Royal Fae Bodyguard
The Brunswick Academy for Gifted Girls
Chloe Vincent
Table Of Contents
1. Cara
2. Dayen
3. Cara
4. Dayen
5. Cara
6. Dayen
7. Cara
8. Dayen
9. Cara
10. Dayen
11. Cara
12. Dayen
13. Cara
14. Dayen
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About the Author
Royal Fae Bodyguard
(The Brunswick Academy for Gifted Girls)
Copyright © 2019
All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the publisher, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review. For permission requests, email [email protected]
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictionally. Locales and public names are sometimes used for atmospheric purposes. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or to actual events, businesses, companies, institutions, or locales is entirely coincidental.
1
Cara
The June sun was so bright out that Cara squinted, taking a second to get used to it. In the fae world, the sun could be awfully bright too but its brightness was softened. The sun in this terran world seemed so harsh, as if it intended to blind all its fragile humans. It was enough to almost make Cara feel sorry for them.
Cara stepped outside onto the front steps of The Brunswick Academy for Gifted Girls and blinked, her prismatic eyes changing color from amber to green. This was the last time she’d come out from her dorm in the morning to smell the blooming jasmine before taking her morning jog before classes started. It made her a little sad, but the anticipation of her graduating mission was exciting enough to stave off that bit of grief.
“Okay,” Cara muttered, stretching her arms out before she took off at a comfortable jog around the giant, lush front lawns.
It was only five in the morning and the other girls had not come out yet, but unless everyone was being lazy on their exiting day, Cara fully expected to at least see Addy and Lilith come out to join her on her run.
The spring morning was warm. Cara breathed deep, pushing herself to run a little harder and a little faster.
She had spent seven years living at the Brunswick Academy for Gifted Girls. It was considered the most elite academy for supernaturally gifted young people in the world. Her graduating class consisted of only five including herself. It had started with nine and none of those extraneous four had made it beyond the third year. Brunswick was for the best of the best. Cara was the first in her family to have been granted admission and she still couldn’t quite believe she’d made it all the way through. It was the pride of her life.
Her parents had visited the grounds once, having traveled from the fae realm. They were country fae folk; a little rustic and wide-eyed and not used to the terra to begin with, much less a big, fancy place like Brunswick. Cara had been a little embarrassed by them, but the headmistress Mrs. Cargenburg had been nothing but friendly in her dotty way and the professor who really ran the show, Ms. Friar, had been very kind as well. It had been a nice visit.
Now she was on her last leg of training, having become the kind of warrior fae girl she’d always dreamed of being. All she had to do now was complete whatever mission Ms. Friar was about to throw at her. Each girl had to complete one before being allowed to graduate. The trouble was, nobody knew what the mission entailed or how long it would take.
The possibilities were endless.
Anxiety about her mission had been in the back of Cara’s mind for the last few months of classes. But today was the day.
“I can do it,” Cara muttered under her breath, pushing herself. She was running at fae speed now, the leaves on the trees blown back as she whizzed by. “I can do it, I can do it…”
Her jet black hair was fixed in a high ponytail and wisps of it blew around her delicately pointed, pale ears. She wasn’t even tired yet and she grinned, pushing herself a little harder.
“Cara!” The voice was Addy’s and even though Cara had expected Addy and Lilith who now came running up beside her, she frowned. She had not expected them to catch up quite so easily. Although Lil being more than half demon and Addy being a dragon shifter, she should have expected it. Lil had bested her in more than one foot race before. She grit her teeth and pushed yet harder, the muscles in her legs screaming as she sped around the curve of lawn and toward the thick woods that lay beyond Brunswick. The school was hidden away in a magically shielded area of Upstate New York which meant there were plenty of woods to train in, play in and walk around in while looking for trouble.
“You can’t outrun us!” Addy said. She was breathless but she was only a few feet behind Cara, laughing as the two girls remained at Cara’s heels. “Caraaaaa!”
They wanted her to stop and Cara smirked to herself, rolling her eyes. She slowed to a jog finally and the two girls came up beside her.
“What?” Cara said. “What is it?”
“Mission day!” Lilith said, her eyes bright and wide. For a demon, she was a cheerful girl. It had taken some time for Cara to get along with Lilith, fae having traditionally shared a contentious relationship with the demons. But that was all about old blood feuds and prejudice, the two of them had finally decided. Now, Cara counted Lilith as a good friend. That good friend’s naturally blood orange hair was as bright as the too human sun and only seemed brighter against her pale face. “Aren’t you excited?”
Cara came to a stop and caught her breath, leaning over and clutching her knees. She nodded, squinting at Lilith and Addy who stopped beside her. “Sure, I’m excited,” Cara muttered.
“You’re nervous,” Addy said decisively.
“I’m not nervous,” Cara grumbled, and she looked around and realized how far into the woods they’d run. Now she nodded in the direction of Brunswick and the three girls started to make their way back to the academy. “I’m...I have anticipation. I’m excited.”
