Vala Eminence Read online

  It was that covenant that Lucien was using against Cheyenne by pretending to be Hades’ heir. He lied to the Divine Council, promising them endless power once Hades and Persephone reunited. The problem was, Lucien wasn't Divine. Which is why it makes so much sense to keep me near him all the time. He's gotta figure out how to steal my dad's power — and mine.

  Divine politics ran deep and were complicated. Lucien was trying to manipulate everyone for some kind of hidden purpose. Denver needed to figure it out and find a way to protect Cheyenne from that monster. She belongs to me. We are the fulfillment of the covenant. This is our destiny, to be together. Regardless of if they had some ancient dead souls lingering inside their bodies, Denver would have still been pulled in by Cheyenne. He refused to believe that the only reason he loved her so much was because of an ancient spirit. In fact, he wasn't even sure if he believed Hades' and Persephone's spirits were truly locked away, waiting to be released again.

  You know that's not true. They are. Sometimes you don't think like yourself, like there's wisdom inside of you far beyond your years. And you can't forget Cheyenne's bizarre behaviors too. He sighed.

  “Denver, you're quiet. You haven't said anything for a while,” she said.

  “Oops,” he mumbled.

  “Is there a reason you called?”

  “Just to talk.”

  “Really?” She sounded surprised.

  He rolled his eyes, regardless of whether she could see it or not. “Yes, really. Is there a problem with me just wanting to talk to you?”

  “N-no, there isn't. I just didn't think that was something you were interested in doing. Every other time you've called me, it's been to arrange a time to hang out.”

  “I'm glad to keep you on the edge of your seat then,” he said. “Besides, I can't go over there. You know I'm not allowed to have girls over in my dorm anymore, and I'm getting kind of tired of hanging out in the snow. It's freezing outside, even in the gazebo.”

  It wouldn't be if you took her down to her garden, you know. Denver shoved that thought aside. That was a good example of a thought, an idea, not being his own, of the wisdom beyond his years living inside of him. It creeped him out. I can't take her there anyway. I did something horrible to her there, and I don't want her to remember.

  She snorted. “I forgot about you not being allowed to have girls over… anymore.”

  “Jealous?”

  “A little.”

  He laughed. “Glad to not be the only one then.”

  Cheyenne was quiet for a moment. “You're jealous?”

  “A little.”

  “Why?”

  “I don't like other people touching my things.”

  “So I'm a thing to you?” she asked. He couldn't tell if she was angry or curious. Sometimes little things ticked her off, and then when he gave her a reason to be insulted she didn't seem to care at all. Cheyenne was unpredictable, but that was part of her appeal.

  Okay, think before talking this time. He ran his fingers over his lips, as he carefully found his words. “You're mine. I've said this to you a million times. Even before you and your demon got hitched out of convenience, you were mine.”

  “You know I don't care about him at all. It's like you said, a convenience. I only agreed to wed him to save Zes's life,” she stated.

  “Oh, I know. I didn't forget about that, Princess. I'm just saying. Even though he thinks he has claim over you? He doesn't. And even though you dated Zes for three months, or however long it was, you were mine then too. Call it possessive and creepy, but I can't help what I feel. Anytime I see you with another guy, it makes me want to…” He clenched his fists. “To do something.”

  Cheyenne let out a soft sigh. “Creepy, kind of, but sweet too. I don't like thinking about you with anyone else but me either.”

  I think I love you. That's all there is to it. But the words caught in his throat. Would she even believe him? Probably not. He wasn't sure he believed himself. Love wasn't an emotion he'd experienced before. The thought had come so naturally to him. So what did that mean? Anything?

  “So is it okay that I called just to talk?” he asked. “I mean, that's what a good boyfriend does, right? They call to talk and be all emotionally connected with their girl.”

  She giggled. “I didn't think you'd want to be a good boyfriend.”

  “Well, if I was going to be bad, I wouldn't be your boyfriend in the first place.”

