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Eden, in an amazing show of sass, shrugged her narrow shoulders. “What are they gonna do, kick us out? It’s kind of a requirement that we get through this.”
I gave her a forced smile, but in the back of my mind, I couldn’t help but think that they could do much worse than kick us out. The treachery and darkness of this place ran so deep that I couldn’t help but wonder if the “school” part of it was even important at all. There was another reason we were all here—I was sure of it.
“Damn. What’s with all the poison darts being thrown at you?” Eden whispered as we made our way down the corridor toward Wist’s classroom.
“Oh.” I grimaced. “That.”
It’d been getting worse and worse over the past week. More students than just Wesley were shooting me unhappy glares as I walked past, and whispered voices seemed to trail in my wake, people putting their heads together and talking in voices too low for me to hear. It was annoying as fuck, but I kept my chin up stubbornly and ignored it.
“Who knows,” I went on. “It’s raining, and I blame that for everything. Plus, I seem to rub a lot of people the wrong way, so it’s not surprising.”
The look Eden shot me told me I hadn’t alleviated her concern about this either, but she didn’t press the issue.
Wist’s class seemed to fly by, and I pointedly ignored Wesley’s burning looks. We still needed to finish our fight, but I wasn’t gonna do it in front of one of the few professors at school I actually respected.
After class, Eden gave me a hurried wave and headed out toward her next class. I had a free period, so I grabbed my books and headed for the library, wanting to do some more research on the history of magic. After my altercation with Professor Twine, I’d learned that asking anyone here was a bad choice. The library was disgracefully small, and I hadn’t been able to find any useful books there yet. But I was convinced that something worthwhile must be hidden in the stacks.
The hallways were relatively quiet, and I held my books close to my chest as I walked through the halls.
Rounding a corner, I slowed my pace as I heard my name whispered just a few feet away from me—voices coming from a small alcove in the hallway up ahead. I backed up quickly, hiding out of sight as I craned my neck to listen.
“There are a lot of us involved in this, you don’t have to be worried.”
“I don’t want you to think I’m scared of Aria, because I’m not,” another voice whispered. Oh, fuck. That’s Wesley. “I just think it’s dangerous to let her do the challenge again. Someone has to stop them.”
A female voice piped in. “Exactly. Someone has to stop them. And no matter how powerful she or her little harem are, we’ll have power in numbers. We’ve got a whole group that’s committed to sabotaging Aria and her men. They can’t win the preliminary competition. It’s fucking unacceptable that she and three men teamed up.”
The first speaker agreed. “I don’t know what they were thinking. These competitions have been going on for years, and no one’s ever done that in previous challenges. Each person competes against the others, individually. It’s not meant to be a team effort.”
Wesley snorted. “Exactly. I mean, joining forces isn’t against the rules, but I think it should be. At least there are enough people who feel the same way as us. We’ll stop them before they even make it to the Gods’ Challenge. Then the competition for the real prize can be among people who will do it right. Who won’t fucking cheat.”
“I agree,” the girl said. “So we’re working on the plan right now, and we’ll be ready for the preliminary competition.” She giggled softly. “Honestly, it shouldn’t be that hard to drive a wedge between them. Seriously, she thinks she can keep three m
en on the hook like that? It’s a disaster waiting to happen. We’ll just make sure it happens.”
I stood there and listened, trying to gather as many details of what they were planning as I possibly could, but it was hard to hear over the rushing in my ears.
My hands clenched into fists so tight that my nails dug into my palms. I wanted to storm around the corner, yank them out of the nook, and beat them senseless. I was fucking fuming.
Why would anybody try to sabotage us? We were the ones who were trying to help everyone else. These idiots had no idea that the school was trying to hurt them, and we were trying to save them. Instead, they were mad at us because their feelings were hurt because we did something no one else had done? Because we actually helped each other instead of turning on each other?
How childish and juvenile is that? Is this what happens when you take grown adults and put them back into school? They regress?
I listened for as long as I could—long enough to get a solid sense of what they had planned.
When the sound of other people heading down the hallway met my ears, I moved quickly, veering away down the hall in the opposite direction from the students I’d been eavesdropping on. Instead of going to the library, I headed straight for the guys. They had a free period too, so I was almost certain I’d find them studying in the common room.
Sure enough, Lachlan and Trace were sitting in the center of the room. “Where’s Merrick?”
“His dorm room, I think.” Lachlan closed his textbook and stretched, making the thick muscles of his biceps flex and shift. He cocked his head at me. “What’s goin’ on, Ari?”
I shook my head, anger ratcheting up inside me again. “Come on, I have to talk to you guys about something. It’s important.”
The two slowly got up and followed me to Merrick’s room. I knocked, and a second later, the blond man opened the door. He looked like he’d been sleeping, and I suddenly wondered how much of my tossing and turning last night he’d been privy to. Had I kept him awake? Fuck.
His sleepy gaze sharpened as he regarded us, his brows pinching together. “I thought you two were studying,” he told the other two men. Then his gaze shifted to me. “What’s up?”
I pushed into his room, shaking my head. “Are you alone?”
