I folded my hands over the end of the leather armrest on the seat. “How long before Hunter trains me properly?”
“That will depend on you.”
I hated nothing more than not having all the information at hand. Well, actually, there was one thing I hated more—the fact that I had evil DNA running through my veins. Nothing topped that one. But not knowing? That was a close second.
“Is there anything else I can help you with?” he asked, clearly done with my questions.
“No.” I stood and strode out of the room without saying goodbye.
Heading to the dining hall, I did my best to ignore the stares and whispers directed at me, and tried to remember what Bishop had said about fitting in. It was going to be an impossible task, but I wasn’t one to shy away from a challenge.
I would have to put aside virtually everything I’d been taught. So far I liked both Nova and Leila. And Hunter was kinda growing on me again. Surely, the rest of them wouldn’t be that bad once I broke down their walls. Plus, all I needed was a few allies at first then the rest would follow.
Yeah, right.
The fact I was being called the Demon Girl was evidence enough I was going to be in for one seriously challenging objective.
Lining up with my food tray, it became painfully obvious everyone around me feared me when they left a five-yard radius between us. Even the ladies serving the dishes were steering clear.
Everyone except for Leila, who gave me a reassuring smile, as she finished serving herself.
“See this,” a guy said from behind me. “Not even the scum want to be anywhere near this parasite.”
I spun around to give him a mouthful or oral thrush, when I fell silent, completely speechless when I saw Brody standing next to the asshole who’d just spoken. After everything we’d been through, all the time we’d spent together, the fact I’d lost my virginity to him, or the endless nights we’d stayed on the phone talking to one another, he not only remained silent, his lips were curled up into a smile.
I felt sucker punched.
Tears of anger welled in my eyes. I had to get out of there. I couldn’t let them see me cry. Me, the Shadow Walker, could not be seen as weak. I would become prey for anyone with a hidden agenda. But damn, it was so hard to control myself.
Just as I was about to high tale it out of there, Leila walked past me and tripped, the food on her tray hitting Brody’s chest, and the plate of chocolate moose she carried in her hand went straight into the other asshole’s face as she tried to recover from her fall.
“Whoops,” she said. “Sorry about that.” Leila winked at me, then grabbed another tray, and left the guys standing there, mouths wide open. About to get all up in our shit, they hesitated when they spotted a group of vampires and wolves stand from their chairs, their gazes warning the boys that if they so much as touched Leila, all hell was going to break loose.
For a second. I thought they were going to bring it on. After all the Lights thought they were the superior faction, but I guessed they were either unsure how I would now come into the equation, or more likely they didn’t want to get kicked out of the school for starting a fight.
Either way, I was grateful Brodie and his asshole friend decided to stand down.
“We’re watching you, Demon,” the guy said, striding away with his posse in tail.
Damn, I hated that jerk. And I didn’t mean the asshole who spoke. I meant Brody.
What he did was unforgivable.
“Jerk-face,” I muttered then continued to collect my food.
“They’re saying those things because they’re afraid of you,” Leila said, catching up to me in the line.
I shook my head. “I doubt it. They probably think the stories about me are a load of shit.”
She grabbed another bowl of moose. “They’re afraid. I can smell it on them.”
I narrowed my brows. “You can smell fear?”
She nodded. “They reeked of it.”
I shook my head again then grabbed a roll. “They wouldn’t have done that if they were afraid.”
“It’s exactly why they did that. People do stupid things when they’re afraid, and you kind of scare the crap out of people when they know what you can do.”
“I scare the crap out of myself,” I said under my breath.
She went around me and grabbed a bottle of blood from a special fridge just for the vamps. “Believe it or not, but that’s a good thing.”
“How so?”
“Because it shows that you’re in control of the evil within you, not the evil controlling you. I’d be more worried if you flaunted your newfound power.” She gave me a smile. “Later, dude.” Leila headed over to the table her group were sitting at.
Sighing, I thought about what she said as I headed outside. It was the only place I truly felt content.
I didn’t fit in with the Lights, nor the Darks.
Making my way to my favorite little spot under the cherry blossom tree, the hairs on my arms and neck pricked up, and my skin crawled with unease as I narrowed my eyes to focus on the charcoal flowers that had replaced the pretty pink ones there yesterday.
I placed my tray onto the table then reached up to carefully touch a delicate petal. But the moment my finger brushed the fibers, the flower burst into ash.
17
Staring down at the soot on the tip of my finger, my skin crawled with fear. Cherry blossoms didn’t just turn into ash. No flower did.
I reached up and grabbed another; the same thing happened the moment I came in contact with the bloom.
Scanning the area, I searched for other plants with charcoal flowers, but the cherry blossom tree was the only one.
An uneasy feeling settled over my heart, as I pieced together information in my mind. It couldn’t have been a coincidence that I had created that wave of fire, and now my favourite tree had turned to charcoal. Well, maybe not the whole tree, but the prettiest part at least.
