Gift of the Gods (Magic Blessed Academy Book 1)

by Eva Ashwood

  “You were the first to return because you collected the gem,” she told me, still facing the crowd. “But I assure you, anyone who was still alive when the challenge ended will be brought back.”

  Her choice of words made my stomach drop.

  The fact that she’d said anyone who was still alive was not a good sign. That meant that my assumption was right—there had been at least some casualties in this semester’s challenge.

  A loud crack filled the air to my left, followed by another to my right, and another. I spun around, ducking out from under Frost’s arm as I watched several portals open across the pavilion, spitting out my three one-time teammates, who tumbled onto the ground.

  A moment later, Knox and Chetna came through their own portals, and relief lit in my chest at the sight of them.

  Thank fuck.

  They’d either gotten out of the cave earlier or been pulled out through the portals to earth when I’d snatched up the gem.

  The crowd started cheering again, shouts and whistles rising up in the morning air, but I kept staring, waiting for the two contestants who’d been fighting their way to the gem with us to pop through the portals.

  Where are Brielle and Shane? They were right behind us.

  The cheers continued, and the dean greeted each of the five contestants, stepping forward to shake their hands.

  “This concludes the Gods’ Challenge for this semester,” Dean Frost told the crowd. “There will be an award ceremony shortly, but first, we’ll give the competitors a chance to rest, eat, and freshen up. You may all return to the school, and after your last class, head to the auditorium. Dismissed.”

  Students began to step away from the pavilion, heading back toward the massive academy building. I saw Eden waving wildly at me as she was swept away in the press of bodies, but I could barely coordinate the muscle movements to wave back at her.

  As The Hill began to empty out, I glanced again at the five bedraggled people around me, then turned back to the dean.

  “That’s… that’s it? There were ten of us.”

  The dean nodded gravely, her smile dropping as her expression grew somber. “And you six have returned.” She reached out to squeeze my shoulder. “The dead will be honored, Aria. Come. There will be a proper award ceremony for you once you’ve cleaned up. Fallon, if you’ll bring the gem?”

  She jerked her chin toward the large stone, which had fallen from my hand when I’d landed, and one of the admins stepped over to scoop it up, bringing it over and placing it in my palm.

  The dead will be honored?

  As I clutched the smooth gem, my stomach flip-flopped like a fish stuck on dry land.

  Four out of the ten people who had ventured into the godly realm to compete had died in the attempt. They weren’t coming back, and from the looks of it, no one was going in after them either. Not even to retrieve their bodies.

  What would their families think? Would they be told their sons and daughters had died honorably? For a good cause?

  Suddenly, winning the competition felt utterly hollow.

  The gem in my hand felt like a lead weight.

  After the rest of the students cleared out, the admins led the competitors across the lawn to escort us back to our rooms.

  As I crossed over the entryway into the school, I looked back over my shoulder at the guys. I hadn’t even gotten to say a word to them since we’d been spat back out on earth, and I wanted desperately to talk to them, to lean on them, to just… be near them.

  But we were each being escorted by a different administrator, led in single file, and as soon as we were inside the building, we were hustled off to our separate dorms.

  I’d only caught a brief glimpse of my once-teammates, but they had all seemed exhausted, almost dazed. As I passed by one of the glass cases holding trophies inside the school, I caught sight of my reflection.

  I didn’t look any better than they did. I felt out of place in the quiet, empty halls of Magic Blessed.

  When we reached my dorm room, the admin who’d led me there, a man named Charles Blackburn, gazed at me with a look of deep admiration, almost reverence. “Congratulations, champion. Go ahead and get cleaned up. There will be food provided whenever you’re ready.”

  Food?

  My stomach clenched.

  I’d spent the past several weeks dreaming of everything from six course meals to greasy fast food as I forced down magically boosted energy bars. But at the moment, with too many emotions crashing around inside my body, I no longer felt hungry at all.

  As soon as Blackburn left, I stepped into the shower and just stood there, letting the water wash over me. Mud and dirt streamed down my body and pooled at my feet as it twisted around the drain.

  The normal smell of soap was incredibly sweet to me, and I shampooed my hair twice just because I could. When the hot water began to run cool, I turned off the shower and dried off my body before putting on a fresh set of clothes. They were loose on me, which wasn’t surprising since I’d spent all that time in a jungle hiking through the wilderness, fighting off various monsters, and never eating quite as much as I wanted.

  As soon as I stepped out of the small bathroom attached to my dorm, exhaustion hit me like a sack of bricks to the face. I stumbled over to the bed and was asleep almost as soon as I hit the mattress.

  I slept like the fucking dead, too tired to even dream.

  When a knock came at the door several hours later, I jerked awake and bolted upright as my heart thundered in my chest, glancing around wildly.

  Right. I’m back at school. Nothing is trying to kill me.

  I crawled out of bed slowly. Another knock came before I even made it across the room, and as soon as I opened the door, Eden burst inside, a huge grin on her face. She practically bum-rushed me, wrapping her arms around my shoulders.

  “Oh gods, Aria! They called us out of class this morning to watch the finale—well, those of us with good enough grades, anyway. We all got to watch the moment when you grabbed the gem. I’ve been watching bits and pieces when I can, but I want to know everything! Everything about it.”

