Shadowborn Academy: The Full Collection

by G. Bailey

  Before the last droplet of life drains from my body, Eva thrusts her hand into my chest and squeezes my heart. With an effortless pull, she yanks the organ out and presses it to her lips. My heart freezes and the veins turn black, but there’s still a distant thrum, still a bit of life inside. Even with my heart ripped out, I feel no pain. The enchantment of a fae’s touch takes all pain away until there is nothing but pleasure. This is why I love her.

  This is why I need her.

  Eva kisses my heart once more before placing it back into my gaping chest. “On the plus side, my love, you did give me something of great value.” Stepping aside, she reveals an unconscious Sage Millhouse hovering in the air behind us, entranced by a blanket of magical darkness. I may not have sent Corvina’s dead body back to Eva like she wanted, but when I stabbed Corvina, I was at least able to send her something. “As long as there are stars burning in the night sky, my sister will not be able to claim my throne.”

  “T-throne?” I choke out, the fae blood poisoning the rest of me like a septic perfume.

  I feel so…so alive.

  Invincible.

  Eva chuckles. “Did I not tell you? Corvina Charles is the oldest princess of the Light and Dark Fae. Well, until I freeze her heart and shatter it, that is. I hope she’s ready to play this little game of mine.”

  My past is left in the dark,

  And my shadow is no longer there.

  In the Enchanted Forest, some secrets are better left in the past.

  Year two at Shadowborn Academy is looking like it will be the deadliest yet.

  With both the dark and light court claiming their princess, Corvina has to find a way to deal with royal fae, academy life, the tryouts, a very complicated love life, and new wings that she can’t control.

  Shadowborn Academy has never had a fae princess before...and by the end of the year they might wish they never did.

  Will Corvina and her friends find a way to survive?

  Shadowborn Academy is a Dark Reverse Harem Paranormal Fae Romance for 18+. In this world, not even the shadows can be trusted…

  “I summon thee, Dark God of the Underworld, to do thy bidding.” I clench the blade, the sharp copper tang of my blood filling the cool night air. Lifting my hand over the Fountain of Mene, I squeeze until the dark liquid oozes and dilutes the sacred water. “Come forth and serve me to regain your freedom.”

  A scathing laugh echoes around the clearing, and a chill sweeps through the trees, freezing leaves and plants in its wake as they do in the presence of any god. I do not let this deter me, for I know this creature has no choice but to obey the King of Helios.

  “Freedom?” The deep, scathing voice snarls from behind. “Your ancestor banished me here. Why should I consider helping you?”

  I loosen my grip on the blade and turn to face him. The Dark God is not able to take physical form yet, therefore he appears only as a swirling vortex of darkness, invincible nonetheless. It crawls around me and clings to the edges of the fountain. My breath evaporates into a smoke-like cloud that streams towards the starlit sky.

  “Because you are bound to serve my throne. Because it is I who wields the power to free you from this wretched state. Because you have no choice.”

  The shadows darken and cackle with magic. “You dare threaten a god?”

  “I dare. You will obey me.” Throwing the knife into the blood-infused water, I take a step back. “Do my bidding and I shall consider returning you to your natural form. I will make you a god again and all the realms in existence will worship and fear you as they once did.”

  He’s silent for a long moment, no doubt considering his options.

  A smile curves the edge of my lips.

  The Dark God has only one option and that is to obey me.

  Everyone yields to me in the end, even the gods.

  “I know what it is you seek.” His shadow grows lighter, revealing a pair of gleaming red eyes. “You wish to avenge your honor.”

  “I wish to avenge my kingdom. That witch fooled me and I command you to make her suffer as I have done.”

  “Then, my liege, what will you have me do?”

  “Cut the babe from her womb and bring it to me alive.”

  The cracks of magic snapping like lightning intensify at the command. “This act promises war. Are you ready?”

  I wave my hand over my injured palm, healing the wound. “I will be ready to win. Go.”

