Nightshade Academy Episode 4: Den of Demons Read online

  Copyright

  Copyright © 2019 Kestra Pingree

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  No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission from the author except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews. Any unauthorized reproduction or distribution of this copyrighted work is illegal.

  This is a work of fiction.

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  Summary

  Ice ruins permeated by death.

  A deranged vampire and her pet demon.

  Visions of Nightshade Academy on fire.

  Just another chapter in the nightmare that has become the life of Nova Ray.

  Helena, Nightshade's benefactor, wants me and Archer to find some portal leading into another world, one full of angels and demons.

  Kian wants to stop Nightshade from burning to the ground, but he doesn't know who or what causes the fire in his visions. Helena is as good a bet as any after what she did to him, though.

  Nightshade hasn't seen her true colors. We have. If Archer and I don't do what she wants, she'll kill Kian, and she'll make me watch every bloody second of it.

  Table of Contents

  Copyright

  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

  Newsletter

  Kestra's Books

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  Message from the Author

  About the Author

  CHAPTER 1

  Kian’s head is warm on my lap. The rise and fall of his chest evens out and deepens. I don’t know how he can sleep when it’s so cold out here, but I can’t deny having him close puts me at ease, too.

  I glance down the ice stairs behind me to peek at Archer again. I don’t think she knows I saw her, but she isn’t there anymore. Things would be easier if she’d talk to us. It’d be nice to know if we three were on the same side. I’m choosing to trust Kian, but should I choose to trust Archer too, or should I be as wary of her as I am of Ginzo and Helena?

  How do we find the culprits of a future fire and stop it from happening?

  Kian’s hair is soft, so soft I’m reluctant to replace my glove, but the cold is sinking down into my bones, making them ache and freezing up the joints.

  “Kian.”

  He doesn’t answer.

  “Wake up.”

  A cold breeze throws my pink hair forward. I pull the strands back and a low voice whispers in my ear. “Yes, wake up.”

  My entire body seizes up. It hits my spine the worst, transforming it into an iron pole with no give.

  A blazing blue silhouette screams in my peripheral vision, to my right. I have to crane my neck to see his head and carefully take a sweep of him with my eyes. Ginzo is shirtless and barefoot as usual. His hands lazily sit in the pockets of his jeans—it’s strange he wears jeans when he apparently hates clothes so much. His chiseled chin is tilted toward the dark sky absent of the aurora that was there not long before.

  Kian shifts and I move my hand away, donning my glove as he sits up. Ginzo’s voice must have affected Kian the same way it did me. What a nightmare. I’d hate to wake up to these goosebumps, the deep resonance of Ginzo’s tone ringing in my ears. I’m not sure what expression Kian is making, but his too-yellow chartreuse pales further, betraying the actions of a calm exterior.

  Neither of us say a word or move. Is the demon messing with us or did he tell Kian to wake up for a reason?

  The silence carries on, Ginzo’s Color nothing but the ebb and flow of ocean waves lapping against the seashore. After he rolls his shoulders back with a crack that seems to go on and on, he says, “Helena wants you back in the lab.”

  He takes a leisurely pace down the ice stairs. He doesn’t wait, and he doesn’t look over his shoulder. Kian stands and slightly cocks his head. He doesn’t have to say anything. I stand too and follow Ginzo first. The ice fires that led me to Kian have disappeared. I have to blink again and again to get my eyes to adjust to the growing darkness. Kian’s must not adjust too well, because he runs into me as soon as we’ve reached the bottom step.

  “Sorry,” he murmurs.

  I follow the faint blaze of Ginzo’s blue as the demon steps into the tunnel leading to Helena’s lab. Something crunches under Kian’s foot, and he bumps into me again; he must have slipped on one of those bones.

  “Sorry. Again.”

  I shudder and silently thank God for not gifting me with the ability to see ghosts as well as Colors. The tunnel is somehow darker than the bone room. I squint. When Kian bumps into me again, I grab his hand and place it on my shoulder.

