Cursed Academy (Year One and a Half) Read online

  Green light shot from her sword, lashing like a dozen snakes, before she and her friends ran off, cussing. They flew around me, trapping me in a eerie tornado. The air filled with dread. Cries emanated from the glow. Ghostly faces leered. Maria screamed. Mikey cursed.

  I should be scared.

  No. I was powerful.

  "Giselle!" Ronin jabbed his hands through the tornado, but they withered, aging eighty years, as he pulled them back. "Shit! I can't get her!"

  The dreadful thrumming increased from the tornado. The green glow closed in. When the ghosts touched me, I'd fall to the Underworld. The ground already softened.

  And my thoughts turned clear, merging with black ice.

  I had this.

  I sliced at the wall of death. It was only death. I was worse.

  Purplish-black plasma burst to life, running down my arm and through the Chaos Dagger. The air filled with an awful sucking sound and Wendy's dread vanished. Plasma merged with the Underworld, infecting the tornado, spreading pure darkness all around me. Cold. The ghostly faces screamed and dissipated, merging with the void.

  A flash of purple crept up my arm, starting at my blade and working its way up, inch by inch. My skin turned cold. My purple sleeve peeled back in a wind I couldn't feel. The purple flash got closer, closer, leaving my skin gray and merciless. Black lines zigzagged along my flesh, cracks leading to a darkness so deep nothing might ever get out.

  I was changing.

  Maturing.

  Becoming something utterly dark and terrifying.

  I tried to release the dagger. But it as if the void were electrocuting me. I'd gone too far.

  "Giselle!"

  "Ronin!"

  "Giselle! Don't give in!"

  The pain in his voice loosened my fingers. I dropped my weapon. My hand and lower arm returned to normal. The sense of incredible power snapped away, leaving me weak. Darkness dissipated. Books came into view. Terrified faces. Maria. Mikey. Ronin, eyes shining. He was vulnerable.

  My ears rang and a different kind of darkness closed in. I fell to my knees, and a split second later, I opened my eyes and realized I was on my back.

  Yeah. I had fallen in front of everyone. Passed out. A sign I'd overextended myself. I blinked, focusing on Ronin, who kneeled beside me and tucked the Chaos Dagger back in his coat. And I was half-lying on my backpack. Books jabbed into my ribs.

  "Giselle," he repeated. "I'd make fun of you for this, but now's not the time. Guess I need to carry you." He flexed his biceps. Ronin was trying to keep up a brave face, but his pupils were wide, just as Wendy's had been. Even in the semi-dark, it was obvious.

  Maria shined her phone down on me. "You passed out."

  "Um," I said.

  I had almost matured. Something had changed since I destroyed Achlys. Accelerated the dark path I was already on.

  "Had to take my awesome example, didn't you? I think you would have learned." Ronin tucked his hands behind his back.

  "Geez," Maria said. Tears had gathered in her eyes. "She just encased herself in a bubble of darkness and you have to pick on her."

  "I'm okay," I lied. We had to get out of here. If Wendy attacked again...no. I did not want to see myself when the transformation finished.

  Maria put her hands on her hips. "You are not okay."

  "Well, she had to save herself from the Underworld." Mikey stood against the books. "That was awesome."

  "We can't stay here." I pushed myself up, still weak.

  "Whoa," Ronin said, forcing a smile. "You don't want to fall on your face, do you? Really. I think you overextended yourself. Sadly, I have no room to talk about that."

  "I...I almost..." My friends hadn't seen the horror through the darkness.

  And even though Ronin had offered to pick me up, and I certainly wouldn't turn that down, he stayed there, kneeling, with his hands behind his back. We faced each other and he frowned.

  "We'll talk later," he said, shifting to pick me up. Maria kneeled to put her arm under mine, and Ronin extended a hand.

  Then I saw his humiliation. Ronin's hand was mottled. His joints had bulged. "You've got old man hands!"

  Ronin gulped. "It was that green crap. Who knows how long it'll last?" He slipped his arm underneath me, pulling me up with Maria's help. I rose to my feet, knees shaking.

