Academy of Beasts I Read online

  Academy Of Beasts I

  Becca Fanning

  Copyright © 2019 by Becca Fanning

  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.

  Created with Vellum

  Contents

  Prologue

  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

  Also by Becca Fanning

  Prologue

  Ashes and smoke.

  That’s what I saw, mostly.

  Ashes all around me and then someone swimming into view. A broad-faced man with scrunched together eyebrows. A grim look, the kind you don’t even try to hide. I attempted to choke out a greeting, but my throat was dry from the smoke. I felt arms encircle me from behind, pulling me away from the crumbling ruins of 34 Greenpark Ave. My home for the last fifteen years.

  My home no longer.

  And yet, all of this felt oddly familiar. I took a dreamy trip through my brain. The burning. The wreckage. Somewhere in this, I know my parents are already gone from this world. I hoped it was quick. I sighed into the cool night air. The hands stopped dragging me.

  “She’s in shock,” a deep voice said.

  “Of course, she’s in shock. They made a mess of this scene. Good thing we got her. The parents appeared to be human. Probably adopted.”

  The body, belonging to the first voice, dipped closer to me. I felt him brush my shoulder and give me a shake. My vision swam. Gone was the dire expression. All I could see were blurred shapes, gray moving lumps in the dim light.

  “We sure she’s a shifter? Doesn’t look like one.”

  “Smell her,” the other one offered. I heard an inhale. I wanted to laugh, but my sore body wouldn’t allow it. My ribs ached inside me. I closed my eyes instead and begged to drift away.

  “She’s gotta be one hell of a late bloomer.” First Voice still seemed skeptical. “Let’s get her to the Academy.”

  They’re wrong. Dead wrong. I’m as human as my parents, who are gone from this world. I can feel the warm touch of a tear running down my face. They’ve got the wrong girl. Shifters are powerful mythical creatures that live in far-flung pockets of the world. They have immense power and unique abilities, depending on their animal.

  And me? I’m not that.

  I can’t remember the drive. If it was in a car or a truck or an ambulance. But I do remember First Voice telling me to be strong. That I was going somewhere safe. A place where young shifters could live freely and be successful. He said that I probably wasn’t told about my shifter powers.

  “Don’t worry. You’ll survive this.”

  Was he right?

  Darkness overtook me, and I let the world slip away.

  Chapter 1

  My name is Fiona Adelson, and I’m almost 100% certain that I’m not a shifter. Gym was my worst subject in high school, and besides the occasional yoga class, I was never much for athletics. I was an average student. I was an average girl. Just another young woman living in the suburbs and making plans to hang out with friends occasionally. I’d been looking at going to community college for computer science or marketing. There’s a bizarre birthmark on my lower back, but that’s about the strangest thing about me.

  And now…

  Everything was different.

  When I woke up, the smoke had been replaced by sheets so white that they burned my eyes. I was in some kind of cot. I shifted beneath the sheets and a thin blanket. This hospital bed screamed clinical, but the stone walls that my eyes found told a different story. Completely medieval. This was some kind of a hospital wing.

  I rubbed my face, which felt freshly clean but raw. I ran a finger across my eyelids and found puffy tender flesh. No doubt outrageously pink as my skin tended to get.

  “You’ve been crying all night,” someone said. I jerked my head to the side as a figure approached. Chestnut curls paired with twinkling green eyes? I might be in trouble. A young man, probably not much older than me, in a fine-looking Oxford shirt with an emblem sewn onto the pocket. He had the shirt rolled up to reveal strong forearms, but it was his wicked grin that caught my eye.

  Everything else in the room seemed to tumble away as he threw himself into the chair beside my bed. “Must be lonely here,” he said casually. As if we were already friends. He gestured with his thumb to motion towards the room around us, unintentionally flexing his powerful arm. There’d been boys who played rugby at my high school, but they were never so tall.

  Shifter. Something in my body knew it, deep down in my bones.

  He was right. The room was utterly empty besides us.

  I might’ve been offended, but there was no malice in his face. Only a cheeriness that seemed even brighter than the linens. “Excuse me?”

  “Theo,” he said and stuck out a hand towards me. “I’m sorry to hear about what happened.”

  I reached out my hand to return the gesture, but my arm was caught by the monitoring system. So that was the nonstop beeping in my ear. I thought about ripping the finger contraption off my hand. Instead, I watched his smile beamed as he leaned forward to slide his hand into mine. Warm, strong. I nearly closed my eyes to delight in his positive presence.

  “What did happen?” I asked him as he pulled away.

  He froze.

  “The nurse hasn’t told you?” he asked. The easiness melted away from him. It was like watching water burn up on the scalding pavement. I frowned. A sudden clamor sounded at the end of the long room. A stout woman in a white nurse’s uniform flew through the doors.

  “Theo!” she bellowed and began wagging her finger at him. “Leave it to you to harass my pretty young charge before I’ve even had a chance to see her myself.”

  He threw his hands up in mock innocence. “I didn’t know! They told me to go grab the new girl!”

  New girl. I was the new girl?

