Secrets of Alkrose (Alkrose Academy, #2)

by K.M. Moronova

“Whenever I look at you pain spreads inside my chest. I hate it.” His eyes are distrustful and wary. “Don’t tell me you care about me,” I say with a light, joking tone, but Elias’s face only grows more severe. It’s sad to think he never learned how to understand his heart. “Tell me who Cein is, Elias. I want to help you.”

“He is the founder of the Shadows. In a way, he raised me.” His voice is devoid of nostalgia; it holds only disdain.

“He was the one that put a Shadow inside you as a child?” A lump forms in my t...

A somber grin pulls at my assassin’s soft lips. “I was the first one. He found me when I was living on the streets in Cyprin and gave ...

My mood is foul this morning. I had every intention of sharing my bed with Terra last night, but of course, she picked her pet over me.

“Well, at least I know she’ll be okay when I’m gone,” Raine says low enough for only me to hear. Arthur walks over to Terra to tell her how well she’s doing. They’re completely oblivious to us standing on the sidelines. “I’m really going to die, aren’t I?”

I don’t enjoy Raine’s presence, especially since I let him be my torturer for the entirety of last week. But one thing I admire about him is the loyalty he seems to feel toward Terra. If he’s worth anything, it’s as a shield for my mate.

“Yes, you’ve been blighted. I’ve yet to meet someone who has survived it.”

He houses the Destiny Shadow. I met it long ago. Why do I see so much of my old friend in Raine? The thought is too heavy, so I let it sink back into the depths of Velis’s grasp.

“But, should anyone have the right circumstances to possibly overcome the blight, I think you might have ...

“Really?” he asks. “It’s not a good way to die, Raine. And even though I utterly despise you, I’d rather see you cut in half instead of dying the way the blight takes you,”

“Is that your way of confessing you don’t hate me?” “No, I very much don’t like you.”

“I do believe there is a way. So don’t give up hope,” I say with an even tone, then subsequently a deep pit sinks inside my chest. Since when do I tell people to have hope? It’s usually the other way around.

“Why are you being kind to me? I fucking tortured you.” Raine seems genuinely curious as to why I care. Him and me both. This guy is annoying, Velis growls,

I was once as ruined as Raine. Did he really think I was unconscious during my torture? No, I was very much awake. Very aware of his tears crashing to the floor as he cut into my s...

By the end of my torture, he was practically begging me just to give him the information about Fernestia so he didn’t have to continue.

I think of the boy I saw cradled in his arms after the Skyfell. The way Raine’s mind broke and he ripped the brains out of anyone who was in his way. Perhaps that’s why… I don’t wish for him to die. He reminds me so much of⁠—

Stop, Velis hisses. I can’t keep your heart suppressed forever if you tug on the emotions. That gives me pause and I redirect. “I jus...

“Try the library, the old books on the third floor up near the back windows.” That’s where we used to study. I shut my eyes and I can see all of us again. Strange how they still feel so close even though five years have passed.

“Thank you, Elias.” I inwardly groan at him thanking me. “Don’t mention it to Terra. Just do your research and keep quiet about it, got it?” If Cein or Empress Raven find out I’m trying to un-blight another student they’ll punish me again.

“And surely you didn’t think that would take a week?” Arthur eggs me on. I don’t look at him though, I keep my gaze on the dreary view. “After a few days, I came to the conclusion that I didn’t want to go back up. That brat Raine would tell me how much Terra was enjoying the city and how she fawned over him.”

“And I wanted her to enjoy that for as long as she could, because I knew what would come next. What I didn’t account for was her Nova and mine together in the bunker creating a stronger beacon.” Arthur tuts. “Ah. That’s how they found you.” He flips his journal open again and jots down more notes.

“Good morning—I hope you are ready to embrace your Shadows and let them walk freely by your sides today. If not, don’t fret. It may take some of you a while to coax them out.” Arthur spreads his arms out and his Shadow shimmers into physical form beside him.

It’s shrouded in black, but it’s much clearer and much more real than I ever thought possible. His Shadow looks like a wolf and stands as tall as Arthur.

The face is that of a canine’s skull and the bones that peek out from the mist forming its neck and ribs make my throat dry. Its legs are long and too thin for any normal animal. Antlers spread from its head, making it look like a mythical creature in a storybook. The...

