Once Upon A Devil: A Dark Academy Reverse Harem Bully Romance (Everafter Academy Book 3)

by Scarlett Snow

  —Be careful,—I warn my pack.—This seems like a trap. I don’t trust this man.—

  It’s the understatement of the century, to say the least.

  We follow the path through the woods at a leisurely pace. Gideon, ever eager to show his power and ability, is pointing out the trail, trying to impress the wolves he will someday lead. He is obviously an Alpha in the making. No Beta would be so pushy.

  We walk by twos, and Kara keeps pace with me. We are at the back of the pack, protecting our rear. That’s always the way with us: the strongest follow the pack to protect our fellows’ backs, and the next strongest leads the way. None of my pack are weak, but the weaker ones are in the middle, protected by our stronger members.

  Cassim would know that news of his episode with Ravyn would have reached me by now, so he’d know I would be thirsty for his blood. I can’t believe he would be so careless as to trample such a clear track even if he was in a hurry. Something is amiss here.

  Kara seems to be thinking the same thing.—Why does he want us to follow him?—she asks.—There’s no other reason for the state of this trail.—

  —He may be trying to set a trap for us,—I admit.—Or he was just in too much of a hurry to escape.—

  —I heard what he did to that girl. He makes no sense.—

  —What do you mean?—

  She looks at me, then shakes her head.—You know he wanted that girl and her twin when they were children.—

  I put my ears back.—I haven’t heard this story. Explain.—

  —The girls were two years old and Cassim Salvador told their parents to bring them to him at the Church of Shadows. They were supposed to surrender the girls to him, but they refused.—

  She stops to sniff the air. There is a putrescence on the wind, and it makes my hackles rise. As suddenly as the stink appeared, it vanishes.

  —Residue of black magic,—I explain to her, even though I know Kara is perfectly well aware of such things. She’s been hunting witches as a member of Rosso Lupa as long as I have.—Typical for the coven lands.—

  She shakes her fur.—I could never live here.—

  I want to hear more, so as we continue walking, I ask,—What happened to the parents? I know the twins were raised by their late grandmother, so…—

  I trail off, leaving the rest unspoken.

  Kara answers,—Salvador wasn’t the one to kill the father. My sire was. And your dam killed the female.—

  Ahh, so it was my mother that killed Ravyn’s mother. Of course. This hole just keeps getting deeper the more I try to dig myself out of it. How will Ravyn ever accept the true me now?

  —Were they intercepted on the way to the Church?—I ask Kara.

  —I believe so.—She looks around us.—In fact, this is probably the exact road where they died.—

  Gideon doubles back.—Trail goes cold,—he grouses.—Just stops completely. They probably translocated from that spot into Grimm City.—

  I nod.—The stench was probably the blow-back from their spell.—

  My nephew gives me a skeptical look. He knows that most translocation, even that fueled by dark magic, leaves no scent. The rest of the pack is less well educated on such things, however, and it suits me to keep them that way.

  —Go on to Grimm City and find him at Maleficis,—I order my wolves.—Report back with what you find. Gideon, come with me.—

  We watch as the rest of the pack continues on without us. My nephew scowls as well as a wolf as he does as a human. It’s a rare talent.

  —So that’s it? Just a nice walk in the evening air with nothing to show for it?—he asks.

  —We have business at the academy,—I remind him.—Unless you’ve forgotten that you have orders from Queen Gothel to graduate.—

  He turns to face me, and his ears are halfway turned back. I raise my head and stare him down until he masters his body language into something more respectful.

  —I haven’t forgotten, uncle,—he says.—I just wonder what keeps you at Everafter.—

  —I have my orders, too.—

  Gideon looks like he has more to say, but he wisely keeps it to himself. Silently, we turn and head for home.

  I use a cleaning spell when I wake up the next morning. I don’t have time to fetch water from the well and heat it by the fire. I’ve always appreciated how old-fashioned Broin is but sometimes it’s a real inconvenience. I’m more eager to get back to Everafter and see my friends.

