Charmfall
Authors: Chloe Neill
PRAISE FOR THE NOVELS OF THE DARK ELITE
Hexbound
“Neill continues building her urban fantasy geared toward tweens and teens featuring a slightly different take on magic . . . will appeal to fans of series like the Blood Coven [Vampires].”
—Monsters and Critics
“The Dark Elite series is absolutely gripping and definitely a page-turner. I could not resist this book and read it quickly. If you haven’t picked up this series, you need to. This is one book that will rock your reading world.”
—Books with Bite
Firespell
“Chloe Neill has written an incredible cast of characters and her heroine, Lily, has a wonderful, engaging voice. . . . Fans of urban fantasy, paranormal, and young adult will definitely want to pick this one up and lose themselves in the magical underground that is Chicago.”
—Fresh Fiction
“If you crave a story full of intrigue, mystery, magic, and a bit of romance, then this is your book.”
—Bookstack
“Exciting teen urban fantasy.”
—Genre Go Round Reviews
“In a genre laden with boarding school dramas, how can one possibly stand out? Ask Chloe Neill. She did an excellent job of making
Firespell
stand out above all the others.
How?
you may ask. By writing exceptionally interesting, fun characters.”
—Pure Imagination
“
Firespell
separates itself from the pack by virtue of its strong characters, compelling universe, and excellent plotting. . . . [Its] pages fly by and will leave readers eagerly counting down the days until the next book in the series.”
—
Sacramento Book Review
PRAISE FOR CHLOE NEILL’S CHICAGOLAND VAMPIRES NOVELS
“With her wonderfully compelling reluctant vampire heroine and her careful world building, I was drawn into
Some Girls Bite
from page one, and kept reading far into the night.”
—Julie Kenner,
USA Today
bestselling author of
Good Ghouls Do
“If you loved Nancy Drew but always wished she was an undead sword-wielding badass, Merit is your kind of girl.”
—
Geek Monthly
“A refreshing take on urban fantasy.”
—
Publishers Weekly
“The pages turn fast enough to satisfy vampire and romance fans alike.”
—
Booklist
“Neill creates a strong-minded, sharp-witted heroine who will appeal to fans of Charlaine Harris’s Sookie Stackhouse series and Laurell K. Hamilton’s Anita Blake.”
—
Library Journal
OTHER NOVELS IN THE DARK ELITE SERIES
Firespell
Hexbound
CHARMFALL
A NOVEL
of
THE DARK ELITE
CHLOE NEILL
NEW AMERICAN LIBRARY
New American Library
Published by New American Library,
a division of Penguin Group (USA) Inc.,
375 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014, USA
Penguin Group (Canada), 90 Eglinton Avenue East, Suite 700, Toronto,
Ontario M4P 2Y3, Canada (a division of Pearson Penguin Canada Inc.)
Penguin Books Ltd., 80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL, England
Penguin Ireland, 25 St. Stephen’s Green, Dublin 2,
Ireland (a division of Penguin Books Ltd.)
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New Zealand (a division of Pearson New Zealand Ltd.)
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Rosebank, Johannesburg 2196, South Africa
Penguin Books Ltd., Registered Offices:
80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL, England
First published by New American Library,
a division of Penguin Group (USA) Inc.
First Printing, January 2012
Copyright © Chloe Neill, 2012
All rights reserved
REGISTERED TRADEMARK—MARCA REGISTRADA
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Neill, Chloe.
Charmfall: a novel of the Dark elite/Chloe Neill.
p. cm.
1. Paranormal—Fiction. 2. Magic—Fiction. 3. High schools—Fiction. 4. Schools—Fiction. 5. Demonology—Fiction. 6. Vampires—Fiction. 7. Chicago (Ill.)—Fiction. I. Title.
PZ7.N42862Ch 2012
[Fic]—dc23 2011043641
Designed by Elke Sigal
Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise), without the prior written permission of both the copyright owner and the above publisher of this book.
PUBLISHER’S NOTE
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
The publisher does not have any control over and does not assume any responsibility for author or third-party Web sites or their content.
The scanning, uploading, and distribution of this book via the Internet or via any other means without the permission of the publisher is illegal and punishable by law. Please purchase only authorized electronic editions, and do not participate in or encourage electronic piracy of copyrighted materials. Your support of the author’s rights is appreciated.