  “Hold on,” I whisper.

  I have to strain my eyes, but I manage to follow Ginzo’s Color without much of a problem. Eventually, orange lights flicker from a circular opening leading into the lab, saving us from the pitch black. Kian lets go of my shoulder when we walk inside.

  “Ah, there you are,” Helena says. She’s tapping a new glass bottle. She must have more of them somewhere, because all the ones in the lab before were shattered. I notice their glassy remains are gone too. And she has candles set on the ice countertops. Those definitely weren’t there before. Also, is Helena wearing a different coat? I swear it wasn’t this deep rose pink before.

  “The ice fires are revolting thanks to your little heart-magic blast, so now I’m resorting to candlelight,” she says, as if reading my mind. “For the moment.”

  Archer pushes off from a crevice in one of the ice walls, revealing herself and her fleeting blue-lavender Color. “Heart magic. What exactly is that?”

  Helena sets down her glass bottle. The ting makes me think about my insulated bottle. I know I left it here, but I don’t see it anywhere. My backpack is propped up against an ice wall where I left it, but my blood bottle isn’t sitting in either of its bottle holders.

  Don’t panic, Nova.

  My heart doesn’t get the memo, though. It makes itself known, makes sure I think about it beating in my chest when each beat throbs.

  “The one and only universal magic,” Helena says. “Perhaps. Unlike other forms of magic, it isn’t picky. Mortal, immortal, living, dead… Like clairvoyance, however, it’s quite finicky.” She turns around, leans back against the ice counter, gloves gripping the lip. “I want you twins to drain some ice fires for me, just like what you did to those belladonnas in Maddie’s office.”

  My rib cage threatens to collapse the next time my heart pounds against it. “Why?”

  “I’m looking for a portal that’ll take me safely to another world. Didn’t I say this already?”

  “But what can draining ice fires do? That’s not going to help you find a portal.”

  Helena drags naked nails across the ice counter, unbearably slow. They screech for ages.

  I bite my tongue and taste metal.

  Blue light so bright it’s almost white catches my attention from down one of the tunnels. It’s Ginzo, carrying something. His hands are clawed in front of him, high and low, holding a sphere of glossy ice the size of a beach ball. Inside is an ice fire, wiggling and squirming but failing to make any headway.

  When did Ginzo leave?

  “Found one,” he says.

  Helena offers a sharp nod; her curly black hair bobs with the force of it. “Don’t let it go until I give the word.”
r />   Ginzo huffs. “You know this takes a lot of effort and concentration, right?”

  “Yes, and I know you have more than enough willpower when given the right incentive.”

  Ginzo huffs again.

  “Okay, girls. Get ready. Hold hands. Do whatever it is you do.”

  Archer walks toward me. I step back into Kian; the only thought in my head says get away. I grab Kian’s hand and back us up against an ice wall. I even hold up my hand, signaling Archer to stop, if she’d only listen.

  “We don’t know how to control it,” I say. “We could kill everyone here.”

  Helena hums, and hazy purple buzzes like a swarm of bees. “Is that a threat, darling?”

  “Can’t Ginzo do it? He’s a demon.”

  “Even demons have their limitations. Ideally, I don’t want you to kill the things anyway. I just want them to obey. Ginzo, let it go. Show the girls what I mean.”

  Ginzo squeezes the ice sphere, pressure on the top and bottom, and then the thing starts to melt. Steam hisses and rises. Hot water dribbles onto the ice below, eating into the smooth surface like acid. The resonating tone I’ve come to expect from ice fires pitches higher, as if this ice fire is screaming. It darts through its melting cage, but Ginzo grabs the latter half of its body. It flails like a fish caught by the tail. Archer buckled when she grazed one before, but Ginzo is holding it captive without a care; he’s as immovable as a stone statue.

  He uses his other hand to grab the ice fire’s first half, binding it, pulling it taut. His Color turns into a torrent. At the same time, a low growl vibrates through his body. It matches the ice fire’s tone and pulls it down into something deeper, into something that rumbles in the ground below. It sizzles at my feet. I almost expect to see the ice underfoot turn red.

