Drowning Studies (Artemis University Book 2) Read online

  Table of Contents

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  Find A New Series To Love…

  About the Author

  Other Titles by Erin R Flynn

  A Supernatural Script Inc. Book

  If you did, thank you. Thank you for respecting me and other authors for their hard work, understanding this is our job, and while we love it, we do deserve to be compensated for all the hours, and hours, and hours we put into it.

  If you did not… Go buy one! You are a thief and your parents and grandparents and cute animals all around the world are ashamed of you. There is no justification for committing this crime because it is a crime, no different than walking into a physical bookstore, taking a print copy off the shelf, and walking out of the store without paying for it.

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  There are lots of ways to fight eBook piracy, reporting the site even if you’re not the copyright holder is always a good option. If you want to help in the fight, Google it and you can see there are many ways.

  To My Freshman Roommate:

  I’m really sorry… I never punched you in the face. I’m sorry I never bitch slapped you into next week like you deserved time and time and time again. I’m sorry I let you spread your bile and lies around the floor about me and never busted you. I should have recorded all the crap you said about everyone else and showed them you were crazy instead of let you go crying to them I was mean and or whatever else you said. I really and truly hope they figured it out and you got yours. You were the ultimate mean girl and sheeps clothing and laughed about how stupid they were to fall for it all. If there is any fairness in life, karma has bit you all over the place but I’m still sorry I never fought back and punched you.

  My name is Tamsin Vale and my life is radically different from a few months ago. I’m a college freshman who didn’t finish high school. I’ve inherited more money than I could ever spend after nineteen years of never having much of anything.

  I’m the last fairy… And no one knows what happened to the rest of them.

  That doesn’t even cover half of it. I’m having hot sex with a dragon prince that I have some weird energy thing with. Then there’s my sexy professor who I can’t seem to stop crossing lines with when I know it’s stupid.

  My best friend—who has turned out to be from a dragon knight clan—now works for the college and is helping to keep me safe. And it’s needed since I’m drawing attention with being powerful as an unknown.

  Also, because I’m not declaring my species—but how can I when some people on campus can tell if I’m lying? And telling the truth isn’t an option.

  Not if I want to stay alive, much less pass the semester. At least I have the school’s best tutor helping me and I like a challenge.

  Including handling the impossible, like trying to save all of Faerie.

  Artemis University a hot burning reverse harem, university-age paranormal academy series with darker elements, strong language, violence, and a heroine who follows her own moral compass of what is right… And who she ends up giving her heart to.

  1

  “All right, that’s it for class today,” Craftsman said as he wrapped up our lecture in the third week of the semester. “Have a nice weekend and see you all Tuesday. Don’t forget to start practicing the first rune in the practice rooms now that you all passed the quiz on conduits. Ms. Vale, if you could stay after, please.”

  I slowed in packing up, knowing exactly why I was being held back. I’d finally pushed him too far.

  I was a bit shocked it had taken this long after our fun in New York, but everyone had seemed to think I was taking a time-out from them. Yes, it was nice to have some me time when I was used to being on my own more, but the truth was I visited the portal to Faerie during lunch.

  And since I hadn’t told anyone, I had to ditch everyone for lunch.

  I headed to his desk when we were almost alone. “Did you need something from me, Doc?” I asked, as the last student closed the door behind them.

  Craftsman’s nostrils flared as he reached down and opened a drawer. Pulling out a rope, he slapped it on the desk for me to see. He held out his hand towards the door and muttered, letting me know he was saying a spell before I felt the flare of magic.

  I was much more sensitive to that now that I was done with the pills and fully open to my powers, cleansed of all the human vaccines.

  “This desk has a hook under it. We’re going to use it and that rope as I enjoy what you were showing me earlier,” he explained.

  I frowned. “I thought you weren’t into your students?” I set my bag on the floor and got in his space. “So tell me why you have a hook for tying students to your fucking desk and a rope ready for it?”

  He bared his teeth at me. “I found it when I took over the position. The rope in the desk as well, as if passing on the fun to the next professor. I was disgusted and threw out the rope.

  “Except then I met this sweet fairy who seems to want to push all of my buttons until I lose my mind and I bought a rope for her.” He moved until our bodies were touching, smelling my hair. “Really, love?”

  “You like when I flash you in class,” I reminded him.

  “You normally wear panties.”

  I shrugged. “I need to do laundry. I didn’t think you’d object.”

  “I don’t, but now show your pussy to me for real,” he growled. “Let me have you.”

  I clucked my tongue. “That wasn’t going to be the deal, remember? I would push and push until you broke. And then you would submit to me, not you tying me to a desk.”

  “You’ll enjoy it,” he argued.

