by JA Wren
At least that’s what they’d told her. Reluctantly. And only when Asher growled at them. They’d claimed only his next of kin was allowed to hear all the gory details. But it was clear she was it for him.
His father was kinda responsible for the whole attack on the academy, so…
Her thoughts briefly turned to the professor in intensive care a few doors away. Balthazar was in much worse condition, and they refused to part with many details since she was definitely not connected to him. All she knew was he was receiving treatment and they were hopeful.
That’s it. Nothing more.
She hoped he recovered. Even if the guy did wig her out. She kind of felt responsible for his condition and really didn’t want to carry more guilt than she could realistically bear.
“Hey,” Rayna said as she entered Asher’s room and found him sitting up. Sort of. His bed had been tipped so he reclined, his upper body slightly elevated. A thick bandage was still wrapped around his neck, but at least no more blood spilled from his wound. “How you feeling?”
“Like I really don’t need to be stuck here anymore.”
She smiled, then settled into the chair at his bedside. “They want to make sure you’re all healed up before they release you.”
He grunted. “They’re fussing for nothing. I’ve survived a hell of a lot worse than a wolf bite.”
Rayna shook her head, pressing her lips together to hold back her laugh. “I bet you have, but they don’t know that.” Her mirth faded. “Besides, you didn’t see the blood gushing from your neck. Trust me when I say it was terrifying.”
She shuddered at the memory. Hell, there was still remnants of his blood stuck under her nails from where she’d tried to staunch the flow from his neck.
He reached out and took her hand, thumb tracing over her skin in a soothing rhythm. “I can’t die, remember? Only Apollo has the power to end my life.”
She nodded. But, “It didn’t seem that way while you were bleeding out.”
“That was only because it was a Winterhound. The ice in their veins nullifies my fire.” He tried to sit up further, get closer to her. “Which Apollo knows. Probably why he used the beasts in the first place.”
She rolled her lips, forcing herself to smile even though it was the last thing she really felt like doing. Not while talking about the sun god who’d tried to kill them both. “I’m just glad you’re okay. I—I don’t know what I would’ve done if you weren’t.”
“Never gonna happen. I swear it.”
Her mind flashed back to her vision. Memory. Whatever it was she’d seen thanks to the white WillowWisp. Proof Asher couldn’t really make promises like that to her. She didn’t have the heart to call him on it, though.
“I remembered something,” she whispered, leaning closer to the bed.
Asher’s eyes widened. “What?”
“At least, I think it’s a memory. When I blacked out earlier—before the attack—there was a Wisp. He was kind of old and white. Not like Tink.” She clutched her necklace, soothed by the gentle hum from Tink. “Anyway, he zipped around my head and then I—I think he was showing me the past.”
Asher’s face was frozen. Confusion mingled with hope etched into his features and locked in place. “Tell me.”
She did, explaining everything she’d seen, including Apollo slicing the redhead’s throat. “Earlier, when he attacked me in the gardens.” Asher squeezed her hand and she knew he hated that she’d faced his father alone. “He said something about killing me again.”
A low sound rumbled from Asher’s chest. “Never.”
More promises he couldn’t make, but she ignored him, instead focusing on her question. “That’s the secret you’ve been keeping from me, isn’t it? That I am the redhead? That is was me all those years ago. The woman who died that night. It was me. Not a version of me or some reincarnated soul thing. But me. Actually me.”
The more she’d thought about everything she’d learned these past couple days, the more it was the only answer that made sense. And as the words spilled from her lips, she knew without a doubt it was true. She might not remember everything about that life—her life—but she’d lived it.
He closed his eyes, pain hardening his face. “Yes. Nyx said you had to remember on your own. That it would overwhelm your mind if you heard it from someone else.”
“Well, Apollo didn’t really give me a choice, did he?”
“No.” He opened his eyes. “But you’d already started remembering. Whether you fully realized it or not.”
She shook her head. “The Wisp—”
“There are no white WillowWisps, Rayna. Not in this realm.”
“No. I saw him. He was kinda wrinkly and looked old compared to Tink.”
“Not a real Wisp,” he said patiently. “WillowWisps don’t age. They live as they were when they formed and die when their time comes. Which frankly, is a pretty fucking long time. We’re talking multiple millennia. But they definitely don’t wrinkle and get old. My guess is your mind reinterpreted what you’d seen when Tink showed Hale what happened in the labyrinth. It was how your brain could process your returning memories without overloading you with information.”
Huh. Who knew her subconscious was such a smarty-pants?
“So,” she started, edging herself closer to his bedside. “Now that I’ve started remembering, will you fill me in on the rest?”
His lips twitched, that lone dimple making its first appearance in far too long. “Yes. No more secrets. Never again. Not between us, no matter what Nyx says.” He reached up and cupped her cheek. “But slowly, okay? I still don’t want to rush you into all this. It’s a lot to process, and I love you too much to do that to you.”
She gasped. “You love me?”
He frowned even as he laughed, the weirdest combo she’d ever seen. “I’ve loved you since I’ve known you, Rayna Knox.”
