Chapter 24
Chapter
Twenty-Four
Bloom
The Twelve Revealed
Headmistress Stardust stepped into the front of the center balcony, where Zeus, my mate, and my mother were seated. Demeter shouldn’t be among the major players, but she’d earned her place siding with Zeus against my husband. And as my mother, the alliance had made her a key piece in this game.
Headmistress Stardust—Hecate, Goddess of Witchcraft and Necromancy—was a vision of grace. Her hair was coiled in an elaborate crown. Her summer-blue eyes blazed with prismatic fire as they swept the arena.
She’d been a good friend to Demeter for eons. Now I understood why she had taken the role of headmistress in this mortal realm—to watch me, to spy for Mother, and to keep the feuding gods who posed as professors from destroying her precious academy.
She wore a crimson gown that seemed to flow like liquid blood. As she raised her hands, silence crashed over the arena, and every eye trained on her.
“Students of Reaper Academy,” her voice rang out, magic amplifying it to every corner. “Today, you stand in the presence of greatness. Today, you are seen by those who shaped the very world you inhabit.”
She gestured toward the balconies. “I present to you the Twelve Olympians. The gods who command the heavens and the earth, who hold dominion over all realms.”
She pointed to each in turn. “Hephaestus, God of the Forge. Hermes, God of Messengers. Dionysus, God of Wine and Revelry. Hera, Queen of the Gods!”
Then to the right. “Athena, Goddess of Wisdom. Artemis, Goddess of the Hunt. Ares, God of War. Aphrodite, Goddess of Love and Beauty. Apollo, God of the Sun and Brightness.”
Finally, the center. “And the most powerful in any realm—Zeus, King of the Gods and God of Lightning. Poseidon, God of the Seas. Demeter, Goddess of the Harvest.”
She paused, letting the weight of the names settle. “They have descended from Olympus, the city of the gods, to witness your valor. To judge your worth. To determine who among you deserves their inheritance. This trial is your chance to prove yourselves worthy of the divine blood in your veins.”
The only one she hadn’t introduced was Hades, as if he was a disgrace.
Every student dropped to their knees, heads bowed low. As one, they shouted, “We are honored! We’ll prove our worth!”
The words echoed through the arena, reverent and awed.
They’d been overwhelmed the moment they entered and saw the gods assembled. Never had they imagined they would be in the presence of a god, let alone the twelve most powerful gods all in one place. And now those gods had come to watch them fight.
To watch them die.
Every spectator in the lower tiers, hundreds of minor gods and goddesses, dropped to one knee as well, bowing their heads to the big dogs in respect.
I was the only one still standing in the arena.
I stood tall. Proud. Cold. My high ponytail whipped in the wind like a flame.
Before Persephone was married to Hades, she’d been a minor goddess. She’d be expected to bow to Zeus, to show deference, to know her place.
Everyone believed I was still just a mortal reincarnation. By their logic and rules, I should kneel. I should be awed, humbled, and grateful to be in the presences of magnificent gods.
But I wasn’t just Bloom anymore. The shy, timid girl was gone.
I bowed to no one.
Even in this mortal skin, I was still Queen of the Underworld.
I’d already defied them once by choosing Hades, the God of Death. What was a little more rebellion now?
For a heartbeat, I held Hades’s gaze across the distance. Pride blazed in his eyes. And desire that made my heart beat faster.
I looked away, scanning the crowd.
So many familiar faces. Some I had once called friends, back when I was young and na?ve enough to believe they cared. Now every one of them looked at me like I was a betting chip. Entertainment. A game piece on a board.
I’d never seen how petty, how false, how bloodthirsty they truly were until Hades showed me. Even when the truth hurt.
Now they all stared at me with cold disapproval at my refusal to kneel, to bow. The major gods narrowed their eyes. The minor ones glared.
The weight of the entire arena fixed on me as well. If I hadn’t remembered who I truly was, I could never have borne it—their outrage, their judgment, their condemnation.
Every Olympian had come for the spectacle. To witness my final fall. All except my mother, whose eyes held a flicker of concern beneath the ice.
But she had betrayed me too. She arranged my fate. Decided what was best for me without asking, without caring what I wanted.
A tangle of emotions seared through me—too intense, too messy to name. Rage, grief, bitter disappointment, all twisted together.
I couldn’t go there. Not now.
I was about to fight, and I wasn’t just fighting for myself or my mate. I had a house to protect. Students who’d pledged loyalty, who deserved more than to be slaughtered as pawns.
I shoved everything down and kept my face stone cold.
A salpinx, a long, piercing war trumpet, cut through the arena, followed by the students’ battle cries. They thought this was their chance to shine. To earn favor from the gods.
They didn’t see that they were just meat for the grinder.
Just as I’d expected, the students from the House of Kingsley charged toward me, their spears and swords raised high.
My house moved as one, forming a protective ring around me. Brave. Loyal. Probably about to die.
“Diamond formation!” I roared. “I lead!”
A longsword materialized in my grip, summoned from mist and memory. Pure Persephone magic—calling a weapon from nothing. Something no mortal could do.
The first Kingsley student reached me, a boy of maybe seventeen, spear aimed at my heart, his face twisted with eager violence. Promised a reward for my death, no doubt.
I sidestepped easily and drove my sword through his throat.
His eyes flared wide with surprise—shock at my speed, at the brutal precision of the strike.
