Chapter 14 Three Weeks Later
THREE WEEKS LATER
Watching Olivia set up her new class schedule after three weeks of waiting had me feeling a bit envious.
It was school policy to enforce an adjustment period and Olivia was ready to crawl out of her own skin and get started.
We’d been on the same page until now, forming a routine that involved going out to eat and Olivia patching me up after my bouts at the Awakening Arena.
But now... it was time for her to move on without me.
Olivia spread out all the courses available onto a table and admired the different routes her life could take.
Unlike witches who were bound to a coven, Dark Mages could specialize their magic and had enough freedom to contribute to the clan rather than draw from its source.
Hendrik might have gone the traditional route of harnessing pain into power, but so many other elements could provide energy.
I eyed the titles with curiosity, wondering if Olivia would be interested in sorcery that focused on nature or astrology.
Thinking of astrology made me think of Orion... and I grimaced.
Olivia pointed to one of the papers. “What do you think about this one?” She pursed her lips.
“Introduction to Alchemy. According to the description, energies exist in all elements and this provides a fundamental understanding that requires three textbooks. It sounds like it’s just a lot of reading, and maybe something I could do without expending magic, doesn’t it? ”
Olivia had been trying to find classes where she wouldn’t have to use magic at all, which was a challenge for a fledgling Dark Mage.
It was going to take some time to pay back the debt we owed Hendrik.
He’d made it very clear that if she used her magic, even for a small spell, her life would be in grave danger.
Her body continually struggled to find energy to fuel her new magic and the clan rejected her attempts to draw more power from the collective than she was putting in.
Olivia was so eager to figure out who she was that I could tell it was killing her not being able to go all-out.
Even though I could relate to her ambition were I in the same position, I knew we had to do this the right way.
First I had to fix the damage I’d caused and then we could both figure out who we were, together.
I peered over her shoulder at the alchemy class card description. “Sounds like a great class,” I said and gave her a warm smile. “Do you know what the professor’s like?”
“Oh,” she said, drawing back from the table, “I hadn’t considered the professors. I’m going to have to rearrange all of the cards.”
I nodded in agreement. After a couple of weeks at the Academy and no sign of improvement from the Awakening Arena, Miss Williams had reluctantly given me a couple of classes to keep me occupied.
I found how useful those classes were depended entirely on the professor.
Even the teachers had alliances and it became quickly obvious who was in league with either Hendrik, Melinda’s Mindfreaks, the Demis, or the Shifters.
“I don’t know about the professor who teaches Alchemy,” Olivia went on. “Who do you think I could ask? Maybe some of the Dark Mages?”
Even though we had our own small alliance, neither of us knew much about the inner social workings of the campus other than what we gleaned for ourselves, which wasn’t much.
Being a dud made it hard to build any sort of alliance and Logan hadn’t talked to me ever since our fall-out.
Olivia was more than understanding. She didn’t press me every time I came back from the Awakening Arena ashen and defeated.
No one was able to kill me. Without the true fear of death, my instincts refused to come out and the truth about who I was remained buried somewhere deep inside of me.
In spite of my pretty face and my fragile appearance, I was a lot harder to fight than I looked.
Olivia told me I should be proud of my skills, but it made me even more concerned about what kind of life I had before I’d found myself drenched in blood at Monster Mother’s door.
“I don’t know if it’s a good idea to talk to the other Dark Mages, not yet,” I said half-heartedly.
“They know I’m Hendrik’s little bitch right now.
” I fingered the stone around my neck that felt more and more like a collar that leashed me to Hendrik’s clan.
In spite of that, I felt a fondness towards the gem I couldn’t describe.
It awarded me curious stares on campus, but it was too big to tuck under my uniform.
For now, I’d play along until I found a way to get Hendrik off my ass.
Olivia went back to sorting out the course cards, aligning them based on the professors she knew about and those she didn’t. “I heard this one hates mages,” she grumbled, tossing it to the floor. “Oh and this one hates women.” By the end of her sorting, she’d eliminated almost half her pile.