  “Undoubtedly.” I stood on my toes, glad when he leaned in so I could reach, and licked the shell of his ear. “Bad boy, Doc, now you don’t get to fuck me. Submit and maybe I’ll still let you taste me.”

  I moved away when he groaned deeply. I hopped on the desk and pulled up my skirt, spreading my legs to show him I really was going commando.

  “Your decision.”

  “Bloody fuck, love,” he hissed as I touched myself. He fisted his hands and growled, still fighting when we both knew I won. I loved it.

  “Submit to me, Julian. Give in and taste your sweet fairy so we can play other games. Or I can walk out of here and we’ll continue this game.” I smirked at him. “The next level is fun. You’ll like it.”

  “I submit,” he blurted, moving between my legs in a flash and crushing his mouth to mine. “Fuck, you win. I just want you, Tamsin.”

  The kiss was everything and I wanted way more than we could have right then. “Lick me fast. We have class. I’m so wet for you. Clean me up.”

  He dropped to his knees and did it, right there in his lecture hall. I shivered. Shit, it was like a high I could get addicted t
o. He did not mess around either.

  I was so turned on and wound up from teasing him during class he barely ran his tongue over my clit and I came. I fisted his hair and held him to me as I rode the waves of my orgasm.

  He gave me a couple of long licks when I was done. I smirked at him and pulled away, sliding off the other side of the desk and going for my bag.

  “Text me how I tasted and maybe I’ll give you another snack,” I purred. I shrugged when he growled. “We have class.” I stared at his groin and licked my lips. “It’s a shame you finally caved when we didn’t have much time.”

  “Uuugghhh,” he groaned and undid the spell as he put the rope away.

  I hoped there was a privacy spell as there were students waiting at the door. I looked at him over my shoulder as I opened it. “I’ll let you know what the headmaster says but I think it should be fine.”

  “Good.”

  I hurried to English, still wanting more of what Craftsman had given me. He was intense but not like Hudson.

  This was like I’d pushed him too far and he just couldn’t handle it. I liked both types of fun with them.

  I made class just in time and got lost in the material. We were only spending the first month on the monster classics like Mary Shelley and Bram Stoker, as there was no way we could skip them.

  But we were going fast and focused on the good stuff so it definitely wasn’t a long dissection of Shakespeare like I’d had freshman year of high school.

  Hey, I liked Shakespeare. I really did, but nothing needed to be that dissected and agonized over. Not if you wanted to keep enjoying it.

  But I was doing well in the class so far. Most of my classes even.

  Next was debate and I turned in my outline for my first debate next week. I wasn’t shocked when Instructor Tate had handed me the topic of the species being too split and I was the pro argument.

  I didn’t like the guy I was against—a vampire who had always been hanging around Blake before she left school moments before she got expelled.

  So I was pretty sure this was going to be nasty. I could handle that though.

  After debate, I headed for the vending machine mecca at the laboratory building. It didn’t have a fancy name like maybe other colleges would. I actually liked that. Just tell us what it is, not the names of whoever donated so we could get it mixed up.

  Then I went to the student union with my haul and headed down the stairs to the basement. Checking I was alone, I followed the path to the room with the portal to Faerie.

  Once inside, I went for the stuff I had stashed there behind the portal frame. Hiding the deliveries from Izzy had been a joke given she was so curious.

  So of course I announced they were adult toys, the only thing she wouldn’t demand to see.

  So of course she wanted to see them. At least she backed off when I shot her down. But my roommate seriously thought I was growing an arsenal of adult toys.

  Her head would explode if she knew I was messing around with two of the hottest guys on campus.

  I tucked my messenger bag there and grabbed the hiking bag, getting it over my shoulder as I touched the portal. It did that magic racing through thing and opened, but it still was in the same state day to day.

  I’d seen pictures of portals to Faerie from before and they were always brimming with life even when inactive. If it came back to life like that, it would have tipped people off something was going on so I was glad it looked dead.

  Getting the electric lantern out, I stepped through it and blinked at the darkness. The area around the portal now was just dark, not completely devoid of life and color.

  I knew that now as I had a light. I turned it on and the ground was lush and alive. I’d been coming once a day for two weeks now and each time, a new patch regained life as the ground syphoned off some of my magic.

  The rest was void, absolute darkness. I was hoping that might change if I worked on a larger circle instead of just the line I had been. Whatever I was doing, I was being careful with it for sure.

  I knelt down next to the heavy-duty metal stake I had in the ground next to the portal and tied off the climbing rope I’d bought too. It was sixty meters and I was only about a quarter of that maybe, if I was lucky.

