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  Angel Magic

  Sirangel: Book Two

  Lucía Ashta

  Angel Magic

  Sirangel: Book Two

  Copyright © 2019 by Lucía Ashta

  www.LuciaAshta.com

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

  This is a work of fiction. Any resemblance to actual persons, places, or events is purely coincidental.

  Cover design by Sanja Balan of Sanja’s Covers

  Editing by Lee Burton

  Editing also by Elsa Crites

  ASIN B07PQZB9MX

  Version 2019.06.11

  Books by Lucía Ashta

  WITCHING WORLD UNIVERSE

  Sirangel

  Siren Magic

  Angel Magic

  Fusion Magic

  Magical Creatures Academy

  Night Shifter

  Lion Shifter

  Mage Shifter

  Magical Arts Academy

  First Spell

  Winged Pursuit

  Unexpected Agents

  Improbable Ally

  Questionable Rescue

  Sorcerers’ Web

  Ghostly Return

  Transformations

  Castle’s Curse

  Spirited Escape

  Dragon’s Fury

  Magic Ignites

  Powers Unleashed

  Magical Arts Academy Omnibus, Books 1-4

  Magical Arts Academy Omnibus, Books 5-8

  Magical Arts Academy Omnibus, Books 9-13

  The Witching World

  Magic Awakens

  The Five-Petal Knot

  The Merqueen

  The Witching World Omnibus, Books 1-3

  The Ginger Cat

  The Scarlet Dragon

  Mermagic

  The Witching World Omnibus, Books 4-6

  Spirit of the Spell

  The Light Warrios

  Beyond Sedona

  Beyond Prophecy

  Beyond Amber

  Beyond Arnaka

  PLANET ORIGINS UNIVERSE

  Dragon Force

  Invisible Born

  Invisible Bound

  Invisible Rider

  Planet Origins

  Planet Origins

  Original Elements

  Holographic Princess

  Planet Origins Omnibus, Books 1-3

  Purple Worlds

  Mowab Rider

  Planet Sand

  Holographic Convergence

  OTHER WORLDS

  Supernatural Bounty Hunter

  (co-authored with Leia Stone)

  Magic Bite

  Magic Sight

  Magic Touch

  Pocket Portals

  The Orphan Son

  STANDALONES

  Huntress of the Unseen

  A Betrayal of Time

  Whispers of Pachamama

  Daughter of the Wind

  The Unkillable Killer

  Immortalium

  About Angel Magic

  The Magical Creatures Academy is the most secure location for Selene to defend herself from those who seek to claim her power.

  As usual with Selene, nothing is as expected.

  When the fearsome witch, Naomi Nettles, breaks through the academy’s fortifications, she delivers Selene to someone far worse, someone Selene had hoped never to cross paths with again.

  But on her quest to find Quinn, Selene will endure whatever she must.

  She’s the only sirangel in existence. She’s about to make the most of that fact to reunite with the man she loves.

  For Nadia Alessandra,

  who is a master make-believer

  and a constant inspiration

  Contents

  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

  Want More?

  Fusion Magic

  The Magical Creatures Academy Series

  The Magical Arts Academy Series

  The Witching World Series

  The Dragon Force Series

  Acknowledgments

  About the Author

  1

  “Wake up, sleepy head.” The words tinkled like chimes immediately next to my eardrum. Though probably intended to be pleasant, at this close range the diminutive fairy’s voice grated against my mind like the hull of a boat scraping a rocky ocean bottom.

  “Leave me alone, Nessa,” I groaned, rolling over in my bed, not bothering to open my eyes. I already knew the tiny fairy would look pert and jovial. She’d be flitting happily above me, her wings beating so fast they were a blur. I couldn’t handle the brightness of the hummingbird-sized fae, not when her hair, wings, and clothing were a shocking bright sky blue.

  “Ohhh no, don’t ignore me, Selene. You have to get up.”

  “Why?” I grumbled into the pillow. Made of molted pegasus feathers, the pillow was my version of heaven.

  “You know why. Egan will be here before you have the chance to get ready for the day if you don’t get your heiny moving.”

  Egan. I groaned into the smooth cotton pillowcase that beckoned me toward the land of dreams. It was difficult to forget the pegasus centaur who’d made it his mission in life to make me miserable. For two long months, he’d been training me every single day, without fail. I was pretty sure he was wholly unfamiliar with the word “rest.”

  “You know how he likes to take advantage of the day,” Nessa persisted.

  “Showing up before the sun rises is not taking advantage of the day,” I mumbled. “That’s called depriving me of sleep.”

  “You’ve had enough sleep. Come on. Don’t be lazy,” Nessa said.

  “I’m not lazy,” I said groggily, though it probably wasn’t necessary to defend myself. Nessa had witnessed enough of my training to realize I needed every second of rest I could get. Egan didn’t believe in taking it slow or in taking breaks. And it had only gotten worse since the Voice had broken the Magical Creatures Academy’s defenses and invaded the school. Everyone I encountered on the edge of the campus, where I was relegated to, was continually on edge. The sense of danger seemed to permeate even the tranquil forest air beneath the canopies of the towering trees above.