  I grab my cloak and meet the others outside. Redera is securing the last of our bags to Mephisto’s saddle. The sunlight filtering through the trees bounces off the brooch holding her cloak in place. It’s the same heart-shaped one Grandma used to wear. She catches me looking at it and I smile.

  “Ready?”

  “Ready,” she answers, and with faultless ease, mounts her horse.

  I climb onto Mephisto, and Broin flies down from the trees onto my shoulder.

  Redera leads the way down the path we both know all too well. “Come on, Kali. Take us home to Hemlock Cottage.”

  “She’s a beautiful mare,” I say to my sister. “Is she a gift from Grandma?”

  “Lucifer. I’ve never bonded with a horse like Kali before. Isn’t she breathtaking?”

  “The yang to my yin, once again,” I say.

  —Another gift from our Dark Lord. It seems you two are special to him—Broin remarks with only a slight bitter edge behind the words.

  I think my Daddy might be jealous.

  There will be time to deal with that later, I hope. In the meantime, my stomach feels tight and heavy, like I’ve been eating rocks. I’m afraid to look at that cottage again.

  Redera senses my apprehension, so she chatters away happily like a jackdaw.

  “You know, I never thought I’d like princes and princesses from the Great Forest,” she says, stroking Kali’s neck as we ride. “I always thought they’d be too self-obsessed and vapid to be worth anything.”

  I chuckle. “They are.”

  “Well… maybe. But some of the boys are surprisingly attractive.” She glances at me slyly. “Like Gideon, for instance.”

  My first, unvarnished reaction is to get annoyed and defensive, but I squelch it. “How so?”

  “Well, he’s handsome, with that blond hair and blue eyes… not that I’d ever tell him that… “ She gives me that side-eye glance again. “Aurora certainly notices.”

  I glower, and I can feel color rising in my cheeks on the heels of irritable anger. “Well, she’s welcome to him.”

  Redera grins. “Come on, Little Red. You can’t kid a kidder. This is me you’re talking to. You like him. It’s okay to admit it. It’s just me and the horses to hear, and Mephisto and Kali will never tell.”

  Strangely, I’m not so sure about that. I grind my teeth briefly on the words before I admit, “Okay, I occasionally, once in a while, when he’s not being an asshole, can concede that Gideon Kingsley is not entirely hideous to look at.”

  She tips her head back and laughs. “Oh, come on! I saw how you looked at him in the cafeteria when Aurora was all over him. And I saw him looking back at you.”

  “What you saw was probably indigestion,” I defend weakly. “And you weren’t even there.”

  “Are you sure about that? And I used to use white magic. We do a lot of love spells. Am I right?” She grins at me again. “Tell me the truth.”

  I sigh. She’s my sister. We always told each other everything, but we never talked about sex. Redera was always so innocent, almost virginal, and as far as I know, she’s never been with a man. We never really spent much time around boys our own age, even at Church, and Broin was always very clearly and definitively with me. I can’t imagine that death has changed her that much.

  Then again, Lucifer was involved, and if there’s one thing I know, it’s that Lucifer loves to fuck. I might not like that, but maybe…

  “Did Lucifer take you as a lover?” I ask her.

  Redera looks startled that I’d say such
a thing. “What? He…he’s a god, Ravyn. He doesn’t take mere witches as lovers!”

  I try to suppress my smirk. “Okay. If you say so.”

  She’s already made comments about how I looked at the ball when Lucifer danced with me, so she has the good grace to mutter, “Well, okay. Present company excluded. But he certainly didn’t take me.”

  That makes me really happy to hear. “Hmm,” I say. “Your loss.”

  We turn onto the road into the forest that leads toward our cottage. A cold breeze runs across the back of my neck. October is over, November is here, and winter is coming quickly. Soon there will be snow and ice everywhere and we won’t be making long rides like this without a really good reason. She shivers, too, and pulls her cloak more tightly closed.

  “Do you remember how we used to have snowball fights in the garden?” she asks suddenly. She’s caught a single snowflake on her black glove and is staring at its geometric beauty. “These used to melt as soon as I touched them. But now that I’m Darkblooded, I’m not warm anymore. And now that you have white magic, you are. Do the snowflakes melt for you now?”

