The Soul Bond (Rite World: Blackthorn Hunters Academy Book 3)

by Juliana Haygert

  “Mongrel,” Rey muttered.

  “Yeah. That word. I know it means a mix of races, but why did it sound so dirty coming from his mouth?”

  “Because it’s supposed to be a derogatory word for half-bloods.”

  I shook my head. “Hell, I had just arrived and things are already exploding.”

  Rey’s eyes turned a dangerous silver. “What is it? What else happened?”

  What did he care? “It’s none of your business.”

  He stilled once more, lifting his chin. He was so freaking handsome, even when looking at me with his usual coldness. My heart squeezed as I took him in—the sharpness of the angles of his face, the full lips, the bright eyes, the dirty blond hair that had grown a little since the last time I had seen him. The square set of his shoulders, the tall, lean frame of his hard body.

  This handsome man was my soulmate.

  But he didn’t want me.

  “You’re right,” he said in a low voice. “It’s not.”

  Why did those words hurt more than I expected?

  My head raised high, I walked past him and into the Gardenia building. I passed some female students, and they all stared at me. Some were quiet, but others either gasped in horror, whispered nasty things, or laughed as if this was funny.

  Dying for a shower, I head into my bedroom. Thankfully, Claire had dropped my things in here, but she was gone, probably organizing her things in her own bedroom.

  All I wanted was to throw myself on my bed, hug my pillow, and fight the tears that burned behind my eyes. But because I would get my bed dirty, I simply sat down on the floor, curled my shoulders forward, and let a few tears fall.

  What a great first day back. I couldn’t wait to see what the rest of the semester had in store for me.

  2

  Rey

  Dreading the next hour of my life, I opened the door of the classroom. In the next few minutes, students would fill up the seats, and I would teach my first class at the academy.

  And Erin would be among these students.

  I had acted like a possessive boyfriend yesterday, but I hadn’t meant to. It was by luck—or unluck—that I was leaving my office and witnessed Tom and his snob friends throw demon blood on her and call her that word. My blood had boiled, and I almost ripped his head off.

  After I scared them off, I had wanted to take care of her, to help her to her dorm, to make sure she was okay, to help her with all that nasty blood, but I couldn’t. I had made myself clear last semester, and now I had to maintain that facade. Besides, her mother’s threat still hung over my head. I was sure she hadn’t forgotten about it.

  More than that, I was now a professor. Having feelings and getting involved with a student was against school rules. If I was caught, I would be fired.

  And with Professor Crimson’s threat to hurt Erin, I couldn’t be fired yet.

  Erin had no idea, but I had kept an eye on her during the summer. I told myself it was only to make sure Crimson wouldn’t act while I wasn’t paying attention. But deep down, I knew it was because I wanted to check on her, to make sure she was all right, that she was safe. Because I needed to see her with my own eyes.

  When she and Claire went out one night and joined the treasure hunt, I longed to participate. It had been Erin’s birthday, and just for one night, for one measly fucking night, I wished I could let go of all pretense. I wished I could hug her, wish her a happy birthday, and show her how much I loved her.

  But that was my traitorous heart speaking.

  There were so many obstacles separating us; it would be impossible to be together.

  Even with the soul bond linking us.

  This fucking soul bond. If this mark wasn’t imprinted on my chest, everything would be easier.

  Ava and her friends, Stella and Ruby, were the first ones to arrive in the classroom. Ava shot me a mild glare before taking a seat right in the middle. I frowned, returning my gaze to the books on my desk. Ever since she started at the academy, Ava had been a bitch in capital letters. But last semester, while she was looking for Harvey with Erin and me, I thought she wasn’t so bad. And that her friends, the same ones who were seated with her now, weren’t really her best friends.

  Apparently, I was mistaken.

  Other students arrived, including Peter and Harvey. Then, I saw Harper arrive alone.

  With less than a minute to spare, Erin walked in, followed closely by Claire. Erin didn’t even look my way as she took a seat in the back. Better this way. If she ignored me, it would be easier for me to ignore her too.

  Although, I wondered how her previous evening had been. Had it been hard to scrub the blood from her hair? Had she slept well, or was she still having nightmares about her half-sisters?

  I shook my head, pushing those thoughts away.

  I waited another minute, then started my class: advanced combat. It wasn’t a new class, but I had changed its curriculum. Thankfully, Randall didn’t seem to care what I did with it.

  Before, it had been mostly martial arts combat, but more advanced since it was only taught to the third and fourth years. However, I felt like that wasn’t enough. So, I divided the class in two parts: theory and practice. For the first twenty minutes, we met in one of the lecturing halls in the Hyacinth building, which housed the combat training rooms and the gym. During this time, we would talk about combat techniques and strategies. We would even study the wars between the supernaturals and humans, and understand the tactics and why side X lost and side Y won.

  I hoped that by studying the theory, the students wouldn’t rush into a fight without a plan. I wanted to give them the means to come up with a plan even if they had thirty seconds to do so.

  I hoped Erin would absorb the information and use it when she had to face King Brikan.

  But she wasn’t just ignoring me; she was also ignoring my class.

