Breaking In: Mayhem of Magic Read online

  Breaking In

  Magical Prison Book One

  Nicole Zoltack

  Copyright 2020 by Nicole Zoltack

  Cover Artist: Taurus Colosseum

  ISBN: 9798668158126

  All rights reserved.

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  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.

  Created with Vellum

  To those ready for the quarantine from COVID-19 to be done.

  Contents

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  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Chapter 30

  Other Books By Nicole Zoltack

  About the Author

  Acknowledgments

  Author’s Note

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  Chapter

  One

  “What did you do?” Sophie Aldercross murmurs. There’s horror in my twin’s eyes, and I swear she’s looking at me as if she’s never seen me before, as if she doesn’t know who I am.

  “He had to be stopped,” I say. Exhaustion and elation war within me, and I don’t know if I’m about to collapse or jump and flip and do cartwheels in the air. As much as it hurts that she doesn’t trust me, I’m perfectly content in the knowledge that I did what had to be done.

  Yes, sometimes killing can be just and right.

  I just killed the headmaster of Magical Hunters Academy, and I feel as if I'm flying on a high that will never be achieved ever again. I'm unstoppable. A hero. A force to be reckoned with. Once everyone learns why I did what I did, they'll understand, and they'll thank me.

  “Jessa, you can’t just—”

  A siren sounds, and I grin. “The guards will do research. They’ll find signs of him wanting to cross the line. He craved power, thought us magical beings superior to humans. They’ll see the truth and realize I had no choice. What Jaidos wanted was—”

  “No. No, they won’t see your truth as reality. Jessa, there’s always a choice!”

  “There has to be a trail,” I argue, “and there wasn’t another choice! You didn’t see what I saw!”

  “They won’t look! All they’ll see is his dead body, and they’ll kill you! If you’re lucky, incredibly lucky, they might send you to Magical Prison! Otherwise, by the breeze, Jessa, they could execute you right here at this very spot!”

  I gape at her. “Sophie, that will not happen.”

  My twin lowers her head and closes her eyes. “No,” she murmurs. “No, it won’t.”

  Her arm shoots out toward the broken wall behind her. The battle had resulted in Jaidos’ death, but it also left the building around us in pieces. Vines grow and lash out, grabbing my wrists. I kick and scream, but more vines wrap around my ankles, and one gags me. My eyes are wide as the vines drag me out of there. I’m too weak to even attempt my own chlorokinesis against her usage, too spent after my attack on Jaidos. The vines force me into concealment within a nearby bush as angel guards fly toward the headmaster’s office.

  Where’s Sophie? Why isn’t she leaving?

  Fairies have enhanced hearing, and I’m forced to listen as the angels accuse Sophie of killing Jaidos, of murdering him. I attempt to scream that it hadn’t been murder, that I had been the one to kill him, but the vine only gags me that much more, and the vines do not release me despite my struggles against their hold. Tears leak from my eyes as I watch the angels fly Sophie away. Through blurred vision, I can just spy the magic-dampening cuffs on her wrists. The vines finally fall away, but when I try to fly, I can’t.

  Now I know what took her so long to return. Sophie took the time to weave iron into the vines. Iron is one of the few weaknesses fairies have.

  She planned for this, to have me removed from the picture. Why? To take the fall for me? Again, why? Why would she do this? I did it! The entire world deserves to know that Jessa Aldercross is the one responsible for killing the headmaster of Magical Hunters Academy.

  I try to call out, to alert anyone and everyone to my presence, to let them know they have in their custody an innocent party, but I can’t even talk. How pathetic is that?

  Worse, I can’t move as the angels return to the ruined castle. Instead of entering the office and looking on Jaidos’ tablet, where there is bound to be evidence of his evil plotting, for some reason, they set the place on fire. It burns so hot I can feel the heat from here.

  You would think I could draw on the light from the fire, but I can't. Between the iron and the battle, I can't even drag myself free of the vines, so they're still poisoning me. With every passing second, I'm growing weaker instead of stronger. In fact, it's not until the moon reigns in the nighttime sky that I can find it in me to draw some of the lights into my weak body. Eventually, I can bear to stand, and I drag myself off campus and fly back toward Roseshield Grove, the land of the fairies.

  Do not worry, Sophie. I’ll find a way to clear your name, and I’ll get you out of there. You won’t be in Magical Prison for long. I swear to you, I’ll save you.

  Chapter

  Two

  I’m weak, so very weak. Vulnerable too. But I have my heart, and I have my pride.

  As strong as those emotions are, I’m scared. Terrified even. There’s so much I need to do, want to do. Have to do.