I didn’t have the luxury of picking out new classes. Other than fighting at the Awakening Arena and taking on a couple of basic classes like supernatural history and parallel world realm studies, I knew what I had to do.
It was time for me to plot out my first payment to Hendrik’s Blood Stone.
Orion.
I’d been racking my brain on how to get Orion to do what I needed.
He might be a demigod, but surely he had a weakness.
Three weeks of stalking him still didn’t give me much to go on.
All the Demis seemed to do was host orgies.
I still wasn’t sure how I felt about peeking into the Demi Dormitories only to find Orion in the middle of a pile of bodies, his elegant form trapped in the middle of a tangle of arms and legs.
The succubus in me always reacted and made me feel a bit ashamed, but I needed to understand how his powers worked.
The Demis fed on the other students, but not in a way that qualified them for Monster Academy.
They didn’t take magic that fueled life-force, but rather the demigods were like mages on steroids.
They converted pleasure into power. If anything, the students who came out of the Demi Dorms seemed rejuvenated and had a glow bubbling up just underneath their skin that seemed to last for days.
If fucking a demigod really did give a power boost, it was easier to understand why so many were willing to partake in the orgies.
Building up my courage to venture out again, I got up from my chair and stretched. “I think I’ll go for a walk,” I told Olivia. The Demis were due for another orgy right about now. If anything, they were like clockwork and predictable when it came to their feeds.
Olivia, still glued to her remaining class cards, waved absently at me. “Don’t get into any trouble,” she called out.
Me, get into trouble? Can’t imagine what would give her that idea.
With dusk fast approaching the campus, only the shifters and a few Dark Mages were out tonight. The Mindfreaks liked to hole up early.
I still wasn’t used to the alternate world I was starting to call home—a temporary home where everyone hated me.
The black and blue sky seemed bruised, as if it had been the one trapped in the Awakening Arena instead of me.
There was no sun or moon to speak of, just an endless sea of murky color that had me feeling claustrophobic.
I wasn’t sure what had happened to the two moons I’d seen my first night at the Academy, but they were long gone now, replaced by a vast expanse of nothingness.
I craved some celestial object to ground me, give me direction and focus on an otherwise endless night.
Ironic that I would be seeking out a demigod named Orion.
I came upon the Demi Dorms and stopped short of crossing the sidewalk where the ground took on a golden hue.
It was as if the entire building was made of gold and brass and the metallic beauty bled into the streets.
If the orgies really contributed to the demigods’ power, then it made more sense why the building had such a celestial glow to it.
Curling my fingers around my necklace, I crossed the boundary and went straight for the front door.
I rapped my knuckles on the sturdy frame and waited. There was no touchpad for entry to the Demi Dorms. The building itself seemed to have a sentience of its own and I felt like it always knew I was watching when I came around to spy on Orion and his friends.
The door flung open and Ally, Daughter of Athena, gave me a low whistle. “Well look who it is, the dud.” She beamed. “Come on in. We’ve been waiting for you.” She turned on her heel, sending her braids flinging over her shoulder, as she marched inside and left the door open for me.
I’d only gotten to see some of the massive rooms on the ground floor where most of the orgies were hosted, but the entranceway was even more impressive.
I stepped into a brilliance of golden light that fluttered at my steps, sending a cascade of light reeling along the walls as if I’d disturbed a quiet paradise.
I followed Ally down the halls with a sense of growing wonder.
Any sense of peace the beauty of the Demi Dorms might have given me was banished when I heard the sensual moans. The magical essence of sexual desire hit me in the chest and I gripped my invisible rune that burned and suppressed my instinct to feed on the life-force it was linked to.
As if Ally sensed a disturbance, she paused and quirked an eyebrow at me. “You did come here for the orgy, right?”
I felt like I should have been insulted by the casual way she asked me that, but it was the truth. I had come here for the orgy.
Not that I was going to participate.
Maybe.
I gave Ally a shaky nod. “Yeah, uh, just nervous. You know, first time.”
She glanced down at the Blood Stone I was still touching and I let go of it. She frowned. “You better not be up to something for Hendrik. That won’t end well for you.”