Destine Academy: Betrayal

  Book 10 of the Destine Academy Series

  Sara Snow

  Contents

  Title Page

  Copyright

  Join the Sara Snow Fan Club

  Guide to the Destine Academy Factions

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Other Books By Sara Snow

  Join the Sara Snow Fan Club

  Enjoy This Book? I would love to hear from you…

  About the Author

  Betrayal Playlist

  Copyright © 2020 Sara Snow

  All rights reserved

  The characters and events portrayed in this book are fictitious. Any similarity to real persons, living or dead, is coincidental and not intended by the author.

  No part of this book may be reproduced, or stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without express written permission of the publisher.

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  Guide to the Destine Academy Factions

  Magique

  Abilities: Magical students. Alchemists, occultists, herbalists—there’s many branches of magic they can—and do—specialize in.

  Symbol: A green line running diagonally from left to right and a green orb in the center of it, labeled with the word Magiques.

  Head Girl: Zara Del la Croix

  Head Boy: Vale Abreo

  Metamorphe

  Abilities: Shifters with the ability to shift into anyone.

  Symbol: A yellow orb with four lines diagonally surrounding, but not touching it. Labeled with the word Metamorphe.

  Head Girl: Honore Joubert

  Head Boy: Orson Favre

  Surnatural

  Abilities: Preternaturals—students possessing superhuman powers such as strength, speed, and many other talents.

  Symbol: A red line running horizontally from left to right with a red orb in the center of it, labeled with the word Surnatural.

  Head Girl: Katriane Houde

  Head Boy: Javier Badeaux

  Voyante

  Abilities: Oracles—seers, if you will. They can see your thoughts.

  Symbol: A blue line running vertically from top to bottom and a blue orb in the center of it, labeled with the word Voyante.

  Head Girl: Simone Gerard

  Head Boy: Baron Cadieux

  Chapter One

  Caroline didn’t know how long she’d sat there, staring at her father, neither of them saying a word. Every time she thought she was ready to ask the question, no sound would come out. Her father looked a little surprised himself by his revelation, and Caroline wondered if he’d ever really planned to tell her.

  Tempeste is your mother.

  She frowned as the words echoed in her mind—they didn’t make any more sense now than they had when he’d first uttered them. Finally, it was her father that broke their silence.

  “I know that was the last thing you wanted to hear, and I’m sorry. We kept it from you for your own safety, but with the way things are escalating that no longer seemed like the right thing to do.”

  “So, you were never going to tell me?” Caroline scowled.

  “Honestly? No. What good would have come from knowing your mother was—is—one of the most horrible and hated figures of our world? I didn’t want your life—your future—marred by her insanity,” he explained, his eyes pleading with her to try and understand.

  “So who else knows?” Caroline asked.

  “Of course Tempeste and I know. And your aunt.”

  “What about Mom? I mean…you know what I mean.”

  Gaspar nodded, “You were only a few months old when I met Samantha. She fell in love with you from the moment she laid eyes on you. All she knew was that your mother was mentally unstable, and I had to keep you away from her. It wasn’t my plan to fall in love again, but she was an incredible woman and an amazing mother. We’d only been seeing each other a month before we married.” With the heels of his hands, he wiped away the tears that had formed at the recollection.

  “So, what? You and Tempeste? Did you have, like, a thing for bad girls or something? Was I a one-night stand? That would probably be the preferable scenario here, to be honest,” Caroline said, scrunching her face up at the thought.

  “I’m sorry to disappoint, but no. We were in love. Or I should say, I was in love. At least at the start. I honestly don’t think Tempeste is capable of the emotion. We’d been together for nearly five years before you were born. Though I suspected she knew I was having my doubts about the relationship because before I could tell her I was leaving, she told me about you. Obviously, I wasn’t going anywhere then. Despite my waning feelings for Tempeste and my growing suspicions about her activities, I was excited to become a father. I even hoped the twin gene would be passed on,” he paused and gave her a quick smile. “As soon as you were born, I knew the only way I could keep you safe was to get you as far away from her as possible. So, I enlisted the help of my sister, and even though she hated the idea of me leaving her, she couldn’t deny it was the best course of direction.”

  Caroline was quiet as she went over her father’s words, trying to process what he was saying. Suddenly, her head snapped upwards. “You were in The Entiere?”

  Gaspar lowered his eyes and nodded.

  “What the heck? Holy crap. Why? How? I mean…I don’t even know what I mean…” Caroline rambled.

  “I know it’s a lot to take in. Just know that Tempeste wasn’t…well…she wasn’t…” Gaspar seemed to be struggling to find the right words.

  “She wasn’t the Tempeste we all know and love today?” Caroline surprised herself by her ability to crack a joke about it.

  Gaspar rubbed his neck and gave his daughter a wry smile. “Yeah, I guess that’s about right. I mean, she always had some pretty far-out ideas when we were in high school, but I never took them seriously—no one did. Then when her parents both died suddenly, she inherited their magic, and I guess the double injection of powers gave her the confidence to back up her own convictions.”

