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Chapter One
“Yeah, I got here okay.” I ran a hand through my dark hair, cradling my cell phone between my shoulder and my ear. “The portal was brutal as usual. I’m just happy to be back in Boston for the break. I needed to get out of Magic Blessed Academy for a while. Breathe a little.”
“That sounds exciting!” Eden chirped, and I bit back an amused grin. Everything sounded exciting to the perky blonde girl.
Sometimes I couldn’t believe the two of us had actually become friends. But then again, a lot had changed in my life over the past few months.
I looked around the short-term rental place that I had managed to pick up in Southie for the winter break. We had two weeks off from classes, and amazingly, the school admins actually allowed us to leave campus. A lot of people had families to go back to, and even though I didn’t, I’d taken the opportunity to go back home.
Of course, I hadn’t fought a match in the underground ring in months, and while I didn’t have much need of money at Magic Blessed—room and board were provided by the school—I was low on funds when it came to surviving in the real world.
So this place was all I’d been able to afford.
It was… interesting. I was pretty sure one of the stains on the floor was blood, and I half expected to find chalk outlines on the floor. But it was cheap, and I needed cheap. I couldn’t work or fight while I was going to school, not that I could fight out of school anymore either. Nonetheless, I had to make my money stretch.
“So you’re glad you went home?” Eden pressed. “I knew you’d have a good time!”
“Yeah, it’s a real party over here.” I laughed. “But I gotta get unpacked. I want to feel like I’m not destined to head back to that school when the break is over. I just want to feel like I’m living a normal life for a little while.”
“Yeah. I get that,” she said with pep. “Call me this week. My family is going to swamp me with a million questions about the academy. I love them, but I’m gonna need an excuse to take a break.”
I smiled. “You got it. You can always send me an emergency text if you need me to intercept or intercede.”
“Got it,” she replied. “Talk to you soon. Bye.”
“Bye!”
The word came out with far too much enthusiasm, but when I talked to Eden, sometimes her unrelenting excitement just wore off on me.
I took in a deep breath and let it out hard, staring at the place I was going to be sleeping over the break. I missed my old place, even though I’d had multiple roommates—of the tiny, furry, bald-tailed variety—but at least I’d known that place. It’d been familiar. It’d been mine.
I hadn’t wanted to let it go, but there’d been no point in me paying rent on a place in Boston when I was living in… well, wherever the Magic Blessed campus was hidden. I honestly didn’t even know what country it was in, since I traveled to and from the place via a portal that was attuned specifically to me. The campus itself was in a remote spot, and we weren’t allowed to leave during the semester, so I’d never gotten to see any of the surrounding area.
I shook my head, brushing away thoughts of the academy. After what I’d overheard at the end of the semester, it’d been pretty much all I had been thinking about lately, and I needed a fucking break. For the moment, I was home, exactly where I wanted to be. I thought about Boston all the time, and I craved being here, especially after the Gods’ Challenge.
Grabbing my bag, I walked over to the small dresser and began to unpack. As I did, my mind wandered to the other subject I hadn’t been able to stop thinking about: the three men I’d started developing feelings for. The three men who had begun the semester as my worst adversaries and ended it as the only three people I trusted implicitly.
Like I said, a lot had changed.
They’d all split from the academy for the winter break too, so I wouldn’t see them until school started back up again.
It was the only reason I was looking forward to going back. If it hadn’t been for them, and my determination to figure out what the fuck was going on at that place, I would’ve considered not returning to school at all—although I was sure they’d just send Oberon and his team to collect me again, and that it wouldn’t be pleasant.
But it wasn’t in my nature to run anyway. Something fucked up was going on at Magic Blessed, and I wasn’t gonna just let it slide. I was going to figure out why the hell they organized a competition that was intended to kill students. And if the only way to get answers was to go through the Gods’ Challenge again, well then, fuck it.
I survived once. I can survive again.
But you barely survived, a little voice in my head whispered. Are you willing to risk the guys like that? To let them charge into danger for you again?
That was the only part of my plan that gave me pause. It was one thing to risk my own life for answers, and something I was more than willing to do. But I hated the idea of putting Merrick, Lachlan, or Trace in peril. And that, more than anything, showed me the depths of the feelings I was starting to develop for them.
