Brimstone academy semest.., p.1
Brimstone Academy: Semester Two, page 1
Brimstone Academy
Semester Two
Alexis Calder
Contents
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
Epilogue
Thanks For Reading!
About the Author
This book is a work of fiction. The names, characters and events in this book are the products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any similarity to real persons living or dead is coincidental and not intended by the author.
Copyright © 2020 by Alexis Calder
All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
Cover Artwork by Gombar Sanja
1
Harper
Everything is bathed in a strange pink glow. A little bit like I’d expect to see in a post-apocalyptic world. The gardens are all deep in the throes of winter death. They look the same as they did on my walk yesterday, with the exception of the weird light.
I venture forward and brush my fingers over the spindly branches of a sleeping rose bush. For a school called Brimstone in a place called The Underworld, it’s nothing like I expected. Though, the garden in the middle of winter does add some weight to my original expectations.
A figure emerges from the mist ahead of me.
Wait.
Why is there mist? Was that there before? I’ve never seen mist in the gardens. In fact, all of this is starting to feel wrong. It feels like something slithers down my back and goosebumps rise on my arms.
None of this is right.
It has to be a dream.
A nightmare.
The figure materializes and I’m met by a familiar, grinning face. He’s blindingly handsome and far more dangerous than any of the students at the school ever could be.
But he’s not really here, right? There is no reason for the ruler of the Kingdom of Keys to be at my school. And this is just a dream after all.
He takes a few steps closer to me, his long black coat trailing through the dirt as he walks. His heavy boots crunch over the gravel.
My heart races and I want to run. I want to get back into the school. Into my room. I want to shake myself awake.
He’s still smiling. Just smiling and moving closer to me. His long blonde hair is loose around his face, blowing in the breeze. He locks his icy blue eyes on me and I can’t look away. I’m frozen in place, pulled into his gaze as if I’m drowning.
“Fancy seeing you here, cherub,” he says.
My brow furrows and I study his face. His hard jaw and high cheekbones are dusted with golden stubble. He’s far more handsome than anyone this terrifying should be.
“Why am I dreaming about you?” I ask.
He smirks and cocks his head to the side slightly, as if he finds me amusing. “You know you’re in a dream?”
“What else would this be?” I ask defiantly.
“For you, it’s a dream,” he says.
My eyes widen. “You’re dream walking.”
“You’re doing better here than I expected,” he says. “You’re learning our ways quickly. You’ve even got a chance at earning that pass.”
My pulse quickens and I think back to my final exams. He sat there, grading me, judging me. He knows exactly what I can and can’t do.
“You’re going to fit in here better than I ever imagined,” he says. “Tell me, are you ready to join me yet?”
“What makes you think I’d ever want to join you?” I ask. “I’m doing all of this so I can get out of here. So I can go home.”
“You can’t go home and you know it,” he says. “You don’t belong there. Stay with me. Taste power like you’ve never known before.”
“I want to go home,” I repeat.
He smirks again. “My darling, you’re never going home. You and me will be bound together for eternity. With you by my side, the world will be mine. Ours.”
My skin crawls. I know that under that handsome face there is a monster. I can almost feel it. “Nothing will ever be ours.”
He inclines his chin and lowers his eyes before looking back up at me. “As you wish, my lady. For now. You have two more semesters. Then you’re mine.”
I take a step back, not breaking eye contact.
“Unless you want to come to me sooner,” he says. “You know how to reach me.”
“No, I don’t,” I answer before I think better of it. Because I don’t want to reach him. I don’t want to end up as his power booster or whatever the hell it is he thinks I will do for him.
He grins. “Ask Liam. He’ll show you.”
My breath hitches. I didn’t like thinking about Liam’s connection to this man. Technically, he’s Liam’s father. But I have a feeling the King knows that I’m in on the family secret. The fact that Liam’s blood is no more royal than my own.
“You do know I’m not going to go with you,” I say.
“You realize I’ll never let you leave this place,” he says. “You’ll never win that pass.”
My stomach twists and a wave of nausea rolls through me. He’s probably right. He probably has enough power to keep me here. His sitting as a judge wasn’t accidental.
“You’re trying to fail me,” I say.
He grins. “Not trying, succeeding. Your marks on your final exam will be what I will them to be.”
“You’re a monster,” I say.
He moves closer to me. I hold my ground, balling my hands into fists as I brace myself.
