by Meg Xuemei X
The weight of his intense gaze sent goosebumps all over my skin.
Instantly, I changed my strategy. Throwing a soggy pillow at him wouldn’t do him any harm.
“Like the view?” I asked sweetly.
“You asked the same boring question at the ritual,” he said. His gaze returned to my face after lingering on my breasts a bit too long. “What do you have that can possibly interest a demigod, mortal?”
“If you’ll recall, your priest corrected you after the ritual. I’m not a mortal,” I said, keeping my smile plastered on my face. “Should I expect a demigod to have short-term memory?”
If I wasn’t a human, then what was I?
I hadn’t had time or mental effort to attempt to sort it out. I only hoped that I wasn’t some freak.
Spotting that fleeting hesitation and insecurity in my eyes, the demigod pounced.
“Then what are you?” he asked, arching an eyebrow casually.
I lifted my chin. It became an effort to keep the smile on my lips.
“Why should I tell you?” I asked as I staggered toward him, swaying my hips, instead of grabbing a sheet from my neighbor’s bed to cover my nudity.
He tensed, straightened, and unfolded his arms from his muscled chest, which stretched his shirt deliciously.
“What are you doing, Marigold?”
“What do you think I’m doing?” I purred, letting a saccharine, sultry smile deepen the curve of my lips. “You should have known the answer when you charged into my personal space unannounced.” I slowed down my tempo, still swaying my hips.
“Well, you can ask me to stop,” I said in an easy challenge.
If he asked me to stop advancing on him or ducked away from my moves, then he was doomed to lose the first round.
He narrowed his violet eyes to cover the smoldering desire in them. He hated me, yet I had an effect on him, which made him hate me even more.
“You dare to challenge me again?” he asked.
I would do more than that, but I wasn’t going to tell him that.
My smile grew sweeter. I was two feet from him now. I needed to get this over quickly. The syrupy smile on my face was getting old and cold and turning to yesterday’s unpleasant leftovers.
A few inches from him, I raised my knee and rammed it toward his crotch, as fast and forcefully as I could.
Man, that would hurt! That would teach him a lesson about barging into a girl’s dormitory while she was sleeping, working hard to find her dream lover.
For a nanosecond, an urgent, dreadful thought flitted through my head. What if his demigod cock was made of steel? Then it’d hurt me instead.
Before my knee found its mark, Paxton caught me, spun me, and pinned my back against him. His one hand grabbed both my wrists and held them against my belly, making my fingers dig into my skin. His other arm wrapped around my breasts, and his powerful legs had mine between them, so I couldn’t kick him either.
He had me there, defenseless and furious.
I was faster than any human, but he was a demigod.
“That’s the best you can do, Marigold?” he asked in mockery.
While I’d failed in my assault and was humiliated, I felt his huge erection against my back through his pants.
I could still get some reaction out of him. Maybe I should use that.
Then he twisted my wrists, and they hurt.
I blinked back sudden tears, and he loosened his grip a little.
“What are you doing here, barging into a girl’s room?” I demanded angrily.
“This isn’t a girl’s room. It’s a common dormitory. And as a student in my Academy, you don’t have the luxury of privacy. I’ve received word that you missed physical training and also half of the history class.”
“Who ratted me out? Snitches get stitches!”
“You won’t get revenge on anyone. The Academy has rules. For example, no one skips a class—among many others. You don’t want to be late for class either.”
“So what if I was late for a few classes?” I said. “I’m not a morning person. I like to sleep in. It’s been my lifestyle for twenty years, and I’m not going to change it overnight.”
“You will change your bad habits and attitude overnight. In fact, you’ll change them now. You’ll follow the rules like everyone else, and you’ll learn discipline. If I have to beat it into you, I will. Try me and see who wins this game in the end. I look forward to our second round.”
He shoved me away. I stumbled and nearly slammed my face into the façade of a cabinet between the bunk beds. I threw a hand out, grabbed an open drawer, and thus avoided a broken nose.