  Caroline could only shake her head as she tried to absorb everything her father was telling her. “So what made you finally decide to leave? I mean, did you share her beliefs? You must have, to some extent, to be part of The Entiere.”

  Leaning back into his chair, Gaspar sighed, “It’s not that black and white. I was in love with her, and I think I was blind to a lot of what she was doing, at least earlier on. I don’t know what else to say. But once she started talking about murdering innocent people, her pursuit of absolute power and control over all factions, I wanted out. That’s when she told me she was pregnant with you.”

  “I don’t even know what to say.”

  “I know, sweetheart, I’m sorry. I never wanted any of this for you. But it seems despite all the measures I took, all my best intentions, we still ended up here anyway. I feel like I’ve failed you. And Samantha and Justin.” He put his head in his hands.

  Caroline got up from her chair and wrapped her arms around her father. “You haven’t failed anyone, Dad. This is all Tempeste’s doing. We’re going to put a stop to her madness, and to The Entiere, once and for all.” Gaspar patted her hand, and Caroline returned to her chair.

  “What about Aunt Marguerite? Is she on our side?” she asked.

  “I want to say yes, of course. She’s my twin sister, after all. Yet, I’m seeing in her the same crazed, obsessive behavior that I saw in Tempeste. I assumed when she was pushing you to unlock your powers that she was trying to help you make up for lost time after growing up in the mortal world. As you rapidly unlocked your powers and talk of the prophecy started up again, I think her focus shifted. Or, and I hate even to think it, perhaps she intended to see how much power you could generate.”

  “Do you think she would hurt me, or see me hurt if it meant she could get my powers?” Caroline asked softly.

  “Like Tempeste, I’ve come to the realization your aunt is no longer the person she once was. But the lengths she’d go to? I honestly can’t say. Just know I won’t let anything happen to you, I promise. Just be careful and stay away from your aunt as much as you can. Promise me,” Gaspar said sternly.

  Caroline nodded. “You don’t have to tell me twice. As long as you promise me something in return.”

  “Anything.”

  “No more secrets?” Caroline asked.

  Gaspar nodded. “No more secrets.”

  Chapter Two

  Caroline walked back over to where all the Magiques students were brushing up on their spells and incantations and waved to get Aldrick’s attention. He looked up at her and smiled, but Caroline didn’t smile back. She pointed to Nadine, who had her head buried in a book and gestured that they follow her into a row of shelves.

  She paced impatiently as she waited for her friends to join her, chewing absently on her fingernail while trying to think of the best way to tell them.

  “Is everything okay?” Nadine asked as she walked towards her, Aldrick close behind.

  “Well, it’s all comparative, right?” Caroline tried to joke, but her voice came out more high-pitched than she intended.

>
  “What is it? What’s happened?” Aldrick asked as they moved protectively to either side of her.

  Caroline took a deep breath and looked up at the rows of books before her. “There’s no easy way to say this, so here it goes. It turns out Tempeste, the crazy, murderous psycho that wants to kill us all, is my mother,” she exhaled in a loud rush of air before waiting awkwardly for one of them to say something.

  “This is so messed up,” Nadine finally said.

  “Yep,” replied Caroline.

  “Are you okay? Aldrick asked. “I mean, of course, you’re not. No one would be. I don’t know what to say.”

  Caroline stepped away from them to the other side of the row and faced them. “It’s okay. I don’t either. I mean, it kind of explains a lot, especially why Tempeste came back now and why my aunt has been so horrible.”

  “To be fair, your aunt was pretty much like that before you came here,” Nadine said, and the three of them grinned at each other. Their smiles quickly faded as they heard a commotion from the other side of the library, and they hurried back to the tables to see the other students gathered together at the window looking out over the rear of the academy. Gaspar turned away from the window; his hand pressed to his forehead as he hurried from the library. Exchanging concerned glances, Caroline, Nadine, and Aldrick squeezed through the crowd of students to see what all the fuss was about.

  “Oh, no!” Caroline’s hand flew over her mouth, and she immediately felt both Aldrick and Nadine’s hands on her shoulders.

  “Felicity!” Aldrick, his voice full of panic as he leaned over Caroline’s shoulder, pressing his palm against the glass.

  “Is she…?” one of the other students asked, leaving the question hanging over them like a time bomb waiting to go off.

  Down below, Felicity floated in the air, with her head hanging forward and rolled to one side, her arms out straight at either side and her feet hanging limply below. She appeared to be wearing a long, white nightgown that was ripped open at the top, revealing a violent gash running from her left shoulder to her right hip. As they watched, Gaspar came flying out of the academy, the headmistress close behind him as they approached Felicity. He appeared to cast some sort of incantation, and Felicity was released from her invisible hold, falling into Gaspar’s awaiting arms. Her head hung back, and her arm dropped down as Gaspar turned around and carried her inside.

