Grave Mistakes: The Grave Chronicles, #3

By Ciara Graves

Juliette's got to figure out who killed her mother. How can this still be such a mystery. And why is her father hellbent on slaughtering thousands of paranormal beings?

 

She and her group of friends are off on an adventure, but they didn't count on her being interrogated on a routine basis by the powers that be at Crescent City Academy of Magics. Nor did they count on losing someone close to them.

 

Juliette's abduction forces their hand and leads them down a catastrophic trail. The question is, catastrophic for whom?

• Language: English
• Publisher: CiaGra
• Release date: Aug 9, 2021
• ISBN: 9798201198930

Book preview

Chapter 1

With a thick, slate gray cloud cover overhead, the night was dark. But the forest trail, with the large, wide trunks of the trees pressed close on both sides, and their full canopies overhead made the floor of the woods even darker.

I tried to avoid letting it creep me out but was having limited success. There’s just something about the darkness and the woods that, when combined, form one creepy combo. Not even my abilities or the fact that I could defend myself quite capably kept me from being a little freaked out by the woods at night. I’m human. Sue me.

But it was the only way to get back to the school from my boyfriend Jackson’s place. I usually didn’t mind the walk through the woods. It allowed me to clear my head. But I typically tried to avoid the forest path at night. Time got away from me when I was with him, though, and I didn’t want him to drive me home. He’s a shifter, and with everything going on, I didn’t want him out alone at night, so I opened a portal and popped myself to the edge of the forest—the edge of the school’s new boundary line.

Of course, I wouldn’t have to be traipsing through the woods alone at night if the powers that be at the Crescent City Academy of Magics hadn’t laid a new ward over the school, preventing me from opening a portal and stepping back into my dorm room. I couldn’t help but feel that it was directly aimed at me. Oh, they said it was to guard against threats posed by people like my father, but they already had a ward up that kept him out, so I was not buying it. The administration at the Academy was trying to control me.

My first two years at the Crescent City Academy were eye-opening, to say the least. I went from somebody who didn’t believe in magical abilities and the supernatural to one of the most powerful people on the planet over those twenty-four months. And according to Aisha, my secret mentor, I’d only just scratched the surface of what I could do. But as I entered my third year of study, I was highly skeptical of the school’s administration. It was safe to say the bloom was definitely off the rose.

There was something going on behind the scenes at the school. Not only did I think the Academy’s ruling council—or at least some members of it—had something to do with my mother’s death, I was starting to suspect that they were secretly allied with my father, who is one of the most powerful necromancers in history, and a proponent of wiping out the other supernaturals. I’d found clues that made me believe they were trying to provoke war among the supernatural community with the goal of wiping out the shifters and the vampires.

If there was one thing I’d learned over my time at the Crescent City Academy, it was that the magical community was every bit as bloodthirsty and desperate to dominate the other communities as some among the shifters and vampires were. The magical community was just better at the PR game and knew how to frame issues to make our group look virtuous while the others looked bad and evil. The national ruling council of vampires was a close second. They were savvy as hell and had made some inroads with their image repair campaign.

But nobody could keep up with the magical community in terms of self-promotion, government lobbying, and propaganda that painted us as saints and being on the front lines of this culture war with the supernatural community. The heads of the national council for the magical community said all the right things and pretended to be civil, and denied having designs on making themselves the dominant supernatural clique in the world. And people bought it.

But I knew better. I’d seen more than enough to convince me that posturing done by the national council to portray us as good and virtuous, as trying to help rid the world of evil, was pure and utter crap. The magical community was every bit as aggressive as the others, but since we didn’t have fangs or claws, we killed by other means. We were far more subtle in how we carried out our agenda but were no less lethal.

Yeah, I suppose you could say that I was disillusioned with things at that point. That would be a fair assessment. And I had been giving thought to leaving the Crescent City Academy more frequently. It was something Jackson had encouraged me to do. But I told him, as I continue to tell myself, that I can’t go until I find out who murdered my mother. It was somebody within the walls of that school, and I still intend to find out who it was. Until that time came, I couldn’t leave. I wouldn’t leave. Not until I knew the truth.