I climbed onto the table, grabbed a small green branch with a couple of dead flowers on it, and snapped it off. Then I jumped off the table and cast a ball of light, acutely aware that I shouldn’t have been able to do any form of magic in the common areas.
The flower was in perfect structural condition.
“What are you looking at?” Nova asked.
I looked up, a warm, fuzzy feeling eating away at the uneasiness residing inside of me when I saw her with Kayla, hanging out as if it were completely normal for a Dark and Light to mix.
Kayla narrowed her eyes at the flower. “Is that…”
Returning my gaze to the cherry blossom tree, I said, “It’s turned to ash. They all have.”
Their eyes darted up to look at the tree branches looming above them. “What have you done?” Kayla whispered.
My eyebrows shot up. “Me?”
“Well, yeah. Who else has the power to do this when the wards are so strong here?” She held her hand up and a little pop of light formed before quickly extinguishing. “See. I can’t even form an orb.” She cocked her head up.
Following her gaze, I saw at least a hundred orbs floating in the air surrounding the tree. “Okay, so maybe I’m responsible for the orbs, but I swear I didn’t torch the tree.” I scrunched my free hand up, extinguishing the light.
“Are you sure about that?” Kayla asked, coming for a closer look at the flower I was holding. “Because you were able to do that fire thing.”
“Yeah, but this tree was like this when I came out just now.”
“She’s telling the truth,” Nova said. “I don’t know how I know, I just feel it.” She held her hands up, gesturing to the tree. “This isn’t Zali.”
No matter how hard I tried to grab onto the fact that Nova was a Seer, and knowing things was her jam, I couldn’t convince myself that I didn’t have anything to do with this phenomenon. And the longer I stood there, the more convinced I was—even if I wasn’t the one who actually torched the flowers. “I have to get out of here.”
“I’m pretty sure a dead flower doesn’t need water.” Nova turned off the tap that I had running to fill up the vase.
“But it’s not all dead. Only partially.” I carefully shoved the vase toward her. “See, the stem is still alive. It’s just the flowers.”
“My bad.” She turned the tap back on.
I finished filling the vase then placed it on the corner of the small bench. I sat on the couch between Kayla and Nova. “What do you know about the Shadow Walkers?”
“That they’re scary as shit—no offense,” Kayla said.
I glared at her. “I was talking to Nova. I already know what you know. We were given the exact same schooling.”
She scowled at me. “For all you know, I could’ve learned something since we’ve been here.”
I raised a brow. “Did you?”
Her nose crinkled. “No. But that’s not the point.”
I couldn’t help but smile. I loved my sister more than anything, and she always knew how to keep me grounded. “Nova?”
“Only what we learned at home and Dark classes.”
“What?” Kayla and I said in unison.
“It’s just classes all Dark kids attend to learn the history of our kind, as well as all the others.”
We kind of had something like that, but I was positive it wasn’t as informative as the Darks. “What did you learn?” I asked.
“That the original Shadow Walker did a deal with the devil or Demons, or whatever you want to call them, giving him power like no other. He was able to control and manipulate those around him and brought chaos to this world. Eventually, he was imprisoned in a supernatural prism solely built for him and him alone, and he has remained there for over two-hundred years.”
“That’s all we know as well,” Kayla said.
“Do you know how he brought chaos and destruction to the world?”
“Beats me,” she said with a shrug. “They were always vague about those details. They probably didn’t even know themselves. I mean, this was over two hundred years ago. No one is still alive from then.”
We sat there in silence for a few minutes then Nova jumped up. “We need to go to the library.”
Kayla and I got to our feet, me clearly way more excited about the idea of searching through mounds of books. Books were my thing, not Kayla’s.
We headed downstairs to the library, which to my surprise was still busy with students cramming information into their minds, and a few just looking for a quiet place to hang out and read their latest fiction novel.
I wasn’t one for fiction. We already lived in a fantasy world; what I enjoyed was information. But as it turned out, some fiction held more truths than the supposed documented stories of the Shadow Walkers.
Each having gathered a pile of books, we checked them out then carried them back to my room where we planned to pull an all-nighter.
Snuggled in my fuzzy unicorn pyjamas and socks, I sat, curled up on a beanbag, flipping through a book on my lap and drinking a hot cocoa with a little something extra to help me stay awake all night.
“Are you sure this is safe?” Nova asked.
I peered up at her sitting on the couch, sniffing her mug of hot chocolate. “It’s not a narcotic. It’s a completely harmless pick-me-up I found in a book a couple years ago. I’ve been using it when I need to stay focused.”
Kayla burst out laughing. “She uses it all the time. How do you think she got so smart? Me on the other hand? I need my beauty sleep.”
I shrugged. “And I’m just lucky enough to be this cute without it.”
“Ha, ha. Very amusing,” she said. “I don’t think luck has anything to do with it. It’s probably the extra mojo running through your veins but somehow skipped me. I mean, how is that even possible?”
“It shouldn’t be,” Nova said. “But then again, normal human rules don’t apply to Shadow Walkers who can bend reality to their whim.”
