Descendants Academy: Young Adult Urban Fantasy Belle Malory (highly recommended books .txt) 📖

me in his arms and tell me everything was going to be okay. I wanted to ask if he was taking his blood pressure meds, and if he was taking it easy on the salt.

“Thorny!” Jett yelled from behind, startling me. “Guess who I just saw with a visitor’s badge—your dad!”

I blinked several times.

Was there a secret genie following me around, granting my wishes?

Whatever—I refused to question this. My dad being here was the best news I’d gotten in a while.

“Where is he?” I said, my voice brimming with excitement.

“He came from the main office, headed toward the north end of the school. Come on, I’ll take you.”

She grabbed my hand and led me out of the ballroom. Since everyone was at the winter ball, the walkways were empty. We hurried toward the north end, and I couldn’t keep the grin off my face. I was so happy.

But then—had Riley come too?

My grin faded into a frown at the thought. It was evident she already knew about magic. Would we be at each other’s throats, unable to defy the will of the curse? I swallowed and remembered the last time I saw her. I felt like I had no control over my anger. I held those scissors, wanting to stab Riley in her heart.

I never wanted to feel that out of control again.

“Let’s take a short cut,” Jett said, and pulled me off the main path.

I didn’t ask questions; all my thoughts were on Dad and whether or not Riley was with him. What to say, how to react, how to feel.

A dark bag came over my head, splintery arms around my waist, an elbow jutting into my ribcage. Heavy words were spoken in a brusque voice, a spell. The words drifted in my ear, and the next thing I knew, I lost all consciousness.

38

I wasn’t sure how much time had passed, but when I finally came to, I found myself flat against the bottom of a rowboat. My body was stiff, my wrists bound. Jett was perched above me, hood drawn, staring out into the sea’s horizon. There were several other hooded mages and creatures with her, one with leathery green skin and sharply pointed fangs that sent chills down my spine.

Clearly, Jett read my mind. Once again, I’d forgotten about her nifty little ability to do that. And that story about my dad, agh. She’d played on how badly I wanted him here. “Why?” I said, my voice hoarse.

Her gaze flicked down to mine for less than a second.

“We’re supposed to be friends,” I reminded her.

That hit a nerve.

“Your first mistake was in trusting anyone, Thorny,” she said, condescension dripping from every word.

One of the others, a creature with scaly skin and yellow eyes, turned his creepy gaze on us. “We’re nearing the entrance,” he said, and the others nodded. What they meant by that, I had no idea, but our surroundings were darkening. Overhead, it looked like we were entering a cave.

“Why?” I said again, needing an answer.

Jett stared at me for several seconds, debating. When she finally spoke, her voice took on a faraway sound. “I’m reinstating what rightfully belongs to my family.”

I blinked. “You’re trading me for magic?”

“Don’t take it so personal.” She looked away. “We’ve only been friends for a few weeks. The magic has been in my family for centuries.”

I ground my teeth, finding it hard to not take personal.

“Why was it taken in the first place? Who stole it?”

“My grandmother was caught between both sides in the Uprising, playing both the Hollowed Council and the Mythonians. Fear got the better of her. She stupidly pledged our family magic to the Hollows, and when they caught her breaking her vows, they took what she pledged. As the magic drained from her veins, it disappeared from all of her descendants as well. Basically, the bitch screwed us all.”

I remembered how much it bothered Jett, not having that the ability to speak to the dead. It was a Hades passage of rite. She must have felt as out of place as I did at this school. No wonder she befriended me when no one else would. Unless…

I breathed in slowly. “Did you have this planned the whole time?”

“I was approached shortly after you arrived by Petra Drako’s people. If it makes you feel any better, I liked you right away. Who knows? We may have been friends without the extra push.”

It did not make me feel any better.

“You’re just handing me over to that psycho,” I said, seething. “Like it’s nothing to you.”

She sniffed and shook her head, acting as if I were a clueless child. “You really have no idea how things work yet, do you? Power means everything in Mythos.”

She was right. Since enrolling at Arcadia, I’ve only been worried about breaking the curse. I failed to recognize how different people are here compared to the human world.

In a way, I got it. I’d been helpless enough times to understand the importance of power. But no matter what happened, I never wanted it to mean as much as it did to Jett. I would never allow magic to outweigh my character.

“You’re better than this,” I said, feeling sorry for her.

My pity only managed to piss her off even more. “You don’t know shit about me. I’m exactly this way.”

“If that’s true, which I doubt, that’s really sad, Jett.”

She let out a sharp breath. “Zeus’s grave, if you would have just made the sacrifice with the Curse Breaker, neither of us would be here right now.”

Wait—what the hell did that mean?

I gasped. “You’re saying you set me up with that lunatic?”

She rolled her eyes. “Obviously. And had you allowed him to break the curse, Petra would have been satisfied. Now, she’s probably going to kill you.”

I glanced back and forth, trying to wrap my head around what she said. “But…that doesn’t make any sense! Why would she curse me only to want it removed?”

Jett shrugged, uncaring. “How should I know? I’m just following