  “Let’s go,” Caroline said, pushing her way back through the crowd. “They’ll likely take her to the hospital ward. We’re closer and can meet them there.” She didn’t need to look over her shoulder to know Aldrick and Nadine were following. They hurried through the empty halls and burst into the surprisingly crowded ward.

  “What is going on here?” Nadine asked as they slowed their pace. Every bed was taken by a student—all of them either asleep or unconscious—they had no way of knowing which.

  “Has there been an outbreak of something we don’t know about it?” Aldrick asked.

  “How would we know it was an outbreak if we didn’t know about it?” Nadine replied, and he rolled his eyes.

  “You know what I mean.”

  “As Tempeste and The Entiere’s powers grow, they spread like a poison across the magical world. Unfortunately, some people are more sensitive to their negative energies than others. It makes them sick,” a nurse stated, matter-of-factly, as she jotted down the vitals update on a patient’s chart.

  “Great, that’s just what we need,” Nadine said.

  “What are you three doing here when you were given specific instructions to be in the library with the other Magiques students?”

  They turned at the curt sound of the headmistress’s voice.

  “We wanted to check on Felicity,” Aldrick said, stepping forward in front of Caroline and Nadine. Before Marguerite could retort, Gaspar pushed past her, Felicity in his arms as he called out for the doctor.

  “The last free bed is down here!” called a nurse, and they all stood back to make way for them.

  Caroline felt scared for Felicity, but she also felt guilty. Despite everything, Felicity was still her oldest friend—lies or not—and Caroline felt she should have checked on her after what happened at the cemetery. But she didn’t. She was too self-absorbed with what was happening to herself that she hadn’t stopped to consider the girl she’d grown up with was also suffering at the evil hands of Tempeste. Now Felicity had been subjected to even more cruelty at the hands of Tempeste and The Entiere—and what if Caroline could have stopped it?

  The nurse pulled the curtain around the bed, barricading everyone off from the patient except for her and the doctor. Caroline stood back, watching her father pace up and down while her aunt just stood there stoically, as though she was simply waiting for a meeting to end so she could go about her day. They didn’t have to wait long before the curtain opened again, and a grim-looking doctor approached the group.

  “I’m afraid we weren’t able to save her. I’m very sorry. Her injuries were just too severe, and she’d lost too much blood.”

  Caroline grabbed both Nadine and Aldrick’s hands. Neither pulled away.

  “This is not happening…” Aldrick murmured, covering his mouth with his free hand.

  “I’ll go notify her parents,” the headmistress stated and turned and walked away without looking back.

  “The three of you go. We don’t know how much time we have, and I doubt Felicity’s parents will be permitted to come here with Tempeste and her minions on their way.”

  “But the headmistress said…” Nadine started.

  “Just trust me,” Gaspar cut her off. “Go and do what you need to do. This was a warning, and we know they’re coming.” He stared straight at his daughter, as though he was trying to convey a private message to her. Caroline nodded and pulled her friends away. As she looked back, she saw her father clasp one of Felicity’s hands within his own, and she quickly turned back around as her eyes stung with tears. She was going to make Tempeste pay.

  “I’m not waiting any longer. I’m going outside. If Tempeste wants me, then she’s going to have to come and get me,” Caroline declared.

  “We’re coming with you,” Aldrick stated. Caroline nodded, knowing her friends well enough by now to know there was no point trying to talk them out of it. Besides, they’d stood by her side through everything and deserved their revenge as much as she did.

  They ran through the corridors, each lost in their own thoughts.

  “I’ll swing past the library and grab Zara and Vale,” Nadine announced as she darted away to their left. Aldrick and Caroline kept going, and she didn’t pull away when Aldrick reached for her hand. They slowed their pace as they saw Fleur, Tilda, Laurent, and Corbin approaching from the opposite direction, and Caroline was impressed with how fast Corbin could move with one leg and arm in a cast and using one crutch. She felt a pang in her heart and forced herself to look away.

  “We heard something happened to Felicity. Wasn’t she kept at home after the funeral incident?” Tilda asked.

  “She had stayed home, but Tempeste must have somehow still had control over her or something. She didn’t make it,” Caroline said softly.

  No one knew where to look or what to say, but they were distracted as Fleur yelped, grabbing her wrist. “Ouch!”

  “What the?” Corbin said as he shook his good hand.

  “Holy crap! Look!…” Caroline said as she looked down to her wrist and found her tattoo lit up in all the colors of the factions.

  “Guys! Look!” Vale exclaimed, as he came running towards them, Nadine and Zara in tow.

  “This means The Entiere—Tempeste—is close. Doesn’t it?” Corbin wondered, more of a statement rather than a question.

  “It means we’re in danger,” Zara said softly.

  “We all are. The whole academy is in danger. I honestly think if we all work together, we stand a good chance against them,” Caroline stated. “The more of us that stand and fight, the better that chance will be—but you all have a choice.”

 

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