The Mage’s War (Crescent Moon Academy Book 1)

by CY Jones

  “Maybe my parents changed their minds about the institution. Who knows what goes on in the mind of grownups?”

  “Possibly… or maybe they had a valid reason to send you here,” he prods.

  “Well, if there was one, they did not share it with me or my brother. I actually advocated to go somewhere else, like the London University.”

  “Ah, Westchester is a very good university. A little blood thirsty for my taste, but I’m sure they say the same about here.”

  “Possibly, I wouldn’t know,” I reply dryly.

  This conversation is starting to turn into a dead end. If he’s fishing for answers, he won’t get them out of me. Like I stated before, I didn’t want to come here. I did find it odd Leslie chose this place when all her children graduated from the university in California. Harley, our older sister is due to graduate this year at the top of her class. I for sure thought Leslie would have sent us there just to rub it in my face that her favorite child is doing so well and I could only dream about even coming in close. Leslie and Harley are two vicious heads of the same coin. Harley dotes on Quinn, but me she treats like pond scum. I lost count how many times I fought the urge to make a special doll just for her. A pincushion outlet to let my anger out on. Harley is a horrible person and an even worse sister.

  “Maybe not now, but the answer may come in time. I hope until then, you’ll take advantage of the opportunity you were given and find those long sought out answers you’ve been looking for.” Is it in the Headmaster 101 book to talk mysteriously? Harry never knew what Dumbledore wanted until it was too late.

  “What makes you think I’m looking for anything? I’m just here to train.”

  “I knew you wanted more when I saw your face as you made your decision of which side of the campus you wanted to study on. I admire those who want to learn and expand themselves. I want to assure you that you made the right choice. Staying with your brother would have only hindered you. Now, you have given yourself the opportunity to learn, to expand, and find out what you can truly do.”

  “When we met, you said you sensed something in me?” I prod. He’s powerful and smart. If he can sense my power, maybe he has ran across someone like me before.

  “I still do. I also sense something dark as well. Ancient and violent. I’ve always been sensitive to magic. Just by looking at one aura, I can tell what kind of mage you are, but you, my dear, are a mystery. When I look at you, you’re clouded in shadows. I don’t know if I’m excited by the possibilities of what you can be or fearful of what you’d become.”

  “What are you?” I ask, really curious now. I never knew anyone who could read auras, and unlike him, I do not have the ability to guess what sort of mage others are.

  “Didn’t your parents tell you it’s in poor taste to ask a mage what they are?” he chuckles.

  “They did, but I can’t help it; I’m curious.”

  “You know what they say about curiosity,” he replies, avoiding my question. I could prod, but I’m sure he’s not telling me for a reason. It goes well with his mysterious persona. I open my mouth to say something else when there’s a knock on the door and I hear it open and close before my brother steps into the room.

  “Quinn,” I smile. “What are you doing here?” My eyes examine him from head to toe, looking for any signs of distress, but as usual, he looks fresh as a daisy. His long bi color hair is pulled up in a high ponytail that brushes his ass. As he walks, the tiny bells braided in his hair jingle with a hypnotic tune I’ve learned to tune out having grown up with him. Briefly, I wonder how the light mages are faring against them. I was told we are the only two harlequins here. His normally pale skin is vibrant, his cheeks rosy like he ran the whole way here. Quinn is slim with lean tone muscles of a swimmer's build. The bright white v-neck tee he’s wearing is tight, and it emphasizes each and every hard earned muscle. His jacket fits to perfection, perfectly tailored to his lean frame as it trails down mid boot. On the back is a print of his chosen card, the Joker. Every harlequin has a chosen card which comes to them when you’re able to summon your jester staff. Well, not every harlequin. I don’t have one. If I did, I’d choose the queen of hearts so I could break all those who tarnished mine.

  His snug black jeans hug his muscled legs, his combat boots are the way he likes them. Halfway done up, tied with a huge bow with two miniature jingle bells hanging at the ends. I don’t see his staff, but it’s not like he has to keep it on his person when he can summon it at will.