  My stomach turned. Ronin didn't need to deal with this. His father put such super high expectations on him it was sickening. Like Wendy, he had to be at the top of the class. Only Wendy probably didn't have a parent making that demand out of her. If Zeus saw this, he'd go off on Ronin for sure. "Get to a healer, okay?"

  "After we get you to safety," he said, kissing the top of my head. "No more passing out."

  "So I'm the weakling," Mikey said, following as Maria and Ronin helped me out of the aisle.

  My heart raced as we walked down the red carpet and out of the library, but Wendy wasn't waiting outside for us. With luck she thought the job was done. Ronin's hand remained on my back, but it didn't feel right. The normal electricity that lit up my skin had weakened into a sickly tingle.

  We clicked off our flashlights once we crept through the hole in the fence. My legs felt slightly better as I walked, but still shaky. "I thought I was supposed to become an immortal. And that I couldn't overexert myself."

  Ronin kissed the top of my head. "Well, you're staying in true form."

  "I'm not a puppy." I was just delaying telling him the truth.

  "I'm being sarcastic. Looks like you're still mortal and can, Giselle. Every time you hold your weapon, it gets worse. You might heal fast, but I think until you mature, you can still die."

  "Or worse," I muttered.

  Both Maria and Ronin stared at me, open-mouthed. Heat rushed to my face.

  Mikey caught up with us, backpack bulging with stolen books. "I closed up the library doors. Maria, your claw. Man, this is heavy."

  "Oh." Maria looked at Mikey, who was bent over, dragging the device along the ground. "You need to take Giselle, then."

  I was glad for the distraction. She and Mikey traded places and we kept walking.

  "Giselle, what happened back there?" Ronin whispered in my ear.

  So much for that. But his breath sent good shivers down my spine. "Something's different now. I'm worse. When I was in that darkness, my arm started turning gray, and there were these black lines all over my skin, and well, it was scary." A sob worked its way into my throat. No. I could not cry now. "I just felt like...I just felt like destruction. Killing Achlys might have sped things along."

  Ronin curled his fingers into the back of my shirt. Each one popped. "I felt something like that coming from you, too."

  "You did?" Oh, no. That explained his pain when he was screaming my name. I'd forgotten that Ronin could sense magic in others.

  "That's not good." Ronin grasped the back of my shirt like I might fly away. "Man, I hope Zeus doesn't realize we've stopped training. At least until we can get you into a better environment. Olympian has classes where you learn to use lighter magic. They might help you. Staying around Wendy is bad. Very bad. At least he's across the world right now."

  The Rivers book bounced in my backpack. And the surrounding trees seemed to close in.

  I had to get the green symbol off my forearm. Then I could go where I belonged.

  We reached the back door of Cursed Academy, and the werewolf guards were still gone, having once again been lured by the rabbits Mikey set loose earlier. In the distance, growling sounded as the monsters crashed through the trees. We snuck inside, ducking out of the cold night. Wendy had vanished. The green torches spat on the walls as they always did, giving off no heat. The interior of the main building was always cold and eerie.

  "I'll stay with you tonight," Ronin whispered in my ear. "Can you walk yet?"

  "I think so."

  He and Mikey let go, and I stumbled a bit before catching my footing. "What are we going to do?"

  Ronin surveyed his ruined hands. "Well
, at least I didn't put my face in that green energy, baby."

  "It's bothering you," I said.

  Ronin's eyes sparkled with worry. "I should have stopped Wendy from putting you in that position." He was dead serious.

  "I hope so," I said. "In the morning, we have to tell Prometheus what happened. He wants me here, and if he knows other students are trying to banish me, he's got to do something, right?"

  Mikey frowned. "I'm not sure about that. This is Cursed Academy. They expect this kind of crap. People have died here. It's just part of the deal. And it's a crappy deal."

  We headed up to my room.

  "We have to try something," Maria said. We made it up to my room, and the four of us entered once I slipped in the key card. My room was dark purple as usual, matching my first year robes hanging in the closet. I took off my blue second year disguise and hung that in the back of the closet, though no one could get into my room unless I let them in. Tonight, I was glad for the extra security.

