paranatellon

The Witches of King City Academy are nothing if not elusive, exclusive, and intrusive. They know you down to the last detail; keep track of all your secrets, and keep a million of their own on wine-laced lips.

For Ivory Blue, they turn her world upside down overnight. Her worst fear becomes her greatest shame, and in a small city like hers, there's nowhere to hide.

So, in her desperation, she seeks out the company of Archer Finley: defiant loner-boy extraordinaire. He takes her to a place that Witches can't touch; a place outside of time and reality and anything that exists to chain them down.

Soon enough, their life on the flipside feels like home. Away from the rumours. Away from the lies. Away from the blood on their hands.

And away from the world on the surface, because not everything there is quite as it seems.

On the Flipside

WHEN REBEL AND I FIRST enrolled at King City Academy, we'd known our futures like the backs of our hands. It had been mapped out for us, our destinies as Witches in a world where we would be the most important people in each of our lives. Attached at the hip and inseparable, our hearts had been big but our dreams had been bigger, and the stars in Rebel's eyes had blinded me from seeing all else. 


When we'd been the new firsters, the KCSN that established that had been my first experience of alcohol. I hadn't liked it the first time, but as time went on, I began to grow fond of the pungent taste and the easy cloud fogging my brain.


I had also been there the night Rebel lost her virginity. It had been to an older boy she'd taken a liking to, falling for his soft smile and easy charm but not enough that she ever endeavoured to let go of my hand; it'd stayed clutched in hers for the whole night. He had been gentle with her at the start, following her cues and picking up the pace as the rounds of going at it had increased in number. He didn't care that I was there, and Rebel wouldn't let me go. For weeks afterward, the crescent shape of her nails had been embedded into my palm, a memory of her first time and my own watching, my mouth forming a little oh in the darkness at the sight of his naked body on hers. 


For a year of endless parties and dizzying nights of sex and alcohol, I had been a part of her. As we grew throughout the year, she let me go whilst she spent her nights in ways I couldn't have even dreamed of, and I stayed nursing whatever drink I found myself left with, sticking to my own company and only imagining the things Rebel could have been experiencing. 


Somewhere along the line, I had heard the parties were a secret among the students. Exclusive as they were, every single person at King City knew about them, and it was only the staff that'd been none the wiser. 


When I'd first been pulled into Mr Rose's office―a man I only really had known from his connections to my mother―I thought someone had found out and that for being a part of the crowd, I was in trouble.


Instead, it was in preparation for the arrival of my little brother, Ebony Blue, at the school. We'd established the best person to talk to about Ebony was Ebony himself, and I was released, but not before I'd caught his gaze linger on me for a length of time that was longer than necessary. I'd felt uncomfortable beneath his stare as I'd excused myself and left, returning to Rebel, who had yet another story to tell about another exciting night.


I'd first learned that she didn't distinguish between sexes the night she left with another first-year: Everly Reach. That was the first time Rebel had broken my heart, because if she didn't care, why hadn't I been the first?


She returned that time with a mouthful of apologies, saying there was nothing stopping her except for the fact we weren't right for each other, and that had put my rejected little heart at ease. 


That had been our last KCSN as firsters, and after a long holiday, we returned as flesh and blood to our peers, and it was my brother who'd been expecting to go through it all like I had.


When Ebony first enrolled at KCA, I told him to promise me not to become an IP, and never to become a Witch. I'd told him they were dangerous and apathetic, and would never accept somebody like him―they didn't want a younger sibling or a carbon copy, or anyone that they already had. I'd lied to him that night, because truthfully, it had been because I'd known how he felt about Rebel, and didn't want him to interfere.


And now that promise is shattered, lying in fragments at our feet.


12 | liar, liar (part one)