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  Strategy (Lughnasadh Elite Academy 8)

  Copyright © 2019 LAYLA HEART

  All rights reserved. No part of this story may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means without express written permission of the copyright holder.

  This book contains sexually explicit content which is suitable only for mature adults.

  Edition: 20190927

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  Blurb

  One king threatening war, six prophesied lovers scrambling to come up with a plan to defeat him.

  Bane’s parents’ house isn’t the idyllic retreat it looks from the outside. Inside its walls, it hides many secrets and even more dangerous knowledge, available to anyone willing to dive into the hundreds of books collected in its living room library. A collection even more impressive than the one in the off-limits tower Kit and Bane broke into before the summer.

  The plan was to hide in the large cottage for a couple of weeks, recover from their injuries, and maybe gain some knowledge which could help them survive the coming months and years. Instead, they get their hands on information that changes everything. It appears that history is about to repeat itself because they’re not the first ones in their family to stand up to the fae king.

  Their ancestors tried, and ultimately failed, to prevent the last war, but they didn’t have the knowledge Litha, Phoenix and the four princes have at their fingertips in the cottage. If they can tip the scales in their favour, just a little, then they may be able to stop the fae king. The only problem? They have two weeks to pull it off, and no idea where to start.

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  Chapter 1 - Litha

  My head is still spinning with all the information we found in the last two, sleep-deprived, days. Not simply from what was on the pages, but also from the implications some brought with them. Not to mention the large holes in our knowledge that we don’t even know how to fill out yet.

  After Phoenix called her mum, and we realised that we’d found things that even she didn’t know about, we dove right back into the notebooks and recorded all the names mentioned and every bit of information we could get from them. There were a couple of things that stood out to us, places that were referenced multiple times, or, scarier, multiple instances of whole families being destroyed. But between the six of us, we were able to stomach at least most of the information and have started to split the tasks ahead between all of us.

  So, our two most brainiac members are now trying to figure out what the power-suppressing elixir actually does, and if we can replicate it, that would be Kit and Phoenix. Our two shifters are still focusing on breaking down all the research from the fae, while Finn and I are putting even more names and times and pages together from the notebooks. It kind of ended up like this because Finn seems to be really good at the nitty-gritty of deciphering codes and handwriting, which we need if we’re ever going to find the threads running through these notebooks and maybe figure out who wrote these. We’ve also found at least five different handwritings in them, at least five different people have worked on this collection.

  I yawn, trying to hide it from Finn, but he levels a look at me anyway, looking amused. “Tired?” He raises an eyebrow.

  I shake my head. “Just... I’ve been sitting like this much too long.” I stand up, stretching, and go over to the sole window in the room. This one looks out to the side of the house, which is just more forest, not very interesting to watch. “Do you think we’ll be on time?” I lean my head against the window, the smooth glass cold against my skin.

  Finn’s quiet for a while, and when I’m about to turn around to look at him, he answers. “We’ll never be ‘on time’, because ‘on time’ doesn’t exist, at all. All we can do is make most of the time we have.” He moves behind me, and then his strong arms slowly slide around me, and he leans his chin on my shoulder. He’s all hard and strong panes at my back, but also soothing and warm, his forest-y scent wrapping around me, tension slipping out of me.

  “Shouldn’t we be doing ‘more’ then, to make ‘most’ of it?” I put my hands over his, enjoying his touch, enjoying touching him.

  “I don’t think there’s ‘more’ we can do, not right now. We’re trying all we can.” He takes a slow breath, tightening his arms a little. “As soon as we have concrete information to guide us in a specific direction, we can move to the next thing, but before that... we’re just stumbling around in the pitch-dark, without the cool night-view that Bane’s wolf form has.”

  I laugh, shaking my head a little. “It would be cool, though, night-view, or at least a way to know where we’re going.”

  “We know where we’re going. We’re going to kill my dad. We simply don’t know what road we’re taking yet.” Finn’s voice is cool as he kisses my neck and steps back.

  Turning to him, I scan his face, trying to read his emotions. He talks about killing his own father so easily by now, like it doesn’t matter to him at all. Like he no longer cares...

  Slowly, Finn reaches out to me, his green eyes softening, and he slides his fingers over my cheek. “Don’t think I don’t care what happens to my dad, but I can’t let him continue this reign of destruction. I can’t let him continue the devastation that my family has been havocking on these lands in the last centuries. It needs to stop.”

  I nod, holding his hand to my cheek. “Yeah.” My voice is soft, barely above a breath. But thinking about killing anyone voluntarily still doesn’t sit well with me. After watching Rune and Finn almost die, I don’t want to think about killing anyone, it’s not right.

  But I also have a feeling that this may not end any other way. It feels like this is the only end this whole thing can come to, with someone dead... The fae king, me, or any of the others... Because this has to end, too many people have given their lives already.

  * * *

  “Do we have to be naked for this?” Finn sighs as he glares at Phoenix, who simply raises an eyebrow at him.

