Denial: Unforeseen Legacy, #2

By Kit Bladegrave

Fierce witches. Necromancers. Soul reapers. Mysterious shifters. Secret councils. Forbidden alliances. The Overlook Arcane Academy awaits.

 

Kate Devereaux's summer didn't go all that well. Her dad can't deal with who she is now and the choices she's made. Now she's heading back to Overlook Arcane Academy for her second year of training.

 

Back to cousin Magda and back to Lucas Grey. She can't deny her attraction to necromancer Lucas Grey. But his best friend has a favor to ask of Kate. A favor that could pose a problem. A huge one. Kate's not interested in a repeat visit to the Underworld, but Lilah needs her to.

 

What kind of trouble will Lilah lead Kate to, and will Lilah tear Lucas away from Kate?

 

Caution: Cliffhangers, violence can be found in this series of action-packed fantasy including necromancers and fierce witches.

• Language: English
• Publisher: KitBla
• Release date: Mar 17, 2021
• ISBN: 9781393738008

Book preview

1

Ever since I could remember, I had been having the same dream almost every night. I was young, maybe three years old, sitting in the forest alone, playing in a creek. It was calm, peaceful even, until a shadowy demon with glowing red eyes reached for me and pulled me down into the earth.

When I was little, I would wake up screaming, clutching the blankets as if they would keep me secured to the bed, keep me from being dragged out of the world. My dad thought that I was having night terrors, and I would try to explain the dream as much as I could. When I grew older, I lied and said the dreams were going away. There was nothing he would be able to do that would help me, so I thought I might as well save him some worry.

After I went to the Underworld, I thought that the dreams would stop. I had confronted demons, and developed my powers enough that I could subdue them, at least for short amounts of time. The shadow demons suddenly didn’t seem as terrifying as they had before I knew what else was out there.

Instead, they became worse.

They started with me, standing in the exact center of my room. Not only my room in Boston, or my room at the academy. It was the specific room that I had gone to sleep in that night, down to the sweater I left on my chair that morning, or the different books I had stacked on my nightstand.

The door cracked open, and slowly a trail of mist began to creep across the floor, swelling to the height of my ankles. It gathered in piles, and soon hands began to reach up out of the mist, multiple shadow demons pulling themselves up. It all happened so quickly, I couldn’t even count how many of them there were.

The demons approached slowly, reaching out their hands and touching my feet, my legs, chattering their teeth and scratching at me.

At the back of the room was what looked like a person, but it had inky black eyes and a mouth that twitched in and out of a smile so fast it almost blurred. Its hands were raised slightly in front of it, like it was commanding the demons toward me.

I was backed against a wall, with nowhere to run. I looked desperately at the door, willing for someone, anyone, to come in and save me.

The demons traced their fingers along my jawline, wrapping their arms around my body and pulling me to the floor.

I let out a terrified whimper, and when I opened my eyes, I was alone in my bedroom. I turned to check my alarm clock, and it was always 3:33 in the morning. Even after I found out that I was a witch, I thought those kinds of things were simply coincidences or superstitions that people put too much thinking into. But I couldn’t deny that it had meaning, especially when I knew that the demons from my dream weren’t harmless.

There wasn’t anyone I could talk to about these changes. I didn’t want Lucas or Magda to have to worry about me, especially since we were all on edge, waiting to how my demon half would make itself known.

But in the back of my head, I heard Magda’s voice telling me that nothing was ever a coincidence. Everything had meaning.

2

Opening the door of the cab and stepping out onto the driveway of Gran’s mansion felt almost the same as it did the first time I went there, almost a year ago to the day. The New Orleans humidity wrapped around me as I slung my bag over my shoulder and thanked the cab driver. The second I shut the car door, the driver was speeding off down the road.

The only thing that was different about the trip this time around were the strange and uneasy looks I got with my wolf pup familiar happily walking beside me. I had told my dad that Aiza was simply a regular dog, and had to buy a leash and collar for him so that he’d look normal. As a familiar, he didn’t actually need those things, but I had to make him wear them when we were in public.

From the outside, the mansion looked deserted. The woods that surrounded it echoed any small noise, and driving up to the front gates felt almost like you were entering a different world.

