Wicked Rebellion (Darkwater Reformatory Book 3) Read online

  Wicked Rebellion

  Book Three: Darkwater Island Series

  Marty Mayberry

  WICKED REBELLION

  Darkwater Reformatory, Book Three

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  Copyright © 2020 Marty Mayberry

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  All rights reserved.

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  No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, not without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review. Names, characters, events, and incidents are a product of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to an actual person, living or dead is entirely coincidental.

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  ASIN: B0881L73QR

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  Hummingbird Press

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  Cover by Black Bird Book Covers

  Editing by JA Wren & Jenny Sliger.

  Created with Vellum

  Contents

  Shadowspell Academy meets The Hunger Games

  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

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Chapter 30

  Chapter 31

  Chapter 32

  Chapter 33

  Chapter 34

  Chapter 35

  Chapter 36

  About the Author

  Other books by Marty Mayberry

  Written as Marlie May

  Crystal Wing Academy: Outling

  Chapter One

  For Mom.

  * * *

  Miss you.

  For Jes, Lee, Lana, Stephanie,

  Laura, & Katrina

  Awesome critique partners.

  This book is infinitely better

  because of you.

  * * *

  For my husband

  and children.

  Thanks for sticking with

  me through this journey.

  Shadowspell Academy meets The Hunger Games

  Trapped on Darkwater Island and locked in the fae world, Tria and her friends must find a way to defeat Bixby and escape, because Bixby’s determined to destroy the dragons they retrieved and lock them into another series of trials.

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  Wicked Rebellion is the third book and conclusion of the Darkwater Series. The books are best if read in order. Look for Wicked Betrayal & Wicked Challenge, on Amazon.

  Chapter One

  The Reformatory Challenge nearly killed me, but I made it through. Rumor had it that once I reached the Reformatory, I’d be closer to freedom. Who would have thought when I was sent to Darkwater Island in the fae world to spend the rest of my life for a murder I didn’t commit, I’d find myself competing one test after another, each more deadly than the last?

  But with my friends, Akimi and Jacey, Jacey’s boyfriend Rohnan, and my own boyfriend Brodin, at my side, how could we do anything but make it through?

  After making it through the last test of the Challenge, where we hatched dragon eggs and escaped the tower, we flew our dragons toward the Reformatory. The building loomed ahead. Made of dark red stone, it gleamed like an uncut jewel in the morning sunlight. Flags fluttered on the tops of the towers and lush vegetation grew in abundance around the cluster of tall buildings.

  As we approached, Akimi, my dubious tree nymph friend, pointed to the tallest tower. “A rookery.”

  “Do you think we should we land there?” Jacey asked from the shelter of Rohnan’s arms. He’d been trapped in the floor of the last trial, locked away since he took the Challenge ahead of us. We found a way to free him, and Jacey couldn’t be happier. He kissed her cheek and whatever he murmured brought a smile to her face. Their emotion was transparent; it hurt to watch them.

  My gaze met Brodin’s, and the warmth in my heart expanded to the point it threatened to split wide open. Our relationship had been rough at first, but we finally found each other during the Challenge. I looked forward to getting to know him better at the Reformatory.

  Finally, we’d get our chance to break free. Back at Darkwater Prison, we learned that those who completed the Challenge deep in the catacombs beneath the island would be sent to the Reformatory where they would be asked to complete a few more tests before being released from incarceration.

  I had a personal task to complete at the Reformatory: find my father. He stole a piece of my magic when I was a baby and then fled. I wanted my magic back. With it, I’d finally feel complete. While I had no idea what he looked like, I’ve been told he worked at the Reformatory. I’d find him, but would I know him when I saw him?

  We landed in the rookery, which vaguely resembled the room where we hatched the eggs at the top of the tower and climbed off our dragons. Clustered together, we patted each other on the backs, because, shit, we made it! We moved to the next step in our freedom.

  My heart felt light for the first time in forever. I couldn’t keep the grin off my face.

  Brodin took my hand, tugging me close. We kissed and leaned into each other, smiling at our friends.

  “What next?” I asked. I couldn’t remember when I’d felt this free.

  “The Headmaster will be here soon,” Akimi said, watching the door on the opposite side of the room. The tiny leaves she’d regrown since we found sanctuary in the tower curled, turned brown, and dropped to the floor. I wanted to ask what was happening, but she still hasn’t forgiven me for making her return from the middle world. If I left her there, she would’ve died, and I couldn’t do it, even if she’d hate me for the rest of my life.

  “How do you know the Headmaster is coming?” I asked. Akimi lived in the outskirts of the Prison for ages. She had no way of knowing what would come next here.

  Her gaze met mine. “I am terribly sorry.”

