Prophecy Girl (Shadow Academy Book 2) Read online

  Prophecy Girl

  Shadow Academy, Volume 2

  Kat Cotton

  Published by Kat Cotton, 2019.

  This is a work of fiction. Similarities to real people, places, or events are entirely coincidental.

  PROPHECY GIRL

  First edition. December 16, 2019.

  Copyright © 2019 Kat Cotton.

  Written by Kat Cotton.

  Table of Contents

  Title Page

  Copyright Page

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Chapter 30

  Chapter 31

  Chapter 32

  Chapter 33

  Chapter 34

  Chapter 35

  Chapter 36

  Chapter 37

  Chapter 1

  CHERRY LOVE IS A COLD-blooded killer.

  The words slammed into me like a punch to the stomach, knocking the air from my lungs. I stared, trying to make sense of the words neatly written on the classroom whiteboard.

  Me? A killer? I wasn’t a killer. I hadn’t killed. Well, not anyone human.

  Those breathing exercises I’d learned at anger management class came in real handy. I inhaled deeply, focusing on that breath. Then exhaled, trying to release all the negativity. I uncurled my fists and dropped my shoulders.

  This was a stupid prank, nothing else.

  I broke my daze to stare at the real killer in this room. Angela Blackstone. I bet she’d written those words.

  She’d killed Farran Quiller but no one did a darn thing about it. Because Farran had been a vampire. Well, half-vampire, and one of the good ones. When Angela removed his ring, he couldn’t survive in the sunlight. She should’ve been arrested, expelled at the very least, instead, she sat in her usual seat in the fourth row with smugness beaming from her murdering face.

  Not just smugness but a glare of murderous hate when her gaze hit me.

  Sure, I’d kissed Ren Worthington at the school dance. That must’ve turned her dislike of me into pure jealous loathing. But I’d saved her life. I’d saved all their lives.

  For an instant, a wave of regret swept over me. Regret for saving them when they were worse than a pack of hyenas.

  When I’d started at this school, my mantra had been: stay in the shadows. After slaughtering a bunch of vampires at the school dance – and saving these jerks from certain death – staying in the shadows was no longer an option. People knew my name. They knew I existed. And, in my experience, when people knew you existed, they just lived to torment you.

  But, jeez, I’d saved their lives. The whole lot of them would be vampire food now if I hadn’t stepped up.

  Sure, I never expected a medal or even a thank you, especially since we’d downplayed the whole paranormal side of things. In the aftermath, a combination of quick talking and a few charm spells wiped the whole vampire part from their memories. But we couldn’t wipe the whole thing from their minds, not without risking other damage.

  So, they knew we’d been attacked. They knew Ren kissed me. And they knew I’d killed things.

  You’d have thought wiping out my part in it would’ve been important but nope. All the head of Edgewater Academy cared about was hiding the risk of supernatural threats from the parents. Any hint of scandal got stamped out real fast.

  I got a scholarship so my powers could protect the other students but, as I’d suspected, nothing protected me from them.

  This was my first day back at school since that night. What happened during the week I’d been away from school? Lucas told me strange stuff had gone down but he hadn’t elaborated. Now I really needed to know.

  “Just ignore them.” Lucas touched my arm to ground me then kept walking to our desks.

  They were definitely wrong about the cold-blooded thing because my blood boiled. I followed Lucas but stared around the class. Stupid, I know, since every single student averted their eyes suddenly fascinated with the textbook or something out the window. But they couldn’t really believe those stupid words.

  The only kindness in this room came from Lucas but I searched for one person. One pair of chocolate brown eyes.

  Idiot, Cherry. He doesn’t care about you. He hasn’t even contacted you in the past week.

  After the shemozzle that was the school dance, I’d been given a week off classes to recover my strength. Good thing too. I’d barely been able to get out of bed for the first two days. Using all that power wiped me out.

  Mr. Norton visited every day, checking on my progress. He’d even gotten special permission for Lucas and Britney to come up to the elite dorms.

  They’d also come every day, bringing me school work so I didn’t fall behind in class and to hang out watching my massive television. As much as I liked them both, it got a bit awkward with their blossoming romance in the air.

  After a few hours of them hanging out in my room, I’d tell them it was okay to go off canoodling somewhere else.

  “If you want to help me get better, you could go into town and get me a parfait.”

  A cafe in the nearby town sold the best parfaits ever made. I’d tried one once when Britney made me go shopping with her. I hadn’t had a chance to go back.

  Every day I waited for one other person to visit. Or message. Or even acknowledge what we’d been through in some way.

  We’d kissed. My first kiss.

  I’d always wanted my first kiss to be special but I hadn’t expected it to be “activate special powers and stop a vampire massacre” level of special.

  Maybe he needed to recover just as much as I did but one simple text wouldn’t have killed him. I wouldn’t text first. Nope. Even though I itched to talk to him, I couldn’t do that.

  I tried not to check my phone too often and I never once asked about him. But sometimes, during the day when the dorms were silent, I listened for him moving around in his room. Sometimes that listening might’ve involved a glass held to the wall. Yeah, I got that desperate.

