Dark Gods: An Academy Bully Romance (Academy of the Gods Book 1)

by River Ramsey

To be fair, one day he'd probably succeed, but I'd dealt with too many spoiled rich boys to be intimidated by them.

  "Let's get one thing clear," said Hades, changing his tune entirely. "This school is my domain. Everything and everyone in it, including you. I've got another year and a half left in this place, which I intend to enjoy, and I'm not going to have you ruin it for me."

  "Me? Ruin your life?" I challenged, pressing a hand to my chest. The dress was a bit lower than I remembered, but the fact that Hades' eyes kept drifting told me the pushup bra was working its magic. "You think I wanted to come here to your little Ivy League playground? I was perfectly happy in Manhattan."

  "Yes, running your cute little girl gang," he said in a wry tone that made me want to deck him then and there. I could feel the rage shifting and congealing in my veins, ready to become something deadly, but I wasn't going to ruin my night on account of this smug prick. "Which brings me to the next matter we need to sort out. Your reputation precedes you, and it’s not very flattering. Frankly, I don’t care how you spend your time between now and graduation, but I do care how it reflects on me.”

  “Aw. Is keeping up appearances important to the big, bad god of the Underworld?” I taunted, folding my arms. It was against my better judgment, but the guy was stepping hard on my last nerve, since he’d burned through all the rest.

  His eyes narrowed dangerously and for the first time, he looked like what he was: damnation. “You test the limits of my patience, Persephone, and we’ve only just met,” he said in a restrained tone pulsing with irritation. “I wonder, do you really think you can survive the next three and a half years at this school once you’ve reached the end of it?”

  “That sounds like a threat,” I remarked. “That’s not very divine of you. Then again, maybe what they say about you isn’t far off, either.”

  Those black flames in his eyes roared to an inferno. Hades’ questionable parentage was no secret, but his mother’s identity certainly was. Rumor had it, Cronus had impregnated a human woman and banished their offspring to the Underworld along with her to hide the evidence. Maybe it was nothing more than gossip, but it had certainly made the rounds in Olympus. Petty to go there, but he was the one who’d struck first with that little reputation comment.

  “Watch yourself, Persephone,” he said, his voice lowering as a shadow fell over him. It seemed to pull from the darkness in every corner of the room, growing and shifting until I could feel it in the air I took into my lungs with each breath. “It’s a dangerous game you’re playing, and not one anybody has ever won.”

  “First time for everything,” I said, standing toe to toe with him. Even though I had to look up to glare at him properly, I kept my shoulders squared in challenge. We were getting a few odd looks and I could tell he was weighing the benefits of backing down versus risking his precious reputation. “Unless you’re scared.”

  His lips twitched slightly in a snarl and that glare could’ve cut diamond. “I’d be careful whose parentage you speak of, considering the rumors surrounding your birth.”

  “What the hell is that supposed to mean?” I asked, narrowing my eyes.

  He studied me for a moment, cocking his head. Curiosity lit his gaze, and it was far more menacing than the spite. “You don’t know, do you?” he finally asked, adding to my confusion.

  “Know what?” I asked defensively.

  He laughed and it was a dry, bitter thing, like a poison apple fallen right off the tree. “Your mother and Poseidon. Or are you really that sheltered?”

  Poseidon? My heart raced even faster at his mention of the name, an innate reaction I didn’t fully understand. He was fucking with me. I knew responding would only be taking the bate, but something about the way he’d said it had sown the seed of doubt in my mind.

  Maybe it was just the fact that my mother herself had always been secretive when I’d asked her to tell me stories about my father. Zeus had never really been a part of my life, and he was slain while I was still too young to remember him, but Mom had never liked talking about him much. I told myself it was probably the fact that he’d fathered half the children in Olympus, and his manwhore ways were legendary. He was her opposite in every way, from what I had gathered over the years, and I was nothing more to him than any of the others. His absence had made that clear, but who cared? We didn’t need him. We had each other, and even if we were like oil and water, our lives didn’t need to blend to coexist. They didn’t need anything else thrown into the recipe, either.