  Every time I came I walked to the edge of what I’d done last time, and after magic was drained from me, another three-foot circle was fixed. That was it.

  So two weeks and I was only a max of forty-two feet. I thought, at least, as I wasn’t worried about the tape measure.

  I’d been worried what to do after I hit sixty meters, and after some deep soul searching I decided I was in this for the ride no matter how long it might take.

  I needed to know what happened and if I was the last. So when I hit sixty meters I was picking another direction and doing it all over again.

  I would do the four points even if it wasn’t really north, south, east, and west. It seemed like the most logical idea. From there I could fill in the full hundred-twenty-meter-diameter circle.

  From there I had no fucking clue, but it was a damn good start for something no one else in the world could do or enter. If people had a problem with my plan, they could suck it.

  Not that I was telling anyone yet. This was for me and my people I didn’t know what happened to. Everyone else had other loyalties and I wouldn’t make them have to choose like Mel had.

  That was something I really wanted to limit.

  And while Headmaster Edelman had been better, I was really shaken with how excited he’d been that I could read Faerie and interpret it for him, for the world.

  No way. There were some secrets that weren’t meant for everyone. But it made me careful what I told him so we didn’t have any more issues like that.

  It sounded smart, at least.

  I tied myself off and tested the spike. It was one of those screw-in ones meant to hold dogs as they ran all around, so I hoped it would do. Maybe?

  Letting out a slow breath, I held up the lantern and made my way down the three-foot-wide path I now had going on. I definitely wanted to light this up or maybe leave another ground stake where I ended that day so I wasn’t freaking out that the darkness was ready to swallow me up.

  Good thing I wasn’t claustrophobic even if I was outside, as it had that enclosed feeling in so much darkness.

  I watched the ground for my path, wanting to get this done and eat my lunch while reviewing for geometry. That was going better but still ridiculously hard for me.

  If I didn’t have Darby I would be crashing and burning big time. And he really worked. We were doing three sessions Saturdays and Sundays to teach me human geometry at an accelerated rate.

  I had hoped we could slow down after the first weekend. But magical geometry jumped around, as building spell circles took several human geometry math principles.

  Unfortunately, they weren’t all from the first chapters and each chapter had several sections, so yeah, that was our plan for right now.

  I reached the end of the area I’d done, taking in a deep breath as I stepped to the very edge of it. I never blindly stepped into the darkness like I first had when I arrived at Faerie.

  Something about the portal seemed to protect me, but every inkling I had deep in my gut told me not to step directly into the darkness again or bad things would happen. I had enough bad things going on in my life so if my gut—or even magic—told me to behave, I behaved.

  The magic slowly and gently leaked out of me and into the ground as if fixing that spot of GPS. It was another three feet, so mission accomplished and time to get the fuck out of there.

  I grabbed the rope and quickly pulled up the slack as I jogged back to the portal. Once I reached it I decided to leave the rope there instead of untying it each time.

  It was obvious no one else was going around and would stumble upon it. If someone could move through that suffocating darkness it was not a person I ever wanted to meet.

  I took a moment to look around at Faerie. “I’m
going to work on it, I promise. Hang on for me and don’t disappear. I’ll figure out a way to at least save you and find out what happened.”

  Not sure what else to say to the world that was probably not sentient, I stepped through the portal. I quickly tucked everything away and grabbed my messenger bag and lunch.

  I plopped down and stuffed my face as I studied. I kept changing how I was sitting, one moment leaning against the wall and the next leaning forward.

  I was agitated and I didn’t know why. It felt like alarm bells were going off in my head and something was coming.

  I packed up and headed out, eating as I went and checking my six to make sure no one was watching me. No one was around.

  So what was this feeling? It didn’t go away once I was out of the student union and away from the portal.

  No, it wasn’t about that.

  Was this a new power? Did I have a spidey sense when there was trouble, like how I knew if Hudson was around?

  That might get annoying at a hostile school that had a lot of bullies but would still be useful.

  I headed to geometry and when I found the classroom empty I took my normal seat and finished eating while reviewing. The professor looked surprised when he saw me there waiting and I gave him an acknowledging nod.

  Neither of us liked each other, but that didn’t seem to bother either of us as long as the other was civil and we did what we should.

  Fine by me. The world was full of people I wasn’t going to like so as long as they could work with me, I had no beef with them.

  I was a reasonable woman like that.

  I cleaned up my containers right before others started coming in and moments later the bell rang. The class went like normal and I did my best to pay attention and focus, catching most of it, but there was still a list of questions I had for Darby.

  The bell rang and he said our homework from last week was on his desk and graded.

  And if he found anyone doing the homework for us we’d flunk the semester for cheating… While looking at me.