by Meg Xuemei X
The demigod gave my team a stern look of warning, and both Circe and Jasper recoiled.
Jasper’s opposition resonated with me. I wasn’t as big a fool as the demigod thought.
“I won’t go with you,” I said, fixing my stare on the demigod. “I’m merely a human. I’m nothing special, so I won’t survive the trial. You don’t want my death on your conscience and my blood on your hands.”
I paused for a second, not sure if he had a conscience. As one of the demigods who commanded Earth’s war, I doubted he’d mind one more drop of blood on his hands. But I had to try to make him see reason. Maybe he would have a soft heart today.
“As you can see, my teammates are but an ordinary shifter and a mediocre witch,” I offered. I had to hurt their feelings now and explain later. “I’ve lived with them for three years. I swear that they don’t have gods’ blood in their veins. If you force them to go through the trial, they’ll die, too.” The demigod leaned closer to me to listen, so I batted my eyelashes. “Man, please just let us go and take the punk werewolves with you. I’ll be forever grateful. To show my gratitude, I’ll send you a postcard every Christmas. And may God bless you.”
So, yeah, we didn’t celebrate Christmas anymore, but I’d given him my word, so I wouldn’t correct it.
“The Half-Blood Academy is only for the descendants of the gods,” the lieutenant cut in harshly. “It’s a privilege to even be summoned. Your friends won’t have a chance to get near the main campus. They’ll go to the Other Academy, where supernaturals attend. There’s no trial for non-descendants. When they graduate, they’ll assist the Dominions.” He eyed me, flashing a vengeful smirk. “As for you, if you go in their places, you won’t be enrolled to the Other Academy. You’ll take the magic trial in the Half-Blood Academy.”
“Enough, Cameron,” the demigod hissed.
He didn’t want me to back out, and the Dominions couldn’t force a human to take the Trial of the Blood Runes, which was solely reserved for the special race.
“I apologize for speaking out of turn, Demigod Axel,” Cameron said.
My heart skipped a beat. So the demigod was the son of the bloodthirsty God of War. He must be bloodthirsty, too.
Was that why he wanted me in the Academy, to watch the blood runes bleed me dry?
“Your choice, Marigold,” Axel said, my name rolling off his tongue sensually.
So I tossed out my last card.
“One technical problem, though,” I said, raising a finger to emphasize my statement. “Your second-in-charge said those rogue werewolves are too old to attend the Academy. All three of us are too old for your school as well.”
“How old are you?” he asked, considering me curiously, as if age was a big, inconvenient factor he could be swayed by.
Hope sparked in me. I lifted my chin. “I might look young, but I’m going on thirty. My friends are only a year or two younger. We’re all heading to middle age soon. Very soon.”
The lieutenant chuckled. “Nice try.”
Axel nodded at me in approval. “That’s the perfect age.”
“What?” I cried, widening my eyes in dismay. “You’re a demigod. You’re an immortal. You don’t understand that for a human, thirty is considered old, at least too old for any academy!”
“No more excuses, Marigold,” Axel said firmly, his formerly amiable demeanor gone. “We’ve wasted enough time here. You’re going with us.”
Cameron snickered in unforgiving glee.
I’d booted him in the chest, and now he wanted to see my agonizing death in the trial.
~
The Dominions were going to get the deal of buy-one-get-two-free.
Jasper and Circe wouldn’t leave me, even though I’d bought them both a free ticket to stay in Crack.
Circe was actually eager to attend an academy. The delighted glint in her eyes dimmed a little when she learned that she couldn’t go to the Half-Blood Academy, but then they brightened again when Cameron told her that the two academies shared part of the campus with different classes, buildings, and training fields.
I understood that she desired to see the world and wanted to have more options in the future. A life in Crack wasn’t much, but at least here we were free. But a seventeen-year old might not think like me. She’d wanted to step out of my shadow—though I’d never intended to overshadow her—especially during these last few months when she had grown more powerful. I should have seen the signs more clearly. She’d rolled her eyes at my orders ever since she’d started to regard me less as a mentor and more as her competition.
Circe had always been more ambitious than Jasper and me. I totally got it, but it didn’t mean I didn’t feel hurt. For three years I’d built this life with them, thinking we would always be together, like a family.
For a second, I almost regretted that I’d developed such attachment to both Jasper and Circe. It was tearing me apart to separate from them.
I should have learned my lesson when Vi had abandoned me.
Now that both Jasper and Circe had signed up, going to the Other Academy willingly, I could actually stay back, but it wasn’t in me to just abandon them to the devices of the Dominions.
I’d have to see this through, to make sure that they would settle safely and well in the new school. The panic had left me when I’d learned that they weren’t required to go through the blood rune trials.
Jasper laid a hand on my shoulder, as if reading my thoughts of turmoil. He’d always understood me. He’d always been in my corner, guarding me.
“Stay, Marigold,” he said. “Don’t throw your life away for us. It’s time to think of yourself. Think what you really want. Please do this for me. If you go, you’ll die at the trial, and you should know what it will do to me. If you die, it’ll break me, and I won’t be whole again. Please, I promise to come back to you when I can.”
