Rogue Reformatory: Breakout (Supernatural Misfits Academy Book 3) Read online

  ROGUE REFORMATORY

  SUPERNATURAL MISFITS ACADEMY BOOK THREE

  AMBER LYNN NATUSCH

  & MARTY MAYBERRY

  Rogue Reformatory: Breakout

  Supernatural Misfits Academy Book Three

  © 2020 Amber Lynn Natusch & Marty Mayberry

  All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be reproduced in any form without permission from the publisher, except as permitted by U.S. copyright law.

  Broken is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, businesses, companies, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

  Published by Amber Lynn Natusch & Marty Mayberry

  Cover by Yocla Designs

  Ebook Formatting by BookMojo

  Editing by Kristy Bronner

  http://amberlynnnatusch.com

  http://www.martymayberry.com

  TABLE OF CONTENTS

  C hapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter Eighteen

  Chapter Nineteen

  Chapter Twenty

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  Chapter Twenty-Seven

  Chapter Twenty-Eight

  Chapter Twenty-Nine

  Amber Lynn Natusch

  Marty Mayberry

  CHAPTER ONE

  Maddy

  It should have been over when we destroyed the source of Wadsworth Reformatory’s power. Instead, we’d unleashed something worse, and whatever it was seemed determined to keep us trapped inside Wadsworth.

  Rushing to the front door, Aidan yanked on the knob. Strain creased his face and he growled, but the panel didn’t open.

  The screams of our fellow students dying cut off suddenly, and silence ruled. Until the sound of something rolling down the hall sent me spinning around to see the black crystal ball making its way across the floor toward us.

  “It’s...coming to me,” Cece said, shock in her voice. She bent down, her hands outstretched, but before she could grab it, a crack echoed through the foyer. The floor gave way beneath us, and we were sucked down into a dark abyss.

  My arms flailed and my butt smacked on something solid, jarring my teeth together. Dirt and debris rained down, and Rhys landed on top of me with an ‘ooph’, driving me into a hard-packed dirt floor. Guppy-gulping, I floundered while my lungs remembered how to breathe.

  “Hey, you okay?” Rhys asked near my ear. He sat up, straddling me, and glanced around. “Basement.”

  I groaned. The basement was the last place I wanted to find myself.

  Moments ago, Cece and Wolfy had destroyed Wadsworth’s power source. We’d thought that would be it; that we would finally be free. But we’d quickly realized that it wasn’t the source keeping us trapped inside the reformatory—it was the building itself. Without the glowing orb in control, its full power had been unleashed, killing the headmaster, a guy who’d seemed to have nine lives. His luck had finally run out when he’d been impaled by a floorboard at the dance in the cafeteria. Then all hell had broken loose, with kids screaming and scattering.

  Now we were surrounded by damp walls and the scent of mold. I felt a desperate need to know why we’d ended up here, of all places. Had the building chosen it on purpose? And what would happen now?

  “Maddy?” Cece’s voice echoed around us. Someone grunted from the same direction. Maybe Aidan.

  “Yep,” I groaned, trying to make my limbs move. “I’m still alive.” My body ached, and my left hip felt like it had been hit with a sledgehammer.

  Wolfy licked my face and whimpered. Get up, kid. Like in the past, he spoke in my mind.

  Doin’ it. I replied in my mind. I really wasn’t doing it, but I couldn’t move. I could barely access brain function.

  With a groan, Rhys climbed off of me and stood. He extended his hand and tugged me up, and I stumbled against him, my legs threatening to give way.

  “I’ve got ya,” he said softly, his arms looping around me, holding me steady. “Sorry I fell on you.”

  “S’okay,” I snorted. “I hope I cushioned your landing.”

  He squeezed me tighter.

  “What the hell happened?” Cece asked. As she brushed dirt off her dress, she joined Rhys and me, Aidan right behind her.

  I took in the dingy walls and limited lighting. “I’d say Wadsworth isn’t eager to let us go.”

  Cece grunted. “No shit, but—”

  “You are right,” a voice said from behind us, further down the dank hall leading to where the power source had been.

  Don’t turn, Wolfy said in my mind. Don’t turn. Bad stuff happens when you turn.

  Unable to resist, I spun. I bit back a shriek. “Janie?”

  I couldn’t believe it. How… ?

  Wolfy latched onto my skirt with his teeth and tried to tug me backward, but I pulled free. I needed to confront her, to find out where she’d been and why she’d pretended to be dead.

  Janie’s head tilted and she frowned, as though listening to something no one else could hear. Eyes clearing, she walked toward us, stumbling on the uneven dirt floor. Her arms flopped around at her sides and her head bobbed like one of those creepy dolls people mounted on the dashboards of their cars. “Yes. I am Janie.”

  Was she? Or was she someone—some thing —else? Chills clambered up my spine like long-legged spiders. I backed up, my fingers seeking Rhys’s.

  “We should probably get out of here,” he whispered.

  Yes. Go, Wolfy said in my mind.

