Stone Cold: A Reverse Harem Paranormal Romance (Gods & Monsters Book 1)

by Kate Nova

  I had to giggle whenever I heard them worrying over such things. Internally rolling my eyes, I turned my focus to my schoolwork and the essay I had to write. As if any of these girls had to worry about how they looked. They could all show up to the masquerade in burlap sacks and they’d still look perfect—pretty, elegant, dainty.

  I would only ever look like a monster.

  So, the morning of Halloween, while everyone was busy rushing about so they could get back to planning their costumes, I took my time. As I made my way to my class, I noticed signs posted on the classroom doors.

  Classes postponed until this afternoon.

  Headmaster Armstrong had called another assembly.

  We gathered in the auditorium, most of the students bleary-eyed from studying for the end-of-term exams which were coming up. I shuffled in and took a seat towards the front and only once arched around to see where the guys were. Griffin and Callan were halfway back and Liam was on his own in the last row. All three of them looked oddly distracted.

  It had been a couple weeks since the incident on the roof.

  Two weeks since I’d even talked to them. I didn’t leave campus during the break, having nowhere to go. But I didn’t see the guys lurking around. Maybe they’d had dirty work to do off campus.

  And no, the night of the party I didn’t go through the student center to get to my dorm. But it wasn’t because Callan had warned me against it. When I’d tried the door handle, it had been locked.

  Instead, I’d gone around.

  But with every step I took that night with the wind chilling me in my swimsuit, I’d thought about what the guys had said.

  They were hiding something. Orcus wasn’t waiting until he got up to Mount Olympus to start whatever he had planned. He was doing something here, in this very school.

  And Callan had tried to warn me about it.

  Something was here in the student center.

  While the headmaster got situated on the stage with his microphone, I scanned the auditorium.

  It was a standard academy-style auditorium, with rounded walls, lights in sconces above the seats which raked at an incline so even the very back row could see the stage. Up above the main seats, there was a balcony with even more seating.

  Everything about it was normal … on the surface.

  But as I tuned out the bustling sounds of the students chattering around me, I could feel it.

  That same unease I’d felt the first night I’d walked past the auditorium—hairs rising on the back of my neck, a darkness descending upon my mind and my soul …

  “There’s something else here,” my hair whispered collectively into my ear.

  “I know,” I whispered back. I was right. There was a sinister force at work here in the auditorium, but I couldn’t see it, no matter where I searched.

  “Students, if I can have your attention!” the headmaster boomed. He looked tired. His suit was wrinkled and there were bags under his eyes the size of the Grand Canyon. He gave us another second to settle down and grow quiet and then, without an iota of energy in his voice, he shared the news with us.

  “Another student has gone missing,” he said. “Laura Worthington.”

  I gasped along with the rest of the student body. First Katie, now Laura?

  There was absolutely something malevolent going on at this school and the chances that it didn’t have anything to do with Orcus’s grand plans were about the same as the chances of me winning a beauty pageant.

  “Again, if anyone has any information about either Katie or Laura now, please come see me in my office,” the headmaster said. “Laura was last seen two weeks ago, at a private pool party off campus. We expected her to return from fall break like the rest of the student body. But she hasn’t. It seems she never arrived at her destination for the break either. I have a list of those who attended the party and have spoken with those individuals already.”

  Had he? He must have skipped my name. I was at that party and Headmaster Armstrong hadn’t questioned me.

  Déjà vu hit me. This was around the time when Callan had leaped to his feet during the last assembly—when he’d called out that I’d been the last one to talk to Katie before her disappearance.

  I held my breath, waiting for Callan or one of the other guys to accuse me in the same way. After all, I’d been at the party with Laura, and apparently, that was the last time anyone had seen her before she’d disappeared …

  “Classes will commence according to the new schedule which should’ve been emailed to you,” the headmaster went on. “And the Halloween party tonight is also scheduled to continue. I suggest everyone attend with a buddy, someone to keep an eye on you. Please be responsible with your alcohol intake and practices.”

  And then, just as everyone was preparing to leave the auditorium, the headmaster called my name, “Medusa?”

  It echoed along the auditorium walls, showing off the sleek sound-amplifying design of the room. Everyone around me turned and stared.

  The house lights switched on. Heart pounding, I stood up slowly, lifting a hand.

  The headmaster’s eyes went steely as he focused on me. He pointed a finger at me and said into the microphone so everyone could hear, “You’ll come to my office right away. I have some questions.”

  This time, he hadn’t needed Callan to rat me out. He was suspicious all on his own. And I couldn’t blame him—two girls missing in the same term, the very same term that a new student with a reputation for unsavory behavior arrives.

  If I were the headmaster, I’d suspect me too.

  I walked to the aisle and two other faculty members flanked me, same as last time, escorting me out of the auditorium, marching me down to be interrogated for a disappearance that I didn’t cause.

  But as I passed the last row, my eyes met Liam’s.

  He didn’t look smug that I was being carted off to be implicated in another student disappearance. He didn’t look pleased that even after all the guys’ threats and interventions, I’d probably found a way to get myself thrown out of the school on my own.