And in a way, that was all true.

Before I even got to the front door, it slammed open and Magda came running down the steps.

Katie, she called out, closing the last few feet between us, and wrapping me in a big hug.

I had never been much of a hugger, but I dropped my bag and hugged her back. Magda was my the closest thing I had to a best friend, and having been without her for the last two months of summer was harder than I expected.

Hemera followed Magda out the door, matching Magda’s excitement with a bouncy step. Hemera’s round body and long, pink tail swayed happily as she walked. I unhooked Aiza’s leash, letting him run free around the yard, releasing all his pent-up energy from our travels.

In Boston, it was only me and my dad. Over my years in school, I had made a few friends, but none of them were close enough for me to keep in touch with, especially after everything that happened in my life since I’d graduated from high school the year before.

Being back in Boston was surreal. I felt like I had a completely different life, and going back to where I was from seemed more like a dream. I wasn’t used to having to hide my magic anymore, and our little house was so quiet compared to Gran’s mansion and the residential rooms at Overlook Arcane Academy. I felt like every footstep I took echoed through the entire house, and I became very conscious of all the noises that I made, and the space that I took up there.

For the first month of summer, I tried to act like everything was normal. I wasn’t sure how to even go about telling Dad where I had been, especially after I lied to him about it the whole time. He thought that I was simply taking a year off to spend time with my aging great-grandmother and the rest of the family, but I spent the year studying witchcraft. That’s not something that I could easily explain.

With each day that passed, the guilt that I felt grew. Even though I hadn’t figured out a good way to tell him, I knew that I had to, or the guilt would become too much to handle.

When I told Dad, he simply sat there, quiet and stunned. I started to ramble, hoping that eventually he would be able to talk to me about it, but nothing I said seemed to work. It was almost like he didn’t want to look at me, and when he did it was like he didn’t even recognize me.

There was a part of him that didn’t want to believe me, even though I showed him evidence, summoning a flower out of the air much like Gran did the first time I met her.

If he chose to believe what I was telling him, it would mean that everything he knew about his family, my mom and I, was wrong. He loved us, and couldn’t comprehend that we would both keep this secret from him for so long.

Part of me had expected that he already knew. It seemed odd that my mom wouldn’t have told him, and that she was able to hide her powers from him for years. But the look of shock on his face when I demonstrated magic for him was enough to convince me that he had no idea this was even possible.

I waited a long time for our little household to get back to normal, or at least comfortable, after I told him. It had taken me a whole month of being home to work up the courage to come clean, but with each passing day I felt more and more like he wouldn’t be able to accept it.

And I hadn’t even told him about the demons that were following me. Or that I had a boyfriend who could raise the dead.

We still were barely talking by the last couple of weeks of summer so I packed up my bags early and headed to New Orleans to spend some time with the magic side of my family. At least there I could be myself, even though I was keeping a secret from them, too.

Magda and I spent a while catching up as we waited for Aunt Eveline and Uncle August to get back from working in the greenhouse. Hemera took her usual place, perched on Magda’s shoulders, with her head buried in Magda’s hair. Aiza sat at my feet, calm and quiet as usual.

Magda’s younger siblings, Leo and Wren, circled around us. Leo was buzzing with questions for me, and I hardly had time to answer before he had moved on to the next one. Wren was different, quietly listening as Leo, Magda, and I talked. She sat in the chair across from me, while Leo sat on the floor, resting his back against the leg of Wren’s chair.

For an eight-year-old, Wren was strange and amusing. In Leo, I saw what the rest of the Devereaux family was like. He was energetic, open, and friendly, exactly like Magda. Wren reminded me more of myself, and I wondered if she would still be shy and aloof when she was older, or if she would grow to be like the rest of our family.

Calm down, Leo, Magda pleaded. Kate’s traveled a long way to get here, and I’m sure she’s tired.

Oh, I’m fine, I said. It was a lie, of course, but I didn’t want to hurt Leo’s feelings. Plus, I was equally excited to see all of them, but in my own, more quiet way.

Magda shooed her siblings out of the room anyway. Leo pouted as he went, but Wren merely let out a heavy sigh, like she was too old to care, even though she was the same age as Leo. I stifled a laugh as I watched them leave.

