by Meg Xuemei X
I had no idea where to sit. I usually didn’t care about the rules of the seating, but here was a sacred classroom!
The good thing was that Amber knew about the seating and found us ones, and I rushed toward her. To my relief, when I settled down beside her, I saw that my fae guards were gone.
Amber put a large, thick book on the middle of the desk and opened it two-thirds through. Evidently, she was kind enough to share the textbook with me. I sent her a grateful glance before I trained my eyes on the pages crawling with black letters, of which I recognized none.
My face flamed, but I kept staring at the page, rolling my gaze line by line, as if reading the best story ever, until a lanky man in a gray and red robe stepped up to the podium.
“Mr. Helmer is our history instructor,” Amber whispered in my ear. “He’s snobby, and he loves to punish. Just be careful.”
Mr. Helmer looked down his nose at the class as if we were gremlins. He probably picked his nose a lot to have such big nostrils, which appeared even larger because of his long, narrow face.
The entire class quieted as I asked in alarm, “Punish, how?”
Mr. Helmer trained his cold, hazel eyes on me, and I instantly lowered myself in my seat until my eyes were level with the brim of the desk. If I were any taller, it wouldn’t be doable.
I wasn’t the cowering type, but this was a classroom!
Luckily, Mr. Helmer registered my cowering and swept his gaze away from me in contempt. “No one informed me that there’s a new student in my class,” he said. “No matter, the two-tone eyed girl isn’t important enough to be on the list. She may be gone before we even learn her name.”
My heart turned to ice. If I got kicked out of the school because they found out I wasn’t qualified, I wouldn’t know what to do with all the humiliation. Any day, anyone could realize that I was a phony and I couldn’t even spell my own name.
I’d better sit up straighter then and learn stuff quickly.
“Class,” Mr. Helmer scanned the others, no longer paying any attention to me, which was good. “We’ll talk more of the history of the Olympian gods.” He paused to drink tonic from a bottle before continuing. “Since we have a couple of new students, I’ll do a little recap. The Olympians are a family of gods. The second-generation gods, led by Zeus, gained supremacy in a ten-year-long war against the first generation of ruling gods, the Titans.
“The twelve major gods as we know now are Zeus, Hera, Poseidon, Demeter, Athena, Apollo, Artemis, Ares, Aphrodite, Hephaestus, Hermes, and Dionysus.”
He went on and on. I knew all the names of the gods already. I had genetic memories that were triggered by Phobos’ torture and the potent effect of the poison of the Devil’s Love. Plus, Alaric filled in a lot of blank spots as well. I wasn’t one who loved to dwell on repeated information. And for some reason, I didn’t like to talk about gods too much. I had other interests and other things to do than listen to the stories of them all the time.
My eyes started to glaze over.
My mind returned to the class when Mr. Helmer mentioned the God of Death, my possible dad, who either wanted to have me killed or to steal my awesome powers.
“Hades is also a major god and the brother of Zeus,” Mr. Helmer lectured in a droning voice. “But he resides in the underworld instead of Olympus, so he isn’t usually considered one of the Olympians.” And then he moved on to the minor gods like Phobos. He talked about the God of Terror as if he’d been sipping wine with the god in the Olympus garden.
Since I’d hung out with Phobos for a couple of weeks, I knew Mr. Helmer got all the facts wrong. After his forty minutes of monologues, I completely lost interest in his tales of the gods. If I could write, I would pass notes to Amber to kill time, but since I couldn’t read or write, I decided to doze off for a few minutes.
It wouldn’t hurt.
And I needed a nap. After Phobos had taken off, my body wasn’t as energized as when I was getting boosts from him. Actually, part of my body was shutting down, suffering withdrawal. I hadn’t told any of my mates, not wanting them to hover over me like mother hens.
The four of them already watched me like four eagles on a single egg on the ground.
Besides, I’d stayed up late last night watching a DVD comedy movie from Pyrder’s collection, catching up on the old world that I’d missed in the cage. DVD was like a relic now. The entertainment industry was the first to go when the gods returned. Hollywood was dust and dirt under their feet now.