“Excited is what people say when they don’t want to say they’re nervous,” Addy said, grinning at her with far too much confidence.
“I’ve been training for this mission my whole life,” Cara told them, setting her hands at her hips as they made their way back. “So have you. We’re the best of the best. If we can’t handle whatever it is they’re gonna throw at us, nobody can.”
“But we don’t even know what it is,” Lilith muttered, loping up beside her.
“And we don’t make graduation if we don’t accomplish it,” Addy said.
Cara couldn’t think of a response to that and she frowned. They returned to the dorms to clean up and get dressed for the day.
It was Ascension Day. That was what they called the day of the ceremony when the girls would be crowned with the traditional Brunswick wreaths before they were told about their respective exiting missions. Once all the missions were complete, the five of them would finally graduate. If some of them couldn’t accomplish their missions, no graduation for them.
“I’m not worried!” Freya said when all five girls were sitting around the common room of their dorm, dressed and ready for the Ascension ceremony. There was tension in the air, but also a sense of true excitement. “My mother went to Brunswick-�
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“We knoooow,” Addy said, rolling her eyes. The rest of them only chortled. Freya often mentioned how her mother had attended Brunswick and it had taken a little while for the rest of them to realize she was merely forgetful and not a braggart. “You’ve mentioned it,” Addy said. She was clearly trying to contain her aggravation.
“Oh…” Freya frowned. She was a witch and an extraordinarily talented one, if a bit forgetful and scatterbrained. She reminded Cara of a mad scientist. “I guess I have! Sorry! Anyway, she told me the missions are no sweat! Easy as pie! They just have to have us do something. She said her mission was to collect some dumb statue from a sorcerer in Germany.”
“Did she have to fight the sorcerer for it?” Lil asked darkly.
“No!” Freya said. “It was just there. He was giving it to her. She just had to pick it up.”
Cara’s heart sank at the very thought. She was nervous, sure. But she wasn’t at all hoping for some stupid busy work just to fulfill tradition. As nervous, or rather, excited as she was, she was hoping for a challenge.
“I don’t want to run an errand.” She was sitting on the arm of the common room’s black velvet couch, having already changed into her chosen Ascension ensemble; a sleek black gown and burgundy satin gloves. The dress code for Ascension was formal wear. She had not dressed up so much since a fae duke had visited her village years ago. The clothes felt scratchy on her skin. She was used to tight-fitting pants and boots. But she knew her hair looked pretty, the long, silky black waves lustrous and brushed out in shiny, smooth tresses, her little pointed ears poking through them, as was the traditional style of the fae at formal events. “I want something real.” She sniffed and tossed her head.
If Cargenburg or even Ms. Friar thought they were going to send the girls off on some silly courier jobs, they had another thing coming.
And what would you do about it? She thought.
Nothing.
“Guys…” It was Isla who spoke up now. The mermaid was quiet. At the moment, being on dry land, she looked like any other human with the exception of her pastel teal hair. She wore an iridescent gown that glimmered and set off her pinkish skin that sparkled just a little under the right light (she told humans it was make-up). Now she was looking up at the clock, her violet eyes wide. “It’s time!”
The Ascension Ceremony was held in the middle of Brunswick’s rose garden according to tradition and considering its importance, it was a remarkably small affair. The other classes, all six of them, did not attend. There was a sense of secrecy about it all. The younger girls were not to know anything of the missions that would move the graduating class ahead to the completion of their training at Brunswick. Only the professors and Cargenburg attended with the tiny class of five seventh-years who filed into the rose garden now, their hands clasped in front of them.
“Good morning, girls!” Mrs. Cargenburg stood on a wooden platform put out in the middle of the rose garden just for the occasion. Her purplish silver hair was wound up into an impressively tall beehive, blue horn-rimmed glasses propped on the tip of her nose. She worse a puffy, pink flowered gown. It was an odd dress. It looked as if it had been designed in some era out of time. Mrs. Cargenburg’s soft, wrinkly arms spread in front of her as she spoke. “Today...you celebrate...your Ascension Day! How well I remember my own Ascension Day...it was...oh, so long ago…”
Mrs. Cargenburg proceeded to go on and on as the five ascendees stood at attention in the lush grass of the courtyard. The speech was so long and the spring hair so thick and hot that Cara started to sweat in her gown. The thick scent of the roses was making her heady too and she sighed, bouncing on her toes a little. She felt a bit dizzy. She glanced at the other professors, all fourteen of them, who stood in their formal wear in two lines on either side of Cargenburg. They looked as bored as she felt. She noticed Ms. Friar glance at her phone and roll her eyes and Cara snorted at that.