  Normally, I would’ve pulled away from her affectionate assault, but I was too tired to resist at the moment. At least, that’s what I told myself as I wrapped my arms around her and rested my head on her shoulder. Maybe I just needed the contact to stay grounded.

  I felt strange, ephemeral almost. Like I might vanish or float away at any moment.

  When she finally drew back, she bit her lip. “How do you feel? I can’t believe you won!”

  I looked around the dorm room, trying to come up with the right words. “It feels… strange to be back here. I’ve spent as much time at this academy as I did in the godly realm, but it’s like I can barely remember this place. The magic in that other plane is so strong, it almost knocked me off my feet at first.”

  I’d hardly realized it at the time, but the magic inside me had seemed heightened while I was in the godly realm, as if the power pulsing all around me in that world had given me a boost of strength and power.

  “Wow.” Eden’s eyes widened, and she took another step back to run her gaze up and down my body like she was trying to determine if my magical aura glowed brighter than it had before.

  I glanced down at my own arms. Now that I spent almost all of my time around mages, I barely noticed the slight glow of magic around them.

  Was mine brighter? Had I actually become more magical while I’d been in the godly realm? I knew I’d improved my skills, but I hadn’t ever considered the possibility that my magic itself had grown in strength. Was that even possible?

  Before I could say anything else, the sound of the dean’s voice echoed through the school, magically amplified to reach every room, even in our dorm rooms.

  “Good afternoon, Magic Blessed students. As most of you are aware, the Gods’ Challenge was completed this morning. The award ceremony will commence shortly, so please make your way to the auditorium.”

 
I wrinkled my nose, slipping on my boots. “Ugh. I hope this isn’t some huge, drawn out thing.”

  Eden grabbed my arm as we left the room, slipping her arm through mine, and I smiled genuinely as I looked down at her. It was nice to see her face. I had missed her more than I’d thought I would. Or maybe I just missed having things and people around who weren’t trying to kill me.

  As we threaded our way through the maze of hallways to the auditorium, I tried to describe some of what I’d been through in the past month to Eden, but my words kept getting jumbled up.

  “It’s a completely different world,” I said finally. “Monsters, lakes of fire, killer spiders. I almost fucking died on a daily basis. Is meeting the gods really that worth it? I don’t get it. The whole thing was so… weird. I’m not really sure how to feel about it.”

  Eden held my arm tightly, her excitement dimming just a little as she realized I wasn’t quite as enthusiastic as she was.

  We walked into the auditorium, and everyone looked up as we entered.

  One of the admins caught Eden by the free arm and pointed her toward the seating banks, then told me to go up onto the large stage. There was only one podium on it, placed in the center of the large space, and a surge of guilt rose in me as I looked at it.

  The dean met me at the bottom of the stairs, her face placid and serene as she led me up. “Don’t be nervous. You don’t have to talk, just stand right there on the podium and I’ll do the rest.”

  I did as she asked, stepping up on the podium. I felt like a fraud somehow in my fresh clothes and clean-smelling hair. The dean put up her hands, and the chattering crowd began to quiet.

  “Welcome to the Gods’ Challenge closing ceremony. We will look back at the bright and shining moments of the challenge over the last month. We will see what made Aria the true winner of this event.” Her voice grew somber. “And we will pay homage to those who did not return. May the gods bless their souls.”

  The gathered students murmured quietly, repeating the words back to her, and I had to swallow hard as bile worked its way up my throat.

  As I stood awkwardly on the stage, hating every minute of my time in the spotlight, footage played on a magically erected screen behind me. It showed highlights of the fights, footage of the guys, footage of all of us making our way toward the gem.

  I only watched for a little while, and then blocked it out, not wanting to relive it again.

  Once was enough for me.

  Once was all some of us had.

  When all of that was done, the dean picked up a rectangular velvet box and opened it, pulling a golden medal from inside. It was inscribed with the words mageía mésa, ísos se óli, and it gleamed in the light.

  “This is one of the highest honors in the magical community. Aria, today we crown you the winner of the Gods’ Challenge.”

  Nearly everyone in the audience cheered, although I noticed a few students here and there standing with their arms crossed, as if refusing to celebrate my victory. My attention flicked from them to Dean Frost, wondering if she noticed. Her gaze swept the crowd, but if she noticed the silent students, she gave no indication.

  As several other administrators stepped forward to shake my hand, I glanced back out into the audience again, barely hearing the words of congratulations.

  This time, I was searching for three faces. Three faces I knew as well as my own by now, belonging to three men who had come to mean more to me than I’d ever expected.

  I found them in the front row, and my stomach dropped.

  As I looked down past the lip of the raised stage, I realized that there were ten seats bordering the front of the platform, lined up in front of me.

  But only five bodies occupied them.

  Trace, Merrick, and Lachlan sat in a row, their expressions unreadable as they watched me.

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  “Pay attention! This question will be on the test,” Professor Cantwell said, standing at the front of the class going over magical theory.

  I blinked, trying to focus. I’d been back in classes for three days, and I needed to catch up on everything I’d missed.