  Stupid expensive dorms with walls too thick to hear through.

  Yesterday, Mr. Norton decided I was fine to return to class.

  “No way. I’m not fine at all. Nothing about me is fine.” I picked up my left arm, proving how like limp spaghetti it was and hoped he hadn’t noticed the game controller by my bed.

  Mr. Norton laughed. “Don’t you want to get back into the fun of things? You have to keep up academically, too, or you’ll lose your scholarship.”

  I kinda wondered about that. I’d proven my abilities at that dance and I wasn’t sure they’d want to lose all my vampire-slaying strength. I knew for sure that Mr. Norton didn’t, on account of him treating me like a rare science subject.

  “Actually, I can study in my room. Britney and Lucas keep me up to date and it’s more productive studying on my own than with a rowdy class.”

  I gave him my most hopeful glance. He knew it was true. I could get through the entire year with self-study.

  “You think Mr. Worthin
gton will keep paying for this fancy room if you aren’t doing your job?”

  My heart pounded. I still had that job? I’d been too scared to ask.

  My job had been protecting Ren. And this elite dorm with all the extras, like meals on demand, were included. As much as I hated living up here with all the rich kids, I’d sure gotten used to having a private bathroom and a huge, comfy bed and, yeah, did I mention meals on demand?

  And Ren, I’d gotten used to him, too.

  “I meant to ask about that. He still wants me bodyguarding Ren? I mean, Ren was no slouch himself when it came to fighting.”

  “Mr. Worthington called the school and said he wanted you to keep up the tutoring.”

  “Does he mean tutoring or ‘tutoring’?” We’d used tutoring as an excuse so I could stay close to Ren and protect him.

  Mr. Norton scratched his head. “Since there’s no immediate danger, just tutoring, I assume. But stay vigilant. Anyway, back to class and you get fifty bonus points on your record.”

  That had all been fine for Mr. Norton to say but, in the first class back, I had those accusations glaring at me from the whiteboard. I tried not to look but couldn’t stop myself. There was some kind of smudgy thing at the end of the sentence. I think they’d tried to draw a skull-and-crossbones, which would make me a pirate, not a killer. Whoever wrote that wasn’t too bright.

  Angela.

  I sighed and followed Lucas to our seats.

  That’s when I caught his eye. For a split second. He looked away as though I didn’t exist. Like I was the shadow I’d always tried to be.

  Ren Worthington was a jerk. I’d always known that. Only a fool would expect a nod or smile from him.

  Instead of looking away myself, I paused a moment too long. A moment long enough for it to be noticeable.

  “Stay away from her, Ren,” Angela hissed. “She tried to kill you once. She’ll do it again.”

  Heat ripped through my body. I hadn’t tried to kill Ren. I’d saved him. We’d saved each other. With that stupid kiss.

  Ren only grunted.

  Jerk.

  He didn’t even turn to face Angela. A few words from Ren Worthington would shut everyone up. He owned this school. No one would bully me if he told them to stop. But all he could do was grunt.

  Double jerk.

  My crappy old chair creaked as I sat down. I hoped no one heard that but nope, a few people giggled.

  “Maybe you should go on a diet.” Angela fake whispered so that the whole class could hear. “And stop pigging out on the free food in the study room.”

  “Don’t worry about them.” Lucas got out his textbooks.

  But Angela and her friends glared at me. Icy, nasty glares.

  “I’m going to ask my father to remove me from classes with dangerous students. I’m not even sure why she’s still at this school.” Angela almost hissed, hatred radiating from her.

  I gulped back my words. Arguing with her would prove nothing and would just cause a heap of trouble.

  “Cherry isn’t a killer. How could anyone think that?” Lucas half-stood but I pulled him back down.

  “You would stick up for her since you and those other freaky students are her accomplices.” Angela folded her arms and glared all the harder. “You have weird secrets, and I’m not going to stop until I find out what they are.”

  Oh heck, that was my greatest fear. Of course, we all had weird secrets. Like Lucas and his whole being a werewolf thing. And Britney being fae. Every single scholarship student at this school had secrets, and those secrets revolved around the paranormal.

  “So, Ren, what did happen?” Blake called from the other side of the room. “Why’d you even go to that dance with Cherry? Slumming it? Or did she promise to put out?”

  “Yeah, Ren.” Oscar stood up. “And that was one hot kiss.”

  He wrapped his arms around himself, making slurping noises. We hadn’t kissed like that. Not one bit like it. I wanted to punch Oscar, and Blake for good measure. Punching was the least of what I wanted to do to Angela. Instead, I did that breathing thing again.

  I could wipe out the lot of them without barely lifting a finger but I’d have to face the consequences. I couldn’t even let the ways I wanted to torture Angela cross my mind in case my thoughts became a disastrous reality. My powers weren’t under my control.

  Ren didn’t face Oscar. He could’ve told him to shut up, he sure could’ve stopped him. Oscar and Blake were his little underlings. Instead, he ignored them both.

