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Paxton had lost interest in making me kneel, but I still refrained from wiping the beads of sweat off my nose. My palms were also soaked in cold sweat after my efforts to resist his bullying power.
Axel stopped laughing after he spotted his priest’s bewildered look.
“Don’t mind me, good Theodore,” the Demigod of War waved a hand. “Proceed and get them initiated according to the list of the names I gave you.”
My heart rammed into my ribcage. Would he make me go first?
Theodore nodded dutifully. “As you wish, Demigod Axel.” He surveyed us without interest and asked routinely, “Any questions?”
My eyes immediately brightened. This was my last chance.
I threw up two hands and shouted, “I have a question!” just in case he didn’t see my hands.
Theodore looked surprised and not even a little bit pleased.
No one had ever asked him a question before? They couldn’t just go along with whatever he said, right? What about free thinking?
And it was life and death in this ritual!
“Yes?” he asked in a clipped tone, and I forgave his baleful expression.
“I’m curious,” I said. “How do you detect who has a god’s DNA in them? Don’t you want to perform a blood test first so you’ll have a higher success rate getting the type of soldiers you want? Also so you won’t drag a human into this mess and get him or her killed because he or she is just a human?”
“We don’t drag humans into this sacred temple,” Theodore said sternly. “A blood test, however, can’t detect a god’s genes in a candidate. We have our own method of locating prospective Dominion soldiers, which isn’t your concern or for your ear. Now if you’re done, be quiet and wait for your turn,initiate.” His tone said I was done.
But I wasn’t. Cameron had mentioned that they’d used a psychic ball to search for supernaturals. But the magic device had only found Jasper and Circe.
“Your psychic ball didn’t see me,” I said. “I’m not even on the chart of Dominion prospects. Demigod Axel brought me here by mistake. I think we should probably correct that before the ritual starts. There’s no need to get messy.”
The entire hall hushed to a complete silence. No one, to my knowledge, had ever accused a demigod of making a mistake, but this was my only chance to get the hell out of here.
It was now or never.
It wasn’t simply the terror of death that made me fight either. Every fiber in me rebelled against the idea of having any outside force, like that ritual dagger, touch me or test me, as if I had a built-in failsafe and it screamed for me to run and never return.
Reflecting on it, I wondered if Vi might have known something about me. Maybe that was why she’d drilled it into my head to stay far away from any demon’s or demigod’s path at all costs.
I’d holed up in Crack until today, until both a demon and a demigod had shown up, and then shit just blew up.
I heard nasty growls. They were probably from Axel.
I avoided looking at him but gazed at the sky demigod hopefully. Among the three of them, he seemed the most sensible. He’d opened his eyes and learned forward on his throne to listen to me.
“I’m one hundred percent human,” I hurried on. “I don’t have an ounce of divine blood in me, not even remotely. Please dismiss me. If you want, you can send me to the Other Academy. I won’t tell a soul about any of this. I swear. And as you can see, I haven’t seen anything yet.”
“Why did you bring a human into this, Axel?” Paxton turned his violet gaze on the war demigod with great displeasure. “You know the Half-Blood Academy isn’t for humans. You’ve gone too far this time.”
Zak swept his gaze from me to Axel, lightning flashing inside his blue eyes.
“Care to explain?” the sky demigod asked.
Axel rolled his eyes. “That little minx is devious. She’s been hiding what she is from us for twenty years. I intend to find out who she really is. Only the Ritual of the Blood Runes will reveal her deepest secrets to us.”
“I have no secrets,” I shouted. “I am what you see. I’m a plain human and a nobody. Revered other demigods, I must appeal to you. Demigod Axel has a personal grudge against me because I refused to kneel in front of him. He brought me here to punish me severely. He wants to humiliate me before murdering me.”
“That’s a serious accusation against a demigod, initiate!” Theodore cut in, his silver eyes burning with fury. “No mortal has ever made such a claim. You’ll be lucky to be struck to death by lightning when the judgment is over!”
He looked like he was about to throw a bolt of lightning at me or thrust the flaming dagger into my chest. I retreated half a step, darting my gaze around to see if I could find a weapon to fend for myself if a fight broke out.