  Do I have the strength to?

  I haven’t reached Roseshield Grove yet, and maybe I should turn back. A fight with the guards wouldn’t result in Sophie being freed. I’m too weak for that, but that doesn’t matter. She needs to be freed. Her name can’t be dragged through the mud. I did what I did, and I will gladly let the entire world know that.

  But by now, the guards had to have taken my sister to Magical Prison. It would be too late. There's no such thing as due process with magical beings. There's an organization called HEX Unite that decides our fate. HEX Unite—Hunters, Slayers, and Executioners Unite. Paranormal beings are trained at Magical Hunters Academy to become one of the three.

  A paranormal hunter hunts down and retrieves whichever paranormal creature they've been ordered to get. Those paranormal creatures are then sent to Magical Prison.

  A paranormal slayer is used when the paranormal creature will most likely resist being taken in and will almost always end up slew instead of sent to Magical Prison.

  As for paranormal executioners, they are sent out specifically to kill the evil paranormal creature in question. If they see one about to harm someone—a magical being or human, doesn’t matter—the executioner is allowed to kill the creature, to take out
the threat while maintaining secrecy from humans.

  We all know what will happen if the humans learn about paranormal beings. Witches tried to become mainstream a few times throughout history. They feel the closest to humans, I guess, since they can pass as one far more easily than some of us. I mean, trolls? Goblins? Centaurs? There are so many who can’t ever come near a human because they can’t possibly pass as one. Witches intermingle with humans all the time.

  Fairies, we tend to ignore the humans for the most part. Yes, we can use magic to glamor ourselves so that others see us as we wish to be seen. No humans would see our wings then or our eyes that are so foreign to theirs. But why bother?

  But Salem is a cruel reminder of what humans will do to anything they don’t understand. Their fear will turn to anger and rage and hatred. They would seek to kill us all, and the threat of war has kept us silent, hidden. We enjoy our world hidden from the humans, living among them but not with them.

  But it seems Jaidos thought differently. He wanted to plant the seeds that would bloom into full war, and that could never be.

  I just hope that Jaidos worked alone on his plan. If others think as he did, they will certainly continue his work with or without him.

  If I have another vision, I might have to kill again.

  And like with Jaidos, I will not hesitate.

  For now, though, I need to try to recover. The battle alone took a toll on my body, but what my sister did still stings even though I am no longer poisoned.

  I still haven’t reached Roseshield Grove yet, but I touch down and lie down on the grass, my chin lifted toward the sky. As I soak in the power of nature and try to draw some cleansing healing energy from the grass beneath me, I try to find a sense of peace.

  A peace that will not come.

  A peace I desperately need.

  Without peace, I can’t control my thoughts, and I must have control if I am to try to telepathically communicate with Sophie despite her being with guards and potentially being inside Magical Prison.

  Sophie. Sophie!

  The longer I attempt to communicate with her, the longer there is no reply, the more panicked I become until I’m crying. Silent tears stream down my face, and I can’t think let alone reach out telepathically, not without the risk of those around her potentially being able to overhear my thoughts for her.

  As much as it pains me, I stop trying to reach out. If I can’t reach Sophie’s mind, I am going to have to reach her physically.

  Yes. I truly will break into Magical Prison to then turn around and break out.

  Sophie will not suffer for my crime.

  It wasn’t murder. One could argue very strongly that it was self-defense. Yes, I attacked first, but that doesn’t change the fact that Jaidos sought to start a war. One death to prevent billions. Yes, I will take that any day, and if that makes me evil, then I am evil.

  Light and dark. That’s how fairies view the world. There are light and dark fairies, but I must be a mix. For Sophie to take my punishment… She is so very light. I will not allow Magical Prison to taint her, to corrupt her. She will remain light if I have any say in the matter.

  A part of me feels as if it dies as I sit up and then begin to walk instead of fly. My body is not entirely healed yet. A potion, even chewing on some herbs would help, but I almost wear my wounds as a badge of honor, or courage. I fought a war. I killed a dragon shifter.

  I killed.

  Another piece of me dies. Somehow, the true depth of what I did hasn't sunk in until now. Fairies are about nature and life, and I snuffed one out. There's a reason why few fairies decide to attend Magical Hunters Academy, and if they do, they all, without fail, opt to become paranormal hunters versus slayers or executioners.

  Fairies do not like to kill, not plants, not animals, not humans, not any being. Everything living we treasure.

  But Jaidos hadn’t treasured life, a fact I cannot dare forget.

  No. There are at least two fairies who became paranormal slayers instead of hunters.

  My parents.

