Dark Angel Academy (The Complete Series) - G. Bailey Page 0,7

is to know about your new horse familiar. For now, please come and collect a whistle necklace and secure your bond as I’m sure none of you want to be pushed off a cliff again!” She laughs as she speaks, like it’s funny.

It’s frigging not.

My horse seems to understand and walks forward before lowering down so I can slide off easily, the horse’s wings brushing against my cheek.

“Congratulations, Miss Lightson. This horse is almost legendary among us angels. No one has ever been able to catch her, and she has been around almost as long as Master Gabriel,” Professor Nina comments, smiling at me, but something darker twinkles in her eyes. My aunt used to tell me just because something looks like sugar doesn’t mean it’s not salt. “Now press your hand onto your horse’s head and learn her name.” I nod and lift my hand, placing it on the side of the horse’s head. Suddenly an ear-splitting voice speaks into my mind, and a warm feeling travels around my chest.

Ayda.

“Her name is Ayda,” I whisper, lowering my hand and seeing an angel blessing mark on her fur, and it glows a white colour.

“A lovely name. Now here is your whistle, and you may ask Ayda to go and rest while I work with the other students,” she tells me and walks away.

“Thank you for catching me, Ayda. I guess I owe you a favour, because what kind of angel can’t catch herself?”

Ayda neighs at me before running off, stretching her long white wings into the air and taking off into the sky. I slip the silver chain around my neck, letting the thin, silver, star-shaped whistle hang on my chest as I look up at the castle, which is meant to be my new home.

Welcome to The Angel Academy.

Chapter 5

Twiddling with the whistle necklace, I stare up at the tall towers of The Angel Academy as we follow Professor Nina inside. The doors are made of pure clouded glass, and the warmth of the inside makes my cheeks burn as I stare around. The room is a giant square with at least six dark wood staircases disappearing up and down to other floors. The walls are littered with paintings, hundreds of them, and in every single painting there is an angel.

Self-absorbed much?

The floor below our feet is shiny, glossy wood that creaks with every step we take through this large space. We all stop right in the middle of the room, and Riley stays close to my side.

“One second, we are just waiting on someone,” Professor Nina explains from the staircase she stands in the middle of.

“On a scale of one to ten, how much did you freak out when we were pushed off that cliff?” Riley whispers to me.

“About one hundred on the scale of let’s never talk about the cliff again,” I tightly reply, knowing he is joking, but I don’t have it in me to see any of this as humorous. “Aren’t you upset? Our parents think we are dead, and we can’t tell them we are okay.”

“We have been given a second chance at life, Katy. Nothing else matters,” he replies with a big smile before looking back to Professor Nina. I run my gaze over the students with us and, to my annoyance, nearly all of them look happy. Not a brainwashing cult, my ass.

Except for one redhead girl with a frown on her face. Vesnia’s eyes meet mine through the four people between us, and I see the same sorrow in her eyes. The same words I want to scream from the top of my lungs. The same fight in us. I know neither of us are going to give up without a fight, and we aren’t going to accept that we can’t see our families again. We have to get back to our families and tell them the truth of what happened. My mum and dad deserve that much, even if Riley can’t see that right now.

“Sorry I’m late, Professor Nina. We will take it from here,” a girl exclaims, sounding like an overenthusiastic cheerleader before I even look at her. I go to look at the girl who is still talking, but the boy next to her draws all my attention.

Not boy...man...dark angel. Drool-worthy dark angel. The guy stands straight, his arms crossed against his leather jacket with a crown pin on the collar, hiding the no doubt trained body underneath. Black wings rest right behind him, gracefully touching the floor