Shifted, page 34
The class sniggered.
“Before we started, I wanted to speak about one of the darkest times that Concordia ever faced. One brave soldier changed it. Who can tell me his name?”
Everyone lifted their hands, including me. We all knew this story. Alex told it to me.
“Penny?”
“My uncle,” she said, proud and loud.
“I’m afraid not.”
Everyone gasped, and everyone lowered their hands. Chase was the only one who had his hand still raised, sort of.
“Mr. Evans.”
“Bartolomeo.”
“Right you are, Chase.” Sovereign Danish hopped off his desk. “Miss Cavenagh, your uncle saved many people, but I was speaking about a time darker than what the fae endured. The time I’m speaking about was the dark ages. Who was Bartolomeo, Chase?”
“He was a phoenix and became the first ruler of Concordia.”
More gasps filled the classroom.
“We are covering the phoenix, guys. You need to know where it all started. What they fought against not just to become the rulers, but why they earned the title. Why they banned magic and their motives behind the law that suppressed the faes and other beings whose lives depended on Magic. Not all of it is evil. I promise.”
I looked at Brooke, who frowned. I knew she didn’t like the Phoenix Monarchy, but she was just as curious as the rest of us to find out more about them.
“You know what? Better I show you, then tell you. If you are there, then maybe you might understand better.”
He reached out toward the window. The blinds rolled down, and the orange curtains yanked close.
It became dark, and then a bright light popped in front of the classroom.
My heart pounded as animals and 3D figures of fae ran out of the light and filled the classroom.
The light faded and transported us to a different scene. We weren’t in the classroom anymore, or maybe we were. It was so hard to tell when magic was involved.
Voices seeped through. Women and children screaming, begging for their lives as dark cloaked figures plunder everything in front of them. If Brooke’s hand didn’t grab my arm, I wouldn’t even know that she was still sitting next to me.
“During the dark ages, there was a rebellion known as the Scry. They were intelligent, ruthless and wanted more. More magic, more power, and they didn’t care how they were going to get it,” Sovereign Danish said.
I watched with wide eyes at everything around me. It looked so real and it hit me full in the face what this was. It was a memory, stored inside a projection.
The only thing that was missing was the icy wind that howled, sensation. But the vibe of how dark those ages clung in the air. My heart pounded behind my ribcage and my gut turned in all directions.
Dark cloaked figures killed faes and creatures. They had some sort of necklace with a black stone that sucked up souls. Bright blue spirit figures, leaving the bodies of fae and creatures, seeped into the stone.
They didn’t care whether the magic belonged to male, female, child or creature. They just wanted more.
The crying and screaming of the ones that were left behind as they plunder one village after another made me cover my ears. I couldn’t handle the sadness and the evil that played off around me.
Then bright orange flames as a bird slash panther appeared. There was no beak, only a snout. A beautiful panther-like face filled the screen, and his eyes were bright blue.
Gasps filled the air. I’ve seen a picture in Father Matthew’s book, but I didn’t know if any of the others in the class saw what one looked like.
The phoenix had the back of a lion or a panther. Its paws were huge, but it didn’t have the front claws. Their wings were their front part.
It was the most beautiful and mesmerizing creature I’d ever seen. They looked nothing like the paintings.
The phoenix with other phoenixes, Spirit faes, phoenix griffins, chimeras and manticores, filled the scene and fought against the hooded figures.
They killed every single hooded figure.
The scene changed into a man that had blonde hair with bright blue eyes and his wife next to him. She could almost be his twin, as they looked so similar.
The entire Concordia bowed in front of them as they sat on their thrones. Everything was peaceful again. The images faded back into the bright light and the class walls seeped through again.
“It’s over,” Brooke whispered as she touched my arm. I glanced at her and her eyes glistened.
“Not what you expected them to be. The phoenix wasn’t evil, they just did what they thought was best. They banned magic because they knew what the world could become if greed took over. Sure, the Scry are still active today, but not as much as they used to anymore.”
My eyes glanced back at Brooke. She frowned as she listened to Sovereign Danish.
Chase lifted his arm.
“Chase?”
“So what, you want us to believe is that the phoenix did these horrible things in order to keep us safe?”
“I didn’t say they were smart.”
A group of sniggers waved around the classroom.
“They lived through one of the darkest times in Concordia’s history. It wasn’t wise to ban magic, but they weren’t completely wrong to contain it. I mean, after King Avery overpowered the phoenix, we’d learned how to work with it in a symbiotic environment. We use it only when we need it. Do you think we would’ve done that if the phoenix didn’t put such a hard lid down on magic?”
Nobody answered.
“Just what I thought. I will assign you in groups of two and in the next three weeks I want you and your partner to write a full detailed report on the phoenix, and how you would’ve done things differently.”
The bell rang, and we all got up. I didn’t know how to feel about the phoenix after what I’d seen.
I wondered if Alex had seen that projection. The way he spoke about memories as a child, it sounded dark and twisted.
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Acknowledgments
There are so many to say thanks to and not enough of pages.
First, a big thanks to the One that has given us the idea of Sophie and Drake, to tell their tale and share it with all of you.
Our lives would’ve been so boring without the imagination to conduct these stories.
To our families, for their support when we needed it. Especially when we wanted to give up. We couldn’t have possibly done this without them.
To our beta readers, and our arc readers. For helping spreading the news. Thank you, from the deepest part of our hearts.
To Fair Editions for copy editing and Sam for always making sure our books are tip tops.
To each other. We have learned so much from one another writing this story.
To everyone reading this book, giving this story a chance. We love mythical creatures, and griffins are dangling at the top of this list together with dragons. We hope you are going to fall in love with Drake and Sophie as much as we have and are going to treasure them as much as we do.
Till next time,
Adrienne and Carlyle
About the authors
Carlyle Labuschagne is a USA Today bestselling author from South Africa, who has won an award for her SF fantasy series the Broken Trilogy.
This series broke ground not only in her country but in many where the genre of SF is concerned.
Mixing African tales into worlds most of her readers describe as highly imaginative and unique.
Her Dystopian Romance book, Dead of Night is a multi-award nominated tale set in a world where love is outlawed, described by readers as breathing new life into the genre.
Adrienne Woods is a USA Today Bestselling author, living in South Africa.
She’s been in love with books all her life and knew at the age of 13 that she is going to be a writer one day.
That dream happened ten years ago and she started to pen her stories down on paper. Firebolt, her debut novel, were released 4 years after that, and she hasn’t stop since.
With more than 15 novels under her belt, it doesn’t look like she is going to stop soon.
The Legacy Born Series is the first series they penned down together and will follow soon with more.
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Adrienne Woods, Shifted
