by River Ramsey
The Wild Hunt
River Ramsey
Copyright © 2019 by River Ramsey
All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
Contents
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Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
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Chapter 1
Kore
Evidently, a murder followed by a student freaking out and almost leveling half the school was not what qualified as justification for a break at Olympus Academy. At least I got Friday off to regroup. They offered to let me return home for the weekend, but as much as I missed my friends, that would mean coming clean to Mom about everything that had happened—and I wasn’t that self-loathing, despite Hades’ best attempts.
My first day back, it became clear that while the Hunt was still on, the remainder of the student body now recognized me as a far more dangerous form of prey. Their attempts went from overt hazing, like tripping me in the halls, to outright shunning, but I was used to it.
Hell, after everything I’d just been through, including an unexpected and world-shaking visit from Hermes, it was a relief to be back to business as usual. Even if that business was being the school pariah.
I found myself yawning halfway through first period. I hadn’t gotten much sleep the night before. Nothing like finding out you might share half of your DNA with the banished god of war and strife to promote a little insomnia.
“Am I boring you, Kore?” Hephaestus asked in a wry tone.
I grimaced, sitting up sharply to face him. The remark earned snickers from around the room, but he silenced them with a single look. “No, sir. Sorry.”
Hephaestus gave me a stern frown and turned back to the board where he was laying out the various connections between human society and the gods. I was really trying to pay attention, but it was hard to attend to mortal affairs when my own parentage was evidently a hot subject among the Council.
I couldn’t get Hermes’ final words out of my head, either. What could they possibly want with me? It had to be related to my father, but he was banished and had been for as long as I was old enough to remember.
Come to think of it, I didn’t even know why he’d been banished in the first place. There were the usual rumors. Treason against the gods, inciting malice, all the typical hobbies of the shunned and reviled.
Guess that ran in the family.
When the bell rang, I didn’t even bother to get up right away. I wasn’t in the mood to be pushed and shoved aside, but by the time I finally left the classroom last, I found myself the object of Hades’ unwanted attention.
He was leaning against the wall, looking handsome and dickish as ever. The striped scarf around his neck was a fashion risk, but it paid off. He had the perfect blend of preppy and dark going on, and it worked for him somehow.
I’d sooner die than admit that, but it was true.
“What do you want?”
“You’ve been a space case lately,” he remarked. “Just making sure you’re not on the verge of another meltdown.”
I shot him a death glare. “So what, you want to make sure you can hasten it?”
He rolled his eyes. “You had your chance to play nice, but that doesn’t mean I’m entirely apathetic about what happens to you.”
“Fuck off, Hades,” I said, brushing past him.
His hand shot out and planted on the wall behind me. I braced myself for the wave of irritation that always washed over me when he talked. Odin’s words were fresh in my mind. One more strike and I was out.
“You may not care what people think, but I don’t want my future bride to end up in a padded cell before graduation. It’s humiliating.”
“You’re so thoughtful,” I quipped, clutching my books tighter against my chest to fight the urge to bitchslap him again.
Not my proudest moment. One of the best, sure, but not the proudest.
He clenched his jaw and his eyes flickered over me the way they did so often, like he was trying to figure out what to make of me.
Funny, because I had no such problem when it came to him.
“I know something’s going on,” he said, leaning in. “And I will find out what it is.”
I leaned in to match him, trying not to think about just how close our lips were. The kiss that never should have happened was still at the forefront of my recent memory, and as much as it pissed me off, I knew I owed him one.
Then again, considering all he’d put me through, we weren’t even close to even yet.
“You say that like I give a shit what you do or don’t know.” I shoved him just hard enough to get him out of my way but not enough to draw attention.
He just smirked, his hands in his pockets as he watched me. “We’ll see.”
Irritation bubbled up in my chest like heartburn, but it was going to take a hell of a lot more than a chalky tablet to be rid of the nuisance that was Hades.
I made it through the rest of my day relatively unscathed, and even managed to get through Artemis’ training session without killing anyone. Of course, my fellow classmates were even less eager to team up with me than usual, but that was to be expected.
I was on my way back to the dorm when I saw the crowd formed in the hall that led to the men’s wing.
“What the hell?” I muttered, straining to get a better look. I turned to the girl next to me and asked, “What’s going on?”
She gave me a disgusted look, like something off the bottom of her shoe was talking to her. “I don’t know, some dude’s fighting with his roommate,” she said before turning back to try and get a better look.