I wheeled toward him and hissed. “You fucker!”
“You have no fear, no respect, and no sense of self-preservation,” he said, his face hard. “But I’ll pound all those things into your skull in no time.”
A sudden alarm buzzed in me. Axel had threatened that if I kept giving him headaches, he’d dole my punishments out to Jasper and Circe, knowing they were my weakness. What if Paxton had learned about my vulnerability? He wouldn’t hesitate at all to exploit it.
I didn’t wait for him to go there, just grabbed the sheet from Yelena’s bed and wrapped it around my chest.
“Get yourself cleaned up and attend class,” he said, steel in his voice. “You have three minutes.”
“Where’s Axel?”
“Miss him?”
“I’d take him over you any minute of the day,” I said.
A muscle twitched in his jaw. I’d hit a nerve. It seemed there was a rivalry among the demigods.
“He isn’t available, Princesa. You’re stuck with me today.”
“How tragic,” I sneered. “Axel likes me. He’d have been more pleasant.”
“He may be smitten with you for now. Even so, his father, the god, is more important than a simple girl like you. Ares summoned him to the city.”
“Which city?”
“Paris, of course. Ares stays in Paris most of the time.”
The unexpected response distracted me from my irritation. “I don’t blame him,” I said with longing. “I always wanted to go to Paris. I heard their crème brulee is top notch.” I licked my lips. “I really want to try it someday.”
“Like that’s going to happen,” he snorted, but he was looking at my lips.
I wouldn’t put it past him to do his worst to take all the good fun out of my life.
“I heard Axel calling his father when the ritual went wrong with me,” I pried.
“He did,” Paxton said dismissively. “They have a mental link. But Ares was in the middle of a negotiation with Lucifer.”
I’d once speculated that the God of War might have a dirty deal with the devil, or else how could Earth have been split so evenly into two evenly realms, one belonging to Ares and the other to Lucifer?
Politics were all dirty anyway. There were never good guys, only the lesser evil. And I still wasn’t exactly sure which one was the lesser evil since I hadn’t met either the god or the devil.
I arched an eyebrow. “Negotiation for what?”
The Demigod of Sea sent me a harsh look. “That’s none of your business.”
Probably not.
I shrugged just to irritate him. His gaze landed on my bare shoulders as if he wanted to remove the sheet from me and run his hands over my bare skin.
A shiver passed over me as heat rose between my thighs.
For a second, I must have looked confused. How could I still feel attracted to this demigod? He was an utter ass.
“Did Ares ever get back to Axel about the reason the ritual went awry with me?”
“Am I your messenger boy?” he hissed.
I sighed. As I’d said, an utter ass. But I didn’t need this hostility so early in the day.
“What about Zak?” I asked hopefully. “He can’t be away, too, right? He should have come to get me instead of you.”
A dark light flashed through Paxton’s eyes, turning the viol
et color to deep purple as the sea demigod grew angrier.
“Why am I even answering your questions?” he grated. “No one dares to question a demigod. No more stalling, Marigold. You’re going to class, and you have two minutes left now. If you aren’t ready by then, I’ll drag you across the campus whether you have clothes on or not.”
He wasn’t kidding. He was ruthless.
I rolled my eyes, but I started searching for my name tag among the rows of drawers in the cabinet. My clothes should be inside one of these.
My mood was foul by the time I’d found the name Marigold, pulled open the drawer, and yanked out a uniform along with a pair of new boots.
I hoped that they got my size right, especially the shoes.
I didn’t spare the demigod a glance as I took my uniform to the public bath chamber half a block away from my dormitory.
He didn’t follow. I hoped that he’d leave while I changed.
For a second, I thought about running, but I gave up the idea before a plan formed.
I cleaned myself in record time, put on my uniform of blue and gray, and stood in front of a mirror before the sink.
I hadn’t really looked at myself in a long time.
