Fury and Fire Read online

  Fury And Fire

  Academy Of War Book One

  K T Quinn

  Copyright © 2019 by K T Quinn

  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.

  This is for everyone who dares to follow their dreams. Never give up

  Never stop believing in yourself

  Contents

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Acknowledgments

  About the Author

  Chapter 1

  “It’s only one eyebrow..” a voice whisper-shouted next to my ear. I could feel the breath of my younger brother against my cheeks.

  It was way too early for the twins. They were mayhem personified. No-one was safe from their mischief. Not even Mom. Last week they snuck pink dye into her shampoo. She is now the proud owner of candy pink streaked hair. She was not impressed.

  “It’s Ascension day Archie! You can’t just go around shaving off people’s eyebrows - what if her powers are already unlocked huh kid? You’ll get yourself fried!Give me the razor, I’ll do it!” There was a thump on the floor as Laura knocked Archie to the ground trying to snatch my pink razor from his hands.

  Nope, way too early for this shiznit. Who even wakes up this early?! Groaning I flung my arm over my eyebrows instinctively trying not to fall out of bed while protecting my face. “Five more minutes” I growled and pulled the covers over my face, face snuggling further down into my blankets so I could drift back off to sleep.

  “Wake up sis or the eyebrows get it” Archie’s voice whispered in my ear as he grabbed my blankets and ran, Laura trailing behind him with an evil sounding giggle.

  I checked the time on the alarm clock next to my bed, it was still only early. I had time to get dressed and grab something to eat before I had to leave.

  Today was my Ascension Day. The day where my full powers would be unlocked and show what faction I would belong to. Technically it was also the day where I formally choose what side I wanted to serve - the Brightrealm or the Nightrealm.

  For most of us who were already living in the Darkside, there wasn’t much of a choice. Only an obligation. An obligation to our family and to the community - and to Kage, the King of Shadows. Or so we were told from birth. Any who oppose this way of life often found themselves dead in a ditch somewhere along with their friends, families and well, anyone who they’ve spoken to. Kage demanded complete obedience.

  We were born to serve the dark, to fight for the dark, and one day die for the dark. We weren’t evil like the Brightsiders made us out to be, we were just your everyday beings who just wanted to make it through to the next day like anybody else. Grabbing my brush and my best pair of jeans I rushed to the bathroom to get ready.

  The scent of freshly ground coffee and cinnamon buns filled the air. My favourites. Mom never baked unless she was worried about something. She never baked. Period.

  As Commander of the Furies she spent most mornings pouring over battle plans and strategies or sorting out whatever new drama was happening in the faction amongst the women. “Morning Mikki” my Mother said in an overly cheerful voice and a smile plastered on her face as she pulled a tray of cinnamon buns out of the oven.

  “Morning Mom” I said grabbing a cinnamon bun from the tray. “One day you’ll have to teach me the secret recipe. Or just make them for me forever” I said shoving the last of the cinnamon bun into my mouth. “You’re going to be stuck with me after my Ascension when I go full Fury, it’s the only way you’ll be able to get me to work for you. Yup, payment in cinnamon buns” I grinned, reaching over the worn kitchen bench to grab the coffee pot watching Mom’s face carefully.

  Tension rolled off her in waves. Her smile faltered for only a moment before her too cheerful smile returned. “Of course Mikah, you’ll be in my faction and that’s that. The Ascension is only a formality.” Mom turned her attention back to the dough she had been kneading.

  I looked at the twins raising my eyebrow at them questioningly. “What’s up with Mom guys” I mouthed to the twins. Archie shrugged his shoulders and shook his head. He didn’t know either. I knew that he would find out, he was always good at getting Mom to talk.

  “What if she turns out to be a null” Archie asked with a grin shoving his black-as-night hair out of his eyes. My younger brother looked back down to the enormous plate of food in front of him and began to start shoving everything in sight into his belly. I loved my brother but that seriously couldn’t be healthy for any sixteen year old kid.

  “She won’t be a null” Mom sighed rolling her eyes. “Every female in our blood line has been a Fury since the beginning of our creation. It is our destiny.”

  Null’s were basically human. They had no powers or magical abilities. They simply existed to serve, it wasn’t much of a life but it was still a life. “I wouldn’t care if I was a null Archie” I said sipping on my coffee. “I wouldn’t need to go to Shadow Academy then Arch, I wouldn’t need to go to school at all. I’m failing to see the part where being a null would suck. At least I could stay on the Darkside and annoy you forever” I grinned at my younger brother.

  “Mikki is right, there are much worse things to be than a Null” added Mom.

  “Like choosing the Brightside” Laura chimed in from underneath the table.

  “For the love of all that’s Dark!” shouted Mom. “Why on Hell’s Earth are you under the table?”

  My phone vibrated in my pocket, it was Bri.

  Outside Biznitch. Bring snacks.

  “Rides here” I shouted grabbing an apple and a cinnamon bun from the kitchen table shoving them into my messenger bag as I ran outside. I didn’t want to stick around to see what mayhem Laura had been causing.

