School of Broken Hearts: Academy of Souls Book 2 Read online

  School of Broken Hearts

  Academy of Souls Book 2

  C.R. Jane

  Mila Young

  Contents

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  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

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Sneak Peek at Bound

  Copyright

  Prologue

  Chapter 1

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  School of Broken Hearts by C. R. Jane and Mila Young

  Copyright © 2019 by C. R. Jane and Mila Young

  All rights reserved.

  No portion 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, and except as permitted by U.S. copyright law.

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  This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events, locales, and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.

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  School of Broken Hearts

  School of Broken Hearts

  Adeline Jones expected a fancy prep school to be different than what she was used to, but what she found at Raven Academy changed her world forever. And leaving is out of the question.

  All Adeline wants is to forget about the guys who broke her heart. But the death of her classmate means that won’t be an option for her. To make things worse, an old flame from her past starts at the Academy and his intentions carry the deepest of betrayal.

  Danger lies behind every corner, a killer walks amongst them, and Adeline soon discovers that she shouldn’t trust anyone at Raven Academy. Not even the four guys who insist she is theirs. And of course, there’s the matter of the off-limits Professor who tempts her like no one else.

  Welcome to Raven Academy...where nothing is as it seems… And survival...well, it’s just a matter of perspective.

  “The saddest thing about love, Joe, is that not only the love cannot last forever, but even the heartbreak is soon forgotten.”

  – William Faulkner, Soldiers’ Play

  Prologue

  (Alexander)

  After everyone leaves, I approach Braxton. “I can watch her,” I tell him casually, watching as his body goes rigid at my offer.

  “I’m good,” he says, trying and failing to hide the stiffness in his jaw. Hot, thick jealousy swirls in my gut. I shouldn’t care that he likes Adeline. It’s better for her that I don’t. But I can’t help it.

  I also can’t help but continue to open my mouth. “You know you can’t watch her closely without raising suspicions,” I snarl harshly. “You already stare at her enough as it is. That’s all she needs is for rumors to start that she’s having an affair with another professor at the school.”

  He flinches at the mention of the Professor Dusk debacle. I knew as soon as I heard it that it couldn’t be true. There was a certain sexy innocence about her that made it impossible to imagine her shacking up with a dirt bag like Professor Dusk.

  I wished I could say it was impossible to imagine her with Braxton.

  “Do you really think that she’s going to accept you watching her after what you and Dante did?” he asks, a smirk on his face.

  My insides clench even more as I think about the look of devastation on her face when she saw us. We had just been feeding. Sometimes a little seduction had to occur to get people to open up. But nothing had actually happened.

  Not that Adeline was going to believe that it in a million years.

  I try to imagine myself explaining to Adeline what she had actually walked in on. I couldn’t think of a way that wouldn’t lead to her being even more disgusted with me than she already was.

  But that was for the best.

  “We’ll just make it a school policy that she has to accept it because of the murder of that girl,” I answer, realizing that several more seconds have passed than normal between his question and my answer. I’ve found myself wrapped up in my thoughts far more often since Adeline had turned up in my life.

  I didn’t like it.

  “Don’t think that you can use it as an excuse to get close to her,” Braxton says sternly, a determined look on his face.

  “Afraid of losing, Brax?” I taunt him, even as my mind conjures up images of Adeline wrapped in Braxton’s arms. The thought makes me sick.

  Braxton begins to walk away from me.

  “Is it even a competition?” he throws out over his shoulder as he saunters out the door.

  It wasn’t supposed to be.

  The fact that I wanted it to be was the very problem.

  Chapter 1

  “Meeee,” my phone screeches as my alarm set to Taylor Swift wrenches me out of an uneasy slumber. I groan and quickly shut it off. I’m not sure why I decided that waking up to a deliriously optimistic pop song was the right course of action considering my current mood.

  It’s been a week since I saw Alexander and Dante with that girl, and I still can’t get the images out of my mind. I feel like I’m going through the five stages of grief. I’ve already made it through the days of grief and denial where I tried to come up with a plausible reason they would have been in that position with that girl. Needless to say, none of the reasons that I had come up with sounded plausible.