  “Good point, and if you were a bad one, then we'd have to break up. You'd be breaking my heart.”

  “Yup,” he said. I'm more worried about you breaking mine, for some reason, and I don't have much of a heart to break.

  She got quiet again. “I'm worried about the twins. Anj is still unconscious and Zes is worrying himself sick.”

  Denver held in his groan. I wanted to talk, but not about them. Definitely not about your ex-boyfriend and how you two still keep in touch. “Something tells me all of that will be changing soon.”

  And he would know best of all since he was the one who had saved Anj from Lucien's grasp. In exchange for showing Denver the truth about his heritage, he had decided to free Anj from the dungeons of the underworld where his soul had been captured. That seemed fair. The guy had helped Denver, so it was right to do something in return. If Anj stayed with Lucien, the demon would keep tapping the teenager's gifts until he got whatever he wanted. Lucien never wanted anything that was good for anyone but him.

  “You think Anj will wake up soon?” she asked.

  “Pretty confident about it, actually,” he said.

  “How do you know?”

  “Just a hunch. I have this amazing sixth sense for when things go down here.” More like first-hand knowledge since I'm generally involved in everything bad that's ever happened at Vala. If he confessed that to her, he'd definitely lose her for good. He had to wait for the right time.

  She sighed. “I still worry anyway.”

  This time, Denver did groan. “You're doing that sighing thing a lot Chey, and the worrying one too. They're going to be fine. If Mr. Squeaky Clean isn't worrying about his brother, it's always something else. As for his brother Mr. Know-It-All Special Snowflake? He likes the attention, and will come out of his coma eventually. Bad things happen to him a lot. Trust me when I say he doesn't care and even welcomes it. Guy has more luck than a rabbit with all of its feet.”

  “Is that why you like to antagonize them so much? Zes told me once that you tried to kill him.”

  “Yeah, that's the story he likes to tell. I wouldn't have let him die. I'm a bad boy, but I've never actually killed anyone.” Yet. “Did I drop him in that pool? Yeah, you bet I did. Rumor had it he couldn't swim, so I decided to see if it was true. I mean, who doesn't know how to swim? How was I supposed to know by 'can't swim' that meant 'sinks like a rock no matter what'? Not my problem. I got him out just fine.”

  Cheyenne breathed softly for a few seconds. “I knew you didn't have that kind of malice in you.”

  “I do, actually, but I only hurt people who deserve it. And while Zes and Anj aren't my besties, or whatever you girls call yourselves these days, I can't say I hate them either. They don't annoy me enough to the point where I find them worthy of death.”

  “When you talk like that, I remember why you worry me,” she said quietly.

  “Worry, yet entice you, all at the same time?”

  She sighed. “The pull you have on me is indeed incredible.”

  He raked his lower lip between his teeth. “Don't worry about me hurting you, okay Princess? That sort of thing doesn't interest me in the slightest.”

  “You care about me enough to not break my heart?”

  “I didn't say that.”

  “You promised you wouldn't hurt me. That means you can't break my heart.”

  He blinked. “I guess you're right. Can't say I was thinking that far ahead. But yeah, I do care about you enough. We're actually a couple aren't we? You got me to do the exclusive with you. That's som
ething I've never tried before.”

  “Never, ever?”

  “No, never ever.”

  “But you've—”

  “Been with girls, yeah.” He shifted his position on the couch. This has got to be the longest phone call of my life. “That doesn't mean we dated or were exclusive, and definitely not sappy and sentimental. You're a special occasion.”

  She laughed. “Like Christmas?”

  “Not so overrated. I'm sure that pops a bubble of yours or something. I'd pick a more awesome holiday for you, that's all.”

  “More awesome than Christmas?”

  “Like I said, it's overplayed. You're more the subtle kind of amazing. I'm not sure what holiday it is, but I'll figure it out and get back to you on that.”

