Magic Trials (Half-Blood Academy #1)(30)

Yeah, I’d lived. Yet I had a bad feeling that surviving the flame was just the beginning of a series of bad things.

First off, unlike everyone else, I didn’t get a power upgrade after the Ritual of the Blood Runes. I neither rose nor fell. I just got burned.

I was also the only one who hadn’t had an orientation. And from what I’d learned so far, Yelena and I were the first years most likely to be treated as a snack between the teeth of the sharks in this predator-infested pool.

Yelena squeezed my hands one last time before she returned to her own bunk. “The most important thing is that you passed the trial. No one thought you would survive the flame, but you did.”

She meant that the clique talked shit about me afterwards. Yelena had briefed me on how Demetra had complained to no end about me holding up the demigods with my stinky stunt during the sacred ritual.

Well, I’d love to give her the honor of having endured burning to catch the demigods’—or any god’s—attention. Demetra had been even more bitter that Axel had personally carried me to the bunk while I slept in his arms.

I didn’t remember that the Demigod of War had delivered me here. I’d passed out at some point after the demigods’ bickering in the Hall of Olympia.

“According to Demetra, they should have just put you in a wheelchair and had a junior escort you to the bunk room,” Yelena had said with laughter. “Everyone can see that the Demigod of War has a soft spot for you.”

And I’d made an enemy out of the Demigod of Sea.

But who gave a shit about the swimming boy?

I lifted my fingers to count how many enemies I already had in this new school—Paxton, Demetra, their goons, and who else?

I hoped all the bullies wouldn’t think to combine forces, but I had a foreboding feeling that they might. An army of bullies would come for my blood, led by a demigod.

According to the intel gathered by Nat, who’d turned out to be a resourceful, good-looking gay man, Demetra had influence at the Academy because of her filthy rich family.

Even though the demigods headed all the Half-Blood Academies, they didn’t exactly run the schools. They had no patience for or interest in any administrative duties.

No, pretty much they just popped in and out of the Half-Blood academies all over the globe and focused most of their time on the war against the demons.

Their favorite hangouts weren’t in the schools but in the war zones.

It was rare that all four demigods were in one place at the same time, so everyone here in the North American academy was thrilled, especially all the girls.

In less than twenty-four hours, I’d heard more gossip about the demigods than I’d heard in my past twenty years.

As my thoughts drifted away, the girls were still eagerly arguing over which demigod was the hottest and betting on who would be lucky enough to be chosen as the demigods’ next lovers.

Four out of the six girls voted for the death demigod as the sexiest and most mysterious hunk, but he was utterly unattainable, which made him even more sought-after.

Suddenly, their talk piqued my interest.

Paxton had said he and Héctor would unite against me. I needed to know more about my enemies, especially the one I hadn’t met.

“Why is he unattainable?” I asked.

“You don’t know anything about the demigods’ world, do you?” Neha, another first-year, asked. “Which rock have you been living under?”

“My own rock?” I said.

“Good thing you’ve finally crawled out from under it,” Neha snorted.

“I was forced out,” I said. “I was quite comfortable living under the rocks, you know.”

“You’re hopeless,” she said. “Why was I even talking to you?”

“You’re still talking,” I said.

“Yeah, just a warning: watch where you’re going,” she said.

It wasn’t news that the new students were often treated as punching bags.

Though most of the girls in this dormitory were also first-years, they were ahead of Yelena and me. They held to the military tradition that they had every right to treat the newbies however they saw fit. I’d already seen a new initiate get kicked in the head when an upperclassman was in a foul mood.

I vowed secretly that if anyone came at either Yelena or me, they’d learn that harassing us was more trouble than it was worth.

“No one can stand Demigod Héctor’s touch,” Yelena said, coming to my rescue again. It was evident that I was the only one who lived under a rock coated with so much ignorant moss. “Whomever he touches dies instantly.”

“I hope I can have the same ability,” I said longingly, thinking of all the enemies I had. “I want to be in his house.”

“Héctor is very lonely,” Neha said, as if she personally knew him. “I feel so bad for him. All his sexiness gets wasted like that.”

So the Demigod of Death ranked number one in the Academy libidos because of his lethal touch combined with his natural damn sex appeal and, of course, perfect male torso.

I wasn’t surprised that the girls voted Axel as number two, but I was astonished to find out he was actually a fourth year student in Half-Blood Academy.

He was a demigod, so he didn’t obey any of the rules. He skipped most of his classes and only popped in every now and then to poke fun of the professors or cause some trouble for everyone. Otherwise he was in the war zone with his father or, according to gossip, making time with his pick of the women on campus.