  I’m now firmly in the anger stage. Anger at them, anger at myself, anger at the world. Why did I ever think that there could possibly be something between us? Why did they pretend like there was something between us? In the darkness of the night, when there was nothing to distract me from the images of Alexander’s tan skin against the perfect milky whiteness of her skin, and the images of Dante’s lips trailing down her body, I wondered if it had all been some kind of joke to them. Get the new scholarship student to fall and then drop kick
her to the curb.

  It was easy to forget the longing that had been in Alexander’s eyes when he looked at me, the way that Dante had told me his secrets...it was easy to think that it had all been a dream.

  Ugh...I was disgusting myself with the constant pity party, but it was like I couldn’t stop. There was also the fact that there had been a murder at the school, and no one seemed that worried about it. I was still convinced that Mercy’s secret psychotic boyfriend was the one behind it, but she was still staunchly defending him. Mercy and I were similar in that way. Both stupid with guys.

  I drag myself out of bed, forcing myself to get ready for another battle in the trenches. Despite the fact that I somehow kicked Clarissa’s ass, she had only taken a few days to get back to her regular, awful self. Life was back to normal with her constant insults and her friends trying to trip me and knock me over. My weird sudden strength had apparently disappeared as well since yesterday Clarissa was able to push me in the fountain quite easily after class.

  That had been fun, pulling myself out of the fountain in front of what seemed like the entire school, looking like a drowned cat.

  Mercy was in the process of thinking of ways to get revenge on Clarissa and for once I wasn’t inclined to take the higher road.

  I’ve just finished putting on my uniform when a knock sounds on the door. My treacherous heart immediately thinks of Dante and that time when he had knocked on the door. I want to punch myself for even thinking that.

  Supposing it is Mercy, I throw open the door, not bothering to ask who it is before I answer.

  I gasp when I see it’s Finn. I quickly try to school my face but I’m sure that my panic was evident when I first opened the door.

  I try to close it in his face, but he puts his hand out to catch it.

  “What do you want?” I groan, trying to hide the quivering in my voice.

  “Just to talk,” he says softly, earnestness in his voice.

  It hadn’t been Finn or Nyx in that room that day, but they had all become dead to me in that moment.

  “Not interested,” I snap, pushing against the door, hoping that he will back off.

  “You know it’s not really fair that I’ve been dropped for something I didn’t do,” Finn says calmly, still holding the door.

  “I think it’s perfectly fair. I can decide who I want to be friends with, and I’ve decided that you don’t make that list.”

  “It’s funny. I don’t think any promises were made, princess. Were you dating Dante and Alexander and I just wasn’t aware of it?” he says.

  I stop and slump against the door. He’s perfectly, frustratingly right. There had never been any promises. There had never been anything more than some stolen kisses and some cuddling, and when did that ever actually mean you were dating someone nowadays?

  It had just felt like more. Even with the fact that I hadn’t dated anyone really before coming here...had hardly even crushed on anyone except for one other guy...it was like my soul had recognized that there was something more to us.

  I was a fool.

  I sigh and step away from the door, allowing Finn to open it. Finn steps through the doorway and enters my room.

  “You’re right,” I say softly.

  He looks down at me, his green eyes piercing me beneath his thick black lashes. I had never seen anyone with blonde hair so light that got lucky enough not to have light lashes as well. But Finn Cavanaugh had that luck. Out of the four of the guys, Finn was the quietest, but he was also the most striking. He looks like some kind of ice prince. Fair hair and pale skin, everything about him is perfect. It was kind of like staring into the sun as it reflected off the new fallen snow. There was a steady calmness about him as well that was different from the others. Alexander had an intensity about him that was almost too much to be around. Dante always seemed to be vibrating with anger or some other dark emotion. And Nyx...well Nyx so far just seemed to be the type that was always looking to have fun.

  But Finn was different.

  Suddenly I want him out of the room, because I can see myself gravitating towards that something that makes him different right now, and that is not something that I want to do.

