“Bethany is right. The wards don’t make mistakes.” Bishop shoved his hands inside the pocket of his pants as he stared at me, his mind ticking over his options. Eventually, he said, “Take her to the Darks.”
I froze, icy tendrils snaking their way through my veins, choking me. I could not have heard that right. There was no way they were going to try and stick me in with the Darks. They wouldn’t do that to a Light. We were enemies, and there was no way I was one of those Demon-loving Darks.
But they led me directly to the grand entrance of the Darks. The ebony wooden doors loomed over me, swallowing more of my soul the closer I got to it. If I had a choice, I would’ve run for the hills, but furthering our education through the Academy was mandatory if we wanted to live amongst the humans. You would think at eighteen we’d have enough experience blending with the human population by growing up, going to primary, then onto high school with them, but apparently not.
Well, not since the truce between our factions. This new rule wasn’t fair to us.
My chest constricted as Bishop’s mouth moved, his words muted by the rapid pulse in my ears, drowning out all other sounds.
Bishop snapped his fingers in front of my eyes. “Rozalia. Focus.”
It took me a few moments to get a grip on myself and put a plug on the emotions—namely terror—swirling inside of me.
“You have nothing to fear,” he said. “You belong where the wards decide.”
I glanced toward the doors, as a small group of Darks watched me with smirks spread across their faces.
They couldn’t see me this way. I needed to be viewed as strong, not a hyperventilating Light Witch who’d get eaten alive by a bunch of Darks.
I drew in a deep breath and expelled all the fear. Pushing back my shoulders, I strode toward the door, fully expecting to thump against the dark wood, just like I had with the Lights.
I didn’t.
I walked straight through, right into the hornet’s nest.
I was seconds away from a full freak out, as I scanned the scene before me. Polished charcoal tiles lined the floors leading to an expansive room filled with buffets of welcome foods and drinks. Hundreds of students and a few teachers mingled amongst themselves, some noticing me, but the majority of them too caught up in their own world to realize there was someone in their territory who didn’t belong.
Because I didn’t belong. I just couldn’t.
Bethany stood on one side of me and Bishop on the other, the Dean somehow able to enter the room, even though he was a Light. Perk of being the Dean, I guessed.
Bethany raised her brow, as if to say I told you so. “You need to come with us.”
3
Sitting on a padded leather seat, I glanced nervously between Bishop, who sat in his chair on the other side of his desk, and this Bethany lady, who stood next to him, staring down at my open file in her hands.
She flipped the page. “I don’t understand how this could happen.” She placed the file in front of Bishop. “She’s born to the Lights. Her twin is a Light. But she is clearly a Dark.”
I gripped the ends of the armrests. “Obviously, there’s an error with the wards. You should make sure they are correct, and in the meantime let me through because there is no way that I belong with the Darks.”
Bishop folded his hands together, resting them on my file and sighing. “I know you want to believe there was an error, but there is nothing wrong with the wards. They have been in place since we opened, and they have never failed us in the past. So if the wards say you belong with the Darks, then that is where you will go.”
My eyes flared with a mixture of anger and fear that I barely managed to control by digging my nails into the armrest. “You can’t put me with those… Darks. I don’t belong with them.”
“They aren’t as bad as what you may believe. There’s good and bad in all of us, as I’m sure you’ve already seen.”
I knew he referred to the Lights. And he was right. But even so, I would rather be surrounded by a hundred egotistical Lights that justify all their actions behind our faction than to be near one evil Dark. “You can’t do this. My parents will flip, and you can kiss goodbye any extra funding they promised.”
“That’s going to be a sacrifice we must make.” He stood. “Your parents will be notified, and in the meantime you will need to acclimate to your House. I suggest you go in there with no preconceptions of what they are like.”
“You’re going to get me killed.”
“From what we hear of your skill level, that will be highly unlikely,” Bethany said, picking up a page that had just emerged from the printer, which she then handed to me. “This is your room number and your class schedule.”
“Wait,” I said, confusion sweeping over me, as I scanned the page outlining my living arrangements for my time at NSA. “I’m supposed to be sharing with Kayla.”
“Unfortunately, you won’t be,” she replied. “Darks cannot mix with Lights. Each house has their own dorm facilities, and you cannot get into the Lights, and your sister won’t be able to get into the Darks.”
Nervous beads of sweat covered my forehead, as I left the Dean’s office and made my way toward my new room in the House of Darks. The whole way I hoped the wards had malfunctioned earlier, and I was going to be blocked from going through and could return to my rightful place amongst the Lights.
My heart pounded against my chest as I approached the doors to the glass elevator waiting for me to step inside. But I couldn’t bring myself to enter. If I did… There was simply no returning. I could no longer tell myself that it was a mistake. I would be one of them.
I didn’t have a choice. It was either step inside, or leave Kayla here on her own. Taking a deep breath, I prepared to take that first step.
“Move it, Leach.” A girl my age with long, black hair, and a good half a foot taller than me, bumped my shoulder, knocking me inside the elevator, as she strode past me then pressed the button for the third floor—my floor.
