Magic Trials (Half-Blood Academy #1)(38)

He gave me a look. “That’s more like it.” And he let go of my elbow.

That was his sick idea of taming me. He must have thought that he’d gained the advantage. All I wanted was to send my boot to his nuts, but I had tried that and failed.

We entered a classroom that could host at least two hundred students, but only fifty were present. My gaze swept over the surviving initiates, including Jack, Demetra, and their minions.

My predictable foes sneered at me.

Yelena grimaced, and Nat looked at me with sympathy.

The middle-aged professor in a black robe and broad hat immediately stopped preaching and bowed to his waist to Paxton.

“Demigod Paxton,” he addressed. “It’s an honor to have you grace my classroom.”

“I brought you the student who tried to skip class, Fowler,” Paxton said, as if I’d committed a cardinal sin.

I refrained from rolling my eyes. For crying out loud, it was just a class.

As if he sensed I’d mentally rolled my eyes, Paxton snapped his attention back to me, and I put on an innocent look. I didn’t want him to go crazy right now in front of the entire class when I didn’t have a backup, like Axel, or even Zak.

After this morning, I’d realized that this loose cannon had no brakes whatsoever. He was even worse than me.

Fowler probably thought the same, for he gave me an annoyed look, not understanding why a demigod would have bothered with insignificant me.

“If a student misses class, we usually give her a notice and put it in her record,” Fowler said. “If she keeps up the offenses, we’ll expel her from the Academy. Next time, I’ll have a member from the Discipline Council serve her the notice. There’s absolutely no need to involve a demigod like you to handle such a small matter, sir.”

“Don’t ever tell me how things get done again, Fowler,” Paxton snarled. “Do you understand?”

As I’d said, a crazy on the loose.

Fowler paled, then stumbled back from the towering demigod.

“I apologize, sir,” he said. “I didn’t mean—”

“Professor Fowler meant that you’re using a cannon to shoot a mosquito,” I chimed in quickly and smirked at Paxton. I couldn’t give up the chance to ridicule him, despite my decision to stop getting on his bad side in public. “I think he’s spot on, though. There’s really no need to bother yourself with an unimportant first-year like me, Demigod Paxton, or sir. The Discipline Council can totally kick me out of the Academy after they serve me a few warnings.”

“You’re not getting out of the Academy under my watch,” Paxton said vehemently and viciously. “So give up already, Marigold, or I’ll make your life hell. Now wipe that disgusting, smartass smirk from your face. Your dinner rights today are also revoked.”

He swept his stern gaze across the class, and everyone shrank in their seats.

My smile dropped. How was I going to get through the whole day without food?

“Anyone supplying Marigold with food can go on a fast with her for as long as it takes,” Paxton added. “Understand?”

The entire class answered loudly, including the professor. “Understand!”

The clique giggled.

I didn’t think Nat and Yelena also echoed that, but they had to move their lips to pretend, or they’d get punished, too.

“Good.” Paxton said with satisfaction. “The Half-Blood Academy has decided to turn a ruffian like Marigold into a model soldier at all costs. She’s our project now.”

What the fuck?

“The Academy won’t allow a delinquent to go on strike,” he emphasized, watching my outraged expression like a fat cat regarding a cornered mouse.

Only I was no fucking mouse. He wanted a war, and he’d get one.

“Axel will never go along with that,” I ground out, my eyes burning. “He’s on my side.”

“Is he?” Paxton said, a sadistic smile stretching his curvy lips. “Wasn’t he the one who plucked you from the ghetto, dragging you from a bawdy street fight to the Academy, despite the way you begged and screamed for him to let you go? Wasn’t he the one who was willing to see you die just to test if you could actually live through the ritual?”

I clamped my mouth shut, feeling like I’d been hit by a truck.

How na?ve of me to even think that Axel and Zak might defend me just because they’d once shielded me from the burning fire.

They were all my enemies. They’d never been my allies.

Paxton had just reminded me of that.

A cruel light glinted in Paxton’s eyes at my devastated look. “Keep an eye on her,” he ordered to no one in particular. “If she refuses to behave, if she sneezes wrong, call me right away.”

Everyone nodded vehemently, especially the clique.

Paxton turned on his heel.

As soon as he showed his back, I flipped him the bird. I forced down my finger quickly, though, as I didn’t want to be caught.

I grinned at the class sweetly. “Aren’t you going to report it?”

The class gasped, but no one dared to call back the demigod. If they did, they’d have to repeat and mimic my vulgar gesture, and I didn’t think Paxton would take kindly to being flipped off, even in demonstration.

He might be rough with me, but I knew he wouldn’t kill me, not until he was utterly bored with me. And he wouldn’t be bored until he bent me, broke me, and turned me into one of his herd.