  “Up, Selene.” Nessa flew over to my ear that wasn’t pressed into my heavenly pillow and began to flick it—over and over again.

  I growled, lifted my head from the pillow, and pinned the blue tinkling pest with a murderous glare. I was certain my mussed hair and under-eye circles added a certain crazed touch to my look, and I fully embraced it.

  “Don’t. Flick. Me. Again,” I bit out.

  Nessa stilled, her tiny fingers outstretched, plastering an innocent expression on her face that I wasn’t buying. “What?” she said. “I’m just trying to help.”

  “Well, you’re not helping. You’re making me very angry.” I worked to moderate my tone and not be the grump Nessa accused me of being every single morning we went through a variation of this routine.

  “You’re making me angry too,” another tiny voice piped up. Fianna sat in her diminutive hammock bed and rubbed at her eyes. Compared to my bed, the fairies’ beds looked like toys. In fact, their entire home appeared
as if it had been invaded by a giant—me. Nancy, the Academy’s staff witch, had modified their miniature tree stump home to fit me, a human-sized girl who was anything but human.

  “I need additional rest to heal, Nessa,” Fianna grumbled. “How many times do I have to tell you not to wake me when you wake up Selene?”

  “Hey,” I said. “What about just letting us all sleep until at least the sun comes up? I’m healing too.”

  “From what?” Nessa asked, folding her tiny arms across her chest and narrowing her eyes at me.

  “Uh, from sprouting legs and wings and getting a daily beat-down from our not so friendly pegataur.”

  “Don’t let him hear you call him that,” Nessa warned for the hundredth time.

  “I’ll call him what I want, just as you do me.” But my defiance was all bluster, and we all realized it.

  “I’d like to see that,” the blue fairy said as Fianna the Crimson groaned from her hammock.

  “I love you, Nessa,” she said, “but if you keep waking us up like this, Selene’s going to become my new favorite cousin.”

  “Hey!” Nessa said at once. “Selene isn’t even your cousin.”

  “Exactly. You heard Melinda. I’m supposed to take it really easy until my wings are fully healed. I can’t take it easy with you pestering me.”

  Nessa sniffed and tilted her chin into the air, turning her narrow-eyed glare on Fianna. “I don’t pester. And you’ve been milking the whole wing injury for long enough. Naomi tore your wings two months ago! There isn’t a hole in sight after all of Melinda’s healing.”

  Melinda, a badger, was the staff healer of the Menagerie, the nickname students and staff alike had for the Magical Creatures Academy. She was kind enough to make me forget how much I missed my ocean home. As skilled as healers there were, not even the sea witch Mulunu could outdo the badger when it came to fixing creatures’ bodies.

  “Knock, knock,” a deep baritone voice said. Fianna and I shot out of our beds in a flash. I stumbled on the legs I’d only had for a couple of months, but the fairy flew straight from her hammock to jet around the large, open room. Even after Nancy’s spell, the tree stump continued to look like an average-sized tree stump, though on the inside everything was enlarged, so that it appeared as if the fairies lived inside the remains of a gigantic tree, one even larger than those that surrounded the glade. Sometimes I felt bad that the fairies had to live in a space that was so cavernous to them, but it was the only way I’d fit.

  Nessa adjusted her bright blue skirt and tiny top while she hovered in flight and grinned. She flew to the door and said, “Come on in, Egan. I’ve been waiting for you.” But she didn’t actually open the door for the pegataur. Now that the front door was my size, Nessa couldn’t budge it unless she used magic, and she had to cast a spell to do that. Spells took time, and Egan wasn’t a patient creature.

  When Egan pushed the brightly-painted door inward, Nessa smiled at him like a gracious hostess. I tossed my sleep shirt onto the unmade bed and snapped my crop top into place before the pegataur could see around the corner.

  “Good morning, Nessa,” Egan said. “I’m glad to see you up and enjoying this fine morning.”

  “It isn’t morning yet,” Fianna grumbled as she zoomed into Egan’s view.

  “Early bird catches the worm, Fianna,” Nessa said.

  “No, Nessa. The early bird chokes on the worm because it’s so sleep deprived it can’t function properly.”

  Neither Nessa nor Egan did much more than blink at Fianna’s usual attitude.

  “Where’s my favorite pupil?” Egan called out into the cottage.

  I was pretty sure I wasn’t his favorite pupil—more like his only pupil at the moment. Though he was a member of the staff of the Menagerie, Sir Lancelot, the school’s owl headmaster, had assigned him to train me. Since he worked with me nearly all day long, that didn’t leave time for many other responsibilities.

  I rounded the corner into his line of sight. “I’m here,” I said with a wistful look at the comfort of what had gradually become home. The furniture inside the fairies’ tree stump was made entirely of wood, some scooped out and carved from the remains of the tree itself. But every spot was draped in colorful mantles and cushions. Comfortable places to lounge were peppered throughout the cottage, and I wanted to sink into one of them.

