Taking a step away from Van, I glance at Darren and force a smile. “Maybe another night, okay?”
When Van whirls around, his blue eyes flash with anger. “What do you mean another night?”
Usually this is the moment I’d back down. I can feel it. I can even feel the guys expecting it, but something new and defiant blooms to life inside me. “You know what I mean.”
His mouth draws into a thin line. “Izzy…”
“You don’t own me,” I say. “You guys might not be here to make friends, but I am.”
He runs a hair through his flawless blond hair, messing it up in a way I refuse to find appealing. “Don’t make me--”
“Make you what?” I challenge.
“Whoah, whoah!” Reid steps between us. “Guys--”
“I’m with Van on this,” Aiden adds unhelpfully. “This Darren guy seems like a real tool.”
“Hey!” Darren says.
It’s almost funny that Aiden cared so little that he said it right in front of the guy, but I push aside my amusement. I’m not liking the way the guys are acting about me. It’s definitely not going to help me make friends.
My gaze moves to Wilder. His face twists, and he looks away from me. Not him too!
This is what they’ll do. They’ll try to control you, but you’re Loki. You are a goddess!
The thought comes unexpectedly in my mind, and I act without thinking. “Darren, is your class anywhere near mine?”
He looks uncertain as he glances between me and the guys. “Well, yeah.”
“Would you mind walking me there?”
“Fuck no!” Van draws himself up, reminding me of the athlete I knew him to be in high school. Van is strong and agile...and cold and dangerous when provoked. He’s always had an aggressive edge simmering right underneath all that cool control.
I look him right in the eye. “You just try to tell me what to do. You just push me a little further, then you’ll see…”
Flipping my hair over my shoulder, I walk past him, take Darren’s arm, and choose a direction and start walking. I hear Van swearing behind me. I hear Reid speaking in a low, calming voice. But without turning around, I know Noah and Aiden are just silently watching me. And for some reason, I don’t care about any of it.
Darren makes idle conversation as he walks me to class, but I completely ignore him. I don’t know if I like him or not, but I know he was the perfect person to rile up my guys and remind them that I’m not their dog. They can’t tell me what to do, or bark commands that I’m expected to obey.
Suddenly, I freeze.
Darren glances in my direction. “What’s wrong?”
“Nothing,” I say, but I release his arm.
Since when do I use people to anger other people?
“Well.” His voice is uncertain as he points up ahead. “Your class is right there.”
I look to see that across a huge lawn, in one corner, is a dirt lot. A group of maybe a dozen students stand on one end, and there’s no professor in sight.
“Are you sure?” I ask, suddenly wondering if I’m about to experience another round of killer students.
“Trust me,” he says, this time flashing me his fangs.
Then, turning around, he leaves me alone.
Across the campus, I see my guys making a beeline for me. I take a step toward them, the logical Izzy I’ve always been telling me that it’d be safer to stick with them. But a voice whispers in my mind, safe maybe, but sure as hell not fun.
I feel myself smile, then turn back around and cross the distance between me and the other students.
“Hello,” I say, when I draw closer. “I’m--”
“We know who you are,” one girl says, her tone scathing. “Fucking Loki. The tricker, shapeshifting asshole who likes to create chaos for fun.”
My mouth drops open, but I quickly recover. “I was going to say…I’m Izzy.”
“Izzy,” she repeats in a nasty way. “Call yourself anything you want, sweetheart, but we know who you are.”
My gaze slides over her, from her strawberry blond hair, to her dark, almost black eyes. She wears the same uniform I do, but I’m pretty sure she’s tailored the skirt to be even shorter, to barely cover her ass. She looks like an anime girl drawn by a teenage boy came to life.
If you don’t put this bitch in her place, she and her lackeys will torture you forever.
I have no idea what I’m doing when I’m already walking up to her. Everyone behind her seems to shrink back, and she glances back at them, nervousness written across her face.
Turn her hair green. Make rats pour out of her mouth. Change her clothes into snakes.
I raise my hand, and freeze. No!
“Listen,” I say, my voice soft no matter how I feel inside. “I understand that to all of you we’re just a problem you don’t want to deal with, but a few days ago I was an ordinary human living a human life. I hope you’ll take that into consideration when you decide just how much to hate us.”
Turning around, I pick a spot not far from them to stand.
“Wait!” the girl says.
I look back at her.
“You were really human?”
I nod.
“Did you go to...like…a normal high school?”
I nod again, feeling confused.
“And to malls? And movies? And all that stuff?”
“Yeah,” I say, staring.
She moves closer to me. “Will you tell me about it? I’ve only ever read about the human world.”
I try not to feel a swell of triumph. “Of course!”
A small smile touches her lips. “I’m Erica, by the way. A siren.”
I feel my eyes widen. “An actual siren? I didn’t know those really existed!”
She raises a brow. “Says the god.”
We’re both suddenly smiling. Did I just sort of make a friend? No, it’s too soon to call her that, but at least we aren’t enemies.
For a second I remember the unexpected thoughts that had wanted me to cause trouble to her. Where did those come from? Whatever they were, I was glad I’d decided to try this route instead of that one.