  “That’s her,” Cece whispered. “She’s the one I ran into in the hall after I found the dragon painting.” Her wide-eyed gaze met mine, and I saw the beginnings of panic growing there. It ricocheted through me. “She warned me to leave.”

  “I did warn you,” Janie said, “and you did not listen.”

  When she’d said we weren’t supposed to be here, we’d assumed she’d meant the fourth floor. What if she’d meant Wadsworth?

  “We can’t go,” I said. “There’s no way out.”

  Janie stopped and her gaze dropped over us, its weight heavier than a sodden blanket. “Now it’s too late.”

  “What do you mean?” I asked, dreading the answer. I wanted to latch onto her shoulders and shake her, to demand that she tell me where she’d been and what had been going on since she’d ‘died’ in Nancy’s classroom. But I had a feeling that, if I touched her, something awful would happen.

  Or my hands would pass right through her.

  “I need you,” Janie said. “All of you.”

  “For what?” Aidan strode around us and stalked closer to Janie, his arms loose and his gait filled with confidence. “Who are you? What are you?”

  “Janie is...here but not here.” The corner of her lips quirked up, but humor didn’t touch her deadened eyes. “You know who I am.”

  Aidan’
s breath caught, but he continued to advance on her. “You’re not Janie.”

  “No? What makes you think that?” She giggled, a bubbly, high-pitched sound that made my flesh crawl. Goosebumps pebbled across my skin and I swallowed, but the lump in my throat wouldn’t go down. “I am what the Council tried to lock away in this building…” Behind Janie, down the hall, ancient wooden doors rattled in their frames, as if something behind them were eager to get out. “And soon, I will be free.”

  “We really need to leave,” Rhys said quietly. “ Now. ”

  Wolfy’s claws scrabbled on the floor as he raced around to stand in front of me, facing Janie. His shrill barks scratched at my nerves and fed my urge to flee.

  “Janie—or whatever you are—it’s time to let us go,” Cece said. “You don’t really want us, anyway. Your beef is with the Council.” She moved forward, and I could feel the press of her empath power as she channeled it toward the entity wearing Janie like a second skin. She snagged the back of Aidan’s shirt, her eyes shut in concentration. “She’s…it’s...” Releasing Aidan, she clamped her hands against her head and fell to her knees, moaning. “She’s scared. She can’t get free...she’s trapped!”

  “Exactly, Celine,” Janie said. “I am trapped, and you can set me free.”

  “I didn’t mean you ,” Cece snarled. “I meant Janie…”

  A strange laugh escaped the possessed girl, and I knew we were in trouble.

  We’d spent so much time bumbling around trying to escape, thinking we’d known what we were doing, when all the while, the building—or whatever entity had been imprisoned within it—had been guiding us. Manipulating us. Even Janie. We’d played into its every desire, and our actions had unleashed a nightmare. We’d be stupid to do anything else until we’d thought it through.

  I stepped in front of my sister, my hands clenched into fists. “Leave us alone. We’re never going to set you free. You have to let us go.”

  “Must I?” Janie’s gaze turned to Cece. “The empath is the key, but she is unable to act.”

  “That means nothing. Back off!”

  Aidan pushed Cece behind Rhys and Wolfy. The wolfling’s fur stood at attention, and his lips were peeled back. A snarl rumbled in his chest.

  “Do you truly believe you can escape without my consent?” Janie sighed as if greatly put upon. “You can either help me leave this place,“ she said as her voice grew louder and her arms lifted. “Or you can die like all the others.”

  The headmaster. The students. Possibly even the keepers and teachers.

  I reeled backward and took Rhys’s hand. “Lead us out of here,” I whispered. “You know the basement better than the rest of us.” There were so many halls, rooms with creatures eager to consume us. And dead ends. Really shouldn’t be thinking of dead anything right now …

  “Leaving so soon?” Janie cried. Her arms jerked higher, and doors banged open in the hallway behind her. My breath caught when I saw what emerged. No...what escaped .

  Students—or what was left of them—stumbled out into the hall, their gazes blank and their clothing tattered. A few moaned. Most said nothing at all. They looked like the walking dead.

  I didn’t recognize any of them.

  “No,” Cece gasped, watching them with growing horror. “They’re…no!”

  Her words said nothing and everything, and it was all I needed.

  “Run!” Wolfy cried. He pivoted on his back legs and scrambled down the hall beside Rhys, fleeing from Janie-who-wasn’t-Janie and her minions.

  We bolted around a corner and kept going. The ground gradually sloped upward, hopefully taking us out of the basement. What we’d do once we escaped Janie was yet to be decided.

  Reaching the end of the hall and an intersection, we turned right.

  I smacked right into Sarah, notorious mean girl and expert with magical chokeholds. Not the person I expected to find in the basement, but then again, we shouldn’t have been there, either.

  What was this? Encounter Your Favorite Villains Day?

  “What are you guys doing?” she asked, bracing my forearms. She released me and I stumbled backward, not stopping until my butt hit the wall.

  I girded myself, wondering if I dared shift into my dragon. I’d fry her before I’d let her strangle us all.

  “Comin’ through,” Rhys said, pushing past her.