  Egan peered at me with those forest-green eyes of his and I reluctantly pulled my gaze from the warm, open spaces. I’d have to survive many long hours of intense instruction before I could reward myself by collapsing into one of the cushioned couches.

  “Good morning, Selene,” the pegataur said, but his pleasant tone didn’t fool me for a second.

  “Good morning, Egan,” I said. But what I really thought was, Good morning, torture master.

  Nessa had cast a spell to create a single glowing orb that hovered above us all in the open living and dining areas. The warm yellow light cast the pegataur’s face and body in long shadows, making his horse form and wings appear even more formidable than usual. He had shoulder-length chestnut hair the same color as his body from the waist down, and wings that were a shocking bright white that matched his tail precisely. His hindquarters and legs were built for strength, and his wingspan was twice as wide as I was tall. His features, though handsome enough, were usually shaped into stern lines.

  The pegataur didn’t need the help of shadows to appear menacing.

  Egan smiled, all bright, straight teeth and mischief. “I have a fun day planned for you.”

  “I bet.” My shoulders slumped at the knowledge that Egan and I defined “fun” very differently. My wings drooped under the weight of what was to come. Every muscle in my body was sore; I didn’t think I’d ever feel normal again after the rigors of training. Muscles had popped in areas I wasn’t even aware I had them, only to ache so that I would never again forget them.

  “Would you like to join us for breakfast?” Nessa asked Egan, her voice impossibly cheery for the predawn hour.

  “I’d like to, but there’s no time. Selene and I must get started. It’s already late.”

  “It can’t be late when it’s early,” I muttered, but Egan had no problem ignoring me, or the fact that I was going to have to skip breakfast … yet again.

  “You’ll need your boots today,” he said, after taking in my bare feet.

  “Are you sure?” I whined. “I don’t like boots.” Of course he already knew I didn’t like not only boots, but footwear of any sort, and that as a siren—or half siren at least—I didn’t like shoes or clothing as a rule. After a lifetime in the nude, clothing was awkward and uncomfortable, totally constricting.

  The pegataur smiled his handsome smile that no longer fooled me. “They’re necessary, unless you want to risk me accidentally stepping on you again.” He stomped all four of his massive hooves as if I needed the reminder of how hard they had pressed into the delicate bones of my feet. It had taken Melinda three days to heal me the last time he’d crushed my toes, and she was a miracle worker.

  Even though Melinda had ordered me to take three days of bed rest, and I’d loved every second of time away from training, the memory of the pain of my broken feet had me sinking into the carved throne-like chair by the door. I started tugging on the leather boots that protected my legs up to my knees.

  The pegataur appraised me. “Are you’re sure you want to remain dressed that way? As you know, I’d recommend something a little more … substantial for our practice sessions.”

  “I’m sure.” I met his eyes to show him I wasn’t budging on attire. He wouldn’t trample the rest of my body with his hooves, though I’m sure he could if he wanted. I hadn’t yet managed to prevail in a single one of our sparring matches. Egan was a powerhouse, while I was, well, a girl awkward in her own skin. I was half siren and half angel. Though Egan assured me my genetic combination was sure to be powerful, I’d grown only slightly better coordinated than I’d been when I first began studying with him. I hoped it was
because I was still growing used to my new appendages—legs and wings—and that I wasn’t afflicted with a permanent case of clumsiness.

  The Menagerie was in a constant state of readiness, preparing for war. A rebel faction of vampires and shifters, aligned with at least one mighty witch, had already attacked me. There was no room for clumsiness or any kind of failure. Not if I hoped to see Quinn again—and I wanted to be reunited with Quinn more than I wanted to return to the ocean, more than I wished I could turn back time to return to that moment before I turned eighteen and Mulunu flung me from the Kunu Clan—and I wished for that a fair bit, especially at the end of an eternal day of training as I limped back to the fairies’ tree stump to nurse my injuries.

  Though there’d been no news of Quinn or Irving during the entire time I’d found safety on the outskirts of the Menagerie’s campus, Quinn was a constant in my thoughts. Sir Lancelot continued to search for the shifters’ whereabouts as he’d promised, but though the headmaster’s influence stretched wide, no one knew anything of use about either one of them.

  No one said it, at least not around me, but I suspected Egan and the fairies believed Quinn and Irving were dead. Two months was too long without any kind of news, one way or the other, even for a ferocious shifter like Irving. And Quinn? Well, no one knew what he was capable of, not even him.

  But I felt in my heart that Quinn was alive … somewhere. I sensed him out there. And though the connection between us made no more sense now than it had when we’d first met, it remained strong; it was what got me through the day. There was no place for weakness. To find Quinn, to see him again, and to ensure our safety, I needed to claim my power before one of the vampires or shifters could. Before Antonio Dimorelli could find me. Because I had no doubt he was looking for me.