  I exited our apartment block quickly scanning the streets for Bri. Half the street was full of abandoned buildings and smashed windows. Rusted cars and rubbish littered the street. It was a rough area of town but the apartments were affordable and there was clean running water which was a luxury that wasn’t afforded by most.

  I spotted Bri leaning up against one of the old buildings giving one of the lesser demons that lived in the streets the stank eye. Her normally wild curls had been pulled back in a bun and her skin tight jeans had small rips above the knees. The demon was hissing at her with its sharp teeth bared. Bri reached for the small knife she always had hidden in her boots readying to shank it.

  “Bri Wakefield! Put down that knife right now before you get demon blood all over you! We have a ceremony to get to!” I jogged over to where she was standing and threw the cinnamon bun to the lesser demon that was about to charge. It greedily grabbed the bun up in it’s arms before scurrying off on all four legs into the dark alleyway it had come from.

  “I was only going to stab it a little” Bri whined as she tucked her knife back inside her knee high boot. I crossed my arms and stared at her, tapping my foot on the cracked pavement. “Okay fine. I was going to stab it alot. But it’s a lesser! They’re pests like vermin, always pooping on the streets and rummaging through all the trash,” she complained, kicking a pile of dried demon-poop for good measure.

  “Really Bri? We’ve been over this before. Repeat after me, don’t stab the lesser demons.”

  “Yeah yeah no stabbing and all that, gotcha.” Bri waved her hand at me and started walking up the street towards the bus
stop.

  It was times like these I wished that we owned a working car, Town Hall was over an hour away on the bus and most of the time it was crowded and smelled like the sewer. Car trips were reserved for the elite - or for those rich academy kids on the Brightside. Any spare resources and finance went to funding and feeding the army of Darkness, and that included gas to fuel the cars which was why there were so many deserted and rusting cars littering the streets on this side of town.

  The bus ride to Town Hall was long. We hadn’t been able to get a seat. It was standing room only. The bus was full of others who were going to the Ascension Day ceremony.

  Two girls spoke in hushed excited whispers to the left of me as we travelled through the streets of Nightrealm. “I heard that the King of Shadows will be there today,” said the girl with bright red hair and hot pink nails.

  “I heard that he’s looking for the One” the other girl giggled.

  “Maybe he’s just looking for a girlfriend. I heard that the King has abs of steel. Like a ten pack of steel.”

  “Oh well I hope that he likes brunettes” her friend said grinning as she smoothed her brunette hair down around her face.

  I rolled my eyes, this conversation was getting less interesting by the minute. I wonder what Red’s friend had meant when she said the One. The King never attended an Ascension day, he had better things to do than watch a bunch of teenagers pledge their lives away to him and his cause. It would have to be pretty important to get him out of the safety of the factions that surrounded his mansion.

  I looked out the window and watched the Nightrealm go by. There were plenty of abandoned houses and dilapidated buildings the closer we got to the border. Random posters from the resistance were scattered along the walls. Posters that spoke of the ancient race of Dragonkin and the One. The One who was prophesied to unite both the light and the dark and restore the balance to this world.

  The Dragonkin were an ancient myth as was this prophecy. We had been told stories as children of the ancient Dragonkin. A race of men who could shift into dragons and bend the elements to their will. This was a time before Nightrealm and Brightrealm. It was a time when there was a balance between good and evil, the way it should be.

  Not like it is now.

  No one knew exactly what powers they’d had, the Dragonkin were very reclusive and stuck to their own. Only leaving their faction to breed. The last of the Dragonkin were killed long ago, murdered in cold blood because they became mad with power. Or so the story goes. It was millennia ago.

  The bus screeched to a stop snapping me out of my daydream.

  “Ascension kids get off” the bus driver growled in a hollow voice gesturing to the door. We had arrived at Town Hall. Time to choose a side.

  Chapter 2

  Town Hall was the dead centre of town. Literally. It had been built between the graveyard in both the Brightrealm and the Nightrealm.

  Such an odd place to build a Town Hall, but when both sides are constantly fighting I suppose either side wouldn’t need to deliver the bodies of their enemies very far. Or that was my opinion anyway, the graveyards has actually been there years and years before Town Hall was built. It just so happened there was no other location to build a mutual meeting place - plus I think the Academy Professors got a bit of a kick out of freaking us out. Especially when a necromancer came into power.

  The usually quiet Town Hall was a beehive of activity. Security guards from both realms manned the double doors, arms crossed and giving each other the side eye when they thought no one was looking. Everyone was on their best behaviour, neither side wanting to break the fragile treaty that had been in place for as long as I can remember.

  “Darksiders through this door.” The security guard pointed to the right with her baton that had been wrapped in barbed wire.

  “She looks like a Barbie doll. Except a Barbie doll that had got into a fight with Halloween and Halloween won” Bri sniggered as we walked past the blonde security guard. Blondie’s features were twisted into a sneer and her fingers clenched around her baton just itching to strike as we shuffled passed with the rest of the .

