But I have a strong suspicion that Levi was just as much a pawn as I was.
I can easily imagine Hermes, pushing him to go after my mom, encouraging him, even. Telling Levi she was a sure thing. And then after mom rejected him, Hermes would be in his ear again, this time with an idea for revenge.
Of course, that’s no excuse for Levi killing my dad.
“How would we kill Leviathan?” I ask Nico. My voice is soft and seems to come from a long distance away.
Nico grins. “Don’t worry, it’ll be easy. He’s big and strong, but also kind of an idiot. Between the two of us, we should be able to take him down with no problems.” Nico hesitates, concern clouding his face, “Unless you want to do it alone and just have me there as backup. But you know I like to be there in the middle of the action.”
“And you don’t mind getting blood on your hands,” I add.
Nico nods, although less enthusiastically. It’s possible he’s finally understanding that I’m not feeling the same way as he is about this.
“Look, Edie—” he starts to say.
I cut him off. “Why would I kill someone if he only acted because my mother was toying with his affections?”
“Well, that doesn’t excuse what he—”
“So did she flirt with him? Or was it more?” I demand. “Did Hermes say she and Levi were having an affair?”
Nico frowns. “He might’ve implied it... But, Edie, that’s all in the past. And we both know that sometimes our parents—”
“It doesn't matter if my mother slept with a thousand guys, that doesn't excuse what Levi did,” I break in again as my anger reaches a boiling point. “And did you ever think that Hermes might be lying to you?”
Both my biological mother and adopted mom were used by the gods. I’m starting to understand why Adrianna was excited at the idea of giving birth to a daughter who could destroy everything. The gods see all humans as lesser, but women are especially vulnerable. Gods messed with both of my mothers’ lives.
Nico isn’t a god, of course. But he certainly seems to share their philosophy of see it, want it, take it.
He’s not having me, though. Not today. And not ever.
“Do you ever think at all? ’Cause if you did, maybe you’d realize that I will never marry you or even date you. You imprisoned and tortured my sister.”
Confusion sparks in Nico’s eyes too. “I told you before, we’d have to work past that.”
“No, we don’t. Because that’s only one problem. The other is that I. Don’t. Like. You. Maybe you could’ve been a decent guy, but your mother twisted you, she wanted so bad to make you into her little mini me.”
“Don’t you bring my mother into his,” he growls, angry now.
“So you can slut-shame my mom, but you can’t hear the truth about your own mother? She was a monster, Nico. Worse than any monster she ever hunted. I think it’s terrible the vampires killed her the way they did, but honestly, I’m glad she’s dead. The world is better without her in it. And if you keep on going with the idea that you’re gonna be just like her, then maybe it would be better off without you too.”
Nico gapes at me. Shock, hurt, and rage are all evident on his face.
Normally this is the point where I’d feel bad for him.
But not anymore. I pick up the roses and shove them into his arms.
“Get out, Nico. We’re not killing Levi or anyone else. Because, thank the gods, I am not a blood-thirsty alphahole who wants to hurt everyone to cover up my own hurt.”
I push his chest and he stumbles backward out into the hallway.
Right before I slam the door, I watch as Nico’s face contorts, fangs pushing his lips grotesquely outwards. “You’ll regret this.”
“No, I won’t.” I sit on my bed and let out a shaky laugh.
For the first time in a long time, I am absolutely sure that I have done the right thing.
17
I feel strangely free as I walk the campus, on my way to Advanced History of the Gods.
Fern jogs up behind me with Greg at her side. “Edie, you look…happy?”
I grin. “I just told Nico that we are not and will never be a thing.” We spot Marguerite with a bunch of vampires, including Val and Tina, and change course to meet them.
“Good for you!” she tells me. Then frowns.
“Bummer,” Greg unexpectedly adds.
“What?” Fern and I both exclaim at once.
“Well, if it’s between Vedie or Nedie, I think Nedie sounds more interesting,” Greg explains with a twinkle in his eye.
I laugh and nudge him. “What about Grassie? Is that a thing?”
