by A. S. Oren
Book 1.5
Books by A.S. Oren
Spearwood:
Book One
The Gate Series One Gildemer:
Volume One
Volume Two
The Gate Series Two Miltic:
Volume One
The Sixth Extinction:
Story One
Book 1.5
A.S. Oren
Rook Hilt Publishing
Copyright © A.S. Oren 2016
Rook Hilt Publishing .
This book is a work of fiction. Any references to historical events, real people, or real locals are used fictitiously. Other names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the author’s imagination, and any resemblance to actual events, real locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental or used fictitiously.
Text copyright © 2016 A.S. Oren
Cover copyright © 2016 A.S. Oren
All rights reserved, including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form.
Book design A.S. Oren
Note From Author
Hello,
Some of you picking up this book may recgonise the title and the general plot. This book is a complete rewrite of the series Spearwood Academy, which was originally published in November of 2013.
This story has the same characters as the Spearwood Academy but has been completely rewritten plot-wise. None of the original series has stuck around. Spearwood, as it is now, is meant for mature audiences only from Book Two on.
Starting in Book Two, there will be erotic scenes. If this bothers you, I don’t recommend investing your money in this book. An odd thing for an author to say, I know, but this new series will focus on steamy scenes every once in a while. Check out my series Gildemer if you want a clean read.
If you’re a reader from the original series, I hope you enjoy the story. The same goes for if you’re brand new to my work.
I want to thank my Betas and editors: Melissa, Charlotte, Lucy, Katie, and Leigh for making the polished version of this possible. I couldn’t have done any of it without you gals.
My email: [email protected] (I love hearing from readers)
The Vox (a facbook group where I hang out with readers of Spearwood):
https://www.facebook.com/groups/710125105781968/
Dedication:
I dedicate Book 1.5 to Lucy, Charlotte, Leigh, Katie, and Melissa. <3.
CHAPTER ONE
I’m not going to make it before dawn. I send my thoughts to the guys riding on my back.
After managing to eat, the guys climb on my back, and I fly into the sky. The change in my wings from leather to feathers takes a moment to get used to, but I’ve done it. Spearwood stands farther away than any of us anticipated. We’ve headed west for nearly six hours, and we’re just seeing it in the distance. I didn’t think this mountain was big enough to put us so far away; they could be doing it with magic. I flap harder. The more miles I can cover now, the less we’ll have to travel once the sun rises.
I guess Spearwood knew we’d try to cheat our way back, using me as the easy way out, and wanted to make sure it was anything but effortless. I land as the black sky transitions to indigo.
It would be fatal for all of us if I shift back mid-flight with them on my back. They’d crush my human form, and in the process, break a few bones or their necks.
My heart hammers as the transformation begins. What if this has changed, too, and it now hurts or something? But, nothing’s different. It goes as normal without any gross scales falling to the snow or unbearable pain. I welcome the warmth of Dante’s hoodie as he places it on my shoulders, and I push my hands through the sleeves. My body shakes with vigour. This can’t be happening. The cold has never bothered me in the survival challenges that Edgar created for us. I zip up the hoodie and cover my hands with the long sleeves before shoving them into the pockets.
Jericho trudges through the snow and stops at my right. “Are you cold?”
I bite my lip to try and stop my teeth from chattering. “I don’t know what’s wrong with me. The snow and cold don’t normally affect me like this.”
Bullock and Mirren travel ahead of us Dante comes to walk on my other side. “Désolé pour ton inconfort.” He places a hand on my upper back. “It has to be whatever my brother did to you.”
My muscles quake. “I hope it’s temporary. Otherwise, I don’t know how I’m going to deal with the new way my body’s adapting.” I force my legs to take bigger steps. Each leg must weigh at least ten pounds. I’ve never had to drag my feet through the snow, not even when it was over five-feet deep. This isn’t good. We still have at least fifty miles to go.
The four of them soon outdistance me, unfazed by the bitter cold. Damn the Sun god. Why didn’t I experience this discomfort when I was younger whilst in training with Edgar? Now, I feel like a baby in comparison. Should I transform again and suffer through the pain? Spearwood made no rule against using dragon forms to travel. I think I’m the only freshmen that can shift all the way, so they made it harder for our group to travel back.
Jericho falls back and blocks me from moving forward. “Get on my back. I’ll carry you for a while.” He hunches over so I can reach his shoulders.
I swallow hard. I don’t need help. “I can shift back to my dragon form, then I won’t slow us down, and we can get there faster.”
Bullock slows his pace and glances over his shoulder at us. “Do you really think that’s wise? After all, your transformation has changed drastically over the last few hours, and now your body can’t handle cold anymore. What if it gets worse? Do you want to risk that? It could kill you.”