  She had propped her legs up on the empty seat in front of her, and she had the magical spells book open, instead of demon history, which was the one I was using to talk about the wars.

  Every few minutes, she let out a long breath and glanced at her nails, or out the window, as if she was bored.

  Was she trying to get under my skin?

  She was succeeding.

  At the end of the lecture part, I asked the students to write down what they expected from my class on a piece of paper, and pass it along to the front so I could collect them and read them later.

  “All right,” I said as I took the stack of paper back to my desk. “Please, get up and cross the hall to the combat classroom. You don’t need to take your things.”

  For the next forty minutes, we would focus on the practical part. There would be days when I showed them some complicated moves and they had to replicate it, but for the most part, I would divide the class into teams and give them a challenge. They would have to come up with a plan of action.

  I hoped it would be a fun class.

  But so far, it had been tense as hell.

  The students got to their feet and filed out of the classroom, going across the hall. Erin and Claire were last. So I wouldn’t look at her, I turned my attention to the papers in my hand. I shuffled through them, until I came upon a mostly blank sheet of paper.

  “Erin,” I called out before I could really think.

  She halted and turned to me, her usually bright golden eyes sporting a cold shine. “Yes?”

  I waited until Claire walked out, then pointed to the blank paper. “You didn’t do the assignment.”

  “Oh, but I did,” she said.

  I frowned. “No, you didn’t. I asked you to write down at least three things you expect from my class this semester. There’s only your name here.”

  “That’s the thing, professor.” She drawled out the last word, as if it hurt her to say it. To be fair, it fucking hurt to hear her call me like that. “I don’t expect anything.”

  Her sentence was arrogant, but her voice, her eyes were sad.

  In shock, I sta
red as she dragged her feet across the hallway and joined the other students. Fuck, this wasn’t going well. I knew being her professor wouldn’t be easy, but I hadn’t imagined it would be this hard.

  And this was just the first day. How could I handle an entire semester like this?

  I would worry about that later. Now I had to finish teaching this fucking class.

  The students were gathered in a circle in the middle of the mat, waiting for me. I walked into the circle and told them what we would do next. “I’ve hidden three small flags in this classroom.” The students looked around, trying to locate the flags. The classroom was simple—with the mat, the mirrored wall, a few pictures on the other walls, and a shelf full of weapons. There weren’t many places to hide the flags in here. “Three different colors. I’ll divide you into three teams and assign you a color. You and your team need to find your flag and protect it while capturing the other flags. The first team with their flag and an enemy flag wins.”

  Harvey nodded his head and Peter rolled his shoulders, both clearly pumped up for the game. Claire turned green and Ava rolled her eyes. And Erin glanced at her nails again.

  I swear, she was doing it on purpose to irk me. That had to be it.

  I divided the students into three groups. Ava and Harper ended up in one team, Peter and Claire ended up in another one, and Harvey and Erin were in the last one.

  Then the game began.

  Though some fighting happened, the game was supposed to be more about tactics and planning. Despite her aversion to martial arts and combat, Claire was clearly trying.

  Unlike her friend, who stood by the window as if nothing was happening. Erin didn’t lift a finger during the entire forty minutes.

  But her team won because Harvey had been way too fast and stolen the flag from Peter, while still holding on to his.

  “All right,” I said, calling everyone. “Well done. You’re dismissed.”

  Smiling and chatting about the game—apparently they all had fun—the students crossed the corridor to the lecture hall to collect their books and bags.

  Erin lagged behind, as if she hadn’t even seen the game had ended.

  “Hey, let’s go,” Claire called her.

  Erin blinked. “Oh, right.”

  She started walking in the direction of the door.

  All right, I couldn’t take this. “Erin,” I called her again. “We need to talk.”

  Crossing her arms, Erin halted and faced me, her expression deadpan. “Yes, professor?”

  “I’m …” Claire started. She pointed to the door. “I’ll wait in the other classroom.” Like a scared, little mouse, Claire scurried out of the room.

  I let out a slow breath. “Care to explain why you didn’t participate of the game?”

  She stared at me, her chin defiant, but the gleam in her eyes betraying her bravado. “Because I didn’t want to.”

  “This is a class,” I said, trying to remain calm. “You know everything is graded. If you arrive on time, if you do the assignments, if you participate in class, and if you do well. So far, I can say you only have a good mark for arriving on time, and even that one was just barely.”

  “I think we both know I don’t want to be in your class.”

  I nodded. “Unfortunately, it’s a required class if you want to move on to the fourth year. And you need to pass it with good grades, otherwise it doesn’t count. To get good grades, you need to participate.”

  Her nostrils flared. Erin was getting angry, and all I could think about was how I wanted to erase the distance between us and hug her, and tell her that it didn’t matter, that we would get through it together. Even when her golden eyes flamed and her pink lips pouted in anger, she looked gorgeous. Her long black hair was pulled back into a loose braid, and the black combat uniform hugged her body, showing off the tempting curves of her body.

  A man had only so much control.

  “I don’t care,” she snapped. “Fail me, if you have to, but I won’t participate. You can’t make me.”