  Cheyenne laughed some more. He wasn't used to hearing that kind of a response from anyone. Sometimes, on a rare occasion, he made an amazing wisecrack in class. The other students would laugh at those, but that was a lot different than having someone laugh at something he was trying to be serious about. Denver wasn't funny and he certainly wasn't trying to be.

  He cleared his throat. “Gonna let you go now, babe.”

  “Okay, I'm glad you called, even if it was just to talk.” She paused. “Especially because you just wanted to talk, actually.”

  “Sure thing. Maybe I'll do it again sometime, maybe I won't. I figure, why not see what the whole talking thing is all about,” he said, trying to maintain his cool attitude.

  “And what's the verdict? Worth doing again?”

  “You're pretty intelligent, so I don't think it'd kill me to keep trying.”

  Another chuckle. “Goodnight Denver, I…”

  “Goodnight,” he said quickly and hung up before she even had a chance to finish her thought. If she dropped the "L" word on him, he wasn't sure what he would do. Love was a foreign concept to him. Because of Lucien. The demon's words echoed in his mind.

  He will live like the demons, with no moral conscience. He will be like my son. And forever he shall be in debt to me, paying for the mistakes you have made. That is the curse I place upon this boy…

  No wonder Denver was so messed up. Lucien made him that way with some stupid spell he placed over Denver when he was a child. He closed his eyes. There was a great deal of information to absorb still. The whole thing was exhausting. He smiled. My father is alive.

  Chapter Two

  Denver's alarm clock beeped obnoxiously on the other side of the dorm room. He lived alone in a single apartment, not by his own choosing, but not something he necessarily minded either. Most of the other students at Vala annoyed him to no end and the staff thought he was rowdy enough to keep away from a roommate. After all, Denver could corrupt even the best of teenagers into doing the worst with his amazing abilities of persuasion — another skill he learned from the master of manipulation himself. Lucien lied, but Denver did his best not to resort to such a thing. Lying was boring and cliché anyway.

  If he had been sleeping in his bedroom, he would have unplugged the alarm clock and gone back to bed. He was exhausted. Any time he took a trip down to the underworld, he felt a bit winded. Not because the journey took energy from him, but because there was such a great contrast in it. In the underworld he had an overabundance of power. Whenever he was there, he had so much juice flowing inside of him he didn't know what to do with it.

  When he came back to the bland, real world, he lost a lot of that power. He imagined it had something to do with the fact that he wasn't the official ruler of the underworld yet, and merely the heir. There was going to be much for him to learn if he was going to take back his father's kingdom from the demons. He especially needed a family history lesson so he could understand more fully how the demons were able to take over in the first place.

  Denver wanted all of his power, and to lose even just a small amount of it exhausted him. By the time he got out of his bed to walk over to the alarm clock and turn it off, he was wide awake. He looked at the time and saw that he was already late for his first period of classes. If he weren't on academic probation, he would have skipped it — again. The first class of the day was always the hardest one for him to get to. Denver and mornings didn't mix well. The threat of getting kicked out of Vala was good motivation for him to get his butt into gear, because at Vala he was protected. He didn't care about his education. Denver had already been at the school for longer than he could even remember. He only did enough to slide by and guarantee his room and board.

  After grabbing a bagel and a can of highly caffeinated soda, he walked out of his dorm. He was still wearing his clothes from the day before, but he didn't care. Nor did he care about what the other students thought. They either accepted him for who he was, or they didn't.

  He was able to sneak into his first class before the bell dismissed it for the day. Denver had been sitting in his desk chair for all of three minutes before it was time to move on to second period.

  “Mr. Collins, how good of you to join us,” Mrs. Danielles said and picked up a notebook from her desk.

  He flashed her a wide grin. “You know I wouldn't ever miss Alchemy for the Twenty-First Century. It's one of my favorite classes.” To take a nap in. The students weren't taught any actual alchemy. It was a fancy title for generic magic-related lessons — most of them were history rather than practical. Denver loathed it. The entire class was nothing but a waste of his time.

