by Eva Ashwood
What? How was that possible?
Unless Ryker’s shielding spell had somehow been designed to sense students from the academy, and would admit anyone who belonged here. Wesley said the shield was still in place, that he’d felt it, but still…
Lach and I shared a look, and my stomach tightened into a hard knot.
“We need to go check on the shield,” I said quickly. Then I turned back to Wesley. “I’m gonna have to put you in the holding area where we’re keeping Dean Frost and the others. I’ll get you a healing potion, but we can’t let you just wander around free. Once this is done, we’ll decide what to do with you all.”
Something flickered in Wesley’s eyes, and he looked down, seeming almost ashamed. “Of course. I understand. It’s better than I deserve.”
I resisted the urge to roll my eyes. Whether he was boasting of his accomplishments or admitting he’d been a short-sighted asshole, Wesley was always a damn drama queen.
“Lach.” I glanced over at my boyfriend, who gave a feral grin and stepped forward to grab Wesley.
But before he could pull the battered man down the hall toward the makeshift holding cells, a low boom echoed down the corridor. A blast of power followed it, washing over me like a tidal wave, and my skin chilled.
“What the fuck was that?” I gasped, my gaze darting around wildly.
Wesley smiled, his swollen face contorting gruesomely as he let out a quiet chuckle. “You never should’ve trusted me, Aria.”
My blood turned to ice, chilling me from the inside out.
Lachlan growled, letting go of Wesley’s arm and fisting the front of his shirt, dragging the smaller man closer and growling in his face. “What the fuck did ye do, ye wanker?”
Another boom sounded, coming from the other side of the school this time, and the wave of magic that followed felt like a premonition of death.
“The shield,” I muttered, my voice choked. “He sabotaged the shield.”
Wesley’s grin only grew wider, his eyes burning with mad glee as he looked up. “They’re here.”
Chapter Twenty-Two
Blood rushed in my ears, threatening to drown out any other sound.
“What the fuck?” I stepped up beside Lachlan and grabbed Wesley’s face in a tight grip, snarling at him. “What did you do? Tell me. Right now.”
“It was a flaw in the shield.” Wesley grinned, insane pride glinting in his eyes. “A weakness. It repelled gods, it repelled their messengers, but it didn’t repel me. It was meant to protect the students, and I’m a student.”
Motherfucker.
I had thought it might be something like that. It was strangely kind of Ryker at the same time it was monumentally stupid of him. The fact that he had wanted to protect all the students of Magic Blessed had ended up being our downfall.
Another boom rocked the hallway, and I squeezed Wesley’s face tighter, my fingers and thumb digging into his flesh. “What are they planning? What are those noises?”
“Magical charges,” he spat out. “I placed them all around the school before you caught me. They’re taking the shield down. It won’t last long now.”
“Fuckin’ hell.”
Lachlan shoved Wesley away, and before the man had a chance to even stumble, I hit him with a right hook so hard that his entire body spun around before crumpling to the floor. He lay sprawled there, still and motionless, but I was already moving.
Leaping over his body, I charged toward the front entrance, gathering magic between my palms. “Lach!” I screamed. “Raise the alarm!”
With a grunt, he unleashed something that looked almost like a fireball from his hands—but instead of just rushing forward like a normal fireball, this one split into dozens of little sparking lights, which zipped through the air, racing down the corridor and up the stairs. They would wake the school, alerting everyone to the fact that we were under attack.
If the booms haven’t woken them already.
I skidded to a stop in the large entryway, breathing hard as another heavy explosion rattled the walls. Whatever Wesley had placed around the school to disable the shield from the inside, I didn’t think it was actually tearing down the stone walls themselves. But the force of the magical shield being disintegrated still rocked the whole building on its foundations.
“What the fuck is going on?”
Merrick’s voice, still a little rough from sleep, rose up behind me. I glanced over my shoulder to see him and Trace striding toward us, several other students trailing in their wake.
“Wesley,” I said grimly. “The fuckwad got through Ryker’s shield and set magical charges to disable it. Even now, after everything, he’s still working for the gods.”
“Piece of shit.” Trace bared his teeth, summoning the tiny blue glowing balls as he dropped into a fight stance.
“Yeah.” I turned back to face the door, my heart thudding wildly in my chest.
I wasn’t sure how Wesley had gotten so beat up—had he volunteered to let the gods do that to him so it would be easier for him to sneak inside the school? If so, he was even more psychotic than I thought.
A heavy thud against the door made someone behind me yelp, and I felt all three of the men gathered at my back tense.
Fuck. This is it. The end.
We’d known this day was coming. We’d spent the past two weeks preparing for it, doing everything we could to be ready. But I still wasn’t. How could a person ever be ready for something like this? It was the kind of thing most people wouldn’t even dream of having to face in their entire lifetime.
I wanted more time. Time to have a moment with my men—to tell them everything, to make sure they knew how I felt about them, how much they had changed my life.
But we don’t always get what we want.
Before I could even look over my shoulder at them one more time, the large doors of the front entrance exploded inward. Several gods poured through, and even as adrenaline spiked in my veins, I noticed that this time, Omari was right at the front.
