Battle Magic (Protectors Academy Book #3)

Five souls. One prophecy. The fate of two realms.
The Heartwood is spreading, corrupting everything, draining Faerie dry. We're fugitives in the Borderlands with nowhere left to run.
And I'm supposed to trust Aidan—the traitor, the spy, the enemy who might be our only hope.
The prophecy says five Fae will destroy the Heartwood and save the realms. Me and four princes: Fergus, Cole, Declan... and Aidan. Our magic ignites when we're together. Our bond grows stronger every day.
But Leonora won't stop until we're dead. The Borderlands are trying to kill us. And time is running out.
One quest. One artifact. One final battle to end it all.
They say the Heartwood can't be destroyed. They haven't seen what happens when five souls become one.
The epic conclusion to the Protectors Academy trilogy. All the steam. All the action. All the men. HEA guaranteed.

Every time I closed my eyes, the vision of the lab collapsing filled my head. Gregory was dead. And I had escaped thanks to the men around me.
There was so much going on, and yet, my focus needed to be on my three men, and the revelation that we’re nowhere near finished with all this treachery.
My small dorm room seemed even more crowded with Cole, Fergus, and Declan huddled around me on the narrow bed. The air reeked of smoke and fire from the lab, which came with us through the portal. I could still sense the remnants of fire on my tongue, acrid and bitter.
I looked at Fergus, my voice trembling slightly as I spoke, “I... I can't believe what just happened. Fergus, I'm so sorry about your father. I never meant to--”
“Don’t,” Fergus cut me off, his tone flat. “My father was going to kill me.” His usual golden-bronze skin had paled. He looked washed out, like someone had snuffed all the light from within him. His shoulders slumped, that confident posture he always carried now gone.
I opened my mouth to apologize again, but Cole jumped in, throwing his hands up.
“And my mother... She used that extraction curse. On all of us. Knowing there was no cure.”
He paced back and forth.
“And yeah, she’s my mother, but... hell, she’s known us all since we were kids! She was there for everything—birthdays, stupid school plays, even conjuring backyard treehouses. But then... She just turned us into zombies. Like we were tools.”
He stared at all of us.
“God, she... she was my mom.” His voice cracked, and he glanced away, jaw clenched tight.
Declan placed a hand on Cole’s shoulder, his own voice ragged. “Mate, it’s... it’s mental. What they did to us.”
I nodded, tears welling in my eyes. “I've destroyed everything. If I hadn’t activated your magic, none of this would have happened. Your parents would still be... I don’t know, acting like your parents. We wouldn’t be fugitives.” 
Fergus shook his head, his voice barely audible. “You didn't destroy anything, Sadie. They did. My father, Cole's mother... they betrayed us.”
Cole looked at me. “You awakened something inside us. Our Fae power. That’s how it was always supposed to happen. And Fae magic doesn’t need conduit rings, right? It’s in our bloodlines.”
“Are you saying we could be...” Fergus hesitated, glancing at Cole, “changelings?”
“One of our parents had to be fae. And seeing as Gregory and Leonora won't stop until every last Fae is dead, I doubt one of them would have shacked up with a Fae to make us, right?”
Declan nodded. “I see what you're getting at. And my parents aren't much different. All the mages on the council despise the Fae. That's why it was so easy for them to kill us. Leonora knew she couldn't be your parent if you had Fae power.”
I took a shaky breath. “There's more. Something I discovered about us, about why they're so afraid of our power...”
Three pairs of eyes snapped to my face.
“A prophecy involving four Faerie princes and a Fae from another realm,” I continued, the words tumbling out in a rush. “We're meant to break the spell, undo the powerful Magic that the council is wielding, and free the Fae from their imprisonment.”
“Is that all?” Fergus drawled. My face flushed and I jabbed in the ribs.
“Ouch,” he cried in mock offense.
“Stop it you two. Sadie, where did you hear this prophecy? In the lab?” Cole asked.
“No. When I was looking for a way to break the Extraction spell. I spoke with Professor Tremaine. I showed her my Fae fire,” I admitted.
“You didn’t!” Fergus exclaimed.
“What did she say?” Declan asked.
“Did you tell her about us?” Cole asked.
I took a deep breath and plunged ahead.
“She told me about the extermination of the half Fae. And then she told me about a friend she had who was tortured by the council but managed to survive. She escaped into the desert and that’s where I visited her. She told me about the prophecy. Her name was Jessica.”
“Where did she hear the prophecy from?” Cole asked.
“She said her mother told her before she was taken away,” I explained, remembering the sorrow in Jessica’s face. “She unlocked my memories of coming through the wormhole here to save the Faerie realm. And then someone hit me with a spell ripping my soul in two. That’s when I lost my memory.”
“You went to the Borderlands after that?” Declan asked.
“Yes, she told me my other half was here. I came here, I was made whole. She also told me the truth of what the council is doing. Sucking all the magic from Faerie to wield it as their own.”
“How are they sucking out the magic?” Cole asked.
“She said a spell,” I said.
“What about the prophecy?” Declan asked and rubbed his face with his hands. “What did she say exactly?”
I stopped to try to remember her words. “She said there would be a Fae coming from a distant land. That would have enough magic to stop the council from stealing the Fae magic. And she said something like but, there’s supposed to be five of you. Five makes one.”
“I don’t hear princes in there,” Fergus said, interrupting me.
I rolled my eyes at him. “That was the next part. She said a Fae from a distant realm and the four princes of the realm.”
“She didn’t say the Faerie realm?” Cole asked.
I thought for a moment before responding. “No, she didn’t.”
“It could be any realm then. Like the human realm,” Fergus said. He got up and paced up and down in my tiny room.
“Fae fire has been obliterated from the human realm, dumbass,” Cole snarked. “And we have it.”
“We aren’t princes though,” Fergus shot back.
“But we were heirs to seats on the council. Maybe she got the language confused,” Cole shot back.
“Don’t prophecies sound more poetic and shit,” Declan cut in.
He had a point on that one.
“That’s the problem, isn’t it? It’s like a third hand prophecy. We don’t have the exact language so we could totally be missing something,” Fergus said.
“And who’s our fourth?” I asked.
“If it’s the heirs to the council, then that’s Aidan,” Cole said.
A sharp rap on the door interrupted him before the door burst open, revealing a pale-faced Aidan, followed by a visibly worried Kelly.
“Speak of the devil,” Fergus said.
Aidan shoots him a look before saying, “Leonora's coming,” Aidan said, his words clipped and urgent. “She knows about the lab. She and a group of council guards arrived by portal minutes ago.”
“How do you know she's here for us?” Declan asks. “Or is this a trap? Hard to trust you with your shifting allegiances.”
Even if she wasn't coming for us, it was only a matter of time before she did. I knew how we'd escape. “We have to go,” I declared, my voice steady despite the fear gripping tight on my chest. “To the Borderlands. It'll be harder for her to track us there.”
Aidan's eyes widened in disbelief. “The Borderlands? Are you insane?” He stared at me, his voice rising. “This is exactly why everything's falling apart! You make reckless decisions. Your magic is unpredictable, and you constantly put everyone around you in danger!”