Cursed Academy (Year Three)

by Holly Hook

  Celestus nodded and reached into his pocket. “Get up. I'd say that's enough training for the night. Here.” He handed me a white cloth.

  I eyed my palm, which was already closed with a pinkish line down the middle, and rose. But I didn't take the cloth. Instead, I wiped the drying blood off on the tree trunk, drawing a smile from Ronin.

  And my new tutor didn't react. He just tucked the cloth back into his pocket. Celestus was a master of hiding emotion and I could see girls crawling all over him due to that fact alone. He was the sort of guy Carmen and Maria would call a challenge.

  The low groan intensified. I had to go. I walked over to Ronin, crossing the invisible, hot barrier. Air rippled. A bit of sweat had broken out over Ronin's skin, though he remained outside the circle. He wrapped his arm around me.

  "Giselle needs rest," Ronin said, tensing. Translation: she needs to get rid of your magic. "She doesn't like working with dark magic."

  “Did you know you're descended straight from Chaos?” Celestus asked me.

  Out of the blue. Like that.

  I balked, shocked Celestus would just tell the truth like that. “I know,” I said. As I spoke, the green mark on my right forearm burned, as if to remind me that I was still chained to this school.

  But even that didn't stop the ice spreading through my limbs.

  "Come on," Ronin urged.

  “Prometheus chose me to train you because the power of Nyx is the closest thing to the power of Chaos in existence,” Celestus said. “If any magic can help you reach your full potential, it's the power of Nyx. You might be feeling the effects already.”

  Translation: Go. Now.

  * * * * *

  “The ass,” Ronin said once we had walked back into the girls' dorm building. “He's just going to professionally and callously raise your powers.”

  “Ronin, I need to spit out this magic, or something,” I said. “Bathroom.” I eyed the common girls' bathroom, the one those who inhabited the regular dorms had to use. The low groan had only gotten louder after me and Ronin had stormed away from Celestus a few minutes ago.

  My boyfriend kept stewing and working his jaw. He'd become a caged animal being poked with a stick. I hated seeing him like this. “Throw it up. Something. Hurry.” He released me.

  I bolted into the girls' bathroom and retched, but nothing came up. I'd vomited up magic before, but not magic I'd taken into myself on purpose. I closed my eyes and the night spread out, and as I watched, the deep, dark spaces between the stars expanded, pushing away light. Purple sparks burst to life. No. Not now.

  Everything started to swirl.

  "Shit!" Opening my eyes helped, and though I stared at the toilet, a sudden awful idea came over me. I needed to use this power to get rid of it. I drew my dagger. Stepped back. Anger washed over me as I propelled channeling the night down the blade.

  I was about to pull a classic Giselle move.

  Ronin would never let me live this down.

  The top of the toilet cracked, bulging with darkness and stars, and a watery explosion echoed through the bathroom. A horrific screech followed. White shards and water filled the stall. I backpedaled from the storm, stumbling out. I gasped, sucking air into my clear lungs. The power. It was gone.

  But porcelain chunks littered the floor and water expanded from a busted pipe. Purple sparks danced around some of the pieces and died.

  “Giselle!” Ronin beat on the door. “Is anyone else—screw it.”

  He opened the bathroom door as I backed against the wall and faced him. "We have a situation."

  “Shit, Giselle.” Ronin's mouth fell open. “And I don't mean that as a joke. We've got to get you out of here.”

  I was so relieved to be rid of Celestus's power that I laughed. “No kidding. I can't stay here.” I knew what I had to say. “It's time we get this mark off me already and get me over to Olympian. And we need to do it yesterday.”

  Chapter Seven

  I had to find Wendy already. Sure, it was just the second day of my third year, but we had a common goal of getting transferred to Olympian. We were halfway through our schooling and time was running out.

  “Are you sure you're fine now?” Ronin asked once we had fled the common bathroom to the dining hall, where a lot of people, especially first years, hung out after classes. They weren't allowed to leave campus, and despite me no longer being a first year, Prometheus hadn't lifted that rule.