My eyes widened in surprise. Jasper had never been so open and emotional before. It didn’t matter to him where he went, and he was willing to go to the Academy for me.
Maybe he was right. Maybe I should think of myself for once.
It made no sense now that both Jasper and Circe were going to the Other Academy and I would head to my own death at the trial. I held his warm, brown gaze, and an understanding passed between us.
I needed to bail out to preserve myself. I wouldn’t be going to the Half-Death Academy anymore.
A sudden wild wind reeled between us, throwing Jasper away from me, and then the demigod was in my face.
“What’s that for?” I hissed. “I was just saying goodbye to my team. I don’t think I’ll be going to your Half-Blood Academy.” I added bitterly, “You’ve gotten what you came for. You don’t get to have all three of us.”
Anger swirled in Axel’s dark amber eyes.
“A Dominion soldier is made of tough material,” he growled. “You don’t just go back on your word.”
“My words were based on me going in the place of my team,” I retorted. “Since they’re both going anyway, the condition is nullified. I’m not stupid enough to throw myself at your trial for no reason and then die. Plus, I’m not a Dominion soldier. I’m merely a human who doesn’t have an ounce of gods’ blood in me.”
“I’m not so sure about that,” he said. “We’ll test if you’re powerful enough to survive the trial. Words are binding. I’m a Demigod of War.” At his declaration, he grew bigger and taller, his leather coat billowing in the wind he created, and everyone, except me, recoiled from his display of pure, terrifying power.
I wasn’t affected by his magic, probably because I was furious and busy glaring at him, so I resisted his power again, just like before.
“I won’t allow you to go back on your word, Marigold,” he confirmed, “and set a bad example for other soldiers. The contract is nullified only when I say so. And I say you’ll go through the trial and attend the Academy.”
He didn’t care that the trial would be the death of me, he was so insistent on proving
a point and sticking to the rule he’d just made up.
It was obvious that no matter what I could say, plead, or beg, the demigod wouldn’t let me off the hook, even if he had to drag me to Half-Death Academy with his bare hands.
“Fuck you!” I said. “My life means nothing to you, but it means something to me.”
While he was distracted, seething that I had the temerity to curse a demigod, I kicked his knee hard.
I wanted to throw him off balance to give myself a small opening to flee. All I did was hurt my ankle at the brutal force I’d used. Booting his knee was like kicking iron pilings.
No matter, I broke into a dead run. My whole life, no one had ever run faster than me, so I should be able to get away. Without Jasper and Circe as a responsibility anymore, I didn’t slow down for them or anyone.
I zoomed between the buildings like a flash, turned a corner, and shot toward the forest. I couldn’t go home to the library since I wasn’t confident that the ward could keep a demigod out.
The forest would be my best bet.
There were a host of monsters inside. If he followed me into territory that was unfamiliar to him, the monsters could attack him and help shake him off my trail.
I didn’t see anyone behind me when I reached the edge of the forest, so I spared a moment to grin, ready to charge into the forest and hide in the high, thick canopy.
A force dragged me back, then a strong arm snaked around my waist in an iron grip.
“What the fu—?” I cried.
I kicked, trying to struggle free, but to no avail. Then a whirlwind sucked me in, spinning me until I couldn’t see straight.
When my dizziness faded, I was standing before a black van with the sliding side door open. Axel still clutched me firmly, his arm around my midsection.
The demigod had just teleported me.
No wonder he hadn’t bothered to chase me when I burst into a run. The fucker had been content to let me suffer from tight air burning in my lungs before he whizzed in to snatch me.
My eyes lit with rage at the humiliation of being captured so easily, yet I noticed a woman soldier, the only female in the Dominion asshole team, looking at me in envy.
What? She envied that the demigod had kidnapped me?
“Strip off her weapons,” Axel ordered.
“Don’t you dare have your men touch me!” I hissed.
“No men will be allowed to touch you, minx,” Axel said, his voice harsh and possessive. “Marie will remove your weapons. You’ve proven to be a menace, and we can’t afford for you to cause more trouble on the road whenever I’m not around to stop you.”
“I’m not a troublemaker,” I said.
Axel shrugged, not convinced.
While he held me, pinning me down, the female soldier came forward to extract the spear from my hand, the bow and quiver of arrows from my back and shoulders, a pocket knife from my sleeve, a few hidden daggers from my boots, my pants, and several other weapons from inside my leather jacket.
The soldiers around us gasped at the number of weapons I carried.
“You missed one, Marie,” Axel informed the soldier as he pulled a silver needle from my hair.
Cameron whistled. “She’ll fit right in with us.”
He’d hated my guts a few minutes ago.
I hissed, “I don’t share your confidence much.”
A couple of soldiers chuckled, either at my humiliation or my daring, I wasn’t sure.
Axel frowned at me. “Why did you need that many weapons, Marigold?”
“A girl shouldn’t be faulted for trying to take care of herself,” I said, surveying our surroundings. We were on the side of the road with five soldiers around a van, which meant the other two must be with Circe and Jasper.
“Where’s my team?” I asked.
“They’re no longer your team,” Axel said. “They’re in the other van, heading to the Other Academy now.”
