by Mana Sol
Mana Sol
Jupiter Gate
Copyright © 2021 by Mana Sol
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning, or otherwise without written permission from the publisher. It is illegal to copy this book, post it to a website, or distribute it by any other means without permission.
This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the author's imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental.
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To all the eyes that that end up on these pages.
I hope you enjoy!
1
At least a dozen people in that crowd wanted to kill me. If not, I hoped they were at least considering it, or else the lengths I’d gone to spite them with aggressive indifference for the past ten minutes were worthless. It was tempting to turn and see for myself how many were still waving obscene gestures from the other side of the warded gate, but showing my back and assiduously ignoring the furious protestors was the whole point. I felt like a criminal, in the best of ways.
Not that I was doing anything wrong. I was only minding my business, waiting patiently at the foot of these stone steps before the school as I’d been told to do. Uniform pressed, feet together, wavy dark hair styled the best I could manage, everything in its place so no one could find fault with me. I was exactly where I was supposed to be, and those protestors who wanted to roast me on a spit on the other side of those gates couldn’t do a thing about it. God, I wanted to see the looks on their faces.
“Look at all those fae. Should I have brought a horseshoe to hang over my door, or what?”
I looked over at the grinning girl who had just joined me in the shadow of the enormous pointed arch that towered over us. Horseshoe, she had said. Really? Making blatant anti-fae jokes when we were in the middle of their territory, was she reckless or just oblivious?
Reckless, probably. She was wearing her white uniform top instead of the dark one customary for the autumn season - the one I was wearing - and the sleeves were rolled all the way up to her shoulders in rebellious fashion. Her skirt was rumpled, and her golden hair flowed wild and free in a way that was probably against regulation. She looked every bit like a nuisance now that I was paying closer attention instead of ignoring her as I had for the last thirty seconds.
“What?” she demanded. “It’s just a joke. Relax, would you? Come on.”
All right, then. I hadn’t been expecting instant belligerence from this tall blonde who looked like she could bench press three of me while strutting down a Citadel catwalk, all toned legs and arms. I’d already figured she was a fellow scholarship transfer since no native student of Jupiter Gate Academy would ever voluntarily stand next to me, but I’d also assumed she would keep to herself. Hoped, even, because I didn’t need friends. Didn’t want any, either. The rumors that Jupiter Gate Academy might downsize the scholarship program after this year meant we were competitors, not allies, no matter how tempting the idea of joining forces with similarly downtrodden charity case wretches. God knew I wasn’t going to find friends anywhere else, not in this vicious jungle full of Otherkind who wanted me gone.
“Careful what you say,” I said finally. “Making fae jokes is only going to get you in trouble here.”
“Please. If any of them had the balls to actually start something with me, they wouldn’t be resorting to anonymous death threats like wusses.” She stuck her hand out at me, the other hanging on to the strap of the duffel bag slung over her shoulder. “I’m Addison Dorne. I’d be like, my friends call me Addy, but you should wait until you think you’re gonna like me. I tend to disappoint people.”
I had to smile. It genuinely seemed she was warning me, not making a joke, and her frankness was putting me off-balance. “I’m Blair Kaine.” I took her hand, warm with long, pretty fingers that dwarfed mine. She really did have it all. Talented enough to make it into Jupiter Gate’s first-ever scholarship program, beautiful enough to make heads turn, and piano fingers that could eat up octaves, too. My mother would trade me for that last bit alone. “Did you have any trouble getting here?” I asked.
She snorted as she gave my hand a strong, decisive shake. “You mean the random assortment of rotting fruit that got thrown at the car I rode in? No. I don’t care about people who don’t matter to me. What about you? Couldn’t have gotten much of a cushier welcome.”
“They blocked us on the bridge. Escorts had to get out and threaten bodily harm before they backed off.”
“Ouch. See, if that were me, I might have been suspended already.” She flexed her arm then, and I stared at the perfect, rippling bicep peeking out from under the rolled-up sleeve of her uniform top. Girls had biceps? Was I supposed to pack some before I came? “With this, see that?” she asked. “I know how to take care of problems. Not a lot you can’t get done with a good punch or two. Fae, vampires, whoever else, they can come and get some.”
“…That’s nice, but you can’t actually punch out a vampire. And jokes aside, iron and horseshoes won’t do anything to the fae, either. You should be more careful around these people, Addison.”
She rolled her eyes and lowered her arm. “I’m not going to go in there with my tail between my legs. You know, I wasn’t even going to let them escort me here at all. I was going to come alone. I should have.”
“If you’d tried, you’d be dead already.” I pointed at the imposing black gates on the other side of the grassy courtyard. She followed my finger and stared at the crowd still gathered there in the distance, fists shaking and mouths moving in silence.
“God bless silencing wards.” She snorted and rolled her eyes again before suddenly focusing on something over my shoulder. “Hey, shorty. Are you a merit transfer, too? What’s your name?”
