Shadowcraft Academy: Hexed: A Dark Academia Paranormal Reverse Harem Romance, page 1
SHADOWCRAFT ACADEMY: HEXED
A DARK ACADEMIA PARANORMAL REVERSE HAREM ROMANCE
SHADOWCRAFT ACADEMY SERIES
BOOK ONE
YVE VALE
Published by Entraverse Publishing
Sedona, AZ 86339, USA
YveVale.com
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, actual events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
Copyright © 2022 Yve Vale.
Cover Art © 2022 Yve Vale.
All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
To David,
thank you for being my Alpha… reader,
my sounding board, my cheerleader,
and my inspiration for many aspects
of my fictional guys.
CONTENTS
Author’s Note
1. An Ordinary Life
2. The Party
3. Only the Fated
4. Rejected
5. Magical Services
6. Entrance Exams
7. Old Friend
8. Orientation
9. Room Assignment
10. Healer’s Touch
11. First Day JItters
12. Magicology 101
13. Lunch
14. Office Hours
15. Another Day
16. Back for Seconds
17. A Wounded Warrior
18. Red Tape
19. No More
20. Birth Day
21. Welcome Party
22. Shadowwalk
23. Return to Offender
24. Secret Rendezvous
25. Back to School
26. Lessons
27. Bunker Fun Times
28. Bonds & Curses
29. Posse
30. Druid Bonds
31. The Hunt
32. The Reckoning
Also by Yve Vale
A Note from Yve
Reviews
About the Author
Acknowledgments
AUTHOR’S NOTE
The Shadowcraft Academy Series is a steamy dark paranormal academy reverse harem romance.
This series contains sexual scenes between the heroine and one or more partners at a time. There will be a happily ever after with more than one male.
Shadowcraft Academy is for adult readers and contains profanity, dark themes, magical violence, physically abusive behavior by a parent, strong and sometimes derogatory language, a plethora of references to sex and sexuality, a few explicit sex scenes including male/male, abduction, and other themes some readers may be sensitive to.
1
AN ORDINARY LIFE
SHAYLA
Living in a town full of supernatural beings, my vague gut-feeling that something weird is about to happen doesn’t rile me up as much as it should. It’s par for the course. So I go about my day. I’m alert. But hell, I’m always alert. I’ve had to be.
“Please tell me you’re going,” my best friend, Myra, says as we pass through the swinging kitchen doors, both of us balancing plates of greasy diner food.
Yum.
The rough-rider trucker at table three gives me the stink eye because his food has taken so long to arrive.
I ignore Myra’s persistent attempt at peer pressure and head over to deliver the heart attack on a plate. “Anything else I can get you?” I ask pleasantly.
“How about an apology for taking your sweet ass time?” He cocks his head, expecting me to grovel. Then his eyes slide down my body as if he were licking it along the way. No, thank you.
I resist the urge to vomit. Whatever energy this guy has, it does not jive with mine.
In times like these, I wish I had magic instead of being a null. I could hex this damned fool for being a such a jerk, and he wouldn’t even know it. Or, if I had my mother’s gift, set his ass on fire.
We’re right on the town’s border between supernaturals and normals, but even with my non-existent magical ability, I know this guy is just a regular jerk, not an extra special, magical asshat.
“The kitchen is a bit backed up today,” I explain, “but I’m sure Big C would love to come out and apologize to you personally.”
Just the mention of the ex-con owner/cook, and this guy backs down. “Whatever. I need a refill.” The jerk drains his coffee and shoves the empty mug across the table at me.
Fortunately, I’m fast enough to catch the cup before it flies off the table and crashes to the floor.
“Sure thing!” I plaster an obvious and obnoxious fake smile on my face and spin away, mentally daring the guy to smack my ass so Big C will kick him out.
This is the type of customer who comes in to throw his tiny dick around and harass the servers.
Despite my ass being the perfect target, he doesn’t touch me. Clearly, the reminder that Big C owns the joint was enough to make him back off. He doesn’t even know that the owner is half-ogre, and he’s already afraid of him. If this customer only knew the damage my boss could do without even trying.
Fortunately, the big lug likes me as an employee. He says it’s because I’m not stuck-up like a lot of supes. Of course, I’m not a snob, but I’m not really a supe either.
As I approach the counter to get a coffee refill, Myra raises her perfect eyebrow and flicks her eyes in the customer’s direction. “Charmer, huh? Maybe you can invite him to the party,” she says with a wicked grin.
“Oh. Great minds think alike! Since you are so insistent on going, I already asked him to be your date instead of me.” I smirk.
Myra rolls her eyes. “Come on, please.” She grabs my arm, lightly tugging on it like a toddler about to throw a tantrum. “Shay, I won’t get to see you after I leave for school.”