  The day after the ceremony, things had gone back to normal—or at least as normal as they could get for me.

  Honestly, nothing felt the same. When I’d first come to Magic Blessed, I hadn’t been all that excited about being here. I hadn’t planned to make friends, and I certainly hadn’t expected three men to crack my sealed heart open and make me… feel.

  “I still don’t know how you’re doing better in Practical Uses of Magic than I am,” Eden whispered to me, not listening to Professor Cantwell as he droned on.

  I shrugged, dragging my pencil across the pages of my notebook without even paying attention to what I was writing.

  “You have to realize, in the jungle, I had to use my magic every single day, and usually every single hour. What I didn’t already know, I had to teach myself, and I had to do it fast.”

  Eden settled back into her seat, but her gaze kept darting in my direction, as if she could tell that something was fundamentally different about me. Class finally ended, and I closed my notebook, shoving it into my bag and hefting the backpack over my shoulder.

  Walking out of class behind Eden, I caught sight of Lachlan coming down the hall from the opposite direction. Our gazes caught, and my mouth dropped open. But just like the last few times I’d seen him or any of the other three men in the halls, I couldn’t seem to force out a damn word.

  I wasn’t sure what to say.

  “What the hell is up with him? With all of them?” Eden murmured, turning to look over her shoulder at the burly Irishman passed by. “From the bits of footage I saw, I was sure you guys had gotten to be good friends.”

  The footage of us in the cave had fortunately not been aired to all the students at Magic Blessed and the entire magical community. Like Eden had told me, only the “highlights” were broadcast.

  I pulled the strap up on my backpack, a dull ache spreading in my chest until it felt like it would stop my heart.

  “Yeah, well. Things are just kind of back to how they were before the competition. They’re not giving me shit anymore, but they’re pretty much ignoring me.” At Eden’s pitying look, I shook my head quickly, forcing my voice to remain even. “It’s for the best. We were just working together out of convenience. It’s not like we became soulmates or anything. It wasn’t like we were a real team. Now that we’re back, they don’t really want to talk to me.”

  Eden gave me a skeptical look, then shrugged and took the lead as we maneuvered through the crowded hallway, dropping the subject for the moment.

  Thank fuck.

  Everything I’d just said had been a lie. The guys hadn’t been ignoring me. If anything, I’d been ignoring them—and once they’d realized that’s what I was doing, all of them had followed my lead and kept their distance.

  In the immediate aftermath of the challenge, all I’d wanted was to be with them, to talk about the weirdness of being back and how strange and guilty I felt for having survived. To soak up their comforting presence and lend them my strength too.

  But in the days that followed, I had gotten more and more stuck in my own head. I kept trying to process everything that’d happened in the Gods’ Challenge, but it was impossible to wrap my mind around all of it.

  Something felt… wrong.

  I’d stuffed the medal I had won in a drawer under a pile of clothes, unable to stand the sight of the gold glinting in the light. I’d been tempted to throw it out the window, but I was sure Dean Frost would somehow find out and be furious about it.

  But I didn’t want the damn thing.

  As I passed by the large Gods’ Challenge board, a sort of tribute that’d been erected a few days after we returned, I paused for a moment, staring at the faces of the four contestants who had died inside the realm.

  Every time I saw their faces, my heart skipped a beat.

  It wasn’t like I’d been good fr
iends with any of them, but that didn’t mean I’d wanted them dead. I didn’t know why, and I knew it was irrational, but I felt personally responsible somehow. As if my grabbing the gem had somehow been a death sentence for them.

  I slowly walked toward the last two pictures, recognizing the faces far too well.

  Brielle and Shane.

  Not only did I see them every night in my dreams, but they were in my memories too. They had been right behind us as we’d raced for the gems. I was sure of it. I knew for a fact that we hadn’t killed them; we’d only stunned them so that one of us would have a chance to win.

  So why did they die?

  What killed them in the final few moments while me and the guys were battling our way toward the gem?

  It just doesn’t make any fucking sense.

  “Hey. Are you okay?” Eden asked, making me jump.

  “Yeah. Yeah, I’m fine,” I lied. “I’m just gonna go outside and get some air. I’ll meet you in the cafeteria.”

  Before she could answer, I turned and hurried off, making my way back through the corridors until I reached the front door.

  I burst through into the cold air outside, jogging down the steps and turning the corner, backing into a small hideaway spot next to the stairs. I leaned my head back with my eyes closed and took in long, deep breaths, trying desperately to get a hold of myself.

  This is the kind of shit I wish I could talk to the guys about. Dammit, how did everything get so fucked up?

  Low voices filtered into my ears, but I blocked them out, focusing on drawing in oxygen through my nose and releasing it slowly through my mouth. Finally, my heart rate began to slow, and I was about to step out and head back toward the building when the voices finally caught my attention.

  They were low and hushed, and the speakers must’ve been just outside the school doors.

  One of them I recognized as Fallon, the administrator who’d grabbed the gem off the ground and given it back to me the day I’d returned from the Gods’ Challenge. His gravelly voice was hard to miss.

  The other was softer, female, but I couldn’t quite place it.