by Eva Ashwood
My heartbeat picked up as I remembered the first night I had fucked all three of them at once—Lachlan in my ass, Merrick in my pussy, and my lips wrapped around Trace’s cock. It was one of the hottest, dirtiest experiences of my life.
But it was also one of the purest.
I had never felt so totally connected to the three of them as in that moment, with all of them surrounding me, inside me, pleasure passing between us like an electric current.
Holding on to that feeling, I tightened my grip on each of the men as they supported me. Then I reached out with my mind, feeling for the ephemeral switch that would flip me from this world to the earthly plane.
As I grasped it in my mind, I felt the familiar falling sensation of traveling between worlds—but as the ether began to pull me away, I could feel my grip on the men loosening. Fading.
No!
I redoubled my efforts, squeezing Trace’s hand so hard I thought I might crack his bones.
But I refused to let go.
If I’m a god, if I’m anything close to a god, then I can do this. I have to. I fucking have to.
The room around me faded into nothingness, and the ether sucked me in.
Chapter Sixteen
I landed back on earth disoriented and weak, stumbling and almost going to my knees.
Panic hit me like a baseball bat to the chest, and I cried out wildly.
“Trace! Merrick! Lachl—”
“We’re here, lass.”
Lach’s voice behind me made me whirl around. The men were all behind me, as if we had been split apart somehow as we were transported back to earth—as if they had been just a few seconds behind me. But they were here. They’d made it.
All three of them looked queasy as fuck, and Merrick scrubbed a hand over his mouth.
“Shit. So that’s what it feels like to be yanked across dimensions.” Then he broke into a smile, although he was still green around the gills. He stepped forward and wrapped his arms around me. “You did it, Ari. You did it.”
Relief weakened my muscles, and I let out a shaky breath, thanking every single one of my lucky stars. “I almost lost you. I could feel it.”
“So could I.” His amber eyes gleamed with fierce emotion. “But you held on.”
“And you got us right where we need to be,” Trace added, glancing at our surroundings.
I followed suit, finally taking in the location where we’d arrived. We were on school grounds, between the castle-like building that housed the dorms and classrooms and The Hill, where we had stepped through the portals before the Gods’ Challenge.
Just the sight of the empty pavilion made my stomach twist.
Turning toward the school building, I looked up at the imposing structure. The sun was nearly down, and in the gloomy light, the place looked haunted as fuck.
Gods, I hope it’s not full of dead bodies. What if Omari already took them all out?
Shoving down the fear of what I might find inside, I set off toward the school, my men close behind me.
When I shoved open the massive double doors at the entrance, relief and fresh worry washed over me simultaneously.
The interior of the school was far from a ghost town.
Instead, it was utter chaos.
People were rushing down the hallways, voices raised in anger and alarm. I noticed students nursing injuries, and several who looked like they could barely stand. Along one wall of the large entryway, I noticed several unmoving forms lying under sheets.
“Oh, fuck,” Trace breathed, coming to stand beside me just inside the front doors.
This was the aftermath of the Gods’ Challenge.
The entire school had been forced to compete, and even though we had “won” in the end, it wasn’t without grave consequences. The images Omari had shown me of my men and I attacking our fellow students? Even if those doppelgängers weren’t really us, the damage they had done was viscerally real.
As if his low murmur had been a shout, several people in the hall looked up at us quickly. Their faces contorted with anger, and one man whose name I thought was Justin strode toward us, his eyes flashing.
“There you are! You honestly have the guts to come back here after what you did?”
His rage was so hot and so unexpected that I was knocked off balance for a second. Of course I should’ve expected this. These people had been attacked by creatures that looked just like me and my men. Of course they would hate and distrust us.
“No, it’s not what you—” I began, but my words were cut off as another student began stalking toward us, fury in his features.
“Stop!”
The clear voice rang out in the large entryway, and before I knew what was happening, Eden had thrown her body in front of mine.
“What are you doing?” Justin growled.
“She didn’t attack you. I know she didn’t!” Eden was a small girl, but she seemed to have grown six inches as she faced down the angry students who surrounded us. “She and these guys were the ones who grabbed the gem. The reason we all got sent back home when we did, before we could lose anyone else.”
“It’s true.” Nadia’s voice was breathy and ragged, and when I looked toward the sound, I saw that she was in rough shape. She’d been part of the group that had found the gem, and she’d helped fight off the four gods who protected it, keeping them distracted so the guys and I could snag the prize.
She stepped toward us, limping slightly. “I don’t know who it was that attacked you guys, but I know it wasn’t Aria. She helped us. She saved me.”
Justin still looked unconvinced, his suspicious gaze darting back and forth between Nadia, Eden, and me.
For fuck’s sake. We don’t have time for this.
“I didn’t attack anyone,” I said loudly, meeting Justin’s gaze but lifting my voice to address the whole room. “Except those motherfucking gods who were trying to stand in our way. And speaking of motherfucking gods, we need to be ready to defend ourselves. Because even though we won the game, they’re not done with us. Omari, their leader, wants to wipe out everyone at this school.”
