Magic Trials (Half-Blood Academy #1)(27)

He demanded to kiss me. He hadn’t even bothered to ask if I wanted it or not. He thought he could stake his claim as he saw fit. I bet he was the entitled jackass type who had always taken what he wanted. I bet he’d treated women as disposable pleasures, barely appreciating them, like we were trash.

Some women might overlook his flaws and swarm to him because he was gorgeous and powerful, but I’d never date an asshole. I wouldn’t give him an inch.

I met his violet, bedroom eyes. The cockiness and dark hunger in them made my heart flutter for a second.

But I knew that if you played with a villain, you’d get burned.

I’d been cooked by the flame, literally, and the last thing I wanted was to be a stupid moth.

“I’m not a trophy, dude,” I told the Demigod of Sea. “I’m not kissing anyone anymore.”

“But you let them kiss you, didn’t you?” Paxton said, narrowing his eyes.

“I wasn’t myself,” I said. “But I’m starting to feel better. I don’t want to get involved with any of you.” I waved a hand in exasperation and tried to extricate myself from Axel’s arms. “Why am I even explaining this to you? Who I kiss is no one’s business but my own.”

“You do realize that by turning me down you’re making an enemy out of me?” the sea demigod asked. Menace rolled off him like a physical thing, rubbing and bruising my skin.

Fury shot through me.

I twisted in Axel’s arms, struggling to land on the ground and stand on my own feet.

“Deal with it, jerk,” I hissed. “Rejection is a part of life. And I don’t take threats kindly.”

He stalked toward me, violence in his eyes, but Zak stepped between us.

Axel moved me behind him, ready to go to war with Paxton.

The Demigod of Sea halted, slanting us a measured look, and an impish smile stretched his sensual lips.

No matter how he pulled up his bad boy charm, it wouldn’t touch me. I shored up the steel walls of my will, checking my defenses against his charisma and my newly raging libido.

“So that’s how it’s going to be now?” Paxton asked. “You two let a woman divide us? You know how it will end.”

“Back off, Paxton,” Axel said. “I won’t say it again. Marigold has had enough today, so stop being a dick.”

“Chill out, Paxton,” Zak also said.

Paxton stepped back. “For now, I’ll leave her alone.”

“You all can address me directly,” I said hotly. “I’m in the room.”

If they thought they were above me, I was more than happy to shatter their illusions. No one was above anyone. That was basic courtesy.

“You absorbed my lightning power, Marigold,” Zak said.

I had felt energized since he’d sent his lightning to caress me while we were kissing, almost as if it’d restored me after the draining power of the fire.

Had he kissed me to test me?

But his kiss and touch had been more than that. I’d felt his raw desire and hunger as intense as Axel’s.

Theodore coughed from a few paces away.

“Pardon me, demigods,” Theodore said. “If you’re all done kissing or talking about kissing, we need to focus on finding out from whom the girl descends.”

“Let’s see what she’s got,” Paxton said almost viciously.

If I belonged to his house, he’d have jurisdiction over me, so I prayed that whatever power I had, it had nothing to do with Poseidon.

Axel picked me up again. Before I could lodge a protest, he’d carried me to his throne and put me down on it. Shock stilled my tongue. Even though no one was attending the demigods’ court now to see it, it felt like Axel was sharing his power with me—or at least regarded me as his equal, which, as far as I knew, a demigod had never done before.

Or maybe it was just Axel’s way of apologizing to me.

I blinked in confusion, bracing for the other demigods to object to me being on one of the thrones, but none of them seemed the least concerned.

Oh, Theodore looked a bit taken aback at where I was, but he didn’t issue an opinion. He probably wouldn’t want to draw fire from the Demigod of War.

“Cookie,” Axel said, his tone cajoling.

I frowned at him for giving me the nickname Cookie, even if I liked cookies a bit too much. Who wouldn’t? Especially macaroons, which were an absolutely sinful indulgence.

Zak arched an eyebrow at the name. Paxton snorted through his snooty nose as if to say he regarded me as anything but a sweet, delicious Cookie.

Axel smiled at me disarmingly, but I didn’t buy it.

“We need to see the symbols on you to know which house you belong to,” Axel said.

I didn’t want any of them to see, but it was inevitable. They had to know my bloodline.

I shrugged off his trench coat. My robe was in tatters.

I gazed down at the space between my left shoulder blade and left breast, but I didn’t spot any symbols.

“There’s nothing,” I said in shock.

“There’s nothing on her skin,” Theodore echoed his surprise.

“But we saw all twelve runes imprint when the flame burned her,” Zak said. “Maybe the symbols settled somewhere else on her person.”

On a place where the sun didn’t shine? I nearly snickered.