by Eva Ashwood
I hurried through to the back and followed the instructions Howes had given me until I found the barren space at the back corner. Summoning my magic, I focused in to make sure that it wouldn’t shimmer or shine and draw anyone’s attention. As it surged from my fingertips, I tapped three times on the wall.
Without a sound, the wall shifted, forming into an old wooden door with a handle right in the center. Carefully, I reached out and grabbed the handle, twisting it to the right and opening up the door. I walked inside into the dusty room, finding an extension of the same library I had been in.
This section was incredibly sparse though. There were only five books lining the shelves, and they were all so large they looked almost too heavy to carry.
Closing the door behind me, I used my magic to lift one off the shelf, setting it carefully down on the small table in the middle of the room and flipping it open.
I didn’t have a ton of time, and I didn’t want to risk getting caught in this hidden room, so I began skimming through the books, looking for any information that I could. The first section gave a short history of Magic Blessed Academy, and my brows furrowed as I read.
The school is less than a hundred years old?
I wondered what those who acquired magic later in life had done before Magic Blessed Academy had formed.
The first sign of magic developing in a non-magical person occurred in 1931, the first line of the second chapter read. The next occurrence was less than a year later.
I furrowed my brow and looked around the library. That didn’t make any sense. Why would the gods have just recently started giving out new magic? Did it have something to do with the humans who had magic in their bloodlines? Were they losing it? Or was their power weakening?
I continued to skim through the books, but I couldn’t find the answer anywhere. But it was glaringly obvious that ordinary humans receiving magical gifts was a fairly new thing. That definitely wasn’t something the professors taught us in our history classes.
My fingers itched to grab another book and keep poring over the pages, but I had already been in this little room for a while. I needed to get back before anyone noticed I was missing.
Reluctantly, I put the books back on the shelf and carefully let myself out of the back room, watching the door as it disappeared into a blank wall like before. By the time I made it back to the library entrance, the whole place was nearly deserted.
I walked through the doorway and stopped short before I crashed into a broad, male chest.
Trace’s distinct scent tickled my nostrils, and I looked up to meet his gaze.
“What are you doing here?” I asked.
“Looking for you.” His lips tilted in a grin, and my heart sped up a little.
We stared at each other for a moment, a familiar heat filling the air between us. Then he slid his hand down my arm and grabbed me by the wrist, pulling me to the right and into an empty study room. When the door was shut, he sent a flickering light to the center, bathing the room in soft light.
He tugged me into his arms, and I allowed myself to give in with no resistance. I wrapped my arms around him and lay my head against his chest, savoring the quiet before the storm. He held me tightly, and I could feel his heart beating against mine. I wasn’t used to holding a guy like this without expecting it to turn into sex—wasn’t used to the simple comfort of just being close to someone.
But I liked it.
I liked it so fucking much it terrified me.
Pulling back, Trace cupped my face in his hands and tilted my chin to meet my gaze. “You nervous?”
A low chuckle fell from my lips. “Fuck yeah.”
“Everything’s going to be okay, Ari. We’re going to get through this.” He pressed a kiss to my hair. “There is a lot against all of us, but we believe in what you’re looking for, and we believe in finding the truth. None of us would’ve stuck around this long if we didn’t. You are an extraordinary person.”
I shifted uncomfortably. I could take a punch like any good fighter, but I still sucked at taking compliments. “Thank you.”
The dark-haired rock star smiled and leaned down, kissing me softly on the lips. “I mean it, Snow. We’d follow you to hell and back.”
He meant it. I could hear the truth in his voice.
My arms tightened around him, my fingers digging into the firm muscles of his back as I deepened the kiss, sliding my tongue between his lips to taste him. Trace responded instantly, our bodies attuned to each other in a way I still couldn’t quite believe. He met each stroke of my tongue with one of his own, angling his head as he walked me backward. We didn’t come up for air even when my ass bumped against the small table behind me.
What had started out sweet and comforting was quickly morphing into something much hotter. Much wetter. Much more demanding.
“Gods, Snow. How do you do this to me?” Trace groaned, moving his hands down to my hips and holding them steady as his hardening cock pressed against me. I could feel an answering flush of arousal in my pussy, my body clamoring for more of his touch, his taste, his scent.
I was hungry for these men all the time. A constant craving that never seemed to be fully sated.
“Fuck, Trace. I want you.”
The words were muffled, swallowed up by another deep kiss, but he heard them anyway.
Or maybe he didn’t need to hear them. Maybe he just knew.
Wrenching his lips from mine, he used his grip on my hips to spin me around, bending me over the table. A prickle of excitement darted up my spine as I arched my back, urging him on with a low moan.
This wasn’t what we’d come in here for, but I wasn’t leaving this room until I’d felt Trace’s cock inside me. I needed it more than I needed fucking air right now.
Eager to feel his bare skin against mine, I fumbled with the button and fly of my pants, shoving them down as I heard Trace do the same with his clothes behind me. My breath shuddered when he put his hands on me again, his large palms caressing the rounded curves of my ass.
