by Jaymin Eve
“You were always beautiful,” Larissa said, smiling at me from the bed. “But now you’re beyond stunning … you actually glow.”
Just like my fucked-up parents.
I fought down the urge to scream. I flashed her a cynical smile. “Yeah, apparently exploding in a ball of light is great for your skin.”
Their faces fell. I was an asshole for reminding them of that, of their pain. “Sorry,” I muttered, and they both moved forward to hug me before we left the dorm.
As we entered the main floor of the magic users’ wing, I asked them about the guys. “Uh, they came back with us this morning,” Larissa said, exchanging a glance with Ilia.
“And?” I pushed, sensing she wasn’t telling me everything.
“They rushed to their house,” Ilia said quickly. “Like they somehow knew Asher was back. We didn’t think much of it. I actually thought that’s where you would be. We volunteered to check your dorm.”
I felt hurt by this, and I wasn’t totally sure why. Even if they had run there to try to find me, when I wasn’t there, surely they should have come to the dorms?
Had Asher gotten to them? My chest ached as I huffed in and out. I mean, Asher clearly had been pod-personed by his crazy god mother, but the other four guys had no such excuse.
Just wait until I got my hands on them…
The sun was strong and bright in the commons today, mocking my dark and dreary mood. “What date is it?” I asked.
“Uh … like March something,” Ilia said. “I heard something about the shifter party preparations, so it must be late March.”
The full moon shifter party was April 14. Jesus. None of us had been keeping track of dates, but I was surprised I’d missed so much school that it was almost April. Time really flies when you’re losing the love of your life, raising an ancient city, and getting murdered by your parents.
“I think I’m due a few mental health days,” I said, half joking.
Ilia snorted. “Bora Bora?”
I closed my eyes and sighed. “Gods, if only it was that easy. I don’t think there’s any place on Earth I can escape my current fucked-up life.”
Larissa shot me a sympathetic smile, but we stopped chatting because we’d reached Princeps Jones’s office. She didn’t knock, just pushed the door open and stepped inside. I followed her into the familiar room, a jolt hitting me when I saw who was waiting. Princeps Jones sat behind his desk, Louis in another chair, and standing to the side … Asher, Axl, Jesse, Calen, and Rone. Despite my anger toward Asher—actually, all of them right now—my heart lifted like it had wings at the sight of the Atlantean-five together again.
I never thought I’d see that.
Ilia and Larissa gaped at them, and Larissa had tears in her eyes.
Meanwhile, the five of them were avoiding our gazes like the world would end if they looked me directly in the eye.
Bastards.
“Maddison!” Louis exclaimed, moving off his seat. His power slammed into me as he moved closer. “When your energy disappeared, I feared the worst,” he finished, stopping in front of me. His hands came out to wrap around mine, giving them a quick squeeze. “I was thanking the gods when it reappeared back here at the Academy.”
I swallowed roughly. “You didn’t feel my energy until last night?”
Louis nodded, his eyes tracking across my face. “Yes. From the moment you were taken into the Atlantean waters, I lost track of you.”
A low rumbling sound caught my attention, distracting me briefly as I tried to figure out what it was. It sounded like an angry growl, almost, but Asher and the others were still not looking my way. Somehow I sensed, though, that one of them wasn’t happy that Louis was so close, still holding my hands.
“I need to tell you everything that happened,” I said, focusing on him again, “because I have no idea what I’m supposed to do now.”
Louis still hadn’t taken his eyes off me. He was probably seeing a bunch of shit that went deeper than what I was saying. Normally that might have bothered me, but I really couldn’t find it in myself to care too much. Yeah, my pain was pretty much hanging out like a pair of dirty undies caught on the hem of my pants. Happened to everyone.
“Have a seat,” Louis finally said, leading me to the table. He nudged me into the chair he’d previously sat in. “Tell us everything that happened when you were taken last week,” Louis said.
I gasped. Loudly. It echoed around the large room. “Week?” I said.
I’d been gone a week? How was that possible?
Ilia snorted. “Why did you think we were so devastated? For a week we’ve thought you and Connor were dead. No one cared about Connor of course, bastard that lured you to your death and all, but we definitely cared about you.”
Jesse’s eyes were suddenly blazing into mine and I almost gasped again, because there was a depth of darkness in them that I’d never seen before. His hands twitched. It was a visible thing, and for a moment I thought he was about to take a step toward me, but one look from Asher stopped him right in his tracks.
I had no doubt now. The guys had suffered when I died. All of them suffered for a week, which explained the tight jaws and drawn faces. But whatever Asher had said to them … whatever game Asher was playing, they were now part of it too. There was more going on there than what I saw.
If they thought I was just going to accept this shit from them though, they didn’t know me very well. I was going to figure it out. I would fight. But I’d also make those bastards suffer first.
They had no idea what they’d set themselves up for.
Everyone was waiting, so I quickly launched into the full explanation for the second time today. I mentioned information that I’d gotten from Connor, noting that none of us knew how true or accurate it was, and told them everything the gods had done and my involvement in it all.
The silence was heavy.
