Page 27 of Fortune Academy: Year Two
I found it odd that no one was around when I arrived. Not a single stray student, no guards, nothing.
Then I felt the reason why.
A deep, nauseating sensation spread throughout my belly and a little voice in my head screamed for me to go the other way. I rubbed my stomach and swallowed bile as I dove into that dark pit in my chest for strength. The sensation eased just enough to keep me lucid. Whoever had done this was powerful. The warding spell along the West Wing perimeter was strong.
Which made me even more curious what the Academy was hiding.
The iron spikes shot menacingly into the sky to discourage anyone who might think of climbing over it. I paused at the gate and frowned at the handprint panel. I gave it a try and it beeped with a red light.
Undeterred, I looked at the top of the spikes and didn’t give it too much thought. I put all my strength into my legs, building up tension as I crouched, and then I sprang into the air.
It felt like I was flying at first. After unleashing the dark powers inside of myself and letting them run free without Kaito’s binds, I found it disturbingly easy to access my supernatural strength. I leapt over the fence with ease.
“There,” I said to myself as I smoothed my skirt. I looked back through the bars and spotted a glimmer of orange and black, but then it was gone.
It could be Dante. I didn’t know exactly what kind of powers a Hunter had when it came to stealth. I also imagined Dante didn’t want me talking to Jess until he worked out his little agenda with Hendrik and Kaito, but that was just too bad. I was working on my timetable, not his.
I left the fenced area and approached a haze in the distance. My ears popped when I crossed an invisible barrier and a massive building materialized. I swallowed hard when I realized that the arena was much larger than the students had ever mentioned, not that any of them had been there, and a low beat shook the ground, making me furrow my brow with concern.
What kind of place was this?
I ventured on and spotted a group of well-dressed individuals at the entrance. They chatted in cliques and seemed completely at ease. The most notable thing about them was they didn’t seem university-age with their distinguished chiseled faces. Even supernaturals aged into their late twenties before things seemed to slow down.
I felt horribly out of place when I got close enough to mingle with the crowd. I ripped my Academy badge off my chest and shoved it in a pocket, then tugged the tie out of my hair to let my blonde locks drape free over my shoulders. I still got funny looks because I was clearly younger than everyone here, but I ducked my head and hurried inside.
It took my eyes a moment to adjust to the dim interior, as well as my ears to the loud thrum that shook the entire place with a steady techno beat.
It was packed. Bodies jostled up against one another everywhere I looked. I peered up to find a smaller overhanging balcony that held formally dressed attendees with fluted glasses. They had their eyes glued to the center of the room where a cage held two people going at it. My nostrils flared at the scent of violence, my demonspawn side excited and drawing it all in.
I resisted the urge to release my claws, as that seemed to be the only part of my body that wanted to transform, but I had a feeling that it was going to get worse unless I did something about it. That’s why I needed to talk to Jess. She’d paraded around as a functioning member of society at Cindy’s bar and I wanted to know how she’d done it.
Shoving my way through the crowd, I tried not to draw too much attention to myself. I needed to find where Dante would have stashed his bounty, although my legs took me straight to the cage instead.
When I got close enough to see who was fighting, I drew in a soft gasp. A vampire blurred to the end of the cage and ran his tongue up one fang that was red with blood. His victim had gotten a few blows in, but the vampire rapidly healed the bruises that had blossomed over his face.
His opponent raked both hands in the air, starting a spell that gleamed with purple tones and made the crowd go wild. I sucked in a breath when I saw that the Mage was none other than Hendrik.
I shouldn’t have been worried for the Dark Mage, especially given how he had treated me, but I held my breath and watched with wide eyes as he muttered words of magic, billowing the spell to life that made my skin tingle. When he reached a crescendo, the scent of his magic exploded throughout the room. The aroma of roses and blood masked the humid stench of sweat as bodies crowded in to see what the spell would do.
The vampire grinned when nothing happened, then moved in for the attack.
That’s when the spell hit.
His legs swooped out from under him and the vampire landed face-first against the cage’s iron floor as smoky vines dug into his skin to keep him pinned. Hendrik was over him in a flash, ramming his foot down and breaking the vampire’s fangs. A screech of agony ran out from the creature as Hendrik collected his prize and tossed both fangs into a pouch. He nodded to the crowd that was going wild and then moved for the cage’s exit, leaving the creature to writhe as he grabbed at his bleeding mouth.
“Brutal!” an onlooker exclaimed.
“Hendrik! Hendrik! Hendrik!” another group chanted.
Was this for real?
I watched where the Dark Mage delved into an underground tunnel and my senses came alive with magic of my own. I wasn’t sure if it was the impact of Hendrik’s spell, or if I was unlocking newer, dark parts of myself, but my chest warmed as I drew from the Blood Stone and the arena’s pathways came to life. It was as if I could see through all the bodies and walls of concrete down to where I wanted to go.
There was an entire underground compound and Hendrik delved into it, disappearing through a maze of tunnels. I was dying to follow him and figure out what he was up to and why the hell he was fighting a vampire—and what he was going to do with those teeth.
But then my vision shifted, showing me a new collection of bodies that curled against the corners of their cells.
Prisoners?
