Chapter 1
“If Orion writes you another poem, I’m going to shoot myself in the fucking face.”
This was the latest in a litany of complaints from Trevor, the son of Poseidon, and one of the unhappier Demi members, given the hit to his powers that made him guzzle the Academy’s water bottle supply like his life counted on it.
Well, it kind of did, being that the Academy was nowhere near shorefront property and it was Orion’s magical feeds that had been fueling his life-force up until now.
When I unlocked the Virtue Bond between me and Orion, I took away his ability to feed on others.
All he wanted was me, and, well, I wasn’t putting out.
My bad.
“Seriously. You need to fix this shit,” Trevor said, crushing yet another plastic bottle and tossing it into the recycling bin. Because yeah, the Academy required blood for registration and forced its students to fight to the death, but they sure as hell recycled.
I adjusted my backpack and leaned against the wall, accepting that the Demigod was clearly not going to get out of my way. Not that I was in a rush to get to another class designed to torment me into fully Awakening.
Yeah, Awakening. That thing I have to do to remember what I am, why I’m here, and how I’m going to save the world.
No pressure.
Trevor pulled another bottle from his gym bag and started guzzling while giving me his best glare.
I fanned myself with the offending poem, then grinned.
“Why are you smiling like that?” Trevor asked after finishing off his bottle and wiping his mouth.
I waved the parchment in his face.
He groaned. “It’s scented? Are you fucking kidding me?”
Someone snatched the poem from my grip before I had a chance to torment Trevor further with the level of depravity I was forcing on Orion. I had plans for all my bullies and I was reveling in every second of Orion’s punishment.
“That’s enough of that,” the daughter of Athena scolded as she stepped between us.
Her once luminous braids now stood out in frizzy patches against the hallway’s unforgiving lights.
“It’s bad enough that you took away Orion’s power that sustained the rest of us.
Now you’ve demoralized him into a sniveling romantic.
” She opened the letter and frowned at its contents.
“I don’t know if I should be impressed or throw up. ”
Trevor snorted, then winced as the pressure made his dry nose start to bleed. He wiped away the crusty blood with the back of his hand. “How long are you going to let this go on? Can’t you undo whatever spell you cast on him already?”
“It’s Hendrik we should be talking to, not his pet,” she said with a sneer.
I tried not to take the insult seriously, but it stung anyway and I couldn’t help but glance down at the Blood Stone that hung around my neck like a noose.
It was steadily feeding on their misery with delicate red and purple tendrils that lingered in the air, slowly filtering into the stone.
Luckily they didn’t seem to be able to see the drain that would help me pay back the blood debt I owed the Dark Mage.
Hendrik was my worst bully of all and until I figured out how to keep Olivia safe, I was going to have to play along with his demands.
“Whatever,” I snapped, hating how defensive I sounded.
I shoved off the wall and straightened, staring Ally down.
Even without her muscles and lean stature, the daughter of Athena held herself with a sense of confidence that magic couldn’t take away.
“If both of you would kindly move, I would like to get to class.”
Ally crumpled the letter and threw it at my chest. It bounced off and rolled across the floor. “I don’t think so. You’re going to fix this with Orion and you’re going to fix it now.”
“Yeah,” a male voice chimed in.
Furrowing my eyebrows, I searched for the source. “Zero?” I asked. The son of Zeus usually had a booming cadence to his voice that went along with his powerful presence, but he was nowhere to be found and he sounded somehow distant.
Ally sighed. “That’s what I meant. Even Zero has been impacted. If this goes on much longer, it’s going to be more than just a practical joke. You could seriously impact our standing at the Academy.”
A sharp jolt of electricity made me jump and a shimmer of a silhouette flashed briefly at my side. My eyes widened. “He’s… invisible?”
“Yep,” he said, not sounding too amused about it. “Makes raising my hand in class a challenge.”
“Like you ever raise your hand,” Trevor grumbled as he rummaged in his bag, producing empty water bottles. He scratched away a dry scale forming at his neck and cursed. “Dammit. I’m out.”
Ally took me by the elbow and began to drag me down the hall in the opposite direction than I needed to be going.
I could have used my supernatural strength to stop her, but being around them only fueled the stone more.
