Plus, how am I going to get to know other people and make friends here? The guys all had their real lives, their regular plans ahead of them. They’ll move on if they get the chance. But if I can figure this place out…I don’t mind the idea of staying. I’d like to know where I’m going to be for the next four years.
I get a glimpse into the guys’ rooms as they go through looking for Wilder. Then when I push open a door and find a room with a bookcase full of fantasy novels and a guitar propped up in one corner, I know it must be Wilder’s.
The bed is untouched, but two zipped duffel bags have been dropped on the floor by the closet.
“Typical Wilder,” Van says, running his hand through his hair. “Just takes off. Doesn’t wait for help.”
“To be fair,” I say, “who knew we needed help?”
“You must’ve had a different welcome committee than I did,” Van says. He carries the sheathed sword in one hand, and even though it must be heavy, he barely seems to notice the weight now. There’s power in his broad shoulders, and it stirs both a sense of desire and a certainty he could protect me. He glances around at us. “Do you all have your weapons?”
“I don’t think you’re supposed to walk around campus carrying a sword,” Reid says.
“I don’t think you’re supposed to walk around here unarmed,” Van shoots back, and the two of them glare at each other. “The vamps and the wolves always seem to have their weapons.”
“And we’re gods,” I remind him.
“With little-to-no idea how to use our powers.”
“That’s what we’re here to learn.”
“Is it?” Van asks skeptically. “I’m not sure that they’re here to teach us.”
I throw my hands in the air. “Then what are we here for?”
“Maybe we’re here to be tested.” It’s Wilder’s voice, and my heart leaps in my chest when I turn to see him in the doorway.
Before I realize he’s bruised and bleeding.
And then he stumbles and falls into the room.
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 rea
ct. 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.
Chapter Fifteen
Izzy
When Wilder’s eyes flutter closed, fear jolts my heart.
“Wilder?” I demand. I drop the towel into the blood-tinged bowl of water and lean forward over him, my heart racing. “Noah, are you okay?”
He comes to life suddenly, his hands brushing over my waist as his eyes open. His lips graze mine.
It’s the most tentative, tender touch. His gaze is soft, and before I know it, I’m kissing him back. His hands wrap around my hips, and he groans softly under his breath when I shift closer.
I freeze as common sense floods back to me. He’s been beaten half to death.
I pull away. “I thought you were…”
He tries to sit up, but then falls back with a groan, as if he’s in too much pain. He touches the split corner of his mouth absently.
“I’m sorry,” he says. “I fell asleep. Dream. I didn’t mean to…”
He met my gaze a second ago with those gorgeous eyes of his, but now he doesn’t look at me.
“What were you dreaming about?” I study his face. Even bruised and swollen and beaten, he’s magnetic to me; I’m drawn to the angles of his cheekbones, his straight nose, his strong jaw.
“That day we played spin the bottle in Van’s basement.” His voice is hoarse. “Remember that?”
It was the first time I kissed Wilder.
It was one of the last times we were all together, the way we used to be.
“It’s a good memory,” I say, even though pain stabs my chest when I think about how close we were once. That day, laughing hard and trading tentative kisses with my best friends, I never imagined I’d lose them.
“It’s a pretty decent dream too,” he said, and I have a funny feeling that maybe he’s dreamed about that night before.
Before I can ask, Reid and Van burst in. Behind them is the tattooed witch. She’s frowning, and that frown deepens when she sees Wilder.
“They can’t just leave you alone until you know your damn class schedule, can they?” she mutters to herself. She looks to me, then snaps, “Well, if you aren’t going to help him, can you move?”
I start to jump to one side, but Wilder’s hand reaches out and catches my wrist. He gives me a look that I can’t quite read, but I know he doesn’t want me to leave. I smile at him as I gently pull my arm away, then move to the other side of the bed.
“How can I help him?” I ask.
But even though she said that as if she was sure I could help him, she doesn’t answer me. She runs her wrinkled hands over Wilder’s body, and he groans.
“Don’t be such a baby,” she says. She catches one of his hands and draws it up before her gaze. “You broke your knuckles open. Did you hurt them?”
“I had to get away.”
‘I’ll take that as a yes,” she says. “Good.”
“They would’ve killed me.”