  She said something similar near the end of the last trial and again while we flew here with our dragons. The unease that had sparked inside me when her leaves dropped grew, expanding against my ribcage.

  “What’s going on?” I shouted. “Tell us.”

  “Should we wait here or go down to meet the Headmaster?” Brodin asked. His fingers tightened on my fingers. Did he want me to remain silent? I didn’t understand, but I had a feeling I needed to know what was happening soon, or else.

  Jacey and Rohnan remained lost in each other and didn’t question a damn thing. I mean, I got it. They haven’t seen each other for a long time. I’d be stuck to Brodin if we’d been parted a long time too. But still. Something scary was going on here, and if we didn’t figure it out—

  The door banged open and my gut sank to the center of the island when Bixby strode inside the room. Her long black dress flounced around her legs, and her high-heeled boots thudded on the stone floor as she sashayed her way toward us with a twitchy grin on her face.

  Her fiend of a brother, Duvoe, slunk in behind her. He stopped and leaned against the wall beside the door and, as always, his arms rose up to link on his chest.

>   “Welcome,” Bixby said with a coarse laugh. Hatred darkened her eyes. “So nice of you to make it through the Challenge.”

  “What are you doing here?” Jacey said, going limp in Rohnan’s arms. “You’re supposed to be at the prison only, not at the Reformatory.”

  “Don’t you know?” Bixby said with a sneer. “I run both facilities. There, I’m the warden. Here, I’m the Headmaster.”

  “That’s not possible,” Brodin said, leaving me to stride forward.

  With a flick of her finger, Bixby sent a bolt of magic at him. It encased him and held him locked in place. I ran to him, but another flick of her hand froze me in place, as well.

  Jacey and Rohnan were hit with the same magic and remained together, their arms around each other and their eyes reflecting the panic growing inside them.

  My gaze met Akimi’s. She stood behind Bixby. Internally, I screamed, run!

  Bixby strolled around us, the weight of her gaze raking across my skin. “I appreciate your efforts.” Her gaze fell on the dragons and with another gesture of her finger, straps erupted from the floor, fastening around their ankles, pinning them in place. They squawked and flapped their wings but couldn’t escape. Satisfaction smoothed across Bixby’s face. “Just in time. I was running out of dragon bones to grind into powder.”

  Fleur’s boyfriend, a dragon shifter, was the last of his kind. He once told me his ancestors had nearly gone extinct because…

  The fae used ground dragon bones to gain power.

  I cried inside but couldn’t force a word past my lips.

  Akimi backed toward the door, whimpering. A flick of Bixby’s finger changed Akimi into someone else.

  “Kylie,” Jacey moaned. “You…you made it…through the Challenge and…”

  “She brought me my very first dragon,” Bixby said. “Surviving the Challenge is a really rare occurrence. Other than Kylie, no one has done so for years.” Her tongue flicked out to trace her lips, making them gleam redder than blood. “She brought me a dragon, my very first. The prior Headmaster, who I eliminated, had been hiding a secret…”

  She killed this person?

  “I found the power I could drain from a dragon such a delight,” she said. “I decided I needed more but the catacombs are tricky. They refused to let me, or my minions, approach the tower.”

  I thought she was in full control of the catacombs, yet here she was, saying they restrained her. Something bigger was going on here than I’d ever imagined.

  Beings older than the fae… My grandma’s words echoed in my mind. An idea tickled through me but slipped away when Kylie spoke.

  “You have to understand,” she said, pleading with us all. “I made a deal and couldn’t get out of it. I tried to stop you.” Her gaze sought mine. “You remember, right? I tried, but you wouldn’t listen.”

  “No,” I snarled.

  Kylie’s lips trembled and she shook her head. “I thought…somehow, I’d find a way to break free during the Challenge. Or we’d take a different path, one without dragons. Even more, I hoped I’d be able to stop this by dying, but you wouldn’t leave me in the middle world. Damn you. Why did you drag me out? And then you wouldn’t let me break the eggs! After that, I had no choice.”

  There was always a choice. You just had to pick the right one and this wasn’t it.

  “You…who are you?” I asked.

  “I am a tree nymph. Half.” Her chin lifted. “I’ve always lived on the island. When Jacey arrived, Bixby made a deal with me. Get Jacey and Rohnan into the Challenge and Bixby would reveal my true one. Because I seek them. I need them. And she…” Her gaze flicked to Jacey and Rohnan. “Someone was desperate to get them into the Challenge, I think, so they’d fail.”

  “But I don’t understand,” Jacey struggled to speak. “She refused to let…us enter the Challenge.”

