by Jody Morse
“We’ll get the joy in slashing their tires?” Kadence asked with a shrug.
“There will be no tire slashing,” Everly said then with a sigh. “And there will be no attack tonight, either.”
“What? Why?” Gina narrowed her dark brown eyes at her.
“So, this will probably sound crazy,” Everly began, just as Alyssa, the last of the five vixen members, came into the house. “But this ghost paid me a visit.”
“You’ve got to be kidding me. We aren’t attacking the Dark Coven tonight, which we’ve been planning for-freaking-ever because you were visited by a ghost?” Kadence asked.
“This ghost was extremely convincing,” Everly replied. “You guys, we need to come up with a new course of attack.”
“What did the ghost say, Everly?” I pressed. It must have been something huge for her to want to backtrack on what we had been planning for so long.
“The ghost told me that Petro Knight has an important meeting with Headmaster Crane at Paranormal Academy tomorrow,” Everly explained. “If we attack the Dark Coven tonight, it will completely disrupt the way everything is supposed to happen. The Dark Coven is making arrangements—yes, actual arrangements—with Headmaster Crane on when the best time to attack Paranormal Academy will be.”
“Wait. What?” Alyssa asked. “Headmaster Crane is giving the Dark Coven his permission to attack Paranormal Academy?”
“Yup.” Everly looked just as sick as I felt about the idea.
“Everly, are you saying what I think you’re saying?” I asked her, even though the answer was already pretty clear.
Her gray eyes met mine. “That Headmaster Crane is working with the Dark Coven? Yep.”
“But it doesn’t make any sense. Why? Why would he allow that?” I found myself wondering out loud.
Everly shrugged. “Who knows what his true motives are? I’ve believed that Headmaster Crane is a bad guy for a long time now, and it turns out that I was right. He’s actually helping them plan this attack. He’s not just a part of this war. He’s actually letting it happen. He’s the enemy. And that’s why my ghost says that we really can’t attack the Dark Coven tonight.”
She glanced around at all of us. “We need to let them plan this out with Headmaster Crane a little further. We need to catch all of them off-guard. We’re no longer dealing with just the Dark Coven and the warlocks. We’re also dealing with Headmaster Crane, and as much as I dislike the guy, the truth is that he’s really powerful. We’re not prepared to fight against all of them, not yet. We’re strong, especially with you, Juliana”—She glanced over at me—“But there also aren’t that many of us, either. I feel like we need to work on building numbers. The more who there are to fight on our side, the more powerful we will be.”
“How are we going to up our numbers?” Gina asked.
“We should start with our friends, our roommates,” Everly said. “We can obviously only tell anyone who we really trust about this. The last thing we need is for anyone to go back to the Dark Coven and let them know what we have planned.” She glanced over at me. “Juliana, you can’t tell Kaden.”
“I won’t,” I replied.
Everly stared at me. “I don’t trust you. The last thing I need is for you to play both sides here.”
Ordinarily, it would be hard for me to keep a secret from Kaden. I had always confided a lot in him. But it would be easy now.
“Kaden and I aren’t even speaking. You have nothing to worry about.” I paused. “And there is no playing ‘both sides.’ I’m a Vixen, but as far as I’m concerned, there aren’t even sides here. There’s right and then there’s wrong. All I care about is stopping the Dark Coven.”
“Me, too,” Alyssa agreed with a nod.
“And me,” Kadence agreed.
“Yup. We’re going to take those assholes down if it’s the last thing we do,” Gina agreed, folding her arms over her chest and nodding.
Everly smiled. “I love you guys. Seriously. I am so thankful our grandmothers brought us together. You’re the best friends I’ve ever had.”
“Aww, I love you, too.” And it was true. Even though Everly and I had gotten off to an incredibly rocky start, mainly because she’d been dating Brett and I had sort of, well, wanted Brett, the truth was that she really had become a great friend over the past year. In addition to Ambur and Draia, Everly was one of the best friends I’d ever had, too. I knew that, at the end of the day, I could always count on her for just about anything—even if we did have the same taste in guys.
“So, what do we do now?” Alyssa asked. “If we don’t attack tonight, then when do we attack?”
“We wait until the time is right,” Everly replied matter-of-factly.
The knot in my stomach loosened a little bit. Even though I knew we were going to still have to attack the Dark Coven at some point, it was relieving to know that tomorrow wouldn’t be the day we started the next Paranormal World War.
And I was completely okay with that.
***
When I woke up the next morning, Ambur, Draia, Marcus, Gavin, and I headed for the portal in the backyard.
It was time. Time to go back to Paranormal Academy for the year.
Ambur shot one final sad glance over her shoulder at the cottage. “We had such a great summer here, you guys. I’m going to miss this place.”
“We’ll come back next summer,” Draia assured her.
“We will,” I agreed.
Ambur shook her head. “Everything will be different next summer. We’ll be graduates. We’ll be settling into our careers or going to human colleges.”
I knew she was right, but the truth was that I hadn’t given any of that very much thought. Lately, my mind had been too swept up in the war that was coming. I hadn’t given any thought of what I would be doing with the rest of my life. I didn’t even know yet if I would end up going back to the human world, or if I would choose a career in the paranormal realm.