“Thank you!” Ms. Friar was interrupting Cargenburg who blinked at her and adjusted her glasses. She had not finished speaking. She had been in the middle of a story about her weapons training and how she had finally gotten the hang of a lance (which wasn’t taught anymore). “Thank you, Headmistress.” Ms. Friar walked up to Cargenburg and patted her on the shoulder. “Lovely story. We could listen all day. I do think we might need to get on with things though. The missions…?”
“Oh yes, yes!” Cargenburg said. If nothing else, she usually deferred to Calista Friar, the Dean and professor of high sorcery. It tended to save a lot of time. “Go right ahead, Calista, dear!”
“Thank you, Headmistress,” Friar said, smiling tightly. Ms. Friar was fifty and looked forty. She was tall and regal with a long face and high cheekbones. She had warm brown skin and thick dark brown hair that she wore in two braids wrapped around her head. She was wearing a sleek navy blue gown that made her seem even taller than she was. She towered over the male professors and Cara suspected a spell since she could see plainly that the woman was wearing flats. Ms. Friar on any other day was not above five-feet-six and all the male professors were taller than her, even Benjamin the Oracle.
“You girls,” Ms. Friar began, “are on the cusp of greatness. Today you will discover what your exiting missions for achieving graduation from Brunswick will entail. Let me tell you all, this will not be like other years. As much as we attempt to keep the secrets of Ascension Day under wraps, word always gets out to some degree. But whatever you’ve heard about easy missions, glorified vacations… Well, you can forget it.”
Cara perked up at that, standing up a little straighter.
“The missions we will send you out on this year are not only vitally important for the continuance of Brunswick as an institution, but they are vitally important to the world.”
Cara breathed in and exchanged surprised looks with her fellow seventh-years. They had not expected anything like this.
“The supernatural forces of the world are out of balance,” Mrs. Cargenburg declared. “This began long ago and it has become progressively worse. As a result, fewer magical folk are born with the talent necessary to continue a culture of talented magic users which is the responsibility of Brunswick along with other institutions. This is why your classes have become progressively smaller. There are only four girls who meet the standards for the first-years in the coming fall and very likely, not all of them will make it to their seventh years. Humans are more aware of magic with these forces out of balance. Spells are more difficult to cast. Evil is on the rise. We must set things to rights. It has taken years for myself and my colleagues to find out exactly why these forces have been spun out of control. But now we know. The problem comes down to the five material elemental totems.”
Cara frowned. She knew about the five material elemental totems. Or rather, they’d come up once in a history lesson. They were five smallish figures crafted from the five material elements; metal, wood, fire, water and earth. At one time they were believed to tie the magical forces of Earth together. But they had long since been lost and the Earth had kept on spinning. Everyone had assumed they were the stuff of silly old lore. Apparently not.
“We have discovered that those silly old kooks we dismissed as fools so long ago,” Friar went on, “were right all along. The totems held our world together. And now they are lost and things are getting...bad. They must be found and reunited here at Brunswick. To that end, your mission will be to collect these totems and bring them here. These missions will not be easy. You will be given information by Benjamin the Oracle… You may be given a decent amount of information or almost nothing. Yet it will be up to you to find the totem and bring it back. According to Benjamin, this is the destiny of you five girls. But that doesn’t mean you are guaranteed success.”
Cara swallowed and squeezed her hands together. The others girls looked just as nervous as she now felt. None of them had anticipated anything quite like this. She glanced over at Benjamin the Oracle. He was the youngest professor of the lot and he taught I
nterpretation of Portent. Benjamin was thirty and looked about nineteen. He was thin as a reed and very tall. He had a mop of auburn hair and a dignified Roman nose at odds with his relaxed personality. Freya had nursed a crush on him back in her earlier years at Brunswick and she had not been the only one. Being an Oracle, he came off as weird but mysterious. He sometimes spoke gibberish or said nonsensical things and when he sounded coherent, he was a little frightening. The rest of the time, he was quiet and content to play with a hacky sack or smoke a pipe loaded with magical herbs meant to enhance visions out in the woods. Today he was wearing a shabby gray suit that was too big on him. It had to have been borrowed. He smiled widely as Friar spoke, as if he wasn’t quite listening.
He was probably thinking about death omens or something.
Benjamin’s classes were actually notoriously difficult. He taught from books but it required real effort to interpret signs and prophecies. He graded much more harshly than his childlike demeanor would suggest. But he was somehow so likeable despite it all, that everyone loved him.
Yet even given his strange charm, Cara couldn’t imagine receiving important information like a mission dossier from the guy.
“There is another...facet,” Friar said, “to this mission. It may come as somewhat of a surprise.” Ms. Friar cleared her throat, clasping her hands behind her back. She looked almost nervous herself, as if she wasn’t sure how the girls would take this and Cara raised an eyebrow, her fae senses tingling with suspicion. “As the fates have trusted you with this greater mission to bring the forces of magic back into balance, they are also rewarding you.”
Royal Fae Bodyguard (Brunswick Academy for Gifted Girls Book 1) Page 1