  “Someone did not wish for you to enter,” Bixby said with a smirk. “But I do enjoy a good game. And after Akimi brought me my first dragon, I needed more. I knew you had the strongest desire to make it through.” Her gaze fell on me. “And you, as well. I’ve found contestants perform better if they’re denied access. They’re more…desperate.”

  “Why us?” Brodin asked. “Could’ve been…anyone.”

  “The catacombs are…tricky,” Bixby said. “They do not welcome my manipulation. They will not let any of my chosen contestants enter and compete. They find untimely ends.”

  Her brother, Duvoe, cackled. His fingers tightened on his arms.

  She dipped her head at him and turned, flouncing back to us. “I’ve discovered the only prisoners who can enter and bring dragons to me are those who steal into the Challenge.”

  “You spread a rumor that those who make it to the Reformatory would go free.” We fell for it. When she denied us entrance, we found our own way in. Akimi had befriended us. She guided us.

  “And now we’ve brought you dragons,” I said. We needed to free them, but how?

  With a sob, Kylie yanked open the door and ran from the room.

  I snarled, angry beyond words with her.

  Bixby strolled across the open area then turned to face us. “You.” Her finger pointed to me. “Someone would like me to take care of you. Permanently.”

  My father would kill me to keep me from taking back what was mine? He was the only one I knew here. I’d paid a stiff price to discover his whereabouts.

  Bixby pointed her finger at me, but as her bolt of magic hit me, Kai, my wexal cat friend, appeared and jumped between us. The power slammed into him, and he tumbled to the floor, where he lay still.

  Frozen, I couldn’t reach him. Was he moving? Tears trickled down my cheeks, and my heart shriveled. My poor friend…

  Around me, the room wavered as if the walls pressed in and then released.

  Kai disappeared, and I prayed he’d get help wherever he went. Where did he go when he left me?

  Brodin cried out hoarsely as I was sucked from the room, and…

  …The beady glass eyes of the stone wexal cat statue watched me as I stood in the front lobby of the Seeker’s Guild Headquarters. This cat was not Kai. Who was he?

  “Welcome back, my dear,” Ramseff, the Master Seeker called out from the room on my right. “Please come into the library. It seems I need to speak to you once more.”

  For a second, I thought I’d been pulled back to the past, to my original visit here, when I made a stiff bargain with the Master Seeker to learn where my father hid. But no, I just completed the Reformatory Challenge—or what I thought was a true challenge—and now the Master Seeker wished to see me. What price would he demand this time?

  Girding myself, I strode toward the library, but I stopped inside the doorway.

  Ramseff sat in the same place as before, on the green sofa, squishing his back against the cushions. Like before, a tray of tea and cookies sat in front of him on the low table. He lifted and carefully ate a cookie. “Please be seated, child. We don’t have much time.”

  “I believe you have all the time you need,” I said. Time to manipulate others. Time to ruin lives.

  “Whatever do you mean?” he said with a tilt of his head.

  “Don’t mock me.” Crossing the room, I sat heavily on the high-back wooden chair that had been placed opposite the sofa. “Time means nothing here, does it?”

  His lips twitched upward before smoothing. “Clever girl.”

  “Why am I here?”

  “You know why.”

  Bile rose in my throat, choking me, but I refused to name it. I followed his gaze to a set of three fillinettes mounted on the wall beside the bookcase.

  “I’m not killing Brodin,” I said. Damn me for making a bargain with Ramseff before I knew the price I’d be asked to pay. I agreed, only to be told I must kill someone in exchange for my father’s location. That person was Brodin.

  “And that’s where you’re wrong,” he said.

  “You can’t make me do it. I’m stronger than I was before. I won’t kill
him, and you can’t make me.”

  “Then your price shall not be paid.”

  “I don’t care if I meet my father. I don’t need what he took from me any longer.” I’ve lived this long without it; I could live the rest of my life without that bit of stolen magic.

  “And again, my dear, you are wrong.” He scratched the side of his neck and then tugged on the hem of the black tunic down over his matching pants. The dark, seamless material was broken only by the white embroidered heron on his left pocket. “Without your core magic, you’ll slowly slip away. Do you feel it happening already?”

  No. Not so far. Or did I…?

  Wait. I couldn’t trust anything this man said. He lied. He cheated. He manipulated everyone around him. I lifted my chin. “I won’t die without it. You’re twisting this to make me do something, and I refuse.”

  He growled and lifted his teacup, though he didn’t drink. It had been a guess on my part, but it was nice to be proven right.

  “You tricked me,” I said fiercely, shoving aside my worry about what he implied. “You had no right to demand my agreement before I knew the price.”

  “You agreed!” As if realizing he’d broken his endless calm, he smoothed his tunic with shaking hands.