When he spread my cheeks and pressed a thumb into the tight ring of muscles around my asshole, my fingernails clawed at the table. The jolt of sensation had my toes curling in my shoes, and I groaned loudly—louder than I should have for a quickie in a study room. But Trace didn’t seem inclined to try to shut me up. His thumb probed deeper, the sudden intrusion making my core clench and my clit throb.
“Oh, holy shit,” I grunted, and he chuckled.
“I still think about what you told me the first time we fucked, Snow,” he murmured quietly, his other hand sliding through my folds, dipping into my channel, testing my readiness. When he felt how wet I was, he groaned appreciatively. “I remember how you said you’d take us all at once. Me, Lachlan, Merrick, and you. All together. One in your pussy. One in your mouth. And one in this tight, dark hole.”
As he spoke, he pressed his thumb deeper, fucking me with the fingers of his other hand. My eyes were practically rolling back in my head. I had thought this was going to be a fast, hard fuck, but Trace was turning it into something else entirely.
Something delicious and debauched.
Anyone could walk in at any moment and see me bent over the table, my legs spread for the man behind me, his thumb in my ass and his fingers in my dripping pussy. The odds of another student coming in here were low, but the very fact that we could get caught only heightened my awareness, making every sensation seem to surge through my body with the force of a tidal wave.
“I’ve made myself come thinking about it,” Trace admitted, and I could hear the raw truth in his words. “I’m getting harder right now just thinking about it. So hard precum is spilling out of me. So hard it hurts. My cock is dying for you, Snow. It’s fucking dying.”
“Let me have it,” I rasped, bumping my hips back against him, begging for more. “Please.”
His fingers left my pussy, but he kept his thumb right where he was as he grabbed my hip with one hand, smearing my cream all over my
skin. I felt the rounded head of his cock breach my entrance, and then he drove forward, impaling me in a single hard stroke.
And it turned out I hadn’t been wrong after all.
It was a hot, hard fuck.
With his thumb relentlessly teasing my back hole, he thrust into me again and again, setting up a tempo that made the table wobble beneath me. His hips slapped against my thighs every time he plunged into me, and the distinctive sound of flesh on flesh mingled with our harsh breaths.
We weren’t being quiet.
We weren’t being subtle.
But I didn’t give even a single fuck about that.
My pussy walls gripped his cock so tightly I swore I could feel the contour of every vein and ridge on his thick length. I arched my back even more, going up onto my elbows as my mouth hung open and I panted breathlessly.
“It would feel like this, Ari. With me inside you and Lach or Merrick in your ass,” he murmured, his voice rough. “Only bigger. So much bigger. And so much deeper. But you could take all of us, couldn’t you? You’re a fucking fighter.”
Gods, I couldn’t even imagine it. The overload of sensations from just his thumb was about to do me in, making speech practically impossible.
But the thought of it being Lachlan or Merrick… of having two of these men’s cocks inside me at once, while I teased and licked and sucked the third man’s shaft?
“Fuck!” I choked out as my whole body locked up, sweet ecstasy bursting through me. The orgasm took no fucking prisoners, tearing through me as filthy, sexy images danced in my vision.
Trace drove into me so hard and fast that the table began to scrape across the floor, and then he stopped, grinding his hips against me as he emptied himself inside my tight channel.
The noises in the room faded until only our deep breaths filled the space. My upper body was limp against the table, and Trace bent over me, sliding his thumb out of my ass as he reached up with his other hand to brush the wild dark hair out of my face. He kissed my cheek and my jaw, then captured my lips in a kiss that was just as sweet as the one he had given me when he’d first pulled me into the room.
From sweet to dirty and back to sweet. Only Trace could bounce back and forth between the two extremes with such ease. And the truth was, I loved both of those things from him.
“You’re a very dirty girl,” he murmured, amusement and heat in his voice.
“You love it,” I shot back, and he laughed and kissed me again.
“Yup. You got that right.”
He withdrew and helped me clean myself up a bit before spinning me around to kiss me again. Then we both straightened our clothes as best we could, although I was pretty sure anyone who caught sight of us right now would be able to guess what we’d been doing.
Ah, well. Fuck ’em if they don’t like it. I’m not sorry.
“You ready?” Trace asked, catching my gaze.
“Yeah.” I nodded, and he took me by the hand and opened the door, leading me out to the hallway. We walked along quietly, our fingers laced together, not really caring if anybody saw us at that point.
I was really starting to care about those men, and I hoped that their willingness to follow me into hell wouldn’t end with us all getting burned.
My stomach clenched with nerves at the thought. I had a feeling that after the last challenge, we were going to be a target for the gods and everyone else. I just hoped that the guys and I were ready for it.
Brushing the hair from my face as we stood in front of my dorm room door, Trace kissed my forehead and nodded once before turning away. I watched him until he disappeared around the corner before I entered the room.
Less than two minutes later, a knock came at the door. It was peppy and sharp, and just from the sound of it, I guessed who it was even before I opened the door. Eden burst into my room in a whirlwind.
“There you are! I’ve been looking everywhere for you. Seriously, where were you hiding? Some secret room?”
I lifted an eyebrow at her and chuckled as she enveloped me in a surprisingly hard hug. She was little, but she could pack some punch.
