by Jody Morse
“How about the day the students return to school during the next semester?” One of the Dark Coven asked.
“I like that plan. They’ll all be so ready to come back to school and get back to their classes. They’ll just be recovering from the winter break. None of them will have war or attacks on their minds.” Headmaster Crane grinned the most sinister grin I had ever seen. “They won’t even know what hit them.”
My anxiety was through the roof. Even though I was relieved that we had time, I wasn’t sure if it would be enough time.
We now had a time—an official time—during which the Dark Coven were going to attack us. This date was now basically set in stone. It couldn’t have been any more official.
It was September now. It meant that we had about five months to prepare war. We had four months to build an army that could fight against both the Dark Coven and the Kingdom of the Raven Shifters.
And a big part of me was afraid that we wouldn’t be able to do it.
***
As the Dark Coven meeting came to an end, Kaden and I slipped out of the castle together and into the dark night.
I kept waiting for some sort of hiccup—that the veiling spell would come undone at the stroke of midnight or something and we would get caught. But that didn’t happen, thankfully.
We somehow managed to make it to the portal without getting caught.
We came out on the other side.
As we climbed out of the stream, I shivered.
“You cold?” Kaden asked, glancing over at me.
I nodded. “Yeah, it’s strange. I don’t usually get cold, either.”
He pulled his hoodie off.
“I doubt a wet hoodie is going to help me feel less cold,” I said with a laugh.
“That’s why I’m doing a drying spell on it.” He held it in front of him, and then I heard all of the water from the hoodie fall to the ground. “Here. Put it on.”
“Thanks.” I pulled it on over my head. It was huge on me, which surprised me. Kaden wasn’t a large guy, though he was a lot taller than me.
“You wearing my clothes is pretty cute,” he commented.
“Yeah?” I asked, shooting a glance in his direction.
“Yeah.” He shoved his hands in his pockets we walked towards the clearing. “So, look. I know I asked you this before, but after what we just experienced together, I think we can both agree that life is short. Whether we like it or not, it looks like the entire paranormal world is about to enter a war—with you and me at the forefront. Neither of us knows what our futures hold. And so, I have to ask you again. Will you be my girlfriend?”
There was a hopeful look behind his blue eyes. It was a look that I couldn’t resist—not that I wanted to resist it. When it came down to it, there was nothing I wanted more than to be his girlfriend.
“Yes,” I told him with a nod. “I’ll be your girlfriend.”
“I never thought I’d heard you say those words,” he whispered, and his lips came crashing down on mine then—hard, deep, and full of fiery passion. And again, the wind began to blow all around us.
***
We stayed in the Enchanted Forest that night, making out and talking. We talked about everything—from our childhoods to what it was like for me to grow up in the human world to the moment we both knew we had fallen for one another. Kaden told me about the girlfriend who he’d had back home before we came to the Academy, and we talked about how it still broke my heart sometimes that I hadn’t been able to save Avery.
I had never shared so much of myself with anyone before. I had never felt closer to him than I did that night.
I didn’t even feel tired as we chatted the night away, but somehow, the sun came up without either of us even realizing it until it was shining brightly upon us.
“I can’t believe we spent the whole night out here,” Kaden said. “We should both probably get some rest.”
I agreed as I picked myself up off the grassy ground. “Yeah, you’re probably right. I’m going to be so out of it tomorrow—err, today, I mean.”
He laughed. “Let me walk you back to your dorm room.”
Once we had exited the Enchanted Forest, Kaden removed the veiling spell. Even though I knew couldn’t keep the veil on us forever, the truth was that I sort of liked it when only he and I could see each other. It made me feel like we had a secret.
We headed for the House of Mage and to the girls’ dormitories floor.
When we finally reached my dorm room, I turned to him. “You could just… stay, you know?”
“I don’t want to bother your roommates,” he said.
“I’m sure they won’t mind.”
“I need to call my sister when I get back to my dorm room,” Kaden explained. “I need to tell her about last night.”
“I get it. Last night was intense.” I swallowed hard. The truth was that I’d sort of been trying to keep my mind off of it.
“Yeah. It was a weird night. Bad and good, all in one.” His blue eyes fell on mine. “But it was mostly good.”
“Definitely,” I agreed.
Kaden came in for a hug then; he hugged me for what felt like an eternity. I wrapped my arms around his neck, pulling him closer to me and not wanting to ever let him go. After everything that had happened last night, I saw us being pretty inseparable from now on.
At least, I really hoped we would be.
“I could hug you forever, but I really have to get back to my dorm room.”
“But I don’t want you to go,” I insisted, continuing to hug him.
“But I gotta.” When Kaden finally pulled away from me, his steel blue eyes met mine. “I’ll call you later, okay?”
I nodded. “Okay.”
He leaned in for one last kiss, his lips crushing hard against mine.
Then he headed down the hallway that led out of the House of Mage, and I closed the door behind me.