“Most don’t want you here,” she says, her tone nonchalant.
How can she be so callous after what they did to Noah? It’s like she expected this to happen and they didn’t even care enough to warn us.
“Why are they doing this?” I explode, my anger rising. First the way they went after Reid and me, now Wilder. “We haven’t done anything to them.”
“Yet,” she adds cryptically.
Yet? What the hell does that mean?
“We don’t want any trouble,” Reid says so sincerely that she has to believe him.
“Ah, but do the gods within you want trouble?” she demands. “Are you strong enough to hold them?”
This time when she runs her hands over Wilder’s body, she mutters to herself, and golden light glows under her fingertips. She stands that way for a long time, running her hands along his body, the golden light moving over his skin.
Some of his bruises lighten and his cuts seem as if they’ve begun to heal together, but maybe it’s just my wishful thinking. When she steps back, she looks exhausted, her eyes sunken as if she’s been up all night.
“I’ve healed the worst of the damage,” she says, her voice weary. “That’s all I can do tonight.”
Yet he still looks like he’s in pain.
“How do I help him?” I ask again.
She gives me a long look. “What am I, your mentor?”
The ice in her tone irritates me. “You are a teacher here, and we are students.”
She smirks, then turns and heads for the door. Over her shoulder, she calls, “I never said I wanted you here myself.”
I throw my hands up in the air in frustration. “And we didn’t ask to be brought here!”
But she doesn’t even hesitate as she strides away down the hall. It’s like everyone here thinks we came here just to make their lives harder.
Wilder moves and another pained sound slips past his lips. My gaze snaps back to him, and some of my anger dies away as it’s replaced by worry. I hate seeing Wilder hurt, but at least now he manages to sit up successfully, leaning against the headboard.
“Are you okay, man?” Van asks. He looks as cold and haughty and perfect as usual, but there’s a flicker of something in his gaze that reminds me of the boy he used to be.
“I’ll be fine,” Wilder promises. He still sounds hoarse, off, but his voice is stronger.
Reid nods to me. “It’s been a long day. You guys mind if we head to bed?”
Wilder shifts and winces. “No use in us all being a mess for school tomorrow.”
Reid claps Van’s shoulder. “All you have to do is call and we’ll be here.”
Wilder gives a pained smile. “I know.”
Then Reid and Van slip out of the room, leaving us behind.
I hesitate. I don’t want to leave Noah on his own. Our rooms are so big and the hall is long; I’m worried that he’ll need something tonight or he’ll be in pain and I won’t hear him. But I’m not sure what to do.
“Do you mind if I sleep on the couch?” I point
to the couch in the corner of his room. “In case you need me?”
He meets my gaze evenly. “Yeah, I mind.”
My heart drops. “Okay.”
“It’s a king bed. You can sleep on the other side if you’re going to insist on looking out for me.” There’s a teasing edge in his voice when he says, “Even though it’s more than I deserve.”
“Wilder—”
“We both know it,” he says. He picks up one of the pillows from the other side and throws it at me half-heartedly. I can’t tell if he’s too weak to launch it with his usual athleticism or if he’s having an uncharacteristically uncertain moment. “Thanks for looking after me.”
“Of course.” We might not be friends like we used to be, but the guys and I will always have each other’s backs, won’t we? “I’ll be right back.”
I slip down the hall to my room and brush my teeth and dress for bed. My heart is beating too quickly, just from the thought of being so close to Wilder all night. When I glance at myself in the mirror before I leave my room, I’m surprised all over again by my face. My golden brown curls fall softly around my face, almost reminding me of a halo. My lashes look longer, thicker, and darker, framing my eyes. I still look like myself… just a photoshopped, perfected version of myself.
Is it just a side effect of being a god, or something I should worry about?
I study myself in the mirror for a second, but there’s no sign of Loki. Still, I feel uncertain as I turn away from my reflection.
When I come back to Noah’s room, he’s already asleep. Relief floods my chest along with a rise of disappointment. It’s hard to figure out how to act around the guys sometimes.
I don’t know if I can ever trust these men again after losing them as boys.
But when I saw Wilder stumble and fall, one of my walls went down with him.
Magic For Dummies: A Paranormal Reverse Harem Romance (God Fire Reform School Book 1) Page 9