I look up at him. He’s just as handsome as he is lethal and I have a feeling if he didn’t need my magic, he’d have me eliminated. Is this what my mother was escaping? Tears threaten as I consider the path she took. I can’t do that. I won’t do that.
But I won’t live as his slave, either. There has to be another option. One where I live free.
A long finger presses under my chin. “You have her eyes, you know.”
I bare my teeth. “Don’t touch me.”
“But you’re a fighter. Your mother was weak. It’s better that it’s you. You’ll be a valuable asset. She would have been a liability.”
I turn my face and step away from him. “Watch what you say, asshole.”
In a blur of black fabric, he’s behind me, his arms pinning mine to my side. I suck in a surprised breath and catch the scent of sulfur. Of course he smells like sulfur. What else would a literal prince of the underworld smell like?
I feel hot breath against the side of my face. “Let me go.”
His lips brush my ear. “Soon, you’ll be screaming my name, little angel. I can’t wait to see what fire like yours is like in my bed.”
“In your dreams,” I say as I try to get out of his grip.
He licks my ear and to my horror it sends a shiver down my spine, straight to my core. I clench my thighs together.
“This is your dream,” he says. “You wouldn’t want to see what I’d do to you in mine.”
The pressure of his body against mine vanishes and I’m plunged into darkness.
I wake with a scream and toss my blankets off me. My door flies open and Sadie runs to my side. “Another dream?”
“Sorry I woke you,” I say.
She sits down on the bed next to me. “The king again?”
I nod. Sadie is the only person I’ve told about my nightmares. And only because she has to hear me screaming. Only, this dream was different. This was real. I’m pretty sure he actually visited me. My pulse races as I realize the other dreams might have been real too. I just never considered that until tonight.
“Was he watching you again?” she asks.
I shake my head. Most of the dreams involve him staring at me from a distance. Then he would turn into a monster and chase me.
I never thought I’d miss those dreams.
“He talked to me this time,” I say.
Even in the dim light of my room I can see the concern on her face. “What did he say?”
I blow out a breath, not sure if I want to say the words out loud. It sounds insane when I think about it.
But it’s not insane. It’s exactly what Adrian warned me about. All of his worst fears.
I look over at Sadie, my best friend in the world. Over the last two weeks of solstice break, she’s been by my side. I owe her something but I worry that telling her will put her in harm’s way.
“Harper, spill,” she says.
“He wants my magic. Something about mixing angel and demon magic will make him crazy powerful.” I watch her for a reaction.
For a moment, she’s impassive, as if letting my words sink in. Then she lifts her
“He said he won’t let me pass final exams,” I say.
“Then your score has to be so high that by final exams, you could fail and still win the pass,” she says.
“Is that possible?” I ask.
“We’re going to find out,” she says. “We’ve got sixteen weeks to get you there.”
I nod. “Okay, I’m in. I can’t imagine what he’d do with more power.”
“I don’t want to think about that,” she says. “Winning that pass is your only option.”
2
Harper
“Very funny,” I say as I glare at the sizzling hole in my usual chair. I roll my eyes at the giggles I hear around the classroom.
First day of classes and someone already is making a very poor attempt on my life. I spent most of solstice break waiting for something to happen after the threat left on my wall. Days crawled by and nothing.
Whoever left the message either didn’t have a plan to follow up or they went home for break. Apparently it’s now open season on Harper Love.
It’s going to be a long semester.
“You can have my seat,” a familiar voice as smooth as silk says.
I look up to see Corbin smiling at me and I nearly go weak in the knees. It’s been weeks since I’ve seen him. Dropping my books to the floor, I greet him with a huge hug.
I bury my face into his shoulder, breathing in his scent. Until this moment, I didn’t realize exactly how much I missed him. I didn’t want to let him go and whimpered a little when he released me from the embrace.
“Really? Melting potion? Are we in grade school?” Damon is staring at my melted chair.
“Hi, Damon,” I say.
“Hey, beautiful. Good to see you’re still alive,” he says.
“Yeah, I’m rather fond of living,” I say.
“If the attempts on your life are this juvenile, I think you’re going to be hanging on to that top spot a while,” he says. Then he lifts his hand over my seat and moves his fingers.
The hole in my chair shrinks as the plastic re-appears, the smoking residue of the potion gone.
“How did you do that?” I ask, brow furrowed.
“You have a lot more to learn,” he says. “How exactly are you so high on that chart anyway?”
“That’s our little secret,” another very sexy male voice says.