  “Reveal your secrets.”

  Ginzo isn’t talking to me, but my tongue moves in my mouth. A thought, a passing fear, pops into my head, and I almost say it out loud.

  “Ginzo, be specific,” Helena says.

  “Right, right. Reveal the secrets of this place.”

  This time, his words don’t affect me. The ice fire stops struggling, though. Ginzo even lets it go. It floats in front of him, facing him. I’m not sure if the things have eyes, but I imagine their eyes locked. Their Colors are locked; they assume the same frothy texture and stormy pace.

  “Nothing.” Ginzo cracks his neck. “Bring your ice-fire friends here.” He snaps his fingers and the ice fire wiggles away. It speeds down a tunnel, a bolt of blue lightning, taking its immense light with it.

  Orange flickers of candlelight cast horrific shadows across the planes of Ginzo’s silhouette. They grow and grow until, only seconds later, an army of blue streams in through that same tunnel. Various bell tones sound at different pitches. It rings in my head so loudly my skull threatens to fracture; my vision even warps.

  “Shut up!” Helena roars.

  The ice fires do and float silently overhead.

  “Such annoying little pests. Now, if he did that to one of you,” Helena points at Archer, me, and then settles on Kian, “he’d succeed.”

  “It looks to me like he did succeed,” Archer says. “It brought more ice fires, didn’t it?”

  “Yes, well. That’s because they’re covering up the fact that they’re hiding something.”

  I wonder if Ginzo will contradict her, because it’s possible they don’t have any secrets. He doesn’t. He plops onto the ground and starts picking at his teeth.

  Helena laces her fingers together and holds them in front of her, pleading. “Help out a fellow vampire, will you? I’m asking nicely.” Her face is tilted toward Kian, and her hazy-purple Color intensifies, all the little bits of mist coming together. Threatening pain.

  Helena, Archer, Ginzo. Who sets Nightshade on fire?

  I try to swallow away the dryness in my mouth, and the hunger pangs insisting on making themselves known, and say, “I’ll help you if you make a deal with me.” To leave Nightshade alone.

  Kian stiffens at my side.

  “Darling,” Helena says, “I wasn’t asking. Not really. I can still have him killed, you know. I can’t believe it’s come to this. You were so willing to come with me when I told you I could fix your little blood-fixation problem, and yet here we are.”

  “You wouldn’t dare, not after what happened last time.” My words sound much bolder than my shriveling heart.

  “Did you hear me? Your heart magic doesn’t scare me. It’s as capricious as the heart itself. Do you want to test it? Ginzo.”

  Ginzo rolls over so he’s facing me and Kian.

  “Why are you doing this?” My voice squeaks. “You’re Nightshade’s benefactor. Don’t you care about it or us? Madeline seems to think you do.” Or she’s just been lying to herself and to us.

  “Surely you’ve put this together by now. It’s a give-and-take relationship. Madeline reports rare talents to me, and I offer safety at times. Mostly, we mind our own business. As long as I get what I want, I don’t care what little Maddie and anyone else there does. And now I grow tired of this pointless banter. Ginzo.”

  Ginzo hefts his huge body off the floor and comes for me and Kian. I try to move us away, but our backs are already against a wall. Ginzo reaches past me and grabs Kian’s shoulder. “We’re leaving.”

  Kian can’t do anything about it. One hard jerk from Ginzo and he’s plastered to the giant’s side.

  “Wait,” I say.

  “Are you going to do what I asked?” Helena replies.

  Somehow, despite the freezing cold, sweat drips down my brow. “Just don’t hurt him.”

  “All right. Take him away, Ginzo. You heard the girl. We don’t want him hurt.”

  Archer unravels her folded arms and steps up to me the same moment Kian and Ginzo disappear down a tunnel. She takes off her glove and holds out her bare hand to me. I hesitantly mirror her. Static jumps off my fingers, though we haven’t touched. The docile ice fires wait patiently, Helena clasps her hands, and I tell myself here goes nothing.

