Rosemary Johns - Rebel Academy - Curse

I turned my head. Panicked voices crashed over me. Damelza screeched, casting spells at the roots, along with Bacchus. I noticed that Juni met my gaze with a determined nod, before nudging Emerick and Snow towards Sleipnir, who’d scooped up Mist into his pocket and joined the ring of Rebels.

Juni knew.

Why was she helping us?

Then I also noticed the longing gaze that she cast at Lysander, and I understood.

If she couldn’t be with him, then she’d save him. Truly self-sacrificing love was the noblest kind.

I nodded back at her.

Fox grinned, leaping over the feast and sending the chocolate cake splattering across the floor. When he banged on the vast glass window, Ambrose saluted him from the other side. Fox clacked a smart salute back, before diving under the table this time on his stomach and covering his head with his hands, which was the only warning before the dragons swiped their talons through the glass.

The shatter of breaking glass rang through the hall with startling loudness, followed by the roar of outraged monkey dragons.

The freezing breeze blew through the hall from the cold night.

Lysander covered me with his wings.

Then I struggled to my feet, and Lysander helped me to stroll to Rayn, who nuzzled me.

Bask slipped his arm around the small of my back, before stroking Rayn’s head. “Petting time.”

Lysander startled when his dragon willingly ducked down for him, so that he could jump on without the need for a saddle, spurs, or riding whip. Lysander flushed, patting the dragon in apology. Then he darted a final glance at me like even parting for a moment was painful, before swinging himself on, holding his hand out to Willoughby and then Midnight. They clung around each other’s middles, and their excitement wound through my magic.

“You’ve got to be joking.” Titus stared at the dragons and then Damelza. “This is your famed taming of supernatural bad boys and professors? They’re running the academy.”

Damelza’s dress ruffled to twice its size with rage. “You’re the one who insisted on this ball and the witch being here. She creates rebellion where ever she goes.”

I smiled. “Why, thank you.”

Sleipnir jumped off the stage, before urging Emerick and Snow toward the dragons.

Emerick and Snow climbed onto one dragon, and Ambrose helped Ty and Ezekiel onto another, before mounting himself.

Flair and Echo dived off their perch, flapping through the broken windows.

“ Don’t forget us, boss ,” Flair called.

“ She’d never forget us, ” Echo said with such certainty that I glowed.

Bacchus’ hand twitched like she was holding herself back from hexing us.

“Take me with you,” Darby pleaded. “I’m a Rebel too.”

I glanced at Willoughby, but he turned away his head.

“I’ve learned that you have to earn the title of Rebel,” Willoughby replied. “You’re not ready.”

Damelza stalked forward in a flurry of crows’ feathers. “Did you forget that I can just click my fingers and kill you all?”

“Huh, why don’t you try that?” Sleipnir helped Fox onto Rayn. “You already look like an asshole, so why not add jackass as well?”

Damelza’s eyes glittered… and she clicked her fingers.

Nothing happened.

At least, until Fox bent over, grasping the brand on his hand with a grimace. “ Ah, ah, ah …the agonizing pain…”

My pulse thundered in my ears.

Juni smiled, smugly.

No, no, no…

I reached up to grasp Fox, but he straightened with a wink.

The bad, soon to be spanked (the moment that we escaped), foxy.

“Pathological liar here,” Fox explained with a wave of his pain free hand.

“ You, you, you…” Damelza spluttered.

“Wicked witch and her Rebels…?” I supplied, helpfully. “This is my Rebel Academy, which shall never be used to trap students again. As soon as I leave the grounds, the magic to hold other supernaturals comes with me. Blessedly Charmed witches are only born every five hundred years, aren’t they…? Don’t waste time waiting for the next one; your coven’s power is gone. The House of Crows is broken . I’m certain that by the time the next Blessedly Charmed witch comes along, all witches shall be rebels. At least, that’s the plan.”

I swung onto Rayn with Bask in front of me, while Fox held onto my waist behind.

Damelza roared, but before she could throw a hex, my roots burst from the floor in an impenetrable wall, and the dragons pulled out into the night. Behind us, the walls of Crow Hall crashed down. Dust rose into the air like hundreds of ghosts around us.

Sleipnir dashed after Rayn. “Valhalla! We’ve seized it,” he called, vibrating with delight. “ The chaos moment . It’s beautiful. The world…worlds…are open to us now. All the veils, the Eternal Forest, lie before us.”

In a spray of blue glitter, Sleipnir transformed into his gorgeous giant horse form, pawing his eight hooves impatiently in the snow and swinging his aquamarine tail from side to side. His coat glittered under the moon like crushed gems.

Sleipnir raised his head and whinnied, before flapping his wings and taking off into the air. Flair and Echo rose beside him at either shoulder.

What if my familiars faded along with the curse? My heart clenched at the thought that they wouldn’t be able to leave the academy with me.

They weren’t the past; they were part of my future.

Sleipnir led the dragons towards freedom. I shivered, as the breeze cut my cheeks. I wrapped my magic more firmly around all the Rebels and professors on their dragons to make sure that they didn’t fall. Ty laughed; high and free. I clutched Bask, and he wiggled his behind against me.

Fox rested his chin on my shoulder; his curls tickled my cheek. The smell of sweet raspberries wound around me, reminding me of the taste of wild blackberries.

Rayn roared. His yellow magic fluttered out to meet his brothers’ in their joy.

They were going home, while I was leaving home for the first time.

I didn’t know what I’d find, but I’d meet it with my Immortal and Prince lovers at my side.

I left behind my ghosts and past. Yet I’d said my goodbyes.

When I glanced down at the academy beneath me, I gasped.

The snow was melting. The lake was no longer frozen. Spring had at last come to the academy.

My curse was broken. The grounds sprang to life: rich greens that’d been shrouded in white. Barn owls and bats swooped beside us in the starry skies.

My magic coiled up from the grounds in pulsing trails, winding into me. I thrilled at the new powers.

Would we truly be able to break the wards and go past the boundaries that Robin and I had walked so many times?

Just a little more…

As Sleipnir and the dragons flew past the Dead Wood towards the shadow of Oxford’s spires and then finally… finally …to the boundary of the academy, I knew that after over a hundred years, death, resurrection, and a second chance, I’d be free .

My Rebel lovers and I could explore the Eternal Forest, across the veils to the realms of gods, demons, and spirits, or the magical kingdoms. As long as we were together.

This was my adventure. Love. Life .

It was the chaos moment.

At last, Sleipnir, my crow familiars, and the dragons broke the boundary, flying into the warm night beyond the academy, and all of us were free .

Continue the adventures of Sleipnir’s dad, Loki, and Bacchus’ sister in BAD LOKI in book One of the REBEL GODS series HERE NOW.