In the Gods’ Challenge, he’d sent his underlings to do his dirty work. But not this time.
Now he was pissed.
Now it was personal.
As if to drive that point home, his gaze landed on me, and a cruel smile tilted his lips. His long white hair streamed behind him as he strode forward, lifting his hand and hurling a blast of pure white fire at me.
My men and I dove out of the way, each of us unleashing magic of our own as we did. Screams erupted behind me as his fireball crashed into the stone wall, sending particles of rock and dust flying.
Magic whorled in the air, bright colors of all kinds clashing and spiraling around each other as the gods attacked and we defended. My magic combined with my men’s, and the four of us created a shield wall that the other students could hide behind.
But we couldn’t last in here.
Another powerful blast of godly magic smashed against the wall at the back of the entry room, blowing clear through the stone, and the building shook around us. If we stayed inside, there was a good chance we’d end up getting buried in a pile of stone rubble. Fighting on the campus grounds would give us less cover, but it would also give the gods fewer places to trap us.
“Retreat!” I bellowed, pouring more magic into the shield as Omari growled and raised his hands again.
The students behind me didn’t need to be told twice. More had arrived, summoned by the sound of the fight, and there wasn’t enough room to maneuver in here without risking blowing a hole in your friend while trying to take out a god.
People began to rush back through the hallways of the school, and I glanced over my shoulder as the crowd of students behind me began to thin out. “We can’t hold them for long. Go, go!”
I caught sight of Eden’s terrified face as she helped another second-year girl dart down the hallway. Blood streamed down the side of the girl’s face, and dust coated her hair. She must’ve been close to the blast where the wall had exploded.
/> Fuck. We need to get out of here.
Hiding out in the massive school building had saved our asses while it was protected by a shield. But now, it was turning into a death trap.
As the students poured down the hallway behind me, the men and I began to back up, still holding our hands outstretched, twining our magic together to create a wall. We’d spent more hours than I could count over the past week practicing this, figuring out how to combine our power to the best effect.
Mine was strong, but it wasn’t as strong as the gods’. When the men’s magic bolstered it though, it was powerful enough to combat godly magic for a little while, at least.
Another blast of magic ricocheted off our shield, veering toward the ceiling instead and making massive chunks of stone rain down. Merrick wrapped an arm around me, pulling me out of the way of a falling rock, and my heart stuttered in my chest.
Shit. I was usually highly attuned to my surroundings, with quick reflexes developed over years of fighting. But the level of concentration it was taking to maintain the shield against the full assault of the gods made it hard to focus on anything else.
“Cut them off!” Omari screamed, gesturing to the gods around him and pointing to the escaping students. Several of the gods slipped back out the door, and adrenaline surged inside me.
“We need to get outside,” I muttered to the men, never taking my gaze off the white-haired god. “We need to help the others.”
“We need to not get dead,” Trace shot back grimly, grunting as a massive blast rocked our shield.
Fear gripped my chest as I wondered what was happening outside the school. The other students had been training hard, and I’d seen several of the professors who had sided with us slipping out with them. Surely they were better prepared to face vengeful gods than they had been during the challenge, right?
If we can just keep Omari occupied long enough, I thought desperately, they can fight the other gods off. But we need to take care of this fucker.
We were the only ones who stood a chance.
I was the only one who stood a chance.
No matter how powerful the other students and my men were, none of them held the power of the gods at their fingertips.
“Motherfucker. Aria, look out!”
Merrick’s yell made my head snap up, and cold fear washed through me. A new kind of magic was pouring from Omari’s hands, something that looked almost like a dark blue smoke. As I watched, the tendrils of it billowed up to the broad shield the men and I had created—then the smoke began to spread, creeping around the edges of the shield and drifting quickly toward us.
“Shit!”
I didn’t know what the smoke would do when it reached us, but given the power I could feel radiating from it, I didn’t care to find out. Dropping the shield entirely, I used my magic to create two long ropes, spinning them in front of me so fast that my dark hair floated around my head as if from a strong wind.
The ropes caught the smoke, pushing it away and dispersing it. But before it was even entirely gone, Omari was already summoning more magic. Most of the gods with him had gone outside to fight the others, and it occurred to me suddenly that my men and I were the only ones left to hold off the leader and his top cronies.
Super. If this is one of the “perks” of being a demigod, I want my money back.
Shoving away the thought, I yelled, “Cover me!”
All three of the men around me unleashed massive bursts of magic toward the gods. Trace’s little blue orbs swarmed a redheaded god’s face, making her shriek in dismay. In the chaos and confusion, I sprinted forward, simultaneously performing two spells at once.
With one hand, I sent out a burst of magic toward the floor in front of me, and with the other, I gathered all my power into a blade that protruded from my fist. During my training with the guys, I had realized that the closer I kept the magic to my core, to my center, the stronger I was able to make it. Whips or blasts of magic that I threw across the room could be powerful, but they would never match the strength of the magic that was an extension of myself.
And I needed all the extra strength I could get right now.