And here it comes, the pouty lip. Dang, she has it down to an art form. But I guess that’s what happens when your parents actually care if you’re unhappy.
I sigh outwardly, already giving in. But inside, I bristle at the reminder of her leaving. Myra has magic, and from all indications, she’ll develop into a powerful mage once she learns to harness her gift at school. As a null-born mage, I’ll never be accepted. Soon, I will lose her to the magic world.
Myra would have gone after high school, but she goofed around too much, and her grades weren’t high enough, even though she had the money to attend. She’s been going to community college to demonstrate her newfound academic dedication and taking magical tutoring lessons in the meantime. I’m glad Myra finally gets her wish to attend the fancy magic academy.
Personally, I never wanted magic. I want freedom from the magical world altogether. Fortunately, I’ve never shown any magical promise. Sure, I have an occasional premonition, but plenty of humans have that ability.
However, I wouldn’t mind if Myra could run away with me, but she has magic, so that’s not a possibility. She must master the powers that are coming to the surface. Mages can lose their minds if they don’t learn to control their magic. Or that’s what the authorities tell us happens to supernaturals. However, I’ve always been skeptical of authority.
“Whatever,” I grumble. “I’ll go to your silly party. But why do you want to go to a normal’s party, anyway? Soon you’ll be tossing back butterbeer and making out with wolves.”
“Stars, Shay, you make it sound like a perverted Hogwarts. They wouldn’t be in wolf form when I make out with them. That would be too kinky… even for me.”
I chuckle at how kinky I know she is, at least in her fantasies. Unfortunately, I’m still a virgin—I just haven’t met the right person to give that moment to.
“Be ready by nine. I’ll swing by and pick you up with a car share,” she says with a glare like she knows I might flake out on her.
I won’t, but I’m tempted.
Huffing my irritation at giving in, I head back to deliver a fresh cup of coffee to Mr. Sunshine. I remind myself that I’ll soon have a whole new life when I escape this town.
After my morning shift at Connor’s Diner, I walk the few blocks home. My sluggish steps are a sign of how much I don’t want to return to the hell that is my home life. It takes twice as long as it should to arrive.
My mom’s beat-up Corolla is parked cattywampus in the driveway. Weeds grow in every crack in the concrete, further destroying the decaying visage. I used to care, pull the weeds and tidy up, but I’ve long since lost interest in what people think about my mother or me.
I only have to make it to my twentieth birthday, prove that I have no magic in me, and I can leave this stupid town and my mother behind. I’ve saved up as much as possible to fly the coop. Well, except for the money I’ve had to spend to keep myself in the finest cheap clothes I can find on the sales racks.
I’ve already set up a deal to buy a used car from Myra’s cousin when I’m ready to leave. I’ll live in it if I have to. I’d get the car now, but my mother would force me to sell it off and give her the money.
It hasn’t been easy hiding my nest egg from my mother, but I l
What she doesn’t know is that I’m not actually partying when I disappear in the evenings. I’m down at the diner, pulling extra shifts to get the hell out of her house. She’s often passed out by the time I get home, so I usually don’t have to feign drunkenness.
I suck in a deep breath and enter through the kitchen door, hoping to evade contact with the enemy.
“Spawn’s home,” Bruce, my mother’s current boyfriend, mutters as he pops the cap off a beer. Not the first of the day—I can smell it. Delightful as always.
“Hey!” my mother shouts from the living room. “Get your ass in here.”
I drag myself into the disheveled living room, cross my arms, and cock my hip, conveying a defiant attitude. “What now, Leeann?”
“Don’t sass me.” My mother sniffs and looks me up and down.
“I haven’t sassed you… yet,” I sass.
“I can knock some sense into this girl if you’d like,” Bruce offers. Such a giver, this one.
My mother pauses as if she were considering it.
I remain standing, waiting for whatever bullshit she’s about to throw at me. Finally, she says, “Magic Social Services called. They want to meet with you and me to review your null status.”
“When?” I study my nails, trying to appear nonchalant. This is it. I’ll be free. But I can’t let her in on the fact that I have the means to bolt. She’d hate to lose her punching bag, after all. Besides, it will only get worse for me once my use as a cash cow is officially over.
“Next month. Day after your birthday. Nine in the morning.” Leeann glowers at me as if I’ve let her down. I suppose I have.
She hoped I would have magic and trick some rich asshole into a mate bond, just like she tried and failed to do. When she was younger, she was pretty enough to catch any guy’s attention. But the guy who knocked her up with me must have figured her out and decided not to stick around. Now, she’s just a ghost of the beauty I’ve seen in pictures.
