Chosen: Thorne and Rose Academy Book Three, page 1
Chosen
Thorne and Rose Academy Book Three
Emily Frances
Copyright © 2021 Emily Frances
All rights reserved
The characters and events portrayed in this book are fictitious. Any similarity to real persons, living or dead, is coincidental and not intended by the author.
No part of this book may be reproduced, or stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without express written permission of the publisher.
Contents
Title Page
Copyright
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-One
Chapter Twenty-Two
Chapter Twenty-Three
Books By This Author
Chapter One
A Note From the Author
Stay Updated!
Books By This Author
About The Author
Chapter One
A large splotch of cream-colored paint landed on my forehead before I could dodge out of its way and I grunted in annoyance. Taking a step back, I sat down on the freshly waxed floor of the Thorne and Rose gym and grabbed one of the dubious-looking paint cloths to wipe my forehead with. The wall in front of me was half-painted; dirty white coloring stood out starkly from the fresh layer of cream I had just applied.
Glancing to my right, I saw Nicolette was in a similar position to me. She was sitting on the gym floor, but instead of scrubbing paint off of her body like I was, she was concentrating on her paintbrush, moving it up and down the wall from a distance. Entertained, I watched her hand move in time with the paintbrush’s movements. It wasn’t the neatest paint job, but it was better than nothing, which was what Yulian was doing.
He was at the end of the gym, remarkably still in human form, and dragging his paintbrush in small strokes along the bottom of the wall. I could practically feel the apathy and lack of effort from my side of the room. On the other side of Yulian, Ciro stood, his full attention on his paint roller, clean streaks of color following his methodical movements.
A thrill of warmth shot through my body as I looked at him. His wavy black hair had grown over the summer to the point where it was now hanging around his shoulders in an effortless messy look; his lithe muscles were visible, credits to the black paint-stained tank top he was wearing. I sent up a thanks to Roque for allowing us to choose our own detention clothes.
All four of us had been working hard repairing and touching up areas around the Academy throughout the entire summer. It was no wonder I never saw a janitor on staff – the students were apparently responsible for most of the improvements around this place. Occasionally, other students from the summer program joined us in our labor-intensive detention, but for the most part, the four of us suffered our punishment for our unauthorized excursion off-campus alone.
Frowning to myself, I wondered what my parents were doing right now. We had been sending letters to each other more frequently since they had returned home after escaping the Council, but I didn’t trust Isla to leave them alone completely. Now that the Council knew Cordelia, my biological mother, was still alive and that my adoptive parents were friends with her, I’m sure they would be on the eternal hunt for information.
Absentmindedly, I stuck my hand into my jeans pocket and rubbed my thumb over the small stone that Cordelia had given me on our first and only meeting. It was a green-yellow color and smooth in appearance, weathered down and slightly gleaming. Every time my thumb passed over it, a jolt of comfort tingled its way up my arm, relaxing my worries.
I let out a sigh, both of weariness and of anxiety. To my left, Nicolette seemed to have heard me and mistaken my noise for general frustration with our detention duties.
“Don’t worry, Jenna, there’s a little more left and then we’ll finally be free.” She shot me a wide grin and flashed a thumbs up, but the action momentarily took her concentration away from the floating paintbrush. It dropped to the ground with a clatter, splashing paint all over Nicolette, the floor, and the wall.
Shooting to her feet, Nicolette looked down at her light blue t-shirt in dismay. “Ugh, it’s all over me! And I’d been doing so well not getting paint on myself.”
From the other end of the gym, Ciro chimed in. “You’ve avoided it so long because you hardly do any of the painting.” He gestured to his own completely paint-covered outfit, the cream color stark against the black of his tank top and dark jeans. “This is what the outfit of a true painter looks like.”
“Whatever, Michelangelo.” Nicolette rolled her eyes at him. “We’re not all trying to go above and beyond to impress other people.”
She gave me a sly look and I blushed instinctively. I hadn’t exactly told her what had transpired between Ciro and me at the end of our adventure to the Council, but she had plenty of time over the summer to guess for herself. It didn’t help that I stuttered almost every time Ciro talked to me these days, the memory of our first kiss always dancing at the front of my mind. Plus, Ciro insisted on walking me to our summer classes and holding doors open for me – who would’ve guessed that the vampire would turn out to be such a gentleman.
“I’m not trying to impress anybody,” Ciro protested. “I’m trying to get this detention over with as fast as possible.”
Nicolette dismissed him with a wave of her hand, clearly not buying his explanation. I didn’t really agree with it either, but who was I to start calling him out? I was simply happy to be here, enjoying the view.
With another wave of her hand, Nicolette attempted to magic the paint splotches out of her t-shirt. She must not have been as practiced at this spell, however, because the cream paint turned bright pink and began to expand until her shirt appeared covered in polka dots.
“New spell?” I asked, holding back my laughter.