  No, he looked terrified.

  My stomach lurched. His eyebrows were scrunched down, but his eyes were wide, letting me see his gorgeous, aqua-green irises and his mouth hung in a hooked frown.

  What do you know about this? I wanted to ask him, but the faculty members pushed me forward before I could say anything and then Liam was behind me, along with the rest of the student body—

  As I walked out the auditorium doors, I heard it for the millionth time.

  Growling.

  Breathing.

  Somewhere, a screaming which sounded almost human.

  Chapter 21

  Medusa

  “I didn’t see where Laura went.” I didn’t even wait for the headmaster to shut the door before I began defending myself. “I know nothing about her disappearance.”

  “You were the last one to be seen with her.” He settled into the chair behind his desk and inspected me with suspicious eyes. “Lindsay Reed, a friend of hers, said you borrowed a dress from Laura.” His eyes traveled up and down my body. I had to concentrate not to shift uncomfortably in my seat.

  “Yes, she did loan me the dress, but I left the party well before she did.”

  “Two girls missing,” the headmaster went on, as if I hadn’t spoken, stroking his chin as he spoke, “and not a single clue that points me to them … except for you.”

  My heart started pounding. “I’m not a clue,” I said, shaking my head in denial. “There have to be other people who were seen with both of them. Callan.” Even as I said his name, I winced a little at the idea of throwing him under the bus. He’d seemed so concerned for me that night after the party, warning me about entering the school. But he’d been in league with Griffin and Liam from the very beginning. I couldn’t trust him as far as I could throw him, which wasn’t far at all.

  Given half the chance, I knew Callan would do the same to me.

  “He was talking
to Katie that night outside the auditorium, same as me,” I went on. “And he was at that party. I left before he did. Why don’t you grill him for answers?”

  The headmaster narrowed his eyes and a shiver went down my spine. “Because he’s not a known man-killer like yourself.”

  “What?” I whispered. My hair coiled up, ready to strike.

  “Medusa the Gorgon …” he continued, a knowing sneer spreading across his face, “... trapped alone in a sea cave for thousands of years, growing angrier and angrier by her imprisonment, ready to kill again. Ready to get revenge on the first beautiful girl who commands the attention of men, the way you never will. Of course, no one here is supposed to know who you are, so the manufactured version of your human counterpart has sanitized some of your backstory. But not all of it. Everybody here would easily believe that Medusa Katsaros, transfer student and human disaster, would lose her temper and strike out at a girl prettier than her. Everyone here would believe that you’d snapped.”

  My blood ran cold. The more I glared at the headmaster, the more I realized he was familiar to me—not his face or his body, but his eyes. They were the same eyes which had glowed with laughter as my sea cave was sealed shut. The same eyes that had whipped me into silent submission when I’d been dragged down to Sicidonia Island in the first place.

  And as the realization dawned on me, my entire body seized up with chills. “Orcus?”

  The headmaster grinned. “Took you long enough.”

  He removed something, a mask that clung so tightly to his face, it should’ve been impossible—a disguise designed by the gods, no doubt. And while he wore it, he could pretend to be this ridiculously pompous headmaster … but now that he took it off, I saw who he truly was.

  Suddenly, the office seemed tiny—the only thing in the world smaller than my sea cave—and I was having trouble breathing.

  Orcus. It was him. He’d been here all along.

  “The only thing more famed than your legendary ugliness is your intelligence. But it took you an embarrassingly long time to piece it together. You’ve also been surprisingly calm here. Besides that incident in the cafeteria with the lunch carts, you haven’t lashed out at anyone. No dead bodies. No humans-turned-sculptures. Perhaps all those years of captivity really have softened your edges.”

  “Perhaps I was never so hard to begin with,” I countered, which was true—but not at the moment.

  At the moment, every part of my body was on fire, ready to fight him. I was one wrong move away from attacking, dragging him into the blaring morning sunlight streaming in from his window and turning him into stone.

  “Perhaps.” Orcus nodded. “But no one here will ever believe it. It’s perfect. Two girls are missing and once you’re punished for it, the student body will go back to their normal lives. Humans are so easily distracted, you know—they’re all already convinced that you’re the true killer.”

  The true killer—Orcus’s words zipped through me in a panic. “So there is a killer.” Another killer, hidden somewhere in the school. The memories of the growling outside the auditorium came back to me, the feeling of unease as some instinct within me realized there was something else lurking within the school.

  Something non-human.

  Orcus got up from his desk and walked to the door, straightening his tie. “There is a monster,” he said, turning to me. “And I intend to make sure she is punished for this injustice.” To a small crowd of faculty members waiting outside his office, Orcus said in a falsely somber voice, “She’s confessed. We have our murderer.”

  Voices rang out with questions and outrage. A few faces peered in at me, seated and bewildered next to the desk, their eyes flashing with equal parts horror and rage. I leaped to my feet, ready to charge out and sing of my innocence, but Orcus turned to look at me, his own face gleaming with triumph. “I should’ve known better than to let such a monster in my school,” he growled.

  This was my moment.

  I tilted my head back, letting the sunshine filter across my face.