  “There will be no grabbing today. Look at her. You can see her after I’ve talked with her,” the nurse snapped. As she got closer, I could read her nametag. Greta. Right next to the carved white letters was a symbol of a claw print of something like it. I squinted to make the drawing out. Definitely not a cat paw print. It was bigger than that. Greta caught my eye and winked. “They sent you all the bear-shifters to wake you up, I see. It’s because we can handle anything. Isn’t that right, Theo?”

  He stood up beside my bed. I marveled at his strong jaw as he flashed another grin, this time at Greta. I imagined that he disarms most people with that smile. Now, I could see his shirt pocket, gleaming in the sunlight spilling in from the windows. It was the same symbol on Greta’s nametag! Bear print. My mind reeled, remembering First Voice. A thousand images flashed through my brain. The screams, the fire, the smoke. My breath caught in my throat.

  A tear fell. One that I hadn’t known I was carrying. Greta sucked in a sharp breath and moved towards me.

  “There, there, darling. It’s ok. Old Greta is here to help you. Let’s talk.” She narrowed her eyes at Theo, but there was playfulness beneath her stern expression. “Privately.”

  He winked at me and shuffled quickly out of the room. For a brief moment, I was disappointed to see his broad shoulders disappear beyond the swinging doors. But Greta’s hand was upon my arm checking my pulse and eyeing the machine next to me.

&nb
sp; “Everything seems okay,” she said. “We gave you a bit of a sedative when you came in, hun. It was the only thing that we could do to keep you calm.”

  “Theo said I’ve been crying,” I said and touched my eyes. She nodded solemnly.

  “Understandable.” She took a quick inhale. “Do you remember everything that happened?” Her voice was a note too high.

  “They came in through the back door,” I said. My voice was suddenly choked with tears. It was as if someone else was narrating inside my body. Something inside me was pushing me to remember. “They got my parents. They started to burn the house down. They were coming for me. And then—”

  She pressed a firm hand on my shoulder. “Don’t worry. That’s when the Academy came for you, darling.”

  “The Academy?” I asked. The emblem on Theo’s shirt swam back into my mind’s eye. His nice shirt rolled up to his elbows. It was a school uniform. “But Theo seems like he’s my age.”

  “A college can be an academy,” she said with a deep chuckle. “If you’re going to the right one. They’ve told me that you’re a late-bloomer in shifting.”

  “Me?” I repeated dumbfounded. First Voice’s skepticism came back. The doubt, the reassurance. “Maybe there’s been a mistake.”

  Greta put her hands on her hips. “No mistakes with shifter noses, hun. You’ve got something in you.” She twisted her mouth. “Perhaps a fox or even a bear. I’m not seeing much lion in you besides the bedhead hair, of course. Do you feel any affinity towards the moon? No siblings, I understand?”

  “No to the moon and no to the siblings.” I rubbed my temples, feeling an oncoming headache approaching. She fetched two white tablets from a bottle in her apron-like pocket. I took them gratefully and chased them down with a glass of water on the table next to me.

  They thought I was a shifter. There was no way. I wanted to shake my head in front of her but didn’t want to risk it…

  My parents were dead. My house was burnt to a crisp. A sharp dagger sliced through my heart. The tears started coming again, I couldn’t stop them.

  “Keep crying until it all comes out,” she said with a gentle pat on my back. “The doctor will give you a prescription for some calming agents for the next few months. It won’t make it perfect, but it will make it easier.”

  “What happened?”

  She gently squeezed my hand. “Your parents were killed, just as you remember. They were coming for you. There are bad people out there who want to take out shifters. You were likely raised by your adoptive parents without knowing that you were one. You’ll be safe here.”

  She can’t be right, but I don’t have any energy to argue.

  And Beast Academy saved me from my death. I sobbed and sobbed, unable to make sense of anything.

  At that moment, despite everything, I was grateful for Nurse Greta. She’d been the first one to offer me genuine condolences. The first one to look me in the eye and reflect the pain I felt without any fear. I cried in her arms like a baby. Before I fell asleep again, I heard her calling to Theo to come back tomorrow.

  Beast Academy could wait a day, she assured me.

  Chapter 2

  The next day, Theo and his smile were waiting for me right outside the medical ward. I slipped out of the hospital doors as soon as I’d changed into the new school uniform.

  “Don’t most college students wear casual dress?” I asked him. He shrugged and pulled at his shirt, which looked far more worn than my freshly pressed shirt. Instead of a pair of navy slacks that Theo wore, I had a perfectly hemmed skirt that fit nicely. It was by far the preppiest thing I’d ever worn. My old high school—my heart gave a painful throb—never had uniforms. The local college that I was looking at certainly didn’t have a dress code like this. All I saw were hoodies and jeans when I’d gone to visit the small campus.

  “Beast Academy is a special place,” he said with a wink. Now, out of the haze, I could see exactly how handsome he was. A gorgeous boy that could’ve lived next to me back home…minus the bear-shifter part. I stared at the patch on his shirt.

  “Do I need one of those?”