  I’m just about to ask him to leave when Mercy comes bursting into my room, knocking the door into the back of Finn. He looks annoyed for a moment at the interruption before he quickly schools his face. I send up a silent prayer of gratitude for Mercy’s impetuousness before greeting her with a grin.

  She’s looking between the two of us with a questioning glance and I just know that she can see right through me in this moment. She can see how weak I almost was.

  “Ready for breakfast?” she asks, without acknowledging Finn’s existence.

  “Yep,” I say, popping the “p” at the end.

  I gesture towards the door. “Please do go first,” I instruct Finn petulantly. He opens his mouth like he’s about to say something before shutting it quickly and striding out the door without saying another word.

  Mercy spins around after we both watch him walk away. “What was that?” she practically screeches.

  I cringe at how freakishly loud she is. I already have suspicions that those guys have better than average hearing. I don’t need the entire hallway knowing all of my business. There were enough rumors going around as it was.

  “I’m not sure what that was,” I softly mutter, shrugging my shoulders. It’s not a lie. I have no real idea what Finn wanted, I only know what I was feeling and that’s not something that I want to share at the moment with Mercy.

  “I’ll tell you about who Finn Cavanaugh really is while we walk,” says Mercy. “But right now, we’ve got to get going. The Principal has called a school assembly this morning instead of holding our first class and I want to get breakfast before we go.”

  “Do you think it has to do with Bethanie?” I ask quietly, closing the door behind me as we begin to stride down the hallway, picturing the way we found her dead body… all that blood.

  “Duh. I’m assuming it has to be something like that since this is the first school assembly we’ve had since I came here. It would have to be something big in order to get its own assembly.”

  “Have you thought any more about...?” I begin to ask.

  “There’s nothing to tell them, Adeline. He didn’t do it,” Mercy says in an annoyed tone that says very clearly that she doesn’t want to discuss this again.

  I sigh in frustration. I’m almost positive that Mercy’s drug dealing psycho of an ex-boyfriend had something to do with Bethanie’s death. At least I was hoping that he was an ex. I didn’t trust Mercy’s judgment at the moment, or that she would tell me if she started seeing him again or he came to see her.

  I decide not to say anything else for the moment. I knew that the whole situation was stressing Mercy out a lot and I was hopeful that after she calmed down about everything that she would do the right thing.

  We walk into the breakfast hall, and I spot Finn leaning against the wall talking to a pretty brunette who obviously has a crush on him. I shake my head in disgust at the thoughts I was having just a few minutes ago. Finn was just like the others. He looks over at me, sending me a piercing stare like he can see exactly what I’m thinking. I can see him trying to tell me something with his look, but I quickly avert my eyes back to the breakfast line.

  Stupid, traitorous heart, I mutter wishing I could stab the butterflies that are currently taking residence in my heart.

  I had been starving when I woke up, but now everything smells terrible. Especially when Clarissa’s laughter booms uproariously about something nearby. I grab a bagel and some peanut butter and follow Mercy to an empty table. The room is less busy than normal, I suppose because of the assembly.

  I glumly pick at my food while Mercy chats on about something.

  “Oh!” she says suddenly, startling me so much that I drop my bagel.

  “What?” I exclaim, looking around the room to see if something has happened.

 
“I didn’t tell you about Finn,” she says excitedly.

  I groan, thinking that talking about Finn is the last thing I want to do at the moment.

  “I really don’t…” I begin, but there’s no stopping Mercy when she’s excited about something.

  “So, the Cavanaugh’s are really Kuraokamis,” she says breathlessly.

  “Kuro what?” I ask, confused.

  “Kuraokamis,” Mercy repeats, like it’s a common name. “It’s an ice dragon. They cause all the snow and ice that falls.”

  I just look at her, awestruck as usual by the crazy that comes out of her brain.

  “And why exactly do you think Finn is an ice dragon?” I ask, trying to hide my smile.

  She looks affronted at my question. “His coloring obviously. And his personality. Everyone knows that nothing flusters Finn,” she says confidently. “That, combined with all of his money and connections...he’s obviously a Kuraokamis.”

  “I thought you said that he and the others were part of the Rockefellers and Rothschilds,” I remind her.