He didn’t look at me again for the rest of the class, nor did he accept me raising my hand to answer any questions. Every time he glanced toward me, his gaze darted away as if there would be some sort of punishment for even recognizing my existence.
What the fuck is his deal?
Whatever I had said had struck fear in him. I was pretty sure he would’ve kicked me out of the classroom if he could have. He wasn’t known for being the bravest of men, but I couldn’t figure out what he was afraid of.
Was he scared of me? Or of someone else?
I had asked my first question out of simple curiosity, and although Twine had never answered it, he had given me more information than he’d meant to.
He had shown me I was digging in the right spot.
Chapter Seven
“You could at least get the hell out of the way,” Wesley barked as he brushed past me in the hallway.
Ugh. Fucking dick.
I rolled my eyes, irritation prickling my skin. I hadn’t even been in the jackass’s way, but that was an unimportant detail to him. He definitely seemed to hate me even more than he had last semester.
We were almost four weeks into classes, and with the preliminary competition coming up soon, I had kept my head down, learning everything I could. Usually, I did my best to ignore Wesley, but I was so sick of his shit that I couldn’t help the annoyed scoff that fell from my lips as he strode away from me.
At the sound, he stopped charging down the hallway and turned back to me, his eyes narrowed. “Did you just scoff at me?”
Good gods. Who actually says shit like that?
My lips curled into a snarl as dropped my bag from my shoulder. It hit the floor with a dull thud as I bent my knees in a fighter’s stance, my hands balling into fists as my chin tilted up slightly. It was the same posture I adopted in the ring when I was facing somebody who thought they were far better than they actually were.
“Yeah, dumbass,” I drawled. “You were being a total dick. So I would have to say that scoff was definitely directed at you. That scoff and about fifty others.”
Walking back toward me, he dropped his bag to the floor just like I had, and the students began to move to the sides. He stood just a foot away from me, his face turning more and more red with every breath.
He pushed his finger into my shoulder, and I heard several gasps around me. They were right to gasp. When people touched me without my permission, it never ended well for them.
“You think you’re better than everyone. Aria Fucking Banks. But you know what, little girl? You’re not shit. I know for sure you cheated somehow in the Gods’ Challenge last semester. You’re nothing but a piece of trash, some Boston nobody who for some reason was given the gift of magic. A gift you never deserved in the first place.”
I rolled my neck lightly, working the kinks out as I intertwined my fingers and stretched them out as well. Then I lowered my hands down by my sides and bounced a bit, rolling my shoulders.
“Okay, asshole. You think you know me so well. You think you know what it was like inside the Gods’ Challenge? You wouldn’t survive two seconds in there. So, I’ll give you a little bit of a handicap. Why don’t we see what you can do here on earth?” I let magic spark between my fingers, the thrill of a fight already surging through me. “I mean, this is child’s play for me, but I figure it’ll be more your speed.”
Wesley growled loudly, flinging a ball of magic straight at me. Without thought, I pulled my hands apart, bringing a shield of magic out in front of me. The swirling ball of energy slammed into it, pushing my feet back just a few inches. I moved my other hand sharply downward, creating a long, twisted whip of magic. I snapped it in the air, the sound reverberating through the hallway.
Red whirling energy swirled around Wesley’s knuckles. The magic sparked and hissed, but whatever spell he’d been about to cast seemed to have fizzled out. Probably because it was hard as fuck summoning and maintaining the concentration to do powerful spells in the adrenaline-fueled middle of a fight. I’d learned that the hard way in the godly realm, and I’d gotten a shit-ton of practice at it.
Wesley’s muscles tensed and released, and a trickle of sweat crept down the side of his forehead. Pulling my arm back, I whipped the magical rope at him again, letting it wrap around his wrist before yanking hard downward. It threw him off balance as magic simmered out of his hands, and a second later, his palms slapped against the ground.
He was up before I knew it though, his energy back on, the gathered students watching in nervous awe as we continued to fight.
Suddenly, a loud crackle and then a boom erupted from down the hallway.
Wesley and I both froze, turning toward the sound as we breathed hard.
It had come from four doors down.
From the portal room.
As we all watched in silence, sparks flew out of the door and flashes of light lit up the hallway. A moment later, several figures emerged and came sweeping through the hallway.
Students immediately backed up to press themselves against the walls, watching the robed figures whose feet never even touched the ground. Those who were unfortunate enough to be caught in the middle of the corridor, like me and Wesley, were pushed back by a gust of magic unlike anything I’d ever felt. It didn’t slam me against the wall, but the force of the power that moved me out of the way made a shiver run up my spine.
As they passed, one of the newcomers turned their head toward me, but all I could see was glowing blue eyes from inside the dark shadow of his hood. Goose bumps erupted over my skin, and I rubbed at my arms as the tall man turned away. Angela, a girl I knew from several of my classes, put her hand on my shoulder and pulled me back even farther until we were both pressed tight against the wall.
“They’re messengers of the gods,” she whispered, awe and fear in her voice. “They are some of the oldest and most powerful mages in existence. Some of them live with the gods in the godly realm, and some of them are very old. People say that most of them are barely even human at all anymore.”
Several of the school admins, including the dean, hurried down the hallway, stopping to bow in front of the visitors. Their groveling obsequiousness made my stomach turn. I mean, sure, maybe we should be grateful to the gods for giving us magic, but it wasn’t in my nature to bow to anyone.
“Welcome,” Dean Frost said, her tone totally different than the one she took with us. “If you would follow us this way, we’ll go to a meeting room where we can speak in private.”
“I wonder what they want,” Eden whispered, sidling up beside me. She must’ve been on her way to class. “They don’t come to the earthly realm just for anything.”
I watched as the messengers followed the admins down the hallway toward the meeting room. Several of our professors started to shoo us back toward our classrooms, trying to break up the gaping crowd.
Messengers of the gods, huh?
Curiosity burned in my gut. My mind replayed the conversation I had overheard between Miss Avery and Dean Frost after the Gods’ Challenge last semester.
They aren’t happy about how it went. They expected far more from us than this.
I was almost positive the “they” in that sentence referred to the gods themselves. And the thing they’d expected more of? Death.