  I clenched my fists again. I thought Ren and I had something, not romance even with that kiss, but a kind of friendship or mutual tolerance. Stupid rich boy. I bet he regretted going to the dance with me now and was trying to live it down.

  The teacher walked in and everyone shut up. At least they’d be quiet for the rest of class.

  He looked at the board and then erased the words without saying a thing.

  With a dry cough, he began teaching. I didn’t take much in. We’d have to be careful, all of us. The last thing we needed was someone snooping around. And not just someone but Angela Blackstone. Her parents owned a high-tech security company. She could have access to all kinds of surveillance equipment. We’d need to check for bugs and hidden cameras.

  “Cherry! Are you paying attention?” I jumped as the teacher called my name.

  “Yes, sir.” I hoped he hadn’t asked me a question then looked around to see everyone else packing up. Time for history class.

  Lucas walked to class with me.

  “Maybe I should move back to the dorms.” I straightened my backpack strap on my shoulder. “I don’t want to infuriate Angela.”

  “You can’t let her control you. And your luxury room is really swell.”

  I scrunched up my face. “Yeah, but the more incensed Angela becomes, the more she’ll come after us, all of us not just me. I’m not sure a big screen TV and Egyptian cotton sheets are worth that risk.”

  “I didn’t realize you were such a team player.”

  “Neither did I.” My heart sunk. If I had to take one for the team, moving out of my fancy room wouldn’t be too big a sacrifice. “But we can’t let Angela find out about us. We can’t let anyone. I guess sometimes you have to do things for the greater good.”

  I toyed with the strap of my bag not voicing my main concern with moving. I’d no longer be close to Ren.

  Chapter 2

  “HAVE YOU HEARD ABOUT the new student?” Britney sat down at our table in the cafeteria. “I think he’s one of us.”

  It was rare for a student to start so late in the semester. Even when Britney started a week late, it’d been strange.

  “No one said anything in any of our classes.” Lucas emptied his vegetables onto Britney’s plate and took her piece of steak since she never ate meat.

  “A few people saw him waiting in the foyer.” Britney speared a carrot with her fork. “They say he’s smoking hot. Like ‘look out, Ren’ level of hot.”

  “It’ll do Ren good to have a bit of competition.” I mushed my food up, not hungry for once. “He might realize he’s not god’s gift.”

  Britney shot me a look full of questions but she didn’t ask them out loud.

  “He wasn’t that bad, Cherry.” Lucas lowered the fork in my hand like he was scared I’d stab someone.

  “He just sat there while they said all that stuff. He could’ve told them to stop.”

  Lucas shook his head. “I don’t think he can. He’s changed. Less of that cold arrogance he used to have. He’s going through a lot.”

  I huffed. He might be going through some stuff but at least no one accused him of killing.

  Britney gave me one of those looks like she wanted to say something caring and supportive. I wasn’t in the mood to handle that. Sensitivity wasn’t really my thing, anger was.

  “So, the new boy?” Lucas asked. “What makes you think he’s one of us? And what kind of one of us?”

  “Not sure. I haven’t seen him
myself.”

  Britney and Lucas prided themselves on being able to recognize and categorize any kind of paranormal. They both had an encyclopedic knowledge of paranormal lore too. Lucas did an awful lot of book learning, while Britney... well, her upbringing wasn’t like anyone else’s.

  Most of us scholarship kids were half-bloods from normal human families, either unaware of our ability or keeping them hidden.

  Not Britney. She’d grown up in a fae community separate from the human world. Sure, they were part of human society but they did things their own way. She had more practical experience with the paranormal world than any of us. Maybe even more than Mr. Norton.

  But then, even Britney’s upbringing seemed normal compared to mine.

  “I hope he’s got demon warrior blood like Mark.” Britney didn’t look up. “We might need that in times to come.”

  “Huh?” Lucas stared at the chicken bones on his plate like he wanted to crunch them. “But we beat the vampires.”

  Britney stood up and brushed herself down. “We won the battle but that’s hardly the end of it. Mr. Norton will discuss that in the meeting later. I’ve got to run to class.”

  Yeah, I did too but I wasn’t looking forward to it. I’d gotten more stares and hissed insults today than ever before in my life, and that was really saying something. But we had Mrs. Choi who’d not have one single qualm about giving me a black mark for being late. I’d just cleared my slate of black marks and I wanted to keep it that way.

  At least in Mrs. Choi’s class, no one had a chance to torture me. She kept way too strict an eye on things for that. No one spoke out of turn in her classes, ever. Her disdainful stare kept the class in line.

  The afternoon passed in a flash.

  As I gathered up my books, Mrs. Choi walked by my desk. “Are you okay, Cherry?”

  Yikes. I hadn’t expected her to talk. Mrs. Choi never made idle chit chat with students. A chill ran down my spine. Did she mean that in a general way or did she know about my powers? One false word and I could create a world of trouble.

  “Yep, I’m fine.” I slammed my books into my bag and got out of there as fast as I could.