Supernatural Academy: Year One (Supernatural Academy #1)(97)

Asher moved down another cavern we hadn’t been in; it ended in a small circle of deep, dark water. “This is the way out,” Asher said. “It moves fast, and it’s best not to fight the currents. They’re magical portals that allow only Atlanteans to travel to the lost city.”

“What happens if you’re not Atlantean?” Calen asked.

Asher turned to him, and I could have cried as his lips quirked and those dimples came out to play. I’d missed them. “Exactly what you’re imagining.”

Calen flinched, and Axl let out a low whistle. “At least I can confirm that we all have Atlantean blood now.”

I groaned as Asher shifted, the burn of the blade increasing. Asher looked down with concern. “We need to move fast. The longer the steel absorbs her blood and power, the harder it will be to remove.”

He then stepped into the water hole, holding me close, and we were whooshed along the waterslide, taking us away from the secret caverns of Atlantis and back to the surface.





38





Because those slipstream entrances changed all the time, we ended up nowhere near our boat, which meant we could literally be miles from our vessel.

“There’s an island this way,” Asher said, pointing into the horizon. “I know there’s equipment there for us to get in touch with the Academy. They’ll open a step-through.”

My energy pulsed inside of me. I was so desperate to get back to my home that I imagined the building in my head. The stone and brick. The ivy-woven pillars and irregular weather patterns. I let myself go there for a moment, because I needed the comfort of home.

The heat spread, and I closed my eyes, too tired and sore to keep fighting.

“Uh, Mads…?” Jesse said, using a tone I hadn’t heard before.

I squinted one eye, not sure what I’d done.

A shimmery step-through was swirling just above the water’s surface. “Did you open that?” I asked, looking at Asher.

He shook his head. “Nope. That was all you.”

I had no idea how I did it, and I wasn’t sure it was safe, but before I could voice that worry, Calen shot himself out of the water and straight into the shimmer.

“Shit,” I cursed. “What if I fucked up and that leads to like … the moon or some crap?”

Axl shrugged. “The likelihood of the step-through leading somewhere you haven’t been before is very slim. What were you just thinking of?”

“The Academy,” I said. “Wanting to go home.”

Everyone looked relieved. Axl shot me a confident smile. “If you take into account our current circumstances and your thoughts at the time, I’ve now weighed both sides, and I think the step-through is the safest.”

He didn’t wait for a reply. Having made his mind up, he followed Calen, and then Jesse did as well. Rone hesitated, gesturing for Asher and me to go first.

“What if it closes after I go through?” I asked.

I mean, how do these things work?

Rone let out a breath, a low pissed-off sound, but he didn’t argue, sending his huge body into the shimmer. “I’m sorry if I hurt you,” Asher said, dark green eyes destroying me with their glittering intensity.

“It’s okay,” I told him truthfully. “Please just get me home.”

His gaze dropped to the blade and the slow pulse of blood still lighting those Atlantean symbols. “Hold on to me,” he said softly.

I wasn’t quite at the place where I was ready to tell him that there was no way I’d ever let him go again.





The next month at the Academy was rough. My step-through took us exactly where I’d intended, inside the grounds and everything, which was supposed to be impossible. I was immediately separated from Asher and the guys and sent into a reinforced medical wing in the herbalism rooms. Asher’s tincture was applied to my wound, and over several days the blade slowly slipped out of my skin, until finally I was free.

It took another week of the tincture for the wound to heal, and I was not allowed any direct contact with anyone, even when I could hear Ilia shouting in the hallway outside of my room.

It wasn’t just because of the blade though. It was because of my power. Once the blade was free from my skin, my power grew uncontrollable. I’d already destroyed everything in the room but me.

Asher came every single day—the first day he wasn’t allowed to enter, and he demolished the three rooms around me. Luckily, Jesse and Rone were with him and managed to calm him down before he leveled the entire building. Between the two of us, we were quite the destructive pair.

After that day, Asher still came, but he just sat on the floor outside my door. We couldn’t talk to each other—the magical seal was strong—but I could see him through the glass, and the simple fact of knowing he was there, that we were close, was enough to stop me from losing my mind.

Princeps Jones did his best to keep me abreast of the school’s happenings while providing me with as many books as I could read through a small enchanted entrance that allowed things in but not out.

Louis made his appearance twenty days after I returned from Atlantis, having been stuck in some sort of scuffle with the American army that had almost exposed all supernaturals to the world.

“I’m so sorry,” he said, stopping by my bed. He was the first person I’d been near in almost three weeks, and I found myself a little teary as he sat down beside me.