  I hold out my hand and watch the delicate little ice crystals fall into my palm, where they rapidly vanish into dots of water.

  “Yes.”

  She’s still staring at the snowflake on her glove. “I’m glad to be alive again, but there are some things that are going to take getting used to.”

  We ride on in silence for a few moments. Every step we take that brings me closer to the cottage is almost unbearable. I have an irrational hope that Lucifer brought the building back, and that when we get there, Grandma will be waiting for us with open arms. I know that’s not going to happen. As hard as this is going to be for me, it’s going to be twice as hard for Redera.

  I saw them after they died, but she’s the one who actually suffered there when the hunters came. I try to get a handle on my emotions and resolve to be supportive and strong for my sister if and when she needs me.

  “We talked with Broin over cake,” she says, breaking the silence, “but it was all generalities. Do you think we can really find these keys before Lilith does? She’s a goddess, of a sort, and we’re just regular witches.”

  She’s saying things that I’ve been thinking. “I don’t know. Esmeralda seemed to think we could do it. I’ll bet that whatever Lucifer’s plans are for us, these keys are involved. Maybe we should ask him for help.”

  Redera shakes her head. “I don’t think I’m really in a position to ask him for anything. I mean, he brought me back to life. How could I ask for more than that?”

  I know what she means, but I also know that us finding these keys is in Lucifer’s best interests, and that alone will make him willing to give us a push in the right direction. Right?

  “Maybe we should just ask him for a hint,” I suggest.

  “If he knew where those keys were, don’t you think he would have collected them himself?”

  “Well… Maybe he can’t. Maybe there’s something about Lilith’s magic on these items that hides them from him.”

  “If he can’t see them, I don’t know how we will.”

  I raise my chin. “Because we’re Hemlocks. We can do anything.”

  She looks at me with a raised eyebrow, then we both burst out laughing.

  There’s no laughing anymore when we finally reach the clearing where our cottage stood. There’s nothing left now but blackened wood and fallen beams. When we stop our horses and dismount, Redera is shaking, and I take her hand to reassure her. She squeezes back tightly and we walk together toward the wreckage that had once been our home.

  The stench of the fire is gone now. Redera walks into the ashes, moving some of the fallen debris aside. She’s trying not to cry, and I’m blinking back tears, too. It’s so hard to accept that this is our reality now. Neither of us look at the oak tree.

  “I wonder if the chickens lived,” she says, her voice husky.

  “I don’t know,” I admit. “I didn’t look for them. I probably should have.”

  She sniffs and rubs the heel of her hand across her eyes. “Maybe they ran into the forest. I hope they didn’t burn.”

  She sounds like the old Redera, the one who loved those chickens and every other living thing she ever encountered. I put my arm around her shoulders briefly, and we lean our heads together, both of us fighting back tears.

  Broin lands on the crumbled pile of bricks that had once been our chimney, and he watches us silently. Red continues to pick through the ruins and I’m not certain what she’s trying to find. I stand outside in the clearing, not able to bring myself to go through the yawning hole where the door used to be. Redera suddenly lets out an anguished yell and throws one of the beams aside, displaying more strength than she’d ever had before. The burned wood cracks and shatters when it lands, and she balls her hands into fists at her sides and screams.

  I rush to her and take her in my arms. She’s vibrating with rage, too stiff to hug me back, and tears flow down her cheeks. I brush them away, but more appear to take their place. She sobs, and I hold her with my face buried in her neck, and it takes everything in my power not to break down with her.

  I don’t know how long we stand that way, but it seems like forever. When she finally pulls back, she looks so heartbroken that it kills me. She looks around the wreckage, and the sorrow on her face gives way to a rage I feel so deeply in my heart.

  “I will find the wolves who did this,” she grinds out. “I will find them, and I will destroy them. I will dance in their entrails. As Lucifer is my witness, I will have my revenge!”