Contents
To Jeremy, with love and Schnauzers
Acknowledgments
Thanks to the usual suspects who helped get Lily and Scout ready for the shelf, including Jessica, for her fantabulous edits, and Rosanne, Liz, and Jia, for their marketing support and assistance. Thanks to Lucienne, my lovely agent. Double thanks to Krista and Lisa for manning the Meritverse Forums (http://forums.chloeneill.com), editing, and marketing, and to my colleagues, friends, and family (Hi, Mom!) for their constant support. My apologies to Scout and Baxter for all the balls I haven’t had time to throw, and to Jeremy, who has to put up with me while I fret about the writing—and married me anyway.
“Magic is overrated.
Courage is what matters.”
—Scout Green
1
H
is fur was silvery gray. His eyes shifted color between sky blue and spring green, and his ears were flat against his head.
I’d tripped and fallen, which put me at eye level with the giant werewolf in front of me. He growled deep and low, and my heart stuttered a little . . . until he padded forward and nuzzled my arm.
“I’m fine,” I assured him, hopping to my feet. I may have been okay, but my jeans probably weren’t going to recover anytime soon. The tunnels beneath Chicago were damp and dirty, and they left brown marks on my knees.
“Frick,” I muttered, dusting them off the best I could and blowing choppy dark hair from my eyes. “I really liked these jeans.” Maybe for once it was a good thing I’d be back in a plaid school uniform tomorrow morning.
A flash of light filled the tunnel, and a sixteen-year-old boy in jeans and a long-sleeved shirt appeared in the hallway where the wolf had been.
“The jeans are the last thing you need to worry about right now, Lily,” he said, ruffling a hand through his dark blond hair. “I beat you in that last lap by a full ten seconds.”
“I fell,” I pointed out, blushing a little as I looked into his blue eyes. “Besides, you have four legs. I only have two.”
He made a sarcastic sound, but winked at me. That didn’t exactly stop the blushing. Actually, Jason and I had been dating for a few weeks now, and I still blushed
a lot
. He was just, you know,
cute
. The kind of cute that gave you goose bumps and made your heart flutter.
The sound of splashing echoed through the tunnels, followed by the sound of heavy panting. This time, it was just two teenagers. Scout Green, my slightly weird BFF, and Michael Garcia, her totally adorable would-be boyfriend, stood in the threshold to the next tunnel. (Would-be, if she let him. He was still working on it.)
She was one of my suitemates at the über-snotty St. Sophia’s School for Girls. Michael and Jason were juniors like us, but they attended a private school a few blocks away from ours.
“You guys okay?” I asked.
“We’re good,” Scout said, but she didn’t sound thrilled about it.
“I won,” Michael said, jumping around the tunnel like he’d just crossed a goal line and spiked a ball. “I am the champion. The champion!
Ahhhhh!
Ahhh!
The crowd goes wild!”
Scout rolled her eyes, and Jason gave him a fist bump.
“Well-done.”
“Yeah, it really was,” Michael said, dark curls bouncing as he pranced around Scout like it would actually impress her. Normally it wouldn’t, but there was a tiny smile at one corner of her mouth this time. Maybe she was a little impressed.
“So we’ve done our sprints,” she said, putting her hands on her hips. “What’s next on the list?”
Jason pulled a folded piece of paper from his pocket and opened it up. “Recommended Adept Workout Number Two,” he began.
“Is it, ‘commence being awesome’?” Michael asked.
“It is not,” Jason said. “It’s dodge ball.”
We all smiled. Dodge ball was one of our favorites, ’cause our version had nothing to do with lining up in a row like in gym.
See, we were Adepts—teenagers with magic. And I’m not talking about magic tricks or smoke and mirrors. I’m talking real magic—vampires and werewolves and spellcasting—and that was just the stuff I knew about.
As it turns out, the world was
full
of magic. (That fell into the category of “things that totally shocked me,” which also includes turducken and gladiator sandals. Who do those things look good on?) A lucky few teenagers with some special skill or quality got a taste of magic while they were young. Scout, for example, could bind and cast spells. I wielded firespell, which meant I could control lights and send out blasts of power that could knock out bad guys. Michael could read architecture—he could put his hands on a building and figure out what had happened there recently.