  And their violent positions earned them early graves.

  As I enter a forest, it seems as if time stops. I do not know if it is day or night, and I feel almost as if I am not entirely here, as if my mind has separated from my body.

  But then someone approaches. Someone I recognize. Someone who means a great deal to me.

  Aiden.

  Aiden Sunwinds is my crush, has been my crush since I was five summers old, a fact he does not know.

  He hasn’t seen me yet, and in the time it takes for me to consider hiding behind a tree, he spots me. His amber eyes widen, and he runs a hand through his unruly, wavy black hair. His dark wings flutter as he touches his feet down before me.

  “Jessa,” he says, his voice light with surprise. “What are you doing out here?”

  “I could ask the same of you.” I try to smile, but I think I more or less grimace instead.

  “Are you all right?” he asks.

  Normally, I would be pleased by his concern, but right now, I don’t need any extra attention.

  “I… I got in a fight with Sophie,” I say.

  Tears prickle my eyes, but I don’t blink them away. They don’t fall in any case.

  It’s the truth. Sophie and I are fighting, and it hurts so badly that each breath makes the pain in my chest worse. I feel like I can’t get enough air in my lungs. Is she somehow stealing it away from me? It would serve me right if that’s the case. I can’t believe what she did.

  “I’m sorry,” Aiden says. “I don’t have a brother or sister to know what it’s like to fight with one. I’m sure you’ll forgive each other soon.”

  “We will,” I say, but it’s more of a hopeful thing. We have to see each other to be able to talk and work this out, since the telepathy isn’t working for whatever reason, and right now, that’s just not possible.

  Oh, it could very well be the magic-dampening cuffs she’s wearing. That alone would be enough to stop telepathy from working. Oh, no. What if the very walls of Magical Prison are made from that same material? How could I possibly find a way to free her then if I can’t use any magic?

  My mind races, and Aiden’s just looking at me as if he’s expecting an answer. Great. He’s going to start thinking I’m a flake.

  Honestly, I can’t and don’t care what he thinks of me right now. Not with everything going on.

  “I’m sorry. I was just thinking about Sophie,” I say. “You were saying?”

  “It must be even harder with you two being twins. I think you told me that you two could do telepathy. Can you block her out when you want to?”

  “Ah, most of the time, yes. Telepathy is strange.” I might manage a tiny grin. “You’ve never been able to?”

  He shakes his head and shrugs. “No. Wait. Once. One time, when I was maybe three, I was playing on a log, jumping on it, landing on one end and then the other. I landed harder, and the log rolled on top of me. I got out of the way almost completely except for my wing. I cried out, screaming for my mom, but no one was near enough to hear. When she came, I had almost cried myself to sleep. I couldn’t handle the pain. After she freed me, I sobbed in her arms. Eventually, she got me to settle, and I asked her how she knew to come. She told me that she heard me calling for her in her mind.”

  “Aw. That’s amazing, and it doesn’t surprise me that the only person you could reach out to was your mom.”

  “Or that I was in dire straits.” He laughs and rubs the back of his neck.

  Is he feeling embarrassed for sharing that he sobbed?

  “Don’t worry. I don’t think any less of you for crying. Wings are so very sensitive. You can’t tell that it was damaged.”

  “My mom’s one of the best healers there is. Besides, it was only crushed. It’s not like it was burned.” Aiden shudders.

  A lot of fairies hate fire because of its destructive nature. Not me, though. Fire is a source of light, after all, and the way it moves and dances,
it seems almost alive. It is alive. It does feed, after all, consuming everything in its path. A destructive force of nature, yes, but a force of nature just the same.

  “It’s strange how some fairies have certain abilities but not all of us,” I murmur.

  “Yes, but I’ve heard that even human twins can sometimes read each other’s minds. That’s cool.”

  "Yes. There's a bond there all right." I rub my chest, willing the ache there to go away.

  Aiden’s gaze falls to my hand. His brow furrows, and I quickly clasp my hands behind my back. I have to look an absolute fright. After all, I got into a terrible fight.

  “What did you and Sophie fight about?” he asks.

  “I would rather not talk about it, but I swear, the first time we used telepathy was in the womb.”

  He laughs. “Because you can remember that far back.”

  I shrug one shoulder. “Maybe it happened. Maybe not, but we used to play a game with our parents. We would hide, and our parents would try to seek us. If I noticed that they were coming near Sophie, I would let her know so she could slip away to a different spot, and she would do the same for me. We once spent an entire day hiding from them, taking turns slipping into the house to get food so that we could eat. Mom and Dad were so furious when they figured out that we were cheating!”