Labyrinth Academy 2: Wars: an Urban Fantasy academy romance

by JA Wren

  LABYRINTH ACADEMY

  BOOK TWO, WARS

  JA Wren

  LABYRINTH ACADEMY

  Book Two, Wars

  Copyright © 2020 JA Wren

  All rights reserved.

  No part of this book may be used

  or reproduced in any manner

  whatsoever without written permission

  except in the case of brief quotations

  embodied in critical articles or reviews.

  This book is a work of fiction. Names,

  characters, events, and incidents are a

  product of the author’s imagination.

  Any resemblance to an actual person,

  living or dead, events, or locales is

  entirely coincidental.

  All characters depicted in this work of fiction

  are 18 years of age or older.

  ASIN: B07XSF9NCZ

  Created with Vellum

  Contents

  Prologue

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Chapter 30

  Chapter One

  About the Author

  I owe a huge load of gratitude to two

  amazing women who went above and beyond

  to help me with this book,

  through some very trying times.

  Janet and Marty,

  you are the best CPs and friends

  a writer could ever ask for.

  I wouldn’t be able to do any of this

  without either of you.

  Cover art by Black Bird Book Covers

  Find them on Facebook here

  LABYRINTH ACADEMY: Wars

  Rayna Knox is finally learning who she really is.

  Or, so she thought.

  Turns out, she’s a lot more complicated and a simple explanation isn’t gonna cut it. With a scorching hot phoenix shifter soulmate by her side, she’s determined to figure out not only what she is, but what it means to be a Primodial goddess’s heir.

  But when another attack on Labyrinth Academy awakens powers that scare the hell out of her, she discovers Apollo’s not the only one looking to use her deathly gifts.

  The gods are waging war.

  And looks like Rayna’s their coveted weapon.

  Prologue

  Asher—the night before the labyrinth trials

  Manhattan’s Lower East Side bustled with nightlife as Asher parked the sleek black Ducati outside a quirky hotel, rather aptly named The Blue Moon. He stared up at a façade that looked more like an antique store tucked away in the trendiest part of the city, already regretting his decision to travel halfway across the world.

  The rumbling vibrations of the engine cut off between his thighs, echoing the buzz of fragile hope running through his veins, but he was seconds away from revving the bike back to life.

  What the fuck was he even doing here?

  He’d abandoned his search in Europe after getting a random message. Normally, he wouldn’t put his trust in a stranger who promised intel on the woman he was trying to locate, but he’d grown desperate. This was the first clue he’d found in over a century. A lesser man might’ve given up hope long ago, but Asher was no ordinary man.

  Nor would he ever give up on his soulmate.

  Which meant taking a massive gamble by following a lead that could very well turn out to be a hoax. He’d waited more than a thousand years. Lifetimes of pain and loss. His heart and soul calling to its other half. He knew she was out there, and he wouldn’t stop searching until he found her, even if he spent the rest of his days scouring the globe.

  Bursts of laughter caught his attention. A loud group of people strolled into the hotel, weighed down with too much luggage, mortals blissfully unaware of the world lurking right under their noses.

  He stared past them, his gaze settling on the hooded figure standing behind them. Shrouded in darkness that seemed impossible on the brightly lit street. Thick clouds above cleared, letting the moonlight bathe the cloaked stranger. Hints of skin around her neck peeked out from her black robe, her hands exposed, and shimmered under the silver-blue rays.

  Well, that sure as Hades sealed the damn deal.

  His gamble might just pay off after all.

  There was no faking that kind of skin. Asher had only seen it twice before in his impossibly long life. The night he met his soulmate for the first time. And again when she was snatched from his arms and slain not even five feet from him.

  His veins burning with eager anticipation now and his gaze fixed on the cloaked goddess, he climbed off the bike and stalked across the pavement. His boots crunched over the gravel beneath his heavy footsteps as he ate up the distance with long strides.

  “Where is she?” he demanded, joining her in the cover of darkness she created. “Where is Rayna?”

  “You never were a patient one, Asher.” The Primordial goddess of night slowly drew her hood down, revealing a stunning face with silver-white irises outlined in jet black. Her hair matched, the ebony roots contrasting against the pale, luminous strands falling over her shoulders. Her lips, black as a night sky and glittering like millions of stars, curved upward as she smiled. “I always liked that about you.”

  “Where. Is. She?” he gritted out between clenched teeth, heat spreading out from the center of his chest.

  The black outline of her irises bled into ragged veins around her eyes, the only sign of her agitation. “Need I remind you who you’re speaking with?” Nyx tilted her chin up, the triple moon symbol on her forehead coming to life and glowing silver against her skin.

  “Of course not.”

