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We reached the vast squares where the Dominion soldiers patrolled the campus. Groups of senior students practiced archery and magic in the training field.
They all paused in their activities to stare at Paxton and me, mouths agape. I supposed a student being dragged and manhandled by a demigod was a novelty on the campus.
No one dared to come to my rescue. My best hope, Axel, was thousands of miles away.
Paxton didn’t even bother to glance around or acknowledge that everyone gawked at us.
Just great!
Now so many eyes had witnessed this. The whole Academy would soon know all about my humiliation. Demetra and her goons for sure were going to add salt to this wound.
I couldn’t even snap at the asshole and tell him that I didn’t like how everyone was watching him humiliate me. If I did, he’d exploit it.
No one loved public embarrassment. Not even me. So, I held my chin high, as if it were an honor to be dragged along by a demigod.
Finally we left the square behind and trekked down a corridor.
“Let me go, please, Demigod Paxton,” I said in a low voice. There was no heat in my tone.
He gave me a look. “That’s more like it.” And he let go of my elbow.
That was his sick idea of taming me. He must have thought that he’d gained the advantage. All I wanted was to send my boot to his nuts, but I had tried that and failed.
We entered a classroom that could host at least two hundred students, but only fifty were present. My gaze swept over the surviving initiates, including Jack, Demetra, and their minions.
My predictable foes sneered at me.
Yelena grimaced, and Nat looked at me with sympathy.
The middle-aged professor in a black robe and broad hat immediately stopped preaching and bowed to his waist to Paxton.
“Demigod Paxton,” he addressed. “It’s an honor to have you grace my classroom.”
“I brought you the student who tried to skip class, Fowler,” Paxton said, as if I’d committed a cardinal sin.
I refrained from rolling my eyes. For crying out loud, it was just a class.
As if he sensed I’d mentally rolled my eyes, Paxton snapped his attention back to me, and I put on an innocent look. I didn’t want him to go crazy right now in front of the entire class when I didn’t have a backup, like Axel, or even Zak.
After this morning, I’d realized that this loose cannon had no brakes whatsoever. He was even worse than me.
Fowler probably thought the same, for he gave me an annoyed look, not understanding why a demigod would have bothered with insignificant me.
“If a student misses class, we usually give her a notice and put it in her record,” Fowler said. “If she keeps up the offenses, we’ll expel her from the Academy. Next time, I’ll have a member from the Discipline Council serve her the notice. There’s absolutely no need to involve a demigod like you to handle such a small matter, sir.”
“Don’t ever tell me how things get done again, Fowler,” Paxton snarled. “Do you understand?”
As I’d said, a crazy on the loose.
Fowler paled, then stumbled back from the towering demigod.
“I apologize, sir,” he said. “I didn’t mean—”
“Professor Fowler meant that you’re using a cannon to shoot a mosquito,” I chimed in quickly and smirked at Paxton. I couldn’t give up the chance to ridicule him, despite my decision to stop getting on his bad side in public. “I think he’s spot on, though. There’s really no need to bother yourself with an unimportant first-year like me, Demigod Paxton, or sir. The Discipline Council can totally kick me out of the Academy after they serve me a few warnings.”
“You’re not getting out of the Academy under my watch,” Paxton said vehemently and viciously. “So give up already, Marigold, or I’ll make your life hell. Now wipe that disgusting, smartass smirk from your face. Your dinner rights today are also revoked.”
He swept his stern gaze across the class, and everyone shrank in their seats.
