by S. L. Morgan
“You’ve touched the darkness, boy,” she barked. “It’s touched you. You should be spelled to a dark death, but that can’t happen, can it? The witches have lost all of that power, haven’t they?”
“Yes,” Dom said dryly.
“Why did you allow the darkness near you?” Why!” she screamed so loud that if the room had windows, she probably would have blown them out.
“Because I want to take it out, Professor Marguerite,” Dom snarled.
“So, by offering your pure, strong shifter nature up to face it, you think you have the answers to destroy all of the darklings at this school?”
“I figured I’d take the fight to it instead of chanting at the ceiling as if I were a witch myself, Professor.”
“You think I’m a darkling, Master Shifter?”
“I don’t know what you are, but you don’t act like the vampire you should be.”
“That’s because the underworld has transformed your eyes.” She pointed her finger out toward all of us, “The underworld wants you to think I’m insane. It wants you to believe that vampires can’t use words to expel darkness. What do you know about vampires anyway?” she growled.
“My mother is one, and my sister is one,” Dominic said curtly.
“House Braeclaw’s boy!” she sucked in a breath violently. “You are Mark Rossi’s boy.”
“That’s the rumor.” Dom’s eyes narrowed down at her.
“Your darkness should have been seen by this school, and you and your sister should have been expelled and sent to the prisons.”
“On what grounds?”
“Abnormalities!” she screeched. “You and your twin are the ones the underworld created, and no one ever wants to accept that. You are darker than most.” She practically rained down spit on the front row.
“Because we’re different?” Dom said with disgust. “We’re spawns of Satan?”
“You know his name!” she cackled, sighed, and collapsed onto the ground. She rolled around on the stage and started chanting and crying out, leading me and almost everyone else in the room to hold in their laughs of disbelief. “He knows his true master’s name. He’s here! The son of Satan is here at Immortal Academy.”
“Someone needs to drag her off the stage before she seriously hurts herself,” Dom said, looking down at me in disbelief.
“You worry about me hurting myself?” She jumped to her feet and crouched like she was going to leap into the crowd and try to tackle Dominic. “Spawns only worry if they want to possess others, to change us pure-minded supernaturals.”
“No one wants to change whatever mind you’re working with, lady,” Dominic said. “Get up. You’re making an absolute fool out of yourself.” He stepped into his Master Dominic role, not nearly as amused as the rest of us were.
“Because you are the son of Mark Rossi, I’ll trust you…for now.” She stood and took a cloth from her bra and batted the sweat off her face. “Sit down, I’m watching you.”
“And I’m watching you,” Dominic returned the threat.
“Satan sends his darkest to watch me all of the time,” she sniffed and snarled, “that’s why I’m prepared. If something were coming for me and my powers while I slept, I would know it. That’s why you witches are darklings. You all knew this was happening, yet you offered your powers to Satan. You laugh and mock me when I reveal the truths of his very own son amongst you in this room.” She looked back to where Dominic had sunk into his chair. “You laugh, and you mock, but you will lose, darklings.”
“Well, at least she set the tone for the bullshit heading our way,” I whispered.
“That woman is seriously beyond repair. Her brain is worse off than Harrison made Edgewater’s before he left,” Dom said.
I leaned into Dominic while the vamp professor went into her usual tirade, cursing all of us and our wicked ways. “What makes you think this chick isn’t Harrison’s parting gift to you and me,” I teased.
“I, one-hundred-percent, would not be surprised if Harrison planted her here for his own amusement. There’s no way someone this batshit crazy would still have a job here if it weren’t for him making that happen,” Dom said, relaxing more into his chair.
Now, it was time to count down the minutes until we got the hell out of this class and headed to House Fae. Hopefully, Professor Constance would end her class early, and we could figure out what the heck she knew about mine and Dom’s history.
Chapter Thirty-Five
After a long day of getting through classes, and a special announcement from Dean Edgewater and IA’s president on how we would find the ones who breached IA’s invisible barrier and stole magic from the witches, Dom and I left our concerned friends to go speak with Professor Constance.
We walked hand-in-hand, almost asking to get into trouble for not studying in the library and instead were out wandering the campus alone, but there was nothing. There was only the pitch-black sky and shimmering stars above our heads and a mysterious mist that was seeping from around the trunks of the trees in the forest surrounding IA.
“Is that what I think it is?” I asked Dom.
“That fog?” he questioned.
“Yeah, it seems like it’s the evil crap that’s studying the school.”
“Waiting for its next move,” Dom said darkly. “I don’t know what it is. I’m not picking up on anything abnormal, but that’s precisely the problem with all of this. You can’t tell. It pulls itself together and cloaks how evil it is. E and I missed out on so many different possible attacks on it out in the water, where it seems to gain all of its energy, and it moves around from place to place because it seems to shield itself. Neither my wolf nor his owl could stay on its trail. It was like it was out there just screwing with us.”
“Then what makes you think a war is coming with it soon?”
“You sense it, Jen.” He glanced at me, “I can sense it too. Besides, I’ve never been out on any quest and had some freaky thing pop out of the water, projecting itself to be you.”