  “I was the one to gift you with your beloved in the first place.” She stepped closer, her lithe body so much smaller than his, yet infinitely more powerful. “I don’t recall ever hearing a single word of gratitude from you when I spared your soulmate from Apollo’s wrath.”

  “Spared?” Asher growled the words before he thought better of the accusation. “He slit her throat and forced me to watch the life bleed from her.”

  He swore he could still feel Rayna’s blood slowly cooling against his body as it pooled beneath him. The warmth that once radiated between them dying along with her. He’d roared, fire and fury blazing from every pore as he thrashed uselessly against his shackles.

  Nyx’s sharp eyes softened, the black veins receding. “I’m sorry I could not save her in time. I did the best—the only thing I could under the circumstances.”

  Asher curled his fingers tighter into his palms, barely holding back the urge to give the fire free reign. “And I am truly grateful.”

  Sparks of light twinkled in her eyes and on her high cheekbones, glimmering like starry freckles. “The time has come for you to be reunited with your beloved. Already, she awakens.”

  “Where?”

  “Patience, firebird.” Her slim hands reached for her hood, the moonlight glinting off the white op
al gemstone in her ring as she slipped the cloak back over her head. “I will take you to her, but be warned. Much time has passed. She’s slumbered for too long. One thousand years hidden among the stars and reborn in the mortal realm. She will no longer be aware of her past or who she is. What she is. She will not know who you are or remember the life you shared.”

  “Where?” he repeated for what felt like the millionth time.

  “I have set her on a path. You are to guide her. Protect her—”

  He laughed. “Rayna doesn’t need protection.”

  “Yes, that was once true. But until she returns to herself, she will need you to shield her.” Nyx’s voice dropped low, soft as a gentle breeze. “Much has happened while you were imprisoned. She is the last of the Keres, the sole survivor purely because I hid her in the night sky.” She took a step closer, her black coat almost brushing against him. “The gods are going to war, firebird, and they will come for her. They will try to use her and the gifts bestowed on her.”

  His veins ignited and he clenched his fists tighter to hold the flames within his body. No way would he ever allow anyone to touch his soulmate. Never again. “Not on my watch.”

  He doubted Rayna would be happy about having a protector, but he’d do whatever he had to do to keep her safe. Whether she was onboard or not.

  “Promise you will ease her back to herself gently,” Nyx said. “Treat her with the utmost care. And do not, under any circumstance, reveal her past until she is ready. Her mind is yet fragile and accustomed to mortal ways. If you overwhelm her, you risk shattering her psyche.”

  A guttural sound rumbled from his chest. “I would die a thousand times more before I ever hurt her.”

  Nyx’s black lips curled up into a tiny half-smile. “Another reason I always liked you, firebird. And why you are a befitting consort for my chosen heir.”

  With a wave of her hand, he was thrust into a fathomless void, an abyss of darkness vast as the heavens themselves.

  When he opened his eyes, he found himself naked, sprawled on a bed. And Rayna frowning down at him with the sweetest confusion.

  Finally.

  He was reunited with his soulmate. And he’d never—ever—let anyone steal her from his arms again.

  One

  Rayna was late.

  No, not that kind of late, thank God. She and her phoenix shifter soulmate would need to be performing certain acts before that could happen. And no matter how scorching he was, and despite setting her veins on fire anytime he was even near her, she’d put any sexy-times on pause.

  So, no. While they teetered very close to the line with make-out sessions hot enough to melt her bones, she definitely wasn’t late-late.

  “Kally is going to kick my butt,” she mumbled as she slipped into her trusty wine-red ankle boots that matched her long hair to perfection.

  Kally, her best friend-turned-professor-Kalypso, was bound to rip into her if she was tardy for yet another class. It wasn’t like she wanted to be late. In fact, she went to bed earlier and earlier in the hopes she might get enough sleep and wake up with her damn alarm.

  Instead, it just gave the nightmares more time to haunt her.

  She shivered. The nightmares were getting worse, plaguing her with visions of black tar-encrusted earth. Barren wasteland as far as the eye could see. It was creepy as hell and kept her awake at night for all the wrong reasons.

  A thump on her dorm room door rattled the cup of pens on her compact desk under the window. She’d spruced the place up as much as she could, trying to make the old building feel more like home. The academy was beautiful, with its stone walls and old wooden detailing, but it was also really cold and lacking in sunshine.

  Little twinkling lights hung above her head like a sky filled with stars, a magical gift from her Nature Mage friend. They were really tiny, glowing water bubbles Delilah had spelled to hover just beneath the ceiling, glowing prettily all day and night. Making her feel weirdly at home.

