Resurrections & Rituals: Supernatural Academy, #4

By Autumn Gray

Hallowhaven Supernatural Academy, Year Four

My ghost lovers are imprisoned.
A wraith wants me dead.
And my ex-bestie is blowing up my human life from the outside.
So yeah… things are officially unhinged.

Just when I thought I was getting a handle on this whole witch thing, chaos strikes. Again.
My magical bond with the ghosts I love is fraying—and if I don't figure out how to break them out of the prison spell soon, I might lose them for good.

Meanwhile, a shadowy enemy is making moves. Big ones. The kind that threaten every supernatural creature at Hallowhaven… and beyond. And guess who's caught in the middle? (Hi. It's me.)

The academy wants obedience. The ghosts want freedom. The world wants answers.
But all I want is to survive without losing everything I've fought for—especially the boys who've already died once for me.

Time's running out. The veil's breaking.
And the girl I used to be? She doesn't exist anymore.

Magic, love, and destiny collide in the explosive fourth installment of the Supernatural Academy series.
Grab your copy of Resurrections & Rituals now—before the veil closes for good.

 

• Language: English
• Publisher: Rowan Publishing, LLC
• Release date: Jul 25, 2021
• ISBN: 9798201646400

Autumn Gray

Autumn Gray is a debut author who grew up devouring romance and erotica novels. She lives in Kentucky and loves seeing the mountains as she walks her two dogs. Her husband is her rock and encouraged her to publish her stories.

Book preview

CHAPTER 1

I ’m going to savor draining you dry, my uncle practically purrs.

I shudder with revulsion, but I can’t fight back. I’ve tried. My wand did nothing. Unleashing all I could didn’t even faze him. He’s a damn wraith. Nothing I’ve found or studied has prepared me for defeating him.

Even my parents and aunt couldn’t win.

Relax, it will hurt less, he says.

The wraith leeches out my power and I fall to my knees. My yew wand clatters below me into the darkness of the leyline. I scream as pain rips through me, slicing me apart. My hand trembles with the prism that holds Ben and Kiarr, my ghost lovers. I have failed them. Failed myself. And now this bastard is going to win.

Such untapped power. His voice is laced with glee, but it turns my stomach. With all this power, I can break through the school’s defenses. I will feast like I never have before.

Tears burn my eyes as my throat turns raw from my screams. How many people has he killed? I can’t let him get to the academy. Innocent people will die. Jezza and Melanie. I have to warn them.

Another wave of pain claws into me and my screams turn hoarse. Blackness swirls at the edge of my vision.

That’s right; give it all to me, my uncle coos to me. Your aunt’s protection cannot hide your power anymore.

I curl in on myself, clutching the prism to my chest. My magic crumbles and shreds like dried leaves in a fist that keeps squeezing and squeezing.

Images of Ben, Jacques, and Kiarr flicker in my mind. And my heart hurts with longing and regret. The pain more than what the wraith can do to me. And how naïve and stupid I’ve been. My men love me. In my past lives, in this life, and in any future ones we are lucky enough to share.

Burning crashes into my chest and I scream as it feels like the wraith is searing out my heart. My uncle. My aunt’s and parents’ killer. How many more magic users has he devoured?

I shiver. Coldness seeping into my bones despite my chest and insides feeling like an inferno.

Deep down, I know if the wraith takes my magic and my soul, I’ll die. Like eternity. There won’t be any coming back or another life or do-overs. I’ll cease to exist.

What will happen to Ben and Kiarr? Will they forever be locked in Gwen’s damn prism? I can’t do that to them.

And what about Jacques? I never got to tell him how crazy he makes me both in wanting him and being terrified of him.

Pain lashes across my soul and I can’t scream anymore. I have no breath.

This is it.

I can feel my soul fading away like dew melting on a hot, summer day.

Deep inside me a little girl’s voice says, please don’t be dead Mommy and Daddy…I don’t want my dolly anymore. I’ll be good, I promise.

I don’t want my magic either.

Lock it up and throw away the key. Lock it up and throw away the key. Lock it up and throw away the key.

The words spin over and over in my head. And I can’t shut them out. Can’t think of anything except making the pain go away.