  I loved my mother, and I was the one person who was allowed to say shit about her.

  “My, my,” he said with a smug little inhale, rubbing his smooth chin as he looked down at me with all the triumph of a cat who had a mouse under his paw. “I guess it’s true what they say about the quiet ones. Demeter must be better at keeping secrets than she was at keeping your father in her bed.”

  It happened without me even realizing it. Something just snapped inside of me and I heard the sound of my hand connecting with his cheek before I actually realized I’d struck him. Time seemed to slow down like Cronus himself was in the room and while it took Hades a moment to react, everyone else had turned to stare at us.

  At me.

  The feeling of dread welled up within me like a great black cloud, but even though I knew my life at Olympus Academy was effectively over, it was Hades’ words that felt like they’d be my undoing.

  He didn’t say a word for a long while, but when he finally muttered, “You’re going to regret that,” his voice was surprisingly calm. Pleasant, even.

  Without waiting for him to make good on his promise, I turned and headed straight for the exit.

  “Kory,” Dionysus whispered, pushing through the crowd. I cast him a distracted glance, but I knew getting him mixed up in all this was the only way it could be worse. Instead, I shook my head and did the one thing I promised myself I’d never do:

  I ran.

  5

  By the time I made it back to my room the night before, I was a mess. I’d stolen a bottle of champagne from the kitchen while everyone was distracted by my freakout and locked myself in my dorm room. Dionysus had come knocking on my door, but I wasn’t in any condition to answer. I felt guilty for pretending like I wasn’t home and I knew he’d probably seen through it immediately, but crying wasn’t something I did often and it definitely wasn’t something I did in front of other people.

  Even if they were tears of rage. My tear ducts had never really gotten the memo that crying was something you did when you were sad.

  I hadn't gotten more than an hour of sleep, tops, and that was after wavering between calling Mom or not for most of the night. It wasn't the first time the name Poseidon had come up surrounding her, but Hades was right, much to my chagrin. I was sheltered, at least when it came to the world of the gods.

  Despite Mom's insistence on me one day taking my place on the Council of Olympus at Hades' side, she had always been reluctant to talk about her cohorts and exploits. We kept limited company and my aunt Athena wasn't any more informative.

  What pissed me off more than anything was that this was exactly what Hades had wanted. Even if he was entirely full of shit, he'd known the thread to pull to make me unravel and I had taken the bait hook, line and sinker.

  In front of everyone.

  God, class today was going to suck. As torturous as the idea of going out to face the world I'd made such a lovely first impression on was, the idea of turning tail and running again was even worse.

  Kore Ademone was no quitter, and Hades was about to learn that the hard way.

  If I was going to face the music, at least I was going to do it in style. I showered and dried my hair, tying it back into a more manageable braid that fell over my shoulder. I put on a fresh school uniform and reached for the floral pin I'd last left on my dresser, only to find a white rose that definitely hadn't been there the night before.

  "What the hell?" I murmured, looking around the room. Someone had come
into my room? At first, I thought maybe Dionysus had snuck in before I'd come back, but he'd been at the party after me and unless he had the gift of teleportation on top of Ecstasy, it seemed impossible. I always locked my door before I left. Besides, the whole Phantom of the Opera thing didn't really seem like his schtick.

  I picked up the rose and winced as a thorn that hadn't been visible before pricked my finger, drawing a droplet of blue blood to the surface. The stem turned black in my grasp, a shadowy hue spreading up to the milky white petals and turning them dark as coal.

  Whoever had left it must have thought they were funny, but I wasn't in the mood for magic tricks. Something told me Hades and his posse were to blame. Probably Loki, since he had a flare for cheesy party tricks involving flowers.

  I stalked out of my room, planning on getting answers. There were a few girls I recognized from the night before in the lounge area and they all stopped to stare when I came out. I recognized one of them as a Valkyrie, and when her gaze drifted to the rose in my hand, she blurted out, "Holy shit!"