  “I'm sure,” I said, shaking. “I'm back to where I was this morning. Oh, there she is.”

  Wendy, to my shock, sat with Serena and Percival in the dining hall tonight. The three usually took off to go shopping, on Wendy's money, so having them here was unusual. But when Wendy glanced at me and rubbed her temples as if she had a headache, I knew she was the culprit. She'd stayed in tonight, hoping I, who never went shopping at the mall, would find her.

  I offered a little wave and nodded at the door as soon as Serena started typing on her phone. Wendy returned it and said something to her not-so-friends.

  And got up.

  “That's my cue,” I said to Ronin.

  Wendy mentioned something in passing about a monster headache. As she rose, I noticed she was wearing her birthright weapon on her belt, and her dreaded sword, which I had used once, blended with her black skirt.

  Ronin just nodded. There was nothing much he could do in this situation. Getting close to Prometheus wasn't even an option for someone the titan hated so much.

  At least the bathroom where we usually met wasn't flooding, and when I stepped out into the hall, leaving Ronin behind, a pair of the rent-a-guards were running towards the girls' dorm. A radio went off and someone mentioned something about shutting the Main Building water supply off. Heat rushed into my cheeks. A twinge of guilt washed over me as I waited for Wendy and watched the guards run off.

  Wendy joined me in the hall. “No more bathroom meetings. People expect that.”

  “I was thinking the same. This way,” I said. More of her memory must have come back.

  We walked to an empty classroom, the Strategy room, which happened to be unlocked and dark. Unlike the Combat Training arena, the Strategy room was just a bunch of desks lined up with huge screens on all sides for presentations. Maria and Mikey told me that the teacher used them all, too, as if they were all in a military debriefing. Maria called the class Grunt Training.

  “What are we doing in here?” Wendy asked, turning up her nose.

  So she hadn't lost her attitude. Maybe that would help. “We need to get ourselves into Olympian now. I'm in danger of maturing thanks to that new tutor of mine. And you need to get your parents off your back. We're both running out of time.”

  Wendy softened. “I know. My mother didn't like my grades last year. I blew up the golem, remember? She threatened to take me out of the will.”

  “For that?” I asked. Wendy had taken a big risk for me at the end of last year, all so I could get out before Prometheus figured out I wasn't cursed. Yeah, I owed her a ticket to Olympian.

  Wendy's golden-flecked eyes darkened with pain. I saw Hades's anger simmering there, green and envious. “Yes. For that. And I've been looking to talk to you. Serena is still around me constantly. The leech.”

  “No kidding. We need to trail Prometheus. Slip that Lethe water into his nectar. He can't be in his office or his house all the time.”

  “Well, we can't go near his house or past that warning sign,” Wendy said. “I think...I think I tried once because I was scared about something, but I don't remember what that was. The air got hot. And I had to back away. There might be a magical barrier around the place.”

  No shock. And I knew what she'd been scared over during her first year: fighting me. “At least your memories aren't gone forever.” The Lethe water was meant for the dead, not the living, and that might have something to do with it. Or maybe Wendy had a natural resistance.

  How much should I tell her? She'd remember eventually that she feared me, but also that I'
d refused to kill her. That I'd let her win during first year Combat Exams. But she'd also remember that she crushed on Ronin and I was dating him. Awkward.

  “Something jogs once in a while,” Wendy said with a forced smile. “So, Prometheus. We trail him. I think I'm one of his favorite students so that might not be too hard, so long as he doesn't think we're buddy-buddy.”

  “Got it,” I said. I'd been hoping for this. “Come to Maria's room and I'll get you a vial of that water. Only one of us has to slip it into his nectar. Or if he drinks coffee, that too. Then whoever succeeds just reminds him to remove the marks from both our arms.”

  * * * * *

  Trailing Prometheus was not easy.