I’d been so caught up in my head as I walked that I almost didn’t hear them out there. When the sound of a twig snapping and furtive footsteps in the undergrowth echoed through the dark silence of the forest around me, my heart raced, and I nearly tripped over an exposed tree root. I managed to keep my footing, though but stumbled forward a few steps. I stopped moving and looked around, my heart thundering in my chest.

I turned around in a circle, trying to see through the darkness. It was futile, though. The gloom was thick, and it was nearly impossible to see through the shadows. But I heard them out there, skulking through the blackness of the forest around me, circling around, trying to get the drop on me. Fighting shifters was not how I’d planned on ending my day. But there we were.

Come out and face me, cowards, I called.

My voice echoed among the trees, and in response, I heard the sound of deep and gruff voices. It sounded like they were laughing—if animals were capable of such a thing. I was fast growing tired of their game, though, and it was time to bring it to an end. I held my arms out at my sides and turned my palms up, channeling a flow of fire into each hand.

I held globes of bright fire in my hands and directed a little more energy into them, lighting up the woods around me. And when the light glinted off six pairs of eyes among the trees, my heart nearly stopped dead. They glowed a cold amber color, and the sound of deep growling suddenly reverberated through the air.

Great, I muttered to myself, then called out to them. Six of you, huh? For little ol’ me? I guess I should be flattered.

Then, as if they moved by some unspoken signal, all six werewolves came crashing through the undergrowth at once, snarling and howling. Their eyes seemed to glow with an inner light, and their faces were contorted with rage. Their lips were pulled back, revealing muzzles full of razor-sharp teeth.

As the beasts closed in, I altered the flows of fire in my hands and sent six fireballs shooting out, one at each beast. Four of them were quick and nimble, deftly jumping out of the way of the streaking fireballs. The other two weren’t quick enough and caught flaming orbs square in the chest. It blew them off their feet and knocked them backward. The beasts howled in agony as flame quickly consumed their bodies. The stench of charred flesh filled the forest as did the roaring of the others.

I lashed out with flows of fire, creating a wall of flame around me the beasts dared not get too close to. And while I had them distracted by the blaze I directed with one hand, I channeled flows of air with my other hand. I dropped the fire wall and lashed out with powerful blasts of wind. I blew two of the wolves back instantly. They rocketed backward and crashed so hard into the trunks of the trees I could hear the crunch of bones from where I stood.

And when the final two wolves turned toward me, their faces twisted with hate, I quickly summoned half a dozen wraiths and unleashed them. One of the wolves broke through the arms of the wraiths trying to hold it back, and threw a punch that connected with the side of my head. I was sent flying and crashed down onto the forest floor, the breath driven from my lungs and the coppery taste of blood filling my mouth.

I felt blood spilling from my nose and running down my face as my vision wavered. I laid there and saw the other wolf turn and sprint back into the darkness of the woods, howling wildly, the wraiths close on its tail. But when I hit the ground, my control over the spirits vanished, and so did they. They all melted into the shadows and were gone. Just like that. The ground beneath me shook as the lone remaining wolf stepped over to me.

It was tall. Seven feet at least. And it was broad, muscular, covered in a coarse black fur, and I couldn’t help but see the feral gleam in its eyes. The wolf looked down at me balefully, its lips curled back, revealing inch-long teeth I couldn’t help but imagine puncturing my flesh. I could practically feel its teeth slicing through me and feel my blood, warm and thick, flowing down my body. I couldn’t even imagine the pain it would bring.

If I hadn’t been so loopy from getting popped, I might have been more terrified than I was. But as the wolf loomed over me, all I could feel was anger. Well, that and my face, throbbing and hot from being punched as hard as I had been. The wolf standing over me howled, assuring it was about to tear me to pieces and feast.

I was dazed and not quite with it, but I had it together enough to summon a flow of fire. I sent the lance of flame straight into the shifter’s face. It hit with a whoosh sound as the fur on the wolf ignited. The beast screamed in rage, batting at its face desperately, trying to put the flames out. I slowly got to my knees as the shifter staggered around, the fire consuming more and more of it. Its keening wail echoed around the woods as it first fell to its knees then onto his face. The beast twitched a couple of times, but then it was still. The only sound remaining was the crackling of the fire.