  With a chuckle, the Dark God vanishes into the fountain. The impact shoots water into the frigid air, leaving behind a sculpture of frozen swords that point skyward.

  The deal has at long last been made. There is no turning back.

  I have to protect my kingdom at all costs, even if that means waging war. No heir of mine, spawned from darkness, will ever sit on the Throne of Helios. I would rather tear the Enchanted Forest down root by root than live to witness such a day.

  For now, I shall force the Dark Fae Queen to watch her world burn to ashes while our daughter is raised in secrecy by the very creatures she so despises.

  Mortals.

  Queen Narah deserves everything headed her way, and I am going to relish every ounce of her suffering. Never again will she make a fool out of the King of Helios.

  A playful, almost childlike laughter trickles through my ears. The warm breeze that slides down my spine forces my eyes to open in alarm. I suck in a deep breath, the air sickly sweet, and the stinging pain in my stomach reminds me of everything.

  Ronan.

  He stabbed me. That little fucker!

  Everything else beyond being stabbed is hazy. Perhaps that’s a blessing in disguise. I look up at an endless sea of pure crystal stretching over me. I’m lying on my side on a soft bed, my hands clenching some kind of rock. There is a literal wall of translucent crystal glittering in front of me. I look down at my hands, opening them to see a white rock with purple veins crawling all over it. I drop it onto the silk-covered bed I’m on and flinch at the pain, near the right side of my stomach.

  Where the hell am I?

  “Pitch?” I whisper, hoping to hear his comforting voice inside me.

  Shock rings through me when he doesn’t answer. I don’t feel him anymore.

  My shadow...is gone.

  “Ah, you’re awake my darling Corvina,” a melodic, deep, and vaguely familiar voice states behind me.

  I snap my head around and stare in shock at the sight of a fae standing in front of me. Only he isn’t just a regular fae...not when he wears a crown and sits on a throne cut from shards of glass that momentarily blind me. I know who this is. I’ve seen his face in the Book of Zorya. He’s the Light Fae King of Helios.

  King Ulric is enchanting to look at, like a painting you just keep staring at and finding more stunning things the longer you gaze. Long white hair flows to the ground around him, even from the height of the Throne of Helios he’s sitting on. His piercing blue eyes are like pure gemstones that match the crystals carved into the silver crown nestled on his head. His moonlight robes seem to shimmer like the moon against water, no doubt woven from the finest silk in all of the Enchanted Forest. There is a deadly beauty to his demeanour, the way he sits in comfort on the throne, never moving his gaze from mine. He’s calculating something, much like the fae are known to do.The coldness in his gaze is akin to icicles trailing through my veins.

  I sit forward as the laughter I heard before carries to my ears again. I move to the edge of the bed, placing my bare feet on the crystal ground. The ivory silk gown draped over my body spills around my ankles. We are in a crystal box, floating in a giant throne room with ivory serpentine pillars that stretch up to the ceiling. At the bottom of the room is the light fae court, more beautiful than I’ve heard. Tall green plants, colourful flowers, and breathtaking tropical bushes fill the floor, separated only by pathways made of gold and silver which reflect the light from the wall-to-ceiling windows. Waterfalls and rivers disappear between the bushes and that’s where the beauty ends.

>   Among the dancing fae are humans and creatures I have never seen before. While some of the humans are crying, faces distorted with pain, others look downright euphoric despite their bloodied feet. The stone floor seems to be soaking up the blood and tears as if the fluids are payment. Above them, some of the fae fly around, laughing and taunting the defenseless creatures below.

  A game for the fae. That’s what the humans are. That’s what everyone is unless you are one of them.

  How in the name of Selena am I here?

  Swallowing down my revulsion, I turn to the king. “How do you wish me to address you, Your Majesty?”

  The biting sarcasm in my tone makes his lips twitch.

  Digging my hands into the silk sheets, the panic of why I’m on a bed in the first place makes me stand, pulling my lips back into a snarl.