  The rest of her décor was a hodgepodge of mix and match castoffs she’d pilfered from others.

  Apparently, her apartment back in Manhattan had been ransacked to the point there was barely anything to salvage. Probably by the same person who’d sent those creepy icy wolf things with glowing red eyes to attack her and Asher, her phoenix soulmate, during her academy trials.

  It wasn’t like she’d had much to begin with. And yeah, she could’ve used the stipend to buy new stuff to replace what she’d lost, but she tried not to use the money from Nyx.

  Guilt-money, she called it.

  Her supposed mother, the Primordial goddess of night, might have left her a healthy allowance, but using it just pissed her off when the woman had yet to show her face. Over two months at the academy and still no sign of her.

  She certainly wasn’t getting any mother-of-the year cards. Or those hand-made mother’s day paper baskets with candy hearts inside.

  Or was that Valentine’s Day?

  Didn’t matter.

  She kinda liked the boho style her room was rocking. The only thing she’d have loved to add was a bunch of plants to liven the place up.

  But she wasn’t ready to risk it.

  So far, she’d only woken to blackened sheets once, about two weeks after she’d arrived at Labyrinth Academy. Naturally, she’d freaked out, grateful Asher had moved into the room across the hall from her.

  The last thing she wanted was to hurt him.

  As a phoenix, he couldn’t die. He’d simply regenerate and come back to life again. But that didn’t mean he couldn’t get hurt and suffer from her weird quirks—no, powers, she reminded herself. They weren’t some odd thing she couldn’t explain anymore. They were powerful abilities.

  If only she could figure out how the hell to actually use them.

  The pounding on her door came again, louder, and she yelled, “Coming.”

  She swore she heard Asher snicker from the other side of the heavy wooden door and could imagine the teasing innuendo he’d dish out if they were face-to-face. And while that would’ve been nice, they really didn’t have the time.

  She was almost out the door when she stopped and cursed, realizing she’d left her necklace lying on the bedside table. It had been a gift from Kally for her sixteenth birthday years ago, long before all the academy stuff. Back then, it had been a regular old necklace. Now, she had a tiny WillowWisp living inside the pendant.

  Her familiar.

  Rayna still wasn’t exactly sure what that meant. But somehow she’d bonded with the small creature—kind of like a fairy with a flaming head and no wings—when she’d rescued her from inside a wall of icy acid during her trials. She’d thought she’d burned her hand right off to get Tink out of there.

  Thank God it had only felt like dipping her arm in battery acid.

  But faced with the same choice, she’d do it all again for the Wisp she’d grown to love. They seldom parted, Tink only leaving Rayna’s side during classes where she was strictly forbidden. It was nice. After feeling pretty alone for most of her life, Rayna relished the constant companion.

  She picked up the long chain and draped it over her head, the raw crystal glowing blood red as it settled against her sternum.

  “Hey, Tink.” The little Wisp inside the pendant hummed to life, but didn’t make an appearance. Tink was even less of a morning person than Rayna. She snorted, never having thought that was possible. “Come on, we should still have time for a quick bite and coffee.”

  Both were requirements before class or she’d never make it through the day. They were even worth the risk of Kally’s wrath.

  Rayna was heading for the door again when she paused at the window overlooking the labyrinth that circled the academy. Usually, blue skies abounded, making the thick hedge wrapping the academy in centric circles an even more vibrant shade of green.

  But not today.

  A black mist covered the entire thing. Like night had settled over it, shrouding it in darkness. Just like it had when
she and Asher had made their way through the maze-like hedge during her trials.

  The trials had been a series of…challenges she’d had to complete before they admitted her to Labyrinth Academy.

  Was another potential student participating in the trials?

  Rayna rubbed her arms to chase away the chill. Hopefully the Winterhounds didn’t attack again.

  “Rayna,” Asher called through the door. “You’ve got five seconds or I’m coming in there.”

  She smiled, because she kinda wanted that instead of stupid Introduction to Spiritual Realm classes. Those in the Spiritual Realm discipline were supposed to be able to manifest infinite types of powers, but so far she was sorely lacking in anything except the black smoke.

  For a terrifying—yet strangely exhilarating—second, she wondered if she’d been the one to cast the labyrinth in darkness. But her black smoke abilities hadn’t made a single appearance in the last two months. Not since the night of the attack.

  Disappointing when they kept calling her Nyx’s heir and promising oodles of powers.

  You have become quite the coveted weapon since I first tried to tear you from this world.

  Apollo’s words from the night he’d confronted her in the academy gardens echoed through her head, another kind of taunt. He’d clearly lost his evil mind. She was the farthest thing from some special weapon. Maybe she was lucky her powers had yet to show themselves.