“So you got magicked back here, and now you’re waiting to see what these crazy gods do next?” Princeps Jones asked, sounding both tired and older, like he’d been using his voice a lot. He turned to Louis. “We need to be more proactive about this. We can’t let the gods just do whatever the hell they want. I mean … do we even know what they want?”
Everyone turned to Asher. I tried to stop my heart from beating so hard that it was all but launching itself from my chest. “They want what they were trying to achieve ten thousand years ago,” he said, his voice so deep and husky. “To control something that is not theirs to control.”
“And your mother wants to stop them,” I shot back.
He looked at me then. Properly. Like until this moment he hadn’t even noticed I was here. “Yes. And she will succeed.”
Louis moved closer to Asher, his face creased in dark lines. His energy was stronger too, lifting the hairs on my arms. “And what does your mother plan on doing to stop it all?”
Asher shrugged. “I’m not exactly in her confidence. But I’ve seen her power. I’ve seen her in action. Whatever she plans on doing, none of you have the power to stop her.”
This was it. It had to be part of the reason he was so cold and distant. He was trying to protect us from his mother—or just me. Or maybe he hated me now and blamed me for his death. Maybe I was grasping at straws so that I didn’t die from pain overload.
28
The rest of the meeting went by quickly. Everyone reported in on what had happened over the last seven days, and while we got very little out of Asher—he was feigning ignorance on all god knowledge—I did learn that everyone else had been at the Atlantis site watching it rise. It had taken the full week, so Connor and I must have reformed—or reappeared—right when it was finished. Apparently no one had been able to get inside or enter yet, and the gates we’d opened were closed by the time anyone else got there.
“So the gate opened for you?” Louis confirmed.
I nodded. “Yep. I was able to walk a bit inside, but the energy was too strong for me to go much further.”
/> Louis nodded. “Okay, well, I wish I had some good news for you, but right now … we don’t know much. There’s a large gathering of supe leaders happening in Romania this week. We’re going to discuss options for dealing with our god issue. Jessa has also gone back to Faerie to talk with the queen of all dragons, so she’ll be two or more weeks until she returns.”
Jessa was probably the coolest supe I’d ever met. Who else could say they knew the queen of all dragons?
Or gods? a snide voice in my head reminded me.
Yeah, but gods sucked. Power hungry bastards.
“So … we just live our normal lives again?” I asked.
Louis and Princeps Jones both nodded. “Yes. Go to class, learn as much as you can,” Jones said.
“Keep your head down and keep strengthening your powers,” Louis added. “Don’t be heroes though. Tell me the moment anything odd happens, I don’t care how big or small it is. The gods are powerful, but they have weaknesses. Together, we have a shot.”
He leaned down closer to me, eyes only a few inches from mine. “I’m going to pick up your training until Jess and Brax get back. Tee is staying in Stratford because I need to know she’s safe. I’ll go back and forth between the two places to keep it all managed.”
I nodded, my throat tight as I tried not to let all my worry and panic flood up. “What days are training?” I finally choked out.
Louis held out a hand to Princeps Jones, and when he took the paper offered, I realized it was my schedule. “Monday, Wednesday, and Friday afternoons,” he finally said. “You look to be free all of those days. We will meet at 3:00 P.M, outside in the grassed area by the fey dorms.”
I wanted to argue but I couldn’t bring myself to show unease when the Atlantean-five were here. The expanse of outdoors near the fey dorm was too close to the Atlantean mansion for my liking, but it really didn’t matter. I needed to learn.
“Okay, sounds good,” I said.
He dropped the paper back on the desk and leaned down very close to me. I wasn’t sure Louis had been this close before, and just as I was freaking out wondering what he was going to do, he murmured right at my ear, “Keep an eye on Asher. Something is not right with him. Not just the way he’s acting, but with his energy.”
That rumble started in the room again, but before it got out of control, Louis straightened and moved to lean back on some shelves. It was clearly time for us to leave. His warning, though, was blaring through my mind. I already knew there was something up with Asher, but I hadn’t been close enough to him yet to feel his energy. Had it changed as well?
And was that change just because he’d died and was now reborn stronger and more godlike? Or was it a manipulation by his mother?
I stood and joined Ilia and Larissa, my stomach growling at the reminder that I needed to eat. “Since it’s Friday, you all should just pick up classes on Monday,” Princeps Jones called after us. “Rest this weekend.”
Classes. The concept was almost foreign after all the time off. Normally, I’d be so excited to get back to learning, but with everything on my mind I couldn’t comprehend just being a student again. But for lack of anything better to do, I would follow his instructions.
Larissa spent another minute quickly chatting with her father—they were arranging their regular father-daughter breakfast, so she wouldn’t be joining us. Before I’d started at the Academy, Larissa had been lonely, eating most of her meals with Princeps Jones. She didn’t fit with the vampires because she would not feed like them. Finding her mother with her throat ripped out, covered in blood, would do that to a young vampire. Princeps Jones did his best at holding them together, but in the end, Larissa had to save herself.
And she had. This year she was a different supe. Strong, confident, feeding willingly, and even wanting to fall in love. Rone, of course, was a clueless fuck who didn’t seem to realize what he could have. One day soon, Larissa was going to move on, and then he’d kick himself.