“Oooh, oooh,” Fern jumps in. “Marguerite and I can be Ferguerite. Fergie for short.”
It feels good to laugh and be silly after the tension of this morning. It helps cool some of the lingering anger still simmering in my belly.
We’re still giggling over Fergie as we reach the group of vamps.
“What’s so funny?” Marguerite asks.
Fern hurries to Marguerite’s side and gives her a sweet kiss. “We’re Fergie,” she announces.
“Gross. Boring,” Tina says dismissively. “Let’s talk about something more interesting...like how the whole campus is buzzing with the news that Edie kicked Nico’s doggy ass to the curb.”
I glance at Val, who looks majorly amused.
“He wasn’t the one for me,” I say, meeting his eyes.
“Blood traitor!” someone yells and I whirl in time to receive an apple to the forehead.
“What the Hades?” Did someone just throw fruit at me?
There are a group of shifters—Nico’s crew, standing with their breakfast trays. They look beyond pissed.
“Nico told us what you’ve become, traitor,” one of them yells.
“Because I don’t want to marry that psycho?” I ask. How did me dumping Nico turn into treason?
“She doesn’t owe him anything,” Fern agrees.
“Yeah, it looks like you both prefer necrophilia,” another shifter says. The same one that slapped me on the back when I’d tortured Hermes. Clearly, they’re itching for a fight.
Marguerite puts a hand on Fern’s elbow and tries to pull her away.
Val steps forward. “You’d better quit while you’re ahead,” he says, his voice soft, but threatening nonetheless.
“Or what, Moggy?”
“Or you’re gonna get a bat up your ass.” Greg flies in, darting at the boy’s face, before zipping back toward Val and hovering over his shoulder. Leaning close to Val’s ear, he says softly, “I think that might’ve come out wrong…”
“You’re a traitor, little shifter,” Nico’s friend replies. “I would care, if you weren’t so useless.”
“What’s going on here?” Nico’s voice rings out. He elbows his way through the crowd of shifters and stops when he spots me with Val and the other vampires.
“Oh,” he says, his voice deadly serious. “I see now.” He focuses on me. “I know you have a kind heart, Edie. I know you pity the Moggies but you don’t have to screw a vampire just so you don’t feel bad about their pathetic little lives.”
There’s a change in the air. A strong breeze comes through, ruffling everyone’s hair. And then a slight drizzle begins to fall.
I look to Val. His mother was a magical mutt. Somewhere in his genes is a water nymph, just like Tina received the tree nymph powers. This isn’t the first time I’ve seen him change the weather.
Beside me Tina hisses. Bowie, sitting on her shoulder, imitates this sound. I feel fire bloom in my belly.
But I know repeating my feelings will only embarrass him in front of his friends and make things worse. “Nico,” I say, keeping my voice steady. “It doesn’t have to be this way.”
“Oh, right,” Nico sneers. “Should we just be friends then? Like you are with Val and Jordan and Greg, and I don’t know who else. Everyone on campus already knows, Edie’s the friendliest girl around.”
Thunder rumbles in the distance as Val steps forward until he’s only inches away from Nico.
So quick, I can’t even see the movement, Val slaps Nico. There’s the sound of his hand connecting and then Nico’s head snaps back. Kevin swoops down, but Val waves him away.
With a snarl, Nico half-shifts, canines once again erupting from his mouth. “Or maybe I should make your little dead boyfriend dead for real.”
“Like we did to your mom?” Tina asks, stepping up to Val’s side.
The moment that follows feels like it lasts a million years. Nico’s face changes from anger to pure hatred. He and his friends all shift into a variety of animals, mostly werewolves.
Val, Tina, Marguerite, and all the other vamps bare their fangs, ready for battle. Tina sets Bowie on the ground and Kevin lands beside him, guiding him away to safety. Greg flutters above it all, shouting about how he’s going to tear Nico to pieces.
“Edie,” Fern grabs hold of my arm. “People are going to get killed here.”
I’d been fighting the urge to shift and jump into the action as well. I could easily make Nico pay for smearing my reputation on campus. But with Fern’s words, my fire extinguishes.