  But Ronin's hands remained wrinkled and old. He sat on my bed, silent.

  My chest ached for him. "You need to go get healed." He'd done this for me.

  He didn't respond at first. Ronin kept his gaze on his jeans. "Well, I should have tried harder before Wendy shot that magic at you."

  "It wasn't your fault," I said. His posture took me back to our battle with Achlys. He hadn't been able to save his mother from dying to the Lower Order. And she'd reminded him of that fact. Now he hadn't been able to save me.

  "I'll deal with it," Ronin said, keeping his gaze on the floor. "What's important is that you need a cover story if you're going to talk to your princi-pal tomorrow."

  Chapter Three

  We all stayed up in my room because I didn't want my friends in their own dorms after they witnessed Wendy's attack. Maria and Mikey slept on the floor. Ronin and I laid side by side on my huge bed, on our backs, over the covers. It was the first time we'd slept in the same bed, despite multiple make-out sessions, but the warmth I had hoped for had been replaced with tension. He kept the Chaos Dagger in his coat, and I was so worried about him that I woke up several times that night to check on him. Ronin didn't want me to hold his hand. He kept them pinned to his sides. And they remained ruined.

  Though I felt better, strength-wise, it was clear he didn't. And wouldn't when he woke up. Could I reach him? There was more than just guilt over me going on here.

  Had he seen his mother die?

  I'd never asked him about it. That was a topic I was scared to bring up. I knew the Lower Order had killed Ronin's mother, a model Zeus had seduced one night, but not the details.

  "Oh, Ronin," I said. I didn't even have the heart to stuff that rainbow unicorn in his grasp.

  The night dragged on, and I considered opening up my book, but I was too focused on Wendy and facing the titan in the morning. I woke at seven sharp, two hours before classes were due to begin, and I swatted Ronin on the shoulder to get a grunt in return.

  "Morning," I said. "Time for our next mission."

  "If I go with you, Prometheus will probably burn me alive," Ronin said, blinking. He held up his hands as the sparkle died in his eyes. "Or make me help teach Combat Training in front of everyone like this."

  "Don't tell me it's your day to do that." The principal needed to give Ronin a break.

  "Then I won't tell you." Ronin stared at the purple canopy above him.

  Great. "Go get healed. I'm sure someone can help you. At least it hasn't gotten any worse."

  "I'll see." Ronin got up and left, after a half-hearted kiss on the forehead and zero touching otherwise. My room went silent after I let him out, except for Maria and Mikey's quiet snoring.

  Yeah. Something was wrong with Ronin. And it wasn't just his hands.

  At least I'd see him a bit later, hopefully healed. But we had business this morning.

  I woke Maria and then Mikey with a gentle nudge of my foot.

  Maria looked around the room and frowned. "Where's Ronin?"

  "He went to the healers. I hope they can help him. Now's the time."

  Once my friends were up and about, we put on our first year robes. Prometheus lived on site, in a small house at the back of Cursed Academy's grounds, but no one ever went over there and bothered him. But when we didn't find him in his tiny office across from the dining hall, I knew we had to go catch out there and catch him. Yay.

  "This is great," Maria said, peeking into his office. Just a laptop and a bunch of office supplies waited, along with a vial of golden liquid. Nectar. It was the food of the immortals and smelled way too sweet even from a distance. At that thought, I turned away from it.

  The sun was still rising and my breath spiraled in front of my face when we stepped outside. It was the dead of winter here, with frost on the ground, though the vines hanging off the trees at the back of the grounds were still green. We entered, walking down a trail past Building B and into the woods, following a narrow gravel trail that stopped at a chain that spread across it. A metal sign read Authorized Staff Only.

  And just beyond the chain, a clay house, painted tan, nestled in the trees. It looked like a house from ancient times, with a thatched roof and windows without glass. Of course, Prometheus was immortal. Nobody was going to mess with him. And the immortals had a truce with each other.

  The house was dark inside. I wondered if he had electricity.

  I gulped. "I feel like we shouldn't be here."

  "Well, we shouldn't be beyond this point," Mikey said, leaning over the chain link. He spread his hand into the forbidden zone. "Well, I'm not on fire, so I think we're safe if we knock."