I turned just in time to see a diminutive girl come to a stop by my side. Appearances could be deceiving, but I was relieved she looked less…volatile than Addison. Calm, hazel eyes, sensible brown hair, and probably topping out at five feet, she looked like the type to know how cautious one should be at the bottom of the food chain, which was exactly where all of us were now. Thank God. Dealing with one wild card was enough.
“Genie Watts,” she chirped. “It’s nice to meet you.”
I stared. So did Addison.
“Genie Watts?” Addison repeated slowly, and I pressed my lips together as I watched the scene unfold. “Genie Watts, as in the one who set fire to that protestor a few months ago…? You’re joking, right?”
The girl never cracked a smile, as serious and wide-eyed as ever. “He was asking for it,” she said in complete earnestness. “He shouldn’t have looked at me like that. But he did. So I had to.”
A brief silence followed, and we all stared at each other. Please, no, I thought. Please. I’d mapped out my entire plan for the next two years here. I was supposed to turn over a new leaf, supposed to wear my new meek and obedient persona that I’d been training myself to adopt all summer. I was supposed to prove I could melt into the background even if I couldn’t fit in, be a model student who made no trouble and drew no attention.
So what was this? Here with me was a buck wild girl and a certifiably insane one, and if I was right, we were the only three transfers accepted to Jupiter Gate this year. Me, I was the only sane one, the only normal one.
Please, I thought again. Please let this be a mistake.
A sudden heavy clanging at the top of the stone steps made us all look up, and there stood a red-eyed man in an aristocratic black robe over his dark blue faculty uniform. Behind him, the Academy’s front doors were wide open, beckoning us to climb up into its dark maw.
“This way,” said the man. “Welcome to Jupiter Gate Academy.”
2
“I’m the Deputy Headmaster of the male students at Jupiter Gate. You may address me as Professor Octavius, though you’ll be seeing far less of me and more of Deputy Headmistress Olisanna after today. Presently, she’s away on official business with the Headmaster, so I’ll be showing you to your dormitory wing as well as introducing you to the staff who will handle all your needs for the duration of your stay. Follow me.”
He was a vampire, that much was obvious, and from one of the older bloodlines too. His scarlet eyes made the hair on the back of my neck prickle in instinctive fear, and I had to remind myself I was going to have to get that under control before long. The natural human inclination toward survival, the inborn fear of vampires, meant nothing here. I couldn’t run away from my education, and Deputy Headmaster Octavius was far from the last vampire I would see within the grounds of Jupiter Gate Academy. If I so much as flinched, they would all use it as an excuse to call me unsuited and throw me out on my rear.
I couldn’t let that happen. I’d worked too hard to get here, stepped on too many toes to fail before I’d even attended my first class. I followed him through the main doors with swift steps, leaving Addison Dorne and Genie Watts to walk behind me. They could hesitate if they wished, walk right out of here and do exactly what those anti-human “heritage” protestors at the gate wanted them to do, but I wouldn’t. Vampires be damned.
“So, I was wondering,” said Addison. “How do you guys do your thing here? You know, when you need to blood up. Do you go out and just pick up some humans or something?”
Blood up - I almost choked. It took every ounce of self-control I never even knew I’d possessed to not whip around and stare at her, but she saved me the trouble of turning to look when she strolled up on my right with her supermodel stride and her hands laced behind her head. Blood up, she had said, asking a vampire directly about his feeding habits when that was the most inappropriate thing she could possibly bring up in the presence of one. I’d been wrong. She wasn’t reckless. She had a fundamental brain problem.
“Before I answer that,” Deputy Head Octavius replied as he glided forward with no sign the question had bothered him, “I give you my assurances you’ll never be in danger from your vampire peers. In addition to being the head of the male student body, I’m also responsible for the day-to-day care and maintenance of anyone who requires special sustenance.”
Special sustenance. Sure, there were a few other subspecies that fed on ‘special sustenance,’ but that was a mighty diplomatic way to put it. This ageless, beautiful, sharp-faced man had a silver tongue to go with the rest of his ethereal looks. Long dark hair tied back in a silver ribbon, tall and slender and graceful, but underneath it all - well. He was still a vampire, and vampires needed live blood. This wasn’t anywhere near the human-populated districts farther out where polite society enforced the law upon itself, either. This was old world territory, where the aristocracy and magic pacts that predated our society held as much power as ever. No one could prove it, and it wasn’t as if anyone was going to snoop around in the dark for evidence, but everyone knew about the blooding festivities, the secret society meetups celebrating their ancient heritage in decidedly messy ways… And the last time I checked Jupiter Gate’s student census, there were more old vampire clan names than I could count on both hands. That was an awful lot of tradition in one place.
…Maybe Professor Octavius was the sort who encouraged that kind of thing. I discreetly slowed down just half a pace more, avoiding the billowing hem of his cloak.