Why did I let this get so out of hand? It felt so good to have my friends line up in front of me, ready to fight. I know it’s not all about me, either; this fight has been coming for a long time.
“Guys, let’s just calm down,” I say.
But it’s way too little. Way too late.
Nico launches himself at Tina, with a howl that raises every hair on my body. The other werewolves howl back at him.
Val stops Nico mid-leap and they tumble to the ground. Another werewolf joins them, but Tina isn’t going to stand by and allow the werewolves to gang up on her twin. She snags the wolf by the scruff of her neck, dragging her away from Val. Tina gets both of her hands around the wolf’s head and guessing what comes next, I run forward.
“Tina, no!”
There is a sickening crunch. Tina releases the wolf who falls to the ground—dead. I watch as the wolf shifts back into a girl who I sometimes said hi to in the library.
“Sorry,” Tina says to me. “Did you want that one?”
“No,” I shout, but it comes out as more like a whisper.
Vampires and shifters are at each other’s throats.
Val and Nico are fighting faster than I can even see. They’re both trained assassins, top of their class, and neither of them gains the upper hand on the other.
Meanwhile, Tina has backed a werewolf into a bush. She uses her tree nymph powers to make the branches snake around the wolf’s chest and neck. As it hangs there helplessly she steps forward and in one smooth motion, punches through his chest and pulls out his heart. In triumph, she squeezes it, letting the blood drip down her arm as she raises it overhead. With an outraged howl a werewolf leaps at her. Laughing, Tina meets him mid-air.
She’s having fun, I realize.
To my left Marguerite is fighting off two cat shifters, a lion and a tiger, who are trying to surround her. Her expression is also one of intense concentration mixed with enjoyment.
What was it Val said about vampires? “We are all killers at heart.” I don’t think I quite believed him. But I do now. I see Fern on her knees trying to help a werewolf whose arm has been ripped off. Blood spurts from his shoulder and Fern frantically ties a tourniquet with her school tie.
Everywhere I look, I want to jump into the fight to help my friends. But these aren’t like the monsters that attacked us during the Spring Fling. Or the ones who kidnapped Cassie. There are students I’ve had classes with. I could shift and reduce them all to ashes. Being the destroyer my mother’s seer friend foresaw.
Suddenly Fern cries out, as she gets trampled beneath the feet of a werewolf fighting one of the vamps.
With a giant roar I change into my dragon form. Taking to the air, I stay low so I can easily pluck Fern out of the action. I set her down outside the circle of carnage.
“Edie, don’t—” Fern starts to say as I rise once more. I realize that she thinks I’m joining the fight.
“I’m stopping this,” I call back to her.
Fern’s expression turns to one of horror and I realize that she only heard my dragon screech. Only shifters understand other shifters when we’re not in our human form. Clearly, she’s expecting me to char everyone.
There’s no time to shift back and explain to her that I’m understanding something new about my power. It doesn’t have to be used to fight. Or to kill. Or to maim.
I can end the fighting.
I start by separating the vamps from the werewolves, tossing the vampires onto the green and the werewolves on top of the dining hall building. I hope it will take them a second to find their way down.
Finally, I spot Val and Nico. I know to stop this, I must first stop them.
I land next to them and try to get in between them. Nico bites me on the arm, but my thick dragonhide barely feels the pressure. Val backs off, so as not to place me in the middle, which Nico uses as a chance to press his attack. He grabs Val by the ankle and crunches it between his teeth.
Greg swoops down from out of nowhere and in sync, both Val and Nico shoo him away.
“I’m helping,” he squeaks.
“No,” I tell Greg plucking him out of the air with one of my talons. “You’re getting in the way.”
I launch him, the same way I would a paper airplane, toward a bank of trees, hoping he has the sense to steer around them.
I turn back to Val and Nico in time to see Val shove a thumb in Nico’s remaining good eye. Nico whimpers but refuses to release Val. Val takes a deep breath and suddenly the water from a nearby fountain surrounds Nico’s head in a great roiling ball.