  I took a breath. This place was cool in an artistic way. And...did Prometheus work with clay? Tree stumps decorated his overgrown yard and clay figures, some in the shape of humans and others in the shape of monsters, stood everywhere. A nearby figure of a warrior stood a foot tall, and looked so detailed I wondered if he would come to life and attack us for trespassing.

  Turned out I didn't have to duck under the chain, because the wooden door that marked the entrance to the house opened, and Prometheus stepped through backwards, locking it behind him with a brass key. The air came to life, filling with energy that sent prickling an tingles under my skin. All the spit left my mouth as he turned, saw us, and flinched.

  "Hi," I said, waving. "I like your artwork." Best to start on common ground, right? We had something in common. I could appeal to the principal and not in a perverted way.

  "Ah, yes," Prometheus said, eyes smiling behind his spectacles. "Creation is a wonderful thing, isn't it? I wish we had more programs for art here that aren't limited to Arachne's descendants. I've been pushing for more variety in our curriculum." The titan raised one eyebrow. He was ready for business, already dressed in his wrinkled black suit. His spectacles shone in the early light and his green-flecked eyes landed on me as if Maria and Mikey didn't exist.

  The air warmed, but not painfully so. He wasn't angry...yet. That was a good sign.

  "Um, Wendy tried to send me to the Underworld last night," I blurted.

  Prometheus just kept studying me like he wasn't sure how to react. Then he paled. "She did?"

  "Well, I had to go..." Cover story, Giselle. Telling him I'd broken into the Olympian library would not win me brownie points. "I had to go do my laundry because I spilled juice on my robe, and she was down there. And she had a new sword that was giving off green light. That's when she and her friends threatened to send me to the Underworld." Come on, Maria and Mikey. This was the part where they needed to back me up.

  The titan scratched his chin. Then the air heated. "She attempted to use her birthright weapon on you? First and second years are not allowed to carry them outside of Combat Training."

  "That's what I thought." We were getting somewhere.

  "That is true," Prometheus said. "Wendy is a very talented girl. Descendant of Hades himself. That's quite rare. But that does not give her license to attack you. I know she has a tendenc
y for grudges."

  Was he complimenting her after she tried to eliminate me? I looked to Mikey, then Maria.

  A bit of icy plasma burst to life in my chest.

  I let out a breath. Help, please.

  Maria spoke up for me. "Wendy tried to send Giselle to the Underworld. Isn't there a rule against that?"

  The principal undid the chain over the trail and stepped through, putting it back behind him. He dropped his tone past any hope and the green flecks in his eyes darkened. "There are no such rules, unfortunately. That was part of the oath we immortals took and I cannot break those rules. Infighting has always been part of Cursed Academy's program. Olympian's, too. The gods prefer to weed out the weak before they rejoin the outside world. If I could, I would expel Wendy for such a thing, but there are very few ways to kick a student out of either school."

  "What?" I burst. The gasp of darkness in my heart grew, pulsing against my ribcage.

  Prometheus frowned, sincere. "Your best bet is try harder. I know you can tap into your powers, especially in Combat Training. This is a rough environment. I admit that. It's designed to be that way. I can, however, request that your part time instructor keep the birthright weapons locked better. I'll have a talk with him about securing the shed." His tone darkened.

  And then a nearby pine branch smoked before the tip caught fire.

  Seriously? He was making this Ronin's fault?

  Of course, Prometheus hated Ronin by default. He seemed to hate everything and everyone related to Zeus.

  "I bet Wendy used magic to break into the weapons shed," I said. "Ronin keeps it locked up good. I've seen him."

  Uh, oh.

  The icy plasma fled as I realized my screw up. The principal didn't know Ronin and I had been spending time together, since we always sneaked off, and we'd both agreed that his finding out wouldn't be a good thing. Especially since he'd risked Zeus's rage to have me here.

  "You've watched Ronin?" His voice grew to fill the surrounding woods.

  A prickle ran up my back. I had to own this. Fix this. And fast.

  "Well, yeah. Maybe I shouldn't have."