  “Hello, sister. How is your first day going so far?” His voice is seductive; smooth like velvet. As I was searching him for injuries, he was doing the same to me, looking for anything that says I’m unhappy. Does he see the stress lines in my forehead or how tightly wound I’m holding my body? Even now, safely indoors, I’m braced for a fight. If it’s sunshine and roses where he’s at, then it’s thunderclouds and venus fly traps on the dark side.

  “As well as can be expected,” I answer. It’s not a lie, but it’s not fully the truth either.

  “Are you starting to regret your choice?” he asks with a saccharine smile, cocking his pretty face to the side. Am I? No, this isn’t regret. It’s more like preparing myself for the inevitable.

  “No, brother, I am not.” He frowns at my answer, but he quickly cools his face and replaces it with his joyful mask he wears, hiding his true feelings. All harlequins are masters of their emotions. You never know what they are thinking.

  “What brings you by?” I ask, curious. He did not answer when he came in.

  “I invited him here,” Headmaster answers as Quinn takes a seat beside me. He sits so close, I can feel the warmth of his body and I inhale his familiar scent of sugar and berries. We both need this closeness, having gone without. It’s instant when we relax against one another.

  Smiling a truly wicked smile, he replies, “I was kicking some guy’s butt when I got summoned here.”

  “Really, Quinn? Fighting already,” I laugh. “Why am I not surprised?”

  “We’re supposed to. It was some sort of defense class that pits mages against one another. Some twat and his crew wanted to test me, so they got exactly what they deserved.”

  “Knowing you, there’s probably more to the story than that,” I prod, raising a brow.

  “His girl may have showed up at my room last night and didn’t leave ‘til this morning,” he admits.

  “Quinn.” I slap his shoulder. “Really?” Did I mention my brother is a big fat manwhore? When my heart was being pulverized, he left behind a record breaking trail of broken hearts.

  “What? I was bored and she was hot.” He shrugs like sleeping with someone’s girlfriend is no big deal.

  “You’re impossible,” I huff.

  “And you still love me.” He smirks, kissing my cheek. His lips linger until I give in and he wraps his arm around me.

  Clearing his throat, interrupting our moment, Headmaster replies, “I’m going to pretend I didn’t hear you had a female student in your room all night and focus on why I called you both here.”

  “Yeah, why did you call us here?” Quinn questions.

  “You seemed upset yesterday about being separated.” Upset is an understatement. Quinn was furious. “So, I wanted to assure you that even though you practice two separate magical properties, you won’t be torn apart. I’m treading on new territory here as something like this has never happened before, especially with twins. So, you have to bear with me.”

  “Are you saying that Quinn and I will be able to practice together?” I bite my lip nervous of his answer. It’s not that I don’t want to be around my brother, I do, it’s just... I’ve been keeping my abilities a secret for so long, he’d notice if I improved more than I should. For years, I made sure to keep the promise I made to our father when I was eight. It’s a mantra that has been beating in my skull over and over. Don’t show off, underplay your abilities, and never, ever reveal your extra abilities to anyone. That includes Quinn. For eleven years, I have
been deceiving him and it’ll break my heart if he ever found out and I hurt him. We share everything, no matter what the circumstances. He will not understand my loyalty to our father.

  “Not exactly… As I stated before, you are free to associate with each other in any area on the neutral side of the campus, but I also freed your third period so that you two can train, hang out, do whatever it is siblings do. It’s your free hour to do as you wish.”

  “That was nice of you,” Quinn comments. I don’t think anyone misses the suspicious tone in his voice.

  “My pleasure,” Headmaster replies, standing. If he’s bothered by Quinn’s skepticism, he doesn’t show it. “Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have another appointment to keep. It’s third period now. You two should enjoy your hour.”

  I stand with Quinn and he takes my hand, leading me out of the headmaster’s office. Neither of us speak until we reach the treeline. “Want to see my room?” Quinn asks.