I knew it would probably help once I unlocked my water race. Once I knew what all of my paranormal races were, then I could start ruling out career options. For example, I could never be a high school swim coach if I was a mermaid. As it was, I was pretty sure I could rule out being a surgeon, since my craving for blood was just too strong. And while I knew some vampires worked in the medical industry just so they had easier access to blood, that wasn’t something I personally wanted to do. It felt immoral to me, to steal blood from innocent humans who needed it to survive.
As we approached the portal in the backyard, Ambur turned over the bench.
I was prepared to jump down into the hole, the same way I always did, but there was just one problem. The hole in the ground was gone. It didn’t even look like someone had filled the hole with dirt; it looked like there had never been a hole there at all.
Someone had sealed off the portal.
Chapter 3
“Who the hell sealed off the freaking portal?” Ambur asked the question we were all thinking.
“Someone who wants to make our lives a lot harder than they need to be,” Draia said, folding her arms across her chest and rolling her eyes.
“Well, you know what this means, right?” Gavin asked. “We don’t actually have to go to school now that we can’t get back there.”
“Nice try. There’s another portal about half a block from here,” Ambur replied with a sigh.
“Unless whoever did this sealed off all the portals,” Marcus said.
“Ugh, let’s hope not,” I said.
The truth was that I actually sort of wanted to go back to school. The sooner I got back to Paranormal Academy, the sooner I could learn more about the whole elemental blood thing and what it meant. As much as I had enjoyed the freedom that came with summer break, I was actually really excited to learn more about myself and my powers and abilities, and unfortunately, there was no way I could do that from Ambur’s family’s cottage.
We walked the half block to the other portal. Once we reached it,
Ambur announced, “This portal hasn’t been sealed off, you guys.”
I breathed a deep sigh of relief.
“But I’m thinking that whoever sealed off the other portal did it just to get to us,” she went on. “It’s like they didn’t want us going back to Paranormal Academy. So, the question is, who hates us that much?”
“I have no freaking clue,” Draia replied, shaking her head.
“Maybe it was Ember,” Ambur said bitterly. Ember was her twin sister, who she’d only just recently found out she had. When it came to fae twins, there was always one “good” and one “evil” twin. Ember was the bad twin, so it seemed completely possible that she might have been the one who had sealed off the portal.
But the Dark Coven also came to mind. They clearly hated me. If they had somehow caught wind of the fact that I’d been staying at Ambur’s family’s cottage, I wouldn’t have put it past them to try to keep me here instead of going to the one place where I could try work on enhancing my magical abilities and powers.
“Well, we’d better head back to school before they seal up this portal, too,” Gavin commented.
“Good point. I’ll see you guys when we get there,” Ambur said, grabbing Gavin’s hand and then leaping into the ditch on the side of the road.
A moment later, they were gone.
“I’ll go next,” I announced before jumping into the ditch after them.
It was time for the school year to begin.
***
When I opened my eyes, I was laying in front of the gate of Paranormal Academy, which loomed in the distance.
Pulling myself up off the ground, I couldn’t help but notice that everything looked… darker, for some reason. I may have only just been imagining it, but it almost felt like a dark cloud was looming over Paranormal Academy.
I couldn’t help but wonder if it somehow had to do with the Dark Coven, especially now that I knew Headmaster Crane was involved with them.
“Okay, why does it look so eerie here?” Draia asked as she came to stand next to me.
“I’m glad it’s not just me who was thinking it.” As I glanced over at her, I tried not to let the worry on my face show.
I wasn’t sure what it could mean, but I just felt like it had to have meant something.
As we began to head for the House of Mage, my eyes fell on the spot where Avery had been carried off.
My heart began to pound as the image of the raven shifter carrying him off filled my mind again, for the millionth time. It was like he was right there, in front of me, and I was reliving it all over again. I could picture myself laying on the ground, trying to do something to stop it, but I was completely powerless… again.
“Juli, are you okay?” Draia asked, touching my elbow lightly.
It was just enough to shake me out of the memory—or vision, or whatever it even was, at this point.
“I will,” I replied with a smile, even though the truth was that I was far from okay.
I hated that I was going to have to walk past this spot every single day. I hated knowing that at any time, I could—and probably would—end up reliving it all over.
But most of all, what I hated was knowing that Avery was gone, and there was no bringing him back.
***
“Home sweet home,” Ambur commented once we were back inside our dorm room—the same room we had shared the year before.
“This place really does feel like home,” Draia said with a sigh as she tossed her suitcase onto her bed.
“If only we didn’t have to wear uniforms.” Ambur wrinkled her nose at all of the uniforms hanging inside the closet. Her hazel eyes lit up as an idea dawned on her. “It’s the day before school starts. You know what this means, right?”
“Time for a new hair color,” Draia said with a laugh. “I’m even thinking of doing something different to my own hair this year.”
“Ooh, what are you thinking?” Ambur asked excitedly.
“Red. I think I’m gonna go red.” Draia glanced at herself in the mirror.
