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Yelena, Nat, and I had all cheered that we didn’t have to share a bus with Demetra and her clique. We counted that as today’s first small victory and high-fived three times over it, to Héctor’s puzzlement. Demetra should consider herself lucky. If she’d insulted me in front of my Héctor, he’d toss her out the window while the bus was still moving.
Like it or not, the demigods were above the rules, and they could kill without remorse.
“After graduation, most of you will fight on the frontlines, and some of you will join me.” Cameron darted a meaningful glance at me. “Now there’s no separation between the Olympian descendants and the other supernaturals, so it’s time for you to start acting as one Dominion force and learn to work together.”
To show the lieutenant just that, Yelena, Nat, and I high-fived Clayton and his pack all around. Héctor watched me with amusement. As an ancient demigod, he didn’t mingle with anyone, but he indulged me on anything that I liked to do as long as it didn’t interfere with his security detail on me.
Our bus cut across Brooklyn as Cameron kept narrating, apparently loving the sound of his own deep, bass voice. According to him, we’d passed Bay Ridge and Brooklyn Heights and were headed toward Williamsburg now.
Brooklyn belonged to the demigods, yet it wasn’t blessed with peace. War must have hit here since a lot of neighborhoods we passed by were rundown, some streets abandoned.
I stayed alert. My hand pressed on my gun.
Every student was heavily armed. That was how we rolled as soon as we left the grounds of the Academy.
Guns were useless against demons and mages, but we could use them on humans who fought for the demons.
“Even in the age of the Great Merge,” Cameron narrated, “Brooklyn remains an ethnically mixed neighborhood, and its landscape is colorful and full of diversity.”
“Are you a tour guide or what, Cameron?” Héctor said. “Either get to the point or shut your mouth.”
The other Dominions snickered, and many students joined in. But at Cameron’s hard stare, the students dropped their laughter and looked to the ground.
I grinned at the lieutenant.
“Sorry, Demigod Héctor,” Cameron said. He was more afraid of the death demigod than the war demigod. “I’m about to get to the point.” He cleared his throat. “First-years, now’s the time for you to stop being useless and tell me exactly what you know about demons.”
A few girls shot their hands up. They sat in the front, so they’d all turned to face the back of the bus. Instead of looking at the lieutenant, their eyes were glued to Héctor. I could see how badly they wanted to replace me and sit with him. I growled.
“What’s the matter, lamb?” Héctor landed his fingers on my chin and turned my face to him.
He had no idea how appealing he was to females. When I had spent my first night in the dorm, all the girls had been talking about him all night. And that night, I’d had a wet dream about him, except that dream had been kind of real.
I snuggled closer to him, and he wrapped his arm around me.
“If there’s anything on your mind, you can always tell me,” he said softly.
I peered into his sapphire eyes, which held the depths of the galaxy. He was an ancient, powerful warrior with a god’s blood running in his veins. He’d been so lonely for an eon. He thought that he’d finally found his true mate, yet the one who nestled into him was a demon princess who pretended to be someone else.
Perhaps the death demigod isn’t all that innocent either, a dark voice chimed in my mind.
Perhaps. I tensed beside Héctor.
There were a lot of things about him I didn’t know. Paxton had told me that all of his demigod cousins had dark secrets and that the secret sin of my origin wasn’t any worse than theirs.
But what could be worse than being a demon?
Héctor’s eyes searched mine, full of understanding and adoration as if he was trying to tell me he wouldn’t change his feelings for me no matter what I was. He’d once confessed just that to his cousins while I pretended to be asleep, but then he hadn’t known I might be the lost demon princess.
Could I trust in such a thing as unconditional love?
There are many things on my mind, Héctor,I said in his head.
Yes, my lamb?He gazed at me with all the tenderness in the world as if he’d been looking forward to the day when I would be completely open with him.
That broke my heart again. I just couldn’t tell him.
Could you not call me “lamb” in public? I asked, swallowing hard.Could you call me “Icy Dagger”?
