Magic Trials

by Meg Xuemei X

  “That’s unfair!”

  “Welcome to Half-Blood Academy, Princesa.”

  He kept dragging me with him. The demigod walked so damn fast I had to sprint three steps to match one of his long strides.

  “You should let me go,” I said. “I can walk beside you with my own feet.”

  He snorted but maintained his hand on my elbow. I tried to shrug him off, but to no avail.

  “Go ahead and fight me, Marigold, if you wish to take part in a public demonstration on how to punish an Academy student who doesn’t know how to follow the rules.”

  I stopped cold. I didn’t want any of that.

  I didn’t want any attention.

  “You’re just trying to find an excuse to touch me,” I said. “Don’t you think that’s a bit desperate?”

  “Nice try, Princesa,” he retorted. “As if your words have any effect on me.”

  But my words had made him angry.

  His jaw set as his dark eyes flashed. “I’ll go easy on you only when you’ve learned to be respectful and behave in a civilized manner.”

  Dark fire swished in my eyes. The fucker demanded I have good table manners when he didn’t even know what that was?

  He’d pay dearly one day. But I wouldn’t win against such a powerful asshole fighting him up close and personal. I needed to play dirty. I’d find a crack in him and then strike.

  We reached the vast squares where the Dominion soldiers patrolled the campus. Groups of senior students practiced archery and magic in the training field.

  They all paused in their activities to stare at Paxton and me, mouths agape. I supposed a student being dragged and manhandled by a demigod was a novelty on the campus.

  No one dared to come to my rescue. My best hope, Axel, was thousands of miles away.

  Paxton didn’t even bother to glance around or acknowledge that everyone gawked at us.

  Just great!

  Now so many eyes had witnessed this. The whole Academy would soon know all about my humiliation. Demetra and her goons for sure were going to add salt to this wound.

  I couldn’t even snap at the asshole and tell him that I didn’t like how everyone was watching him humiliate me. If I did, he’d exploit it.

  No one loved public embarrassment. Not even me. So, I held my chin high, as if it were an honor to be dragged along by a demigod.

  Finally we left the square behind and trekked down a corridor.

  “Let me go, please, Demigod Paxton,” I said in a low voice. There was no heat in my tone.

  He gave me a look. “That’s more like it.” And he let go of my elbow.

  That was his sick idea of taming me. He must have thought that he’d gained the advantage. All I wanted was to send my boot to his nuts, but I had tried that and failed.

  We entered a classroom that could host at least two hundred students, but only fifty were present. My gaze swept over the surviving initiates, including Jack, Demetra, and their minions.

  My predictable foes sneered at me.

  Yelena grimaced, and Nat looked at me with sympathy.

  The middle-aged professor in a black robe and broad hat immediately stopped preaching and bowed to his waist to Paxton.

  “Demigod Paxton,” he addressed. “It’s an honor to have you grace my classroom.”

  “I brought you the student who tried to skip class, Fowler,” Paxton said, as if I’d committed a cardinal sin.

  I refrained from rolling my eyes. For crying out loud, it was just a class.

  As if he sensed I’d mentally rolled my eyes, Paxton snapped his attention back to me, and I put on an innocent look. I didn’t want him to go crazy right now in front of the entire class when I didn’t have a backup, like Axel, or even Zak.

  After this morning, I’d realized that this loose cannon had no brakes whatsoever. He was even worse than me.

  Fowler probably thought the same, for he gave me an annoyed look, not understanding why a demigod would have bothered with insignificant me.

  “If a student misses class, we usually give her a notice and put it in her record,” Fowler said. “If she keeps up the offenses, we’ll expel her from the Academy. Next time, I’ll have a member from the Discipline Council serve her the notice. There’s absolutely no need to involve a demigod like you to handle such a small matter, sir.”

  “Don’t ever tell me how things get done again, Fowler,” Paxton snarled. “Do you understand?”

  As I’d said, a crazy on the loose.

  Fowler paled, then stumbled back from the towering demigod.