By the dim light in its core, I was nowhere near filling it up completely and could use all the power I could get.
“I signed you up for a new class,” Ally informed me as she took me down the corridor. Poor Olivia would be looking for me, but I was doing all of this to make sure she survived our sophomore year.
Yeah… it had only been a few weeks for us, but an entire year had passed for the outside world. I didn’t even want to dwell on the repercussions of that, especially knowing that Dante was on a mission. An entire year had passed for him. Would he have forgotten about me?
“I thought she’d be more reluctant,” came Zero’s comment.
I shivered and yanked myself free from Ally’s grip. She stumbled back, then caught herself. It pissed her off to no end that I was just as strong as her.
“It’s creepy that I can’t see you,” I complained at Zero’s disembodied voice. It felt like his breath was on the back of my neck and the air shimmered as he followed us.
“Then fix what you’ve done,” came the logical reply.
Guess I deserved that.
“I don’t know why you guys think that I have any control over Orion’s powers,” I countered.
All I had done was unwittingly initiate the beginnings of the Virtue bond.
In spite of Orion’s romantic advances, I knew his ploy was to get me to think I’d won.
I felt his resistance in our bond like a cold dagger stuck in my chest. He thought this was something I actually had control over, which was fun at first, but now it was getting annoying.
Did I really want a Virtue connection with a playboy Demigod that had slept with over half the Academy? I mean, not really, but I couldn’t deny how I felt around him. Part of me wanted to punch him in the face, but the other part? Yeah, it wanted to try out some very Demigod-like kink.
“What do you mean you don’t have any control?
” Trevor snapped. “I’m calling bull, because you’ve been leading Orion by the dick for weeks.
It’s time to stop.” He yanked a door open to a classroom I’d never been in before.
I peered inside, spotting only one row of desks and a disgruntled looking Orion leaning against the wall.
The only evidence that he’d noticed me at all was the flaring of his nostrils.
But gods, was he beautiful.
His bronze skin glowed from within, illuminating freckles that spanned over his entire body that made him look like a walking constellation.
His eyes were always beautiful, even now with his powers on the fritz.
His weakened state was demonstrated by his silver-grey eyes that followed my movements as I stepped inside, making me feel drawn to him in spite of myself.
Soft locks with a slight curl on the ends made me want to run my fingers through his hair, perhaps while kissing and taking a bite out of those oh-so-delicious biceps.
“Hello?” Trevor drawled. “Ringing Lily Fallen. Quit staring at your boy toy and fuck him already.”
I cleared my throat and absent-mindedly palmed the Blood Stone that continued to draw power from all the Demigods in the room. A glance at the front desk told me we were all very much alone.
Not good.
“What kind of class doesn’t have a teacher?
” I complained, trying not to sound too shaken.
Even though I was on the path to discovering who and what I was, it didn’t mean I had any substantial defensive powers to work with.
I’d survived the Academy this long because Hendrik was a tentative ally and Kaito kept tabs on me, staying one step ahead of the red tape that the Dean put in place to catch someone like me trying to bend the rules.
I had my supernatural strength, which might be enough to spring me to the only exit. I turned around, only to find that all three Demigods stood in front of the door, staring at me expectantly.
Zero, or what was left of him, shimmered into the visible range. Lightning streaked across his skin and it looked painful for him to remain corporeal, but his jaw flexed as he suffered through it. My Blood Stone hummed as if delighted to slurp up his pain.
Trevor had been draining the Academy’s water bottle supply for quite some time, but he’d really stocked up today. He summoned a trident and pinged it against the ground, sending a sharp ringing to settle in my ears and make my teeth clack.
Ally rested her hand on the hilt of a long sword that had materialized at her thigh. “You going to do something, or just stand there with that dumb look on your face?”
I cleared my throat. “Well, clearly you lot are putting all the cards on the table.” I propped my hands on my hips.
“How long can you keep this up? Do you really want to drain what’s left of your powers just to frighten me?
That’s a good way to get Hendrik on your ass.
” The Demis and the Mages were supposed to be allies, but all this tension between Orion and myself was definitely causing some waves.
A hand slipped around my middle and rested on my stomach like a brand, pulling me in close to a hard chest.