Shadowborn Academy_ Year One (Dark Fae Academy #1) - G. Bailey Page 0,57
step.
“Fucking wait, Vina!” He chases after me, stomping through the water.
I stop right before the unnatural darkness lingering under the bridge. My hands shake as I try not to be nervous, try not to worry about stepping into this place. My teeth are chattering from the cold.
“Your s-sister was a shadowborn. Was she turned on the same day as you?” I ask Jonah, not having a clue why I want to ask that right now. Maybe it’s because this is too similar, the water, the darkness, the guy leading me into it.
“I followed my sister everywhere as a kid. She was my role model. We made this fucked up promise that wherever she went, I had to follow. So when she jumped off a cliff near our home, I jumped next, thinking we would end up in the sea and swim to shore. But there was just dark magic in the sea and we both changed at the same time within it. I was seven and she was nine, and to this day I don’t know why she jumped.”
I’m surprised by his answer. I guess I never expected him to be so honest.
“Jonah,” I whisper his name as I close my eyes, feeling the pain he must have endured. “Did you end up in a foster home like me?”
“No, we had shadowborn family who took us in. Now enough questions. Are we going to do this or not?”
To my surprise, he takes my hand in his, and the warmth of his hand is comforting, almost making me forget about the darkness we’re about to step into.
Whatever I previously thought about Jonah Vincent before now is fading. In moments like this, he can be comforting. Maybe his coin has different sides, rather than just the asshole side I know.
“Ready?” I ask, taking a step forward, and Jonah steps with me. We’re both dragged into a thick cloud of darkness in seconds, one that doesn’t feel right as it smothers our shivering bodies. There are voices I can’t understand until a light appears right in front of me. The light changes its shape into three giants standing in front of a gold castle, with what looks like a forest of yellow leaves behind them. The images are there for only a few seconds before something hard thumps me in the chest and I go flying backwards, my hand slipping from Jonah’s. There’s a loud scream and a wave of ice-cold water crashing into my body, submerging me until I can no longer stay awake.
Corvina, it’s time to wake up.
Ambrose’s whisper just manages to reach my ears before the sun creeps ever so slowly over my features. I open my eyes and blink at the blinding fluorescent lights assaulting my vision. Whoever is opening the blinds right now, I am going to kill them.
“She’s awake,” Zander says, abandoning the blinds to hover over me.
“What the fuck happened back there?” Gage demands, and I open my mouth to speak, but then I hear Jonah and I realise he wasn’t talking to me.
“Hey, cut me some slack, I blacked out too,” he argues.
“You’re just lucky she made it back in one piece.”
Gage’s words send a shiver down my spine.
I look around at the four faces peering into my own, each displaying their own kind of unease. Pitch’s shadow is standing in front of the window, blissfully blocking out the sun for me. I can feel his rage and fear infusing with my own emotions.
he asks inside my head.
I nod quickly and look around. In the bed next to me, Jonah is laid up with a bandage around his head. For once, he doesn’t glare at me and offers a sheepish smile.
“What happened?” I ask quietly, my voice cracking. “I need a drink.”
“I don’t think now is the time to get drunk,” Zander chides me.
“Of water, you idiot!” I muster all my strength to throw a pillow at him.
He catches it with a grin, and then asks softly, “How are you feeling?”
I think for a moment, scanning my body for any signs of injury. I don’t feel any pain apart from a splitting headache chipping away at my skull. I also don’t remember what happened. One minute, I was holding Jonah’s hand, looking at a gold palace guarded by giants, and the next…
“I’m all right. I’m alive.” I turn my head around to face Jonah, wincing at the bright lights. “What did happen back there?”
“That’s what I’d like to know,” Gage growls again,