When did he start caring about my wellbeing? Heat washes over my cheeks as ire fills my chest at my own weakness. Damn him for making sense. I place my icy fingers to my cheeks, hoping to warm them.
“Fuck, I hate this. What did that prick have on his claw? I was okay with how I was. I guess there’s always something worse on the other side of the wall though.” I climb onto Jericho’s back. He straightens, and his hands hold me under my thighs. My arms loosely wrap around his neck. “This doesn’t mean I’m weak and need saving,” I mumble into his shoulder.
“Of course it doesn’t, Ava. Accepting the occasional helping hand doesn’t make anyone weak. It makes them wise enough to know when they’ve reached their limit.”
I don’t respond. He may be right, but that doesn’t make this any better.
We’ve walked at least six miles, but Spearwood appears small, way off in the distance. “Jer, let me down. You’ve carried me long enough. I know I’m not as light as a feather. I can feel your pace slowing down.” My chin rests on his shoulder, next to his ear.
He huffs. “I’m fine, and you’re not as heavy as you think.”
“Let me take over for a bit, man. She’s my friend too, I can help out.” Dante clasps Jericho on the shoulder. Jericho’s grip on my thighs tighten. Oh no, this isn’t going to be good.
“Jer, please keep your temper in check,” I whisper.
Jericho has only lost his grip on his emotions a few times. Normally, he just broods internally. He has exploded before, it wasn’t pretty. He makes my blow ups look as tame as an irritated kitten.
His pent up energy zaps at the bare skin of my thighs.
“Fine, help her. I can’t.” In one movement, he drops me onto the snow. I gasp as the cold bites at my flesh. I blink as my mouth chatters away.
Dante reaches down and helps me up by the arm. His touch brings an almost instant reprieve from the cold and the pain. I sigh with relief.
Jericho gulps and nods as he studies us. “See, I told you. I’m fucking worthless.” He stomps through the snow and gets ahead of the group.
I let go of Dante’s hand. “Jericho, wait!”
“No.” He takes off his shirt. A pair of leathery, dark-blue wings shift from his shoulder blades. When did he learn how to do that? In one swift movement, he flies off, leaving us all behind as he catches speed in the air.
Fuck. I don’t even know how to begin to fix this. Why couldn’t things just stay the same as they always have?
Dante takes my hand again, his thumb rubbing circles over my skin. “Let him go. He needs to blow off some steam. We need to focus on getting back to the school.”
He’s right. I take a few tentative steps forward, but everything in me wants to break with each stride. Dante places a hand on my shoulder before moving to stand in front of me. His back is narrower than Jericho’s. He hunches over. “Get on. I can carry you now. It hurts me to see you in so much pain.”
A flush burns my cheeks as I hop onto his back. He holds my thighs as I place my hands on his shoulders. I don’t feel right wrapping them around his neck just yet.
“Tu n'êtes pas lourd, but put your legs around my waist. It will make it easier to hold you.”
The flush travels down my neck as I link my ankles at his waist. He just called me light. Has he had the same training with carrying items over a hundred pounds for long distances? We still have around forty miles to go, and I don’t think even the most seasoned of the guys here could carry me all the way without slowing down. We’ll have to make another change, but I don’t want to be on the backs of either of my other options.
We’ve make good progress, but it has to be afternoon by now. We stop once to rest and melt some snow for water, but other than that, we haven’t stopped much. Dante starts slowing down after we’ve gone about ten miles. I don’t blame him. I just need to suck it up and walk barefoot in the snow.
“Dante, you can put me down now. I can walk for a little bit. I’m sure I’ll get used to the sensations after a while, and it won’t phase me anymore.”
He shakes his head. “Don’t worry, Fire. I can carry you. I’m fine.”
Mirren stops walking. “No, you’re slowing us down. Just like that other guy did, before he made an idiot move and went off on his own.”
I can’t stand him, but I need to know. “What are you going on about?”
He rolls his eyes. “It’s common knowledge, if you leave your group behind, and they haven’t been hurt or killed, you’ll be punished upon arrival.”
My brow comes together in a frown. “Why would they care? Isn’t it ‘the strongest shall prevail’ around here?”
He shrugs. “I don’t know. I’ve never gone off without my group before.”
Bullock travels several meters in front of us, but he isn’t so far away that he’ll lose sight of us or we of him.
“I’ll carry her now.” Mirren faces us more.
I stare at him as Dante stops. “Are you serious? Why would you want to help me of all people?”
“I’m not offering to help you. I’m wanting to help me. I got stuck in this group. I can’t leave you all behind, even though I want to. I might as well carry you so you don’t slow us down any more than you already have.”
My heart thumps harder in my chest. I don’t want to be the weak link of the group. If I thought I could do it, I would walk the rest of the way. But then I would be even more of a burden. “Dante, let me down.”
“Are you sure?”
I nod. “Yes.”
He releases my thighs, and I slide down his back to the ground.