I was dream-visiting a mortal city, which I hadn’t done much after I reached adulthood at the age of nine, when Amber pinched me awake.
Yeah, the sheep dared pinch me while I watched a fat human cop slip on the peel of a banana in a Chicago street.
My immature chuckle died on my lips.
I peeled open an eye and slanted a glance at her panicked look.
“What? Did I drool?” I whispered as I wiped my mouth.
“Quiet,” she hushed me. “And sit straight now.”
Fuck it. I remained hunched. I was tired. It didn’t help that Amber disrupted my dream. Mr. Helmer was still droning on anyway. Would he ever stop?
“Are all classes like this?” I asked in a low voice. “Do you think they have a crafts class, where I can make clay pots?”
“So you can throw clay pots at the gods?” she asked in derision.
“Now you’re being a comedian, sheep,” I said. I had the talent of turning everyone into one.
The whole class suddenly turned deathly quiet. Mr. Helmer had stopped talking.
Shit. Now he heard me.
Just as I snapped my head up toward him, musing on how to make up to him, he stalked toward us, his fish eyes fuming.
A bronze whip was coiled in his left hand.
“Hooey,” I cried out and jumped up to stand on the chair. “What the fuck is that?”
“A whip,” someone offered.
“Thanks, Captain Obvious,” I said. “Everyone knows it’s a whip.
“It’s a magical whip,” a boy around sixteen said, and winced. “It hurts like thorn hell.”
I didn’t know what thorn hell was, but the blue-haired boy with freckles on his fair face must have had a firsthand experience. Judging from how meek he looked now, the whip must have helped shape who he was.
“Pardon me,” I asked, “Is it legal to carry a magical whip in a classroom, Mr. Helmer?”
“My class, my rules!” Mr. Helmer held the hilt, the whip cracking the air.
Helmer seemed mad as a mean bitch at my series of questions. And he wasn’t one who liked to answer questions from the likes of me.
Was he going to whip me? In my first class?
I shook my head as if I stumbled into an unexpected bad dream.
“This isn’t happening, right?” I asked in panic and earned a few sympathetic looks and more smirks from the students.
I turned to the instructor and put on the meekest expression I could come up with.
“May I ask what kind of magic your whip carries, Mr. Helmer?” I wanted to know.
Meanwhile, I sent a brush of my own magic to feel the makeup of the whip’s power. Its aura was harsh metal, one of the Earth elements. However, the magic was somehow twisted and foul. He must have thrown a lot of dark spell into it.
Fuck!
Mr. Helmer was a bad mage, who practiced human sacrifice to infuse his black magic.
That was why everyone had whimpered at the sight of the whip.
And Amber had warned me Mr. Helmer loved to punish. I knew why now. He gleaned power from others’ pain and suffering.
I cringed atop the seat, but there was no way to cower back.
I was the target.
“You want to know what magic my whip holds, little human girl?” he said, narrowing his eyes with a cold smile. “You’ll see, and then you’ll learn to respect your elders.”
The mage wasn’t too smart if he couldn’t tell what I was.
“Uh, Mr. Helmer,”
I said. “I’m not really a little human girl, though I don’t mind being a human. But I have to tell you that you got it all wrong. And you also got it all wrong about the Olympian gods. Little Phobos isn’t as tough as you believed. He can be nasty, for sure, and always up to no good, but he has cried and screamed like a toddler.”
“You show no respect to the gods!” Mr. Helmer yelled at me.
I blinked. “But I thought we were here to learn to kick their asses, not wipe their asses.”
Gods needed to wipe their asses too, right? But from Mr. Helmer’s look, I could tell he was too distraught to figure it out.
“I’ve had enough of your insolence,” Mr. Helmer hissed like his whip. “I’ve never suffered such disrespect in my twenty years of teaching, and by a human!”
He had to insist I was a human. That was totally fine. The mortals fascinated me. They had a short life span, but many of them burned brightly. And they were amazing with all sorts of clever inventions. The gods should never have come to their world to fuck it all up.
