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Some of the Russo Protégés succumb to sniggers, which seem to make the Hatt irate. “No,” she spits, flicking her long hair over her shoulder. “I meant what I asked. What are your credentials? If you need further elaboration, what I really want to know is why I should let you teach me.”
Ana nods like the questions are more than reasonable, and her smile is still firmly in place. “Well, those are good questions.” She walks around the desk, leaning against it with her arms hanging at her sides. “I can assure you I’ve studied under the finest expert this world has to offer. I studied Greek mythology in Greece, Norse mythology in Denmark, Sweden, and Norway—I even took a semester in Iceland and Finland. So I don’t believe there’s anything in my education that discredits me.”
“That means nothing,” another Hatt Protégé speaks up. “You still haven’t explained why we should allow you to teach us.” The guy quickly ducks when Mordred, one of the Hatt Heirs, throws some balled up paper at his head.
“I think the better question is, why should I allow you into my classroom?” Ana says, still smiling as wide as before the Hatt Protégés began challenging her. “Taking mythology means accepting untraditional and archaic viewpoints. It means looking at a time that’s long gone, lost in the midst of time. I should think it goes without saying, but maybe I should mention that things that can’t be proven or have an impressive record doesn’t mean it’s less. So now that we’ve gotten that out of the way, I’ll be reading out the names of those who are allowed to stay.”
Like when Kai kicked people out, people begin to murmur.
“Now, if I don’t call your name, you must leave quickly. If you don’t… well, let’s just say I don’t have patience for dawdlers.”
I feel Liam shaking with barely contained laughter next to me, and I make a point of not looking at him. If I do, I won’t be able to keep a straight face, and I really don’t want to be kicked out of this class.
Instead, I focus on Ana Lov as she begins calling names. Amongst them I hear Lupa and Mordred, but not Flavio or Isolde—the other Hatt and Russo Heirs. Well, shit. I bet their Leaders won’t be happy about that, not at all.
Like her predecessor, Ana Lov removes students from her class almost daily. Unlike Kai, who made a spectacle about it, probably enjoying the power, she doesn’t acknowledge or allow any sort of reaction, definitely not a tantrum.
If people refuse to leave, she calls security, and the one time a Hatt threatened to get Arthur involved, she raised a perfectly styled eyebrow and coldly said,“If you think your Leader holds more sway than me, you don’t know your history as well as you should, Joe.”His name was Ron, but there was something in her tone that made it so no one wanted to correct her, including the guy in question.
“I still can’t find anything,” I whine as I shut down my laptop to focus on the delicious salmon steak and baked potato in front of me.
It’s only the fourth day of school, and every day I’m trying to find out why there’s something familiar about the new mythology professor. So far I’ve exhausted Google, which is useless. All it does is ask if I meant Avalon.
Liam snatches my laptop from the table and quickly hands it to Gus when I ask for it back. “Nope. You need to eat and we only have twenty minutes left,” he says, sounding like he’s repeating himself. Maybe he is, it’s not like I’m the greatest listener while in research mode.
“Why don’t you just ask Kai?” Gus asks, lowering his voice so no one else around us overhears.
I take a sip of my sparkling water to wash the fish down before answering. “I already did. He didn’t seem to think I’d met her before.”
“So why isn’t he helping figure it out?” Liam interjects.
Gus laughs. “It’s a bit fucking hard to figure out whether they’ve ever met, isn’t it? They could have crossed paths anywhere.”
Liam shakes his head and pinches the bridge of his nose. “Could they, though? Because with the way everyone is hidden and doing their fucking family training, there aren’t a lot of opportunities to meet strangers.”
“There are plenty,” I say. “All the balls and functions. She could have been at one of those.”
Liam mumbles something about how unfair it is that we never know anything about the other people in the Society.
“You’re right,” I sigh. “It isn’t fair. But take a look around, Liam. What part of this is fair? The Hatts and Russos had to fight for spots that were handed to myself and Gus. We’re the most spoiled people here because we haven’t had to literally fight for our lives for the right to be part of… well, you know.”
Despite no one being close enough to hear our murmured conversation, and that everyone here knows about the Kronos Society, I don’t want to risk saying something I shouldn’t. The secret is no longer that we’re part of the Society, that’s common knowledge on these grounds. It’s the part that said Society acts as a council to the Ruler that’s a secret, one I’m not going to spill.
Liam looks downright disgusted at my words. “True. You only had to shed blood in a deadly maze to earn the right to be here,” he scoffs.
“It’s not like that, man, and you know it,” Gus adds.
“No? What’s it like then?” Liam shoots back.
Since our lunch break is almost over, I focus on eating the remainder of my food. Well, not the salmon. The smell causes my stomach to churn, and I quickly push it onto Liam’s plate, ignoring his raised eyebrow.
Satisfied that I’m now eating, Gus explains. “The trials we had were set by our family. Sure, it was to get here, but as far as we know, Kronos Society had nothing to do with it. While I don’t know the specifics, I’m sure every family has fucked up trials in store to train their Protégés—”
“Shh,” I hiss as Gus’ voice almost rises to normal volume.
Gus nods and pitches his voice low again, barely above a whisper. “That’s all we had to endure, though. The Hatts and Russos also had to hold their trials for the Heirs, and I shouldn’t have to remind you of the casualties that came with.”
I don’t know if this will ever make sense to Liam. He wasn’t born into this, so he wasn’t taught these values while growing up. Sometimes I think that gives him a healthier and more reliable point of view. He can take things at face value without being restricted by manipulative thoughts.
