by Eva Ashwood
“Well, that’s better than sewage, so let’s get a move on it.” I nodded, excitement thrumming in my veins.
The four of us followed the sound of the water until we located the entrance to the water ducts, looking around and making sure no one was watching as we slipped down and into the dark area.
I sent a ball of magic ahead to light our way, and Trace led the pack. We followed the tunnels toward the palace, using our magic to help us navigate more clearly through the tunnels. They went in all directions, and we made several wrong turns, retracing our steps before latching onto the right path. I kept a mental log of every turn we took, trying to reverse it in my head so that we could make a quick escape this way if we needed to. It wouldn’t be fucking easy, but I wanted to have the option, at least.
Finally, we emerged, stumbling out into what seemed like some sort of storage room inside the palace.
We used our magic to dry ourselves off and headed out into the hallway, hoods draped low over our heads.
Walking in formation, we all glanced back and forth nonchalantly, finding droves of mages within the palace walls. We snuck down the corridor and took a right into a room covered in shelves of books. It was a small, elegant library—only the books glowed slightly and appeared to be magically chained to the shelves.
Merrick quickly shut the door behind us. “Does anybody else think this is weird?”
I nodded. “So fucking weird. It’s almost like the gods just gave humans magic so they could have people to attend to them as servants and worshippers. Maybe that answers one of my questions about the school.”
Lachlan had his face close to the magical books, though he was careful not to touch them. “What question?”
I bit the inside of my lip. “Maybe, and this is just me thinking, but maybe the teachers are servants too. That would explain why they’re so afraid. I don’t know though, if the gods gave magic to people thousands of years ago, and they’ve been happy with the supply ever since, then what happened in the last hundred years to change that?”
Trace shook his head, his gaze shifting around the room. “That’s a good question. Why did the gods decide that now is the time to create more magic users? What exactly do they want with them, or with us?”
Thinking about it for a moment, I stared at the ground. It didn’t make any sense to me, but I knew it wasn’t supposed to. I was never supposed to ask questions. But I had, and I had no intention of stopping. So here we were, standing in a small library within the palace walls of the gods.
We were so close to finding answers.
As we left the small library, we joined the droves of mages walking down the hallways. We followed the largest group, figuring they would take us to where we needed to go. As we approached an enormous archway leading into another room, I looked over at the men. Their keen gazes darted around, seeming to track every movement around us. We were literally surrounded by possible enemies, and our luck could change on a dime. If we were discovered, I wasn’t sure any of us would make it out alive.
As we walked through the arched doorway, I almost stumbled as awe overwhelmed me. The room was massive, larger than any we’d been in so far. It looked like a court, the gathering place for all the gods, and there were dozens of the larger-than-life figures arrayed around the space. This must be their central meeting spot.
Shuffling to the side, the men and I gathered into a tight cluster. Merrick glanced up to the front of the room.
“For some reason, I thought that there would be fewer of them,” he murmured. “But there seems to be dozens of gods. I’m not even sure that I’ve read about any of them.”
I scanned the rows of chairs leading up to one larger chair, positioned on a small raised area of the room. A man—god—who was at least seven feet tall with huge muscles, long flowing white hair, and golden robes that were thinner than the others took a seat in the chair.
“Who is that?”
Trace shook his head. “I don’t know the names, but it’s clear that there’s a hierarchy amongst the gods. That one must be incredibly powerful. He seems almost like some sort of leader to everyone else.”
With my face hidden in the sea of mages, I watched as the god barked orders, made sweeping, languid gestures, and seemed to dominate the other gods. To his right was a small group, all looking at him with admiration and love. But not all the gathered gods seemed to feel that way. Others seemed to dislike him. They still obeyed his orders, but there was a sullenness to their expressions as they looked at him. It was obvious that they followed him out of fear, not out of admiration.
Huh. Interesting.
I hadn’t expected the gods to be plagued with the same sort of petty jockeying for power that humans dealt with on a daily basis. But apparently, some things were universal.
The entire room looked almost like an enormous beehive. The gold robes of the gods glistened while messengers dressed in blue robes circulated throughout the court, serving the gods whatever they needed. There was wine and food everywhere, and the laughter and voices of the gods echoed through the chamber.
This place is so huge. We need to poke around and get the fuck out quick, before we get caught.
I turned to the guys, keeping half of my attention on the room around us.
“I don’t want to do this,” I muttered in a low voice. “But I think that we need to split up. This place is way bigger than I expected, and we can’t waste time or risk drawing attention sneaking around as a group. If we spread out through the crowd, we may be able to learn something about Magic Blessed Academy, why the gods started creating new magic users, and why they’re trying to kill some of us off. We’ll meet back up here in an hour, and if anything goes wrong, just bail and wait for the rest of us on the hill outside the city.”
Merrick took in a deep breath, and for the first time, he looked nervous. “Are you sure about this, Ari?”
His amber eyes burned with emotions I was too terrified to name, but I felt them down to my very core. My heart gave a little squeeze in my chest, and I reached out to catch his hand before dropping it quickly.
