Monster Academy for the Magical (Monster Academy for the Magical 1)
While Roman is no longer holding onto me, I still can’t move from where I stand because a cage now surrounds me.
“Let me out of here,” I growl, gripping the bars.
Ollie and Phoenix smirk at me from the other side while Roman watches me with a guarded expression.
“Not a chance, sweetheart,” Ollie says to me with a grin.
I lock eyes with Roman. “I don’t know what happened with the other maddening you met, but I’m not a killer.”
“I guess we’ll see, won’t we?” He steps forward and pats the bar. “If deep down inside you, you aren’t then eventually the bars of this cage will melt away. However, if the magic laced in these bars sense you’re evil, the cage will remain in place until it can feel otherwise.” He gives me a cold, cruel smile. “My bet is you’ll be the new decoration to our room for a very, very long time.”
With that, he steps back, and they all head toward the door.
I rattle the bars. “Let me out!”
They ignore me, exiting the room and shutting the door behind them.
And just like that, I become trapped again, like I was in Tina and Tim’s basement. Only this time, I might not ever get out.
“No.” I shake my head as I sink to the ground. “I’m not a killer.” I stare at the bars, willing them to understand that, willing them to melt away.
But they remain in place, keeping me trapped, and letting me know that maybe, just maybe, somewhere deep inside me, I might be a killer.
Roman
Part of me feels bad for locking her up. I hate that I feel that way. I shouldn’t feel bad at all. She’s a killer, whether she’s killed yet or not. Her kind always ends up killing, causing death wherever they go, just like the one I met.
“So how are we going to keep this hidden from that fire demon?” Ollie asks as we wander the hallways of the academy.
School doesn't start for another week, so hardly anyone has arrived yet. The only reason Ollie, Phoenix, and I are here is because we chose to come here early. It sounds a bit strange, but it's either come to school early and hang out with each other or spend more time in our homes, by ourselves, because none of our parents are around much. It comes with the territory of coming from a darker bloodline. The darkness inside us makes us more cold, distant, and uncaring. At least that's what I was always told.
When I was younger, I used to be a nice kid. I’d share my toys with others. When I attended the all-death-angels academy, I was the best flyer in my class, and I spent time trying to teach others to fly as well as me. But when my father found out about that, he taught me a lesson. And by lesson, I mean he beat me until I promised I’d become the cold, cruel creature he wanted me to be.
“Emotions will ruin you,” he told me as he struck me across the face. “Do you want to end up feeling things for the rest of your life? Do you want to let others control you? Be able to break you?”
I had shaken my head. He made it sound so awful.
After that, I started fighting against my kind instincts. And now here I am, part of a group everyone calls the Death Triplets. Creatures fear us. Flee when we come around. And that’s the way we like it.
At least, that’s what we tell everyone.
“We’ll figure it out later,” I tell Ollie, pulling myself from my thoughts.
“Maybe she’ll get out,” Phoenix remarks, stuffing his hands into his pockets.
I shake my head. “She won’t.”
Phoenix glances at me. “I don’t know, man… Honestly, she didn’t seem that scary.”
I glare at him. “She’s a maddening. That cage will never let her out.”
But deep down, in that tiny, good part of me that just won’t seem to die, I want Haven to get out. But it’s a naïve hope. Like I said before, all maddenings are killers. I know this first hand, learned it the day one of them killed my brother and sister with their cold, darkness-filled, murderous hands.
Chapter 13
“Your performance was flawless,” Mor said to his colleague and lover.
“Of course it was.” Sage turned from the window, dabbing a bit of smeared lipstick on her face. “Everything I do is flawless.”