  “If you are going to hurt me, think again. I bite.”

  “You are every bit my daughter,” the king states around a laugh. He thinks I’m his daughter? The idea is just downright hilarious. “Please, do not move much. I have healed you but you were close to death. I’d rather not use more of my magic. You cost me dearly, Corvina Charles.”

  Is this king fucking insane?

  “My parents were human and I’m a shadowborn,” I tell him, folding my arms over my chest. “Dude, you have the wrong chick.”

  My stomach hurts like a bitch, so he is right about not moving at least.

  Why would the king of the fae heal me? What could he possibly want to do that for? And why is he claiming to be my father?

  King Ulric’s eyes narrow into icy shards. “I do not. You are my firstborn daughter, Princess Corvina of the Light and Dark Fae Courts. The first royal child born of both courts who can claim the entire fae world.”

  My breath hitches at his words. I stumble back a step when I see that he most definitely is not joking. He really isn’t lying to me. Fae do not lie. Yes, they can avoid the truth and are quite masterful at it. But they believe lying is the root of all evil, and in the end, it has an effect on them. Light Fae that lie turn into a form of Dark Fae. Their skin cracks and changes until they are a monster, stuck like that forever, so there’s no logical reason why King Ulric would risk lying.

  I’m a fucking princess. The air seems to clamp in my lungs at the realisation.

  No. Fricking. Way.

  I mean, I always knew there was something different about me, but royalty? I take a deep, shuddering breath before letting my list of demands pour from my mouth.

  “Tell me how exactly I ended up with humans. Tell me everything from the beginning.” My lower lip trembles from all the emotions consuming me, and I want to kick myself for showing such weakness. “Wait! First, how do I not have any wings?”

  If I am fae, it seems I was dealt a poor hand. What kind of fae doesn’t have wings?

  The coldness in the king’s gaze softens, just a fraction. “You have wings but I have placed a spell on you. It’s a temporary hold that I will lift once you have healed enough to train and learn control over your wings. Right now, you could hurt yourself, Corvina.”

  He answers me calmly as if merely I’m asking for the time of day. Gods, I’m demanding the King of the Light Fae to tell me things, and he’s doing it. This is definitely not normal.

  How is this happening? Where are my guys?

  Sage is going to lose her shit when I tell her I’m a princess.

  I clear my throat, trying not to look into his eyes. He looks too much like me. “Now, the truth.”

  “With pleasure,” he concedes. “Many high up fae swap their babes with newborn humans. It’s a tradition to protect our children from the dangers our world has that the human world does not.”

  “So you just swapped me?”

  His expression doesn’t even falter when he answers. “Yes, but not with a human child. The fae was given to your mother as payment for her loss when I took you.” His tone remains unaltered, but I see something dark flash behind his eyes.

  I doubt the queen gave up her baby so easily and accepted another in replacement. The Light and Dark fae despise each other. Why would my mother mate with him and then just give me up willingly? Something doesn’t add up here.

  “Did she accept that?” I spit out in anger. “Losing her child?”

  “In a sense, no. The childless war was born in her resentment and rage,” he answers with a wave of his hand. “Honestly, the war was never serious and more of a temper tantrum your mother had if you ask me.”

  I bite my tongue, wanting to scream at him or punch that smug look off his face. Thousands of shadowborn and fae died in that so-called temper tantrum.

  “What happened after you stole a woman’s child and gave her away?” I press him, stealing my features into a similarly cold, impassive look. I don’t want this creature to know that he’s getting to me.

  “After I gave my child away to be raised by better people...” He pauses, a note of anger lacing his tone. “We passed the years in much pain. The fae of both courts recovered in time. I promised myself I would not look for you until you were nineteen.”

  “Why nineteen?”

  “The old gods, one of whom sat in this very throne, said the maker of a truly evil act must pay back nineteen sins or die a death worth nineteen lives. I paid nineteen years.”

  As if that makes everything okay.