“Yeah.” Nicolette frowned, waving her hand over the dots one more time. They turned purple. “But I don’t think it’s working out for me.”
“Where did you even learn that?” I stood, tossing the dirty paint cloth to the gym floor next to me.
“Practical magic class. Now that we’re not dealing with lightbulbs, I’m not doing too badly.” She took another glance at her shirt. “Except for this, of course.”
“Do you think that’s going to be your specialty then?” I moved closer to Nicolette, wanting to try my own hand at a practical magic spell.
We’d been studying hard all summer and I’d thankfully improved a little bit, but my skills still weren’t perfect. Of course, they really only had to be passable because my specialty was the psychic witch magic I’d inherited from Cordelia. And maybe some daemon magic too, but I didn’t want to think about the possibility of being daemon born right now. The nightmares I’d been having since we returned from the daemon realm were more than enough for me to deal with.
“Probably not.” Nicolette picked her paintbrush up again, this time starting to paint using her own efforts. “I don’t feel any type of strong draw to practical magic.”
“What do you feel a draw to?” I waved my hand near her shirt, managing to turn the bright purple dots back to a light blue color. It didn’t quite match the rest of her shirt, but it was better than before.
Nicolette snorted. “Blowing things up and picking locks. Any chance the Academy will let me explore those passions more?”
I let out a laugh. “I highly doubt it, but you can always ask. Aren’t we supposed to get a new school dean anyway? Maybe they’ll have a more relaxed approach to blowing up school property.”
“I doubt that they will.” A new voice joined our conversation and I turned to see Roque strolling in through the gym doors. He was dressed in an unusually formal suit and tie; even though he had been acting school dean for most of the past year, he generally performed his duties in his regular gym teacher outfit as he juggled both positions.
Roque stood with his hands on his hips for a moment and scrutinized us. At the start of our long detention penalty, he had maintained his frustration and disbelief in our story of miraculously finding ourselves returned from the Council – none of us were going to tell him about Cordelia’s reappearance – but he had lightened up as the summer went on. That didn’t mean our punishment got any easier, but it did mean he stopped sending glares our way at the start of every detention.
“Did you find out who the new school dean will be?” Ciro had jogged over to us, his paintbrush abandoned. Yulian trailed behind him, still looking bored but at least more interested in our conversation than in the painting.
“I did.” Roque loosened his tie, a crease forming between his brows. “We just had a meeting. And I know that none of you are going to like the outcome.”
“You can’t keep us in detention forever!” Nicolette interrupted him, already outraged.
Roque let ou
t a slight chuckle at her instant rage. “Don’t get ahead of yourself, Nicolette. I promised this would be the last day of detention and so it is. I meant that you aren’t going to like who the new school dean is.”
“Why?” I narrowed my eyes and shot a glance over his shoulder as if Malphas the daemon himself would make an appearance. Unease was beginning to fill my body the longer Roque beat around the bush.
“The Council has decided after last semester’s…intrusion,” Roque chose his words carefully, “that there needs to be a higher level of security around the school. As such, the new school dean will be a member of the Council and you may be seeing Council members around the Academy upon occasion.”
“But who’s the new dean?” I could tell that Roque was dancing around the question now.
“Isla, the head of the Council. I’m sure you’re familiar with her.” Roque met my eyes for a second and then adverted his gaze, clearly not liking the revolted expression he saw cross my face. Behind me, I heard Yulian whimper, Ciro curse, and Nicolette let out a groan of annoyance at the news.
“That’s not going to end well for us.” Nicolette aimed a kick at the pile of dirty rags nearby her foot.
Ciro let out another curse under his breath before speaking to Roque. “Did you get any say in this or was it a Council-made decision?”
Roque shrugged, again not wanting to give a straight answer.
“I’ll take that as a no then.” I put my hand back into my pocket, my fingers brushing over the top of the smooth stone. “This is not going to be a fun semester.”
Nicolette let out a humorless laugh. “Yeah, we’re done for.”
Chapter Two
Giselle paced back and forth in front of me and it took all of my effort not to join in with her. The second Nicolette and I had been released from detention, we grabbed some snacks from the cafeteria and headed up to our room to talk over the problem of Isla with Giselle. Though, it seemed my ghostly guardian was just as confused about Isla’s motives as we were.
“Maybe she wants to watch you?” Nicolette suggested, taking a large bite of her sandwich, bread crumbs spilling onto the carpet. I rolled my eyes at the sight and leaned over to place a napkin in front of her.
“That’s almost a given.” Giselle stopped moving and sat down on the ground with us. “She definitely wants to keep an eye on you after everything that happened with Cordelia. And she probably suspects you’re a daemon born too.”
“That’s right!” Nicolette agreed, nodding enthusiastically. “You’d better be careful to not summon any daemons or strange shadows while she’s around. Isla might whisk you away from here and I’ll have to come rescue you.”
