Supernatural Academy: Year One (Supernatural Academy, #1)

by Jaymin Eve

For the lost, displaced, and alone. This one is for you. May you find your light in this world.

Hope was a killer. Any time I’d ever let myself hope for something more, the disappointment when it didn’t work out crushed me. Eventually you learned to stop hoping. And accept your shitty reality.

Powerful, dark, dangerous. I knew that look intimately. I’d been running from it my entire life, because girls who got involved with men like them usually didn’t make it to their next birthday.

On first impression, he seemed laid-back, but first impressions were wrong a lot.

It would be a cold day in hell before I stopped cursing.

He continued to stare, and I tried not to run away. Never run from a predator.

They were the sort that mesmerized you until you couldn’t see straight, turned your own body against you, and then when they had you right where they wanted you, they chewed you up and spat you out … broken.

That was the thing with scars … you really couldn’t get rid of them. Even after they faded, the shadow of the injury remained. And it always would. Maybe that was so you never forgot, hopefully learning from the past.

The events of the past explained so much of the present and future. And it always repeated itself. If only we could start to learn from it, then the world would be a better place.

“I’m not a sideshow amusement.

firmly in lust with him.

“Great! Well, Louis will be here then to help you out.”

There’s nothing normal about you, and even if there was, you’re not less than Asher. Not less than anyone.”

some people are beyond saving.

“Water magic is in my blood. I can control this element in almost all ways, including but not limited to drowning someone with the very water in their bodies.”

“Sorry, I sometimes talk before I think. It’s a problem I’m not working on.”

“Are you Macilinta of the Sonaris people?” a heavily accented voice asked me. So heavy that I couldn’t even be sure I heard that correctly. I gasped before shaking my head. “My name is Maddison.”

His intensity could turn a nun, I swear. I nodded and swallowed roughly. My mouth was dry, my throat was dry, my panties were not.

I ordered two tequilas from the fey serving and downed both of them fast. The burn spread through my chest.

“Humor is my shield, a deflection.

Not everyone got my sense of humor. Plenty of guys took it as an insult, their tiny egos unable to handle any sort of teasing.

“I don’t know what the fuck to do with you. You’re everywhere. You call to the water … and me.” He leaned in closer, his lips brushing across my cheek. “I can’t get you out of my head.”

Asher was not mine, I knew that, but tonight … tonight he was as close as I’d probably ever get.

He moved closer, and I swallowed hard. With that slicked-back hair, water dripping across his skin, eyes shimmery silver, he looked like an amazing, mind blowing, very bad decision waiting to happen.

You’re one of us.”

They were smart and powerful, apparently, but in my head they were idiots for not loving their son unconditionally.

I felt sexy, and occasionally it was nice for a girl to rock her curves out in the world.

“If you want to change the status quo, then you should make the first move. Maybe you’ll have sex and get it out of your system, or you’ll figure out that there’s something deeper there. Whatever you both are doing now is not healthy.”

The beat on the dance floor was deep, the sort that settled into your blood and made you feel as one with the music.

As I swayed with Larissa, eyes closed and arms above my head, I wasn’t Maddison James, orphan and human-turned-supe, I was a forest nymph, powerful, strong, and sexy.

“I can’t resist you any longer.” My tongue darted out to try and moisten my lips. “Then don’t.”

It started to rain at some point, but I barely even noticed the cold droplets scattering across my heated skin.

As more rain fell, I tilted my head back to stare up into the darkness above, letting the water soak my face. Asher’s lips landed on my throat and my eyes fluttered shut at the sensation of him pressing kisses along my jawline, the scruff of his five o’clock shadow scraping across sensitive skin.

With my last conscious moments, I attempted to free my power. I needed it now more than ever, but between Louis’s block and the herb, I was useless.

“How … how can you say that? You would damn us all to save her?” I wanted to sob as Asher’s eyes caught mine. “I would,” he said. “You and everyone else.”

Pushing at my power, I struggled to get free, because I couldn’t let him do this. Whatever his evil fake mother wanted, I had to stop him. But I couldn’t break the shield over my powers; it was too strong, and again, I was not enough.

“Don’t do this,” I begged. “I’m not worth it.” I couldn’t live if he sacrificed himself to save me. He shook his head, a sad smile tilting his lips. “You’re worth so much more than this,” he said.

Asher had been my friend for months. My lover for a night. And in my heart for a long time. Now he was gone.

It was Asher or me, and he took the bullet for us both.”

It was lucky that Axl put a tracker on you, because we wouldn’t have easily found you this fast otherwise.” In normal circumstances I’d have been ultra pissed that someone put a tracker on me without my permission, but in this situation I really didn’t have a place to be angry. I should have expected it. Axl had trackers on all of his friends because he couldn’t sleep at night unless he knew they were safe. I’d clearly made the cut there, which was sweet. In a creepy stalker way.

Being drugged and kidnapped was the basis for ninety percent of women’s nightmares. I was no exception.

My eyes fluttered shut, and I forced all the dark thoughts into a box. A box I would examine tomorrow. For now, I needed sleep.

When it rains, it pours.

“You guys want a drink?” I said, feeling a little down. “I could use a drink.” Three hours and ten bottles of wine later, we were swimming naked in the pool. I couldn’t even remember whose idea it was, but it was the best fucking idea ever.

“We’re no closer to finding Asher, and every single day he’s gone it’s like acid eating away at my soul.

At the end of the day, there was a huge magical light display, which was akin to fireworks but much more creative. I saw dragons and unicorns and waterfalls explode across the sky, and I could feel the energy on my skin, raising goosebumps.

If Louis couldn’t control it, then no one could. He was the strongest of all magic users in the world. “I will figure out the best location to take you when I release it. I will help you, even if I have to bring in a few of my friends. Or Tee, my mate. She’s very powerful as well, and she really wants to meet you.”

Bottom line for all of us: we’d rather die in hell with Asher than be safe while he suffered.

“Incredible,” I breathed, my hand pressing against the glass, like I could reach out and run my hands through the fluffiness. “I love all your firsts,” Axl said, shooting me an odd look. “You’re the best thing that happened to the five of us. We needed…” I waited with bated breath for what he was going to say. “You,” he finished. “We needed you in our lives.” “It’s true,” Calen added from the chair behind Jesse. “Yep,” Jesse chimed in.

“Tyson Compass managed to become a sorcerer last year, and he’s pretty much the same age as us. Sure, the quads are famous, and he has no peer, but still … it’s doable. You just have to exercise your magical muscles.”