Hey, Kate? Magda asked, lowering her volume so Leo and Wren couldn’t hear, in the likely event that they were still standing in the doorway. Maybe don’t mention anything to my mom about Lilah… or Lucas, either.

You didn’t tell her anything?

Well, it simply never seemed to come up…

I couldn’t blame her for it, even though I hated feeling like I had something to hide. Our family only practiced elemental magic for centuries, and always put an extra emphasis on maintaining the balance of the world.

When I first met them, I had a hard time understanding why my mom would leave without trying to keep in contact, but the more I thought about it, the more it made sense. If she knew that she had a half demon daughter, why would she stay with a family that would disapprove if they knew?

I wanted to be able to trust my aunt as much as I trusted Magda, but I couldn’t be sure how she would react if we told her the truth.

For now, I was comfortable with the three people who knew my secret. My cousin, my boyfriend, and Lilah.

Lilah was more of a wild card, but Lucas promised me that he talked to her about it and she said she would keep it a secret, as long as I wasn’t dangerous. Any time I was around Lilah, I felt on edge. She looked at me like I was some interesting specimen that she wanted to poke at and keep in a jar.

I wasn’t sure if we were even friends, but she knew my deepest secret, so that had to count for something.

I tried to shake off the thought, wanting to enjoy being back in New Orleans with my family. There was a significant weight taken off my shoulders, not having to be around Dad and the loneliness of Boston.

But ever since Lilah had told me that I was a half-demon, I hadn’t been able to get it out of my head. At every second, no matter what I was doing, the fact echoed around my thoughts. I was still learning how to be a regular witch, and I didn’t know what to do with the added-on stress.

My magic could be volatile at times, which the sages at the academy attributed to how new I was to magic. But I wondered if they would still think that was the case if they knew what I really was.

If I was with Lucas, he’d tell me that I was thinking too much. My stomach did a flip simply thinking about him, and even though I was beyond excited to be back at the Devereaux family mansion, I couldn’t wait to see him in a few days when Magda and I drove back to the academy to start the year.

For now, I told myself to be content that I was closer to seeing him, and for all of us to be back at the academy soon.

I turned to Magda and said, I need to find out what happened to my mother.

To know more about your demon thing? When she said the words demon thing, she wiggled her fingers dramatically.

I couldn’t help but smile, having missed Magda’s particular brand of humor in my mostly silent house in Boston.

Yeah, to find out about my demon thing, I said. There’s gotta be something in this house that can help us.

Magda nodded. I haven’t really seen anything of your mom’s merely laying around, but I’m sure we can ask my mom or Gran. I doubt they simply threw away her stuff.

I agreed that they wouldn’t throw away my mom’s stuff, but even the thought of that gave me a pang of sadness. I only had a few short years with my mom, and didn’t have any real memories of her since I was so young when she died.

We planned to meet in the morning to figure out our next step. The sun was already going down, and I was too exhausted to start thinking about doing anything serious. I made sure to say hello to Aunt Eveline and Uncle August when they came back inside, but after that obligation was done, I excused myself and went up to my room, passing out as soon as my head hit the pillow.

3

The morning sun flooded into the kitchen, making me squint and turn my head.

You’re up early. Aunt Eveline said from the other end of the room, but it took my eyes a few seconds to adjust before I could see her. Want some coffee?

I nodded. If it’s not a bother.

I was about to make another pot. My husband will be up soon, and if he doesn’t have three cups, it’s impossible for him to function.

Aunt Eveline hummed lightly as she scooped coffee grounds into the top of the machine. The sound of the off-key melody she hummed paired with the sound of the water heating up and the smell of coffee brewing was comforting. I pulled out a chair and sat at the table, waiting for the coffee to be finished and looking out the window.

Before coming to the mansion in New Orleans, I had spent most of my life living on a crowded residential block, with houses pressed up against each other and the constant sound of cars passing on the street. Sure, there were trees and flowers lined up neatly in the front yards of the houses, but it was nothing like the sense of calm and peace I felt in a house that was surrounded by forest.

Aunt Eveline put a dish with cane sugar and a small saucer with cream on the table, followed by two mugs of fresh coffee.

I looked over