  “I think she heard you Bri” I said. I kept one eye on Blondie as we passed through the double doors.

  It looked like we had just stepped into an 80’s prom. The hallway was filled with cheesy decorations and neon balloons. Small tables were scattered along the hallway filled with information packets on each faction of the Nightrealm.

  A Gnaritas faction officer sat hunched over at each table. Their dull and glassy eyes staring off into a void of nothingness barely acknowledging us as we passed by. “I hope I don’t turn into a Gnaritas demon” Bri muttered under her breath. “Could you imagine going to your Ascension all excited and ready to be in a kick ass faction to be told nope, sorry dude. Your entire life is now dedicated to handing out pamphlets on faction housing and policies. Enjoy.” She looked utterly horrified at the thought.

  “You’re not going to turn into a Gnaritas demon. Anyway, even if you do, I'm sure this wouldn’t be so bad. It’s like a neverending prom in here” I said kicking at a hot pink balloon that had come loose from the walls. “You could dance all day ...and do prom stuff… okay fine this would be pretty shit” I agreed kicking at some more loose decorations on the floor.

  We followed the crowd of adolescents who were all heading towards the officer checking off names at the end of the hallway. “Names please” she asked through pursed lips. “Bri Wakefield and Mikah Harper” I said gesturing to Bri and myself.

  “Through this door and to the right.” She nodded her head at us in dismissal then turned to the queue of adolescents behind us.

  A bell sounded in the building signalling that it was almost time to begin. We hurried through the door and to the right as instructed stepping out into the behemoth sized room.

  The stage was at the front of the room. It had been decorated in black ribbons on one half and white ribbons on the other. Even the exit doors on either side had not escaped the decorations. I was starting to wonder if the interior decorator was blind.

  All of us who were Ascending had been seated directly in the middle, in front of the stage. We were seated in no particular order, although the Darksiders generally sat with the Darksiders, and the Brights with the Brights.

  Families and members of the public were seated on either side of us and sat eagerly waiting for the ceremony to begin. The final bell sounded around the auditorium.

  There was a collective gasp amongst the crowd as four men walked out from each door on the stage. The Shadow King had arrived with his bodyguards. He surveyed the room scrutinising each of the faces in the crowd. His eyes rested on me for a moment. He cocked his head to the side and looked at me like I was prey. He winked at me and grinned before walking to his seat whistling.

  Goosebumps covered my arms. A feeling of foreboding settled over me. Somehow I knew that if the Shadow King got his hands on me I would be done for, and so would the world as we know it.

  “Gurl! The King totally recognised you” Red from the bus whispered to me in awe. She was seated behind me with her friend who was staring at me like she had sucked a bunch of lemons.

  “Why would he even pay her any attention, she’s just a common swamp rat” Red’s friend said with disdain wrinkling her nose at me as if I was trash.

  I wasn’t beautiful but I didn’t think that I was swamp rat status either. I had big green eyes that didn’t quite match my petite face or size and my hair. Well that's another story altogether. It had a mind of its own. It was moonsilver grey with a purple tinge and could never seem to be tamed.

  “I’m sure he was staring at me anyway” she sniffed turning her attention back to the Shadow King on stage. Red looked at me with a silent apology in her eyes.

  “Excuse you, what did you just say?” Bri said through gritted teeth with her fists clenched. I knew she would throw down any second now if I didn’t diffuse this situation. Red’s lemon faced friend wasn’t worth
it. She would get her own Karma one day.

  “Hey Bri look hotties” I pointed to the stage. “Ooooh maybe we do want to go to the Brightside” If it was possible for Bri to be swooning she was most definitely swooning.

  I rolled my eyes turning my attention the the four hotties on stage. Gabriel was their current leader. He was centuries old but the only tell to his age was the simple wooden cane that he leaned on while he walked. It was not uncommon for him to be there as he usually oversaw the intake of any new members of the Brightrealm. It was said that he was a powerful seer and empath. He was there to oversee the ceremony and ensure that the intentions were pure of those who wished to cross to the Brightrealm.

  He shuffled over to one of the chairs heavily leaning on his cane and sat down. Staring out into the crowd waiting. The other two men that had come through the door I didn’t recognise. They looked like they had been cut from the same cloth. They were all blonde with chisel cut features. Pretentious pretty boys. One of the blonde men looked directly in my eyes and smirked as if he had heard me. I mean.. Adventurous little toys…. I shrank a little further into my seat trying to make myself look invisible.

  Mind reading blondie sniggered.

  “What are you doing - trying to make yourself look like a turtle? Sit up biznitch” Bri poked at me. “Can you see our Mom’s yet?” Bri craned her neck trying to look around at the crowd.

  I straightened myself and looked back at the stage to see if the mind reader was still staring. He was in the midst of a conversation with the third man who had walked onto the stage. He looked angry and kept glancing at me from the corner of the eye. I looked at the third man trying to see where I recognised him from.