“Well, that’s neat,” Addison answered in the silence. “But I just want to know if someone’s going to come up to me and ask to suck my blood, sign a pact, all that. Any chance of it?”
“We have special staff employed who voluntarily offer those accommodations in private. The vampire portion of our student body goes to them, not fellow students. You’re quite safe.”
“Huh. Interesting.” She paused for a beat, then leaned sideways to murmur in my ear: “That kind of blows. I was told we could lose our V-card really easily. I wanted to try it at least once.”
What in - had she just said V-card -
“The other V-card,” she added, as if I needed any clarification. “You know, like…” She raised a hand and crooked her first two fingers in a fang-like pantomime. As if that weren’t enough, she made a crude hooking gesture that I had to assume was a poor imitation of a vampire latching onto a neck. “Don’t get me wrong, I’ll beat the hell out of anyone who tries cheeky shit with me, but I do want to try. Heard it can be even better than actual boinking -”
I was done listening. I didn’t know what ignorant part of the Citadel Addison Dorne was from that she had no idea Professor Octavius could hear every word she said, but I had to spare her this embarrassment before she could truly do herself in. All crass brass she might be, but there was something about her I liked enough to want to preserve what little dignity she had, and that meant I was going to have to save her from herself. My hand shot up to wrap around hers, and carefully, I curled her hooked fingers back into a fist while holding her gaze.
“Addison,” I said softly, even though unlike her, I knew exactly how futile it was to whisper at all. “I think this is a good time to let you know that a vampire’s hearing is a lot more sensitive than a human’s.”
“And also,” Genie interrupted in a loud voice from where she walked on my left. “Your whispering is a lot louder than normal, too. But that’s okay. I think it’s nice that you don’t hate vampires like everyone else in the Tenements. We should all get along.”
I blew out a long, quiet sigh as Addy stared at us both, then at Professor Octavius’s back as he strode on, pretending ignorance. She said nothing for a long moment.
“Oh, well,” she said. “I’m still going to go for it. It’s whatever.”
Whatever was right. I pinched the bridge of my nose, willing away the burgeoning headache threatening to blossom behind my eyes. I couldn’t wait to hide in my room and forget everything about this morning.
“And your dormitory wing is here, ladies. This way, please.”
The letter had said they would convert a separate wing for our use, but I hadn’t realized they meant the entire thing. “This is all ours?” Addison asked as she peered around, echoing the question I had decided was better kept to myself. Good. She could say aloud all the things I was too cautious to mention, ask all the questions I pretended to know the answers to already. “That’s crazy. Why do we have a whole common room just for us? This size, I mean. We’re three of us, but you could put my entire apartment block in here. What a waste.”
Honestly, was she all there? She should have stopped short before the criticism. Maybe I’d make time later to tactfully teach her the rules of engagement on unfriendly territory.
“This is all yours indeed. We made it spacious hoping to invite more of you next year, and more the year after that. Fortune willing, we’ll have a thriving merit transfer program very soon.” Professor Octavius moved from the heavy wooden doors, and they slowly closed shut behind us. Magically, I noticed. I wondered if that meant there was a locking charm as well, something to keep out anyone who didn’t belong in the wing. I hoped so. If he didn’t explain first, then I had no choice but to ask - “Your magical signatures are imprinted in the wards that protect this area,” he added. “You will present your magic
before the doors - I trust you know how to do this already - and you will be permitted passage. In the rare event that your magic is compromised or someone whose signature is unrecorded attempts to enter with you, you will not be able to.”
“So we can’t bring anyone over?”
His expression remained neutral, but I thought I saw a grim light flicker in his red eyes as he observed Addison. “This is for your safety, Miss Dorne. I hope we find such precautions unnecessary in the future, but if you would like to invite your peers to your dormitory, you will have to seek approval first. Either from the headmaster, the deputy headmistress, or me.”
“I guess we could just go over to their side instead,” she suggested with a thoughtful frown, and when she looked first at me, then at Genie, I realized she was being serious. The unspoken implications of why we had to be so careful and stay away from the resident students had gone completely over her head. “We don’t have to ask permission to go to other residential wings, right?” she pressed.
“That will be something you discuss with your deputy headmistress as soon as she returns. Until then, I’m afraid I can’t extend that permission.”
Addison sucked in a breath to object, but I discreetly elbowed her in the side while pretending to reach up and brush my hair behind my ear. “Professor?” I cut in. “Are our rooms down that hallway?”
Of course, they were. I just hadn’t been able to think of a more intelligent question to interrupt with and save Addy from herself. “Yes,” Octavius confirmed with a nod. “You’ll find a plaque on the doors with your names inscribed, later. Your luggage has been delivered.”
“We can’t go see them now?” Addy asked before I could elbow her again. “We’re already here, right?”
“It would be improper for me to escort you there. I’ll leave that to you, and if any concerns arise, Professor Olisanna or another female faculty member will help you. But I see you’ve brought additional luggage - you’re free to go and leave that in your room while we wait.”
