Magic Trials (Half-Blood Academy #1)(23)

I was nowhere near as graceful as Demetra when I stepped onto the stool. Somehow my foot missed it, and I stumbled. But my hands caught the edge of the operating table.

A few snickers sounded from the clique.

Out of the twelve other initiates, five had perished, including a few members of their circle, and they didn’t even care?

No one seemed to give a fuck except me. I mourned and was angered at the meaningless waste.

Theodore moved toward me with the flaming dagger in his hand.

“You sure you really want to do this?” I whispered, pleading, hoping a slice of compassion would rise in him.

Theodore only glared as if he’d had enough of me.

“A deal is a deal, Marigold,” Axel said from his throne.

It was utterly pointless to argue with an asshole, especially a very powerful one.

I heard the sea demigod murmured something to Axel. “This girl tires me like no other. For centuries—since we started this ritual—we haven’t met anyone as annoying and disrespectful and mouthy as her. If it were up to me, I’d just get rid of her right here, right now. I don’t see why you’re so obsessed. But then you’re almost as young as she is.”

Ignoring Paxton’s snide comments, Axel rose from his throne and strode toward me, power trailing behind him like silver shadows.

Unlike the other two demigods, he wore a dress shirt, denim pants, and a fashionable trench coat. I tore my gaze from roving over his cut chest to his powerful legs. That might be the last sexy sight I’d see.

For a second there, he seemed just like any other hot guy a normal girl would love to go out with. For a second, I completely forgot where I was and that he was the Demigod of War.

Damn you, girl! I scolded myself. Death is waving at you, and you still ogle the demigod who brought you this grief?

I straightened my back, determined to go out with dignity.

It didn’t matter, though. I shouldn’t even bother with my posture. There was no dignity in death.

“Go on then,” I said to the priest. “Cut me if you must. Carve whatever runes you like on my skin. But I’d rather die standing than—”





CHAPTER 7




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Before I finished my sentence, Theodore’s dagger shot a stream of flame toward me, hotter than imaginary dragon fire.

“What the fuck are you doing?” I cried.

That wasn’t what happened with any of the other initiates. Theodore must be so pissed he intended to burn me instead of carving the runes on my skin with care and skill.

Instinctively, I threw up my hands to fend off the fire, even though it was a pathetic, futile gesture.

The flame socked into my chest so hard I flew backward and rammed into the operating table. The table flew up and smashed into a splendid chandelier high up on the ceiling. A sharp crash of steel hitting glass sounded throughout the temple.

Crystals and diamonds rained down, and the initiates beneath them ducked.

The table flew across the room at an odd angle. It must have hit a few soldiers, judging from the curses and groans of pain.

“What the fuck?” Axel roared in rage, zooming toward me.

“I didn’t do that!” Theodore shouted. “I haven’t touched the girl. The dagger acted on its own. This has never happened in millennia. Something doesn’t add up. It must be the girl. No one has ever dared to ask questions during the ritual. She talked too much.”

Fury burst through me that they were trying to make the whole thing my fault when I was the one who’d gotten hit.

Nervous whispers churned through the hall as everyone seemed to have something to say.

“The Ritual of the Blood Runes is to weed out the weak, the unworthy, and the unfit. It leaves only the strong to defend humanity,” Demetra said, probably to her clique or anyone who was willing to listen. “That’s the unbreakable tradition of the first ceremony in the Half-Blood Academy. I knew that rogue would be incinerated.”

“Shut up,” Yelena hissed. “If you still have a thread of humanity left.”

“How dare you rebuke me, you stupid cow?” Demetra asked.

“Don’t you call her a cow, you viper!” Nat said. “And you aren’t a quarter as you falsely claimed. You’re but one-eighth. That’s a huge difference.”

“Yet I’m still far more advanced than any of you,” Demetra retorted.

I no longer heard their quarrel or was even concerned about it since I had to put out the fire on my person.

I refused to go down without a fight.

All the demigods surrounded me in an instant.

I looked down at my chest, expecting a burning hole, but it wasn’t like that. The flame had turned out to be runes writing themselves on my skin in shifting colors—crimson first, then black, purple, blue, golden...

The runes didn’t limit themselves to the space between my left shoulder blade and the top of my left breast, where they were supposed to go. They crawled all over my torso. Crimson, golden, and black runes formed shapes and lines and disappeared, then moved in shapes again on my shoulders, arms, and breasts, like a whole freak show.

Axel looked so awed. I stared at him and then back to the crawling runes in horror.

He pulled my robe down from my shoulders without my permission, and I was too freaked out and too busy watching the runes to punch him in the jaw.