  I hid in the trees the next morning and watched him exit his small cob house. He walked past the clay figures resting on the tree stumps, which I could barely see from my position in the bushes, and made a beeline for the main building of Cursed Academy. After he vanished into the back doors (with me following him at a distance, pretending I wasn't) then he went straight to his office, went inside, and closed the door. When I walked past, I saw him hunched over his laptop, typing, green-flecked eyes trained on the screen. A glass vial of golden nectar rested beside him, and though I had the vial of freezing Lethe water in my robe pocket, there was no way I could walk in and spike his drink without it being super obvious. And I never saw Prometheus leave his office door unlocked.

  “Maria, are you willing to break into the principal's office when he's not there?” I asked in the dining hall at lunch.

  She faced me and let her chin drop a bit. “I've already tried.”

  “You already tried?” I should have known she'd do this.

  “Well, yeah. I know what we have to do. He has magical protection on his office.” Maria pulled her sleeve down over her wrist.

  “Let me see.” I hated that Maria kept sacrificing for me. That she was so scared I'd go away that she couldn't see daylight.

  “It's just a mild burn.”

  Mikey sat down with his tray, and today Tiffany had come with him. “Oh, that.” Mikey nodded to Maria's sleeve. "I was hoping Giselle wouldn't find out."

  "Shut up," she playfully told Mikey before rolling up her sleeve.

  What had to be a second-degree burn blistered Maria's flesh. She'd put some kind of ointment on it, but it was clear the healers over at Olympian would have done better.

  "That's got to hurt," I said, hating that I asked her to break in. "I didn't know it would—"

  "It's okay. It'll heal on its own and I'm making sure it doesn't get infected." Maria hid her wound again. "It's not even bad and I let go as soon as I felt the burn. Not that I had a choice."

  "Then we need another way," Mikey said. "I asked Cal, but he's not over here much anymore. His fourth year classes are tough this year, from what I understand. The Olympian kids have to go out on missions, from what I've been told, especially if they're going into the Olympian Guard."

  "Missions?" I asked, heart dropping. Ronin was a fourth year.

  "Yeah." Mikey pulled his tray to him like he was talking about no big deal. "Some of the fourth years have to go after Lower Order operatives as part of their classes."

  I rose from the table. "They what?" Why hadn't Ronin told me this?

  "Cal said it's nothing that big," Mikey said. "Mostly they get sent after low-level recruiters. The easiest targets. Even the kids who aren't going into the Olympian Guard have to do it. That's why Cal hasn't been around much."

  "But they could get killed." I rose from the table, drawing stares from the other third years.

  "Most of them live," Tiffany said, appearing beside Mikey. "Breathe. Just sit down and breathe. Ronin will be fine. They don't send the students after Dominique or anything."

  Ronin had a big target on his back already and he wouldn't dare tell anyone he'd met Dominique at the Fortress. If Zeus found out we'd been screwing around all summer, having fun instead of training, he would not be happy. My stomach turned. "We can't let Ronin go out there."

  Tiffany lifted her eyebrow like she wasn't sure what was going on. "I'm not BFF with any of you, but I know you well enough to know Ronin wouldn't want you worrying about his classes when you've got your own."

  "You know me better than you think," I said.

  But Tiffany wasn't done. "Look, if you need another set of eyes, I'd be happy to help. I did during our first year." Tiffany's glance shifted to Wendy down the table. "You don't even have to pay me."

  "We've got to give you something," Maria said, relief spreading through her words. "We have asphodel, which slows down your changes, if you want some. I bet we have enough to last us a few years."

  "Asphodel? How did you get that?" Tiffany asked.

  So she didn't know the whole story with Wendy, then. Maria had spilled some, but not all.

  "Do you want any?" Mikey asked.

  "I'm good. Don't want to kill my grades," Tiffany said. "My powers are coming along. I feel it. I was working on a really good tapestry over the summer and I bet I can sell some of them before too long."

  I remembered. Tiffany was about to mature into a spider shifter and unlike many here in Cursed Academy, she knew about her changes beforehand and was used to the idea. Spending her life weaving tapestries wasn't too bad. I'd seen her ducking in and out of the Weaving classroom more than once. "Sounds great," I said, unsure why anyone would embrace that. "Well, we owe you one."

  Tiffany smiled before going off to sit with Jamal and Sarah.