As I raced toward Omari, I pushed off hard with my back foot, leaping onto the ball of magic that I’d thrown at the floor. The thing worked like a springboard, launching me into the air, and I hurtled toward Omari, my fist raised and magic sparking along the magical blade that protruded from between my knuckles.
Omari’s eyes widened, and for the second time in my life, I saw a flash of fear cross over his face. Then he ducked to the side, moving with lightning speed.
He wasn’t quite fast enough.
My magic blade caught his arm, slicing cleanly across his bicep as I flew through the air. He hissed in pain, and I hit the ground hard a second later, rolling to absorb some of the momentum from my fall. By the time I scrambled to my feet and wheeled around, Omari was storming toward me.
Lachlan sent a blast of magic toward the god’s back, but Omari batted it away like it was nothing. Then the other god attacking Lach redoubled his efforts, forcing the Irishman to focus on him or be killed.
Omari thrust out a hand, sending more of the blue smoke toward me, and I threw myself away from the creeping tendrils.
I was too slow though. One tendril of smoke brushed against my face, seeping up my nostril. It felt like someone had poured flame directly into the inside of my skull, and I screamed in agony as the poisonous smoke continued to invade my body.
Then there was a loud crash, and suddenly, it stopped.
The burning pain in my head died as the smoke evaporated, and I coughed and choked, blinking watery eyes open to look up as a deep voice called across the destroyed entry room.
“Omari! End this. Now!”
Chapter Twenty-Three
Ryker.
The god who had declared himself to be my father strode across the debris strewn room, looking more powerful and imposing than I had ever seen him in his rage.
For a terrified moment, I thought he was ordering Omari to end me, to bring a stop to the fighting by killing me. But then the dark-haired god’s gaze slid from his rival to me, and the expression I saw on his face made a dozen undefinable emotions crash through me.
He was worried.
Afraid for me.
And furious at the god who had attacked me.
“This ends now, old man!” Ryker shouted, his voice so loud and booming that I swore it rattled the stone walls almost as much as the blasts of magic had.
Omari laughed, the sound wild and angry. Some of his aura of kingliness had faded during our fight, and now he just looked like a madman, his white hair streaming around his shoulders.
“Yes,” he drawled, his voice taunting. “It does end now. It should’ve ended long ago, but I was too lenient with you. I should’ve put an end to you when you first began speaking out against me, turning the other gods against me. Plotting against me.”
“It should’ve ended when you began to go mad, you old fool,” Ryker shot back. His gaze flicked to me and then toward the large double doors of the entrance as he stalked toward Omari.
My heart sped up.
Holy shit.
He’s giving me a chance to escape. Buying me a way out from under Omari’s thumb, taking on the god by himself.
I barely knew Ryker, and I didn’t know him at all as a father. Maybe it was stupid of me to trust him, but at the moment, I didn’t really have a choice. As he lunged toward Omari, I darted out of the way, and the two gods met in a fiery clash of magic and strength.
“Fucking hell!” Trace blurted, ducking a stray blast of green light as he and Lachlan held off the redheaded god. His gaze darted over to Omari and Ryker, his eyes wide and amazed.
Ryker had his arms wrapped around Omari in a gesture that I might’ve mistaken for a hug if I hadn’t been so familiar with boxing. As I watched, he shoved the other god back, using a combination of physical strength and magic. Omari slammed into the wall, an
d several more large chunks of stone fell from the ceiling.
I almost crowed in delight at the sight of Omari’s eyes bulging, his mouth dropping open in a low grunt as Ryker slammed him into the wall again. This time, the wall crumbled, a massive hole appearing in it, and Ryker hauled Omari back, hurling him to the floor.
The redheaded god threw spears of pale blue energy at the men and me, and I managed to slice one in half with the magical blade that still extended from my fist. Across the room, Merrick was holding off another god as the tall, lanky deity tried to yank him off his feet with ropes of magic.
Lachlan managed to get a solid blow in against the god with flaming red hair, sending her flying with a short burst of three magical blasts that hit her like cannon balls. She flew backward, leaving a massive indentation in another wall.
Beneath my feet, the entire building shook and groaned, and a spike of fear pierced my stomach as I glanced around at the damage.
How much more can it sustain before the entire place comes down?
The people we’d put in the holding cells were still trapped inside, and although maybe I shouldn’t particularly care if they died, the thought of them being crushed to death like bugs made my stomach roil. And what about the fighters outside? If the building came down, were they far enough away to be safe from it, or would they still bear the brunt of falling rocks?
Ryker pulled his fist back to strike Omari just as I hurled a net of magic at the redheaded god. It wrapped around her and stuck to the wall behind her, pinning her in place momentarily like a fly in a net.
As she struggled, I saw Omari reach up to block Ryker’s blow.
And as the two of them touched, something happened. Purple light exploded from the point of contact, spreading like lightning and wrapping itself around Ryker, coating him like a second skin. His eyes widened for a split second, and his mouth fell open. And then his whole body slowed to a stop, hanging frozen in mid-action as whatever Omari had unleashed on him solidified like an iron casing.
Oh fuck.