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“Yeah, I heard that...” He shuffled on his feet. “Are you sure that you’re not a child of Ares too? I got my ass kicked for years for being a ‘powerless dog.’ One day, Eryx Mallas decided he wasn’t content with me and went after my little sister too.” Theron’s eyes glazed. “That was the first I felt it. I wanted to hurt him, Aella. I wanted him to feel pain like he never had before... and then he did.”
A deep, pressing silence spread through the room.
Shaking himself, Theron cleared his throat. “All I’m saying is, I thought I knew hatred, but it’s not despising olives or wishing your mother’s new husband would leave out the door he came in. It’s tapping into a dark, brutal side of you that not only hates a thing, but wants it to suffer like no one ever has. If you haven’t tapped into that side yet, there’s still a chance you’re a demigod. Even if you’re the child of the most reviled one.”
I plopped on the couch with Daciana. “I wish I could say I haven’t but... yes, I’ve felt that hatred,” I whispered. “No power followed.” I swept over my new friends. “How bad will it be for me if my story doesn’t end the same as the man on his first boat? Those four other non-demigods, what happened to them?”
“They lived short, difficult lives as little more than exiles,” Theron said. “People saw them as thieves that couldn’t give back to the home they were living off of. That’s why they passed a law sentencing them to hard labor—though they did nothing wrong.”
“It also stops people from pretending they don’t have power to get out of the army,” Tycho added. “The main point is it’ll get bad for you.”
“Tycho! Theron!” Nitsa hissed.
“What? I’m not going to lie to her.” Tycho leaned in, taking my hand. “Life will be hell for you, Aella, and you don’t deserve it. My advice is to pick a minor god and claim a power too nebulous to prove. Like the god of dedication or the god of opportunities. Say your power lets good opportunities find people, and the next time something good happens, they’ll think of you.”
“Basically, I’m to live as a fraud.” The sentence dropped dully from my lips.
“It’s better than living as a hard laborer and then an outcast until some prejudiced beast decides you shouldn’t live at all.”
“Tycho!” Nitsa shoved him out of the way. “Stop scaring her. You’renotgoing to live that way—as an outcast or a fraud. There is power in you, Aella. I know it. Give yourself a chance to find it.”
Getting to my feet, I gifted her a soft smile. “I will, Nitsa, thank you. I think I’m going to take a walk and clear my head.”
“Of course,” Daciana said. “We’ll explore when you get back.”
Ducking into my three-walled room, I pulled on my boots and overcoat. Nitsa was a sweet, kind soul. But she was also wrong.
I’ve been on land and sea. I’ve struggled to breathe on the thin mountain air and swam with the sea nymphs. I’ve loved, hated, danced, cried, and held in fascination with every new creature I met. If an animal was meant to speak to me, or if the tides were meant to calm beneath my feet, they would’ve done so by now.
I was not a demigod. Neither was my future to fake my way through the academy until the goddess sank her claws in me for good and brought the destruction of our world.OrI spent years toiling under hard labor. I would get out of here and find a way to stop what was done to me.
My soft-heeled boots padded across the marble. Just as when we came in, there wasn’t a single guard or sentry loitering about the halls. I passed through the atrium of the gods and out into the starlit night.
Tall grass tickled my shins down a trodden forest path. Seemed like students regularly came this way, so this part couldn’t be subject to the various spells and enchantments fashioned to keep us in. That’s all the welcome book had to say, “various spells and enchantments.”
I’ll let this path take me to the gates, then I’ll see what defenses there are to keep me on the right side of it.
I’d known true darkness earlier that day at the power of Alexis Andino. It made this torchless, moonlit path radiant in comparison.
Giggles sounded from the trees. The rustle of leaves followed me, getting closer as the nymphs trailed new prey. Any second now they—
A twig bounced off the back of my skull.Giggle. Giggle.An empty bird nest scratched my ear and landed at my feet. I stepped over it and kept going.
Young nymphs were more mischievous than their older counterparts. The forest was their territory and they reserved the right to harass anyone who crossed their path. In about a hundred years, they’d accept humans in their forest as a fact of life, and even grow fond of more than a few demigod men.
I wasn’t walking for long when I reached the gates. If I expected more fanfare, I was disappointed. Half a mile down the path it ended in a brush of overgrown bush, and then a few feet beyond, there sat the wrought iron tool of my imprisonment.
“Well,” I sighed. “I won’t get through by staring at it.”
Grasping the bars, I climbed the iron curlicues and immortal laurel leaves like rungs, and flung myself over. I hit the ground, disappearing into brush that tried to keep me—branches snagging my hair and clothes.
“Oh my gods, that’s it? I did it? I can’t believe...” Trailing off, I turned my head toward the giggling... and the path littered with twigs, stones, and nests they threw at me. I was right back where I started.
“Wow,” I said to my audience. “The children of Hecate have a real love affair with this spell, don’t they. I don’t get anywhere, but I do get to fall on my ass for the trouble.”
“Hee hee. Silly human.”
“Stupid girl.”