“What shade of red? Auburn? Copper? Burgundy?”
“Fire engine red,” Draia replied.
“Fire engine red was one of Ember’s hair colors,” Ambur replied with a frown. “She’ll think you’re copying her.”
Ember was going to be a student at Paranormal Academy this year. Well, we assumed she was going to be, at least. She had shown up at the end of last year talking to Headmaster Crane. We were all pretty sure she’d be enrolled as a student this semester. We were also convinced that her entire reason for wanting to be at Paranormal Academy was to make Ambur’s life a living hell.
“Let her say I’m copying her. We all know that Ember’s hair is a fiery hot mess,” Draia replied with a shrug. “I’ll rock my red.”
“Red is going to look awesome on you,” I agreed.
“I think I’m going to do blue. A silvery blue,” Ambur commented, eyeing her hair in the mirror. Then, she glanced over at me. “What color are you doing, Juli?”
“I wasn’t planning to change my hair color,” I replied, shaking my head.
“Oh, come on. A new year calls for a new hair color,” Draia insisted.
“Yeah, don’t be a party pooper,” Ambur added.
I thought about it for a moment. This year at Paranormal Academy was going to be different. There was no chance of seeing Avery ever again. There would be a new Elemental Magic professor this semester, and it wasn’t just because he was off searching the world for answers about me.
Everything was different now that he was gone forever. It was something that I was reminded of with every step I took on the campus.
I had always hated the saying: New year, new me. But I supposed that it really was accurate for me this year. And it wasn’t even necessarily because I wanted there to be a new me; I had been forced into it the moment I had lost him.
I glanced over at my friends. “Well, I guess I have always wanted to try out light pink highlights…”
“Yay, we’re all going to have new hair colors,” Ambur said, dancing around the room. “I love back to school hair colors.”
At that moment, there was a loud knock at the door.
“You have guys coming to see you already?” Draia’s brown eyes darted over to meet mine. “We just got here, Juli.”
“What makes you think it’s a guy who’s here to see me?” My eyebrows lifted questioningly.
“Because it is.” She shrugged. “Sorry to ruin the surprise. You can blame it on that whole intuition thing.”
“Well, who is it then?” I asked.
“You’ll see, but I’m pretty sure it’s someone who you won’t mind seeing,” she replied with a devious smile and a wink.
I shot her a suspicious look as I opened the door and found myself standing face-to-face with Brett.
The breath caught in the back of my throat. Somehow, he had gotten more attractive over the summer break.
He was wearing his dirty blonde hair shorter than usual, and his five o’clock shadow was more prominent than usual. His skin was a deep shade of gold. I might have only been imagining it, but his muscles also looked more toned.
“Hey.” He grinned down at me.
I swallowed hard, trying to pull myself out of the trance that I was in. I’d always found Brett to be incredibly attractive, but I’d never been completely consumed by his appearance to the point where I was unable to form words.
“Hey,” I finally managed to respond.
An amused grin crossed his lips, and I realized that I had forgotten to block him from listening in on my thoughts. Therefore, he knew exactly how attracted I was to him right now.
Then again, I was sure that anyone in the room could probably see the effect he was having on me because… goddamn.
“Can I talk to you?” His dark brown eyes stayed locked on mine, but he pointed his chin at my roommates as he added, “In private?”
“Sure,” I replied, following him out of the room.
We headed to the girls’ lounge area, which was surprisingly empty. We sat down on one of the couches, facing one another.
“How are you? How was your summer?” Brett asked me.
“It was alright, I guess.” Aside from having nightmares and reliving my heartbreak every freaking day. You know, no biggie. “How was yours?”
“Pretty good. My dad put me through his intense werewolf bootcamp program.”
“Oh, is that where all the extra muscle came from?” My eyes drifted down to his rock-hard abs, which were very visible through his plain white t-shirt, and I tried not to drool.
“I guess so.” Brett let out a little laugh and then met my eyes. And I felt it then—something I had never really felt with him before. It was just a fleeting moment, just a flicker… but it felt like there was something there between us. Something that I had never really noticed before.
That was the thing about Brett. While I’d always found him attractive, our chemistry had never been quite as strong as what I had felt with Avery or even Kaden, for that matter.
But something was different now. Something new. Something that I really… liked.
“Anyway, I wanted to talk to you in private because I really wanted to apologize to you,” Brett continued, his eyes not moving from mine.
“Apologize to me for what?” My eyebrows shot up questioningly.
“Last year when I asked you to be my girlfriend, I know I was just being really pushy,” he explained. “I didn’t mean to, but it was just something I really wanted. We spent so much time together, and I got so attached to you—more attached than I ever expected to get.”
“Oh. It’s okay,” I replied with a wave of the hand.
“I mean it. I just didn’t realize at the time that you and me are all wrong for each other.”
“Oh. Um, yeah.” I swallowed hard, not liking what he was saying now that I actually felt something for him. “What makes you think we’re wrong for each other?”
“We’re just so different,” he replied with a shrug. “I grew up in this world, and you didn’t. I’m a werewolf, you’re a dragon shifter. I’m sure we can probably both find someone who’s better suited for each of us.”