  He pawed at the emblem as if he’d forgotten it was there. “Sure. What kind of shifter are you?”

  I cleared my throat. “I’m a late-bloomer, and I didn’t know my family had shifter blood.” My voice cracked. “I can’t really ask them now.”

  His eyes grew soft. “Don’t worry. We can get them to put an Academy patch on it. Some people prefer that. You don’t always want to advertise your shifting spirit.”

  “Shifting spirit?”

  “Your animal, of course.” He grinned. “Bear for me. Duh.”

  My cheeks went warm. Theo’s sweet nature was refreshing. My mind wandered away from thoughts of fire and my parents, who were most definitely human. There was no mistaking that. But if I wanted to survive and be protected in this “academy,” then it would be better if I acted along…

  “Sometimes, I suspect I might be bear, myself,” I lied and instantly regretted it. His gorgeous green eyes lit up with passion. Somewhere, there was an athletic clothing catalogue missing their cover boy.

  “How cool. I hope it’s true. I’ll get one of the staff to add the Academy symbol for now to all your shirts. They’re all in your room.”

  “My room?”

  His eyebrows knitted together. “Did Greta tell you anything?” I shook my head, my wild hair flying around me. I wanted a shower desperately, feeling oddly dirty in my stark new clothes. In an effort to tame my dirty hair, I’d braided it and added a few drops of essential lavender oil from Greta’s medical cabinet. Still, my hair was big and messy, even in braids.

  We stepped out of the medical wing, and I gasped. As soon as the medical area ended, the gorgeous gray stones that I’d spent the last few hours staring at shimmered in the sunlight. It was if the stones themselves were alive in the hallway with us.

  He laughed, a wonderful rumbling sound. “Yep. Beast Academy resides in a castle. The stones are a bit too much for me, but I’m pretty sure the construction was magic or enchanted or something.”

  “Enchanted?” I took a pause. “Wait, we’re in a castle?”

  He chuckled. “You got it, Miss Mystery.”

  “Mystery?” My sole job lately was to ask stupid questions, I guess.

  His eyes twinkled mischievously. “You never told me your name.”

  I blushed fiercely. “Fiona.” I kept my last name for myself...even though Theo seemed like he was someone who could be trusted. I needed to be careful. Exactly how much did he know about me? And the people who brought me here…I wasn’t sure who I could trust here.

  We exited into a grand hallway that arched upward. I craned my neck back to admire the light spilling through an intricate stained glass that contained various depictions of animals. I stopped and tried to make the shapes out. It was breathtaking work, something worthy of a museum. Theo’s breath brushed my ear as he spoke, “Bear, wolf, lion, fox, and dragon. Those are the main houses.” I turned and nearly smacked my nose against his chest. He grinned down at me, blissfully unaware of that his close proximity was doing to me. Beads of sweat pricked the back of my neck.

  “All these types of shifters live here?”

  He nodded. “The young ones. We’re a college for elite shifter youth. The youngest here is 18, and the oldest is 25. Our dear Dracus is the oldest among our dorm house, but you’ll meet him.”

  “Our dorm?”

  I wondered if he ever tired of grinning at my questions and shock. “Yes! Our dorm. You’ve been assigned to the Core Council, Fiona.” He patted my back. His light touch was so powerful that I nearly flew into his chest from the force of it. “Oops, sorry. Don’t know my own strength. I’m always breaking stuff. Ren says I’m the most annoying person in the world. Well, he said it once, but that’s big for him since he never talks.”

  My mind reeled. “Is this Ren like Dracus? He lives in the dorm house with us?”

  “Yes,” Theo
said brightly. “We’re all on the Core Council because—” His voice hitched. “Well, we were elected by the student body, mostly. It’s like a student council. I think you’ll like our dorm. It’s nicer than most of the other dorms. You’ll have a private room.”

  “Don’t I need to be elected?” Maybe it was better to ask questions around here. More questions meant less talking about myself.

  “You can be assigned if it’s been decided by the big bosses,” he told me with a simple shrug of the shoulders. “The Officials said you had to live with us.” He snapped his mouth shut for a moment. “Look, I’ll explain it later.”

  I nodded numbly, not having enough strength to argue. The halls were oddly quiet as he dragged me along for a tour. The castle itself was immense. It seemed like he’d shown me at least eighteen different corridors on three floors. He explained that the professors had offices in the four towers of the castle, but those were off-limits to student. I admired the worn stone pillars which held up arched ceilings. The walk was making my head dizzy. Even so, there was something oddly nice about his tour, packed with random bits of trivia. Finally, he led me through the last hallway— he promised with a grin— we finally came across another person.

  Where Theo was handsome and boyish, this young man had the perfect features of a hero from a Romantic painting, the kind I’d studied in art history in senior year. His soft blue eyes landed on us. There was no change in his serene expression. He was a head shorter than Theo but still taller than me by at least a foot. A violin case hung by his side.

  “Theo.” His voice was as serene as his features, nearly angelic.

  “Jasper,” Theo greeted and then proudly gestured to me. “This is our new Council member, Fiona.”