Silverwood Academy Book 1 Read online

  Luna looked up at him with wide eyes, her lips slightly parted as she looked up at him. “I have to go,” she said suddenly, standing and walking away. Grace stopped to whine as she watched Luna walk away.

  Oliver’s hand sat on my thigh and I made no move to remove it. “What are you doing this weekend?” Grace asked, looking over the table at us.

  Anna blushed and bit her lip. “I have a date with Isaac on Saturday,” she said with a small smile.

  Sophia gasped. “Since when?”

  “Why didn’t you tell us sooner?” I demanded.

  Anna laughed. “He only just asked me last night,” she said. “He knocked on my door at about ten o’clock last night with flowers and asked.” She blushed.

  “Finally,” Oliver muttered, and I looked up at him in surprise, raising my eyebrows. He looked surprised like he couldn’t believe that he said it out loud, and his hand tightened over my thigh.

  I ignored him and gave Anna a small smile. “That’s good, I hope you have fun.”

  The bell rang and I left for my Compulsion class with Anna and Sophia. Professor Blackthorne was already standing at the front of the classroom. When everyone was seated, she smiled, starting the lesson. “Today we will be compelling each other, I want you to partner up and try to compel your partner to touch their head,” she said.

  Anna and I partnered up, Sophia had to partner up with Dawn and we all rearranged around the room so we could sit with our partners and have some privacy. I was concentrating on Anna and trying to get her to touch her head, but I kept failing. By the end of the class we both had managed to get each other to touch our heads, and every time we did, we laughed with happiness. The bell rang and we headed back to the dormitories to get ready for Physical Exercise.

  We stood on the field outside of the gym, waiting for Sterling in the hot sun. He strolled up, looking over the class. “Start running laps!” He called out.

  We all started jogging our usual route, I was getting quite fit and was starting to finish in fifteenth place, which I was proud of as I used to be the around the fortieth. The vampires, witches and werewolves all shared this class, so that was why the class was so big. From afar I was watching as Sterling timed the class to see if we were getting quicker or slower.

  I finished my last lap and lined up behind the person who finished before me, getting down on the ground to start doing push-ups, as usual. It was becoming a routine.

  My shoulders started aching by the twentieth, soon everyone finished running laps and was doing push-ups. “Five seconds faster, next week I expect that to be doubled,” Professor Blackwell said, and I internally groaned.

  The bell rang. I stood up, and stretched, loosening up my shoulders, looking at Sterling one last time before heading back to my dorm to get ready for my next class. In Gifts and Powers, we were still working on getting the medallion and using our enhanced speed.

  Sitting in the class, my leg twitched a blur passed by my right as someone shot towards the desk, then was slammed across the room into the wall with a bang. Jared got up off the ground, dusted himself off and sat back down in his seat, glaring.

  I slipped down beneath my desk, I used the moment was a distraction, and crawled across the classroom at lightning speed, my hand closed around the medallion and I shot back to my desk before anybody noticed.

  I tossed the coin in the air and with a giggle I caught it. Pride singing in my veins. Professor Pierce looked at me in shock.

  “Congratulations Natasha Marshall, but now you’ve got to keep it,” a wicked glint crossed his face as he smiled. “Get her!”

  The whole class jumped out of their seats and I squealed as they ran towards me, I jumped out of my seat, grabbing my bag and sped towards the door using my enhanced speed, kicking it open and slammed it shut behind me. I grabbed a chair, placing it under the door handles at angle so they couldn’t turn the handle to open it, buying myself some time. I sped off down the steps, and out of The Hub, giggling as I ran through the courtyard.

  I listened with my enhanced hearing for the sound of my classmates, they still hadn’t opened the door yet and I couldn’t stop the smile from lighting up my face as I raced passed through the clearing, my heart thumping harder as the sound of wood splintered and Professor Pierce shouted “Get her!” All their thundering footsteps sounded on the stairs, as they laughed.

  I raced into the woods at high speed, along the path that wound around the back of the academy in the trees. “What are you doing Miss Marshall?” I looked up to see Sterling looking down at me with an eyebrow raised.