Damon doesn’t even turn around to look at the newcomer. “I thought I could smell you, Liam. Sulfur and pretentiousness.”
“Keep trying, Damon. Maybe one of these days you’ll get your way,” Liam says.
“I’m missing something, aren’t I?” I ask.
“Don’t worry,” Corbin says. “Liam was just leaving, wasn’t he?”
“I think I’m taking this seat this semester,” he says, sliding into the chair in front of mine. The place where Corbin usually sits.
“Fine with me,” Corbin says. He walks to the desk on my left, taking the seat in the row next to me. “I can watch you from back here.”
“Alright, what the actual fuck, you guys?” I ask, looking at the three of them in turn. “Since when do you three fight like this? Liam go back to your spot by Em.”
“No, thanks. I’d rather sit where I can keep an eye on you,” he says.
Damon sits down in the seat on my right, his eyes locked on Liam.
The door opens and I look up to see Professor Lee walking into the room. Her silver hair is pulled into a messy bun and she’s wearing a Smashing Pumpkins tee shirt with skin tight jeans today. Her pointed ears are clearly visible with her hair up.
“Sit,” she says as she walks toward her desk.
I take my seat, newly reformed thanks to Damon’s spell.
“Second semester,” she says. “You all have two left to figure out how to be functional adults before they let you work in our world. Don’t expect this semester to be easy.”
I don’t think last semester was exactly easy but I have a feeling she doesn’t actually know what that word means.
She walks to the center row of desks and points to each student in turn. “First person in each row, turn around and look at the person behind you. Third person look at the person behind you.”
Liam turns and looks at me, a triumphant look on his face. My stomach twists. Whatever is coming, I have a feeling it’s not good for me.
“Congratulations, you’re looking at your lab partner for the next four months,” Professor Lee says.
My face heats. Liam and I already had a complicated relationship. Add in the fact that his dad wants me to be his new step-mom or something like that, and it’s even worse.
“Hey, partner,” he says.
“You knew, didn’t you?” I ask.
He shrugs. “I had a feeling.”
“Why?” I asked.
“I owe you for what you did to me last semester,” he says.
“I didn’t have a choice,” I say.
“And you still haven’t told anyone,” he says.
“And I won’t,” I say.
“But you know,” he says.
“But you know I won’t tell,” I say.
“Maybe that’s why I want to be your partner,” he says.
“You’re confusing, you know that?” I ask.
He grins. “Thanks.” Then he turns back to the front of the room.
To be honest, the two of us did work well together on our project for history last semester. But this was different. We would be dealing with spells and potions and things that were far more dangerous.
Plus, I didn’t have to turn around to know that Tasha was glaring daggers at me. Being partners with Liam was putting another target on my back. Like I needed any more help with that.
“First test starts now,” Professor Lee says.
A murmur rises in the room and my eyes widen. “Test?”
“Test,” she says. “Day one. I told you. Second semester isn’t easy. If you survive this semester and make it to the third semester, you’ll need to be prepared for the difficulties you’ll face.”
If I hadn’t already been set on earning that pass, her words would have pushed me there. But I know it’s going to be harder this time to keep my spot. And I’m going to have to outshine everyone despite my lack of training. It seems impossible.
“There’s a reset potion hidden on campus somewhere,” she says. “If you find it you can either use it or dump it. Whoever finds it first gets to make the choice.”
“What’s a reset potion?” I ask quietly.
Liam turns around. “It’ll reset the leader board. If someone uses it, we’re all at zero. We start over. If we destroy it, we keep our places and the points we’ve already earned.”
My chest tightens. I’ve worked too hard to lose the points I’ve earned. But then again, if we all reset at zero, maybe the pressure will lessen and I can climb again with less notice.
Either way, I’m screwed but losing the points is probably more of a risk since I need to get enough to keep my place with a failing final grade.
The bigger problem is that, once again, I’m stuck with Liam. And any benefit I get from us working together is likely going to help him too.
“I know why you did this,” I say.
“Why’s that, cause I’d love to know,” Corbin says, a touch of jealousy in his voice.
I glance over at Corbin. “I’m his biggest competition. I do well, he does well.”
Liam rests his hands behind his head, his elbows out. He looks pleased with himself.
“You’re an asshole and you’re not playing fair,” I say.
He drops his hands. “Not fair? I’m not the one getting busy with a teacher.”
“What is he talking about?” Corbin asks.
“You’ll have to ask Harper,” Liam says.