He scooped me up, and involuntarily, I clasped my hands behind his neck. My body purred. He grinned, and I realized my mistake. Releasing my arms from around him, I pondered if I should elbow him in the throat.
He should have a weakness, right? And the throat might just be it.
He put me down on the back seat of the van and buckled me in with the safety belt.
I wiggled on the leather seat as I suddenly got a bright idea. “I think you made a mistake by separating my team and me.”
He squinted, yet his hands still held my waist. “I don’t make mistakes.”
“Listen,” I said, giving him a smile for the first time since we’d fought and he’d captured me. “I don’t have a trace of gods’ blood in me. I’m actually a witch. I’m sorry for hiding that part of my heritage from you. Being a witch, I should go to the Other Academy.”
I could survive the Other Academy. I’d just borrow some of the spells Circe created and toss them here and there. I’d pretend to be a witch as long as I could so I would see Jasper and Circe settle down and watch over them for a little while before I got kicked out.
Or when the Dominions weren’t looking or lost interest in me, I’d slip away, alone, if my team chose this new life for themselves.
My heart broke a little at the thought of moving on, but that was how things were now.
I’d be a free agent again, but I might have to leave Crack behind.
The Dominions would never find me again.
“Give up already,” Cameron said. “If you were a witch, we’d have known. Our psychic ball showed only your two pack members. You aren’t on any chart of any map.” At Axel’s glare, he clamped his mouth shut.
“Behave, Marigold,” the demigod said, giving me a measured look before his lingering hands left my body. A secret, treacherous part of me screamed at the absence of his heat and touch.
“Your friends will be better off in the Other Academy,” he continued. “They’ll get an education and regular meals and will be with their own kinds.”
I swallowed as I had to admit the truth of his words, no matter how hard it was for me to let go of my team and let them choose what they really wanted for their own lives. This could be a better opportunity for them.
Just when I started warming up to his comfort, he added, “So will you.” As if he believed I’d survive the trial. But the next sentence out of his sensual, cruel mouth made me hate him again. “But if you give my soldiers any more headaches on the road, the other team will take it out on your friends.”
I stiffened, enraged at his callous threat, a threat aimed at the only two people I cared about in this world. But before I could come up with a vicious comeback for his ruthless coercion, the demigod ducked his head out of the van, and then he was gone.
There was nothing I could do but go along with this travesty—for now, anyway. I bit my nail as the van lurched forward, musing over how I was going to survive the trial.
CHAPTER 4
_____________
The armored van sped through Crack, a “wild west” neither the demons nor the demigods had ever graced with their presence until this unfortunate day in Crack’s history.
The glinting metal on top of the library, my old home, soon disappeared from view.
The Dominions hadn’t allowed us to pick up our personal stuff.
“We must get to our regiment before sunset,” Cameron said with an uncompromising look.
I kind of got it. Demons were more powerful when the sun went down; intense light weakened them. The Dominions didn’t want to get hit on the road.
As I’d said, half of Earth belonged to Lucifer and the other half belonged to the gods—specifically Ares, the God of War. The four demigods helped Ares run the show on their patches of land while four archdemons served the devil on theirs.
It was like a pissing contest between the war god and the devil.
It was funny how Lucifer and Ares had divided the globe. They didn’t split it in the middle. They’d carved up every state and every city in half, leaving some regions
as neutral zones.
It was almost like they had cut a dirty deal—or were playing a game and had divided the board up evenly to start.
And they kept fighting to gain more territories and control Earth’s main resources.
In New York state where we lived, north belonged to the gods, and south was the devil’s. In New York City, Queens and the Bronx were the demons’ territory while Brooklyn and Staten Island were the demigods’ domain. Manhattan was a neutral zone, where fights broke out every day.
I sighed. I should worry more about myself than the demigods and demons.
Marie, the female Dominion soldier who had stripped me of every weapon, sat on my right and a tattooed soldier on my left with me sandwiched between them as if they thought I’d still try to escape while the car was running.
Another soldier perched on the seat behind me.
Must Axel put five soldiers with me while leaving only two with Circe and Jasper? What if the other van got attacked by demons while we raced down the highway?
“Where is Axel?” I asked. “Shouldn’t he escort the vans and keep us safe?”
Even though I knew there were no good guys, I’d rather be in the hands of the Dominion of the Gods than in the claws of the demons. My early encounter with that demon had left a chill in my bones.
To be possessed by a demon was even worse than being eaten alive.
“Babysitting isn’t in a demigod’s job description,” Cameron said from the passenger seat. His pose remained alert, as if he expected to go into battle at any moment. “Better drill that into your head now, in case you ever become a Dominion soldier.”
“I also recommended you not poke your nose into the demigod’s business, fledgling,” Marie snorted, “if you know what’s good for you. You’ve riled up the Demigod of War enough today. If he rode with you in this van, he might have to strangle you before we reach the Academy. Demigod Axel is more bloodthirsty than his older brethren. It’s a wonder he hasn’t squashed you yet, given your attitude. A human life is nothing to a demigod. Axel has killed for lesser offenses.”