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The gods had been speaking freely right in front of me, about to reveal their secrets—and I’d been dragged back to earth. Now I was left battered, bruised, closely watched, and with no new information.
Shoving down my frustration, I turned to Eden. “Anything new and exciting happen while we were gone?”
The perky blonde girl scrunched up her nose. “No, not really. There was about a week after you guys disappeared when we didn’t see the dean, but then she showed back up as if she’d never been gone. I think she has some weird mage boyfriend she keeps hidden.”
I pretended to barf and shook my head. “That’s gross.”
She giggled, the sound light and airy, and despite my anger and frustration, it lifted my spirits a little. Information or not, I had to admit it felt good to be back, to be alive.
But I could never forget that there were many who would never laugh again, who hadn’t made it back from the challenges. Their absence made what I was doing seem all the more important.
The memorial wall in our school was no longer enough to find solace in their deaths.
Chapter Twenty-One
All the contestants who’d made it back from the godly realm resumed classes the next day.
I remembered what it’d been like the last time, trying to catch up with everything that I had missed. This time it seemed almost harder. I should’ve been playing catch-up, studying, working on my magic, but I couldn’t fucking focus. I was wrapped up in the questions that continued to swirl through my mind. I had thought going to the godly realm would give me answers, but all it’d done was build new puzzles for me to pick apart in my head.
Not only did the gods seem to want some of us magic users dead, there was dissension among them, a power struggle between two would-be leaders. And the gods themselves were facing some kind of threat.
I had no idea what that might be though, and I found it hard to dredge up much sympathy for them. Not when they wanted more of my classmates dead.
A week after our return, my head still hadn’t stopped spinning. I made excuses to Eden and left lunch early. I wasn’t hungry, and I couldn’t bear to sit still, so I went for a walk around the school.
Merrick must’ve been having the same problem, because we ran into each other in one of the barely used hallways on the third floor.
“Shouldn’t you be at lunch?” I cocked an eyebrow.
He chuckled, his hands in his pockets as one corner of his lips curved up. “I could ask you the same thing.”
Turning, I leaned my back against the wall. “Touché. Ugh, my head is just so fucked up about all of this.”
He nodded. “Yeah. Same.”
“I feel like I’m going crazy, and I’m suspicious as hell about almost everything going on at the school.” I kept my voice low, but my words felt like a shout anyway. “I think I’m driving myself crazy. I can’t figure out what the gods’ motivation is for giving new humans magic. Especially when they then try to kill half of us off. And the school? What are the admins’ plans? What’s their role in all of this? Are they being forced to do what they’re doing, or are they the ones behind this? Everything is so unclear. It makes me think that nothing in these walls is actually meant to help us at all. Like we’re fucking flies trapped in a spiderweb.”
Merrick let out a long sigh. “Yeah, that sounds about right. Since we don’t have any answers or concrete information about what’s going on, I’m questioning everything that the professors do and say. Sometimes I think I’m almost seeing things that aren’t there, just because I’m so suspicious of everyone.”
I rubbed my hands over my face and growled. “We were supposed to come back with answers, with a plan of action. But if we don’t know what the threat is, how can we fight it? I was right there, Merrick. And then I was fucking snatched away.”
He tugged my hand from my face and wrapped his around it, bringing it to his lips to kiss the back of it. It was a simple gesture, but it calmed some of the agitation raging through me.
“It fucking sucks, Ari. I won’t deny that. But there is a bright side. At least we made it back. We could’ve been stuck in the godly realm forever. When we crossed out of the challenge playing area, there was no real definitive answer as to whether we would be pulled back or not. And I don’t think it would’ve worked out well for us if we’d gotten stuck there.”
“Yeah.” I swallowed, hating that I’d brought my men into such a dangerous situation. “We’d probably be dead. I can’t imagine that the gods would look too kindly on us if they knew we were sneaking around their palace, spying on them and questioning their motives.”
A sound down the hallway made us both freeze, and I pushed away from the wall and glanced around, suddenly certain we weren’t alone. There was no other sound, and no one walked by, but a shiver ran up my spine. I looked over at Merrick, seeing the tension gathered in his shoulders.
“We need to meet tonight. You, me, Trace, and Lachlan. We need to talk. Figure out where to go from here.”
Merrick smiled, leaning forward and pressing a soft, warm kiss to my lips. “You got it. And if you need anything, you know where to find me.”
He moved to draw back, but I went with him, prolonging our kiss. I felt him smile against my lips, and his arms banded around my waist, his hands gripping me firmly as his tongue stroked mine. When we broke apart, we were both a little breathless, and for a moment, my mind was blessedly free of worry.
Gods, how do these three men do that to me?
“Thanks, Merrick,”