  Mrs. Danielles walked over to his desk. “You're only here for a few minutes, but I guess that's better than nothing. Your homework is on the board, maybe someone will be nice enough to give you notes from the hour because you'll need those if you have any hope of getting it done. Technically, I should mark you as a no-show, but I'm feeling generous today.”

  “I like when you feel that way.” He glanced at the white board at the front of the room and jotted down a few notes about the assignment. All he had to do was write a report on one of the various fields of magic. He wouldn't need notes for it. She always likes to make things so much more dramatic than they need to be.

  Mrs. Danielles nodded. “Yup, and you want to know why I feel so giving?”

  “No, but I'm sure you're going to tell me anyway.” He forced a smile on his face, making sure she knew just how forced and fake it was.

  “The office staff wants you to see them. They told me to pass along the message. Instead of second hour, you're supposed to go there.”

  “But that's a class I actually want to take,” he protested. There was no sarcasm in his tone either, but she probably would interpret it as such anyway.

  “Oh well, chop-chop. See you Thursday.”

  The bell rang, and he left for the main office. It was on the other side of the school building from where he was, of course, and he would take his good, sweet time getting there. The staff at the school might try to control him, but he made sure it was clear to the world that no one could.

  Vala's halls were relaxing, even with the buzz of students rushing to class. Denver strolled confidently across campus. The main compound was made up of three buildings. Lord Reyld's Manor was the first building to become a part of the school. It used to be a mansion where the school's late owner lived. Toward the end of his life, Lord Reyld dedicated his home to other creatures of myth just like himself. As the school grew, so did the mansion. The next addition was the Sunshine Hall where the cafeteria, auditorium, gymnasium, and most of the larger open-roomed necessities were kept. Finally, the Autumn Wing was where the rest of the classrooms were, as well as the science labs.

  Denver was in the Autumn Wing and making his way toward Lord Reyld's Manner. The Autumn Wing got its name because of the close proximity it had with the forest. Every fall, the trees displayed an assortment of colors for all to see. The interior of the building was decorated in solid maroons, oranges, and browns. As he passed into the Sunshine Hall, the orange became more of a focal point and the halls started to brighten, much like the name of the building implied. The deeper he moved through th
e Hall, the more classic the architecture became. Where the Sunshine Hall and Lord Reyld's Manner met, there was a perfect seam. One wouldn't be able to figure out there were ever a new building and an old one unless they paid extra close attention to where they were going.

  The main office was located close to the intersection of the two buildings. Denver strutted inside and took a seat in his usual chair while the secretary informed the rest of the staff of his presence. He couldn't help but wonder who he would be meeting with today. Some of his visits were with the Dean of Students, others the Principal or the Guidance Counselor. Each one was a surprise, so at least he had that element to entertain him.

  “Mr. Collins, they will see you now.”

  They meant more than one person would be sitting in on the meeting with him. That could make things even more interesting. Denver stood and was met by Mr. Anais, the Dean of Students. The guy liked to come across as rough and difficult to work with, but when it came to the office staff, he was by far the nicest of them all. The rough and tough was all an act. Deep down the guy was a softie who was easily pushed around by The Divine Council and other rich alumni. Denver paid attention. The entire office was like a chain of dominoes. Push one over and the others fell too. The Dean was the easiest of them all.

  Mr. Anais led him into a conference room and motioned for Denver to take a seat. “Mr. Collins, we wanted to talk to you about your graduation track.”

  “Right,” Denver said. “That's what you usually want to talk to me about. I'm showing up to classes and I'm passing them. That's what you wanted from me, right? I'm getting C's and B's in just about all of my classes. The few where I'm not, that's because I'm getting an A. I made friends with some of the smart kids recently. They seem to be rubbing off on me.”