I wrenched the blade free, spun, and sliced the second attacker across the stomach. The female student fell, screaming.
I’d excelled at swordplay eons before these children were born.
“Forward!” I shouted, cutting a path through the ranks of the House of Kingsley. None of them could hold me back. No foe stood a chance. “Stay in formation!”
Our small group moved as one machine. I led them north, fighting toward the main cluster of our house.
Sindy stayed close behind me, casting spells with precision, expelling any foes who tried to flank us.
“On your left, Bloom!” she shouted a warning.
I dropped just as a blade whistled over my head and drove my sword into the offender’s chest.
Blood sprayed hot across my face. The metallic scent filled the air.
Around us, the battle raged; screams, the clash of steel, the thud of falling bodies.
The witches and mages of Stardust House shifted east toward their own kind. They weren’t engaging Kingsley or Ravencrux, just staying clear of the melee. Their strategy was obvious: let us kill each other, then sweep in and claim victory over whoever was left standing.
Neutral. Just like their headmistress. Playing all sides.
“To me!” My voice bellowed through the chaos. “Ravencrux House, to me!”
Our scattered members fought their way toward me; a boy with a mace, blood streaking his forehead; a girl with twin daggers. More converged from every direction. I drew them toward me like moths to a flame; they were mine to protect.
We had to fight as one. Kingsley outnumbered us nearly two to one, especially their third-years.
Every Kingsley student was fixed on me, carving through anyone in their path. Poseidon had clearly placed a bounty on my head.
A spear came from the right. I knocked it aside and drove my blade through the wielder’s shoulder before I kicked him down. Another charged with an ax. I ducked the swing and opened his thigh. He collapsed.
They kept coming, wave after wave, like the tide their god commanded.
And a third year, the champion of the House of Kingsley, came to meet me. He was a head taller than my mortal body, his broadsword soaring toward my neck. I brought up my longsword. Metal shrieked as I locked my blade with his.
He grinned. “You’re dead, little girl.”
“You’re even more stupid than Poseidon,” I sneered, slamming my knee into his groin and ripping his throat out as he folded.
I flung the sucker’s torn piece of throat at a Kingsley girl behind him. The girl gave my bloody hand a look and turned to run.
Around us, students fell from both House of Kingsley and House of Ravencrux. Even a few from House of Stardust perished, caught in the crossfire.
Blood soaked into the sand, turning it dark and sticky. The air thickened with the copper scent of death and screams of agony.
And from the spectator seats, the gods bellowed.
Not in horror but in bloodlust. In delight. They cheered as if this were a gladiator match put on for their amusement.
Those fuckers. My enemies.
Rage from countless lifetimes seared my chest, hot and bitter.
I wanted to tear them all down. For what they’d done to my mate and me. For sacrificing these students in their sick games.
They would pay. Every single one of them.
But right now, it wasn’t about vengeance. It was about survival.
Our formation held. We’d merged into a larger unit, hundreds strong. Still outnumbered, but fighting with discipline while members of the Kingsley House devolved into chaos.
“Withdraw, and I won’t kill you,” I told the students from the opponent houses. “Stand in my way, and you’ll all die.”
I didn’t seek out those who faltered. If they fell back, I let them go. But anyone who came for blood, anyone who reveled in the violence, I became their nightmare, moving with lethal grace carved through lifetimes, finding throats, hearts, arteries.
The crowd took notice. Whispers ran through the spectators.
“Look how she moves!”
“That’s not mortal skill.”
The students had no idea that the Goddess of Death was among them. I had unleashed only a fraction of my power.
I wouldn’t show my full strength. Not yet. I had to play this carefully—read the situation, watch how the cards were dealt, before revealing my hand.
Just as Ravencrux House gained an advantage, a war horn blew.
The sound was nothing like the salpinx. It was deeper, piercing, the vibrations shuddering through the ground beneath us.
The north gate, the one nearest our group, crashed open.
A pair of centaurs charged through, one male, one female, their human torsos armored, their powerful horse bodies driving forward with bows and arrows.
Behind them poured dozens of monstrous beings, creatures that had no place in the mortal realm: chimeras with lion heads, serpents with long fangs, harpies with razor talons, and basilisks whose gaze could turn flesh to stone.
They were animal sentinels of the gods and immortal warriors who had honed their killing craft for millennia.
In seconds, their target was clear.
Me.
And to reach me, they began slaughtering every student from Ravencrux House in their path.
The gods had rigged the game.
No student could stand against these creatures. These weren’t opponents. They were executioners.
Our ranks broke into panic. Students from other houses scattered to the edges, realizing only I was being hunted, and other students were collateral damage.
A female student went down under a chimera’s claws. A boy was snatched by a harpy and lifted into the air before being dropped. The crack of his spine echoed across the sand.
“Triangular formation!” I roared, but fear was a live wire through our ranks. “Behind me, now!”
Our group reshaped, instinct taking over. They trusted me.
I had to show this card to protect them.
I pushed out a weaving shield—threads of ink and gold, visible only to those who knew how to look—and draped it over my house like a second skin. Claws and fangs and spells glanced off its shimmer.
At the same time, my blade carved through two monsters in one swing: a chimera’s throat, then the neck of a harpy.
But more terrible beings kept coming.
I glanced up at the center balcony. Zeus lounged with his new glass of wine.
Then both Hades and Demeter shot to their feet, though they stood as far apart as the balcony allowed.
Hade roared in rage, shadows erupting from his hands.