“Why do you seem almost excited by that possibility?” I asked her, pulling a face. She only shrugged in response and focused her attention back on the sandwich.
“Either way, you probably have to be careful this semester, Jenna.” Giselle turned her concerned expression toward me. “Regardless if Isla has any hidden motivations, she certainly will be watching you. Don’t give her a reason to be alone with you.”
“Yeah, you say that,” I fiddled with the hem of my shirt, “but things never really work out like that for me. Or for any of us.”
Nicolette let out a short laugh. “She’s right, Giselle. It’s not our fault we’re professional troublemakers. Jenna might need an extra guardian to keep her safe this semester.”
I let out a sigh and laid back on the floor, closing my eyes against the bright overhead light. If Isla was really going to be around the Academy this semester, there was no way that I was going to have an easy time. I’m sure the moment that I slipped up on something, anything, a Council member or Isla herself would be there to take me for questioning. It was practically a done deal at this point.
A soft knock sounded at our door, interrupting my downward spiral into hopelessness. From where I laid, I poured a little more energy into Giselle so she would be able to open the door – it wasn’t lazy of me, I swear, she was just the closest.
As soon as the door was open a crack, Yulian’s face peered around it, lighting up when he saw Nicolette sitting on the floor. He barged in, not waiting to be invited, and Ciro followed behind him shaking his head.
“You know, boys shouldn’t be entering into a girls’ dorm room like this. You should at least ask.” I scolded them playfully, my heart skipping a beat when Ciro sat down next to me. He brushed his fingertips across the back of my hand lightly.
“What’s the point of asking when I know you’ll say yes.” He locked his blue gaze onto mine and I felt a familiar heat creeping up my cheeks.
Tossing my head and muttering a whatever, I looked over at Nicolette and Yulian. Yulian was sitting close to Nicolette and staring absentmindedly down at the ground while Nicolette was ruffling his hair in a very older sibling-esque motion. I wasn’t used to seeing stubborn, mischievous Yulian looking so dejected, but I was certain the cause was the news of our future school dean.
“What’s wrong, Yulian?” He raised his eyes to mine at the question, appearing conflicted about answering. Eventually, after Nicolette reached down and gave his hand a reassuring squeeze, he spoke up.
“Isla. She knows my brothers.”
Immediately, I remembered what Isla had said to him during our brief showdown in the Council’s makeshift jail – something about him being part of the Volkov shifter family and his brothers being held in the same detention cells. I didn’t know much about shifter families or what Yulian’s brothers had done, but whatever it was didn’t sound good.
“What if she wants to take me down there too?” Yulian leaned his head on Nicolette’s shoulder.
“We won’t let that happen to you, Yulian. I’ve told you that before.” Nicolette assured him.
Feeling lost, I asked for clarification. “I’m sorry, but what happened to your brothers exactly?”
It was Nicolette who answered me, not Yulian. “The Volkov family are all cat shifters, though Yulian is the only non-wild cat amongst them. All five of his brothers are tiger shifters. A couple of them went AWOL a few years back and joined one of those gangs that believe shifters will take over civilization or something like that. They haven’t been heard from since.”
“I wonder where they are now.” Yulian continued staring down at the ground and I felt a rush of pity for him. It couldn’t be easy essentially being an outcast in his own family and dismissed due to his brothers’ actions. Though I had to admit, I definitely empathized with the outcast part.
“It’s hard to say,” Nicolette replied with a shrug and turned to Yulian. “But I’ve told you not to worry about it before. Besides, if Isla is coming here for anyone, it's Jenna.”
I grimaced. “Real comforting Nicky, thanks.”
“I do my best.” Nicolette shot me a grin and I rolled my eyes. Yulian seemed to perk up a bit more at Nicolette’s words though, which was always welcome.
I felt Ciro grasp my hand protectively, not liking the idea of Isla watching me as much as I hated it. “There’s no way she can be here watching out for the entire semester. She’s got too much Council business to attend to.”
“Yeah, but I’m sure other Council members will be here.” I allowed myself to lace my fingers through Ciro’s, his touch comforting my rising anxiety.
Giselle nodded, agreeing with me. “There will be more Council members here. I can let you know where they may be hiding, but as I was saying earlier, you’re going to have to be extra careful until they get bored of watching you.”
“Easier said than done.” Ciro snorted, echoing my sentiment from earlier. “I wonder how long it will take for them to get bored.”
“Probably much longer than we would prefer.” The possibility of dealing with the Council for the rest of my time at the Academy had me feeling like running away from the school completely. “They’re not going to leave until they have evidence that I’m a daemon born.”
“Do you really think that you are?” Yulian’s voice was fearful at the possibility.
“I don’t know.” I shrugged, trying to put on an air of not caring. “It’s possible. Especially with all the shadow stuff that happened. But now that Isla’s going to be around, I can’t even try out those powers. Or sneak into the library’s restricted section to see if there’s anything listed about daemon borns.”