Suddenly, I sense the guys behind me. Without saying a word, I look straight forward.
From out of the air, a tiny man with massive ears and a robe appears. I choke down a gasp, but manage to take one stumbling step back. How the hell did he do that?
Erica gives a soft laugh and looks at me, but it’s a good-natured kind of laugh.
The tiny man sweeps a bow to us. “Good morning, students! Who’s ready to burn some stuff?”
Chapter Twenty-One
Reid
I feel strange as I stand in the group of students in Burn 101. The others seem so unaware that we’re changing, but I constantly feel something shifting inside me, like a plant is growing and taking root, its tendrils creeping through my brain and soul.
And I’m strangely aware that Hel is the plant inside of me. I would expect a goddess to feel…feminine in some way, but she doesn’t. She’s more like a darkness. A shadow that longs to fit into this world, while at the same time knowing that she doesn’t.
I can’t remember if I felt this way, too, before her, but somehow I feel this way now.
The urge to keep peace between my friends and to grow closer to Izzy wars with that need to be alone. To withdraw.
But I’m fighting it. Even though the idea of giving in is almost a strange kind of peace, like knowing that I’ll fall asleep and never wake again. Because anything that soothes me into letting go like this can’t be a good thing.
“How many of you are experienced with burning?” the professor asks, grinning at all of us.
Izzy’s new friend raises her hand. “Not burning as much as freezing or flooding with water.”
His grin widens. “You sirens always come so prepared. How about the rest of you?”
A few stray hands lift.
“Well, then, I’ll start from the beginning, even t
hough this will be repeat information for most of you.” He draws his short frame up taller. “All of us know what magic feels like inside of us, that sense of energy and power like a ball in our chest. When we access it, at first, it’s with a conscious effort. We reach within ourselves and gently take some of the magic, then concentrate on what we want the magic to do. Sometimes it’s easy. The magic obeys and all is well. But magic is alive, as we all know, and sometimes the magic does what it wants. This class will be the start of teaching your magic to obey. If you can’t get ahold of it, it’s more dangerous to use it than not. You may as well walk away from this school and from the essence of who you are, because you have a tool that’s too dangerous for you to control.”
“Like giving a knife to someone without knife-skills.”
I look to my side and feel my eyes widening. A woman somehow managed to come to stand beside me, even though she was entirely soundless. She has long dark hair that’s partially hidden by a cloak, and wears a form-fitting leather outfit beneath it. If I wasn’t head-over-heels in love with Izzy, I might find her attractive. As things were, I just found her interesting.
“I don’t have knife-skills,” I whisper.
Her mouth lifts into a half-smirk. “You don’t need to tell me that. I knew everything about you the moment I saw you.”
“I doubt that,” I say dryly.
A tiny dagger is suddenly in her hand, and she plays with it, almost absentmindedly. “You’re thin, but strong, which means you take care of your body. Not just watch what you eat, but you work out. And the sudden take-over of the gods is making you stronger and more muscular minute by minute, so soon you’ll dwarf the man you came in here as. You’re shy and not comfortable in your skin. Nearly any trained fighter could take you out in an instant, simply because you haven’t had the training to know how to fight.”
Well, that brings fond memories of my vampire encounter to mind. How does she know so much about me?
I suddenly realize my mouth is hanging open, and snap it shut. “How do you know that?”
“It’s like my knife-skills, something anyone can learn. I’ve learned to read people.”
“If anyone can learn…can you teach me?”
“Teach you what?” There’s an amused smirk that darts across her lips, but her gaze is still friendly.
“Everything?” I ask.
She looks like she might laugh, but it seems more because she’s delighted by my enthusiasm than because she’s trying to be mean. Still, she raises a brow. “Why?”
Because I feel useless around the others. Because I feel undeserving of being a god. Because with the dangers around us, I want to be able to protect myself and the others.
“Because I can’t be weak anymore,” I say. “Not in this world. Not with these gods...”
As soon as I’ve said it, I know it’s true. Hel isn’t my enemy--at least, she isn’t trying to be--but the gods within my friends might destroy us.
She looks back at the professor as he prattles on about who knows what. “I’ll think about it, Hel.”
I stiffen. “How do you know who I am?”
Her gaze is guarded. “Hel is the only god who deserved to come back, that’s why. And I could see her power in you from across the field.”
The idea is somehow troubling to me.
“Okay,” the professor suddenly says, “pair off, pick your target, and practice!”
“Come on,” she says, slipping her hand into mine.
Suddenly, she’s tugging me toward a little target at the back of the field.
When I look behind me, Izzy’s gaze catches mine, then drifts to where I hold the other woman’s hand. A flash of hurt seems to come and go in an instant, or maybe I’m just imagining it. And then Izzy’s moving to her own target, ignoring me entirely.
When we come to the back of the field, the mysterious woman looks toward the target. “Magic isn’t my greatest ability, but at least I know more than you do. Low bar.”
“Hey,” I say, but I can’t be offended, and she grins in response.
She raises her hands. A look of complete concentration comes over her face, and then a small ball of fire shoots from her hands and strikes the center of the target.