  “I apologize, sir,” he said. “I didn’t mean—”

  “Professor Fowler meant that you’re using a cannon to shoot a mosquito,” I chimed in quickly and smirked at Paxton. I couldn’t give up the chance to ridicule him, despite my decision to stop getting on his bad side in public. “I think he’s spot on, though. There’s really no need to bother yourself with an unimportant first-year like me, Demigod Paxton, or sir. The Discipline Council can totally kick me out of the Academy after they serve me a few warnings.”

  “You’re not getting out of the Academy under my watch,” Paxton said vehemently and viciously. “So give up already, Marigold, or I’ll make your life hell. Now wipe that disgusting, smartass smirk from your face. Your dinner rights today are also revoked.”

  He swept his stern gaze across the class, and everyone shrank in their seats.

  My smile dropped. How was I going to get through the whole day without food?

  “Anyone supplying Marigold with food can go on a fast with her for as long as it takes,” Paxton added. “Understand?”

  The entire class answered loudly, including the professor. “Understand!”

  The clique giggled.

  I didn’t think Nat and Yelena also echoed that, but they had to move their lips to pretend, or they’d get punished, too.

  “Good.” Paxton said with satisfaction. “The Half-Blood Academy has decided to turn a ruffian like Marigold into a model soldier at all costs. She’s our project now.”

  What the fuck?

  “The Academy won’t allow a delinquent to go on strike,” he emphasized, watching my outraged expression like a fat cat regarding a cornered mouse.

  Only I was no fucking mouse. He wanted a war, and he’d get one.

  “Axel will never go along with that,” I ground out, my eyes burning. “He’s on my side.”

  “Is he?” Paxton said, a sadistic smile stretching his curvy lips. “Wasn’t he the one who plucked you from the ghetto, dragging you from a bawdy street fight to the Academy, despite the way you begged and screamed for him to let you go? Wasn’t he the one who was willing to see you die just to test if you could actually live through the ritual?”

  I clamped my mouth shut, feeling like I’d been hit by a truck.

  How naïve of me to even think that Axel and Zak might defend me just because they’d once shielded me from the burning fire.

  They were all my enemies. They’d never been my allies.

  Paxton had just reminded me of that.

  A cruel light glinted in Paxton’s eyes at my devastated look. “Keep an eye on her,” he ordered to no one in particular. “If she refuses to behave, if she sneezes wrong, call me right away.”

  Everyone nodded vehemently, especially the clique.

  Paxton turned on his heel.

  As soon as he showed his back, I flipped him the bird. I forced down my finger quickly, though, as I didn’t want to be caught.

  I grinned at the class sweetly. “Aren’t you going to report it?”

  The class gasped, but no one dared to call back the demigod. If they did, they’d have to repeat and mimic my vulgar gesture, and I didn’t think Paxton would take kindly to being flipped off, even in demonstration.

  He might be rough with me, but I knew he wouldn’t kill me, not until he was utterly bored with me. And he wouldn’t be bored until he bent me, broke me, and turned me into one of his herd.

  Paxton strode
away, whistling the tune I had hummed in the bath chamber.

  Thankfully, the bell rang the next minute, announcing the end of the class. After all that, at least I didn’t have to suffer through a lecture on the glory of the gods.

  CHAPTER 11

  _____________

  We had a ten minute break before our next class: Combat Techniques.

  Nat and Yelena sat with me on a wooden bench near a pond half-concealed by ancient trees. I was so hungry I really wanted to ask them if they had anything to eat, like an energy bar, a piece of chocolate, or something, but I didn’t want to put them in a tough spot.

  I couldn’t ask them to smuggle out a sandwich or even an apple for me either, when they went for lunch. Paxton’s people might be watching. And I knew the clique would keep an eye on me like a hawk to make sure I didn’t get lunch.

  “What happened?” Yelena said. “You said you’d get ready and run to class.”

  “Pigston is what happened,” I said.

  “Pig...ston?” Nat asked, a half-smile twitching the corner of his mouth.