  I have never heard my sister say things like this before. She was never one for revenge or wishing pain on anyone else. She means this threat with every fiber of her being, and it’s almost frightening to witness the depth of her anger.

  Redera turns to me and grabs my hands so tightly that it hurts. “Swear to me,” she says, her eyes boring into mine. “Swear to me that we will find these wolves and kill them.”

  “I swear,” I answer readily. “I’ve already sworn that I’ll find them and I’ll make them pay.”

  “We will find them together.” Her voice is hard. “And they will suffer for what they’ve done.”

  We clasp hands to seal the agreement, and as suddenly as her rage came, it vanishes back into sadness again. She hugs me, and I hug her back, and we stand that way for a long time. Redera is the first to pull away. She turns and looks around, her hands on her hips.

  I leave the wreckage of the cottage, returning to the clearing. I glance over at the tree where they were hanged, and I stop short in surprise. Although it’s winter, and despite the fact that nothing of the kind existed there before, I see a pink primrose blossom growing from the side of the tree, its roots sunk into the bark. The flash of color is shocking after the gray of the ashes of our home.

  “Red,” I say softly. “Look.”

  She turns reluctantly toward the place where she died. When she sees the flower, her lips part in silent surprise. I walk over to the tree and she follows me slowly. The primrose isn’t even native to this section of the forest. I have no idea how it came to be here, but I take it as an omen.

  “This flower shouldn’t be here,” I tell her. “And neither should we. We should both be dead, except for Lucifer’s intervention. I don’t know… I think this is a sign, maybe even from him.”

  “A sign?” she echoes. Her voice is thick, and she’s trying not to cry again.

  “A sign that we’re going to rise above all of this and come out victorious on the other side. A sign that no matter what has happened, we’re going to be able to rebuild and start new lives.”

  I reach out to touch the flower’s pink petals, and it shivers in response. This is no ordinary flower, and I’m certain now that this is our Dark Lord at work.

  Redera comes over to stand beside me, and she loops her arm around my waist. “We’re survivors,” she tells me. “And we will get vengeance on Rosso Lupa and s
tart over.”

  “We will,” I say with a nod. “And we’ll find those keys, and we’ll stop Lilith, and we’ll figure out what prophecy Lucifer is talking about, and we’ll have the last laugh when all of this is over.”

  She turns toward me, and we embrace again. We both cry, even though we’re not supposed to, and we mourn the things we’ve lost and the people we once were. Everything is different now, but I know that we will rise above these ashes like phoenixes.

  —It’s getting late,—Broin whispers reluctantly.—We should get back on the road so we can reach Everafter before dark.—

  Redera nods, stepping back and wiping her eyes with the back of her gloves. “You’re right.” She casts a glamor, and once again Aaliyah stands before me. “Let’s get moving.”

  She smiles a little sadly, and then we leave the cottage and our childhoods behind.

  We reach Everafter just before curfew. It’s already dark and the lights in the windows are a welcome sight. We hand the horses to the grooms before rushing in to escape the cold. It’s not snowing yet in Fantasia but the coldness lingers in the air, promising a harsh winter to come. I reckon the land will be covered in snow in a few weeks’ time.

  Up in the common room, the area is filled with students. It’s Friday night, so nobody is doing homework. It’s all socializing and blowing off steam. Some people are even using those awful computer-machine-thingies in the corner. Sitting by the blazing fire, Erik is with Rapunzel, who’s smiling at him with that annoying simper she’s perfected. On another couch, Gideon is sitting with Aurora, who’s curled up under his arm, cozy as a bedbug. She has her hand on his thigh. When we come in, he looks up at me in surprise, and I see a flash of what might be guilt in his eyes.

  Apparently, my little piggy knows he’s doing something wrong.

  Too bad I don’t have time to teach him a lesson.

  Being back at school after everything that happened at the Church of Shadows is a surreal experience. I was just nearly beaten to death, but now I’m back to thinking about assignments and papers and research projects. Classwork seems so unimportant, but at the same time, it’s vital. School is weird. It messes with my priorities.