  I grinned and held up the medallion. “I got it,” I told him. He raised both eyebrows, looking at me amused and impressed. “I just have to keep it now.”

  “You better hurry. They’re coming,” he told me and shot off in a blur.

  I sped off, deep in the forest, stopping thick in the woods, looking around I found the largest tree, took my shoes off and put them in my bag. I jumped up, grabbing hold of a low-lying branch and pulled myself up, I grabbed hold of another branch, pulling myself up, swinging my leg over the thick branch, standing up and climbed higher and higher. I listened out for my classmates’ footsteps.

  Hiding high up in the tree, I bent down, hugging the trunk of the tree, perching low behind the foliage, looking down, slowing my breathing and heart rate. My hearing picked up their footsteps, telling me they were close by, I held my breath as they burst through the trees, looking around and shot off deeper in the woods. A laugh tried to burst free of my mouth and I clamped a hand to my mouth with my free hand.

  When the bell rang, I sat high up in the tree, waiting for the class to exit the woods. Eventually, one by one they all left the woods but before Professor Pierce left, he shouted back into the woods “One hundred and fifty points to Natasha Marshall for managing to get the medallion and evade the class!” He turned and shot off in a blur.

  My heart skipped in delight and an overwhelming need to squeal in delight came over me, so I did. “So that’s where you hid?” a deep voice asked from below. I looked down to see Sterling smiling up at me from the ground and I was suddenly fully aware of the fact that I was wearing a skirt and only a thong underneath. I bit my lip.

  “It worked, didn’t it?” I asked him, a smile playing around my lips.

  He chuckled. “You sure are creative, aren’t you?” he called up to me. “Can you even get down?”

  I bit my lip. “Well I got up here, didn’t I?”

  “You can always throw the medallion down to me while you get down?” he told me teasingly.

  I laughed. “I’m not giving it up that easily.”

  “I didn’t think so.”

  “You should probably turn around,” I told him.

  He raised an eyebrow as he looked up at me. “Why?”

  “I’m wearing a skirt and not the most appropriate underwear for climbing.” A blush crept up my throat and I bit my lip.

  He gulped audibly, his eyes widened as he eyed my skirt. “Oh!” He turned around and I shook my head, putting the medallion in my bag, bending down to the branch I was standing on, wrapping my arms around it, sliding my body down the side of it, the bark was rough against my exposed flesh, scraping against it as I clung onto the branch.

  I really hadn’t thought through how I was going to get down while climbing up, I still had a foot and a half drop to the next branch. My heart wracked around inside my chest as I hung there, my feet dangling towards the next branch.

  “Fuck.” My nerves went haywire as panic swept through me and the realisation that I could actually fall hit me, and I sure as shit didn’t know if a vampire could actually die from falling this height. I was sure I was going to go splat if I fell.

  Sterling twitched. “Are you okay?” he called out.

  I bit my lip. “I can’t reach the next branch,” I called back.

  He sighed. “Do I need to come up and get you?”

  “No,” I squeaked, letting go of the branch, a scream tor
e from my throat as I sped towards the one below me, hitting it with a thud. Relief swept through my body and the tension left Sterling’s shoulders as he sighed.

  “You should really wear pants next time you decide to climb a tree.” Amusement laced his voice. “Or more appropriate underwear.” He shook his head, laughing.

  “I would have if I knew I’d be climbing a tree,” I answered back, sliding down the trunk and laying on the branch, gripping it tightly as I swung my legs over the side, dangling above the next branch, it was slightly further away than the last and I bit my lip as

  I let go, dropping down and rushing towards the next branch, I slipped, missing the branch and fell straight towards the ground. “Oh fuck!” My arms flailed around, I reached out catching myself on the branch below the one I was aiming for, my arms hit it with a loud thud. I looked down to see Sterling looking up at me relieved. “I told you not to look!”

  He looked at me shocked. “I thought you were going to plummet to the ground!”

  “Well I didn’t, so turn back around.”

