Innocence, p.1
Innocence, page 1
Contents
Map of Beaumond
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
LEAVE A REVIEW
The Story Continues
Chapter One
More in this series
Coming Soon
Acknowledgments
Also by Adrienne Woods
About the Author
Innocence: Beaumond Academy Book I
Copyright © 2022 Adrienne Woods
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This book is a work of fiction. Any references to historical events, real people, or real locales are used fictitiously. Other names, characters, places, and incidents are the products of the author’s imagination, and any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
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First Fire Quill publishing edition May 2021
All rights reserved.
One
MAXIMA LANE
Bright light jetted from Sierra’s ring. It clobbered my body. The pain seared through my core and spread toward my limbs, shifting my bones and organs into a size that would fit a mouse.
Everything around me grew more prominent—the table, the chairs, and especially Sierra.
My heart pounded as my little legs rushed toward the cupboard.
Morningstar’s growl vibrated against my skull as it slowly started to become coherent words.
“Mine,” the lump of red fur hissed and closed in on me fast.
Sierra’s familiar pounced, but missed me by a few inches. I escaped his claws.
My mouse pads skated on the linoleum floor that I’d personally waxed this morning before school. A white saucer exploded into shards a few inches from me. I veered left, ducking a tea cup.
Sierra’s shrilly voice murdered my ears, almost shooting out an eardrum
“Get her, Morning Star. Get her now!” she egged on her cat to catch me, while Raven, her brat of a daughter, doubled over laughing at my expense.
The cat wasn’t as agile as he used to be, thanks to his love for his morning cream.
A saucer smashed inches above me against the cupboard I slid underneath. I rushed my little legs off toward the hole in the wall on my left. Leaving Morningstar’s hisses the way he patted at the opening.
My night vision activated, and I almost smashed into the wall. The dust underneath the cupboard flew through my nostrils and made me sneeze. I hated how the air turned so thick.
I didn’t want to alert the spider, sitting in her corner.
The first time that Sierra had turned me into a mouse I discovered I could hear other animal voices. The spider’s voice sounded like honey, so that she could lure me to my death.
“Oh, Max, what did you do now?”
“Can’t chat, gotta go, bye.” I jumped through the hole.
“No, wait!” She tried, but I blocked her voice from my head. Being controlled by a mouse-eating-spider wasn’t my idea of fun.
Maria had thought that it was something that connected all animals. That I’d tapped into the animal language whenever Sierra would turn me into a mouse or a toad.
My lungs burned as my feet barely touched the floor. By now I knew the way. The tunnel would lead outside and then it was about three hours to reach Maria’s cabin.
The witch would help me become human again. Maria was probably my only salvation on this ranch.
Three years ago, almost this day, was the day I found Maria in the woods. She was old and fragile. I never knew there was a hidden cabin on our property until she told me to walk straight. I helped her all the way until the cabin appeared out of nothing. In the beginning, I visited her every day, until she’d gotten better. The past year was the worst. When Meglers showed up, she cried so much. She badly needed a magical ring, and that was when I suggested selling potions to the kids at school during the exam.
What the heck was Meglers, you asked? It was a nasty magical disease that only attacked powerful witches without their magical rings. The disease came in the form of old age and boils. Plenty of boils with yellow puss seeping through whenever it burst.
The whole affair was nasty.
Maria’s magic was powerful, too strong for her body to handle, and therefor she needed a ring to help her carry and distribute the magic so that it wouldn’t affect her body and eventually caused her death.
Maria had lost her ring a long time ago and now whenever she performed magic without one, another boil would appear on her face and she would get a tad older.
It was sad to think that their magic basically killed them. There was no healing spell or potion that could take away Meglers or delay its effect.
The only way Maria would get healthy was buying another ring. I’d been helping her the past few months with selling potions during school exams and an occasional beauty potion here and a guidance potion there.
School was the only thing that Sierra allowed me to attend. I’d tried to run away so many times, but then a flick of her finger, and magic would drag me back. She would punish me with warts or some other ailment and would force me to walk around like that for a few days.
So sparing me the humiliation, I’d stop trying to get away from her.
The evening air blew through my fur as I rushed as fast as my little paws could carry me toward Maria’s cabin.
As a mouse, I didn’t just have Morning Star to worry about, but other predators too.
I had an advantage though, I could hear their thoughts and knew whenever one was near.
My heart pounded behind my ribcage as the barn came up ahead.
