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.