Blood & Betrayals (Avalon University #1)

Blood & Betrayals (Avalon University #1)

Author: Jeanette Rose, Alexis Rune Listening Length: 29h 11m
Fantasy Read Online

Fear, Fury and Fire. To Know is Not Enough. Power flows through the ancient halls of Avalon University like a neverending flood. Admission to the elite institution enables students to hone their magic under the watchful eye of their icy headmaster. Summer Tuatha De Daanan planned to slide through her tenure at Avalon, ...

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Prologue

A fly crawls into her vacant eye socket. Its wings move back and forth rhythmically in the hypnotic dance of a scavenger. More move deeper into her flesh, nearly a hive of them filling the vacant cavity in her skull. Is it a hive if it’s not bees? What’s a group of flies called? A swarm? Maybe. I want to look it up on my phone, but my hands don’t move. My eyes, either. I need to look away. I need to do something, anything, but I can’t stop staring at that fly.

Its gossamer wings flutter back and forth, and it flits through the gore to the other eye socket. I stare, caught in her empty, pitiless gaze. Her head has dropped over the edge of the desk, her hair dark hair falling to the floor in a blood-matted mess. The fly struggles as it gets trapped in the dark rivulet of blood running down from her chin to her nose before dripping from her forehead.

At one time, this was a fae girl. Or I think she was fae. It is hard to tell with her staring back at me with those cavities packed with buzzing insects. It’s as if they are seeking to replace her missing eyeballs. If I try hard enough, I can imagine them as they would have been in life, pale violet irises with a splash of dark magenta around the pupils. All fae have the same colored eyes, after all. I’d heard the more magenta a fae has in their eyes, the more powerful they are. That might just be a rumor, though.

I’m still pretty sure she’s fae, even though whoever draped her over the instructor’s desk in this classroom took her pointed ears. Or maybe it’s just the angle. If I step forward, will I see them so similar to my own rounded ones? Will I see the graceful slopes ending in delicate points on either side of her head?