And now, a woman who hadn’t completely lost the roundness in her cheeks stared back at me. She had elegant, long eyebrows that didn’t need to be plucked into shape. Her lips were pink and full. Under her dark, thick eyelashes, her green eyes had the color of an untamed forest and the energy of a firestorm. There was so much life I stepped a pace back in shock.
“Marigold, look at you,” I murmured to myself as I threaded my hand through my lavender hair.
I was still here. I lived. I hummed a tune, almost happy again.
“I’ve never seen a soldier that narcissistic,” Paxton’s voice commented as he suddenly appeared in the mirror behind me.
I hadn’t noticed when he’d zoomed in.
“Are you spying on me in the women’s bath chamber?” I asked, frowning at him deeply. “Do you even have a concept of boundaries, demigod?”
“I am above all rules and boundaries,” he said arrogantly. “But you, the rest of you, are bound to all of them.”
I wanted to toss something at the asshole, but I had nothing in hand. It wouldn’t work anyway. He’d just give me a harder time. The Demigod of Sea sought to crush me.
As if he could hear my thought, his taunting gaze met my glare in the mirror, daring me to assault him.
“And what did I say about two minutes?” he asked.
“Sorry, mister,” I said. “But I can’t keep track of everything you said. You said a lot of things. Maybe you talk too much.”
“Get going. Now.”
I looked down. “I need to get my feet into my boots first.”
Then I noticed that I was wearing a pair of mismatched knee-high socks.
“Wait,” I said. “I need to change my socks.”
“No, you don’t,” he said, stalking toward me.
He grabbed my ankle and roughly inserted my foot into the ankle-high boot, not even bothering to check first if the boot fit. But he got the job done. Then he snatched my other foot.
“Hey,” I protested, laying a hand on his shoulder to keep my balance while he worked on getting my foot into the other boot. “My socks are different colors. Everyone will notice and laugh at me.”
“I don’t give a fuck if anyone laughs.”
“Of course you don’t give a fuck. I’m the one wearing them.”
“If you embarrass yourself,” he said, “you have only yourself to blame. And that will teach you a lesson about being timely and disciplined.”
He stood up, grabbed my elbow, and dragged me out of the public bath chamber, not even giving me time to make my feet more comfortable in the new boots.
I stumbled alongside him.
“Hurry up!” he scolded.
“But I haven’t had breakfast yet. Shouldn’t I at least grab a cup of coffee somewhere or get a donut or two? I hope the Academy serves donuts.”
“That reminds me,” he said. “For your tardiness, you’ll be punished by going without lunch. If you keep defying me, your dinner will be crossed out from today’s activities as well. Whoever gives you food without my permission will be punished alongside you.”
“That’s unfair!”
“Welcome to Half-Blood Academy, Princesa.”
He kept dragging me with him. The demigod walked so damn fast I had to sprint three steps to match one of his long strides.
“You should let me go,” I said. “I can walk beside you with my own feet.”
He snorted but maintained his hand on my elbow. I tried to shrug him off, but to no avail.
“Go ahead and fight me, Marigold, if you wish to take part in a public demonstration on how to punish an Academy student who doesn’t know how to follow the rules.”
I stopped cold. I didn’t want any of that.
I didn’t want any attention.
“You’re just trying to find an excuse to touch me,” I said. “Don’t you think that’s a bit desperate?”
“Nice try, Princesa,” he retorted. “As if your words have any effect on me.”
But my words had made him angry.
His jaw set as his dark eyes flashed. “I’ll go easy on you only when you’ve learned to be respectful and behave in a civilized manner.”
Dark fire swished in my eyes. The fucker demanded I have good table manners when he didn’t even know what that was?
He’d pay dearly one day. But I wouldn’t win against such a powerful asshole fighting him up close and personal. I needed to play dirty. I’d find a crack in him and then strike.
We reached the vast squares where the Dominion soldiers patrolled the campus. Groups of senior students practiced archery and magic in the training field.