A knock sounded at the door, and Kayla jumped up from the couch and opened it. “Well, hello there,” she purred. She pushed the door open, revealing Hunter standing there with his arms crossed over his chest, not looking the least bit happy by her flirtatious behaviour.
He strode through the open doorway, his gaze locked on mine. “Where have you been?”
I gestured to the book in my lap. “Reading.”
“You were supposed to meet me for training.”
“Uh, no I wasn’t. My last class finished a few hours ago.” Pulling myself up out of the beanbag, I put down my mug and book then went into my room and grabbed my timetable out of my bag before returning to him.
Hunter grinned, as he looked me up and down in my unicorn get-up. “Cute.” He took the paper from me and scanned the page.
I rolled my eyes. “You got a problem with unicorns?”
Biting down on his smile, he shook his head. “Not at all. I just didn’t take you for one of those girls.”
I glared at him. “One of what girls?”
Nova chuckled, clearly amused by where this conversation was heading.
“The ones who have Shadow Walker DNA running through them,” Kayla said, as she got up. “You know, now that I think about it, maybe you’ve got the wrong twin, and I’m just projecting my darkness onto her, so she can be my scapegoat. Because you know, I do fit the profile more than she does.”
“Nice try,” he said to Kayla as he handed me back the timetable. “This is the wrong schedule. Didn’t Bishop or Bethany deliver your new one?”
I shook my head. “Nope. He didn’t give me anything when I saw him earlier today.”
He took a seat on the armrest of the couch. “Well, go get ready.”
“You’re kidding me?”
He raised a brow. “Do I look like I’m kidding?”
“You look like you’re about two seconds away from changing her yourself,” Kayla said with a smirk.
“Kayla!” I glared at her, trying to refrain from killing my sister. “No wonder you’re single.”
She shrugged. “I’m single because I choose to be.” She grabbed a bag of chips off the table and returned to her seat beside Nova, who was just watching us all with amusement.
“Put it there, single sister,” Nova said then fist bumped Kayla for added effect.
“Looks like the two of you living together is either going to be the greatest training for your control, or it’ll kill us all,” Hunter said.
I grinned. “We’re always like this. It’s the Moore sister charm.”
“So are you going to get changed?”
I looked down at my clothes, wishing I could stay in the magical warmth they encompassed me in. But the last thing I needed was another student to see me as a unicorn loving nerd rather than the woman to be reckoned with.
Sighing, I headed into my room and changed into leggings and a top, threw on a jacket, and headed out into the lounge room with my sneakers in hand. I slipped on my shoes and grabbed my bag and a bottle of water. “Ready.”
18
Ten minutes later, we were outside, heading to the far corner of the estate, where there was a clearing between the trees. “Why are we out here?”
“Because there isn’t a building filled with people you could kill if you let your anger get out of control.”
“Fair point.” I dumped my bag on the ground. “But what’s to protect you from me?”
He raised a brow. “Something tells me I’ll be just fine.”
I shot him a playful grin. “Will you now?”
His dreamy gaze fell on me, as he sauntered toward me. “Well, for one, I have better control than you do.”
Moving to the side, I stalked him. “And two?”
“I see the way you look at me. I may have to watch my back, but not because I think you’ll kill me.”
I snickered. “You are so dead.�
�
We spent the next hour learning how to control the fire within me, as he hit me with just enough battle magic to rile me up, but not enough to set me over the edge. Which resulted with me mostly getting my ass kicked, and Hunter enjoying every second of it. There was something about him that was both calming and freeing to my soul.
He wasn’t afraid of me like so many others at this school. He also had a sense of humour, and I could banter with him for hours. He brought light to an otherwise dark night.
Hunter came at me with an actual ball of fire the size of my head, propelling it toward me on a frigid gust of air that encompassed my skin seconds before the fireball was about to hit.
Without thinking, I threw my hands out in front of me, sending the fire orb spinning back toward him, hitting him in the stomach and setting his clothes on fire.
Fear engulfed his eyes as he ripped his shirt off and threw it on the ground, proceeding to stomp the flames out.
Panic rippled through me, and I prayed I hadn’t just burned the one guy here who believed in me. “Oh my gods,” I said. “I’m so sorry.” I rushed over to him but halted when he spread his hands out, palms down, then slowly spun toward me, fire ripping from his hands, scorching the earth around him. The fire formed a mini tornado, which he then thrust toward me.
I raised my hands once again then pushed them to the side, forming a circle of fire around me, the warmth of it heating my cold soul. Tucking my hands to my chest, I pulled the flames in closer, relishing the heat the fire encompassed me in until the flames licked my skin.
“Zalia!” Hunter yelled, as wind hit the fire dome, splitting it open.
Realizing what I’d done, I threw my hands out to my sides and banished the fire, allowing it to slowly dissipate until it was completely gone and no longer a threat to anyone around me.
Hunter rushed over. “What the hell was that?” His gaze swept over me, but not in the way that a concerned friend would. This was different. I could taste the fear in his soul, as well as the heat rising from his attraction to me.
Night Shade Academy Page 9