“Bye, girl,” Ilia called. “We’ll see you in the library after breakfast.”
Larissa gave us both a wave. In the brief time we’d lingered inside, Asher and the guys had gone—not an Atlantean in sight.
Ilia linked her arm through mine and tugged with a little urgency, even though her face looked relaxed and calm. “Just act natural,” she murmured from the side of her mouth. “We’re being watched.”
I couldn’t see anyone in the immediate vicinity, but I knew her senses when it came to this sort of thing were so above and beyond my own. She was one of the top trackers for the Academy for a reason. So along we strolled, both of us chatting about nothing, while Ilia did whatever she was doing. Just when we were about to step out of the covered pathway and into the commons, she paused, and then fast as a whip, dove to the side and disappeared behind two rose-covered pillars. There was a scuffling, and I dashed after her just in case it was something serious.
“Axl!” I gasped, seeing the Atlantean on the ground, Ilia’s boot on top of him. “What are you doing?”
His reply was inaudible, and it was probably because Ilia was crushing the air from his lungs. I playfully shoved her a little. “Get off him, you big meanie.”
Ilia’s grin was broad; she was impressed with herself. “Didn’t even see it coming,” she replied. When she moved, I helped him up.
Axl unfolded his long limbs, standing a good head and a bit over my five-foot-ten frame. Had he been better prepared, Ilia wouldn’t have taken him down so easily. He wasn’t like the other Atlanteans—fighting just wasn’t his thing—but he could hold his own.
“You o—?” Before I could finish, his arms were around me and he was hugging me tighter than I think anyone had ever hugged me before. A rumbling sob escaped from his broad chest and my own chest tightened. Between that and the tight hold, I could barely breathe.
“It’s okay, Ax,” I said softly, patting his back, all the while relishing the feel and energy of one of my guys being close to me again. It felt like a million years since I’d hugged them, and my soul wept.
After many minutes he pulled back, eyes red, hair disheveled. The slashes of gold in his pupils were deep today. “For days I believed you were dead,” he said softly. “When the guys contacted me, I refused to accept it even though my tracker on you was black. So I traveled to the site as well. I traveled all night, and … your energy was gone and there was no movement on my tracker at all.”
My own eyes filled with tears at the palpable pain in his voice and on his face. “I’m so sorry,” I said softly. “I promise, if there was any way I could have let you all know I was okay, I would. But … I must have been transitioning or pulling my millions of cells back together, because I have no idea where I was for all of those days my energy was gone.”
Axl nodded, taking a few deep breaths.
Pain lanced through me again; it was almost starting to feel familiar. I barely even flinched.
“What’s happening with the guys?” I asked him, blunt in the way Axl appreciated. “Why am I getting the cold shoulder? What did Asher say?”
Axl’s face went red, and he slammed his lips closed. “I can’t tell you. But I promise, it’s for your own safety. Please trust us.” He looked over his shoulder then. “I’ve got to go,” he said quickly. “I just needed to see you one last time.”
Fury and pain … my old friends.
A growl ripped through my chest—I almost sounded like a shifter. “You’re just going to run off and follow Asher like he’s the fucking Pied Piper?”
I pulled away from him.
His hands clenched in front of him before they lowered to his sides. “I have no choice, Maddison. Trust me, if there was another way. This is for—” He cut himself off. “I’m sorry.”
Then he walked past me and disappeared out into the commons. Ilia, who had been silent for the conversation, stepped forward and wrapped her arms around me. She knew I was falling apart, but I’d cried so much in the last few weeks—so much this year—that this t
ime the tears didn’t come.
I straightened, pulled my shit together, and forced a smile on my lips. “Let’s eat,” I told her.
She gave me one last squeeze before she did the same thing, and together we strolled out into the commons. Axl was at the Atlantean table now, and I forced myself not to look at them. Not to walk toward them. I forced myself to search for an empty table nowhere near theirs.
“Busy here today,” Ilia said, looking around as we wandered further through.
“Maddison!” someone shouted, and I turned to find Simon waving at me.
A foreign emotion—happiness, I was guessing—flitted through my chest at the sight of my friend. It had been a long time since I’d seen him, and that mop of curly hair was a welcome vision.
“Hey!” I said, hurrying forward with Ilia.
“You want to sit here?” he said, gesturing to the two empty seats beside him. On the other side of the bench were some familiar faces, including Damon. I realized that these second-year supes had all formed a friendship—probably from being in so many classes together. I’d been so caught up in Asher and the guys that I’d barely noticed what else was going on in this school. But I recognized a ton of second years in this area, and as more people saw me in their midst and waved, I remembered that I had friends and a small life outside of the Atlanteans. I waved back at Amanda, plus a few other chicks, from Attack and Defense class. We’d all stuck together to get our asses kicked.
The emptiness didn’t go anywhere, but I felt a little more okay in that moment.
“We’d love to sit here, if it’s okay with you all,” I said to Simon.
Damon was the first to nod, followed by the other two guys sitting there. I knew them both from classes too—the light-blond-haired one was Tom, and the redhead was Michael.
“You know Tom and Michael?” Simon asked, gesturing to the guys.