I stopped our walk abruptly. “What did you just say?”
“It disguised itself as you in your natural form. It was calling to me, and the only reason I detected it wasn’t you was that it tried seducing me instead of working on releasing me from being stuck in my wolf form.”
“It tried to seduce you?”
“Yes,” Dom cringed. “It was luring my wolf toward it to take my alpha strength. That’s what Ethan picked up on anyway.”
“Good God,” I said. “This thing that’s my mom is—”
“Don’t ever refer to it as your mom,” Dom said. “Whatever was left of your mother before that evil got to her, it’s long gone. There is nothing normal about that creature. I couldn’t sense that it would have even once cared for her husband, much less her own child. It’s pure and absolute evil. It’s a conduit and—” he stopped and hugged me. “Let’s leave it at that. I’m so sorry this is all related to you. I’m sorry this creature is the only thing you’ll ever be able to relate to as your mother.”
“It wouldn’t be so bad if I didn’t feel like I really wanted to know more about her or what happened. I’ve always longed to learn more about who I was and who my parents were. I knew I was different but never knew why. I knew I had a family, but I never understood why they’d ditch me and leave me in the care of the school system.”
“Babe,” Dom sighed, “I know this feels like you’ve been dealt a shitty hand of life. I can’t pretend to know what that must feel like. Who knows, maybe Professor Constance will shed some light on why I quickly came to hate my dad over the summer. He seems more like the villain of this story than anything else.”
“You only despise him because he didn’t want us to be together,” I answered.
“Yes,” he replied. “Honestly, though, he wasn’t himself while we were there. It feels like my entire life with him has been a lie. My own dad allowed this school to drug me up with some serum because I argued with him and demanded that I go bac
k to the school with you.”
“Well, maybe your dad was punishing you in some crazy alpha, supernatural way?”
“Jenna,” Dom cocked his head to the side, “he wasn’t sending me back to IA. He was having me sent far away from you. That’s why I was locked down and in the other car. Those Guardians just intercepted us before the car taking me away could get to my dad’s private jet.”
“Why didn’t you ever tell me this?”
“I think you and I have had a constant storm going on since all of that happened. It’s always one thing after another.”
I looked over at House Fae. “Do you trust her?”
“Do you trust her?” Dom asked the same question, but with a mysterious tone. “What are you picking up on?”
“I’ve been trying to ignore the fairy side of my genetics since almost getting possessed this morning. Maybe I should do a little read into all of this.”
“Do you have any control over those genes?”
“I can try. If I feel it’s all wrong, then we have to get out of there.”
“She’s a sprite,” Dom said. “She can hit us with some crazy elements.”
“What,” I answered, “make it rain?”
Dom smirked. “Try and keep it dialed down in there, but definitely let me know if you get bad vibes. Someone wants to meet with you and me—alone—I’m not very trusting of that at all. That’s all the evil wants. You and me.”
“You two,” I heard the voice of Professor Constance call out. “Get in here before you’re noticed,” she demanded from a doorway that led underneath House Fae. “We don’t have much time.”
“Well, that’s the truth,” Dom said to me. “Let’s go do the dumbest thing both of us can do.”
“Trust a fairy,” I said, gripping his bicep that I was holding onto.
“Follow my lead if I shift. If I shift to the wolf, I want you on my heels when we get out of here. We’ll take off and get away from the boundaries of the school. Ethan will find us out there, and we’ll fill him in.”
“You’ve already planned our escape?”
“Knowing that we’re the two the most highly sought out individuals on this campus, I’ve been going through a multitude of escape plans for us even before you came for me and reversed that enchantment.”
“Well,” I said, staring down into a well-lit and very fairy-like, brightly-colored room. “time to turn on the wolf eyes. This place is a migraine waiting to happen.”
We walked into a bright white, blue, and purple room filled with crystals and everything sparkly. I glanced at the shiny yellow sofas and begged my wolf to tone down these colors. It was so brilliant and colorful that I could probably barf rainbows.
“Come in here,” Professor Constance laughed, “my office isn’t as offensive to shifters’ eyes.”
We walked into a room that was elegant yet mild in color tones and glimmer effects. “Have a seat.”
Dom and I both sat on stiff, elegant sofas, while Professor Constance sat in a white rocking chair across from us.
“Get to the point, and get to it fast,” Dominic ordered her.
She looked at me. “First and foremost, you’ve tapped into the fae side of your genetics. This was good, but also bad.”
“The good being that I could change you—”
“That’s the bad,” she informed me. “I felt that two fairies’ genes were tampered with at this school. When I felt it happening again, I rushed to the location of it. It wasn’t from the same darkness that is at IA, though—the one that stole the magic of the witches—but it came from a shifter. A shifter I never believed would be here at Immortal Academy, even when the Guardian Commander insisted that I become the new professor of House Fae.”
“Wait,” I said. “Harrison is the reason you’re here?”
“Yes.” She studied me, “You’ve met him?”
“We know a little about him.”
