“I feel like I’m going crazy, and I’m suspicious as hell about almost everything going on at the school.” I kept my voice low, but my words felt like a shout anyway. “I think I’m driving myself crazy. I can’t figure out what the gods’ motivation is for giving new humans magic. Especially when they then try to kill half of us off. And the school? What are the admins’ plans? What’s their role in all of this? Are they being forced to do what they’re doing, or are they the ones behind this? Everything is so unclear. It makes me think that nothing in these walls is actually meant to help us at all. Like we’re fucking flies trapped in a spiderweb.”
Merrick let out a long sigh. “Yeah, that sounds about right. Since we don’t have any answers or concrete information about what’s going on, I’m questioning everything that the professors do and say. Sometimes I think I’m almost seeing things that aren’t there, just because I’m so suspicious of everyone.”
I rubbed my hands over my face and growled. “We were supposed to come back with answers, with a plan of action. But if we don’t know what the threat is, how can we fight it? I was right there, Merrick. And then I was fucking snatched away.”
He tugged my hand from my face and wrapped his around it, bringing it to his lips to kiss the back of it. It was a simple gesture, but it calmed some of the agitation raging through me.
“It fucking sucks, Ari. I won’t deny that. But there is a bright side. At least we made it back. We could’ve been stuck in the godly realm forever. When we crossed out of the challenge playing area, there was no real definitive answer as to whether we would be pulled back or not. And I don’t think it would’ve worked out well for us if we’d gotten stuck there.”
“Yeah.” I swallowed, hating that I’d brought my men into such a dangerous situation. “We’d probably be dead. I can’t imagine that the gods would look too kindly on us if they knew we were sneaking around their palace, spying on them and questioning their motives.”
A sound down the hallway made us both freeze, and I pushed away from the wall and glanced around, suddenly certain we weren’t alone. There was no other sound, and no one walked by, but a shiver ran up my spine. I looked over at Merrick, seeing the tension gathered in his shoulders.
“We need to meet tonight. You, me, Trace, and Lachlan. We need to talk. Figure out where to go from here.”
Merrick smiled, leaning forward and pressing a soft, warm kiss to my lips. “You got it. And if you need anything, you know where to find me.”
He moved to draw back, but I went with him, prolonging our kiss. I felt him smile against my lips, and his arms banded around my waist, his hands gripping me firmly as his tongue stroked mine. When we broke apart, we were both a little breathless, and for a moment, my mind was blessedly free of worry.
Gods, how do these three men do that to me?
“Thanks, Merrick,”
I pressed one last kiss to his lips, then turned and walked off.
The rest of my classes passed in a daze. Merrick found me again at dinner and murmured into my ear, letting me know when and where to meet him and the others. We couldn’t be sure there was any place inside the walls of the academy where we wouldn’t be spied on, but we’d decided to avoid talking about any of our suspicions or plans in our rooms. It would be easiest for the admins to spy on us there, and if Dean Frost was as suspicious of me as I thought she was, I didn’t want to make it easy for her to track my activity.
About twenty minutes after midnight, I pulled on my shoes and slipped out of my room, heading down to the practice rooms on the first floor. The hallways were dimly lit and eerily quiet. None of the students would be practicing magic this late at night, so I knew we wouldn’t have any disturbances.
When I rounded the corner, I found all three men standing outside one of the practice rooms, waiting for me.
Trace bowed dramatically. “The lady has arrived.”
“I like to keep you waiting.” I smirked, lifting one shoulder.
Merrick huffed a laugh. “That’s an understatement.”
Lachlan grinned, dipping his head to kiss me on the cheek. “For you, lass? I’d wait forever.”
We entered the practice room and Trace used a new spell he’d learned to seal the door from anyone trying to listen from the outside. The room was set up sort of like the big rooms at the boxing gym where I had trained with Vin. The space was open, and mats lined the floor, meant to soften the blow if students were thrown off their feet by backlash from a spell.
We all sat down on the mats, and Merrick leaned back on his hands, his long legs in front of him. “It’s been hard to find time to talk—or at least, time when we can be relatively certain we aren’t being watched. So now that we have a chance, let’s go over what we all learned in the gods’ palace one more time.”
Trace shrugged. “I really didn’t learn that much. The wine is gross, the women are kind of snobs, and apparently the gods don’t like it when you trip over their feet. Other than that, they gossip a lot but, most of it is just senseless and useless.”
Merrick nodded. “That’s pretty much what I got too. I didn’t have enough time to really snoop before getting pulled out of there. The crowds were heavy, and messengers and other mages were everywhere.”
Lachlan rubbed his nose, pursing his lips. “The only thing I overheard was that there’s a leader among the gods. I didn’t get his name or anythin’ though. I’m assuming it was the big bloke sittin’ on that giant golden throne.”
“Yeah.” I nodded grimly. “That’s him. His name is Omari, and I think he’s the unofficial leader. There’s another god named Ryker who opposes him, and it sounded like they’re sort of fighting for the support of the other gods. They disagree about how to handle some threat, I got that much—but I couldn’t tell you what that threat is.”
Trace looked suspiciously around the room. “Speaking of threats, what about the fact that I constantly feel like I’m being watched?”
Merrick nodded. “I feel that way too. Like there’s always someone just a few steps behind me. I never feel alone anymore. I really thought it was just me being paranoid, but who the fuck knows? There could be something to it.”
Lachlan scratched the back of his neck, a scowl creasing his face. “I hate feelin’ like I’m bein’ watched. I’m just gonna have to start givin’ them a show when I’m in the shower. Swing it around a little bit.”
He gyrated his hips, as if he was worried we might not’ve understood what he meant, and a laugh burst from my lips before I could stop it. The sound bounced off the walls, and I looked around quickly. I knew Trace had used his magic to help block noises from escaping, but my heart still beat a little faster.
“Well, we know for sure that the playing area is watched during the challenge—not just by the gods, but by the admins, students, and even by magic users outside of the academy, if what I’ve heard is right. And we know that our illusions went missing for about a week. Eden said they just stopped showing us on the feed. She thought we’d died.”
Trace frowned. “You think Frost knows we snuck out? If they knew, why wouldn’t they have stopped us? Or, hell, killed us?”