“Yes. But be safe. No matter what else, be fucking safe. If anything goes wrong, or you’re worried someone is on to you, just get out. Don’t be a hero.” I glanced at the other two men. “That goes for you too.”
Very carefully, I clasped hands with Lachlan and Trace too, and then the four of us turned away from each other and split off. I kept my head down, wandering through the crowds to the side of the large court, trying to hear what the leader was talking about. Slowly, I drifted closer to his raised dais, trying to look like I had a purpose for being there. I was almost near enough to hear what he was saying when someone grabbed my arm.
My head whipped up, and my gaze caught on one of the gods, a rather unattractive man with wavy brown hair and broad shoulders. With a sigh, he rolled his eyes and shook his head, pulling me along behind him. “Woman, what are you doing in here? We’ve been waiting for you. The palace is not meant for concubines to wander freely.”
He tossed me into a smaller room, coming in behind me and closing the door as I stumbled and caught my balance. The space was smaller than the main court, but it was still large. Half a dozen other human women, all scantily dressed, moved about the space, carrying trays of cheese and other strange looking foods. They all glanced over at me curiously and then back to the gods in the room.
Motherfucker. The god had mistaken me for one of these concubines. Anger began to rise in my throat, the urge to kick someone’s ass building inside me. I hadn’t signed up to be some god’s plaything. I stepped forward, ready to fight my way out of the room if need be. I wasn’t going to betray the three men who had risked their lives to help me get here by fucking some god.
But before I could do or say anything, the gods behind me began to talk.
“Omari is in fine form today, I see,” one of them drawled.
His friend, a god with features so sharp they looked deadly, pulled his lips back
in a sneer. “It’s ridiculous. We are all supposed to be leaders, yet he amasses more and more power, luring others to his side with empty promises.”
My ears pricked. I had no idea who this Omari guy was, but I could hazard a guess that he might be the one who’d been sitting on that almost throne-like chair in the large court. Did other gods oppose his rule? How had he risen to power? What was he promising?
Suddenly, I was no longer in a hurry to leave the room.
Several of the gods at the edges of the room had women draped over them, and soft sighs and low, wet noises reached my ears. I swallowed back my disgust. Hey, I liked sex as much as the next girl, but I wasn’t really into prostituting myself for the gods’ pleasure.
But I couldn’t leave yet.
Some girls were just serving food and drink though, and I could definitely do that. Quickly, I shucked the robe I had stolen, along with my boots, pants, and shirt. When I was left in nothing but my bra and panties, I stuffed my clothes behind a screen in the corner.
As I stepped out from behind the screen, a few of the other girls glanced at me again, giving me odd looks. The gods, however, the ones I was actually worried about, paid zero attention to me. Keeping my ears open, I grabbed a pitcher from a small serving table and began filling cups as I walked closer to the men who were speaking to each other in low voices.
“Our fearless leader,” the brown-haired god said sarcastically. “Although I don’t remember agreeing to let him lead.”
Another one of the gods let out a low laugh. “You’re not the only one, Cassius. Ryker chafes at Omari’s ‘leadership’ more every day.”
“Personally, I don’t care who holds the chair, but all of this unrest is causing strife between the factions,” Cassius replied. “We can’t afford to be splintered and divided. We’re facing a grave threat, and this discord is only holding us back from reaching any solution.”
My mind was completely wrapped up in what the gods are saying, curiosity burning through me. Still clutching my pitcher, I stepped closer, wanting to hear everything they had to say.
A solution to what? What is the problem?
I stepped forward again, turning toward them but keeping my head at an angle so they didn’t look over at me. Not that there was much danger of that happening. Aside from the gods who were groping, fondling, and fucking the concubines, none of them seemed to pay the girls serving them any attention.
“That’s the problem, isn’t it? Omari is pressing for a more permanent solution, where Ryker argues that will result in an uprising. And most of those fools out there don’t know how to decide anything for themselves,” the first god said, waving his hand in the direction of the court.
What? What?! Tell me.
Just as Cassius opened his mouth to speak, a strange feeling washed over me. I watched his mouth move but could only hear muffled noises as blood rushed in my ears. Then there was a familiar feeling in my stomach, a tug. It was as if someone had gripped me around the middle and was pulling me backward.
I shook my head, knowing exactly what was happening. No, no, no, no. Not yet.
But there was no resisting the pull.
I growled as I was yanked backward, feeling my feet leave the ground as I catapulted through a portal. It spat me out, and I bounced on the hard ground of the stadium on The Hill, on the earthly plane once more.
Instantly, my body seemed to drain of power, losing the added boost it’d had in the godly realm.
For a second, everything whirled around me as I fought to get my breath back. A dozen emotions cascaded through me, but one burned hotter than all the rest.
Disappointment.
Godsdammit. I was so fucking close.
Chapter Twenty
I stared up at the sky, cursing under my breath.
Noises finally began to filter in around me. Cheering from the crowd, whoops and hollers. I craned my neck, glancing around to see the other competitors arriving as well.
Of course, not all of them.
It appeared that this semester, just like the last, several of them hadn’t made it back.
My three men popped into existence, thrown through their portals slightly less violently than I had been. They all hurried over to me, and Merrick put his hand down, helping me to my feet.