  CHAPTER 2

  My hand won’t stop shaking. I haven’t even touched Archer yet, but my hand is giving away how scared I am.

  Maybe we’ll accidentally kill Helena. There could be worse outcomes, right?

  God, I don’t want to kill anyone, though.

  Archer’s fingers touch mine. That familiar zap travels up my arm and our Colors merge, creating lavender. It stops on a pinkish tint, though. There isn’t enough sky blue to balance it out. I want to close my eyes and block out whatever madness touching will incite, but I force myself to look. I peek, squint, expect lavender to extend from our silhouettes, but it doesn’t. It stays put.

  Is it because of Archer’s Color? It had thickened after she drank Ginzo’s blood. But after I blasted her into an ice wall, her Color became thinner again.

  Archer’s Color, this instability, what if I kill her?

  I try to slip out of her grasp, but she holds tight. If she’s dying, she doesn’t act like it. Maybe I’m wrong.

  “It’s not the same,” Archer mutters.

  “Indeed.” Helena holds her chin. “Nothing’s happening. After little Maddie’s report, I thought for sure I’d be in for a show, but this is spectacularly uneventful.”

  My stomach growls, and it’s really loud.

  “Maybe if I feed you again.”

  “That’s not it,” Archer says and holds out her hand for one of the ice fires.

  I tug her back. “Don’t. Did you already forget what happened last time you touched one of those things?”

  “Go ahead and touch it,” Helena says. “If you lose a hand, it’ll grow back.”

  Maybe with some demon blood involved. Zanza told us not to test the regrowing-limbs possibility, and I’m inclined to listen. Losing a hand doesn’t sound at all pleasant.

  “I’m doing it.” Archer catches an ice fire’s dangling back half. The cold makes her hiss, and it pushes out like a wave. I can feel it through her h
and, almost like she’s being flash-frozen. My teeth start to chatter. I want to let go of Archer’s hand, but she’s got a death grip. “I can do this,” she grits out.

  Lavender touches the ice fire’s bright, almost white, Color, and it might be draining some of it, but it’s only a small amount if it is. I can’t see a change. No, wait. I can. In my Color. Lavender turns more pink, light pink, but it saturates at the same time.

  Archer gasps and lets go of my hand. She lets go of the ice fire too, and a bunch of them scatter, floating in and out of the lab and through tunnels as if drifting inside a river current; others stay and mingle near the ceiling, hang from it like bats, and provide more than enough light to justify letting the candles burn out.

  Archer’s hands are blue. The one that was in contact with the ice fire is almost black. Bit by bit, Archer’s Color fades more. She flops to her knees, cradles her hand, and rocks.

  Helena clicks her tongue against her teeth. “That didn’t work.”

  “Archer needs Ginzo’s blood,” I say. I don’t know if it’s a good idea, but it was the only thing that made her Color look a little better. I’m really worried she’ll die.

  “Yes, indeed. That deathly color permeating your hands is not becoming. You second-generation vampires heal so slowly.”

  My stomach growls again. It won’t shut up.

  “And you’re both hungry. I suppose we’ll get back to this after we’ve eaten.”

  As if on cue, Kian and Ginzo return. Kian has a white lump in his arms, and he’s panting like a dog.

  “You have perfect timing, pet.” Helena’s nose screws up. “But what is that?”

  “A rabbit. The kid said he was hungry.”

  “I see.”

  Ginzo hits the ice floor back-first. It cracks underneath him, jagged and in no way comfortable, but he takes care to pillow his head with his arms. “Yeah. Cook it up, eat it raw, do whatever it is you mortals do, kid.”

  Ginzo sprawls out. A rattling snore seems to travel through his body, from his toes to his head somehow.

  Kian glances at me and Archer. “Did you two want some?”

  “Not really,” Archer says. “But if it’s our only option, maybe.”