“If I’m lucky, they’ll cart you off to the asylum, experiment on you, cut you open, and see why you’re a fucking no good null.” Leeann waves her hand dismissively.
My mother has been threatening the asylum thing as my personal boogeyman for as long as I can remember. I know now that it isn’t somewhere I want to go, but I won’t end up there if I don’t have magic.
“Whatever. I’ll make sure I don’t have anything booked that day.” I shrug and escape to my room, acting flippant about the drastic change just around the corner.
My anxiety spikes as I walk down the threadbare carpet hallway to my room.
Please, don’t let anything go wrong.
But the Fates have never been my friend.
Once inside my room, I close the door, lock it, then press my ear against the door and wait. I need to make sure that Bruce or my mother haven’t followed me down the hall. On the other side of my twin bed, hidden from the door, I kneel down to check on my nest egg. I pop open the air duct grate to ensure that my roll of cash is still safely inside the duct. My arm reaches down into the dark. A darkness that reminds me of the tortures that I’ve endured. I wrap my hand around the cloth bag containing my hopes and take a deep breath.
All I have to do is make it through another month in this hellhole.
Goddess, please get me out of here.
2
THE PARTY
SHAYLA
As I leave for the party, I yell, “I’m going out!” Not waiting for a response from Leeann, I slam the front door shut. Along the poorly lit street, I walk a few houses down from mine to wait for Myra. I don’t need my mother seeing me in the front yard and coming out to harass me.
Sitting on the curb, I scan my neighborhood. It isn’t a horrible neighborhood—just tired. This is now the poorest in the magical half of town. Our house is the most dilapidated house on the block. It wasn’t that way when we moved in, but my mother doesn’t take care of anything.
I don’t have many good memories of this block, except for a few with my childhood friend. He only lived in the house sitting across from me for a short while, ten years ago, but I still think about him whenever I pass by. The grandmother he lived with has moved away. So now, there’s officially no reason to want to stay in this area infested with supernaturals.
Half of this town is made up of supes, and the other half is human. Some norms know about magic and other realms, but most don’t. Not far from my place, where I’m headed tonight, is the norms’ side.
When a car turns onto my street, I get up and brush off my butt, squinting into the headlights.
Myra rolls down the window to the backseat and asks with a sugary tone, “How much, baby?”
“Honey, you can’t afford all this.” I wave my hands over my full breasts and wide hips. I’m not model skinny by any means, but I don’t give a damn.
The driver snaps, “No solicitation, even as a joke. Please!”
Shaking my head in amusement, I slide into the back seat with Myra.
She immediately fusses with my hair. “Brushing your hair isn’t the same thing as doing it. You’re lucky it’s a pretty color… and thick and wavy.”
I swat her hands away. “I’m not going for a hookup. I’m your wingwoman, remember? I can’t get involved with anyone. I’m going to be leaving this town soon.” I grin and tell her the news. “I have my MSS meeting the day after my birthday. Then I vanish.”
“But I don’t want you to disappear,” Myra whines.
“You’ll be at school. And I can’t let anyone know where I am. Who knows how my mom will react. She’s crazy enough to come after me.”
“All right. I’ll drop it… for now.” She tosses me a lip gloss to use. “I can’t have my wingwoman looking plain as hell.”
“Thanks,” I mutter.
“Seriously, you need to just do it. Get it over with. There will only be norms at this party, so you might as well just have a one-night stand and punch that v-card.”
In the rearview mirror, I catch the driver’s eyes widen with her statement. “Will you drop it? If I find a nice, cute guy, I’ll screw his brains out. Happy?”
“Yep!” Myra hands me a little vial of green liquid—witch’s birth control. “Just in case.”
Begrudgingly, I uncork the bottle and down the contents. She’s right, of course. I don’t need any complications.
The music is thumping so loud that I’m already developing a migraine as we walk through the tiny front yard of a rundown, suburban house. Myra looks at me excitedly. I attempt a smile. A house party. With norms. Ugh.
Then I remind myself that I’ll officially be a norm soon. The real problem for me is that I just don’t like socializing.
I’ll have to learn to socialize with them in every aspect of my life. This will be great practice. Or so I tell myself to give my legs some reason to move toward the blasting wall of sound. I swear I can see the vibrations and distortions in the air. If I had magic, I might believe that I actually could.
Myra drags me along by the hand. Why do I feel like I’m being led to the gallows, to be left hanging?
Because Myra always finds someone to hook up with on these excursions. I’m the tag-along whose sole purpose is to get her back home at the end of the night.
As we enter, I watch sweaty, hot bodies undulating and grinding to the beat. The warm summer night air isn’t doing anything to cool off the house. With this amount of body heat, there’s no chance for it to get any more comfortable inside. We head back to the kitchen and grab a couple of cold beers.