I stood, taking in a deep breath and shaking my head. When I focused on the men, I realized they were all staring at me, a slight bit of heat in their eyes.
Trace cleared his throat, glancing around at the other contestants on The Hill and the crowd around us. “Uh, what the hell happened to the rest of your clothes, Ari?”
Merrick and Lachlan stepped in front of me, and as they did, I realized that all three of the men were still wearing stolen messenger robes.
Fuck.
“Your clothes!” I hissed. “The robes. Get them off.”
They all picked up my meaning immediately, shrugging off their stolen robes as Dean Frost greeted the other contestants. Merrick waved his hands at the piles of blue fabric, and they seemed to dissolve, sinking into the earth and disappearing.
“Still doesn’t explain where yer pants went, lass,” Lachlan murmured as Dean Frost approached us, and I elbowed him in the ribs.
“I’ll explain later.”
He shot me a look that was part possessive jealousy and part amusement, then all four of us turned to face the dean.
The dean nodded to us and greeted us in a low voice as she passed. Her gaze ran up and down my nearly naked form, an expression I couldn’t read passing through her eyes. She didn’t ask any questions though, she narrowed her eyes slightly and kept going.
Fuck. I probably didn’t match what my decoy illusion had looked like—if the illusions had still been functioning at all by the time we were yanked back to the earthly realm.
Did she know where we’d been? What we’d been doing?
I wasn’t sure she did, or I was sure she would’ve called me out on it. Unless she had good reason to want me to think she didn’t know.
Several contestants stood to our left, and when Dean Frost reached them, she lifted one of their hands high in the air as the cheering from the crowd doubled in volume. “Welcome back, brave contestants. I’m glad to see all of your faces. This semester’s Gods’ Challenge winner is Wesley Marshall.”
My head immediately snapped toward her. Holy shit, it is Wesley.
I blinked, my eyebrows drawing together as I stared at a man I barely recognized. He was dirty and disheveled, bruised and bloody, and he looked like he’d been through some shit. In fact, he looked like he had been through multiple layers of shit.
Remembering what I’d felt like by the end of the challenge last semester, I couldn’t help but almost feel sorry for him. Then again, he had almost cost me Lachlan, and I’d made the promise to take him down the next time I saw him. I barely needed to do anything though. He looked like he was going to keel over on his own, as if he was barely capable of standing.
While I could remember what I’d felt like after winning the challenge last time, and I had seen myself in the mirror that afternoon, I hadn’t looked even half as bad as Wesley did. He was a stronger fighter than I had anticipated, as I’d found out when he had turned on us. The guy was no slouch. It made me wonder whether the challenges were getting harder.
Had this been an attempt to make sure fewer students survived?
With the thought in my mind, I looked around, counting the contestants. It was way worse than the semester before. Twenty people had been sent this time, and only half of us had made it back. Some of the contestants stared at the empty space next to them, where their friends and fellow students had once stood. My stomach dropped, and I felt sick.
The dean clapped her hands, startling me slightly. “Everyone return to the academy building. Our contestants will need a little time to get cleaned up and recover. The closing ceremony will be held in the auditorium in a few hours.”
I turned quickly and hurried down toward the large castle-lik
e building, the men close behind me. Lachlan wrapped an arm around my shoulders, as the other two crowded close, warming my chilled skin and protecting me from the eyes of ogling students.
They walked me to my dorm, and I explained what had happened in a quiet voice as we went. There wasn’t time to lay out more than the barest details though. We needed time to talk through everything we learned, but we couldn’t miss the closing ceremony without drawing more attention. And the dean was already suspicious. I was sure of it.
Each of the guys kissed me goodbye, and they headed to their own rooms. I showered and changed, trying to take my time so I didn’t have to stand in the auditorium any longer than I had to. When it was time, I walked out, hearing the roar of the crowd as I entered.
I was pretty sure I could hear Eden’s voice rising above the others, and my heart clenched. She was still so enthusiastic about this school, but I couldn’t join her in her excitement.
The contestants all sat in the front row just like the last time, leaving spaces for those who hadn’t made it back.
That same feeling of anger rushed through me, and I watched as Wesley was given the award for winning the challenge. As he waved to the crowd, he looked over at me, flashing me a smug smirk. Instantly, I no longer felt sorry for him.
What a fuckface. I could’ve beaten him easily if I’d actually been competing.
But I hadn’t actually been hunting the gem, I had been doing something far more important. Still, I hated to lose, and now Wesley had it in his head that he was the better mage. The better fighter.
It pissed me off, and I wanted to leap up onto the stage and fight him with my bare hands, but I kept my mouth shut and gripped Trace’s hand so hard my bones scraped together.
I had been on the admins’ radar since last semester, and we didn’t need to do anything else to stand out or draw negative attention.
We had snuck into the gods’ domain, outside of the perimeter of the games, and I was pretty sure that wasn’t sanctioned by the rules of the game. And not only had I shown up at the school wearing barely anything, but when I’d gotten sucked through the portal back to earth, there was a very good chance that the gods in that room had seen me vanish into thin air.
