Labyrinth Academy 2: Wars: an Urban Fantasy academy romance

by JA Wren

She may be a goddess of death, but that doesn't mean she can't fight for the living.

  With Asher, her beloved phoenix shifter soulmate, by her side, she'll battle to protect the ones she loves and prevent the gods from using her as their weapon. But her resolve is tested when a familiar figure sweeps her into the depths of the Underworld, away from everyone she cares about, determine to bring her over to his side.

  Will Rayna be swayed by the darkness and help bring an end to the world?

  Or will she stand with Asher and fight to protect it?

  Have you read book one, TRIALS?

  Go back to where it all began…

  Chapter One

  Rayna shivered against the icy breeze as she hustled her butt up the dingy staircase to her Lower Manhattan apartment.

  At least she hoped it was just a regular old chill in the air, and not something more…supernatural.

  She’d gotten the apartment at a steal thanks to a murder-suicide after the previous tenant shot his wife and then turned the gun on himself. But not before leaving a creepy note about promising to come back from the dead and haunt anyone who dared live in the love of his life’s home.

  Yeah.

  Super romantic.

  After the article, and said note, was splashed in the paper, few tenants were willing to risk the poltergeist. Which meant Rayna could afford a decent—well, better—apartment for the first time since she fled home at eighteen.

  As long as she didn’t squint too hard at a certain dark stain on the wooden floor.

  Juggling her takeout bags stuffed with enough food to feed an army, or one extremely hungry woman, she clutched her mail and keys in her hand.

  Mail.

  She shook her head.

  It was mostly junk shoved into the box downstairs. Ads for God only knew what and maybe the odd bill, though she tried her hardest to keep those to a minimum. Funds had always been tight, but she knew how to make the most of every dollar, how to stretch it out for all it was worth.

  She fought with the fussy lock on her door, ignoring the neighbor who freaked her out even more than the threat of a ghost inside her home. The disturbing lady stared at her from a few doors down the hall, dressed in her ever-present old-school nightgown, while her little dog yapped at Rayna.

  “Death,” the elderly lady muttered. “War is brewing in all corners of the earth, and when it descends, you shall bring death to us all.”

  Rayna shuddered. The old duck’s words and creepy stare never failed to cause goose bumps to trail over her skin.

  Her dog switched to growling, helping its owner’s words carry down the hallway. “Fire will rein from the heavens. Darkness will billow from the earth. And death will claim all the souls—”

  The keys finally worked and she yanked her door open, stumbled in with her overflowing arms, and slammed the thing shut, cutting off the woman’s rant.

  Shoulders relaxing, she leaned her forehead on the door, auburn hair tumbling around her face and shielding out the rest of the world. With a few deep breaths, her nerves calmed even as the yapping grew softer, then finally broke off.

  She couldn’t explain why the woman bothered her so much. She was probably just one of those people who preached about the impending apocalypse.

  But she’d freaked Rayna out right from start. The very first day she’d moved in several months ago.

  She’d been living with Kally, her best friend, since she left home just over two years ago. But then Kally’d gotten a new boyfriend, a serious one for a change, and living arrangements got…awkward.

  Sure, Nick was gorgeous and all, but did he have to walk around in his birthday suit every morning? That wasn’t so much the problem as ogling your BFF’s boyfriend.

  Not ideal.

  With a sigh, she pushed off the door and dumped her keys and mail on the messy table by the door, keeping the takeout with her as she headed for the kitchen. Only a few steps.

  The apartment was small. Basically, one studio sectioned off into three living areas—kitchen, living room, and bedroom with a poky bathroom.

  Good thing Rayna was petite. If she’d been Kally’s height, she might not have been able to wash her hair in the shower.

  With a snort, she piled her long hair up into a messy bun, then unpacked her dinner and bit into a spring roll before she even left the kitchen. The doorbell rang and she groaned around her mouthful. She swore if it was those kids again—

  “Hello?” she said into the buzzer.

  “Men are a bag of dicks, and I need your help. Stat.”

  Oh no! Nick better not have hurt her BFF. Rayna pressed the button to open the gate, and minutes later, Kally knocked on her front door, then crashed into Rayna when she swung it open.

  “Your neighbor is so creepy,” Kally whispered into her ear.

  “I know.” Rayna closed the door behind them, bumping her hip into the table and sending mail and odd shit tumbling to the floor.

  Kally bent down to help her pick everything up. “Why does she just stare like that?”

  Rayna shrugged. “Beats me. At least her dog didn’t go on another bark-fest at you.” And night-gown lady didn’t whisper about war and doom.