  “Magic works best if you do it without being constrained by clothes.” She levels a look at him. “I’m pretty sure you know this.”

  “Yeah, yeah.” He looks around and then starts pulling his shirt off. “Fine.”

  We’re going to do a ritual, trying to see if Finn’s theory is right. Phoenix’ family has always had the most important place in the high coven because they have the ability to see the future, to speak prophecies. Finn wondered if the ability was inherent to Phoenix’ family line or that it was something that only the current highest priestess could do. If it’s a family trait, then Phoenix should be able to call forth some sort of prophecy even if she’s not the highest priestess yet. And if she can see anything, it may give us a clue as to where to look next.

  So, we’re outside, in the garden, at night, during a full moon, because that’s the moment most magical powers are the strongest. If we want to test this ‘it’s in her blood’ theory, today is our best bet, no matter how unprepared we are, or we’ll have to wait another four weeks.

  It feels strange. This is the first full moon since I met everyone, which also means it’s not even been four weeks since I got to know them, or four weeks since I found out I’m a witch. Four weeks ago, during the last full moon, the documents of our prophecy were stolen, and it set in motion a whole host of events that I never even imagined possible, that I had no knowledge of at the time.

  “You can enter the circle.” Phoenix’ voice is clear, and when I look up, we’re all naked and Phoenix has set up the circle for the ritual, unlike previous circles she’s made, this
one is much more involved. No circle drawn into the ground, but a proper one made from salt. She’s put plates with different things on it at the edge of the circle, like a compass. One plate with a bowl with water, one plate with a candle, one plate with a plant, also in a bowl, and finally a plate with a single large feather on it. I can guess what they represent, the four elements, but I really need to still learn a lot about how they’re used and when.

  I step forward and after touching right over my heart for a moment, Phoenix lets me step into the circle. Behind me, each of the guys goes through the exact same thing. And then we’re all in the circle, and Phoenix closes it. The magic feels different in here. It feels... I don’t know, stronger, or something.

  “Litha, you stand in front of the candle.” Phoenix points and I do as she says. She looks to the guys. “Rune at her left side, then Bane, then Kit and finally Finn. Make a circle together, as large as you possibly can, then drop your hands.” She instructs us like she’s done it a hundred times, but then, she’s the daughter of the highest priestess, she must have seen her mum do this so many times as she was growing up. “Good.”

  Phoenix walks through the space between Rune and me and then sits on the ground in the middle of the circle, facing me. “I may look odd, just don’t be alarmed by it. I’ll be fine. The circle will keep us safe from interference and nothing bad will happen as long as we stay within the protection of it.” She crosses her legs and rolls her shoulders for a bit, finally taking a long and slow breath. Then she meets my eyes. “If anything happens, you pull me out.”

  What?! “How?” Like, I’m the least experienced person of the whole group, how am I supposed to pull her out of whatever she’s going to do?

  She gives me a soft smile. “Touch me, and you’ll know what to do. I promise.” She raises her face to the sky, her eyes closed, and her whole body changes, relaxes a little, but also seems to be powerful.

  I have no idea what to expect now. We just wait, looking at her. I don’t think anything happens, until a jolt goes through Phoenix and her eyes fly open again. Only, this time, she’s not looking at me, her eyes unseeing, a fire in them that I don’t recognise and it scares me a little to see her like this. I reach out to her, but Rune and Finn stop me, their eyes intense as they give a quick shake of their heads.

  This is normal? She looks... scary. How can this be normal?

  But I don’t push it, the guys know best, even when I don’t feel right about it.

  I’ll wait. I’ll have to wait, trust that Phoenix knew what she was going to do. Even when Phoenix’ face distorts in pain, her body tense.

  Then she slumps to the ground, and I’m on my knees next to her in a flash, holding her. She feels off, lost, like she’s not fully here.

  I try to push my magic into her, get her back to us, but what I feel inside her isn’t the same emptiness as before. And before I can try it again, she’s filled to the brim with magic, and something else, a different sensation. Something I’ve never felt before in her, something big, really big.

  Chapter 2 - Finn

  Phoenix’ plan sounded so reasonable. Let her try to see a prophecy, in a safe environment, during one of the strongest times of the month that she can do it, the full moon. What I didn’t expect was... this. As Litha is kneeling next to Phoenix, cradling the other girl close, panic in every movement of her body, I glance at Rune, who’s frowning as he looks at them.

  “She did it, didn’t she?” I stare at Phoenix. I can feel her magic from here, even though I’m not normally that sensitive to the magic of others. I’ve never seen this before, I didn’t even realise that it was possible.

  “What did she do?” Litha is looking up, tears in her eyes and my heart hurts. I want to hold her, but it’s not safe right now, the magic sparks off them, like they’re overcharged with it. And like when I spark with electricity, it’s not safe to get too close.

  “She just...” Rune kneels next to Litha, but doesn’t touch her, his eyes guarded. “She just... She became a priestess, all by herself. Normally, this takes a whole coven to pull off, and a lot of preparations, years of studying, but she just did it.” He frowns, but then looks up at me. I can already see him think of the implications of what just happened. “When’s the last time you heard of this?”

