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Without even bothering to raise my hand, I spoke again. By this point, I was trying to push Professor Twine’s buttons. I wanted to hear what else he had to say, what else he knew.
“It says here on page sixty-three,” I said, reading from my textbook. “‘The gods will decide using the great authority…’”
His arm flung back and shot a burst of magic toward me, slamming my book shut so hard it sounded like a gunshot.
Silence fell in the room, heavy and ominous.
Okay, okay, I get the message.
If I wanted to learn more about the subject, there were probably better ways than asking a professor. It was obvious from Twine’s reaction that it wasn’t something he wanted to talk about, and I had a feeling that not many would. Asking professors and going through official channels was only going to draw more attention that I didn’t want anyway. It would be better just to keep my head down and dig up the answers for myself, though I wasn’t exactly sure where I was going to find them.
After several moments of silence within the class, with my fellow students shifting their gaze uncomfortably between me and Twine—some looking curious and others irritated—the portly man turned and continued his lecture.
He didn’t look at me again for the rest of the class, nor did he accept me raising my hand to answer any questions. Every time he glanced toward me, his gaze darted away as if there would be some sort of punishment for even recognizing my existence.
What the fuck is his deal?
Whatever I had said had struck fear in him. I was pretty sure he would’ve kicked me out of the classroom if he could have. He wasn’t known for being the bravest of men, but I couldn’t figure out what he was afraid of.
Was he scared of me? Or of someone else?
I had asked my first question out of simple curiosity, and although Twine had never answered it, he had given me more information than he’d meant to.
He had shown me I was digging in the right spot.
Chapter Seven
“You could at least get the hell out of the way,” Wesley barked as he brushed past me in the hallway.
Ugh. Fucking dick.
I rolled my eyes, irritation prickling my skin. I hadn’t even been in the jackass’s way, but that was an unimportant detail to him. He definitely seemed to hate me even more than he had last semester.
We were almost four weeks into classes, and with the preliminary competition coming up soon, I had kept my head down, learning everything I could. Usually, I did my best to ignore Wesley, but I was so sick of his shit that I couldn’t help the annoyed scoff that fell from my lips as he strode away from me.
At the sound, he stopped charging down the hallway and turned back to me, his eyes narrowed. “Did you just scoff at me?”
Good gods. Who actually says shit like that?
My lips curled into a snarl as I dropped my bag from my shoulder. It hit the floor with a dull thud as I bent my knees in a fighter’s stance, my hands balling into fists as my chin tilted up slightly. It was the same posture I adopted in the ring when I was facing somebody who thought they were far better than they actually were.
“Yeah, dumbass,” I drawled. “You were being a total dick. So I would have to say that scoff was definitely directed at you. That scoff and about fifty others.”
Walking back toward me, he dropped his bag to the floor just like I had, and the students began to move to the sides. He stood just a foot away from me, his face turning more and more red with every breath.
He pushed his finger into my shoulder, and I heard several gasps around me. They were right to gasp. When people touched me without my permission, it never ended well for them.
“You think you’re better than everyone. Aria Fucking Banks. But you know what, little girl? You’re not shit. I know for sure you cheated somehow in the Gods’ Challenge last semester. You’re nothing but a piece of trash, some Boston nobody who for some reason was given the gift of magic. A gift you never deserved in the first place.”
I rolled my neck lightly, working the kinks out as I intertwined my fingers and stretched them out as well. Then I lowered my hands down by my sides and bounced a bit, rolling my shoulders.
“Okay, asshole. You think you know me so well. You think you know what it was like inside the Gods’ Challenge? You wouldn’t survive two seconds in there. So, I’ll give you a little bit of a handicap. Why don’t we see what you can do here on earth?” I let magic spark between my fingers, the thrill of a fight already surging through me. “I mean, this is child’s play for me, but I figure it’ll be more your speed.”
Wesley growled loudly, flinging a ball of magic straight at me. Without thought, I pulled my hands apart, bringing a shield of magic out in front of me. The swirling ball of energy slammed into it, pushing my feet back just a few inches. I moved my other hand sharply downward, creating a long, twisted whip of magic. I snapped it in the air, the sound reverberating through the hallway.
Red whirling energy swirled around Wesley’s knuckles. The magic sparked and hissed, but whatever spell he’d been about to cast seemed to have fizzled out. Probably because it was hard as fuck summoning and maintaining the concentration to do powerful spells in the adrenaline-fueled middle of a fight. I’d learned that the hard way in the godly realm, and I’d gotten a shit-ton of practice at it.
Wesley’s muscles tensed and released, and a trickle of sweat crept down the side of his forehead. Pulling my arm back, I whipped the magical rope at him again, letting it wrap around his wrist before yanking hard downward. It threw him off balance as magic simmered out of his hands, and a second later, his palms slapped against the ground.