  “Yes, Pigston is Paxton,” I said, “the one and the same.”

  Yelena glanced around nervously. “Shush, don’t let anyone hear that,” she whispered. “Demigod Pig—Paxton—will skin us alive if he ever learns about that name. He might really kill you with a snap of his fingers if you rile him up too much. I heard that the demigods have all killed over smaller offenses. Our lives aren’t important to them, and they kill people without remorse.”

  “That’s them,” I said bitterly. “As you all heard today, I’m now their target. You two might want to stay away from me, too, or you might become targets as well.” I gave them a rueful glance. “I cherish our friendship, but I don’t want you to sink with the ship.”

  “No way,” Yelena said. “We’ll stick with you. We just hope you won’t sink.”

  “We decided to take you under our wings that first day when you went up against Demetra, the One-eighth,” Nat said, flashing me a warm, white smile.

  Yep, he was a good-looking guy and very intelligent. At my appreciative look, he fumbled in his backpack and pulled out a bottle of water.

  “Here,” he said.

  “No, no,” I said, shaking my head. “Enemy spies could be anywhere. I won’t let you lose your lunch.”

  “Demigod Paxton said no food,” Yelena said. “He didn’t say no water. But if you’re really hungry, I’ll get you a sandwich, no matter the consequences.”

  “Nope, pip,” I said. “I’m not hungry at all. But water would be awesome. Our guy Nat can always find loopholes in their rules, and Pigston isn’t too great with logic.” I chuckled at my own joke, took the bottle from Nat, and drained half of the water. Then I grinned at my friends. “Thank you for not abandoning me.”

  “You have us,” Nat said. “We’ll watch your back when those bitches come for you.”

  For the first time since I’d come to the Academy, I didn’t feel so alone anymore.

  I still missed Jasper and Circe dearly. I didn’t know if they fared well in the Other Academy or not, but I bet they couldn’t do any worse than I was.

  Rhiannon, a second-year from our dormitory, had mentioned that the next dinner where we ate with the Other Academy students would be in two weeks. She was dating a shifter who attended there, so she was looking forward to mingling with them as well.

  “We gotta go,” Yelena said. She never liked to be late for class.

  After this morning, I didn’t blame her. Thanks to that distasteful drama caused by the sea demigod, no one would dare test his patience by being late for class.

  But shouldn’t that asshole worry more about demons than me? No matter how rotten I was, I couldn’t be worse than a demon, could I?

  I hurried toward our combat lessons with Nat and Yelena. Combat sounded awesome. It’d be way more fun than weight training, running laps, and any bullshit about the Olympian whatever’s glory.

  At this point, I had loads of pent-up aggression, and I could use the class to legally beat the shit out of one of the clique snobs. Hopefully the teacher would pair me up with Demetra.

  I could fight. I’d been a hunter.

  We stepped into the training classroom in a low-rise, mauve building, and I noticed from my friends’ wary expressions that I was way more eager than they were. The clique and all the other new initiates were already in the room, standing in front of the instructor, who turned out to be Lieutenant Cameron.

  “I didn’t expect that dude,” I murmured to Yelena. “This isn’t funny.”

  Marie was in the room as well, checking an assortment of weapons on the walls. It was the first time I’d seen her since the ritual.

  I jogged toward her. Now that I’d survived, I needed to know where the Dominions had put my personal property—particularly the weapons they’d stripped from me in Crack. I needed them back.

  “Hey, Marie,” I called, smirking at her to warm her up.

  She arched a wary eyebrow at me. “You got yourself into trouble again on your first day?”

  “Me?” I asked innocently.

  “I have ears everywhere, you know.”

  “So you say. You’re the assistant instructor?”

  “We rotate,” she said, picking up a longsword from the wall and testing its weight.

  “Better the devil you know,” I said.

  “Which devil?” she asked, then indicated her chin toward the entrance, and my smile sank.