The way the crowd was pressing in, I was starting to feel claustrophobic. I finally managed to edge my way through the crowd enough to see it break up ahead. Right outside Dionysus’ door.
Dread welled up within me even before I saw him on the floor, holding the right side of his face like it hurt. Atlas was standing over him looking like an angry bull with his fists clenched.
“Hey!” I bellowed, pushing my way to the front. I put myself between Atlas and Dionysus instinctively, even though I knew that was probably the last thing he wanted. “What the hell is going on here?”
Atlas narrowed his eyes at me, but I was used to being unwelcome. Might as well be for a good reason. “Stay out of this,” he growled. “This doesn't concern you.”
“The hell it doesn't,” I snapped. Dionysus was my friend and the one person who'd been decent to me. Even though I probably wasn't doing him
any favors by intervening publicly, I wasn't thinking about that right now. I just saw someone I cared about in trouble, and I never had been good at standing down.
“Kore,” Dionysus said wearily, looking up at me. When I saw the dark red mark forming around his right eye, rage burned in my chest.
“Did you do this?” I demanded, turning back to Atlas. Fuck getting expelled, there was about to be another murder at the Academy and this time, there would be plenty of witnesses.
“So?” he scoffed, folding his arms. “The little creep deserves it.”
I didn't care what Dionysus had done, he didn’t deserve to be taken down by someone twice his size. Besides, I highly doubted Atlas and I had the same standards for what was worthy of physical violence. “You're the creep,” I spat. Everyone was staring at me now, but at least the focus was off Dionysus.
For an Academy full of Olympians, there were surprisingly few people willing to stand up and do what was right. Then again, their parents weren't much better.
“You were the one on my phone,” Dionysus hissed, getting to his feet.
Sure enough, I recognized the rose gold device in Atlas’ grasp. Definitely not his style.
I snatched the phone from him while I had the chance, but the display came on before I could stop it, revealing a picture of a very naked dude I’d never seen before. Probably a model, given his good looks and washboard abs. My face warmed as I clicked the phone shut and handed it to Dionysus before Atlas could reach for it back.
“Missing the part where his phone is any of your business,” I said flatly, folding my arms.
Atlas looked between me and Dionysus, rage burning in his eyes. I could tell he was calculating whether or not he wanted to push past me to get to his roommate but the audience made things too complicated for his meathead brain to process.
“Just take your shit and get out,” he snarled, stalking into the room only to return a moment later with an armful of Dionysus’ clothes. He tossed them on the floor along with a bag.
“That’s my laptop, you oaf,” Dionysus snapped, reaching for the bag. At least it had landed on the pile of clothes.
“I’m not gonna room with a weirdo like you for another second,” Atlas growled, looking back at the other students. “Don’t need you perving on me while I’m getting dressed.”
“Don’t flatter yourself,” Dionysus muttered, gathering his things.
I stooped to help him, since I needed something to do with my hands other than wrapping them around that thick throat of Atlas’. “You’re one to talk about being a perv,” I sneered. “I heard you fucked your cousin over summer break.”
His nostrils flared and for a moment, I was sure he really was going to charge me, girl or not. One of his friends reached out to grab him even though he was more than a little bit late collecting his trash.
“Come on, bro, they’re not worth it.”
Atlas was still seething, but his ire turned to cruel satisfaction as he looked me over. “I hope Hades fucking buries you, you little bitch.” He spat at me and as soon as I felt a vine coiling around my wrist, Dionysus’ hand wrapped around it, too.
“He’s the one who’s not worth it,” he said in a low tone. “Don’t get yourself expelled over me.”
I hesitated but finally gave up straining when Atlas and his posse of lunkheads turned the corner. The crowd was still gawking at us and all it took was a step in their direction to make them fall back.
Once they’d dispersed, I turned to see Dionysus stuffing his things into his bag. “I should get back in there for the rest of my stuff before he comes back,” he muttered.
“I’ll help you,” I offered.
He hesitated, looking me over. “This is probably the one case where even your reputation could be damaged by association.”
“Gee, thanks.”
“You know what I mean.”
“I do, and… I’m sorry about all that,” I said, unsure of how else to say it. “Atlas is a douchebag and so are they.”
“It’s fine. I’m used to it,” he said with a shrug. “It was only a matter of time before it got out anyway.”