Val is going to drown him.
“ENOUGH!” a voice booms through the fight.
For a moment, I am powerless.
Me, and everyone else who has shifted, return to their human forms. The bubble of water that surrounds Nico splashes to the ground. He gasps for air, glaring at Val.
Suddenly I lose feeling in my whole body. I crash to the ground, barely managing to keep myself from falling right on my face. Other students are not as lucky. All around me, the whole field of fighters are on the ground, flopping around like fish plucked from the water.
In the air above us is Mr. Zee. Except right now he seems more like what he’s always been—the mighty Zeus, king of the gods, strong and tall and shining. As he looks down at us the sky lights up with a bolt of electricity.
“By gods, I love a fight, but there is a place and time for such things!” As he speaks, he seems to deflate a bit, looking more like his withered Mr. Zee self.
I flex my fingers and curl my toes as I regain power over my extremities.
Mr. Zee floats back down to the ground, landing between Themis and Kratos.
“Nico,” Kratos barks. “You gotta do a better job of watching the whole field. And Val, you’re not fully guarding your left flank.”
Themis whirls toward Kratos. “This isn’t a lesson! Students aren’t allowed to rumble in the middle of the afternoon like they’re the Sharks and Jets.” She scans the field. Everyone able to has gotten up once Mr. Zee released us. But that only makes the people who aren’t able to get up more obvious. “There are dead students here. Which means I will need to call their parents and deliver the shameful news that their child died, not fighting monsters, but rather, fighting each other.”
“I’ll make the calls,” Mr. Zee announces. “I’ll tell them their children were taken down by murdering Moggies.”
“You will do no such thing,” Themis snaps. “This”—she gestures to all of us— “is the result of your Moggy discrimination nonsense. Your experiment has failed, Zee. And now it’s over.”
“Woman! Thou shalt not—cough. Cough!” Zee starts strong, his voice booming in his proclamation voice that in the past seems binding in a way that Themis is unable to overrule. But this time befor
e he can lay down his law, he’s overtaken by a coughing fit.
“Oh dear, Zee,” Themis says, and I could swear she’s holding back a gleeful smirk. “You aren’t well.” She looks to Kratos. “Get him to his rooms.” She pats Zee’s arm. “And I’ll have Hepa bring you some warm ambrosia just the way you like it later this evening.”
He looks like an old man as he nods and shuffles off beside Kratos.
Themis turns back to survey us students. “Now for the rest of you…” Her gaze lands on me. “Edie. I am mistaken or are you somehow at the center of all this?”
Nico barks out a sharp laugh and coughs up some water. Val seethes.
“That bitch started this all,” Nico sputters, getting to his feet. “She’s as bad as her slut mom.”
“Edie wasn’t involved,” Val says and all eyes are on him. “She was trying to stop us.”
“We'll see,” Themis says. “Every student here will come to my office and be judged. Moggy or pureblood, the scales will decide your fate. You will tell me all you know. If you are found lacking, you will be expelled.” She surveys the scene. “There has never been a darker moment at Mount Olympus Academy than right now.”
“Anyone who needs the infirmary, go. Otherwise wait in your rooms. Kratos will come and fetch you to receive your judgement. If you can't be found, Artemis will hunt you down and drag you back.” Kratos returns and she turns to him with a nod.
“Let's start with Mr. Tralano, shall we?"
“This is unfair!” Nico yells. “Where is Mr. Zee?” Nico backs away but Kratos grabs him and carries him away.
“I am nothing if not fair, Mr. Tralano,” Themis tells him. She turns to address us again. “Disperse,” she commands, and we rush to obey.
18
I rush to Val and slip under his arm, helping him walk on his ruined ankle. I know he’s hurting, but right now my heart is breaking too. Val was a ringleader. He is definitely getting expelled.
“You’re going to have to leave MOA.”
“Don’t worry, Edie. It’ll be fine,” he assures me. Grabbing onto my arm, he steers me toward the infirmary.
Wither & Wound Page 13