“I was just doing a little bit of last minute… uh, studying,” I said, disentangling myself from her arms with a smile.
“Yeah?” Her face grew pensive. “Cramming for the challenge? Are you worried about it?”
We sat down on the bed and I turned toward her, feeling the need to at least confide in her a bit.
“A little, I guess.” I shrugged. “There’s so much going on here. It just feels so much deeper than some silly challenge. With everything that I’ve learned, I feel like there’s something weird going on. There’s… something that they’re not telling us.”
Eden shifted nervously. “Are you sure you want to do the Gods’ Challenge again? Maybe you can still get out of it. It might be too late to back out, but if you can, maybe you should. If you don’t think it’s safe, don’t go.”
I shook my head and put a hand on her shoulder, trying to reassure her. “Eden, take a deep breath. Everything is going to be fine. I’m going to be fine. I’ve been training really hard, and I’ve got the guys behind me. Together, we can do anything.”
She let out a shaky breath, looking a little more confident. As her forehead smoothed, a small smirk pulled at her lips. “So, on that subject… what’s going on with all of you? At first, I thought you were dating one of them, but I could never figure out which one it was. Are you… dating all of them?”
I chuckled at the scandalized sound of her life. “Well, it’s kinda hard to go on a date with anyone when we can’t even leave the school grounds. And, I don’t know, dating doesn’t really cover it. But yeah, I guess you could say I’m with all of them. I like them. I trust them.”
Eden’s eyes opened wide, her cheeks flushing. “Holy crap, Ari! That’s—that’s—whoa.” Her voice dropped, as if this was the hottest piece of gossip she’d gotten in weeks. “You have three of the hottest guys in the school. And they’re okay with it? With… I dunno, sharing?”
“Yeah.” I chuckled, thinking back to our moment in the cave. “They’re okay with it.”
“Ho-ly. Fuck.”
Her shocked face made me laugh harder, and I held up my hand and snapped my fingers, letting magic swirl around my wrist. “A year ago, I couldn’t do this. It’s absolutely insane that I can do it now. How is dating three guys any crazier than this?”
Eden opened and closed her mouth, her brows drawing together. Then she tilted her head back and guffawed. “I guess it’s not. Not even in the least.”
Chapter Twelve
The next few days flew by in a whirlwind, until finally, the day I’d been both waiting for and dreading arrived.
Sleep didn’t find me the night before the Gods’ Challenge, but I didn’t go to any of the guys’ rooms, hoping they were at least able to get some rest. The last thing I wanted to think about was how exhausted all of us were after the last challenge; I had far too many other things to worry about. There were people trying to kill us and gods trying to annihilate us.
So, no pressure.
Eden walked me to The Hill, where all of the competitors would be sent off through portals to the godly realm. When we reached the edge of the platform where I would join the other competitors, she kissed me on the cheek and nodded, finding no words. I knew she would be watching on the magical screens erected by the admins, and I gave her a confident smile, punching her lightly on the arm.
“I’ll kick ass. Don’t you worry.”
“I know you will.” She smiled, though it didn’t quite reach her eyes.
We weren’t allowed to bring anything with us—nothing but the clothes on our backs—so I emptied my pockets before heading into the center of the pavilion to join the others. The guys were all gathered together, and I came to stand in between them. We had given up trying to pretend we weren’t a team. Wesley and his groupies might not like it, but that was their damn problem.
Lachlan nodded, his hand coming
to rest on my lower back. “Here we are again.”
Merrick sniffed. “I always seem to be in some sort of trouble with you guys.”
Trace was rolling his shoulders as if limbering up for a fight. “Everything’s going to be fine.”
Merrick rolled his eyes. “If you say that one more time, I’m going to punch you in the teeth.” He glanced over at me. “He’s seriously said that at least fifty times since we got here.”
It was no surprise that all three of them were tense and on-edge. I was too. But we couldn’t let that get us in our heads.
“He’s right.” I held Merrick’s gaze, squaring my shoulders. “We all need to take deep breaths. Remember, we’re all good fighters. We’re going to be just fine.”
Those words weren’t just for them, they were a reminder for me too. Still, I couldn’t help but remember how many people hadn’t returned from the challenge the year before. They had all been good fighters too, possibly even better than any of us.
Like Brielle and Shane, the two students who were right behind us in our final dash for the gem. They were badasses, and what we’d done to hold them off our tails shouldn’t have kept them from making it back. But they had never come back through the portals.
I couldn’t help but wonder if maybe success in the challenge didn’t have anything to do with how good of a fighter someone was. Maybe it had more to do with what the gods wanted, and what they were looking for.
Stepping up to face all of the competitors, Dean Frost cleared her throat and waved one arm. The cheering crowds in the stands around us grew quiet, and the dean nodded to each one of us as we took our places. One by one, we stepped through our portals, and I closed my eyes as I felt a familiar rush of energy and a booster shot of magic as I fell through the ether.
A second later, I emerged on the other side. Back in the godly realm.
When I opened my eyes and looked around, I found myself in a more desert-like area than before. We were all standing in a rough line, staring at the space around us. Every one of us jumped as the dean’s loud, booming voice echoed in the air above us.