Piece of Mage

Every day, my cage gets smaller. If I’d fought harder before, maybe we wouldn’t be in this mess now, with enemies on every side and my sugar being rationed. I won’t make that mistake again. From now on, it’s only badassery for me. First, I need to solve the ringmaster’s riddles and survive the council’s tests. Then, I have to break my Qilin free but avoid letting the monster loose. Our future is balancing on the tip of my horn, and I still don’t have my shift together.

My whole life, I’ve wished for family but found foes, instead. All this changed in a matter of days when I met the guys from Haret - my dragon, shifter, mage, fae, merman, and vampire. Each man has his own unique magic, and as a Qilin, I have the power to channel it. There’s one huge problem, though. I got my piece of dragon, but if the ringmaster finds out, he’ll use Jack to get to us. With Underbelly controlling Jack, we don’t know who to trust.

We were thrown into Haret without a plan, and we have a lot of ground to cover. Allies would be nice, but not everyone is happy to see my team return. We’re finding more secrets than intel. Plus, I’m not allowed to shank my new mother-in-law, who definitely deserves a horn to the heart. My guys are eager to share their home with me, but darkness seeps in everywhere we go. 

When the ice cream didn’t cut it, I went for a walk, met a gorgeous dragon, and realized I’d been living a lie. No big deal. Just another Tuesday. Back to the dragon, though. Jack’s a candy-coated hot mess. He’s bound to the ringmaster of the Underbelly Circus, and he’s desperate for my help. I don’t blame him, but there isn’t enough chocolate in the world to get me near that circus. Jack claims I’m the lost Qilin queen - a magical freaking unicorn.

Maddison has been fighting the gods from the first moment she found out they existed. Those arrogant and power hungry deities have a plan...a plan that includes destroying everything she holds dear, and she fears that one day soon, they're going to succeed. When new information is dropped in her lap, a way to end the gods once and for all, Maddison jumps at the chance. That's until she finds out that the path to her prize is through a maze of challenges that have stumped all who've attempted them before. 

I was starting to think I knew what I was dealing with here at the university best known as Villain Academy. Not so much. But can I really trust a shocking revelation from someone who's proven to be my enemy? There's no way to answer that without diving in. If my mother is still out there alive, I have to uncover the truth. Even if it means putting myself back in the hands of the mages who've betrayed me before.

Every time I turn around, new opponents are looking to knock me down. No part of the magical community is safe. And now my enemies have left me with a horrible accusation hanging over my head, using so many tricks I can barely defend myself. If I want to clear my name and keep my freedom, I have to turn to the guys who once made my life hell. They've changed their tune and made amends, but how far can I really count on them? Especially if they find out that my greatest foes are within their families.

My name is Vinna, and it all started with a routine fight in the middle of nowhere Nevada that ended up changing everything. I found...family. My chosen. Power. Vengeance. Now I find myself in the middle of nowhere Russia, my destiny within walking distance, and I have no idea what I'll find. Will I be welcomed? Feared? Despised? We're about to find out. Sentinel City, ready or not here I come.

Do I want to spend my summer with my vicious classmates at Bloodstone University - better known as Villain Academy? No, thank you. But I've got to find a way to tackle my enemies before they try to destroy me again, and the trail to potential answers starts there. I've had it with taking the high road, though. Come at me, and you'd better believe I'll hit you back just as hard. Maybe that'll mean I have to tap into my dark magic instincts more than I'd ever have planned to, but I'm not letting one more person I care about get hurt.

In a month, I've gone from magicless to one of the most powerful dark mages in the world. You'd think that would make my life easier. But all that power is only potential until I learn how to wield it, and my enemies have a huge head start. While I'm picking up every skill I can, adversaries both within Villain Academy and beyond it are working to knock me down. My fellow scions? I can count at least a couple of them among those enemies. The others...let's just say the lines between light and dark have gotten a lot more blurred.

I'm getting a little tired of completing my goals, only to have the bar raised too substantially for me to transition at a productive pace. I started off as a sad little ghost with an impossible crush on four really hot, Gothic guys with some attitude problems. Now I'm The Apocalypse, they're the Four Horsemen, and Lucifer is my f--ked-up daddy.  

The time is now. It seems all I’ve ever wanted was vengeance. I did everything right: I protected my friends, I pushed myself to the limits, and I saved lives. Once upon a time, I was an internationally renowned thief known as The Fox. Nobody knew me. Nobody could catch me. Our enemies keep coming for blood. They cut me. They hurt my friends. They push and push to see what will happen. I’m Kit Davenport, and I’m going to show them what happens. This is the end. Theirs.

I'm not so different from most people. Like everyone else, I have life goals. Goal #1: Become a real girl instead of this invisible ghost thing I currently am. Goal #2: Convince the four men I've been haunting for the past five years to pick me to be their new toy after goal one is complete. Goal #3: Figure out who/what I am and why I can't remember anything past the five years I've been haunting this quad. Goal #4: Eat popcorn. See? Perfectly normal. Sort of. Gotta start small, after all. It's not like anyone else is perfect either.  

Note to my stupid cupid self: The next time I go and anchor myself to a hot covey, make sure those anchors aren't about to compete in a fight to the death. Yeah. Total downer. I have a body now, and I don't intend to lose it. I also don't intend to lose the genfins that I've grown so attached to. So it's time to return to the kingdom island and hope like hell that my guys make it through the royal trials of the culling. I also have to hope that the prince of the realm doesn't spot me. If he does, I'm pretty sure I have imprisonment and torture to look forward to.

The battle lines have been drawn. My fellow scions and I stand on one side and the power-hungry barons on the other. The scheme they've put in motion could shatter both our community and the non-magical world. Neither I nor the guys I love are willing to let that happen, but with the barons throwing both laws and parental bonds aside, we're short on options. The fate of our world could come down to a literal battle for our lives - one I'm not sure we have any hope of winning.