  She shifted backward with a scowl. “Is that any way to treat someone who’d like to help you?”

  Like we’d believe that. “With what?” I asked, moving to follow Rhys.

  Sarah pointed. “ Them .”

  I turned to see her smiling at the zombie kids as if they were her best friends. Her hands lifted and her lips twitched.

  The kids came to a shuddering stop, and frowns filled their faces. A few tried to continue toward us, but they smacked into something, as if they’d hit an invisible wall. Ghostly howls erupted from their pasty faces, and their hands rose to clutch their throats. They spun and pivoted in a grim dance, choking.

  Aidan stared at Sarah with a hint of respect in his eyes.

  Not me. While I appreciated her assistance, it was just a matter of time before she turned her lethal glare our way.

  “Go,” I said, nudging Rhys’s and Cece’s sides.

  Rhys and I rushed down the hall with Cece and Aidan behind us, leaving Sarah behind. We came to a dead end, but I spied an elevator I hadn’t seen before tucked into the corner.

  Rhys stabbed the up button. His gaze remained trained behind us, but I didn’t want to turn. I knew what I’d see: zombie kids lurching our way. Killed here at Wadsworth, drained of their power, then incinerated in the furnace. And Sarah with a witchy smile on her face. She’d had her fun with them; it was our turn now.

  The elevator door opened with a cheery ding, and we tumbled inside.

  “Wait!” I shouted, stabbing my arm into the elevator door opening. “Wolfy’s not with us.”

  Wolfy?

  I’m okay. Don’t worry about me. Just get away.

  “He...says he’s all right, to keep going,” I said.

  Rhys nodded.

  While he pressed the first floor button a thousand times, Aidan blocked the doorway, his arms lifted and his hands clenched tight. He mouthed words I didn’t understand.

  Taking Cece’s hand, I pulled her to the back wall and leaned against the cold metal frame. The chill of it sunk into my bones, and my teeth chattered.

  As the doors started to glide shut, Sarah squeezed inside the small compartment with us. The doors finished closing, and the elevator shook as it rumbled up to the first floor.

  Her sharp gaze fell on us like acid rain, but she grinned. “What...no hug?”

  CHAPTER TWO

  Cece

  If I hadn’t been shell-shocked from the building swallowing us and a zombie-esque horde of students led by Janie’s animated corpse chasing us, I might have had a clever comeback for Sarah. But I didn't. Not by a longshot. None of us did. We all just gaped at her in the tight confines of the elevator while she inspected her nails.

  The only thing that could have made it more like a teen Hollywood movie was bad ‘80s elevator music.

  “I don’t mean to point out the obvious here,” she said, glancing up from her cuticle inspection, “but I think we have a real problem on our hands.”

  “ We ?” I managed to choke out.

  She turned her annoyed glare to me, but before she had a chance to grace us with a bitchy response, the elevator came to a stop. The bell dinged as the doors slid open, revealing more students, a.k.a. The Walking Dead.

  Aidan’s inky black magic shot out, splitting the mob, then slammed them all aside, clearing a path.

  “Run!” he shouted.

  Not needing to be told twice, we bolted down the hall, my leg wound protesting with every step, headed for any room we could lock ourselves inside until we formed a plan. It wasn’t like we were without power—I mean, my sister could breathe fire, for fuck’s sake—but powe
r without a plan didn’t always pan out well. We needed a hot second to regroup and figure out how we could get out of the school we should have been able to escape.

  We rounded the corner that led to the library, Rhys and Aidan leading the way. The two of them crashed into the double doors and yanked them open simultaneously. I breathed a sigh of relief as we filed into the massive room and slammed the heavy oak doors shut. Maddy shoved a pot off a nearby planter, and it smashed to the floor. She took the tall metal stand and slipped it through the door handles as Rhys’s glowing green magic formed a shield over the entrance.

  “That should hold them off,” he said, shooting my sister a nervous smile.

  “Well, that’s really helpful,” Sarah said, drawing our collective attention to her as she inspected the damage to her tattered dress. “I’m sure that fancy force field and plant stand will keep everything trying to kill us at bay, no problem.”

  “Don’t take this the wrong way,” I said, staring Sarah down, “because it’s not like I’m not grateful that you decided to put your little choking trick to good use finally, but why in the hell did you bother?”

  Her gaze drifted to Aidan, and she frowned when he shifted closer to me.

  “I did it because everyone else in this place has gone Land of the Zombies, and I’m not keen on getting wiped out by the horde, so…” She gestured at our group with a lazy flip of her hand. “I figured if I saved your lives, you’d have to return the favor.”

  “Safety in numbers,” Maddy muttered under her breath. She clearly wasn’t a fan of the idea, but she wasn’t going to throw Sarah to the wolves, even after everything the bitch had done to us.

  “Why aren’t you a zombie?” I asked.

  She eyed me tightly. “Why aren’t you?”

  Touché .

  “Can you behave yourself if you stay with us?” Aidan asked, his tone sharp and full of warning.

  “As much as I ever can,” she replied with a grin.

  “Why do I have the sinking suspicion that’s next to never?” I asked.