Terra’s Shadow comes out first, easily, in a slow, elegant strut. It’s a feline of some sort, big enough to ride. It resembles Arthur’s wolf in that its face is a skull and the spine and ribs are the only real shape that hold the mass of black smoke together.

“Holy shit, how did you do that?” Kai’s eyes grow wide and he walks up to the feline Shadow, pressing his hands against the smoke until his fingers touch something firm beneath. “It really does have a physical presence. I can’t push my hand through it,”

Corvus steps beside him, his eyes dancing with the same mystified look. “Amazing.” A small smile crests Edgar’s glum face and he tries to approach the Shadow too, offering his hand warily. It growls at him and he glances back at Terra.

“It doesn’t like your Shadow… Sorry.” She deflates as if the thought of their Shadows being ...

Terra turns her attention to me and grins. “What about yours?” My fingers curl at my sides. I don’t know if I can call my Shadow out—I know only its name. Laphia.

Corvus gasps as his body releases the same black mist. It forms a creature of feathers and bone. A crow the size of a man, but with four wings and eyes as red as rubies. Bones prick from the wings and the chest plate.

What dark gods sent these creatures to us? They’re sinister and appalling. Kai backs into me, taking us both to the ground. “What the fuck, Corvus,” ...

Edgar stares hollowly at the frozen lake. His lips move slightly, as if he’s speaking with himself—or worse yet, to his Shadow. Chills crawl up my spine as I watch him sit slumped over a rock like a shell.

“He’s been like this since he was restored,” she says grimly. As I glance her way she shuts her eyes somberly. I whisper, “Do you think he’ll come out of it?”

As my feet start to move toward Edgar and Lucina, Laphia speaks loudly, the scratchy voice curling around the base of my neck like steel. Stay away from Sully. It is poison. It is rot.

My stomach twists when I find Finn’s amber eyes and high cheekbones. He glances at me and our cheeks turn rosy in unison. No, oh gods, not him. Kai is sitting on his other side making a face that reveals how funny he thinks it is.

“You can have sex with anyone except a Shadow Mate. We are going to learn how to practice safe sex when you have an aggressive Shadow inside you.”

“Basically, you can fuck whomever you’d like since the chances of you finding a mate are slim to none. I believe we only have a few couplings in the entire academy, so it shouldn’t be difficult.”

Kallos stands and flicks his fingers in the air again, making the words in the space above him legible. They read: “Consensual Violent Sex.”

half listen as Kallos explains the ins and outs of our Shadows’ lust and their call to others’ powers. He shows us a few concoctions of birth control potions, which the men take. (Wow, smart, world-shattering. Who would have thought the Fernestians would be the first to say “The men are the reasonable things to use contraceptives on”?)

“Okay, now I will show you the savage pull Shadows can have and correct ways to proceed when courting a female,” he says casually.

Kai bursts out laughing. “Are you seriously going to show us?!” Finn curses under his breath and smacks Kai on the arm.

Kallos doesn’t seem one bit bothered by his Cosmos student’s comment. “How else can you grasp how vicious it can be?” the professor says with a light grin. His eyes flick back to me and he raises his hand like a gentleman. “Terra, care to help me?”

promise, nothing with our clothes off.” Is that supposed to make this less awkward?!

There’s a pull deep in my bones; Amser is drawn to him and urges me forward. This fucking Shadow is going to be the end of me.

I let my hand slide into his and the thrum of our Shadows connecting sends a shudder down my spine. Amser immediately takes to him and a carnal throb floods through my entire body. Kallos winces at the sensation and a frightening look of pure lust flickers across his eyes. Does every male crave a female Nova that badly?

My Shadow answers me even though I didn’t directly ask it. Yes.

“That wave of power you all sensed is the greeting of two Shadows who deem each other worthy. When this happens, a strong urge to devour one another will fall over you,”

“Everything inside you is heightened now. You have to fight the bad instincts. Alkrose rules are that anything you and your partner agree to do is permissible, but if there is no mutual consent, then that is where permission ends. For example: Terra, I want to kiss you. She’s going to say⁠—”

“Yes,” I blurt out—I don’t know what just came over me, but my heart hammers inside my chest at the embarrassment that follows. Kallos sucks a breath in and his Adam’s apple bobs as he stares down at me. There’s so much restraint behind his well-trained impassive expression.