Rise of the Red Queen: A Why Choose Academy Romance (Major Arcana Academy Book 2)

by Ana Calin

  CHAPTER II

  Lucy

  I kick off my shoes and drop exhausted on the bed.

  “Jesus, what a day,” I huff, loosening the tie of my uniform. Having it around my throat reminds me of how I almost died today.

  Giselle drops her books and gadgets on the desk, placing a hand on her hip. She stares down at me with disapproval.

  “You do realize you owe Professor Jones your life, don’t you? If it weren’t for him, that evil bastard Zillard Dark would have gotten his Round, and you would be dead.”

  She reaches for a towel, snapping it from the shelf. Giselle and I didn’t get to talk much after what happened this morning, not even during the breaks, because the Latina-looking witch and her two boyfriends were always there. Giselle watched them like a hawk the entire time, especially at the cafeteria, as if she feared an attack from them anytime.

  She introduced me to a couple of nice nymphs, but apart from them, nobody at the Academy seems to like me. Especially since that bastard Zillard Dark kept staring at me like he would at a living target, and he’s an influencer. If I’m honest, it makes sense. It happened in the mortal world, too, the most painfully handsome guys setting the trends, silently deciding for everyone who gets treated like a human and who doesn’t.

  Giselle shuts the door to the bathroom and turns on the water, leaving me alone with my own thoughts. Despite my exhaustion I manage to prop myself up on my hands. I’m hungry as fuck. The emotional and intellectual stress of my first day at the Academy burned a lot of calories.

  The vines coiling around the window pillars rustle in the light breeze that touches my skin. I look out into the sunset that sends a reddish hue over the horizon like a halo of blood. It goes so well with the incredible creatures I met today, all the vampires, shifters, nymphs, fae, magical creatures of the Flipside, beautiful creatures that I still can’t believe actually exist.

  But not many of those creatures would be my friends. I have an enemy around every corner at this Academy. And still, I feel more at home than I ever did in the mortal world. Actually, I remember my old life as if through a dream. The only memories that actually feel real are those with Sadie and Chase, my bf and my old crush. Tears sting my eyes—I doubt I’ll ever see them again. But I promise myself that, when I’ve graduated from the Academy—because I will graduate—I will use my magic powers to make sure they have a good life. I mean, what good is having magical powers, if I can’t use them to secure the best for my loved ones.

  My loved ones....

  Silas floods my mind like a tidal wave. I head slowly to the window, drawn to the sunset, staring out over the vast forest surrounding the Academy.

  This is the Flipside of Silverdale. Every institution, every house, every club and every bar in the mortal world has a replica in this reality, one that looks like an abandoned, haunted place. I would love to explore this reality together with my lover.

  I can’t help but daydream about Silas and I meeting in secret. I would give myself to him in an abandoned ghostly townhouse, between flowing white sheets, the breeze blowing through frayed curtains. I would give him my virginity, watch his beautiful angel face when he releases his essence inside of me, those perfect features forming an expression of delicious pleasure.

  “Oh, my lover,” Silas’ mild baritone sounds behind me, his breath touching my hair.

  I whip around, barely trusting my eyes—Silas, my demigod of warfare is actually here, towering over me. His amber eyes mirror the glowing sunset, his blond hair falling in waves to his broad shoulders, a white V-neck hugging his athletic body. I take in a sharp breath.

  “Silas,” I whisper. “You’re here.”

  He just stares down at me, and for a moment I wonder if he’s only a vision. But there’s an intensity in his eyes that matches the bloody hue of the sun, his perfect jaw setting as if he’s holding back extreme emotions. I raise my hand and trace his jaw, brushing his lips gently with my thumb.

  “Silas, my love,” I sigh as I feel his lips on my skin, velvety and hot.

  “You shouldn’t have called me here,” he says in a low voice.

  “Are you really even here?”

  “Lucy.” He bends to me, and I rise on the tips of my toes.

