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Fuck. He could follow me to this realm right now. He wouldn’t even need a portal to get here, he could just slide across the barrier between dimensions like it was nothing.
The thought propelled me into motion, and even though I felt like I was going to barf with each step I took, I staggered toward the door. Shuffling as fast as I could through the hallways, I looked down into the classrooms, but it seemed that enough time had passed that everyone was out of finals and in their dorm rooms.
The guys. I need to find the guys.
I turned the corner in the maze of hallways that led to the other side of the school where the dorms were. As I raced forward, almost at a run, one of the classroom doors flew open and Wesley strode out. I was so close that I rammed right into him, bouncing back and almost losing my footing. He furrowed his brow and dropped his bag on the floor.
“Watch where you’re going, bitch.” He chuckled. “I see you came back for more. I would’ve thought you’d bring your entourage with you since you can’t take me on your own.”
I didn’t have time for this. I had to get to the guys and tell them what I had just found out.
“Fuck off, you weaselly asshole,” I blurted. “I don’t have time for you. We can take care of this little issue some other time.”
As I moved to dart around him, he put out his hand and pushed me back. The hysteria bubbling up in my stomach morphed instantly into rage, and my eyes narrowed to slits, my breath catching in my throat. “No one touches me,” I hissed.
He chuckled, trailing his fingers up and over my shoulder in a mocking gesture. “Now, that’s a lie. From what I hear, you’re quite the whore.”
My body moved before my brain even gave the command. Magic filled my fist with power as I reared back and punched him as hard as I could in the face. I was fed up, and I had no time for his bullshit. He hit the floor like a sack of potatoes, and I stepped over his body the second it hit the ground, striding away and leaving him there.
I had to get to the guys.
If Ryker had seen me, he could already be contacting the school. In fact, I had no idea how much time had passed from the moment I fell from the pavilion back into the academy building. For all I knew, there could be a barrage of mages waiting to take me away. And if that was the case, I knew the first place they would go would be to find my men. The dean wasn’t stupid—she knew that we worked together, that we were a team. They would be the perfect focal point for her wrath.
The possibility that Dean Frost didn’t know what was going on, what the Gods’ Challenge was really meant for, didn’t even cross my mind.
I had seen her face. I had seen how she looked at the rest of us. There was no fucking way she didn’t know. She had to be the ringleader here at the school.
It didn’t matter though. I knew their secret now, and I wasn’t going to stand for it. Dozens of lives had been lost in the challenges, and all to thin the herd. Omari was powerful, and I was sure he had a lot of followers, but it seemed that Ryker was powerful too, which meant the white-haired god had at least one formidable enemy. Not everyone in the godly realm agreed with what Omari was doing.
I raced up the stairs and rounded the corner into the hallway of the dorms, making sure there were no mages standing by to attack me.
Everything was quiet.
Heart pounding, I went to Merrick’s room first and knocked on the door. Almost instantly, he ripped it open. I caught sight of all three men’s faces before Merrick grabbed me and hauled me into his arms, holding me so tightly that breathing became impossible.
When he drew back, his eyes were wild. “Ari! What the hell happened? Where have you been? We couldn’t find you, and we were afraid to ask around because we don’t know who the hell to trust here.”
I looked back and forth in the hallway, my chest rising and falling fast. “I can’t talk about it out here. We’ve got to go someplace private.”
The four of us ended up in a tall tower in the southwest corner of the building, an unused storage space that Trace had discovered. Every minute it took us to get there felt like an hour, and I could feel the men shooting me worried looks as we walked. As soon as we were safely inside, Trace wrapped his magic around the door, blocking our voices from any prying ears.
“Alright, lass. What the everlovin’ fuck is goin’ on?” Lach demanded, worry sparking in his green eyes.
I bit my bottom lip and took in a deep breath, trying to calm my nerves. I wanted everything I said to be clear and concise.
“After I left you guys before your last final, I went back to my room. But I never made it inside. Instead, I fell through a portal. All I kept thinking to myself when I walked away from you three was how I wished I could go back to the godly realm so I could find answers. When I went to walk through the doorway, I just kept going downward. My feet touched down and when I opened my eyes, I was back in the palace. I overheard Omari and Ryker having an argument.”
Lachlan’s mouth fell open. “Holy fuck.”
Merrick blinked. “Shit, Ari. How the hell…?”
Trace’s brows pulled together, a strange look passing over his face. I ignored it though, wanting to get out what I had to say.
“That’s not all. As they argued, I started to piece things together. The Gods’ Challenge is meant to kill off some of us. And the reason why they want us gone is because they didn’t give us this magic. They don’t know how humans are spontaneously developing power, but we’ve become a threat to the gods. At least some of them think so. Omari created the challenge to get rid of the strongest of us. The reason they did that instead of just killing us off outright is so they can keep the rest of the magical population appeased and in line. Omari wanted to get rid of us in secret so that they didn’t start a rebellion.”
Anger flashed across each of their faces, a reflection of the violent emotions that churned in my chest.
Merrick shook his head and put his hand out. “Wait. Then what does this Ryker god have to do with it? I thought he was against what Omari was doing.”