She couldn’t help her smile. Since he’d known her. Not since he’d met her. She liked that. It was real instead of flowery words like love at first sight. That was a ridiculous notion and she would’ve called his bluff.
But another question still burned on her tongue. “And how long have you known me?”
He shook his head. “I think that answer is best left for another day.”
Thirty-Two
“Come on, Knox,” Delilah called, laughing as she ran for the class building. “We’re gonna be late. Again. Did you really need to have that second breakfast?”
Yes. Some things never changed, and while she was slowly regaining her lost memories, her appetite was as veracious as ever. Maybe even more so. “I’m coming!”
“Not yet,” Ash growled in her ear.
She shivered at the suggestive tone in his voice. It had been a month since Apollo’s attack on the academy and while she hungered for him, she’d made a no-sexy-times rule until she fully remembered their life together. The one they’d shared before Apollo slit her throat over a thousand years ago.
A rule she was really starting to regret when he used that husky tone and let his lips brush the shell of her ear.
“Ugh.” Autumn rolled her eyes and linked her arm through Delilah’s. “They’re being gross again. I think we should leave them to it before they start going at it behind one of the trees. Again.”
Ash laughed in her ear while Rayna smashed her lips together as her cheeks blazed crimson. “Hey, that was once. And a moment of weakness.”
“We’re not judging,” Delilah said over her shoulder, then to Autumn, she mock whispered, “At least not to their faces.”
Autumn snickered as they approached the Nous lab where the Psychic Realm students attended classes. “Try to keep from tearing each other’s clothes off before class this time, okay?”
The two girls disappeared inside the building, leaving Rayna gaping after them. “Bitches. Both of them.”
Ash laughed harder, knowing full well she was joking. She loved those two almost as much as she adored Kally. Well, as
much as she used to love Kally. Their relationship was still strained and she didn’t quite know how to fix it.
Not yet, anyway.
Yes, she’d forgiven Ash for keeping secrets. But he’d only done that for a couple days. Kally had lied to her for two decades. And called her an assignment from Nyx. That was hard to move past, even though she desperately wanted to. She missed her bestie like crazy and longed for their Friday night hang-out sessions, but it was still too complicated.
Of course, the fact she was now her professor made things harder.
Which meant they needed to haul ass before her former BFF decided to give her detention.
Asher spun her around right outside the classroom and gave her a dizzying kiss, one that ended much too soon. When her lungs were screaming from lack of oxygen, he rushed off to his own classes in Sóma lab with the other Physical Realm students.
She watched him run off, desperately wanting to follow. He waved over his shoulder and gave her a wink that had her belly doing backflips.
“Sorry I’m late, Professor Kalypso,” Rayna muttered, trying to stifle her groan as she took her seat at the back of the lecture hall.
Kally narrowed her gaze, perched on the end of her desk with her long legs crossed, impossibly tall heels dangling. She tapped the textbook in her hand. “Page 226, Miss Knox. And please see me after class so we can discuss your tardiness.”
“Yes, Professor.”
It was still damn weird to call her best friend Professor Kalypso, but she flipped her textbook open, trying to focus on Introduction to Spiritual Realm. Pretty important since a lot of the information was common knowledge amongst her peers. Too bad Nyx had decided to hide her in the human world.
“Would someone like to fill Miss Knox in on what we just read?” Kally asked the class.
An especially snooty student in the front row half-turned to glare at Rayna. “We’re reading about the Olympians and how they overthrew the Titans. Zeus, Poseidon, and Hades led the assault, while their fellow Olympians assisted. A few Titans sided with the Olympians, losing their higher rank amongst the gods in the process. It was better than getting their asses stuck in Tartarus though, so good for them.”
A few students snickered and laughed at asses. Because apparently they were still in high school.
The girl smiled, all venom. “Tartarus is a prison hidden deep within the Underworld, FYI.” She turned back to face the front of the class and Kally. “We were just about to read the part where Zeus and Poseidon betrayed Hades and left him to rot in the Underworld with all the dead souls brought to him by the god of death, Thanatos. Your uncle, I believe.”
“What?” tumbled from Rayna’s mouth.
Kally cleared her throat. “Thank you, Sasha, but that’s enough.” Her green eyes lifted. “And technically Thanatos would be Rayna’s older brother, since he was created by Nyx, the goddess of night.”
She had a brother? The thought had never really occurred to her.
“But today’s lecture material focuses on the Olympians, not the Primordials and their offspring.” Kally tipped her head. “Perhaps we can discuss this during your private lesson this afternoon, Miss Knox?”
Shit.
She may have stopped attending those. Hale had given her a strict deadline for catching up with the other students, but the attack on the academy had distracted her. And clearly Kally hadn’t ratted her out. But now she was baiting her with information Rayna craved like a huge slice of cheesecake.
Of course she wanted more details about her parentage. Even as bits of her memories returned, they were flashes. Glimpses into her life. Mostly the one she’d spent with Ash. And he was still being annoyingly tight-lipped when it came to specific details. Even when she’d begged him to explain what she was.