  I shake my head. I have no idea when it was last that a witch successfully became a solo priestess. This is the stuff of... This is the stuff of legends. “Too long ago.” Which means that something has changed, something important, something significant, in these last weeks, these last months.

  “Before the last war.” Kit steps closer to Phoenix and softly touches her hair, which sparks against his fingers, but it doesn’t seem to hurt him. “It wasn’t uncommon for witches who lived outside of the witch kingdom to do this. My magic teacher told me about it. It’s...” He looks up, a fire in his eyes, and he starts to softly smile. “If she managed this without a trained coven, then we may yet have hope. After the witch kingdom fell apart, witches lost a lot of their power and strength. This could mean that...” He takes a deep breath. “This could mean that the witch kingdom is coming back.” He looks sideways at Litha, trying not to grin, but his eyes sparkle and I can’t help my own smile.

  “What?” Litha looks between us all, frowning. “You’re saying a lot of things that make very little sense to me right now.”

  “You’ll catch up.” Rune wraps his arms around her and pulls her to him, a big silly smile on his face. “You don’t really need to know anything except that this is very good news.”

  Phoenix groans and Litha pulls her into her lap, worried. “How are you feeling? Did it work?”

  Phoenix averts her eyes as she shakes her head, biting her lower lip as tears form in her eyes. “No. It... Fuck. No. I’m sorry. I failed. Whatever we thought could happen, it didn’t happen. It’s not just in my blood.”

  Bane kneels next to her. “Do you feel any different?”

  She shakes her head, then she stops as her eyes go around the circle. “Why are you all staring at me? I’m sorry, it didn’t work. I didn’t see anything. We’ll have to come up with another plan.”

  “I wouldn’t say that.” Bane smiles, then he reaches out to her to pull her up. “I think we got something much more important from this circle.”

  With a sigh, she lets him pull her up, and the moment their hands meet, she lets out a surprised sound. Bane holds up his hurt hand, the last blackness finally starting to disappear from his fingers right before our eyes. “Oh.” She stares at him and then back to us. “Someone better explain to me what the fuck just went down. I did not have that power ten minutes ago.”

  “We’d be happy to, after you unbind the circle and we’re all somewhere a little more... comfortable.” I motion to the way we’re all naked, and the fact we’re standing on the grass, out in the open, while the air around us is cooling down rapidly now the sun has set.

  * * *

  “I just felt like I was transported somewhere else. Somewhere... I knew I should have been able to see things, but everything was dark. I kept trying to find my way, trying to find a way to see something, but nothing helped. And then... Then I woke up again. But you’re saying...” She glares at me. “You’re saying that I did an awakening ritual, by myself?”

  “Yes.” I nod, sitting on one of the couches in just my boxer briefs, holding a mug of hot coffee, because I don’t think we’ll be going to bed anytime soon.

  “That’s not possible. Witches haven’t been able to do that since—” Her eyes grow and she stares at Litha. “Fuck.”

  “Since then, yes.” Bane grins.

  The mood is a lot lighter now. Somehow, we’re all feeling a lot more relaxed. Even though we’re not any further in what we’re supposed to do against my father, but Phoenix being able to do this means so much more than any research we’ve found yet. It also means that she won’t be the only witch to be able to pull this off, others will follow her soon, and it gives a lot of validity to our prophe
cy and the hope for the return of a witch queen. Our witch queen.

  “Why is this important?” Litha frowns over her own cup of coffee, with milk and caramel in it, of course. “I can feel a different type of magic inside Phoenix, what is the significance? Why is this so important? Sure, it’s cool, but what else?”

  Phoenix holds up her hand and a red glow appears around it and with a turn of her wrist, it’s gone again. “Normally, only initiated witch priests and priestess have enhanced powers, their strength will depend on the powers of the rest of their coven. Basically, before this ritual, I’d need a whole coven, be the high priestess of it and train for years or decades to be of any real use to you. Right now, I don’t. I can help you out, right now. This power inside me is all mine, and I can use it however I want. Let’s just say, your girlfriend just got a shitload more powerful, which we can use, when we face the fae king.” Phoenix is grinning now, standing up and walking around the room. “I didn’t see anything this time, no prophecy. But I may be able to see something if we try again. I just don’t know for sure.”

  “No.” Bane also stands up, shaking his head. “We won’t try it again, at least not tonight. We take our own next steps. Stop depending on some higher power or whatever.” He glances at Litha. “I want to try something else.”

  “Will I like the idea?” Litha frowns and holds her mug closer.

  “Maybe not. But tonight, I’m willing to try anything.” He looks at Rune. “Is the anti-shifting stuff out of your system yet?”

  Rune slowly shakes his head, then his eyes harden. “No. Bane. No.”

  “Yes.” He throws up his hands. “We have to try. And I’ve got another plan, a potentially slightly insane plan... But we need to try this first.” He sighs. “We’re going to have to go outside again for it, though.”