“Both of you need to stop being so guarded with me, or I can’t help you. Harrison mentioned something along the lines of his men coming for this school and that there was hope if a few of its students figured their ways out and got a head start on destroying the evil here. He must have known I would eventually find you, Jenna.”
“How would he know anything about you having knowledge about my history?”
“I don’t ask questions of the Elite Council. I just follow my orders. I was visited and enlisted as the new professor at this school. I knew that Mark Rossi’s son was here, and I had an idea that it was his son that Harrison spoke of for hope, but I had no idea that the oracle who saved your life would have allowed you both to attend this school together.”
“Start from the beginning. Who were my parents, and how the hell do you know who they are?”
She pressed her lips together and seemed to be seeing something other than Dominic and me now. “My cousin married into House Silvers, rest her soul,” she sighed. “House Silvers was a brilliant force and a hope for the supernatural race.” She smiled at me, “It was intriguing to know my cousin found love with one of the shifters from that house. She was the daughter of a leprechaun and vampire. My uncle, the leprechaun, and his wife were both destroyed in the raid to kill any supernatural who might pose a threat to the authorities over the true houses. They saw House Silvers as a perilous threat to our world. So many different supernaturals who were intermarried and their children with phenomenal powers came from this. After Mark Rossi ordered the raid and destruction of any immortal with more power than a pure-bred shifter, vampire, witch, or fairy—” She cut herself off and shook her head slowly. “It was like he was driven by the worst lies and deception. I hadn’t realized Mark could be so paranoid. House Silvers had done nothing but create a remarkable species of supernaturals with incredible talents. Talents to help better all of us, but he didn’t see it that way.”
“My father is the reason Jenna’s house is gone? Wiped out of existence—a whole race of innocent people—because he was scared that they were stronger than him?”
“My cousin and I were as close as sisters,” Constance said nostalgically as she smiled. “She wrote to me after Darius Edgewater and Mark first visited each and every member of House Silvers. She said that Darius was at Mark Rossi’s side, almost whispering ideas into his mind as they stood in front of her, her husband, and their three innocent children. More than anything else, I am here to end that man after what he started and caused. He is very evil. He went to a very dark coven, one that is fueled by the demonic force at this school, and he sought out powers. Being the leprechaun that he was, he was envious that there were more powerful supernaturals out there than him. He is the reason everyone feared House Silvers instead of appreciated them. He is the reason Mark Rossi sent an order to all heads of families for the destruction of each and every person belonging to that house.”
“This is unbelievable,” I said. “I saw a vision of Mark going off on my dad.”
“A vision?” she asked me with surprise. “How long ago did this talent reveal itself to you?”
“Until we can fully trust all the information that you’re giving us, you better start talking about things we want to know about,” Dom said. “Like why did that oracle erase our memories and remove me from Jenna?”
“Your dad wanted you nowhere near her after he saw that you two toddlers were so protective of each other and drawn to one another, sending off an aura that you two were intended to be mates in the future.”
“He wanted nothing to do with the evil House Silvers,” Dom said dryly. “How did they manage to kill them? Immortals don’t die so easily.”
“Immortals can die and will die,” she answered. “You’d be surprised at how easy it is to kill one of our own. They mislead all of you in these schools. Witches and fairies both can use their magic to create a serum designed to end the life of an immortal, but that isn’t how House Silvers died.”
“Then, how?” I asked.
“I was too late after I read the letter from m
y cousin. My husband, before he died during the raid, however, was there. I saw the shifters attack all that was left,” she said with a shiver. “It was a violent, brutal death they all suffered. Then the witches of the dark coven—one that I still to this day don’t have the name of—they were there. They spelled a hellish fire, flames so hot it felt like it could sear your skin from a mile away. They worked together to…” she stopped and looked at the ground, her eyes brimming with tears. “The screams were terrible. The cries for help of those who were cast into the flames, it was too much. I went to leave, feeling my own powers calling me out of the area for my own protection, and that’s when the owl shifters arrived.”
“My uncle and aunt?” Dominic questioned through gritted teeth. “My father is responsible for their death?”
“Your father was ordered away from the scene just before I turned to leave. He saw his work done by exposing every House Silvers supernatural and bringing them out to be destroyed. He never saw who destroyed your uncle and aunt. I don’t think he even knew they flew in to help stop this.”
Dominic rubbed his forehead. “Edgewater was working with that coven. Edgewater killed them, didn’t he?”
“When the owls shifted into their natural forms to fight the dark coven, they were already defeated. This coven is powered by something greater than even an owl shifter could fight off,” she answered. “The fae who dare to go around this coven, like Darius, they only seek them out to gain darker powers to become stronger supernaturals. All of it was too much, and the owl shifters were killed in the raid. I’m so very sorry about your uncle and aunt,” she said to Dominic. “They were phenomenal people and shifters of House Braeclaw. That line of owl shifters is the reason IA even exists and stands today.”
“I’ve seen this school, past the enchantments. It’s not what it once was.”
“I can see that too,” she said to me. “It’s a very dark and evil school.”
“Then, why did you come? Did Harrison do some mind trick on you to get you here?” Dom asked.
