Chapter 14
Chapter Fourteen
Aiden
While everyone else gapes at Wilder, I shoot forward and haul him off the floor. My gaze scans over his many wounds. Someone beat the shit of him.
And that someone’s going to pay.
My jaw locks, and the sounds of the others talking around me fades away.
I don’t like this school or anything about it. But what I don’t like the most is the fact that the people I care about most in the world are here with me in danger.
I act like I don’t give a shit about anything, and sometimes, I can even convince myself it’s true. But here, with Izzy and my best friends and enemies pressing in on us from all sides...
You can’t fake it, a voice whispers in the back of my mind. Time for something new...
“Let’s get him to the bed!” Van commands, and instantly Reid and Van are hauling him out of my arms and onto the bed.
My gaze is stuck on Wilder. Noah. One of my best friends. There are claw marks on his arms and across his stomach, and a sea of bruises on his body.
“What happened?” Van asks, and there’s panic in his voice.
Wilder doesn’t open his eyes, but his lips moved. “I was jumped.”
My blood runs cold. I knew that’s what happened, but hearing him say it is somehow different.
Someone sought out my friend, willfully, to hurt him.
They could’ve killed him. Imagining Wilder’s still face makes me feel like energy crackles beneath my skin.
The desire to run as far and as fast as I can fills me.
Izzy is a flash of motion: getting towels, filling a bucket with warm water, and seating herself at his side.
There’s fear in the air. Humans don’t get attacked by werewolves and vampires.
When they get badly injured, they go to a hospital, but what do we do here?
And with our new god-bodies, what does that mean for our ability to heal?
“They did tell me something,” Wilder says, his words slurred. His mouth opens into a grim smile and blood coats his teeth. “I’m Odin. God of wisdom and healing, but apparently, I can’t heal myself. They thought that was pretty funny.”
“Who?” I demand.
I’m not sure what it is about the way I ask the question, but the room grows quiet. Everyone turns to look at me.
“Four guys,” he mumbles. “They weren’t human.”
I want to ask him more, but that crackling anger beneath my skin is starting to make me jittery and irritated. I’m fighting it as hard as I can, but I can feel the wave trying to pull me under.
Everyone thinks I’m just some angry asshole, and maybe sometimes I am, but this is different. The drive sweeping through me is powerful and dangerous.
“I’m going to go find someone who can help him,” I say.
Van shakes his head. “Reid and I know a lady that might help, and we’ve both learned to use our powers…at least a little. We’ll go find the witch. She might know something.”
I stare at him. Since when does he make all the calls? “Sure, it’s not like the supernatural psychopaths got us here in the first place. I’m sure they’ll be very helpful. What should I do while you pull a Lassie and bark for help?”
Van’s gaze narrows. “Try not to be a dick. Just for a minute.”
He grabs his sword from beside the bed, and Reid wordlessly follows him out. I thought the crackling under my skin couldn’t get worse, but it does, the instant Reid looks back at me with pity in his eyes.
Great, so now I’m not just a screw up. I’m the only one who doesn’t know what kind of god he is or what my powers are. And in an emergency, I’m useless.
Izzy talks to Wilder in a low, calming voice as she cleans his skin with water and a cloth, washing away the blood. For a second, everything inside of me freezes, like the calm before the storm. I’m transfixed as I watch them.
Has anyone ever loved me like that?
Her gaze is filled with worry. He’s relaxed beneath her touch. It’s like they’re in a world I can’t touch and can never be a part of, because I’m like a puzzle piece that never fits anywhere.
I don’t know what I’m doing when I turn around and leave. I don’t know where I’m going when I exit our building hall, but I’m almost running when I reach the top of the hill on one end of the campus. There, I freeze, staring out over the ground of our new school, without really seeing.
Back home I was lost. Completely lost. When my sister had died-- no, I didn’t want to think about that.
Her death and my part in it was not something I could think about or I really would burst into a million pieces.
But there I was lost. It took everything inside of me each day to keep myself together, even though from the outside I looked like I just didn’t care about anything or anyone.
But here? I’m spiraling. I don’t think I can even fake it anymore. And the thought of being exposed--as someone who destroys everything I touch, who cares but it doesn’t matter--makes me want to hurl myself off the nearest tall building.
That crackling beneath my skin grows, and a roar fills my ears. Overhead, lightning crackles, splitting the sky, and thunder roars like a threat. The last place I should be is out in the open on this hill, but I can’t seem to move. Energy flows into the earth, through my feet, and out into the sky.
More lightning comes, closer and louder. Still, I don’t leave. I can’t leave. The dark sky is broken over and over again by the bright flashes of light. But the coming storm is nothing compared to the storm inside of me.
I’m a god. No one has deserved this less than me.
I’m nothing...a poison that should stay far from anyone I love.
And yet, I’m trapped here. Required to stay here, close to those I care for, and yet keep myself away from them. How am I to do that?
Especially when these people are hurting my friends.
The idea comes into my mind and anger rises like a cloud inside of me. No one can hurt the people I care for. I won’t allow it.
Lightning strikes the earth in front of me, and I don’t move or react. The lightning is me. My soul. And its anger, confusion, and frustration is a reflection of my own. I know that now.
As the earth rises from where the lightning struck, a hammer emerges. I stare at it, knowing and not knowing what it is at first, and then it dawns on me. It’s the tool of Thor, warrior and god of lightning and thunder. But it’s my tool now. I’m that god.
I reach out and take it, feeling the energy and power that flows from it into me. The hammer is like an extension of my arm, natural and perfect.
Beneath the hammer I see something made of black leather. I take that too, and sling it over my shoulder, knowing it’s the god’s sheath for his weapon. Something enchanted. It can remain with me always, concealing my weapon from the view of others when I wish it, with just the slightest thought.
As I turn my hammer in my hand, the ancient runes seem to glow and lightning flashes from my storm. The magic glittering all around me--coming from me--brings understanding.
Running from my friends is cowardly. Running from this fight is not what a warrior would do.
The bravest thing I can do right now is learn to stay with the people I care for and protect them, no matter how much it costs me. And because I am the god of warriors, that is exactly what I will do.
A voice I don’t recognize whispers in my mind. You were nothing before me, but I can make you everything you ever wanted.
I feel my muscles relax. That’s exactly what I need. To not be myself anymore. To be someone else. And what would someone stronger than me do?
The answer comes easily. Tomorrow, in the light of dawn, I’ll begin my search for the people who hurt Wilder. The consequences for their cowardice will be painful, but the students here must learn a lesson. If they cannot respect us, they will fear us.
Lightning flashes behind me as I sit down on the hill and stare out over the campus. I’ll watch over this place, my new home, while the others tend to Wilder. I can be there and protect them in this way, because it’s what’s best for all of us.
But dawn can’t come too soon.