  “You heard the headmaster. We’re only allowed to hang out on neutral ground. The last time I checked, your dorm room isn’t in neutral territory.”

  “Angelica, you wound me,” he says, dramatically holding his hands over his heart. “One day here and you’ve already forgotten the family motto. Rules are meant to be broken with flourish and pazazz.”

  Chapter 4

  Angelica

  Elated he’s doing something he’s not supposed to do, Quinn expertly leads me across the goodie-two-shoes campus and sneaks me into his dorm room. His room is also on the top floor. The layout is similar to mine, except he doesn’t have the slant of the triangle roof since his room isn’t cornered like mine, but he does have the gorgeous dark wood beams running across the length of the room. An artful arrangement of playing cards dangle from them tied to a thin string. That’s not Quinn decorating his room with his personal flair, they’re spelled with an awful curse. When we stepped into his room, I felt his power wash over me like a soft breeze. If I wasn’t invited, something bad would have happened. It reminds me that I need to do the same to my room, but I won’t be using a deck of cards.

  Despite picking up girls he shouldn’t at the store, he did at least manage to get new sheets yesterday because they fit well on his hastily made bed. One quirk about Quinn is that he has to make his bed every morning, no matter how late he’s running. Like mine, it’s shoved longways against the red brick wall. Remembering that he fucked someone in here, I avoid the bed in favor of the dresser. Out of habit because I have weird quirks of my own, I run my finger across the smooth wood surface. We’re both still waiting on our trunks to arrive, so it’s free of knick knacks and whatever else Quinn would place on top. He does have a single playing card laying prominent right in the middle, smiling sinisterly. The Joker, his card.

  Coming up behind me, he cages in my small body against his big one and I close my eyes, leaning into his warmth and hardness, inhaling his familiar scent. To anyone else looking in, our positions would seem intimate. It’s not an unheard of concept with those in the mage community hell bent on keeping their bloodlines pure to mate with their siblings, but with us, it’s just simple closeness. Confirming with one another we’ll always have each other’s back. It’s crazy, we know, but we make up for not being real twins by being as close as we can that’s suitable for us. Quinn holding me like this is normal, my normal. Resting his chin on my shoulder, he watches what I’m doing with a content sigh. It’s easy for our kind to fall into our own insanity, especially in a place like this that fuels it. We’re the holder of each other’s leash. The one who keeps the other from drifting too far.

  “What will happen if I pick this up?” I ask in a soft voice.

  “To you? Nothing. Someone else… well, they’ll get what they deserve for being stupid enough to pick up a harlequin’s card.” I smile at that, and even though my fingers itch to pick up the card and see what happens for myself, I leave it alone. “Come lay with me. I didn’t get much sleep last night,” he says, tugging on my arm.

  “Um, I’ll pass,” I reply, scrunching up my nose. I know exactly why he didn’t sleep well. “I rather not get cooties.”

  “Too late,” he warns before licking the side of my face.

  “Eww, you bastard,” I shout, turning to slap him and he grabs me in a huge bear hug and launches us onto the bed. We bounce once before settling on the firm mattress. I try to pull away, but he holds me to him tightly, even going as far to wrap his long legs around me so I can’t escape. “Get off me, you stupid spider monkey.”

  “Chill out, angel pie. The sheets are clean. I changed them this morning before class,” he says to pacify me.

  “You bought two sets of sheets?” I ask, incredulously. “Isn’t that a bit wasteful when Leslie could send you spare sheets from home?”

  “Seven,” he corrects.

  “Seven,” I repeat confused.

  “Well,” he says, scratching the back of his head. “There are seven days in the week, aren’t there?”

  “That’s just nasty. You are such a whore. One day, you’re going to catch something magic can’t get rid of,” I tell him, only halfway joking.

  “Don’t jinx me, angel pie.” Pulling me closer, I turn into him, snuggling into his chest. With my free hand, I twirl a lock of his hair around my fingers. I do this all the time at home. It’s soothing. The familiarity calms my nerves and lulls me until my eyelids begin to droop and soon, we’re both fast asleep.