  He rolled his eyes and turned back around, muttering something about me having an attitude, but I ignored him, focusing on what I was doing. I let go, falling through the air and landed with a thud on the next branch.

  The wind picked up and blew my hair behind me, blowing more fiercely up here amongst the trees.

  I slid down the trunk, gripped the branch and let go, the branch below was a lot smoother than the others and instead of falling onto it with a thud, my foot slipped off and I fell, my skirt blew up around me, the ground racing towards me, I screamed. Sterling shot around quickly, seeing me falling and leapt into the air, jumping about twenty feet, he caught me, pulling me close against his body as he twisted through the air and we fell to the ground with a loud thud.

  His arms wrapped around my waist tightly, as we fell down, him pulling me down on top of him so his body protected me from the brunt of the fall, the air knocked out of my lungs as he collided to the ground. He groaned.

  Oh my! My heart thundered at our proximity as the electricity of his touch raced through my veins. I looked up at him, he had a pained look on his face from the fall, his eyes closed.

  “You’re going to be the death of me,” was all he said. He opened his eyes, his brown eyes sparkled golden as he looked up at me.

  He was still holding me against him, and I didn’t want to ruin the moment by moving, I probably wasn’t even capable of moving. The adrenaline and fear still ignited through my body, entangled with desire in the pit of my stomach.

  In this moment it he wasn’t my teacher, and I wasn’t his student: we were just two people being pulled together by some unknown force. Everything fell away from us as we got lost in each other in the moment. There were no rules, no responsibilities. Nothing. We just laid there, looking into each other’s eyes, neither of us moving.

  “Thanks,” I whispered, unable to speak.

  He looked up at me, smiling. “You were right.” His fingers lightly ran up and down my back, swirling over my flesh, causing goosebumps to rise over my flesh.

  I looked at him confused. “About?”

  “That underwear is definitely not appropriate for climbing trees,” he whispered.

  Heat flooded my cheeks, and he laughed, I lightly smacked him on the chest, hiding my face in his chest as it rumbled with laughter. I didn’t even know how to respond, pushing my face up from his chest, gazing into his eyes.

  He blinked hard, the smile vanished, and I watched him change back into teacher mode before my eyes, his hands unwound themselves as he looked at me with a hardness in his gaze and cleared his throat. “Get up.”

  I scrambled to my feet quickly, shocked by the sudden change in attitude. “What happened?” I asked, trying not to sound desperate and failing.

  He got to his feet, looking a little stiff. “This is inappropriate.”

  I looked up at him defiantly, my jaw clenched hard. “I don’t care.”

  Running his hand through his hair he looked down at me with a hardness in his gaze. “Well I do.” He turned on his heel and walking away, then shot off in a blur towards the teachers housing.

  I ran my hands through my long black hair and sighed, feeling the whiplash from his sudden change in attitude. I straightened my skirt, pulling my black pumps out of my bag and slipping them on.

  My whole body was on fire from Sterling’s touch and the electricity his touch gave me still lingered but hurt wound its way around my heart and I ground my teeth together.

  I sped out of the woods and to The Hub in a flash, grabbing a tray and putting a thermos on my plate, some chips and walked over to where Anna and Sophia sat, looking at me curiously. “Where were you?” Anna asked.

  I shrugged. “I got lost.” I felt bad lying to her, but I couldn’t tell anyone about Sterling.

  Sophia looked at me, her delicate brows raised, like she didn’t quite believe me. “Okay.”

  I ate my chips, replaying what happened with Sterling through my mind, knowing I still had to face him in our Night Vision class later on today, caused nervousness to build in the pit of my stomach, growing as time went on.

  When ten o’clock rolled around, I stood outside the classroom, biting my lip, waiting for Sterling to arrive. He strode up the stairs looking less stiff, the sleeve rolled up, black pants and a tie, looking sexy as ever, his professional teacher face was plastered on perfectly and when he looked at me, my breath caught in my throat, his eyes were harsh and held no emotion. He unlocked the door, turning the light on so we could find our seats, then switching it off.