  One look. That’s all it would take.

  One look and Orcus would be turned to stone—

  But he chuckled again and I my insides lurched. “Your ugly eyes won’t work on me, Gorgon bitch,” he said. “I have the protection of someone much bigger than you—so do your worst.”

  My eyes narrowed, but I knew he was right.

  If he was going to turn to stone, it would’ve happened by now. Instead, he gave me one more wicked grin and slammed the door shut.

  My hand went to the doorknob, wiggling it, but he held it fast. Then a key was inserted in the knob and it was locked. No matter how much I pounded and kicked and screamed, no one came to my aid.

  Trapped.

  Just like I’d been trapped in that sea cave for all those years.

  Trapped for a crime I had not committed. And what was worse, Orcus had let me know there was indeed a killer in the school.

  Not Griffin or Liam or Callan—those were monsters, to be sure, but none of them were responsible for the missing girls. I knew it in my bones. Just like I knew there was something lurking near the auditorium in the student center.

  Something inhuman. Something hungry.

  Something Orcus had placed here deliberately to prey on innocent human girls like Katie or Laura. If I didn’t get out of this office and find someone to convince of my innocence and Orcus’s evil plot, then even more human girls might disappear and their deaths would be on my head.

  Chapter 22

  Callan

  I couldn’t sleep.

  We were supposed to be getting ready for Orcus’s big move. He’d made sure everything was ready. All he needed was to get Medusa out of the way and then it would be time.

  But every night when I closed my eyes, I heard it.

  The scratching and snuffling of something monstrous. A growl.

  And above all of that, Medusa’s voice. Her anger. Why should I listen to you? She’d asked, Why should I listen to anything you say?

  I tried to roll over and replayed the sensation of my lips on hers, how amazing her skin felt when I ran my fingers along it, how good she felt in my arms as though that’s where she belonged.

  What would it be like if she were my girl?

  I’d already played it out in my head a dozen times.

  But I knew it could never happen.

  We were supposed to get rid of her.

  If Medusa stayed, and if she ever found out what we were doing with Orcus, what the big plans were, well … she’d never touch me again.

  Before she’d arrived at Terras, this would’ve seemed like a decent trade-off.

  But then I met her.

  I saw her face. No, I looked past her face. I saw the fire she carried with her, the life in her eyes.

  I didn’t think I’d ever be able to look at her and see anything but that fire. Not anymore.

  And it turned me on like nothing else. I couldn’t get rid of her so soon. Not until I saw that fire again. Not until I saw what might happen if I—

  “Hey.” Liam walked onto the grass, cutting from the sidewalk across to the twisty cypress tree on the campus. “You wanted to talk?”

  It was Halloween. The three of us were supposed to be meeting with Orcus tonight during the masquerade to set the second phase of his plans into motion. We weren’t sure what that meant, exactly. Orcus had been vague with his plans so far.

  He recently revealed to us he’d been posing as the headmaster and he needed us to do two things: make sure that every full moon no students got into the student center and get rid of the Gorgon once and for all—or at least keep the Gorgon out of his hair until we could actually get rid of her. So far, she’d been harder to get rid of than we’d expected.

  But that night outside the pool party had changed things.

  At least, they had for me.

  And I needed to have a talk with the other guys to see if things had changed for them too.

  “Where’s Gri
ffin?” I asked.

  Liam shrugged. “I know he was supposed to have football practice. But that was before …”

  He trailed off, but I knew what he was referring to. Before the assembly.

  Before Orcus, as the headmaster, announced that Laura had disappeared, playing the part of the concerned administrator and then accusing Medusa in front of everyone of being involved in the disappearance.

  We knew she wasn’t involved. And maybe some of the other students knew too, but they didn’t care.

  Medusa looked the part and the rumors had already flown that she was responsible for so many other criminal things.

  And now who knew where Medusa was. Orcus had gotten rid of her when we hadn’t been able to. I wouldn’t be surprised if he’d shoved her back into her sea cave on Sicidonia Island, just to make sure there was no interference.

  But that was exactly why I wanted to talk to the other guys.

  Because even though I was here as one of Orcus’s monsters, and even though I was supposed to be a cog in whatever great machine the beast keeper was using to get us to Mount Olympus, something inside of me twisted up every time I thought of hurting Medusa.

  Something inside of me told me it was wrong.

  Liam and I waited for a few minutes. All the while, unease built up inside of me, making my chest tense. Where was he keeping Medusa?

  What was Orcus up to, anyway?

  And where were those girls, Katie and Laura?

  Suddenly they didn’t seem so expendable. I had Medusa to thank for that. Once upon a time, I’d thought she was just another monster. A murderous Gorgon, good for nothing except a slice to the throat and a toss into an incinerator.

  But now, I knew she was more than just a monster. She was a beautiful woman who’d been given a bad deal in life. She’d suffered more than any of us monsters could imagine and here we were, making her life even harder. And for what?

  “Do you ever wonder …” I asked, swallowing hard before speaking the rest of my thoughts. “Why Orcus doesn’t just kill her himself? He’s certainly capable. Why won’t he just do it?”