I glanced around our dorm room, realizing that it was empty. I couldn’t help but feel slightly relieved that both of my roommates were gone. I knew they had probably both spent the night with their boyfriends, and I was thankful for that. It gave me time to unwind and make sense of everything that had happened last night. And think more about Kaden.
As I fell into bed, I couldn’t suppress the smile that hit my lips. It was the type of smile you had when you were in love.
Was I in love? I felt like I was in love. I felt like I was on cloud nine. I didn’t think anything could ruin this good mood I was in. Last night… last night had been perfect. And Kaden was… well, he was everything to me. Last night had confirmed that to me.
He had quickly become my best friend, and now he was my partner in crime. There was no one else in the world who I trusted with my life the way I did him.
And it all went so much deeper than that. I was entirely convinced that the two of us were meant to be on some soul connection type of level. It was the type of connection that I had never felt with anyone before.
Except for Avery.
And that was when I remembered the letter that Professor Hart had given me, which I had hidden underneath my pillow to read later. Except, things had happened, and I had just never gotten around to reading it. But now my curiosity was getting the better of me.
Pulling the letter out, I tore the envelope open and then began to read, my heart pounding as I began to read the words written on the paper.
Dear Juliana,
I’m writing this letter to you from London. It’s been a few months now since I’ve been searching the world high and low for answers to who you are. You are quite the mystery. I think I’m finally closing in on a lead, so hopefully it won’t be too much longer until I’m back with you again. I miss you more than you know.
There are so many things I want to say to you in person. And while I want to say this to you face-to-face eventually, I figured I would tell you now, too. Just in case something should ever happen to one of us, I want to make sure that you know. So, here it
goes.
Have I told you yet that I’m in love with you? I know it probably seems crazy that I could possibly love you, especially when we have only met a handful of times. Still, from the first time I saw you sitting in my classroom and we locked eyes with one another, I just knew. I knew that something about you was different. It was the type of soulmate connection I had been searching for my entire life, and I could tell that you felt it, too. There was something about the energy between us, the chemistry. And when we nearly burned down Paranormal Academy during our first kiss, I knew that you were the one for me.
I know this is premature of me to say, but I can’t help it. I can already tell you that I don’t want to spend another day apart from you.
You are my present and my future, Juli. And a part of me wonders if you were my past, too. I feel this deep connection with you, the type of connection that they say could indicate we knew and loved each other in a past life.
I can’t wait to return to you. I can’t wait for us to build an incredible future and life together. At least, I hope that you want all of this, too.
Even if you don’t, even if you choose not to be with me, then just know that a part of me will always love you.
I hope, and can’t wait, to see you soon.
Love yours and only yours,
Avery <3
By the time I had finished reading the letter, the tears were falling freely from my eyes. This letter had given me all of the feels. It had really made me feel… everything. So many emotions were going on inside of me, all at once.
Relief.
I was relieved to know that I hadn’t imagined the feelings that had been there between Avery and I. I was glad to know that I wasn’t the only one who had felt this soulmate type of connection. It hadn’t been an illusion. It had all been just as real as I remembered it to be.
I also couldn’t ignore the sadness that filled me. The pain. The grief, which just seemed to resurface, all over again. It made me so much sadder than I already was to know that Avery had felt this way about me, too… and that I had lost him so soon.
And then there was the fear. I wanted to believe my fear was unfounded, but I didn’t think it was. There was a big part of me that was afraid that Professor Ryan was right. What if the reason Avery had been taken by the raven shifter was because he had elemental blood? I was pretty sure that could have been true, considering everything I knew now.
But if they had wanted to get rid of Avery due to his elemental blood, then what about Kaden? Kaden had elemental blood, too.
Just knowing that there was even a chance of Kaden being taken from me, too, scared the ever-loving crap out of me. Losing Avery had been hard enough, but just the idea of losing both of them was too much for my heart to handle.
No, I was convinced that if I lost Kaden, too, I would just completely break down.
But I was pretty sure that was exactly what Headmaster Crane and the raven shifters wanted.
Chapter 17
“I told you we needed to work on building an army,” Everly said once I finished telling her everything that I had witnessed the night before (being careful to leave Kaden out, since I knew she wasn’t his biggest fan). We were in her dorm room, and I was catching her up to speed on, well, everything.
“Well, you were right,” I replied with a sigh. “This is so stressful.”
“Tell me about it.” She shook her head. “The only good thing is that we have time to recruit our army. So, I will be in charge of that. I am going to recruit so many people to fight alongside us, you won’t even believe it. Just watch me. Our army is going to be freaking huge. And powerful. And strong. Yup.”
I was pretty sure she was probably trying to convince herself. Deep down, she was probably afraid, just like me, that we didn’t have the time it was going to take to build this army.
“You make it sound so official when you call it an army,” I commented.
“Because it is official, Juliana. I don’t think it’s really hit you yet, but we are about to enter a goddamn paranormal world war. And considering the main reason it’s happening is because of you, I would think you’d be trying a little bit harder to help us build our army.”
“Whoa, whoa, whoa. This has nothing to do with me.” I put my hand in the air, trying to stop her thoughts.
