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Chapter Seventeen
It took hours to bandage and heal all the injuries people had sustained during the Gods’ Challenge. Some people jerked back when I approached, obviously wary of being touched by someone who looked like an exact copy of the person who had kicked the shit out of them.
But more students had stepped forward to verify my story, and after we’d restrained a few more teachers who were clearly in league with Dean Frost and the others, the students who had seemed doubtful at first appeared to have landed solidly on our side.
Part of me cursed myself for keeping everything I’d learned about the school quiet for so long. Were the deaths of the people who hadn’t survived the challenge on my head? Would things have been different if I had told everyone the truth as soon as I’d learned it?
“It’s not your fault,” Merrick said quietly when I admitted my worries to him. “If you’d said something then, there’s a good chance no one would’ve believed you. Dean Frost could’ve dealt with you quietly and efficiently, and the truth would’ve died with you anyway. It’s awful, but I think for some of these people, the only way they would ever believe the gods might betray them is to see it with their own eyes.” He looked sadly at the stragglers who were still getting their wounds tended to. “And now they have.”
He was right, but that didn’t make me feel a whole lot better as I thought about the bodies that’d been carried down to the basement level. They would have to be given a proper burial after we were able to leave the castle safely—if that day ever came.
By the time everyone’s wounds had been treated, I was dead on my feet, so exhausted that it felt like my body was shaking.
After grabbing some food, the men and I all trooped upstairs, and without even speaking a word, all three of them followed me to my room. We showered, rinsing off the sand and sweat and blood that felt like it had been ground into our skin. And then we collapsed into bed together, too tired to do more than lie in a tangle of limbs with me at the center.
I slept like a rock, letting the comforting feeling of Lachlan’s hand on my hip and Trace’s breath on the back of my neck soothe me.
I was so exhausted I didn’t even dream, so I couldn’t explain why my eyes popped open at some point in the middle of the night, my body coming fully awake so fast it felt like I’d been pushed off a cliff.
For a second, I just blinked into the darkness, absorbing the feel of my men around me and listening to the quiet stillness of the room.
And then my heart stopped.
We weren’t alone.
There was a fifth person in the room, a presence I could feel near the doorway—powerful and solid.
I lifted my head, my heart slamming against my ribs, and craned my neck to peer toward the doorway.
Ryker stood just inside the door.
My body immediately went into defense mode, and I was about to leap from the bed and summon any spell I could when the dark-haired god lifted a finger to his lips. The gesture was so surprising that I froze momentarily.
Why haven’t the guys woken up? Did he do something to them? Put a spell on them?
Thank fuck I hadn’t slept naked tonight like I often did. I didn’t relish the idea of fighting a god with my tits bouncing all over the place.
“How did you get in here?” I asked, my voice low and intense. The men beside me still didn’t stir, and I was sure it had something to do with Ryker’s magic. “There’s a shield around the school. It’s strong. It’s—”
“I know.” He chuckled lightly, his lips spreadi
ng into an easy smile. “I built it. Of course it’s strong.”
My jaw dropped.
He built it?
He was the one who had protected us?
I had no idea why he would do that, and my recent experiences with gods had made me wary about trusting any of them. It suddenly occurred to me that the barrier around the castle could be meant to keep us in rather than to keep any threats out. Were Ryker and the other gods planning to starve us?
It seemed like a cruel and weirdly anticlimactic way for hugely powerful beings to vanquish their enemies, but I honestly wouldn’t put it past any of them.
I sat up, trying to ignore the way my men slept soundly beside me. It was creepy as fuck, the way none of them had been disturbed at all by Ryker’s arrival or my agitated movement in the bed. If I hadn’t been able to feel Trace’s chest rising and falling, I would’ve thought they were dead.
“So?” I asked challengingly, no longer bothering to keep my voice soft. “What do you want? Why did you come here?”
Ryker smiled again, as if my bad attitude actually pleased him. “Can we speak somewhere else?”