Going to Mirren, I stand in front of him and stare up into his silver-grey eyes. “If you think I’m going to try and climb your back like some kind of monkey, then you have another thing coming.” The cold edges its way into my feet and up the bones of my legs. I must keep my face stoic and not let them see the pain I’m in. The same as always. Why can’t I just woman up and take the pain like normal? Numbness should set in soon, right?
“I’m not going to give you a piggy-back all the way to the school. It’s easier if I carry you like this.” He leans down and scoops me up before I can protest. I blink as he holds me bridal style. Is this real life? Maybe I hit my head back there, and this is a strange dream. A jolt at his touch warms the flesh of my thigh. Yet again reminding me he’s a member of my Fold. Why do the Fates have to be so cruel?
I lay my hands in my lap, like some kind of lazy cat. I don’t think my arms are long enough to comfortably put them around his neck for a long time. “I can’t figure you out.”
He shrugs and walks forward, at a quicker pace than we were moving before. “Don’t try to. You’ll just hurt your little brain.”
My eyes narrow. “Fuck you.”
He moves his grip on my legs up higher. “You’d like that too much.”
I shake my head. “I didn’t say fuck me, you idiot. I said fuck you, meaning go do it by yourself.”
He smirks down at me. “You’d still like that too much.”
Dante pats my foot. “Désolé que tu avez à être tenu par ce que Neandertal.”
I laugh, I’m pretty sure he just said he was sorry for me having to be carried by a Neanderthal. "Ça va. Pourrait être pire. Nous pourrions être tuer les uns les autres au lieu d'être pacifique." My French isn’t great, but I hope I said to him that it’s okay and that at least the two of us can be civil with each other.
Mirren clears his throat. "Cet de Neandertal peut parler français. Merci."
I roll my eyes. Of course he understands us. I should’ve figured he was taught French as well. I just didn’t do a good job of picking up on it in my classes. I liked learning Japanese and Korean more with the guys.
Dante shrugs. “Je ne suis pas désolé.”
Mirren shifts me in his arms, forcing me to lean more into his chest. “Bâtard.”
Dante shakes his head. "I'm not a bastard. My parents were happily married when they had me, and I look nearly identical to my dad. I can't say the same for you, though. I hear your mom has never been married and has had several high class affairs. So, by definition, you're more of a bastard than I am."
Mirren stops in his tracks, and my eyes widen. Why did he have to go and bring up the guy's mother. Does he want to fight him right now? We don't have the time. "Don't you speak of my mother, you Royal."
I blink. Dante's a Royal? I guess that makes sense. He can be neurotic about his table manners sometimes, and I swear he gets all his school work done while still in class. Royals start training from birth to not embarrass their families.
They’re part of the Ancients’ bloodlines, the oldest dragons to date. So old they’re hardly ever seen in their human forms, some can't even remember what they fully looked like and have become a mixture of reptile and human parts. Their descendants, the Royals, are the only ones who have pure dragon magic. No norm or other shifter has ever touched their gene pool.
But being a Royal in this day and age isn’t as good as it sounds. The families the Ancients have bred are ripe with incest to keep it pure, and many men are forced to transform into women against their will, just to make sure no one has soiled the dragon blood. Edgar compared them to rednecks but with higher educations and money. Oddly enough, Edgar still looks upon them with fondness. A lot of elders do. That's probably why he has pushed the prophecy so much over the years. I honestly don't get it.
Dante stops now.
"That's right, I know things about you too, Mathis. How's it feel to know your parents are first cousins, and your mother probably doesn't want to be a woman?"
Dante's hand ignites with a flame. "Say another word about my family, and you'll regret it."
I shut my eyes, waiting for Mirren to drop me in a fit of anger.
"Will you two shut the fuck up? Look!" Bullock stands a few feet in front. He points ahead of us.
Red splotches mar the snow and lead a trail to a lump in the smooth white surface. It looks like a body. I fly from Mirren's arms and hit the ground running with large leaps to get to the body faster.
"Jericho
?! Please, Sun god, don't let it be you." What if Spearwood hit him with a test that was meant for all of us and he lost?
I kneel in the snow next to the mound. With more force than necessary, I push the snow away. The person lies face down, but a tuft of brown hair sticks out of the snow. A sigh escapes me. It's not him, but then, who is it?
Brushing the snow off his back, I push him over. Bullock comes to crouch next to me. He touches two fingers to the base of the guy's neck. "He's got a faint pulse, but he won't be around for much longer. Look at those gashes."
Eight long gashes run from his chest to the sides of his stomach in the form of an X. His black shirt lies in shreds. I frown, something about his face strikes me as familiar. My eyes widen. He was the guy that held me with the vines when the Knights came along.
"We need to save him. He might have answer to what Minos did to me back there. He could know how to reverse it."
