

  The creepy shadow dragon never strays far from Sparkle Hearts, and I remember the protective, red glare in his eyes when Diafol threw ice at her.

  He became possessed, and he’d never looked so terrifying.

  Maybe he really is in love with Sparkle Hearts.

  I stare at Diafol’s rotten, black heart, covering my mouth.

  My eyes find Brynmawr’s next. “So... this is what you dragons look like on the inside?”

  Brynmawr tapers his big, yellow eyes. “I suppose... but this isn’t one of your biology classes, Bryn... No time for taking notes. We did it. We killed the Black Dragon.”

  I roll my eyes. “More like you ate him... There’s nothing left of him!”

  Shadow Stalker hisses, flapping his wings. “The S.O.B. deserved it.”

  Elvira joins him. “I’m up for seconds...”

  Gwyneira snaps. “That’s enough!”

  The shadow dragons stop. When the White Dragon tells you to shut it, you shut it. No matter how much of a soul-sucking creep you are.

  Besides, he was her father. She did what she had to do in the end.

  Although the White Dragon doesn’t give much of her feelings away, I know she’s hurting.

  And out of respect for her sacrifice, a hush falls over our party. Both riders and dragons take a moment and give Diafol a silent prayer. No doubt he’s gone to Hell to live with Damien’s father, yet he was still a life and demanded respect.

  I look around me. Felicity hasn’t let go of Damien since we teleported to the ground, and she hasn’t looked at Diafol’s carcass once. She stays close to Sparkle Hearts, and the two sweet souls cry together.

  Jack and Buddy hover close too, as do Thomas and Maximus. Nora holds onto Zelina, and Angelina reassures Azure.

  Yet Zahara and Elvira look upon the carcass with wicked gleams in their black eyes, and they truly are twisted.

  I turn to Mattie.