The horses thoughts were always calming, but not tonight. What had happened to Patches earlier on, laid heavy on all their hearts.
It was the reason I was a mouse, as I couldn’t watch how Raven beat the living crap out of him with her riding rod. Patches was a living, breathing thing, not one of her curling tongs or laptops she could chuck against the wall whenever she didn’t get the wishful effect.
She obviously ratted me out to her mommy and that was why I got turned to a mouse.
I pushed the hopeless thoughts of the horses to the back of my mind. For now, I had other things to deal with.
“A mouse?” The voice came from up head, way up. I knew I had to take shelter, but entering the forest would only bring on more predators than the one that was tracking me right now.
I ran faster, as the thoughts were coming closer and nearer. I didn’t want to die as a mouse. Not today and not like this.
The hooting announced that it was an owl and fear jolted through me. I had to push through in order not to freeze. My heart stammered as my paws barely touched the ground.
The voice came nearer. It was right above me. I tried to look behind me, but I couldn’t see anything. I knew the claws were ready to open and to grab me.
Another body crashed into the owl, and my feet tripped over something in the road.
I stumbled a few times forward and when I came to a standstill, I looked.
It was a raven fighting against the owl.
Fresh air seeped through my lungs as I thanked the Eye for Maria’s familiar. She must have felt Sierra’s magic tonight, or Ferdinand probably picked up my thoughts.
The owl took flight as Ferdinand were relentless.
He landed a few paces in front of me. “A mouse, again?”
“It’s better than a toad.”
“True. Is it because of what happened earlier with Patches?”
“I couldn’t just stand by and watch, Ferdinand.”
“Oh, Max. Your compassion is going to get you killed.”
“Then it gets me killed. I can’t watch her destroying her horse. He deserves better.”
“You ready?”
“Not really, but I don’t want to become the prey of something else tonight.”
Ferdinand chuckled as he flapped his wings, folded his claws around my body and lifted off.
My paws pulsed as Ferdinand ascended. The cold air made it hard to breathe, and it blew the fur in my face in every direction.
I would have enjoyed Ferdinand’s ride if the wind wasn’t so persistent.
I felt the magical wave jolting through my body as we flew through Maria’s barrier that protected her cabin from Sierra’s sight.
Dark smoke tra
Ferdinand descended and landed on the perch by the door as Arabesques from Debussy played inside.
His gurgling croak vibrated against my eardrums. Footsteps shuffled against the floor and the door opened. Maria waddled like a penguin on to the porch. The wooden beams creaked underneath her weight. Her fragile gray hair looked duller and thinner. The boil on her nose was ready to pop any moment, and she once told me how much that hurt.
Ferdinand held me toward her. His talons still squeezing the crap out of me.
“Good work, Ferdinand.” She took me from his claw, tapped him on his head and waddled back into the warm living space.
A dented kerosene lantern hung off a rusty hook. A wood-burning stove was already busy brewing a potion, hopefully the one that would bring back Maxima Lane.
Bunches of dried rosemary, sage, peppermint, and other herbs hung from the ceiling. It gave off a sharp aroma that irritated my nostrils.
The wooden floor creaked underneath Maria’s steps. She put me down on the kitchen counter near the shelves, filled with jars stuffed with dry ingredients she needed for her potions.
“Fourth time now, Max. What are yeh goin’ ter do when ah get ma ring?”
“You phoned the Magius Ethery?”
“Shh, ah told yeh before. Ah dinnae speak toad, mouse, or raven. Yer squeaks means nothin’.”
The Magius Ethery were the only jewelers that could mold a witches’ ring. I couldn’t believe that we did it. Maria was finally going to get her ring. The joy that came with giving warmed my stomach and a squeak slipped through my lips. I couldn’t contain it any longer.
The Meglers were finally going to disappear and Maria could go back to her old life.
I woke up. Human legs draped around the chair that I’d slept in last night. I was buck naked but with human limbs. Maria’s quilt draped over my body. The fire was roaring again as a cauldron brewing some sort of concoction sizzled over the open fire. The potion had a very intoxicating scent to it. It smelled like berries with a hint of vanilla and anise—weird.
Ferdinand wasn’t on his perch by the kitchen anymore. He must have left early this morning on errands for Maria.
Maria’s footsteps shuffled on the wooden floor before she appeared by the doorway leading to her hallway.
“Good, yeh’re awake. So yeh want ter tell me what happen’ yesterday that made yer stepmother changed yeh again inter a mouse?”