  I frowned. "You know what this is?"

  She seemed about to answer when the blonde beside her grabbed her arm and dragged her to her feet. The four of them shuffled off whispering anxiously and left me to puzzle what that was all about.

  Sure, I'd made a disastrous first impression, but it wasn't bad enough for everyone to be scared of me, was it? Maybe Loki had spread the rumor about my "extracurricular" activities to get even on his friend's behalf.

  I tucked the rose into my new bookbag and walked to class. There was no time for lingering, so I'd just have to get answers later. If I was going to stick this out, I needed to at least apologize to Hades, even if it took all the willpower I had.

  Of course, I wasn't sorry. He deserved the slap in the face and a boot up the ass, for that matter, but he was the school's favorite malicious pretty boy and I couldn't afford to make such a powerful enemy. Especially not one I was engaged to.

  As I walked the clear crystalline concourse overlooking the river running below the academy, dividing the residential building from the main classroom block, every student I passed glanced at me and quickly looked away.

  I'd have told them to take a picture, but a few already had their phones out and the sound of camera shutters told me that was exactly what they were doing.

  Great.

  I kept my gaze straight ahead and stalked to my first class. I was early, but there were still a few people present and more filtered in as I walked down the aisle. I got a few odd glances, but it was nothing like the hallway.

  Then, it happened.

  It started with a chime, then a phone buzzing, then another. I stopped walking in the middle of the classroom as the symphony of vibration and ringtones went off.

  Everyone was staring at their phones, so of course I checked mine. Nothing. That made me even more curious, but when I looked up, they were all staring at me. And not in the casual, wary way they'd been staring before. In that moment, I felt like a Thanksgiving turkey being wheeled out in front of a bunch of hangry football fans and I took a step back from the guy and girl nearest to me only to trip backward over the extended leg of the girl behind me.

  I barely caught myself on an empty desk before spinning around to face her. "What the hell?"

  "Sorry," she said in a flippant tone, straightening her spine and flipping a strand of dark brown hair behind her shoulder. She turned back to her phone and the whispers started.

  I muttered something less than conciliatory under my breath and made it to the seat I'd taken yesterday. Ariadne was already seated, and I gave her a tired smile. "Hey."

  She looked away quickly, like she was afraid to be caught talking to me and started typing something on her phone.

  Well, okay then.

  Evidently, Hades wasn't the only one who took himself seriously at this school. I knew out of context, my actions probably seemed pretty bitchy, but was it really worth being shunned over? Then there was that asshole who'd tripped me. No way that was an accident.

  Speak of the devil. He walked in casually, setting his books down before he slumped into his seat. No one talked to him, and he didn't check his phone, which further confirmed that little group text had something to do with him.

  Should've known the bastard would try to get even before I even had the chance to apologize.

  Before I could do anything, Hephaestus came in and glanced around the room, stopping when his gaze landed on me. The stern look of disapproval left no room to doubt he'd witnessed the slap heard round the world, but I was used to teachers looking at me like that.

  "Alright everyone, sit down," he ordered. "Yesterday was a freebie, but this is where we get serious, so keep up."

  I listened as he began overviewing the history of the human world, which probably didn't take as long as they would have liked, from a divine perspective. Maybe it was my desperation to forget the night before, or maybe he was just more interesting than my droning high school profs, but I actually found myself paying attention--and dreading the moment the bell rang.

  I was more than ready to leave, but the moment I tried to stand, the guy behind me bumped into my desk. It seemed like everyone had purposely crowded into our aisle, just to create a traffic jam, penning me in.

  "Break it up," Hephaestus scolded. "One winter off and you all forget how to form a single file line?"

  His scolding emptied the classroom faster, but by the time I reached the front, Hades was long gone.

  "Ms. Ademone," Hephaestus called. It was becoming a morning ritual, really.

  Here goes, I thought, bracing myself before I turned to face him. "Yes, Professor?"