  Ryker

  “Are you sure those two are twins? Siblings even?” I ask my brother, flabbergasted. Per Zion’s instructions, we’ve been keeping an eye out on the newcomers. We couldn’t track them once they were in Headmaster’s office, but using a magical spyglass, we can see them clearly now. Her brother put up some top notch wards, but with help from my twin, we were able to break through them.

  “They are close, but so are we. Besides, you know a sibling relationship is different with twins,” he shrugs nonchalantly.

  “So you’re saying if I were a chick, you’d be rubbing your dick all over me like that dude,” I point out incredulously. There’s no way in Tartarus he would.

  “He’s not rubbing his dick all over her. They’re close, I’ll give you that, but nothing nefarious like you’re thinking. You’re just jealous ‘cause you’re attracted to her.” I don’t deny his assumption of me being attracted, but he’s wrong about me being jealous. If I want her, I can have her and I tell him so.

  “She’s hot and female. If I want her, I’ll have her.” Carefully, I watch my brother’s face. He’s really good at hiding his emotions, but as his identical twin, I’m privy to all his tells because they are the same as my own. The clenching of his jaw lets me know the little minx has gotten under his skin too. I’m sure he also wants to be in her brother’s place right now. The things I’d do to her if I had her in my bed. My cock twitches just thinking about it.

  It’s not like we’re hurting for women. The females here practically throw themselves in our laps. They get off on fucking a decendant from one of the founding familes, and unless their face is scarier than their powers, who are we to turn down pussy? I’m sure it will be the same with her. Our magical reputation and good looks will have her opening her legs wide. The others too, if things keep going the way it is. Zion has had a hard on for the little minx since she arrived yesterday, being more overbearing and bossier than usual. Kirito won’t shut up about her since he met her this morning, and just look at my brother and me. Spying on her, even if we were ordered to do so. We could have just told Zion to fuck off like we normally do when we don’t feel like participating in his plans.

  “I wonder what Milo will think about her when he comes back from his mission,” I muse.

  “Dude, he’s been gone for two days now. Should we be worried?” Oli asks.

  “Nah, you know how he loves to toy with his victims. I’m sure he’s good. Zion would say something if he weren’t.”

  “Do you think Zion will really kill her?” he asks, brushing away
the blonde hair from his eyes so he can see better. He needs a haircut. His hair is a tad bit longer than mine in the front and that just won’t do. To uphold the chaos, we like to stay the same.

  “Who knows with that dude. You know how he is. You were able to talk him out of it yesterday. If he does change his mind, it’ll be a split second decision. I just hope I get to fuck her before then. You will be participating too, won’t you, brother?” His nose flairs and his turquoise eyes blaze with need. I don’t need him to answer. I can read it on his face, but he nods anyway before turning back to the siblings fast asleep on the bed.

  Angelica

  “Fucking hell,” I shout, kicking my brother.

  “What the fuck?” he cries out, eyes alert, ready to fuck someone up.

  “We overslept. The day is over,” I explain, pointing at the window. The sun had set and the sky was starting to darken.

  “Is that all? I thought we were about to be murdered.”

  “Quinn, we missed a whole day of school,” I yell, throwing my hands up. Why isn’t he more concerned about this?

  “Soo? It’s not the end of the world, Angelica. We’ll just make up something to our teachers and all will be right in the world. Didn’t anyone ever tell you it’s healthy to ditch?”

  “Not on the first day it isn’t. What if the headmaster finds out? He went out his way to get us that free period and look how we repaid him.”

  “You’re getting excited over nothing. When you see the old man, just apologize. It’s not like we meant to oversleep.” Yeah, he’s right, but I still feel like shit. Not to mention I’m not even supposed to be here. What if the headmaster sent someone looking for me? No, if he did then someone would have surely checked here first. Maybe Quinn is right and I am overreacting.