A chorus of gasps and yells followed my pronouncement. Justin’s eyes went wide, and his mouth fell open a little. But before he could say anything, Dean Frost stormed into the entry hall.
“What is going on here?” she demanded, her voice imperious.
My hands clenched into fists, and I turned away from the still-gaping Justin to address the dean instead. “What’s going on is that your precious gods have declared an all-out war on wild magic users. Guess they got sick of killing us piecemeal like they used to—sick of picking off the ones you sent to compete in the Gods’ Challenges.”
Frost’s face went blank for a moment, and I could tell she was trying to cover her surprise. She was a good actor, but I could see through her facade well enough to see the gears turning in her brain.
Then she snapped her fingers suddenly, summoning two school staff members to her side. One was Miss Avery, the woman who had greeted me on my first day at Magic Blessed, and the other was a professor named Margo Pfeiffer. Both of them were looking at me with much the same expression as Dean Frost wore, and I could see malice glinting in their eyes.
“You have clearly turned traitor to your school and your fellow students,” Dean Frost bit out. “We’ve all seen the footage of you attacking with no provocation. You’ll have to be restrained, delivered to the gods for whatever punishment they see fit.”
Oh, hell no. I just got out of that fucking place—there’s no way I’m going back.
As Miss Avery and Professor Pfeiffer stepped forward, I raised my hands.
And chaos broke loose.
They both attacked at the same time, and the magic I shot back at them was joined by blasts from my men as well. More screams and shouts echoed in the large room as students leapt into action, choosing sides in the blink of an eye. To my shock, more than half of the room’s occupants seemed to have sided with the men and me, restrainin
g other students who were trying to join in on the attack against us.
I caught Miss Avery against the face with a whip of magic. Her head flew to the side, a line of blood appearing across her cheek, and she collapsed to the ground. In a flash, Eden pounced on her, wrapping a magic bind tightly around her wrists.
“This is mutiny!” Dean Frost shouted, frustration and fear resonating in her voice as Professor Pfeiffer went down just like Miss Avery had. More students were rushing into the room, summoned by the noise, but instead of rushing to her aid, most of them just looked shocked and wary.
With one more burst of magic, I wrapped a tendril around the dean’s leg and yanked her off her feet. Then I darted forward, holding my hand over her face and performing a spell like the one I’d used against the rhino-bull all those weeks ago.
Her gaze locked on mine for a moment, angry and fearful.
Then her eyes rolled up as her eyelids drooped, and she went limp, sprawled out on the floor.
Keeping one hand raised in case anyone else tried to attack me, I glanced up at the students gathered around us.
“Dean Frost has been lying to us. Some of the teachers knew about it too, or at least suspected. The Gods’ Challenges were never meant to test our strength or give us a chance to earn the gods’ favor. They were designed for only one purpose: to cull our numbers. Because the gods fear us.” I raised my voice, watching the terrified faces around me as everyone absorbed my words. “They never gave us magic. They don’t know where it came from or why we developed powers. And that makes them fear us.”
“What are you talking about?” Justin sputtered, his cheeks flushing. “We’re magic blessed.”
I shrugged tiredly, suddenly feeling the pull of exhaustion after everything that’d happened in the past twenty-four hours. “Maybe so. But it wasn’t the gods who blessed us. And now they want to kill us.”
“So… what do we do?” Nadia looked like she might pass out at any moment, but she still squared her shoulders stubbornly, like she was prepared to fight until she literally dropped dead.
Fuck. That really is the million-dollar question, isn’t it?
“I don’t know,” I admitted. “Omari said they plan to eliminate everyone at this school, but he didn’t say how. I don’t know if we should try to make a stand here or if we’d be better off scattering to the wind and hoping they never find us. But I have a feeling running won’t—”
My words broke off as a low rumble caught my ear. I felt it a second after I heard it—a shaking under my feet, as if the earth was shifting deep underground.
Oh, fuck.
Were the gods here already? Had they discovered that my men and I had escaped and decided to move up their attack, to take us all out now?
“Shit. Shit, shit, shit.”
Jerking my head at my men, I turned and darted back toward the entrance, yanking one of the heavy double doors open and peering outside. In the dim twilight, I couldn’t make out any figures on the lawn. But as I scanned our surroundings, something did catch my attention.
A ripple of color, deep blue and almost pearlescent, wavered in front of my eyes.
“What the hell?”
Reaching out, I brushed my fingertips over the magical film that seemed to surround the massive stone building like a tight-fitting bubble.
A shield.
The feel of powerful magic raced up my arm, making my bones tingle, and I drew my hand back, staring in surprise at the magical barrier.
Someone had put this up to protect us. Someone didn’t want the gods to have an easy time killing us.
But who?
I glanced over my shoulder, meeting Merrick’s gaze. I could see the same confusion I felt reflected in his amber eyes, and the same relief too. Regardless of where the shield came from, we were lucky as hell that it was here. Because it would buy us the one thing we needed most—time.
