by Kirah Nyx
Hush, Ivy.
*
The Arcane Academy
†
Kirah Nyx
Hush, Ivy. The Arcane Academy.
Copyright © 2019 by Kirah Nyx.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in case of brief quotations used in reviews and/or academic articles.
Imprint: Independently published
Table of Contents
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
EPILOGUE
Hush, Ivy.
*
The Arcane Academy
†
Kirah Nyx
1
Rainbow sparks soared through the billowing drapes of the kiosks.
The patrons of the marketplace hopped over little leprechauns with parcels tied to their backs—those mischievous critters made deliveries throughout the city.
Ivy Skylar shivered as a leprechaun scurried between her heeled boots. She detested the menacing short folk.
Ivy wandered into a bright blue kiosk and browsed the merchandise. As her white eyes scanned the items, lingering over bottled bear blood, she tucked a stray white curl behind her pointed ear.
“Ivy Skylar.” The familiar merchant emerged from the silk drapes. “Just what are you doing snooping around the marketplace?”
She looked up and met the golden eyes of the shopkeeper across the table.
His name was River Ridge; he was three years above her at school. His skin was a light shade of rose-pink and his hair was midnight blue. But like all Fae, his teeth were pointed and yellow-tinged.
“I can shop where I want,” she said and fiddled with an enchanted rock on a table. The label on the rock claimed the object to contain the blood and heart of a turtle, useful for energy bursts.
“Does your father know you’re out here with the commoners?” he asked as he studied her oval face.
Ivy shrugged.
She rarely visited the Fae markets. They were cheap and sweaty, but smelled of spice and had a rich atmosphere that clung to her taste buds and wafted up her nostrils.
As a Vampire—or, as the Fae would call her, a dark elf—her presence in the markets wasn’t exactly commonplace. Her father preferred that she shop in the boutique village on the other side of the city, but Ivy loved the markets.
He would have a fit if he knew she was there, but she was a teenager after all. He couldn’t expect her to not rebel from time to time, could he?
River tutted and pushed himself from the periwinkle desk. “I have great products for you, little Vampire.”
Ivy’s black eyebrows knitted together as he reached under the table. For a Fae, River was nice enough, but she was no fool. Vampires had to be cautious around the Fae; they were natural enemies of sorts. The Fae couldn’t accept the abilities of the Vampires—their power to steal Fae magic, that is.
He settled two items on the table and lifted a glittering white vial. “This one is new,” he said.
It was toothpaste, and the inscription read ‘Fang Whitening Edition: Dazzle Your Prey.’
She wondered why Fae made fang-whitening products for Vampires, but couldn’t whiten their own discoloured teeth.
“I’ll take it.” She picked up the second item; a crystal flask filled with a sludgy pink substance. “What’s this?”
“Sunscreen,” he said and bagged the toothpaste. “Made exclusively for Vampires. It lasts a full eighteen hours, and you won’t contract sunburn at all while you’re wearing it.”
“Why’s it pink?”
“Don’t worry,” he grinned. “It will lighten once applied. We wouldn’t dare rob you Vampires of your snowy skin.”
Ivy made a face and tossed the flask onto the table. “Ring it up.”
River bagged the items and calculated the total price.
While she waited, Ivy looked at his pink skin and then her own fair complexion. The Fae and Vampires were cousins in a way, but sometimes she wondered what they had in common.
Fae came in all shades and colours, and were natural conjurers of magic, summoning power from the earth itself. Vampires, on the other hand, were pale-skinned, silver-haired, and blue-eyed; they were magical thieves, stealing energy from Fae enchantments, and wielding it as their own.
River rattled a brown parcel in her face.
“What do I owe you?” she asked, fishing out money from the pocket in her jeans.
“Two shingles and one chunk.” He smiled toothily.
Ivy raised her eyebrows in mild surprise.
In the boutique part of the city, she would be paying four times as much for the same products. She pulled out a cluster of currency from her pocket and fingered through them with her sharp black nail.
Lumps of golden nuggets covered her palm, but no copper chunks or silver shingles—a drawback of being rich.
With a shrug, she picked a golden nugget and gave it to him. “Consider it a tip.”
River chuckled and pocketed the nugget. He should’ve put it in the money tin. Ivy shot him a questioning smirk. He only winked and pressed his index finger against his lips.
“I won’t tell anyone I saw you here, if you pretend you didn’t see that.”
“Deal,” she said without hesitation.
She hovered for a moment before she turned and walked out of the kiosk.
“Goodbye, little Vampire,” he sang in mocking melody.
She scowled and kept walking, but raised her hand and wiggled her fingers in a farewell gesture.
The spicy heat struck her before she’d stepped onto the flattened dirt.
The crowded alley scorched under the summer sunrays.
Ivy squinted through the glare of the sun. All three species of the Arcane creatures fluttered around, called out to their friends and family, laughed merrily, and conducted shady business behind kiosk drapes.
Vampires clustered together, and applied sunscreen. Fae danced in the street, and summoned fire from the cracked soil.
Videer hid beneath their obscure cloaks and watched the shoppers from the shadows. All in all, it was a much livelier place than the posh and luxurious shops in the centre of Verato City.