  My eyes were adjusting quicker to the darkness, and I peeled the darkness away easily, looking up at Sterling as he watched me from where he stood at the front of the room, I bit my lip, my heart racing and I wondered what he was going to do, but he turned away from me.

  The rest of the classed by quickly, and when it finished, I walked back to my room in silence, unable to stop thinking about him and the moment we shared in the woods.

  Chapter 7:

  Friday morning, I woke up early for my usual run, dressing in high waisted pants and a sports bra, showing off my flat stomach. I walked outside, spotting Sterling leaning against the wall, his arms crossed, wearing dark grey track pants, a black form-fitting shirt and running shoes.

  I pretended like I hadn’t seen him and started stretching, he didn’t move, just stood there watching me. I took off into a run, and he ran beside me silently. I wanted to ask why he decided to start running with me when it seemed like he was going right back to ignoring me, but decided not to.

  Racing past the gym, through the witches’ garden, increasing my speed but he kept pace with me as we ran past the witches’ dormitory, down the hill, past The Hub and into the woods on the far side of the clearing. Why is he here?

  I looked up at him from the corner of my eyes, narrowing my gaze. “What are you thinking about?” he asked, his voice low.

  Turning to look at him as we broke through the trees and ran along the bank of the lake, I seen him watching me curiously. “I’m wondering why you’re here,” I told him, truthfully.

  He looked away, uncertain. “I don’t know,” he replied. “I can’t seem to stay away from you.”

  Shock and anger pulsed through my veins. “Then why do you?” I demanded.

  He groaned, running his hand through his hair. “Because…” he looked down at me, “this isn’t right.”

  I rolled my eyes: he was singing the same tune he did yesterday. I didn’t respond, knowing that nothing we said would help the situation, nothing I wanted to say was going to change his mind. We ran past the teachers’ housing, through the forest, along the back of the academy. We ran a second lap around the academy, then up to The Hub, he opened the door for me like he used to.

  As I was walking passed, he grabbed my hand and I turned back to him, an eyebrow raised, he looked down at me, hurt flashing through his eyes. “I’m sorry things can’t be different,” he t
old me in a low voice. “Maybe I shouldn’t go running with you anymore?”

  I sighed. “If that’s what you think is best.” Hurt stabbing at my heart at what I said, he let go, I turned around and walked away, not looking back.

  Making coffees in the cafeteria, I left, heading back to the dormitory. I gave Sophia and Anna a coffee each then went to my room, slamming the door shut behind me, letting a few tears fall before locking them away and having a shower.

  After getting dressed I pulled my notebook off charge, shoving it into my bag, along with my key, shutting and locking the door, heading down the stairs and sitting in one of the lounges, the common room was starting to fill up quickly. Selene spotted me, walking my way with her friends, looking over at me with a smirk. “Oh look, it’s a whore!” Selene said loudly to her friends, they all laughed too loudly. I rolled my eyes, giving her my middle finger, refusing to look at her, the door opened and shut, and they were gone.

  Sophia and Anna came down the stairs, smiling at me. “I’m so excited for my date tomorrow night,” Anna exclaimed excitedly.

  I smiled at her. “That’s so great.” I felt envious that she could go on dates with the boy she liked, knowing I’d never have that with Sterling. Anna could like Isaac without fear of consequences, whereas Sterling and I weren’t allowed to have these feelings toward each other. Rules separated us, saying we weren’t allowed to be together and that it was wrong. My heart pinched tighter in my chest, and tears pricked my eyes. Why did Sterling have to come on my run this morning?

  “Will you both help me pick something out to wear?” Anna asked, pulling me out of my thoughts, as she bit her lip nervously.

  “Definitely,” Sophia said, I nodded in agreement.

  The bell rang and we went to our Enhanced Senses class, which from the email this morning was being held in the forest again, we made our way to the small clearing, where we found Professor Bradshaw and the rest of the class.

  During the lesson we focused on using our enhanced eyesight to look at the detail in things we wouldn’t normally see and see things further away than normal, I hadn’t managed to do it.