The professor is suddenly behind her. “You don’t have a lot of power, but you are skilled with it. Now, the god?”
Suddenly I wish I’d paid more attention when he was talking. I’ve always been a good student, but now that it really matters, apparently I lack all focus. Still, when the woman steps back, I move forward. Staring at the target, I try that thing he described, to feel the magic within me, but I only get a deeper sense of the sad god within me.
“She’s blocking me or something.”
The professor is at my side. “Which god are you, son?”
I hesitate. “Hel.”
His eyes widen, before he schools his expression. “Hel is very powerful, but she wasn’t a showy god like the others. She wouldn’t like something like this. She would hold onto her powers and only use them when they mattered. But you can’t afford to do that, boy. You need to learn how to protect yourself. So when you feel her blocking you, push harder. She doesn’t want you to learn to use the magic. She wants to be in charge, but you need to do this.”
A cold sweat trickles down my spine. His words raise strange anxiety inside of me. I concentrate again. I feel Hel there, her misery and darkness like a shadow. Forming an image in my mind, I try to move around her, but she’s always there. I move faster. I switch angles. Suddenly, I come crashing into a ball of power.
Fire explodes from my hands, shoots across the practice yard, and consumes the entire target until it crumbles, nothing more than ash.
“Very good,” the professor murmurs. “Now focus on learning control.”
A ruckus comes across the field. My gaze moves to it. Izzy is the center of attention, as fire runs along her arms and her legs. Not burning her flesh or her clothes, just dancing along her. She looks strangely beautiful, like a creature of magic.
“Excuse me,” the professor says, racing across the yard.
“You like her.”
I whirl to see the woman playing with her dagger again, right at my side.
“Who?” I ask, a defensive note to my voice.
“Izzy, Loki, whatever. You like her.”
I shrug, not willing to admit my feelings to a stranger.
“That’s unfortunate,” she says.
“Why?”
It takes her a long minute to answer. “For one, you’re cute. For two, you’re Hel, and being Hel is going to make any relationship harder. And three, she’s Loki. Loki is an asshole. Out of all the gods, he’s the worst. Having feelings for such a selfish god is going to be tricky.”
My mind spins. “Why is being Hel going to be hard to make a relationship work?”
She raises a brow, then spins the dagger in her hand. “Don’t you know about Hel?”
I shake my head. Everything has happened so quickly that I haven’t had the time to research who and what we are. Although I needed to make that a priority.
She sighs, like she’s dealing with a moron. “Hel was the only daughter of a powerful god and a giant. She was born with half her bones exposed and was seen as a monster among the gods. Her appearance made the gods uncomfortable, so they sent her to be queen of the World of Niflheim, one of the nine worlds. In essence, she was banished to a kind of hell. She was exiled. She was a monster among gods. And if your friend has a god within her, she will never see you the way you see her.”
“Izzy isn’t like that,” I defend, even though my stomach is turning.
She gives a strange smile. “I hope for your sake, you’re right. Now, let’s burn some more shit, and I’ll consider your request to make you into a useful person.”
“Mercy, you helping a fucking god?” Some guy calls.
She whirls. A dagger flies near his head and smashes into the ground behind him. His entire face pales.
“That time I missed on purpose,” she calls back. “Next time you lose your damn mind and talk to me that way, you’re going to lose an eye.”
I’m a little scared and a little impressed as she retrieves her dagger, then returns to practicing her magic. I’ve never had a friend that was a girl before, except Izzy. It might actually be nice to have Mercy on our side.
But as we continue to practice our magic, and mine grows easier to reach and easier to control, Mercy’s words circle in my mind. Hel might have been a monster to the other gods, but I wasn’t. These were my friends. Nothing could make them see me any differently.
Right?
Chapter Twenty-Two
Izzy
I’m fuming mad for reasons I don’t understand as I go to my next class. We sit in a room akin to a small lecture hall and flip through the pages of a book about simple spells. All of us are in the class together, but Reid sits across the room with the woman I don’t like.
She’s pretty. I hate that she’s pretty.
Of all the guys, I didn’t expect Reid to be hit on this soon. An instinct inside of me to march across the classroom and shove a finger into her chest, demanding that she stay away from my man, shocks me. Yeah, I’ve kind of always seen these guys as mine, but it’s not like they’ve felt the same way.
I’ve seen all of them with other women. Dating. Laughing. And I’ve had to suck it up and deal with it.
But Reid? As far as I knew he’d gone out with a couple of girls in high school, but I never saw him flaunt his relationships like the others had. Hell, he might not have even dated anyone. It could’ve just been rumors.
But now he’s suddenly some kind of women magnet? It more than bugged me.
We practice a few simple spells. Nothing happens with them though, because the teacher explains that intonation is important with magic.
After awhile, a few people manage to turn their hair green for a few seconds, but the spells won’t work for me. Maybe because the woman with Reid just laughed at something he said. Was her hand on his knee or just on her own? I squint, trying to see beyond the little desks.
Magic For Dummies: A Paranormal Reverse Harem Romance (God Fire Reform School Book 1) Page 12