I never understood why they called us that. We weren’t leaches. Our power didn’t feed off the evil. We were…
A sigh escaped my lips. We weren’t anything.
If what this place was telling me was true, I didn’t belong to the Lights. I belonged with the Darks. And if this bitch standing next to me was anything to go by, I had to get my head in the game.
“What. Are. You. Staring at, Leach.” Her eyes swept over me with disgust.
Unpacking my lady-balls, I held her gaze, determined not to look away. “I’m still trying to work it out.”
She stepped forward, getting all up in my shit. “I know what you are. And you better watch yourself. You no longer have any of your buddies around to protect you.”
“See, that’s the funny thing. Most Darks talk the shit, but we all know who the superior House is when it comes down to it.”
“We’ll see about that.” The doors pinged and she bumped my shoulder again as she strode past, then spun around to face me. “You may want to check yourself because in case you forgot, this is your house now.” She smirked then sauntered down the hall.
I released a shuddered breath. If this was what was to come, I was doomed.
I’m doing this for Kayla.
Just as the doors began to close, I remembered this was my floor, too.
Shit. I shoved my hand between the closing doors, stopping them. “Here goes nothing.”
Commanding my bags to follow me, I stepped out of the elevator, onto the floors of the first year students’ dorms. I glanced at the information sheet one more time, confirming my room number: 309.
My one and only hope, the elevator bitch was not my roommate.
Making my way down the hall, I passed a common area to the right filled with couches, a large screen TV, and a pool table. I was surprised there wasn’t any burning skulls or animal sacrifices on display. It almost seemed… normal.
Looks could be deceiving, and I had to remember that more now than ever.
>
I found my room half a dozen doors down and swiped my card, opening the door before I had a chance to chicken out. I was relieved to find the room empty. I hoped I was lucky enough not to have a roommate.
Wishful thinking.
That bitch from the elevator was probably waiting outside, ready to rain on my parade.
She could try because I was not one to shy away from a fight. That’s when all my studying came in handy. I was good with magic.
The room was a decent size. There were two beds, one on either side of the room, and a large bay window complete with a window seat that I would no doubt use to cram as much studying in as possible. The bathroom was to the right of the entrance, and there was a small kitchenette to the left. Kitchenette was a little bit of an over-exaggeration. It was more like a two-foot bench, bar-fridge underneath, and a kettle and toaster on top. Not even a coffee maker.
I groaned. I was not going to do well without a good coffee in the morning. I really did pity my roommate—if I had one.
Moving farther into the room, I set my bag down beside my bed. Well, at least I presumed it was my side. There was nothing to say the other bed was taken, but I preferred the left. I always preferred the left. Kayla and I had joked I must’ve been on the left side in the womb, and had stuck with that preference ever since.
With my hands on my hips, I turned around, taking in my new surroundings and working out where I could put my shit. There was a small wardrobe, a chest of draws, and no bookshelf in sight. There was, however, a desk against the wall at the end of my bed, which I planned on stacking all my books onto and topping it off with a spell that would shock the hell out of anyone who tried to touch them—literally.
No one messed with my books.
I was a geek by nature, but I was only interested in spells and legends of our past. There were always truths hidden in legends, and I found myself trapped in the pages of them, devouring every piece of information I could.
With a flick of my wrist, I moved my bag onto my bed then unzipped it and grabbed a set of clothes. I carried them into the small bathroom and peeled off my uniform then changed into a pair of jeans and top before heading back into the room. I dumped my folded uniform into the hamper on my side, hoping I wouldn’t have to wear it again for the rest of the year.
Feeling more like myself, I rummaged through the contents of my bag, and pulled out a small stack of books.
Holding them against my chest as if I were cradling a baby, I spun around to place them on the desk when I just about jumped out of my skin—or shit myself, that definitely wasn’t off the cards. “Holy crap.”
Sitting on the other bed and staring at me was a girl no older than I, with dark blue, almost black hair, and eyes to match. Various living, breathing tattoos covered her tanned skin, a stark reminder of what she was.
A Dark Witch.
The tattoos were her Familiars, a source of power the Darks drew on during times of need. Something the Lights deemed unnecessary and a weakness.
“Rule number one,” she said. “Never let your guard down. Rule number two: don’t trust what you see. Rule number three: show no fear. And rule number four: always fight back.”
4
I frowned, trying to figure out what the hell she was talking about. What kind of rules were these?
“Oh, and there’s one more rule. Get those judgy eyes out of this room because they don’t belong,” she said, absently petting the snake coiled around her wrist. “Because if we’re going to live together for the next year, then both you and I need to put aside our history and start fresh.”
“Oh-kay,” I said, knowing damn well how impossible that was. I had been raised a Light. I would forever be a Light.
She stood from her bed, her perfectly styled hair falling in waves against her pretty face. “I’m Nova. And I’m your best chance of surviving this House, so you need to wipe that superior look off your face, and stop being one of the judgy Leaches.”
She didn’t seem half bad. And if this was my olive branch, I was taking it. Because the last thing I needed was to piss off the girl I was going to spend the entire year with and be afraid to sleep at night.