I got to my feet, still feeling dizzy and hearing a high-pitched ringing in my ears. I channeled a flow of water and loosed it onto the burning corpse, putting the flames out with a loud sizzle. The stench in the woods was horrible, and I wanted to get out of there. I looked around and noticed one of the two wolves I’d sent into the trunks of the trees had disappeared as well. The other was sitting upright against the trunk, blood flowing from the corner of his mouth, his eyes wide open and glassy, fixed upon something that didn’t exist in this world.

The branch that had impaled him when he struck the trunk protruded from his chest. Blood gushed from the wound, turning his torso red. It was obvious that he was dead. As were the two who hadn’t been fast enough to dodge the fireballs. Their smoldering corpses lay on the ground, blackened and cracked. They, too, had reverted to their human form upon death but were so charred, making an identification on either was going to be impossible.

I looked down at the man in front of me. I didn’t recognize him, which wasn’t surprising. It wasn’t like I knew everybody in the small town of Avignon that surrounded the Academy. But I had gotten to know some faces over the last couple of years. This man was short and thin, with dark hair, and seemed to be balding in the back. He had an unassuming look about him in his human form and reminded me of the kind of guy who’d do your taxes or something. He certainly didn’t look like some of the hardcore members of the various wolf packs that were common throughout the area.

I turned away, ready to get back to campus, when I noticed the tattoo on the inside of the man’s wrist. I squatted down and turned his hand over, looking at the dark spiral with the red crescent moon in the center. A tattoo on the man seemed as incongruous as the fact that this unassuming-looking man was a shifter who only a few minutes ago had been a wild, slavering beast who was intent on ripping my throat out.

There was just something about the tat that struck me as odd. It also struck me as familiar, but I racked my brain and couldn’t figure out why. There was just something about it that rang a bell in my mind. I took a couple of deep breaths to steady myself and tried to get my head to clear a bit more. Once I felt slightly more settled, I set off again. I needed to get back to campus. For all I knew, the wolves that escaped were out there trying to round up reinforcements. And the last thing I wanted was to be there when they got back.

So, I headed off, walking as quickly as I could, then jogging when I felt up to it, trying to get back to school as fast as I could.

Chapter 2

What in the hell were you thinking? Naomi scolded me.

She looked closely at the bruises and cuts on my face I got from getting popped by a werewolf and frowned. There was dried blood around my nose and my mouth, and there were scrapes on my cheek that stung like hell.

What? I was walking home! I objected. I didn’t do—

Why didn’t you let Jackson drive you home? I know he would have.

Because I didn’t need him to.

Obviously, you did, she replied. Your stubbornness is going to get you killed one of these days, Juliette.

How was I supposed to know there were six shifters waiting for me out there? I mean, I’ve made that walk what, a hundred times now?

She sighed. It’s because things are getting tense. There’s something in the air, and it’s bad. And we have to be careful. I just have a feeling something bad is coming.

Yeah, I’ve had that feeling too.

She softly thumped me on the forehead, making me wince as my face exploded in pain. Naomi cringed and grimaced.

Sorry about that. Are you all right? she asked.

I’ll live.

Sorry. I’ll try to be gentler.

Not slapping me upside the head would be a good start, I said.

Maybe, but it’s not like you didn’t deserve it, she replied. But duh, this bad thing we both feel coming our way is precisely why you shouldn’t be walking in the woods alone at night!

Fine, I said with a laugh. Next time, I’ll have Jackson drive me back to campus.

Good girl, she replied. Now, lay back.

I laid back on the bed, and Naomi stepped over to me. She looked down and let her hands hover a couple of inches over me. Naomi closed her eyes and started to whisper to herself. It was a healing incantation she’d had to use on me before. This wasn’t the first time I got roughed up. As she spoke the words, my skin started to tingle and grow warm. Naomi moved her hands up and down my body, always