A Ker, Apollo had called her. That was as much information as anyone was willing to part with. But maybe if she attended these damn extra lessons, she could convince her former bestie to dish on all the dirt.
She nodded at Kally, silently agreeing.
Tink hummed inside her necklace against her chest, a small reassurance she was beyond grateful for. The warmth seeping from the crystal pendant reminded her of Ash and his soothing comfort and she instantly perked back up.
At least he was by her side and had promised to stay there as long as she wanted him.
She only hoped he could keep that promise.
***
Thank you for reading!
If you’ve enjoyed
Labyrinth Academy,
Book One, Trials
Please consider leaving a review.
Goodreads
Amazon
***
Keep reading for a sneak peek at book two…
And pre-order Labyrinth Academy: Wars here!
LABYRINTH ACADEMY: Wars
Rayna Knox is finally learning who she really is.
Or, so she thought.
Turns out, she’s a lot more complicated and a simple explanation isn’t gonna cut it. With a scorching hot phoenix shifter soulmate by her side, she’s determined to figure out not only what she is, but what it means to be a Primodial goddess’s heir.
But when another attack on Labyrinth Academy awakens powers that scare the hell out of her, she discovers Apollo’s not the only one looking to use her deathly gifts.
The gods are waging war.
And looks like Rayna’s their coveted weapon.
Prologue
Asher—the night before the labyrinth trials
Manhattan’s Lower East Side bustled with nightlife as Asher parked the sleek black Ducati outside a quirky hotel, rather aptly named The Blue Moon. He stared up at a façade that looked more like an antique store tucked away in the trendiest part of the city, already regretting his decision to travel halfway across the world.
The rumbling vibrations of the engine cut off between his thighs, but he was seconds away from revving it back to life.
What the fuck was he even doing here?
He’d abandoned his search in Europe after getting a random message. Normally, he wouldn’t put his trust in a stranger who promised intel on the woman he was trying to locate, but he’d grown desperate. This was the first clue he’d found in over a century. A lesser man might’ve given up hope long ago, but Asher was no ordinary man.
Nor would he ever give up on his soulmate.
Which meant taking a massive gamble by following a lead that could very well turn out to be a hoax. He’d waited more than a thousand years. Lifetimes of pain and loss. His heart and soul calling to its other half. He knew she was out there, and he wouldn’t stop searching until he found her, even if he spent the rest of his days scouring the globe.
Bursts of laughter caught his attention. A loud group of people strolled into the hotel, weighed down with too much luggage, mortals blissfully unaware of the world lurking right under their noses.
He stared past them, his gaze settling on the hooded figure standing behind them. Shrouded in darkness that seemed impossible on the brightly lit street. Thick clouds above cleared, letting the moonlight bathe the cloaked stranger. Hints of skin peeked out from her black robe and shimmered under the silver-blue rays.
Well, that sure as Hades sealed the damn deal.
His gamble might just pay off after all.
There was no faking that kind of skin. Asher had only seen it twice before in his impossibly long life. The night he met his soulmate for the first time. And again when she was snatched from his arms and slain not even five feet from him.
His veins burning with eager anticipation and his gaze fixed on the cloaked goddess, he climbed off the bike and stalked across the pavement. His boots crunched over the gravel beneath his heavy footsteps as he ate up the distance with long strides.
“Where is she?” he demanded, joining her in the cover of darkness she created. “Where is Rayna?”
“You never were a patient one, Asher.” The Primordial goddess of night slowly drew her hood down, reveali
ng a stunning face with silver-white irises outlined in jet black. Her hair matched, the ebony roots contrasting against the pale, luminous strands falling over her shoulders. Her lips black as a night sky and glittering like millions of stars, they curved upward as she smiled at him. “I always liked that about you.”
“Where. Is. She?” he gritted out between clenched teeth, heat spreading out from the center of his chest.
The black outline of her irises bled out into ragged veins around her eyes, the only sign of her agitation. “Need I remind you who you’re speaking with?” Nyx tilted her chin up, the triple moon symbol on her forehead coming to life and glowing silver against her skin.
“Of course not.”
“And that I was the one to gift you with your beloved in the first place.” She stepped closer, her lithe body so much smaller than his, yet infinitely more powerful. “I don’t recall ever hearing a single word of gratitude from you when I spared your soulmate from Apollo’s wrath.”
“Spared?” Asher growled the words out before he thought better of the accusation. “He slit her throat and forced me to watch the life bleed from her.”
He swore he could still feel Rayna’s blood slowly cooling against his body as it pooled between them. The warmth that once radiated between them dying along with her. He’d roared, fire and fury blazing from every pore as he thrashed uselessly against his shackles.
Nyx’s sharp eyes softened, the black veins receding. “I’m sorry I could not save her in time. I did the best—the only thing I could under the circumstances.”
Asher curled his fingers tighter into his palms, barely holding back the urge to give the fire free reign. “And I am truly grateful.”
Sparks of light twinkled in her eyes and on her high cheekbones, glimmering like starry freckles. “The time has come for you to be reunited with your beloved. Already, she awakens.”