Then again, she just said not to trust what I saw.
Still, I had to start somewhere.
“I’m Zalia, previously of House of Light and now House of Dark.”
“I know who you are,” she said, sitting back on the edge of her bed. “Everyone knows who you are. You’re the girl who was banished from the House of Light. But what I don’t know, and no one else does either, is why?”
I shrugged, placing my books on the desk. “I’m assuming it’s a glitch, and I’ll be out of here by the end of the week.”
Nova laughed. “There are no glitches here. You either did something to piss off your hierarchy, or you never belonged with the Lights in the first place.”
“Neither.”
“I guess we’ll find out sooner or later.” She stroked the tattoo of the cat on her other arm, making my nerves go on edge when the tattoo moved, confirming my suspicion. It was a familiar. “So have you got your class list yet?”
I nodded.
“Let me see.” Nova was up on her feet, in front of me within a blink of an eye, making me jump once more.
It wasn’t the speed she moved with that startled me because I could do the same. It was the fact that she was being… nice.
Appearances could be deceiving.
Weighing up my options, I decided what the hell. My timetable wasn’t a huge secret. She’d know it soon enough. I fetched it out of my bag and handed it to her.
Nova strolled over to the kitchenette and leaned against the bench as she read through my class list. “Looks like we share all classes except for gym and spells.”
“Yippee,” I said, accidentally letting out the sarcastic bitch in me.
She glared at me over the top of the paper. “You know we’re not all as bad as the Leaches think we are, but it seems all Lights are as judgemental as they say.”
I sighed. “I’m sorry,” I said, shocking the hell out of myself. I never thought I’d say those words to a Dark. But if I were truly a Dark, then what did that say about me? I always thought I was a good Witch, one that could be trusted, and one that would go to bat for those I cared about, yet according to the Lights, that would be impossible.
Holy Mother of Light, I was confused.
I sank onto my bed, collected a few items of clothing from my bag, and sat them on my lap, the whole time acutely aware of her watching me as she returned to her bed. “You’re right. I don’t know anything about you, and you don’t know anything about me. Well, apart from me being cast out of the Lights.”
“That’s gotta suck.” She shuffled back and leaned against the wall, her legs bent at the knees. “Okay, a few things about me. I’m a Libra. I have three Familiars, Molly, Jasper, and Ed—two cats and a snake.” She pointed to the cat she’d been stroking on her arm, then to the other that apparently sat on her hip, and Ed curled around her wrist. “I like to change my hair, I don’t go to sleep until late, and I like to sleep in. I say what’s on my mind, no matter how insensitive it may seem. I’m a vegetarian, and I was raised by the Darks, even though my father was a Light.”
My eyes practically popped out of their sockets. She couldn’t have led with that? “You’re a half?”
She nodded. “My father succumbed to the Dark.”
I’d never heard of that happening. Ever. Our factions didn’t like to mix and only recently made a truce, opening the school and shoving all of us kids together after spending years telling us how awful the other factions were.
But it was where we got to learn how to do the really cool magic, in a controlled environment. Plus, there were also the normal university subjects—on a smaller scale—that would prepare us for the outside world, once we’d learned to fully control our abilities.
For us Witches, it wasn’t so hard. We could blend in almost seamlessly. But for the vamps an
d the wolves, they had a lot of physical attributes that could lead to discovery, if they didn’t learn how to control their animalistic instincts.
“So as you can imagine, I’m a bit of an outcast amongst the Darks, which is probably why they put you with me.”
Great. They were sticking me with another loner girl. We were doomed.
Nova chuckled. “By the look on your face, you think you’ve been stuck in the nerd group. Don’t worry. I’m not easily pushed around. By the end of the year, we’ll be the outcasts who rule this place.”
“Is foretelling another one of your traits, or is it that you have no bearing on reality?”
Nova laughed again. “Something tells me we’re going to get along just fine.”
“You didn’t answer my question.”
She grinned, and I swore I saw the color of her hair change from midnight blue to purple before going back again. “Didn’t I?”
There was a lot about this girl that made me wary, but if first impressions were anything to go by, Nova was probably the only friend I’d be able to make in this House, so I wasn’t about to mess that up.
The cynical part of my upbringing told me not to trust a Dark, but I had to bury that thought at the back of my mind and try to survive my time at Night Shade—at least ‘til the end of the day.
I stood and continued to unpack my belongings. “What’s everyone else like?”
“Not like me. Which is why I explained the rules. Follow them and you’ll be…”
When she didn’t continue, I shoved my clothes into the wardrobe and spun around to face her. “I’ll be what?”
She shrugged. “I don’t know. I don’t know what you can do or if you’ll stand a chance against them.”
“But I thought you said that we’ll rule the school by the end of the year,” I said, smugly.
Nova grinned. “Who says it’s not because everyone’s afraid of me, and you’re just along for the ride?”
I snorted. As much as I hated to admit it, I liked this girl.
The bell rang, startling me.
Night Shade Academy Page 2