Letting the door fall shut, I turned back to sweep my gaze over the large entry room. Eden and Nadia were standing over Dean Frost’s prone body, as if ready to attack her again if she so much as stirred. Everyone else was staring at the four of us, fear and doubt in their eyes. I knew it would take more convincing to get some of them to believe us, but at least now we’d have that chance.
As I stepped forward to help tend to the wounded, a new thought occurred to me, and I glanced around the room again.
Where’s Wesley?
Had he not come back?
Chapter Seventeen
It took hours to bandage and heal all the injuries people had sustained during the Gods’ Challenge. Some people jerked back when I approached, obviously wary of being touched by someone who looked like an exact copy of the person who had kicked the shit out of them.
But more students had stepped forward to verify my story, and after we’d restrained a few more teachers who were clearly in league with Dean Frost and the others, the students who had seemed doubtful at first appeared to have landed solidly on our side.
Part of me cursed myself for keeping everything I’d learned about the school quiet for so long. Were the deaths of the people who hadn’t survived the challenge on my head? Would things have been different if I had told everyone the truth as soon as I’d learned it?
“It’s not your fault,” Merrick said quietly when I admitted my worries to him. “If you’d said something then, there’s a good chance no one would’ve believed you. Dean Frost could’ve dealt with you quietly and efficiently, and the truth would’ve died with you anyway. It’s awful, but I think for some of these people, the only way they would ever believe the gods might betray them is to see it with their own eyes.” He looked sadly at the stragglers who were still getting their wounds tended to. “And now they have.”
He was right, but that didn’t make me feel a whole lot better as I thought about the bodies that’d been carried down to the basement level. They would have to be given a proper burial after we were able to leave the castle safely—if that day ever came.
By the time everyone’s wounds had been treated, I was dead on my feet, so exhausted that it felt like my body was shaking.
After grabbing some food, the men and I all trooped upstairs, and without even speaking a word, all three of them followed me to my room. We showered, rinsing off the sand and sweat and blood that felt like it had been ground into our skin. And then we collapsed into bed together, too tired to do more than lie in a tangle of limbs with me at the center.
I slept like a rock, letting the comforting feeling of Lachlan’s hand on my hip and Trace’s breath on the back of my neck soothe me.
I was so exhausted I didn’t even dream, so I couldn’t explain why my eyes popped open at some point in the middle of the night, my body coming fully awake so fast it felt like I’d been pushed off a cliff.
For a second, I just blinked into the darkness, absorbing the feel of my men around me and listening to the quiet stillness of the room.
And then my heart stopped.
We weren’t alone.
There was a fifth person in the room, a presence I could feel near the doorway—powerful and solid.
I lifted my head, my heart slamming against my ribs, and craned my neck to peer toward the doorway.
Ryker stood just inside the door.
My body immediately went into defense mode, and I was about to leap from the bed and summon any spell I could when the dark-haired god lifted a finger to his lips. The gesture was so surprising that I froze momentarily.
Why haven’t the guys woken up? Did he do something to them? Put a spell on them?
Thank fuck I hadn’t slept naked tonight like I often did. I didn’t relish the idea of fighting a god with my tits bouncing all over the place.
“How did you get in here?” I asked, my voice low and intense. The men beside me still didn’t stir, and I was sure it had something to do with Ryker’s magic. “There’s a shield around the school. It’s strong. It’s—”
“I know.” He chuckled lightly, his lips spreadi
ng into an easy smile. “I built it. Of course it’s strong.”
My jaw dropped.
He built it?
He was the one who had protected us?
I had no idea why he would do that, and my recent experiences with gods had made me wary about trusting any of them. It suddenly occurred to me that the barrier around the castle could be meant to keep us in rather than to keep any threats out. Were Ryker and the other gods planning to starve us?
It seemed like a cruel and weirdly anticlimactic way for hugely powerful beings to vanquish their enemies, but I honestly wouldn’t put it past any of them.
I sat up, trying to ignore the way my men slept soundly beside me. It was creepy as fuck, the way none of them had been disturbed at all by Ryker’s arrival or my agitated movement in the bed. If I hadn’t been able to feel Trace’s chest rising and falling, I would’ve thought they were dead.
“So?” I asked challengingly, no longer bothering to keep my voice soft. “What do you want? Why did you come here?”
Ryker smiled again, as if my bad attitude actually pleased him. “Can we speak somewhere else?”
“Why?” I scowled, gesturing to the guys. “It’s not like they can hear us, thanks to you.”
“True. But I would like to speak to you privately anyway.”
It seemed like a stupid request, and I wondered for a moment if he was just trying to get me away from any potential backup. But then again, the men were essentially defenseless like this—maybe it would be for the best if I got Ryker out of here, took him to a room on the other side of the building where he couldn’t unleash hell on the guys if our little conversation went south.
“Okay. Fine.” I crawled out of bed and stood on the cold stone floor, crossing my arms over my chest. “Let’s go.”
Ryker dipped his head in a nod, then opened the door and gestured me through. I cut a glance at him out of the corner of my eye as I passed by him and stepped into the hallway. He definitely knew I was the same girl he’d seen in the palace that day he’d argued with Omari. I was sure of it now.