  After Combat Training, we had Career Exploration. Unlike yesterday, which consisted of Prometheus handing us rule sheets, the inside of Building C had billboards and posters. Images of workers carrying boxes, other workers standing guard in cheap security uniforms, and other workers behind the wheels of limousines stood in front of doors. Only one billboard near the last classroom had a collage of a girl weaving, another girl singing, and another painting a picture. The one across from that had no images but said something about being an entrepreneur.

  “This is uplifting,” Maria said, eyeing an image of a suited man carrying a silver tray. Another man at a big desk, one who might be Poseidon himself judging from the docks and ships just outside his office window, smiled at the servant, who had brought him a glass of golden nectar and a mug of coffee. I doubted it played out like that in real life.

  “And it shows all these people as perfectly human,” Mikey said, face-palming.

  He was right. Nobody in the images, other than the gods themselves, looked supernatural. I wondered why. The rest of Cursed Academy didn't bother with student comfort.

  “Greetings, students,” Prometheus said in a friendly voice as he came through the entrance, right behind us. The air heated as he spoke, voice filling the corridor. “I just got these posters in and the staff at Olympian will be assigning you to your future careers by the end of the year. Oh, Giselle. You're going to be in the final classroom. That's the one for undefined careers.”

  I didn't like that the titan sounded so happy today. Yikes. But I forced myself to face him. “Undefined?” I joked. “That doesn't sound remedial.”

  Another nervous laugh. Prometheus pulled at his black suit and adjusted his spectacles. “You will have a career, but I'm not sure what it will be yet. Celestus can help you figure that out. He's working with all of you who come from divine origins.”

  “Oh.”

  The smile didn't vanish or fade. For the first time, real anger flared in me and despite taking the herb this morning, the low groan stirred to life. Though it faded a second later, I tried to swallow my racing heartbeat and calm my pulse. No good.

  “Should I go to the music room?” Mikey asked.

  “That would be an excellent fit for you. And Maria.” The smile vanished slightly, and the green flecks in the titan's eyes dulled a bit. “Explore and see what interests you.”

  I heard between the lines. The principal didn't think she had many choices.

  Maria just nodded. The air thickened
. “I will, sir.”

  “Great. I'll be in the conference room,” the titan said, brushing past us.

  I backed away, not because I wanted to let him intimidate me, but because I didn't want him to draw out my power. Prometheus entered the double doors, leaving one door propped open while he got out his laptop from a leather bag.

  But no nectar.

  He kept that guarded, it seemed. As if he knew someone would try to spike it.

  “Giselle,” Celestus said as he entered Building C behind me. “You're in the last classroom. I believe my sister is already there, so if you were waiting for someone to walk in with you, I understand.”

  I jumped. “Huh?”

  Celestus blocked the way to the front door, which swung shut behind him. For a moment, he was a dark, robed silhouette against sunlight. An embodiment of the night itself. But when the door closed, my eyes focused and he came into view.

  “Your sister?” I blurted.

  “She can be disagreeable,” Celestus said, still dead professional.

  Was he trying to get on my good side? Maria just stared at him as she stood off to the side. Yeah, he was attractive, and you couldn't not stare, but he was still an instructor. Well, Ronin was, too, but he was a tutor. Celestus was just plain a teacher.

  “Hurry, please,” he said.

  I broke out of my stupid trance. Separating from Maria and Mikey, I wandered to the last classroom, the Entrepreneur one, and entered.

  I found Serena sitting, alone, in the back corner of the room. There were only ten desks, which didn't give me much avoidance space, and she totally ignored me as I sat at the opposite corner. So far, so good. She didn't think I was a threat to her little order.

  Celestus entered, and I expected some exchange between siblings, but silence hung. Clearly they weren't on good terms. Wendy, Percival, and Jamal entered next, taking seats. We weren't going to be hauling boxes or standing guard anywhere. The gods knew even if we were all dark. Heck, Celestus advised Apollo's employees about how dark magic worked and how to defend themselves from the Lower Order. That was no small job.