I frowned. “Who you are isn’t something that should matter if it ‘gets out,’ and it’s total bullshit that it does. Just another reason to hate this shitty school and I don’t give a fuck who knows we’re friends. There are plenty of reasons to look down on me, but that’s definitely not one of them.”
He gave me a tired smile. “Thanks. I mean it.”
“I’m sorry for losing it back there,” I muttered. “Probably didn’t help anything.”
“No,” he mused with a glimmer in his eyes. “Looks like we’re both social pariahs now.”
“Yeah,” I sighed. “We should form a club or something.
Chapter 2
Kore
Once I’d helped Dionysus gather the rest of his things, I brought him back to my room to stash them while he figured out what to do next. And that was how I found myself pacing the floor of my dorm, getting madder the more I thought about the whole thing.
“This is textbook discrimination,” I told him. “We should go to the headmaster. Atlas is the one who should be getting kicked out of his room and the Academy itself, not you.”
“Right, because Odin is so fair and progressive.”
He had a point, but still. “It’s worth a shot. We can’t let him get away with it.”
“Look at the world we live in, Kory. People even more ignorant than Atlas are getting away with a lot worse on a daily basis,” he said calmly.
“That just makes it even more fucked up,” I muttered. “How are you so calm about this?”
He shrugged. “When you’ve spent your life hiding, it’s not a huge shock when people confirm you had a reason to hide in the first place.”
I frowned as his words sank in, but it was eye opening, to say the least. At least people hated me because of what I’d done. Dionysus was a model student and he’d never done shit to anyone, but some prick with an anger problem could just come along and ruin his reputation for something that shouldn’t have even mattered in the first place.
And the worst part was, I knew he was right. Odin wouldn’t care. Maybe a few of the teachers would have, but just like the students who didn’t want to rock the boat, they’d keep silent while the bullies lived on to torment another day.
This time, they’d picked the wrong target.
“What’s wrong?” Dionysus asked, eyeing me warily. “I know that look. It never means anything good.”
“What look?”
“Come on,” he said flatly. “It’s me you’re talking to.”
“Okay, fine. I’m plotting revenge.”
“Kory, I told you --”
“It’s not just about this,” I promised. “This is definitely the straw that broke the camel’s back, but the camel was a fed up bitch a hundred straws ago.”
“Okay, so what’s going through your mind?” He still sounded nervous, but I could tell curiosity was winning out for the moment.
“This school is fifty shades of fucked up, right?” I asked, plopping down next to him.
“That’s one way to say it,” he chuckled. “What’s your point?”
I shrugged. “Someone should change it.”
“Someone meaning us?” he asked doubtfully.
“Who else? Not like we have anything to lose.”
“I’m sorry, but were these past couple of months you not trying? Because if so, I’m kind of afraid to see what trying looks like for you.”
I rolled my eyes. “I’m not talking about getting petty revenge on the Triad. They’re just three oozing symptoms of the cancer at the bottom of this school.”
He frowned, and it took him a moment to realize what I was talking about. “You mean Odin?” he asked, his eyes widening.
“Our ‘headmaster’ is nothing more than a glorified bully himself,” I answered. “He doesn’t deserve the job, and I know for a fact there are people on the Cou
ncil who’d agree if half the shit that’s allowed to go on at this place got out.”
“You realize that no one’s going to believe you over Odin, right?” Dionysus asked. “Or me, for that matter. We’re low on the totem pole in here and out there.”
“I know, but they won’t have to believe us. All we have to do is make it so obvious that anyone with eyes could see it, and if the right people see it, all the assholes who’ve let it go on for this long will have no choice but to do something about it.”
He hesitated, but I could tell he was actually thinking about my words. “And how do you propose we do that?”
“We’re still in the middle of a murder investigation, as much as everyone might like to pretend otherwise,” I said with a shrug. “For the first time in forever, people are actually watching Odin with a critical eye—and I say we give them something to see.”
“You mean framing him?”
“Please. You only need to frame someone when they’re not guilty,” I snorted. “I’m talking subterfuge. Resisting from the inside.”
“That’s going to be difficult to do, considering that we’re both relegated to the outside of acceptable society now.”
“That’ll just make it easier to get away with,” I said with a shrug. “We’ll play along. Let them think we’re victims.”
“We aren’t?” he asked warily.
“No! And if we are, it’s time to stop,” I answered. “I don’t know about you, but I’m tired of being the punching bag for a bunch of elite, ignorant jocks who think they run the world just because they have rich daddies.”