  Our mouths collide, our lips crushing against each other. I can feel his big hot palms splaying over my back through my shirt. My fingers curl into his V-neck, pulling him down to me to deepen the kiss, desperately hungry for him. But then the sound of running water in the bathroom stops, and Silas grabs my shoulders, breaking the kiss. I cling harder to his V-neck, trying to keep him.

  “Please, Lucy,” he breathes against my lips. I take just a little bit of distance, looking at his face. He’s frowning, like it’s hard for him to keep away from me, too. “Giselle can’t find me here. It’s against the rules, the Headmaster will—”

  “I don’t care. And she won’t tell.”

  “Lucy—”

  “I need you, I crave you so much that the absence of you hurts.” I rise on my toes again to kiss him, but he holds me back.

  “I swear I feel the exact same way, only ten times stronger, sweet Lucy. But we cannot be found together, it’s too dangerous.”

  “Then why did you come?”

  “I couldn’t resist your calling. The bond between us is too strong, you pulled me to you like a vortex.”

  He tilts his head a little, listening for the sounds from the bathroom.

  “I have to go, she’ll be out in a few minutes.”

  But I can’t let him go. It’s enough for his body to flex slightly, signaling he’s about to implode into stardust and teleport away from me, to feel that my heart is being wrenched from my chest.

  “No.” I grab his hand.

  The bathroom door opens, and Giselle emerges, silver-grey hair wet and clinging to her forehead and the sides of her neck. She’s wearing a bathrobe, which is lucky, because otherwise I’d be bursting with jealousy. I can’t imagine Silas’ eyes on another woman, even though I do realize he saw thousands of naked females in his first few centuries on Earth.

  “What the fuck,” Giselle grunts.

  “Shhhh.” I hold my finger in front of my pursed lips, the other hand in Silas’ palm.

  “Jesus Christ,” she breathes, adjusting her bathrobe tightly around herself, and staring at Silas like he’s out of this world. “Silas Aries, here, in our dorm.”

  “I hope you’ll agree to keep this to yourself,” he muses.

  “I don’t know if I can. It’s not like the presence of someone like you inside the Academy can go unnoticed. And if I don’t report it—”

  “I was just leaving.”

  “With all due respect, Lord Aries,” Giselle says, the blood rising in her cheeks. “You’re exposing both Lucy and me to great risk by having come here in the first place. I agreed to help because the Lord Protector held my family to an ancient oath of loyalty, but he said nothing about putting my Academy membership in danger. I don’t have to do this, and I won’t, if you’ll take risks like this.” She glances at me.

  “Please.” His baritone is low, confined to the walls of our dorm. “I’ll make sure you’re richly rewarded. The Lord Protector surely won’t deny you anything either. Isn’t that worth the risks you’re taking?”

  “This isn’t about what you or the Lord Protector could offer me, Lord Aries. I can’t protect her if you go against the rules, especially in such an open way,” she says, crossing her arms over her chest. She’s regaining her composure, even though I can tell Silas still affects her. Her nipples push through the fabric of her bathrobe. “The Headmaster was clear—no visits. Anything that goes against that triggers harsh punishment.”

  I place myself in front of Silas. “I swear I would do anything to keep you safe, Giselle, I’d never forgive myself if anything happened to you because of me, but please understand. I can’t control my desire for Silas, and he can’t control being pulled to me. This isn’t under our control.”

  �
�You really don’t understand, do you?” Giselle presses. “The Headmaster is convinced you are a Trojan Horse, sent here by the devil himself. They think you’re the Red Queen, and whoever covers for you in any way becomes persona non-grata. You can’t afford not being able to control yourself.”

  Her eyes fly over my head at Silas, whose hands tighten on my shoulders. I place a hand over his knuckles, afraid he might disappear any second.

  “Your room mate is right, Lucy.” He turns me around gently. “You can not only open portals to Hell, but also sentence people to death by Hell creatures, which indicates you truly might be the Red Queen.”

  What happened to Blade during the test runs through my mind, making me shudder. “But I’m not evil! I didn’t even know I had magic powers until this past Halloween.”

  “The Red Queen isn’t supposed to be aware of her own identity,” Giselle chimes in. “It’s part of Lucifer’s ploy. What better way to keep a weapon secret, than to keep the weapon itself unaware of what it is?”