  Paxton strode into the room in a black T-shirt that displayed his huge biceps and cut chest. Loose trousers hung low on his hipbones.

  Everyone bowed at the sight of the demigod, except me.

  Involuntarily, I put a hand on my hip. Did he come to fight or seduce?

  I got my answer quickly. All the girls’ faces brightened up, even Yelena’s. She only dimmed her smile when she spotted my sour look.

  A demigod had that kind of power over everyone. It reminded me of how Axel had made everyone in the street kneel before him in Crack.

  “What the fuck is the swimming boy doing here,” I whispered to Marie while she was still bowing. “He shouldn’t be here, right? Shouldn’t he go fight demons and protect humanity instead of idling around the training hall and harassing poor initiates?”

  I had a bad feeling that he’d come for me.

  I didn’t want him to be here. I didn’t want him to be anywhere near me.

  Marie held back a laugh and whispered back. “Do not talk to me during the training. You’re a bad influence, and I don’t want to go down with you. You might have caught the eye of the Demigod of War, but I’ve got no one to watch my six.”

  Paxton had made me a pariah in the Academy.

  The assistant instructor sent me a pitiful, pained look. “The demigods have never trained students anywhere, let alone the initiates. They typically don’t stay at any Academy for more than three days, and the four of them usually don’t stay in the same place. Everyone knows how territorial they are.”

  She blew out a breath. “I think they’re all going to stay at this Academy for a while because of you. No one has any freaking idea why the divine flame chose you and why you have no icon from any of the gods’ houses. The demigods don’t like dark secrets and mysteries. Congratulations, Marigold, you’ve become their new obsession.”

  I raised my eyes toward the ceiling as if praying to a god like a pilgrim. “Oh, spare me, great ones. I’m not a freak. I was just misfortunate enough to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.”

  “Very mature, Marigold,” she said. “But I’m still offering you my last piece of advice: let them get bored with you so they’ll shift their attention somewhere else. Tread carefully. Half of the world is theirs, and you can’t win—no one can—if you go up against them.”

  I hadn’t gone up against them, against any of them, but one of them had come to my world and ripped me from the life I’d chosen for myself. But Marie wouldn’t understand my point.

  She snuck
away, not wanting Paxton to think that she and I might be tight.

  Cameron clasped his hands and called sternly. “Class, all in.”

  All seven initiates, now the first-years, snapped into two lines before the Dominion lieutenant. I strolled toward them, ignoring Paxton’s gaze on me. It might be best for me not to acknowledge his presence. At all.

  Cameron started his clichéd opening speech with, “This is the class of basic combat training, your introduction into a great career as a Dominion soldier.”

  I almost raised a hand and asked him what if I didn’t plan to be a career Dominion soldier. I knew it wasn’t up to me, though. Half-Blood Academy had said clearly that I couldn’t turn down its summons, but I still couldn’t help rebelling against how they’d robbed me—all of us—of our freewill. Then again, maybe the whole idea of freewill was a delusion.

  “Here, you’ll learn the traditions, strategies, and techniques to become a Dominion soldier,” Cameron continued. “You’ll learn discipline as we instill in you the codes and creeds of the Academy. You’ll accomplish tasks. After you graduate from this class, you’ll move to advanced combat training, where you—”

  “We’re going to make a few adjustments,” Paxton cut in impolitely, his voice booming. And every student, except me, wheeled toward him as if he were a god.

  I almost shouted at them that Pigston was only a demigod. And I wondered why Cameron didn’t even protest as he was basically shoved away. The lieutenant was the rightful instructor, but he just stepped aside silently.

  “We’ll skip the out-of-date procedures,” Paxton said. “Basic training is no longer practical in today’s world. We’ve lost a lot of strong, disciplined soldiers fighting the good war against the demons. We need many more capable soldiers. We need you to step up and be battle-ready. As a result of my discussions with my demigod peers and the generals yesterday, we have decided that from now on, Half-Blood Academy will be a two-and-a-half year program instead of dragging on for four years. All of you will follow a new curriculum.”