CHAPTER 2

Trickles of something spike deep in my mind, my soul. A cavern of magic that I’ve locked away. Even before my aunt cloaked me in a spell, it only covered the surface of my magic. Mine goes much deeper.

I had trouble controlling it as a child. That’s why I blamed myself all these years for my parents’ death. But it had been this monster before me.

And I had hurt him once when I was younger.

Pain burrows into me. I scream while my body convulses, while I try to grasp onto a fragment of sanity. Try in vain to fight back.

You cannot defeat me. My uncle laughs. Though I always find it entertaining when your kind does. Makes the kill all the sweeter.

I would curse him if I could open my mouth or not scream.

Another wave of blinding pain sends me tumbling off a cliff. Blackness swamps my vision.

I’m going to die just like my Aunt Grace…just like my parents. Just like all the other victims of this monster.

And what about my men? No one will be around to save them. No one will be able to tell them what happened to me or that I wanted to spend more time with them. To be able to kiss them again. Hug them and hear their accents and different ways of speaking.

I want Kiarr to teach me how to sword fight and throw axes…isn’t that what Vikings do? I want Ben to teach me magic and how to dance all those fancy waltzes and stuff from his time. And Jacques… I bite my lip and squeeze my eyes shut. I want to let him know I made a mistake turning away from him. From love. I let fear get in the way of my heart. I want to have him teach me French and learn all about our pasts together. All three of them.

But most of all, I want a future with them. Crazy as it sounds. Three ghosts and a witch.

Are you mocking me? the wraith asks like he’s gritting the words out.

I open my eyes despite the pain and glare at my uncle. His skeletal form is back now along with the black, floating robes. And the image sends my heart pounding in terror against my chest.

His bony hands raise and darkness curls along the tips. Thousands of cuts slash me inside, twisting and jerking. Sucking on my power. My muscles spasm.

I’m panting against the pain, against just trying to breathe.

Why did I think I could stand up to him? Much less beat him?

He’s too strong. Too powerful.

My tears feel like ice sliding down my face because I’m an inferno inside. And all I want is for the pain to end.

No matter the cost.

And a part of me feels like its dying inside. How I felt abandoned and alone… like I did as a child. Like I did again when my aunt sent me to the Academy. Like how Lance chose Gwen over me and had said he was going to break-up with me after prom.

How I feel so alone.

Over and over the memories and thoughts rip into me, tearing me apart.

My life flashes behind my eyes of everything I’ve lost. But then other visions swirl before me. Of my past lives with Ben and Kiarr and finally Jacques. And I feel the love for them that I had then and now morph and grow. How I yearn for them even during the darkest parts of my lives.

How they complete me.

And I don’t want to die again, not in this lifetime.

Not without bursting through the barriers and fears I have placed around my heart.

That’s it.

Lock it up and throw away the key. Lock it up and throw away the key. Lock it up and throw away the key.

Aunt Grace’s shielding spell didn’t block my magic. I had done it when I was a small child. I locked it away and only I could get it back.

But how?

Using magic, from what I can glean from my vague memories, was as natural as breathing. I couldn’t do that now.

Stop resisting me, my uncle says in a terse voice.

Whatever I’m doing is pissing him off. Good.

I push past the pain lapping at my resolve with tongues of acid and fire.

Breathe.

I think of my magic. How every lifetime including this one, it has been a part of me. Except, this time I shoved it away and buried it. Denied its existence even for years. I lived a lie and a half-life.

Others, like my uncle, crave the power. Yet, I had hurt him once. Sent him out of our lives for over a decade and that was when I hadn’t known what the hell I was doing. Okay, I didn’t know much more now despite I would be nineteen in a few months. But it couldn’t be hard.

I’d summoned a past-life ghost lover without even trying. Even if I had been trying to bring Lance to the Academy because of Gwen’s dare.

Claws snatch me up by my throat and my eyes fly open. I stare into the skeletal face of my uncle. Black hollow eye sockets stare back at me.

You’ve been tricking me. He laughs, shaking his head. Kept your magic reservoir a secret.

Stop. I clasp his hand, trying to break free, but it’s