“It was Raven. She’d beaten the crap out of poor Patches yesterday.”
“The wee clipe. If ah get ma hands on her, the Eye would never forgive me.”
“She’s not worth another boil.”
Her lips fanned into a smile as tears filled her eyes. “We did it, Max. Ah phoned him a few days ago, and he is goin ter see me on Monday.”
“So you will have your ring on soon?”
She nodded. Silence lingered as I realized what that meant.
“Come with me. There is nothing for yeh here.”
“She will never let me go. Her magic is too strong and she will just zap me back.”
Maria stared at me.
What?
“Yeh dinnae have faith in me.”
I closed my eyes. “Sorry. I didn’t mean it like that. Of course I do. You are the only one that keeps me sane on this farm and changes me back to my human form. On all the days.”
Maria smiled. “Which brings me ter our next part of the agenda.” She lifted her hands.
“Maria, stop.”
She didn’t listen and a three tiered cake with sixteen candles on top hovered in the air, dancing gracefully toward me the same time another boil popped on her nose.
The white tiered cake, layered with chocolate on top, dripping down the sides of the cake, plopped itself down on the coffee table in front of me.
“Happy Birthday, Max.”
“You shouldn’t have.”
“T’is the only day that is yers. That yeh can do whatever yeh want.”
I knew it wasn’t true as I wouldn’t even be able to go to Garner’s Day which happened to fall on my birthday as Sierra’s magic usually took a few days to wash off. I would have to lie low today.
Maria rubbed my arm. My gaze flickered back to hers.
“I’ll keep yer safe.”
What would a pure blood witch wanted to do with a hybrid like me? Whose witch side sucked twenty times more than her vampire side. “You mean it?”
She nodded with a tweak at the corner of her lips and touched my face softly. I closed the distance and rested my head against her forehead. The boil that was there had popped last week and there wasn’t a sign that there was a boil anymore.
Maria pulled away to look at me.
“Best is ter stay here fer a few days. Besides ah still have that one potion fer that girl that wanted ter teach her bullies a lesson.”
“Megan’s potion?”
She nodded. “It’s finally ready. Boils. They will look worse than me. She only needs to slip the vial inter their drink. Yeh think yeh can take it ter her.”
“After twelve, maybe. She might go today as she needed to get tested for her ability.”
“Then after twelve it is. Yeh want ter watch the opening on the telly.”
I nodded. I might not enjoy the festivity that my favorite day brings, but at least I could see the beginning.
Two
“Max, it’s startin’,” Maria called.
She’d lent me a pair of jeans and a shirt, probably from before she had gotten Meglers, as they were modern and fashionable.
“Does the clothes fit?”
“It’s perfect.”
“Naw, the jeans is a bit big. Yeh need ter eat more food, Max. Here, have another slice of cake.” She plopped the plate filled with birthday cake into my hands as I sat down on the chair next to her. The city of Little Prism filled the screen in front of us.
Green banners and green painted walls that represented magic covered the city. Dark wisps of smoke crossed the air, descended toward the ground, and revealed the witches that teleported to enjoy the day.
Green flags, green streetlight decorations, green advertising, wishing all the new Morays good luck with their abilities flashed on the screen. The pedestrians enjoying the day were dressed in green.
Even King Levine, the ruler of the witches and warlocks, had taken part in the fun. The castle’s walls were painted in green and took up the horizon.
King Levine’s face filled the screen. He was a handsome man, with long snow white hair and an oval, friendly face. He wished all the witches and warlocks good luck today, hoping that they would all test positive for an ability.
The camera’s angle changed again to the city. Pedestrians got asked what it was they had to say to all the sixteen-year-olds that were going to get tested today.
They all gave heartfelt messages.
Every part of my being wished that I was there. Garner’s Day was like the only day I looked forward to. A part of me wanted an X-Gene so badly, but I would’ve known by now if I had one.
Today was the only day of the year that everything came to a standstill. It was like a sacred day. All the pure-bloods had to attend as the Sector took testing day seriously.
The Ferris wheel and spinning rides that usually had my name on stood vastly close to the tents.
Witches had magically erected a massive stage next to the city hall. Garner’s Day usually had the best and newest bands that would entertain the citizens of Little Prism today.
Next to the stage was the net that entrapped thousands of balloons that would be released when the opening ceremony took place. Dianne from Channel Wichita filled the screen.