“Actually? Newsflash: It has everything to do with you. If it weren’t for you, they wouldn’t be so afraid of good magic ruling the world and all the bullshit.” She rolled her eyes. “Your power is so strong that it accounts for more than one-hundred thousand good magic users.”
“You don’t even know if that’s true,” I insisted.
“It is. That’s what all of the legends about you say, anyway.” She flopped down on her bed and stared up at the ceiling. “All I know is that if you had never been born—as much as I adore having you as a friend—this whole paranormal world war wouldn’t even be happening.”
“Okay, well, instead of blaming me, maybe you should blame our grandmothers for me being The Chosen One. Well, my grandmother, anyway.”
“It’s not like they were the ones who planned all of this,” Everly said with a frown.
“She—and the rest of them—could have just never had kids. Then this wouldn’t even be a problem right now.”
Everly rolled her eyes. “Don’t be so dramatic. If that were the case, you wouldn’t be graced with your amazing presence.” She paused. “You’re lucky I love you. I don’t love many people, and you just so happen to be one of them. But I normally wouldn’t tolerate that I-Wish-I-Hadn’t-Been-Born bullshit.”
“Yeah, yeah.” I sighed, flopping down on her bed alongside her and staring up at the ceiling, too. “What do you think is going to happen with all of this?”
“I think a lot of lives are going to be lost,” she said matter-of-factly. “The world as we know it is going to change. And it’s going to carry into the human world.” She swallowed hard, closing her eyes—which I knew was something she always did when she was trying to have a vision. Her visions, so far, had been as on point as Draia’s.
After a few long moments, Everly opened her eyes and glanced over at me. “I see a lot of darkness.”
“Nothing about this sounds… good. Not even the slightest bit good,” I commented.
“Yeah, because it’s not good.” She shook her head and then sat up. “I keep telling you that we’re going to war. Do you know what happened during the last paranormal world war?”
“We learned about it during Paranormal Societies class,” I replied. “The one where the dark fae and the werewolves got into a war, right?”
“Well, it was the werewolves and the bear shifters,” Everly explained. “The cat shifters ended up siding with the fairies, who sided against the dark fae. The vampire and warlocks joined the dark fae, while the witches and mermaids join the werewolves. Needless to say, everyone from every paranormal race hated each other for a long time after the war ended. There’s still a lot of racism because of it.” She paused. “I’m sure there will be some issues with racism after this war takes place, but mostly what I see is bloodshed of both paranormal beings and humans.”
“Great. So, what you’re saying is that, because of me, even the humans are going to be impacted by this.”
Everly shot me a sympathetic glance. “Don’t blame yourself.”
“You blame me.”
“I’m joking… sort of. I mean, there’s no denying that a lot of it has to do with you, but you can’t help who you were born to be.” Adjusting her black hair, which was pulled into a messy bun on top of her head, she glanced over at me. “Anyway, let’s change the subject. There’s something I’ve been wanting to ask you, but I hope it won’t be too weird to talk about.”
“Go for it,” I replied. “You’re one of my best friends. There’s nothing you could ask that would ever be weird.”
“Okay. What’s going on with you and Brett?” Everly asked, her gray eyes locking on mine.
“Not a damn
thing,” I replied with a shrug.
“Really? You’re not his girlfriend, now?”
“No. Why would you even think that?” I barely spent any time with Brett, so she definitely hadn’t come up with the idea because she was always seeing us together. Most of the time, he didn’t even escort me to and from my classes anymore.
“Well, I knew he asked you to be his girlfriend, and you were supposed to be thinking about it this summer,” she replied.
I just raised an eyebrow at her. I didn’t remember telling her that.
“He tells me things, Juliana. He may be my ex-boyfriend, but at the end of the day, he’s still my best friend.” She shrugged. “So, the last I knew, you were waiting to give him an answer. I figured that you must have told him by now that you wanted to be with him.”
“I don’t want to be with him.”
“You don’t have to pretend that just for my sake. If we’re going to be friends, we have to be honest with each other.”
“I really don’t want to be with him, Everly,” I said firmly.
Her gray eyes locked on mine. “Why wouldn’t you?”
“Because I’m not interested in him. I’m with someone else.”
“Ooh, who?” she asked, obviously intrigued.
I took a deep breath. Even though I knew she wouldn’t love what I was about to say, the truth was that I wouldn’t be able to hide it from her for much longer now. We were official now—a couple. I wasn’t even sure how she hadn’t caught onto the fact that the two of us were always together.
“Kaden,” I blurted. I braced myself for the reaction I knew was coming, even though when it came down to it, she should have been glad. At least I wasn’t with Brett, right?
Everly’s eyebrows knitted together at the center of her forehead, and she narrowed her eyes at me. “Are you freaking joking? Kaden is one of the Dark Coven! You can’t be with him.”
“So, um, that’s actually where you’re wrong. He’s not a part of the Dark Coven. I mean he is, but he isn’t really,” I explained. “He only joined the Dark Coven so that he can find out what they’re planning next. It was his way to keep me safe and protect me.”
