Page 2 of Lucent Academy 2: Trinity Awakens
She was a high-ranking agent within the Assassin's Guild. She was a go-between, the person he had always spoken to when he needed the Guild's services. He didn't even know her name. To him, she had always just been Lady Everdeen da Morca. He addressed her as such now, bowing his head. Then he pushed all the pouches of gold and jewels across the table toward her. She took it and made it disappear inside a larger leather pouch she carried.
Lady Everdeen gave a slow, wintry smile. "Do not fret, Your Excellency. Despite the mind-altering spells cast by the Mind Mages, it's pretty easy to guess who the real Trinity is, there'snot that many candidates—in fact only one. Just the fact that we know that there was a triple-summoning is enough. And if she shows any indication of having the kind of power you suspect her to have, we will be ready to arrange for an accident to befall the poor girl."
Chapter 1: Meditation in Isolation
That strange moon cast its scarlet light down on us as my eyes flickered across the table to Aldric. It was the most romantic setting I could have dreamed up: a candlelit dinner underneath the softer ambiance of the stars and that impossible moon. The table was bedecked in the kind of finery I wasn't used to: silver and crystal, precious porcelain and bloodred roses, all on a pristine white tablecloth.
The candles played in a soft glow on my dinner companion's pale face. It shimmered in his dark hair, making it look like velvet. I longed to stretch out my hand, to brush my fingers through those thick strands, to see what it really felt like.
As if sensing my desire, the Vampire Monarch, my mate, picked up my hand from the table. When his cold fingers touched my warm, naked wrist, I felt the electricity of longing pass between us. He guided my fingers toward the strands of dark hair framing his angularly handsome face. They felt as soft as I had imagined, and I sighed in contentment, feeling whole.
He turned my hand over and brought my wrist to his mouth. I felt his fangs prick the skin delicately. It hurt for only a moment. I was more focused on his soft lips caressing my skin.
He closed his eyes as my blood flooded his mouth. He was tasting me, sampling from my life essence, and I was pleased to share myself with him. He made a guttural noise in the back of his throat, something between a growl and a moan. I felt my reaction to his pleasure as a bittersweet leaping in my stomach, a clenching sensation that was more than a little pleasant.
The moment was broken when a large shadow loomed over Aldric and me. Before I could react, he was pulled from his seat and thrown back. He disappeared in a puff of smoke as if he'd never been there in the first place. I wanted to shout out my distress, but it was locked behind my lips. Then I heard a voice speak, and I understood who had interrupted my moment with Aldric and why. Instead of being angry or disappointed, I felt a sense of excitement.
"You dare put your filthy lips upon my princess? Away with you, bloodsucker! She is mine, only mine!"
I looked up into Caelan's fiery gaze. He held out his hand, beckoning me silently. His emerald-green eyes had softened from rage into love and adoration the instant he caught my gaze. I lay my hand in the Fae Prince's. He was my mate, too. Night magically turned to day as he pulled me up and twirled me around. I felt dizzy but electrified.
When the world stopped spinning, I had the sensation of thick, soft moss under my feet. We were standing in the most beautiful meadow. Wildflowers grew everywhere around us. Their fragrance was succulent, deep, and heady. Or was it Caelan himself who smelled that way? As he held me close, my fingertips rested on his bare, muscled chest. With his silver strands of hair and green eyes, the sunlight seemed to caress him in an intimate way. With sharp, aristocratic features, pointed ears, and a generous mouth that smiled softly, he was breathtaking.
I had never been so close to a man so beautiful. He bent down, bringing his lips closer to mine. We were about to kiss, but the moment was broken when a piercing roar shattered the tranquility of the meadow into a million pieces. It felt as if the very ground was shaking beneath my feet.
I stepped back and looked up at the sky. It was Vaerath, my third and final mate, who had voiced his displeasure at finding me in Caelan's embrace.
I let go of Caelan's fingers. His face showed a terrible loss before he disappeared in a puff of smoke. The meadow and the flowers all disappeared, too. I closed my eyes as a terrible wind whooshed past me, fluttering my clothes, stealing my breath until I felt I was gasping for air. I put my hands over my face and tried to steady myself as the world changed once more. The sensation of falling, of moving through time and space, enveloped me in a whirlwind of chaos.