  A sliver of anger snaked through my veins. She was really testing me here. “Erin—”

  “Don’t Erin me.” She dropped her arms and clenched her fists. “We’ve been over this, haven’t we?”

  I swallowed the retort that flew to the tip of my tongue. “I’m your professor,” I said, more for myself than for her. “You can’t talk to me like that. Show me some respect.”

  Her eyes bugged and she pulled back as if I had slapped her. “You’ve got to be kidding me.”

  “That’s it.” I went to the corner of the classroom, opened the drawer from one of the cabinets, and pulled out a form. I filled it out and handed it to her. “Here. A disciplinary action for your behavior.”

  She only stared at the paper. “You mean, like detention? No way …”

  I walked to her, grabbed her hand, and shoved the form in her hand. “Don’t make things worse.”

  Eyes still wide, Erin shook her head. “I don’t know you anymore,” she whispered, before whirling on her heels and marching away.

  Once she was gone, I let out a deep breath and ran a hand through my hair. Holy fuck, this was going to be one long, long semester.

  3

  Erin

  I crumbled the disciplinary action in my hand as I walked out of the classroom, wishing I could smother my rage like that too.

  Detention? Really?

  “What happened?” Claire asked. She had waited for me in the lecture hall, holding both her tote and mine.

  “This.” I handed her the crumbled note and picked up my tote.

  She smoothed the paper and read it. “What? Why?”

  Because he couldn’t let me ignore his class. Didn’t he realize it would be much easier on both of us if I pretended I wasn’t there? Now he was giving me detention for it.

  “Because he’s a jerk,” I muttered. “Come on. I have a pitstop before we go to our next class.”

  “A pitstop?” Claire followed me out the classroom. “Where?”

  “My mother’s class,” I told her.

  Either Claire guessed what I wanted with my mother, or she assumed it was better not to ask, because she remained quiet as we exited the Hyacinth building and walked to Orchid, where both my mother’s class and our next class were located.

  During Rey’s class, the other students hadn’t bothered me as much, but out here? I couldn’t take three steps without hearing whispers, or seeing someone staring at me with disgust.

  I heard the word “mongrel” as we walked into the building and I flinched.

  “Ignore them,” Claire whispered to me. She had been saying that so often, it sounded like her new motto.

  “I’m trying,” I whispered back. I turned to the right, where my mother’s class was located. Claire didn’t follow me. “Aren’t you coming?”

  “Your mother scares me almost as much as my father.” She offered me a small smile. “If you don’t mind, I’ll go to our class and save a seat for you.”

  I nodded. Claire sauntered to the left, walking to our next class.

  And I marched to the opposite side of the building. My mother’s classroom was one of the biggest in the building, located near the south entrance.

  As I expected, she was inside the classroom, looking over her notes at her desk, while students slowly filled the room. To call her attention, I knocked on the door twice.

  She raised her head and her brows slammed down the moment she saw me. With sure steps, she approached me. “What is it?”

  “Professor Martha, can we talk for a minute?” I asked while a few students walked by us. Only a handful of people knew she was my mother, and we wished to keep it that way. If I was having a hard time because of my heritage, imagine what she would get if people found out she had fallen in love with King Brikan once.

  She gestured to the corner of the corridor, where it opened to a foyer in front of the south doors. Once we rounded the corner, she crossed her arms. “What is this about?”
<
br />   “I want to transfer out of Rey Lowe’s class.”

  “Professor Rey,” she corrected me. “He’s your professor now.”

  “Not for long if you let me transfer.” As my advisor, all changes to my schedule had to be approved by her.

  “You can’t transfer. This is a required class to move on to the fourth year. If you plan on graduating, you have to take this class now.”

  “But …” I stopped myself.

  “But what?”

  My mother didn’t know anything about Rey and me. She had seen us kiss the first time, and I had no idea what she made of that, but she didn’t know about the soul bond and everything else that had happened between us since then.

  She didn’t know I loved him.

  “Tell me another professor teaches this class.”

  My mother shook her head once. “No. This class was taught by Professor Genevieve before, but now only Professor Rey teaches it. You have to take this class, Erin.”

  I groaned. “You know as well as I do that there’s a chance I’ll never graduate.” If my father came after me, I was done for. I would never finish the academy program.

  “We’re doing everything we can to change that, aren’t we? We’ll find a way of defeating the supreme demon. After that, you’ll wish you had taken all the right classes to graduate and become a full-fledged demon hunter.”

  I frowned. Honestly, I hadn’t thought that far ahead. Did I want to become a demon hunter? What were my other options? Move to Chasseur Ville, open a store, and live peacefully? That sounded awfully tempting.

  “What if I don’t want to become a member of the Blackthorn Hunters?”

  My mother’s hazel eyes blazed. “This is not up for discussion, Erin. You’re taking the advanced combat class. That’s final.” She glanced at her wristwatch. “Now if you’ll excuse me, my class is about to start.”

  Turning her back to me, my mother walked back into her classroom, and I leaned against the wall, defeated. I thought it was a damn done deal. That my mother would have no problem transferring me out of Rey’s class.