  “It’s true.” Silas cups the sides of my face with his big, bony white hands that I love so much. “You can’t let your desire control you, and summon me like this. Especially because your calling is irresistible to me.” He clenches his jaw, his amber eyes full of passion. I can feel that he can barely restrain himself from kissing me. I’m tempted to rise on my toes and push out my chin, making it impossible for him to resist kissing me, but steps come from the hallway. We all look to the door.

  “Quickly,” Giselle urges. “You need to leave, now.”

  I cling to him, unable to let him go despite the steps marching closer. Giselle dashes to the door. God, I want to let him go, make sure my fae friend is safe, but it’s like my feelings have become a wild beast refusing to let me rein it in.

  “Fuck this, Lucia Reid, you’re gonna get me thrown into the pit, too,” Giselle shrieks.

  I force myself to step away from Silas.

  “Meet me tomorrow night. In the forest, at the well.” I close my eyes and tear the emotional connection between us, cutting him loose. By the time fists bang on the door, all that’s left of Silas is a faint cloud of stardust, and a painful hole in my chest.

  The Lord Protector

  “SATAN’S TOMB,” I CUSS, white-knuckling my scythe, my Grim Reaper shadow swallowing the light from the entire study.

  “I know my family swore an oath of loyalty to you centuries ago, Lord Protector,” Rouen Midwinter says. “But if that Red Witch of yours endangers my goddaughter one more time, I’ll report her myself.”

  “That would mean open war with me, Rouen.” My eyes blaze into his, my scythe glinting in the darkness, causing Rouen to back down. “Remember that I should have reaped your brother’s life long before I did. I went against an order from the Council in giving him a hundred years over his set date. And trust me, it’s only a matter of time until the Council sends me for one of your people again, so I’d be more careful about getting on my bad side, if I were you.”

  Rouen Midwinter casts his eyes down, his silver-grey hair falling like shiny curtains over the sides of his face. I turn my scythe between my fingers. It helps me deal with my temper. This noble fae came in here demanding an emergency audience, pulling me right out of a raid. The cluster of demons incarnated in the mortal world will have to wait just because Lucia saw Silas behind the Headmaster’s back, behind my back, and endangered Rouen’s goddaughter.

  “The girl is full of mysteries. What if she really is the Red Queen?” Rouen murmurs. “You’d be endangering everyone at the Academy by having her there.”

  “The Red Queen isn’t real.”

  “She’s as real as any myth.”

  “She isn’t a myth, she’s a legend. She lacks the basis of primordial truth.”

  “And yet your protégé has so much in common with the lost Sumerian prophecy that it raises the hairs on the back of my neck. She opens portals to Hell, summons demons, what if she can sentence people to death in the fires of hell, too? Lord Protector, you cannot possibly fail to see all this.”

  I press my lips into a hard line. He’s right—I know that Lucia can sentence people to death in the pit. But Gordon the butler is eavesdropping outside the study door, so I have to be very careful with what I say.

  “The Headmaster is after Lucia,” Rouen continues. “He’ll stop at nothing to expose her as the Red Queen.”

  “I can deal with the Headmaster. If your niece does her job right, Lucia will finish her first year at the Academy, and she’ll be strong enough to survive the following three on her own.”

  “No she won’t. Not now that she attracted Zillard Dark’s attention.”

  I had a reply ready, but when I hear that name it freezes on my tongue. Zillard Dark.

  “A son of Hades,” I say with a calm that I don’t feel.

  “The strongest of his sons. He’s become your protégé’s sworn enemy, and she’s only been at the Academy for a day.” He holds my stare, because he knows he’s got me with this one. “Not even you will be able to protect her against him, not unless you step in personally.”

  By the cursed realms. Samuel Black, that villain calling himself a Headmaster, has gotten the most powerful warlock at the Academy on Lucia’s back. He cut her off from all three of us, her protectors, to leave her vulnerable. His aim is as simple as it is outrageous—expose the girl as the Red Queen and get her killed, and present me to the Council of the Arcane as incompetent and dangerous, an ill-suited warden of the mortal world. He managed to gather some supporters, but they can’t even imagine what the world would look like under his rule, with my people and me out of the way.

