Cruel Magic (Royals of Villain Academy #1)(19)

Or so there was no chance I’d use my villainous fearmancer powers on them?

If they hadn’t trusted me even while I had my parents there monitoring everything I did, what were the chances they’d trust me now? They might even think I’d helped those murderers kill Mom and Dad.

I swallowed hard. “Okay,” I said. “I see your point.”

Her expression softened just slightly, which maybe was as soft as that pinched face ever got. “We’ll do our best to bring out whatever talent you have in you, I can assure you. It’ll take us a few hours to work out your preliminary schedule. Why don’t you take the rest of the morning to acquaint yourself with the campus at your leisure?”

“That sounds good.”

I didn’t set off exploring the campus, though. I headed straight back to my dorm, finding the common room thankfully empty for the moment, and shut the door to my bedroom as firmly as I could.

“Deborah?” I murmured.

Her little white head nudged the wardrobe open a few seconds later. I knelt down to scoop her up when she scampered to me and cradled her as I flopped on my back on the bed.

Trouble? she asked. Other than the crapload of trouble we were already in, I mean.

“I…” I inhaled slowly. “The joymancers were afraid of what I might do if I came into my powers even a little, weren’t they? That was why my parents suppressed my magic—that was why they had you watching me.”

She was silent for a moment. They didn’t want your magic to lead the fearmancers to you.

“It couldn’t have been just that, though. They never even told me. I’d have been so much more prepared if they had, but it mattered more to them that there wasn’t a chance I’d turn against them. They didn’t even tell you the whole story.”

I’m sure they did what they thought was best for everyone involved, Deborah said, which wasn’t exactly reassuring. She obviously didn’t have anything to say that would prove the joymancer community would give me the benefit of the doubt now that I’d discovered who I was.

No way in hell was I staying here with these psychos any longer than I had to. But I was probably screwed if I ran back to California empty-handed too.

How could I show that no matter what my heritage was, I was on their side? That I was the girl—the woman—my parents had raised me to be?

How could I make sure the bastards who’d slaughtered my parents got what was coming to them?

The idea hit me so hard I tensed against the feather duvet.

“Deborah,” I said slowly, “when you were telling me about this place, you said the joymancers had been trying to shut it down for ages, right?”

They just never got close enough to manage it, yes. Why?

“Well… you can’t get much closer than this. What if I took down Villain Academy for them?”

Saying the words aloud sent a cool shiver through me. Dad’s voice rose up the back of my head. Pros and cons, Rory.

Pros: I’d destroy the institution that trained mages to become heartless killers. The information I could bring to the Conclave might help them interrupt all sorts of other fearmancer villainy. I’d avenge my real family. Oh, and as a side benefit, I’d get to see the cocky smile wiped right off Malcolm Nightwood’s way-too-handsome face.

Cons: I might fail and face a fate that I couldn’t imagine getting any worse than what I already had to deal with living with these creeps.

Yeah, when I laid it out like that, my decision couldn’t have been clearer.

Are you sure about this, Lorelei? Deborah said, nuzzling my fingers. If they catch you, fearmancers aren’t exactly known for mercy.

“That’s a chance I’ll just have to take,” I said. “I’m the best shot my parents have at getting justice. The best shot the joymancers have at tackling this place.” Just because I’d been born a fearmancer didn’t mean I had to subscribe to their philosophies.

I sat up, resolve coiling inside me. I was going to topple this place, but that meant I had to stick around long enough to pull off what might be the most epic betrayal in mage history.

In one month’s time, no matter what, I had to pass my second assessment.





Chapter Eight





Rory





You’d think a building like Nightwood Tower would be easy to navigate, considering it was pretty much straight up and down. Unfortunately, the perverse architect who’d designed it had decided to include two staircases, one on the north side and one on the south, each of which only gave access to two of the four classrooms on each floor.

I’d hiked up seven flights on the north side before I realized there was no way to reach my Seminar in Persuasion, room 704, from there. I had to hustle back down and up the other side.

Thankfully I’d set off for my first real class at Villain Academy with plenty of time to spare. My nerves had been twitching too much for me to sit still. I’d spent the last two days in one-on-one sessions with Professor Banefield between his regular classes while he tried to get me up to speed on the basics of fearmancy, but I still didn’t feel particularly ready.

The trouble was it turned out I wasn’t very good at being scary. Just as mages like my parents had to spark joy in someone around them to work their magic, I had to provoke fear. I’d done it with Malcolm the other day completely unintentionally. Approaching someone or something with the primary purpose of scaring them made my gut clench up. Especially when Banefield kept sticking things like adorable floppy-eared bunnies in front of me and expecting me to terrify them.