“I’m sorry, Mr. Helmer,” I said, peeking down at him, since I was still standing tall on my chair. “I have a knack for bringing out the worst in people. But could you manage to cool your jets? Can we talk about the issue in a peaceful way before resorting to unnecessary violence? What did I do to ruffle your feathers? Not that you have feathers. No offense intended. This is my first class and first school, and I was so looking forward to every second of it. So, what went wrong?”
Mr. Helmer’s eyes almost bulged out in rage. Damn, I was being sincere and trying to make a compromise, and he thought I was making fun of him.
I sighed softly, and a bit sadly. “Why am I always misunderstood?”
Amber climbed to her seat beside me. The sheep had some pluck, encouraged by me, of course. I was always a good example. So now Amber and I were taller than anyone, including Mr. Helmer.
“Please don’t punish Cass, Mr. Helmer,” Amber pleaded. “It’s my fault.”
I frowned at Amber. “Why is it your fault?” Then I smirked. “I got it. You pinched me while I daydreamed. You should never have done that. It was rude.”
“Shush,” Amber said. “Don’t bring more attention to yourself than you already have.”
I laughed. “The sheep grows fangs. Show me how many you have.”
“Will you ever be serious about anything?” Amber hissed. “This is a dire situation if you haven’t realized it. I was trying to help you.”
“I know it’s a crisis, sheep,” I said. “That’s why I’m trying to solve it with Mr. Helmer. Right, Mr. Helmer?” I winked at him to show my willingness to work things out.
Amber turned to the sizzling Mr. Helmer. “Cass is new. She has no idea of the rules here. I should have told her beforehand, but we didn’t have time. You can whip me if you must, Mr. Helmer.” She flinched, her face paling, which meant that she was terrified of the punishment. Yet she was willing to take the whip for me.
But that wasn’t how I would solve a conflict.
“I’ll make sure next time Cass—” Amber didn’t finish her promise.
Helmer’s whip lashed out, its harsh sound whispering through the air. He saw only red instead of reason by now. Besides, he loved any excuse to inflict pain on others to gain power, and this class gave him the license to do so.
Only I was going to take away his license.
Amber threw herself in front of me, but I was faster, way faster. I grabbed her, shoving her to the desk behind me. My hand seized the tail of the whip before it slashed my face.
Mr. Helmer wanted to scar me. And now I was slightly pissed off by his intent.
My magic poured out of me, black fire twirling around my fingers as another flame overlapped it—the white fire that came from Earth whenever I summoned my kin’s magic.
I had once melted Jade’s blade with my dark fire. But with Helmer’s metal, the white Earth flame would perform better, eating away his foul metal magic.
Everyone in the class widened their eyes as Helmer’s whip turned to ash inch by inch, and the shocked expression on Helmer’s pale, narrow face added a good, comical effect.
Hector charged in, and I grinned at him.
“You missed the best part of the show, Hector,” I said. “I handled the situation like a pro.” I gestured around the class. “See, it’s quiet and peaceful, and I didn’t burn down the classroom as you were afraid I would.”
Hector watched the last inch of Helmer’s bronze whip turn to ash, floating down to the ground. Helmer still held the wooden handle, only because I wanted him to have a souvenir.
I opened my fist and let the ash in my hand drop to the desk.
“My book!” Amber jumped back to her seat, snatched her book from the desk, and blew the ash off the pages.
“Sorry, Amber,” I said. “I forgot about the book. I’ll make it up to you and bring you a cake tomorrow.”
Hector looked at Mr. Helmer, cold fury in his blue eyes, the scar across his cheek darkening. “You dared to whip Cass?”
“I think I came to the wrong class,” I said, following Amber and sliding back down into my chair since there was no need to stand anymore. “I don’t like classes with long hours. And Helmer is incredibly boring, and he bullshits a lot. He worships little Phobos. After you’re done talking to him, you’ll take me to the headmaster since I need to cross out some classes, like this one.”