Ivy adjusted the parcel under her arm and trudged through the fluttering crowd. Making sure to avoid stepping on a grumpy leprechaun, her gaze locked onto the smoothed soil beneath her—
“Oomph!”
Ivy’s world tilted as she flew backwards. The collision jolted through her as she landed on the hard earth.
Ivy grunted and pushed herself up from the dirt. Sitting on her bum, she squinted up at the pillar she had collided with. The yellow glow of the sun softened as a looming black figure stepped into her sight.
She blinked, and the blurred image cleared. It was a cloaked Videer Knight.
The Knight lifted his gloved hand and pulled down his hood. A curious expression was revealed, etched into the bronzed skin of a striking face. Coal-black hair fell over his forehead above eyes as dark as pools of tar.
The Knight titled his head to the side and smirked down at her.
“Are you all right down there?” Amusement slicked his haughty tone.
He crouched down to scoop up her parcel.
Ivy scrambled to her feet, and snatched the parcel from him.
As she tucked her silver hair behind he
r pointed ear, she said, “You should watch where you’re going in future.”
A twang of annoyance twisted inside of her. He hadn’t moved out of her way, and, instead, continued to stand in front of her, blocking her path.
“Excuse me,” she said crossly.
A grin swept across his pink lips. He stepped to the side. As he moved, his cloak billowed around him, parting in the middle—she caught a glimpse of the weapons strapped to his body.
Videer Knights always put her on edge because of those very weapons—bottled holy oil, matches of hell fire, iron swords, silver bullets.
The Videer’s weapons could bring her to her knees, sizzling and screaming, in a matter of seconds.
Without another word, Ivy stalked past him and melted into the crowd. Ahead, she spotted Adriana Adberry, her best friend, poring over a bouquet of books.
Addie’s sleek white hair, tied with a black ribbon at the nape of her neck, roped down her back to the curve of her stiff spine. The kiosk Addie stood at sold Foundling products—human products. Such things were forbidden by their parents.
Ivy quickly dashed to her life-long friend and looked around with wide crystal-blue eyes.
“Addie,” she whispered. “You can’t be here. If someone sees…”
Her raspy voice trailed off when she realised Adriana wasn’t listening to her. She was far too absorbed in a black book from the Foundling world.
Ivy assessed her profile, seeing the interest spark in her almond-shaped eyes, her thin lips silently mouthing the words she read, and her angular cheekbones blushing a tinge of excitement.
Ivy didn’t understand Addie’s fascination with Foundlings. Their own world, the cloaked world, was their home. It didn’t achieve anything to pine after places one can never visit.
“Addie!” Ivy said impatiently. “Put it down.”
A graceful sigh came from Addie as she licked her fingertip and flicked the page. “If someone does see us in the marketplace, we’re doomed, so what’s the harm in snooping around this particular kiosk?”
Impatience seeped from her pores, but, as always, Addie paid her protests no attention. Raising her button-nose, Ivy narrowed her sharp eyes and slewed them around the marketplace.
Videer Knights, identifiable by their black cloaks, slipped from stall to stall, observing the patrons and merchants. An orange Fae toddler toyed with a trapped leprechaun in a ditch a few kiosks up the lane. Ivy thought the child to be awfully brave. Leprechauns had quite the temper.
A shadow swept between two stalls. Ivy slitted her eyes to better see the silhouette in the muddy laneway. His head poked out from the drapes. Beads of sweat rolled down his wrinkled forehead and dripped into his shifting eyes. As his skin was a light brown, and his hair greying, he could only be a Videer. Fae only came in the colours of the rainbow, and Vampires were as pale as the moon.
Ivy couldn’t imagine why an uncloaked Videer would need to hide behind drapes.
Ivy winced.
A merchant had appeared from nowhere and leaned into her personal bubble. The Fae peered into her eyes, nose-to-nose, and crooned, “My dear, your eyes are almost completely blue.”
Ivy blinked a few times, then crossed them to focus on her soft-edged nose. Addie glanced at her before she nodded—her irises were seeping into her black pupils, revealing her hunger.
“I know just what you need,” said the merchant before she slinked back into the kiosk.
Ivy rolled her eyes. Though, now that she thought about blood, she noticed the course dryness of her tongue within her parched mouth.
The yellow Fae reappeared and handed her a silver chalice.
“Drink,” she urged, and pushed it into her hands. Ivy’s slender fingers wrapped around the cold callused metal.
“What is it?” There was caution in her tone, matched as she eyed the crimson blood within the chalice, as though expecting it to bubble and boil like a deadly potion.
“Gnome’s blood,” said the merchant. “I drained it myself.”
Satisfied, Ivy clutched the chalice with both hands and brought the rim to her lips. She hesitated for a mere second before she guzzled it down. Once the chalice was drained dry, she offered it back to the Fae and licked her lips.
Ivy savoured the unique flavour for moment. It was smooth, bitter, yet with a hint of tartness.
“I like it,” she decided. “I’ll buy what you have of it.”