They all paused in their activities to stare at Paxton and me, mouths agape. I supposed a student being dragged and manhandled by a demigod was a novelty on the campus.
No one dared to come to my rescue. My best hope, Axel, was thousands of miles away.
Paxton didn’t even bother to glance around or acknowledge that everyone gawked at us.
Just great!
Now so many eyes had witnessed this. The whole Academy would soon know all about my humiliation. Demetra and her goons for sure were going to add salt to this wound.
I couldn’t even snap at the asshole and tell him that I didn’t like how everyone was watching him humiliate me. If I did, he’d exploit it.
No one loved public embarrassment. Not even me. So, I held my chin high, as if it were an honor to be dragged along by a demigod.
Finally we left the square behind and trekked down a corridor.
“Let me go, please, Demigod Paxton,” I said in a low voice. There was no heat in my tone.
He gave me a look. “That’s more like it.” And he let go of my elbow.
That was his sick idea of taming me. He must have thought that he’d gained the advantage. All I wanted was to send my boot to his nuts, but I had tried that and failed.
We entered a classroom that could host at least two hundred students, but only fifty were present. My gaze swept over the surviving initiates, including Jack, Demetra, and their minions.
My predictable foes sneered at me.
Yelena grimaced, and Nat looked at me with sympathy.
The middle-aged professor in a black robe and broad hat immediately stopped preaching and bowed to his waist to Paxton.
“Demigod Paxton,” he addressed. “It’s an honor to have you grace my classroom.”
“I brought you the student who tried to skip class, Fowler,” Paxton said, as if I’d committed a cardinal sin.
I refrained from rolling my eyes. For crying out loud, it was just a class.
As if he sensed I’d mentally rolled my eyes, Paxton snapped his attention back to me, and I put on an innocent look. I didn’t want him to go crazy right now in front of the entire class when I didn’t ha
ve a backup, like Axel, or even Zak.
After this morning, I’d realized that this loose cannon had no brakes whatsoever. He was even worse than me.
Fowler probably thought the same, for he gave me an annoyed look, not understanding why a demigod would have bothered with insignificant me.
“If a student misses class, we usually give her a notice and put it in her record,” Fowler said. “If she keeps up the offenses, we’ll expel her from the Academy. Next time, I’ll have a member from the Discipline Council serve her the notice. There’s absolutely no need to involve a demigod like you to handle such a small matter, sir.”
“Don’t ever tell me how things get done again, Fowler,” Paxton snarled. “Do you understand?”
As I’d said, a crazy on the loose.
Fowler paled, then stumbled back from the towering demigod.
“I apologize, sir,” he said. “I didn’t mean—”
“Professor Fowler meant that you’re using a cannon to shoot a mosquito,” I chimed in quickly and smirked at Paxton. I couldn’t give up the chance to ridicule him, despite my decision to stop getting on his bad side in public. “I think he’s spot on, though. There’s really no need to bother yourself with an unimportant first-year like me, Demigod Paxton, or sir. The Discipline Council can totally kick me out of the Academy after they serve me a few warnings.”
“You’re not getting out of the Academy under my watch,” Paxton said vehemently and viciously. “So give up already, Marigold, or I’ll make your life hell. Now wipe that disgusting, smartass smirk from your face. Your dinner rights today are also revoked.”
He swept his stern gaze across the class, and everyone shrank in their seats.
My smile dropped. How was I going to get through the whole day without food?
“Anyone supplying Marigold with food can go on a fast with her for as long as it takes,” Paxton added. “Understand?”
The entire class answered loudly, including the professor. “Understand!”
The clique giggled.
I didn’t think Nat and Yelena also echoed that, but they had to move their lips to pretend, or they’d get punished, too.
“Good.” Paxton said with satisfaction. “The Half-Blood Academy has decided to turn a ruffian like Marigold into a model soldier at all costs. She’s our project now.”