I wouldn’t call him mister again since he’d tried to whip Amber and me. If I had been any weaker and slower, I’d have been one of his victims.
Well, school wasn’t exactly what I’d pictured. To be honest, it was quite a disappointment. But I decided to stick around a little longer and see what else it had for me. I’d bail out when there was no fun and no surprise left.
“You’ve come to the wrong place, little girl,” Helmer snickered. “This is the military Academy for talented commanders and the best magical fighters. You need to go back to your corner of the street.”
He focused on me instead of Hector because the fae captain was big and had a sword strapped on his back that he could pull out at lightning speed. Helmer had forgotten that I’d just melted his whip with my bare hand and defeated his magic.
Not so many people took me seriously because of my two-toned eyes, tri-colored hair, and my short height.
Hector stalked toward Helmer, towering over him, forming fists. “Say that again to Miss Saélihn.”
I knew he would punch Helmer’s face. That might be satisfying to see, but Hector simply couldn’t just go hit anyone who offended me. I’d need to talk to him later, in private. He and his five core warriors made fun of me all the time, but they didn’t seem to allow anyone else to do the same.
Helmer stepped back, but he didn’t take his hostile stare from Hector’s furious eyes.
“Are you threatening me, Hector?” Helmer said. “I haven’t violated the Academy’s policies. Instructors have the right to punish students as we see fit. High Council member Noah added the decree three months ago. His Grace endorses the practice.”
This was the second time I heard Noah’s name.
Amber sucked in a breath, which meant Hector was in a no-win situation since this Noah dude outranked him. In both mortal and immortal worlds where bigger dogs ate smaller dogs, it was all about hierarchy and power.
Helmer pointed at me with his pinkie. “This anonymous girl whom you befriended has disturbed the order of the class. No one even told me who she is. She just slid into my class and caused chaos. In my twenty years of teaching, no one has ever disrespected me as she did. It’s unacceptable.”
Chaos seemed to be my middle name now.
But I didn’t look for trouble. Trouble always came looking for me. If my four mates, particularly Lorcan, wanted to scold me when I returned, I’d use that punch line as an arguing point.
“Uh, there you are.” A rich, musical voice sounded behind me. “I’ve been tracking you.”
Everyone stood up and salu
ted, including Amber, Hector, and Helmer. Everyone except me. Amber grabbed my hand to make me salute, but I twirled a circle in the air instead.
“Your Grace,” they greeted.
“Who the fu—?” I started and turned toward the voice, but Amber slammed a hand over my mouth and muffled the rest of my curse.
“You’ll be dead if you offend High Council member Noah,” Amber whispered in my ear. “He’s the head of all mages and one of the most powerful men on Earth.”
I swatted away Amber’s small hand on my lips. “Oh, yeah?”
My mates were also the most powerful males on Earth. They could take down any dude in a heartbeat if he posed a threat to me.
Then I felt it before I faced the man. His power, like that of a flaming star, rippled off him. I widened my eyes. Instantly, I sent my power to meet it. His potent power brushed mine aside, then dropped into deep space, where my magic was afraid to go.
If it went, it might not come back.
I extracted my power in alarm. But while his power had brushed mine, I had vaguely felt something familiar, as if he and I were both cut from the same swath of cloth, only his was grander.
A giant, gorgeous male with red-golden hair down to his shoulders stepped into my view. His tanned face exuded masculine beauty. His eyes were the greenest I’d ever seen, so green they could bleach all colors.
For a fraction of a second, I almost saw a mirage of this male driving a chariot of fire like a glorious sun god, divine music in the wake of its wheels. But he couldn’t be a god. Or could he? I shook my head at the illusion, and my vision cleared.
He was a mage with a flawless body. That was all he was.
He was clad in a dark-red T-shirt that stretched over his broad, muscled chest and showed off his corded arms. His military cargo pants were evidently custom-tailored and displayed his powerful long legs.
He moved with fiery grace few could master.
I had thought my mates were flawless, and now I had to redefine perfection, because this specimen in front of me outshone all mortals and immortals.