When all became quiet, when reality seemed to reassert itself into pieces that made sense, I was suddenly standing on a desert floor. The hot sand scrunched between my bare toes. Around me, there were only red dunes as far as the eye could see.
I looked up at Vaerath in his dragon form. He was the epitome of freedom, strength, and masculine beauty. An Abyss Dragon. In both his dragon and human form, he was magnificent. My hair whipped around my head as he touched down near me. His form shimmered and changed. Suddenly, there he was, a man with obsidian black skin and molten eyes. Wild, dangerous, passionate, and completely untamable, walking toward me.
***
A soft knock on the door pulled me from my unsuccessful meditation attempt. Instead of clearing my mind, I had been reliving the dream I'd woken up from this morning, in vivid, embarrassing detail. I felt my cheeks burn as I remembered the pleasure I had felt at their jealousy, their possessiveness. My three mates. The desire that had flooded through me as I hadfantasized in my sleep about being with them was something I had never felt before.
I opened my eyes just as Amber poked her head around the door and wondered if she'd see all I was feeling on my face.
She glanced at me, where I was sitting with my legs folded on top of my neatly made bed.
"I can see by the frown between your eyes that the meditation technique hasn't been working for you. Maybe you should take a break. You've been at it since the crack of dawn. Besides, breakfast is here."
I sighed as I disentangled myself from my sitting position and followed Amber into the common room. My stomach rumbled when I saw the food that had been laid out on the table by one of the servants. It looked good. The food at the Academy wasn't something any of us could complain about. Still, as I took my place across from Amber, I worried that staying cooped up in our dormitory was the reason I was feeling a little frustrated. Perhaps I was even suffering from cabin fever.
As I finished the scrambled eggs on my plate in record time, I thought of the last week we had spent in isolation inside our dormitory. Classes were supposed to start in a few days, and I couldn't wait to see more of the castle grounds. At first, we had needed to rest, to regain our strength after the Summoning Ceremony.
Healers had frequently visited our dormitory, the one Amber and I shared with three other girls. Vivian, Natalie, and Kristin. They were sitting scattered around in the common room. Natalie was sitting in a soft armchair in one corner, reading a book. She had already finished her breakfast. Vivian and Kristin were sitting at another small table, loudly speculating over classes andthe instructors they may have as they shoveled food into their mouths, quite unladylike, I might add.
Among them, only Kristin was highborn, but unlike a few of the others we'd met, she was nice. We'd had plenty of opportunity to bond this past week after the Summoning Ceremony, and I had discovered that the other girls were just ordinary women outside of the strange new powers we all shared. I knew that the other first-year students were also cooped up together inside their own dormitories in other sections of the castle. I wondered how they were getting along with their own roommates. As far as being in forced isolation, Amber and I had it lucky with the people we shared a dormitory with.
The five of us hadn't talked much about the Summoning Ceremony, about our mates, or about the display of magic that had brought all of us here in the first place. At first, I had thought it strange. We weren't supposed to summon our mates in this first week, as we were supposed to be recuperating, but the deliberate avoidance of topics regarding our magical abilities had seemed strange to me.
While talking it over with my best friend in the room we shared, Amber mentioned that the other girls might feel intimidated by the fact that I had bonded with three Diamond-Tier mates. It was like they avoided the subject to make it easier to share a dormitory with me. It was easy for jealousy to set in if one had to share a personal space in forced isolation with someone so powerful.
After the first few days of mostly staying in bed, an instructor visited us and tried to teach us different meditation techniques. It was supposed to help with control and recalling spells during casting.
I had liked the meditation instructor. Jenny Whips was tall and lanky, flamboyant and unusual. She reminded me of a flamingo as she often wore shades of vivid pink, sometimes peach and white. She had an infectious laugh and had no trouble cracking a joke. In other words, not someone you'd picture as a member of staff at an elite Academy. Sitting on thin yoga mats in the common room, she had often talked us through guided meditation. Those were not the lessons I had trouble with. I could regulate my breathing and clear my mind while Jenny talked us through it.