  Kally rolled her green eyes—irises just a little lighter than Rayna’s dark brown—and brushed her glossy black hair from her stunning face. “You should’ve stayed with me.”

  Rayna smiled, depositing her armful of random junk—where the hell did it all come from?—back onto the table. “It got crowded when Nick moved in and you know it.”

  Letting out a hard breath, Kally rose, her long legs filling Rayna’s gaze. She’d kill for legs like that. Not that she minded being short, but Kally’s legs always grabbed attention.

  Plus, they looked amazing in heels.

  “So, why are men dicks? Wait, rephrase. Why are they dicks today?”

  Kally flopped onto the sofa, then unpacked her bad day—the dickish men apparently every guy except Nick—while they shared the plentiful food. A regular Friday night with the only person Rayna really had in the world. The only one who truly cared about her.

  “You’re coming next Saturday, right?” Kally asked, wiping her mouth with a paper napkin. “I can’t do this whole exhibition thing without my bestie at my side.”

  “You know I’ll be there.” She smirked. “I get to boast about knowing the artist. You think I’d miss that?”

  Kally laughed. “Good. You can be my little spy and tell me if people really hate the artwork and just don’t want to tell me to my face. Though we might need to find you a disguise since that wine-red hair of yours isn’t exactly low-key.”

  Kally was an incredible artist and she’d finally secured her debut exhibition. A huge deal. Especially within the New York art scene. It was impossible for people to hate her dark and moody paintings, but Rayna knew pointing out that little fact wouldn’t help.

  Only a successful exhibit might convince her.

  “Promise,” she said instead, agreeing to spy on the crowd though she hoped Kally was only teasing about the disguise.

  “So, whose party were you invited to?”

  Rayna scrunched her face. “Party?”

  “I saw a fancy-looking envelope in your mail.” She shrugged her slender shoulders. “I assumed it was a party invite. That’s the only thing people send by mail anymore, isn’t it?”

  Rayna must have missed that. But then she’d been kind of distracted when she arrived home. And really, the armful had mostly been flyers for everything from psychic readings to how to settle loans.

  Curious, Rayna got up from the sofa and stepped over to the table, sifting through the junk to find the fancy—

  She stopped at the pitch black envelope with silver foiled script.

  Rayna Knox.

  Nothing else. No address or forwarding info. Just her name in swirly, glittering letters. On the back, the envelope had been sealed with deep red wax like some medieval scroll.

  She frowned at the embedded image. A circle with t
wo crescent shapes mirrored on either side.

  She turned and raised her brows at Kally. “Ren Faire themed?”

  Kally snorted. “Maybe open it and you’ll find out.”

  Rayne slid her finger under the wax, careful not to get a papercut. It gave a little pop as the seal released. So weird. Inside, there was a simple card with more silver foil script and a detailed border.

  At the top, the circle and crescent shapes repeated.

  “Rayna Knox,” she read so Kally could hear. “You are invited to attend the Labyrinth Academy Trials.”

  She frowned and stopped reading aloud. Because she hadn’t told her BFF what had been going on with her these last few months. The secret reason she’d moved out of her bestie’s apartment even if she blamed it on Kally’s new guy.

  I know what’s been happening to you and understand you must have many questions. If you participate in the trials and are accepted into the Labyrinth Academy, all will be revealed. I vow your questions will be answered.

  But you must be at this address at exactly this time.

  Be sure to bring this card with you in order to be admitted into the trials. It is special invitation only and without it, you will not be granted access.

  I hope this finds you well.

  Nyx.

  There was an address, date, and time at the bottom. In a week, the day after Kally’s exhibition. She didn’t know who sent it, who the mysterious Nyx was. It could be some psycho luring her to a kill-site. People were creepy that way.

  But the card promised answers.

  Answers she desperately longed for.

  Kally plucked it from her hands before she could stop her and continued to read it aloud. Rayna tried to snatch it back, but her crazy-tall bestie held it high above, out of her grasp, leaving her to jump about like a loon.

  Unsuccessfully.

  Of course.

  “Who’s Nyx?” Kally asked, finally passing the card back to Rayna.

  “I don’t know.” She stuffed the card into the envelope, then flung it on the table like it meant nothing.

  Like it didn’t weigh heavily on her already.

  She wanted those answers so badly.

  “And what did they mean by ‘what’s been happening to you’? Are you okay?” Her face softened. “You’re not sick or something, are you?”