  "I saw what happened last night," he said, frowning down at me. "Do you want to tell me what that was all about?"

  "It was..." I trailed off, realizing that coming clean about the reason I'd given Hades a one-sided coat of blush was not only pointless, it would put my mother's reputation even more on the radar than it apparently was. "He just pissed me off, that's all."

  He eyed me doubtfully, but he either seemed to give up or became convinced. "I shouldn't have to tell you this, but violence of any kind against another student outside of the arena or training gym is absolutely unacceptable. Do I make myself clear?"

  "Crystal, sir," I muttered. "I was going to apologize to Hades."

  "I'd highly suggest it," he said, giving me another stern look. "Go on. You're already getting a name at this school, and you don't need to add tardiness to it."

  I held in a sigh of irritation until I left the room and picked up my pace as I headed off in search of Hades. Class could wait, and tardiness was the least of my problems, despite what Hephaestus seemed to think. I had another missed call from Dionysus, and this time, he'd left a voicemail, but I'd get back to him later. He didn't need to be involved in this circus bullshit and the sooner I found Hades, the better. The hallways were crowded with students moving to and fro, and more than a few went out of their way to bump into me.

  Two days in and this was already getting old. It had to end, and at that point, I was torn between appealing to Hades' ego and beating the shit out of him so everyone at school would realized there was a new bitch in town to cower around.

  I caught sight of him up ahead, standing next to Loki and a boy with spiky black hair streaked with green. "Hey, Hades," I called, knowing he'd just run off if I gave him the chance.

  He looked up and his eyes met mine with that icy hot stare. Before I could say anything else, a herd of Valkyries pushed me into the bathroom and one shoved me hard enough to send me ass-first onto the ground.

  "Hey!" I cried, springing to my feet as they fanned out, blocking my path to the door. "What is wrong with you feathered bitches?"

  All four of them were staring down at me, thanks to their willowy frames. Even the shortest was a few inches taller than me in flat boots. I recognized her as Ingrid, but today, she was anything but apathetic.

  "Making another scene, Rabbit?
"

  I frowned. "Rabbit?"

  She ignored me and her flaxen-haired sister stepped up beside her. "You had a good thing going, sweetie. Shouldn't have blown it."

  I scoffed, picking up my fallen books. "What are you, Hades' personal guard?"

  They looked at each other and some communication seemed to pass between them as instantaneously as the alert that had triggered every phone in the classroom.

  "What do you think, sisters?" the tallest one asked. "Should we give the bitch a proper welcome?"

  "I think so, Drea," Ingrid answered, looking at me with predatory intent in her clear blue eyes.

  I clenched my fists and felt the vines prepared to spring. Guess I was gonna figure out what kind of gifts the Valkyries were packing. Just as they seemed about to pounce, the bathroom door flew open and a tall, athletic woman I recognized as Artemis came in, giving us all a look to curdle blood.

  Artemis was one of the few Olympians I'd actually met in person, and she was far more imposing up close. Her short blond hair fell partially in her eyes, but it did nothing to diminish the force of That Look. I swear, she and Mom could've been twins.

  "Ingrid, Drea, Astrid, Maya,” she barked, “You girls want to tell me what you're doing here?"

  "Nothing, Coach," Maya mumbled.

  Artemis gave her a look harder than the rest and pushed her out the door. "Whatever it is, it ends now. Back to class, all of you."

  The Valkyries filed out, but not without a parting glare each. I flipped them off while Artemis' back was turned, but the look on her face as she turned to face me suggested she knew somehow.

  "Ms. Ademone. You're on quite the roll, aren't you?"

  "This time wasn't me," I said, holding up my hands to profess my innocence. "They cornered me, ask them what their problem is."

  "If that's the case, then they'll be dealt with," she said evenly. "The fact remains that you've been at the center of not one but two conflicts within your first twenty-four hours at this Academy."

  "Professor Hephaestus already gave me that lecture," I mumbled.