The vender was pleased. She took the chalice and went into the back of the kiosk to fill a flask. As she disappeared through the dangling drapes, Ivy craned her neck and looked over her shoulder at the laneway between stalls.
The uncloaked Videer remained hidden behind shimmering curtains, peering around the fabric. He was suspicious, Ivy observed, in the way his eyes darted from Fae to Vampire.
It wasn’t often that Videer moseyed around the city without their cloaks. Something about it churned Ivy’s tummy and raked over her skin like claws.
“Well, then,” began Addie, nose still buried in the book. “If you can buy blood from the Foundling stall, I can purchase this novel.”
Snorting, Ivy nudged her friend on the arm. But it was half-hearted.
Ivy’s focus was still on the strange Videer in the lane. His fingers, wrinkled and bony, wrapped around the edge of the curtain. He parted it, slowly, and stepped out from its refuge.
Ivy’s intent gaze traced every movement and regarded his torn jeans and tattered t-shirt. He didn’t look like any Videer she’d ever seen.
Unless …
Ivy’s breath hitched.
“Addie,” she said, backing into the merchandise table. “Look.”
Addie followed her horrified, stunned stare to the scruffy man. He slinked out of the curtains and into the busy lane. The air appeared to contort around him—it blurred in a black circle like a tangled wreath, shivering in the wind.
Addie gasped.
Her hand clutched Ivy’s wrist as she stumbled into the table. Ivy’s suspicions were correct. He was one of them, a terrorist, a rebel. A disease of the cloaked world. An exiled cousin of the Videer, one that could kill any Vampire with a mere bite…
Ivy was too late to warn the patrons, too late to alert the Knights.
Still, her hand shot outwards as she pointed her trembling finger at the shabby man—her black fingernail shaking and growing--as a dreadful word that was feared across their world shouted from her mouth and tore throughout the marketplace:
“SHIFTER!”
Mayhem erupted.
Fear and panic struck everyone.
Videer-Knights whipped out their swords and daggers, parents grabbed their children from the mud and hid in the kiosks. But the dishevelled man—the Shifter—had already transformed. His hands snapped, curved, and stretched into long claws, the length of Ivy’s arms; his head caved in on itself, sinking down into its neck where it disappeared completely; his body grew, shattered, and reached up to the top of the kiosks. Black pits cut into its chest, and a hole sunk into its gut. Skin melted from the black bones of the creature, until all that was left was a gigantic monster.
Not a Shifter, observed Ivy, but a demon from the darkest of nightmares. Addie tackled Ivy to the soil just as the creature roared a savage sound.
The kiosks rattled from the force of the thunderous howl. Ivy curled into a ball, Addie on top of her. They lay in a trembling heap, hoping to be spared.
Their powers were no match against a Shifter. Especially the ones who had changed—advanced into the great beasts they were today.
The beasts that could take on any form, like the Videer could, but with the venom in their bodies to kill Vampires.
They were the greatest threat.
“EVERYONE, GET DOWN!” bellowed a Knight. An army of Knights appeared in the centre of the lane. They whipped off their cloaks, wielded their weapons and charged at the monster.
A dozen Knights circled the creature.
Its claws lashed out, tearing stalls from the ground. The w
arriors dodged the attacks. A red-headed Knight, twirling two golden daggers in her hands, charged at the beast.
She dropped to her knees and skidded over the dirt just in time—the beast’s spiked, skeletal tail swung out at her.
Distracted, the beast didn’t defend itself from the two Knights behind it. They lassoed a barbed black rope at its neck, and used it as leverage to climb up the towering back.
Ivy could run.
It was a dreadful thought to have, but she could flee if she wanted.
Her speed and agility was enviable. But that would mean leaving Addie behind—she wasn’t half as quick as Ivy. Stronger, yes; vastly more powerful, definitely. But not fast enough to flee without injury.
Ivy had to stay.
“Vampires! Come!”
Ivy, panting, craned her neck to look into the kiosk. The merchant crouched beside the curtained table, stretching her hand out.
“In here! Quickly, quickly!”
Addie lunged off Ivy’s body, clasping her hand onto the merchant’s.
The Fae pulled her behind the table to fickle safety.
“Ivy!” hollered Addie. “Come on!”
Ivy reached out for Addie’s extended hand, desperate to hide behind the table. But their fingers never touched.
A stall exploded opposite—the beast’s tail whipped through it.
The debris hurled Ivy’s way. The impact sent her spiralling through the kiosk amidst the rubble. Pieces of pillars and singed drapes spiralled through the air with her, and crashed into the solid wooden wall at the back of the stall.
Ivy gasped, then choked on her air. In the rubble, dust raining down on her, Ivy was still.
A scream tore out, sounding vaguely like her name, but all Ivy heard was a ringing sound piercing her buzzing ears. Blood oozed from cuts all over her head and face, leaking into her hooded, dazed eyes.
Buried beneath a mound of rubble, Ivy wheezed and lay limp. Her torso threatened to cave in as stone and wood crushed her. Her mangled arm twisted around a broken chair, and her face ached dully against the remains of broken vials.
“Ivy! I’m coming!”