  Rayna opened her mouth to tell her no, of course she wasn’t. But honestly, she had no clue and sickness had definitely crossed her mind more than once. Too bad her condition wasn’t something she could visit her GP about. That would’ve made it a whole lot easier.

  “Just…stuff. Weird stuff.”

  “Like what?”

  “I—I don’t know how to explain.” How did one tell the only person they loved that they were waking up covered in black ashes, sheets scorched and crusty at least once a week? Or that overnight every houseplant they owned had turned to charcoal? Or—

  No, don’t think about that one.

  She really didn’t need to get sucked down by a wave of suffocating guilt. Or the heartache that followed.

  “Try to explain,” Kally pleaded. “You know you can tell me anything.”

  The words were earnest, but confusion and worry gazed back at her from her BFF’s green eyes. She didn’t want to see it turn to pity. Or, God forbid, fear. Rayna was already scared enough for the both of them. At least the weird quirks only seemed to happen at night, when she dozed off.

  As long as she kept herself locked up while she slept, everyone else was safe.

  Well, almost everyone.

  She swiped at her eyes, hating the traces of moisture clinging to her lashes.

  “Ray-Ray?” Kally said, so softly it was barely audible. “You’re okay, right?”

  She nodded. Too fast to be believable. All it did was add to the head rush the envelope had already created.

  “Yeah. I’m totally fine.” Maybe if she said it, she might actually believe it herself. “I bet the invite was a mistake, anyway. Or a practical joke. Isn’t Halloween sometime soon?”

  Kally’s lips thinned. “Next month.”

  “Oh. Right.” She bit the inside of her cheek. “Well, maybe it got lost in the mail along the way and arrived early.”

  Kally nodded, but it was obvious she wasn’t falling for it. “Tell me what’s been going on. Please, Ray-Ray. You know I’ll love you no matter what.”

  Her nose tingled, the stinging threat of more tears, and her internal walls shuddered. Kally was the one person who could send them crashing down. They’d known each other their entire lives, ever since Rayna’s mom tossed her at their neighbors for forced babysitting stints while she did…whatever the hell she wanted.

  Like always.

  Kally had stuck it out with her for two decades, becoming the one person she knew she could trust. No matter what life threw at them.

  Which was the only reason she relented even though it scared her shitless to admit what had been going on for almost a year. “Fine. But don’t say I didn’t warn you.”

  She led her BFF to her bedroom, then wrenched the layers of blankets from her bed. So many layers. Didn’t matter if the weather was blazing hot out, she was always freezing. Like her core temperature could never climb high enough.

  With the blankets decorating the floor, she tugged the week-old sheets—the ones still mostly intact for now—back from the mattress, then pointed. “That.”

  Kally stepped closer and examined what Rayna could only describe as scorch marks. At least that’s what she guessed. The mattress was black and flaking, not so much springs poked her spine and ass, but enough. It almost looked like she’d dumped tar on the thing.

  Hot tar.

  Enough to burn through the fabric covering.

  “And this.” She reached into her closet and tossed the latest destroyed blanket on top of the ruined mattress. “These were last week. I woke up and everything touching me while I’d slept had turned black. I don’t know how or why.”

  Kally seemed surprised, but not nearly the shock and horror Rayna expected. She reached out and pinched black fabric between her thumb and forefinger. It disintegrated into ash, leaving fine black powder on Kally’s fingers. “And you’re hoping to get answers from this Labyrinth place?”

  “I don’t know. I just learned about them ten minutes ago along with you.” Rayna shrugged. “Maybe.” She grabbed the blanket and shoved it back into the closet, then remade her disaster bed. “I don’t know if I can trust them, but if they’re offering answers…”

  She trailed off, not even sure herself yet. Thankfully she still had a week before she needed to make a decision.

  “I think you should go,” Kally said. “I could come with you, if you don’t want to go by yourself, but I think it’s worth looking into, Ray-Ray.”

  Rayna nodded, staring at the dusting of black powder on the floor where it rubbed off the blankets. She might fear what could be waiting for her when she arrived at the address on the card. Kill-sites and all.

  But she was more scared of herself.

  And what she might wake up to the next time she suffered one of her incidents.

  About the Author

  JA Wren became a fan of urban fantasy and paranormal romance from the first book she picked up in the genre. Since then, she’s dabbled in writing multiple genres, but somehow always finds her way back to her first loves. When not writing, you can generally find her reading, falling down a research rabbit hole, drinking too much coffee, or spending time with her oversized doggo.

  Find me on Facebook here!

 

 

 
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