Chapter One
If I moved, even an inch, I might be discovered. My quarry was more perceptive than any other Supe I’d ever encountered. Even more on edge since their prince was here. But there was no chance I was chickening out now. After all, it wasn’t every day you got to spy on the Fae.
Slowly, ever so slowly, I reached up and wiped away an errant drop of sweat before it stung my eye. The Academy’s Masters below had all taken their places in the chairs of the circular meeting room. It had once been an auditorium for my Advanced Spellslinging class, but no classes were being held today. They probably wouldn’t start again for a week, at least. Maybe longer. As soon as the Fae had randomly shown up at the Academy’s entrance, worried parents had ferried their children away. The rest of the students had been ushered into the dormitories where they remained, bored out of their minds, probably wondering what was going on. Asher, Mia, and Colson were among them. And I was glad Asher didn’t know where I was. He’d wanted to get a close look at the Fae like me, but he wouldn’t have picked this spot.
I was crouched in a ventilation shaft, with an excellent vantage point of everything going on below. Yeah, we might have magic, but there were few spells that could beat the benefits of central heating and air. Especially since the shafts ferried heat from the Academy’s numerous fireplaces to every room in the building.
That might have explained why I was sweating so much. But hey, when spying on the Fae, beggars couldn’t be choosers.
I ensured my hand wasn’t sweaty enough to slip and leaned forward to get a better look through the grate.
“I’m afraid I still don’t understand your reason for returning now,” Headmaster Lucien said, his tone bright despite the situation. “Both the Day and Night courts have historically never returned to our realm before their respective seasons are done.” He flashed a glittering smile. “Forgive me for thinking this is a little…uncouth.”
The Masters all shifted in their seats as one of the Fae stepped forward. General Zell, like all the Fae, was model-good looking, complete with high cheekbones, not an errant strand of his cream-colored hair out of place—
—and a glare that looked like it wanted to slice Lucien into tiny little pieces. If I didn’t know Lucien was more than capable of holding his own in a fight, I would have been terrified. Even still, nervousness fluttered in my chest as the General sneered at the surrounding Masters. “In times past that would be the case. Our realms have long existed separately, and we, as the dominant supernatural beings, have allowed you to be caretakers of these lands while we are gone.”
“Caretakers!” Master Lipstuck blustered indignantly, but he hushed with a sharp look from Lucien. The other Masters took a moment longer to settle down. I imagined they didn’t take too kindly to the whole ‘dominant supernatural beings’ line.
“Recently, however, we’ve been forced to return,” General Zell said over the disruption. “There have been reports most disturbing of magic out of balance. There have even…” General Zell looked around, as though the object of his searching would simply appear out of thin air, “been rumors that you are harboring the Cursed One, that ancient being we Fae locked up centuries ago.”
“Miranda is doing just fine without you all, thank you very much!” said Mrs. Rochester, the druid nurse and closest thing to a guardian we had for Miranda—AKA, the Cursed One.
This time it was the Fae’s turn to break out in muttering. A smirk pulled up one side of General Zell’s lips. “You have given it a name. How…domestic. You treat her as though she is not a danger, as though the power she possesses could not cause the destruction of all our kinds a thousand times over!”
“Miranda is no threat!” Mrs. Rochester was on her feet now. “The only thing she’s a threat to is my sanity when she won’t go to bed on time! And you all should be ashamed for locking that poor creature up to begin with—”
“Thank you, Frankie!” Lucien said loudly, clearly not wanting this to get any more out of hand than it already was. It looked like a losing battle to me. There were now more glares on both sides of the room.
“Since you are harboring her, we will see the Cursed One now,” General Zell said.
“I’m afraid that’s not possible,” Lucien said pleasantly. “She’s under our care.”
“If reports are to be believed and this woman…she calls herself Kasia Armani, if she truly desires to destroy this Academy, then the Cursed One will be the way she succeeds.”
“Now there’s something we can agree on,” Lucien said. “Kasia is by far the biggest threat. And she is only growing bigger. If the Fae see an imbalance with any supernatural being, she should be the first.”
General Zell took a step toward Lucien and I felt the tension in the room grow as the Masters shifted to support their headmaster. “Kasia will be dealt with in time,” General Zell said. “Now, you will let us see the Cursed One.”
“Repeating a demand won’t make it any more likely to happen,” Lucien said, but there was a harder edge to his voice. My stomach dropped as the Fae behind General Zell slowly reached toward their weapons. My tongue buzzed as the air filled with building magic, both sides on the verge of casting spells. Though it was against every policy of the Paranormal Coalition to attack another Supe without cause—especially inside the Academy—the Fae were the one group I’d expect to have no problem breaking those laws.
As the tension continued to build I felt a dark stirring in my chest. I immediately slammed my eyes shut, turning my concentration inward to fend off the Dark Prince before his power got too out of hand.
“You’re not needed,” I whispered. “Just…stay there and be good.”
I am not a dog you can call to your whim. Not anymore.
His power continued bubbling up inside me, and I swallowed a lump of fear that’d lodged in my throat. Easy. Breathe in. Out. In. Out. Just like Mia’s older brother Nolan had taught me. Though the guy had lost his own god, the lessons I took with him on self-control were probably the only reason the Dark Prince hadn’t completely broken free by now.
As I centered my mind on each breath my nerves began to calm. The dark magic probing the edges of my mind drew back, then receded to where it’d come from deep inside me.