  I lean back in my seat.

  “Leave, Rouen, and rest assured,” I say evenly. “Your goddaughter won’t be placed in danger again. I’ll see to it myself.”

  I can hear the relief in the way he breathes. He stands and takes a deep bow, his silver cape encasing him like the long wings of an angel.

  “Lord Protector.”

  I stay back, unmoving in my seat until the doors have closed behind him, but as soon as I’m alone I dissipate into a cloud of shadows. I have to see Lucia, I have to know exactly what’s happening at the Academy, Samuel’s orders be damned.

  Silas is no longer there when I reach her window, flying up in the form of a shadow, bodiless, but filled with human emotion. But I can barely resist taking the form of flesh when I see Zillard Dark standing in the room with her, two of his bully friends behind him, and Pandora the witch standing by the door with a grin on her face.

  They must have been here for hours. Giselle had sent her white owl to inform Rouen of their distress as soon as they kicked open the door, and Rouen asked for an emergency audience with me right away, because there was nothing he could have done himself. The bullies ravaged her dorm, surely in search not only of Silas, but also of other things that would incriminate Lucia. What better pretext to search her dorm than the suspicion that she had her lover inside?

  “Know this, Red Witch,” Zillard tells Lucia, his voice filled with hatred, his black eyes spitting death at her. I could slice him in half right now, that’s how wildly rage boils inside of me. “Your lover, the demigod of warfare, cannot take the form of a man inside this Academy without me sensing him. I’m not only a warlock, I’m also a demigod. We sense each other’s presence.” He holds up a finger in her face. It’s making Giselle Midwinter tremble in a corner, but it’s impressive how Lucia holds her ground. She doesn’t even back up one step, the sparkling blue in her eyes having matted into the color of metal.

  A feeling of pride swells inside me. It’s not easy for a person to keep their shoulders square and their spine straight in front of this psycho. Those deadly eyes in combination with his slicked back hair and the all-black fitted suits he always wears make him an intimidating presence.

  “Unless you can prove that he was here,” Lucia says, her voice so clear and firm you wouldn’t say she feels anything but mild annoyance, “I suggest that you fina
lly leave our dorm. You’ve been here long enough. Giselle has just taken a bath, she’s naked under that bathrobe. Between the two of us, we can make it look like you tried to force yourself on her.”

  He gives her a crooked grin. “And who’s gonna believe you?”

  “Maybe not many people. But I’m pretty sure a handsome stud like you has had his way with a number of girls at the Academy, before you settled to share one woman with your brother. I have a feeling they’ll back me and Giselle in our claims just to get back at you.”

  So direct and so effective. Pandora lifts her chin, her overlarge lips puckering as she glares at Lucia, trying to catch her eye to intimidate her, but Lucia doesn’t take her eyes off of Zillard. Being a smart guy, he decides to pull his boys out of the room, but he throws her one more threatening look before he leaves.

  But as soon as he’s out, Lucia’s strong façade shatters. She collapses to her knees, bending down with her forehead to the floor, her long red hair pooling on the ground like waves of fire. Giselle hurries over, helping her up. When I see her face again and read the terror in it, the urge to punish that bastard washes over me. I slink out of the dorm and turn into a tornado of shadows, racing down the empty Academy stairs, following Zillard’s trail.

  I find him in the hallway leading to the library. I’m determined to shroud him in a vortex of shadows, and pull him into the underworld with me, but something makes me stop.

  “You actually think you’ll find something on the Red Queen there?” His muscle bound brother asks, trying to keep up with Zillard. “Professor Morgan turned the library upside down with her research, and she didn’t find anything more than we already know.”

  “Vanessa’s research wasn’t thorough enough. The Red Queen is Satan’s most powerful weapon after the antichrist. If he infiltrated her as a Trojan Horse into the Academy, he sure as hell won’t have vital information in the Academy library.”