  Turns out my father is batshit crazy.

  At least I have an idea where I got some of the craziness from. Thankfully, I haven’t inherited his cold and cruel nature. He took me as a child and gave me away like I was just a transaction. Safe to say that if King Ulric hoped to start off on the right foot with his long lost daughter, he’s gone the wrong way about it.

  The throne room dips into silence as I digest every piece of information. With my head spinning, I finally take a proper look at his throne. There have been many rumours about the Throne of Helios. Apparently, the goddess Danica carved the throne in her mirror image. The white crystal throne is smoother than I ever thought possible and the armrests are of two wolves. The back is carved into fae wings that stretch out, and the tips spiral up to meet just above the king’s head.

  This is my biological father. This can’t really be happening, can it?

  “Where are my friends? They were with me and then—”

  “They took you to the Fairy Pools and placed you in the water. The water is enchanted by me, a way of protecting the royals. Any royal who bleeds into the Pools will find their home and heal their soul. Seems your dip in the waters made your true self appear, my darling child.” He steps off the throne, using his bright, glittering white wings to glide closer to me. He lands just inches away from where I stand. “I sent your friends right back to the academy and I promise you, they are as safe and alive as I am right at this moment in my castle.”

  Relief floods through me. Thank Selena. That means he must have healed Sage, too.

  I suck in a breath, hating how much I love how the air tastes like sweets. “How can you expect me to believe all this?”

  A smile dances on his lips as he glances over my head. “Because you know as well as I do that the Light Fae cannot lie. Why don’t you ask your little friend over there—the traitor?”

  I spin around but it feels like the world just slows, taking the air from my body with it.

  Pitch stands at the doorway to the crystal box and there’s a staircase I didn’t see before behind him. Shadows snake around him, licking his black, tight shirt and even tighter trousers. He’s handcuffed with the most beautiful ebony wings spread out around him, almost like a fallen angel. The shadows disappear when our eyes meet, blocking out what my father is saying. Everything is numb as I look at the man I trusted the most in the world. Turns out he has some secrets after all.

  It isn’t like before, but I do feel a connection still, a need to step closer and touch him. My feet are walking before I can tell myself not to, stopping right in front of him. My hands ache to touch him, to see if he’s real,
to know if I’m dreaming or not.

  “Who are you?” I demand, wanting to sound harsh and unbroken but my voice quivers. It betrays me and he instantly knows.

  Sorrow swims in his eyes as his wings flicker behind him.

  “My name is Alastair Pitch, the Dark Fae Prince of Zorya, and I was the baby they swapped you for.”

  An armored guard shoves Pitch into the throne room. He stumbles forward, his iron shackles clanging, and he looks right at me with those familiar eyes I’ve trusted for years. The pain burning in his gaze cuts through to my core and I struggle to breathe, like the world is taking the air from me as well as shattering my heart. I knew Pitch was a prince, but I never in a million years thought he was the Prince of Zorya.

  “That creature standing before you is not only your replacement, Corvina.” The king steps down from his throne and glides over. He circles around the two of us like a wild predator. “He tricked you. He lured you into the Well of Death knowing precisely what fate awaited you there.”

  No.

  “You’re lying,” I spit out, though my glare is frozen on Pitch. Why isn’t he challenging him? Why is he just standing there?

  “I cannot lie.” King Ulric pauses behind me, his breath ghosting my ear. “You see, daughter, Pitch found you in the mortal world but he did not seek to help you or grant you a ‘wish’. Your existence threatened his right to the Throne of Luna. He sought to destroy you. Plain and simple. The only reason he bound your soul was because he wanted to drain your magic. He cared not about the innocent little girl he let drown that night. Like all Dark Faes, blinded by greed, he merely wanted power.”

  Tears of fury prick my eyes. “Stop it!”

  The shock surges through my veins like molten lava. My magic reacts to it, building first in my stomach, then up to my throat, and I know what’s about to happen. I’m not strong enough yet to suppress it.