That won’t help you forever, the Dark Prince said. Soon, I will be free. I will have my own body. And nothing you do will be able to stop me.
Not today, buster, I wanted to say. But I was relieved I’d actually managed to force him back. Since I’d learned the Dark Prince was not in fact a curse but a god of all things, and I’d lost control of his dark magic during my battle with Kasia in Paris, the seal inside me—the seal holding him from completely taking me over—had cracked beyond repair.
Only Asher, Mia, Colson, and a couple others I trusted more than anyone else in the world knew how close I was to losing control completely. Without that seal holding him back I knew, soon, the Dark Prince or I would break. It was merely a battle to see which one of us would be the first.
I opened my eyes and immediately stilled. The tension in the room hadn’t diminished, but the small bits of the Dark Prince’s magic I’d stirred up had attracted some unwanted Fae attention. The guard directly beneath the grate was looking around, as though she’d smelled something particularly nasty.
“It is our right as Fae to ensure the Cursed One does not fall into the wrong hands,” General Zell was saying. “If you won’t let us have her—”
“That’s enough, General,” said a light, airy voice.
And just like that, the tension from the Fae side dissipated, as though the mere sound of their prince speaking calmed them. The cluster of guards parted as he stepped forward, a benign smile on his too-perfect-it-had-to-be-glamour face. I’d only gotten a glimpse of him in front of the Academy before his ever-present guards had surrounded him with their swords and icy glares. He looked, if it was possible for an ageless being, younger than the others with an almost boyish face and flippant smile he cast at everyone. It was as though, no matter how intense our problems grew, they were a mere triviality in the grand scheme of life.
“General Zell can be a bit overbearing at times,” the prince said.
General Zell bowed low. “Prince Zephyr, I only seek to ensure that this realm stays safe, especially now of all times.”
“And you do an excellent job as always, my friend,” Zephyr said. “We will leave the Cursed One in the Academy’s care. After all, if we are truly to begin building trust between our kinds, trust must be first given.”
Even from where I hid, I could see a muscle feather in General Zell’s jaw. “Prince, I ask that you reconsider. In the past, our kinds and theirs—”
“The past is what I’m here to fix.” Zephyr turned to look at everyone in the room. I could have sworn his eyes rested on me for the briefest moment before moving on to others. “The Day and Night Courts of the Fae, after millennia of strife, have at last united into one. By their grace, I have been chosen as their single ruler.”
I swallowed a gasp as the Masters broke into excited murmurs. Even Lucien raised an eyebrow at this. The two Courts of Fae, while not always at war, had never been exactly friendly with one another. At least, they were about as friendly to each other as they were to us. Which wasn’t saying much.
“I have returned here before my ascension to right the wrongs of the past and reconnect with the other Supernaturals, with whom we share this plane of existence,” Prince Zephyr went on.
He gave a demure smile, as though what he just said hadn’t been one of the snootiest things I’d ever heard. “However, I see there is still strife among your kind. I will have General Zell investigate this woman known as Kasia Armani. Perhaps he can do what you are having trouble with, and bring her to justice.”
“It would be my honor, Prince,” General Zell said, bowing so low that his perfect nose nearly squashed against our less-than-perfect floor.
“With all due respect, Prince,” Lucien said lightly. “Kasia Armani is not a normal Supe. She—”
“I have heard she is one of the last Zukami,” the prince said. “Yes!” he exclaimed as some of his guard began muttering. “God eaters! Heaven snatchers! Those which we thought could rival our power. Those which we thought to be dead.”
“Excellent!” Lucien said. “Then you know this isn’t someone your General Zell—as wonderful as I’m sure he is at his job—will simply flounce on out and subdue.”
General Zell’s glare could have melted metal. “I do not flounce, mortal—”
“You’re making a mistake,” Lucien said to the prince. The prince merely offered him a playful smile I was already getting sick of seeing.
“I trust my General. And I ask that you trust my judgment as much as we trust you with the powerful being known as the Cursed One. In my time here, before I must return for my ascension at the summer solstice, I will seek to learn all I can about this mortal realm. I will reestablish ties with the Paranormal Coalition. In short, I will do what past rulers never did.”
That sounded like a tall order to me. While I didn’t sense Zephyr was outwardly trying to be disrespectful, it was clear there was still a lot about us he didn’t understand, and probably never would. I knew from experience there was only so much an immortal being could grasp about us lowly mortals. Still…I had to admit, I was glad he was at least trying.
My legs were beginning to cramp. I was pretty sure I’d sweated out at least half my body weight, and it looked like this meeting was going to continue for a while yet. I double-checked that the Fae guard who’d been looking around earlier was pre-occupied once again, then started trying to slide backwards.
That’s when my sweaty hand slipped. In desperation, I tried to stop myself from rolling forward with my other one, but I had momentum now. The grate easily popped off (Seriously? Maintenance needed to get their act together) and next thing I knew I was airborne, tumbling out of the grate and plummeting toward the center of the room.
Without thinking I cast my magic out below me, “Cathall!”
The catching spell slowed my fall a moment before I would have splattered on the ground. I gently bumped to a stop.
Right beside the prince.
I looked around, from General Zell, ready to slice my head clean off, to Lucien, who seemed more resigned than upset at my grand entrance.
I coughed. “Well…This is awkward.”
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