Cursed Academy (Year One) Page 14

"Maria—"

  But she pushed me forward. "You want to talk to Ronin or not?"

  This was the only way to catch him. And maybe I'd talk to her about peer pressure later. Besides, that wasn't much wine. I only had to do this once, fall over, and I'd be out. It was worth a try. People watched me from the sidelines and my back prickled. Backing out now wasn't an option.

  And maybe this stuff would suppress my powers.

  I took the glass.

  "Down the hatch!" everyone shouted at once.

  The stuff was bitter going down, and almost instantly I felt like I had to go to the bathroom. A feeling of sleepiness quickly followed as I set the glass down and turned. Who did this for fun? But Maria squealed. Mikey stood beside her and Cal stepped closer to watch the game. What was Ronin doing?

  "And you're it!" the guy shouted.

  All at once, everyone in the circle bolted, scattering around the yard, hiding in the rows of thick grape vines while the microphone guy took his vantage point on the shed. I stood there, but Maria clapped at me and ran into the vines, too. She vanished from sight, leaving me standing there like a moron.

  Wendy was in there. But so was Ronin. I had the sense Maria was doing this for me. Brave. And then Mikey, too, bolted into the vines and disappeared. They had my back. I could do this.

  I ran towards the thick crops, which were turning brown and dead this time of the year. There were dozens of rows. Tons of places for people to hide. Already, I felt off-center, sort of in the way I did when I held that sword with the grape vines on the handle. They were not going to make this easy on me.

  Then I entered the row I'd seen Ronin dive into. If I could find him—

  A leg shot out from the foliage, clothed in black jeans, and I saw Wendy standing inside the thick leaves. I stopped just in time and backpedaled, and her glare sent a shudder over me as we met gazes. Her golden flecked, dark eye shone through an opening in the leaves. As if that weren't scary enough, the air filled with a low, thrumming dread and my power had never felt farther away. I pushed into the row of vines opposite her, drawing a snicker, and almost lost my footing, but there was nowhere else to go.

  Why couldn't I just tag her already?

  A rock flew through the air, missing me from inches and pelting Wendy. She let out an oomph and withdrew her foot.

  Wendy cursed.

  "Giselle. Go," Maria hissed on the other side of the row. "Tag me. Then you're free."

  I took the opportunity and did, trying not to think of Wendy's sabotage. I struggled to think. Pushing through the thick leaves would be impossible, but a 4-way ahead promised me a chance. She ran alongside me, out of sight, until we banged into each other at the intersection.

  I slapped her shoulder. "You're it!"

  "Aww," the megaphone guy said, almost as if he were disappointed. "Round one completed. Come and get your shot!"

  Maria grinned at me. "I've got this. Find Ronin."

  I didn't even have time to mouth my thanks before she ran back, banging into Wendy on the way. Unseen others shifted through the vines around me, some whispering to each other. Maria wouldn't tag me. She'd take forever on purpose, drag out the game.

  Wendy shouted insults after Maria and I took the chance to go. Holding back a yawn, I turned, searching for any sign of movement. A guy nestled in the vines held his finger up to his mouth, warning me to stay quiet. I nodded and ran down another row, putting distance between myself and Wendy.

  "And you're it!" the guy announced.

  Maria had taken her shot.

  I upped my pace. This wasn't so bad. I felt warm, almost comfortable. But then a figure in a leather jacket emerged from the vines, and I stopped and rammed right into his chest.

  "Ronin."

  He caught me. "Duck in here," he whispered. "The game master isn't looking."

  Breathless, I did. Amazingly, Ronin didn't smell of alcohol. Of course, he hadn't had time to drink. We crouched in the dark, among the multicolored grape leaves, our faces just inches apart.

  "You didn't go off with Pamiria," I said. Relief coursed through me.

  "No. But I'm expected to party. And stay quiet. That's the best way to win. Running's not your power."

  "There she is!" someone shouted several rows away.

  "I'm going to get you!" Maria yelled. She was having fun.

  I breathed out.

  "You had a drink," Ronin said with a frown. "You didn't have to do that. I know you didn't want to."

  "Well, I needed to find you."

  "They pressured you." He balled a fist as the air turned electric.

  "Ronin, it's fine. I'll survive. When in Rome, do what the Romans do, right?" Okay. My analogy was off.

  He grinned, but it was forced. "Come on, Giselle. Think for yourself."

  I couldn't tell Ronin about the purple flecks here. "Can we go somewhere else?"

  "Is that what this is about?" The old Ronin was back. He eyed the direction of the nearby woods. "Why, sure."

  My heart about leapt out of my chest. I'd gone to the woods with Ronin lots of times over the past few weeks, but not like this. Not truly alone. He was about to spill the truth about one thing. It was on his face.

  "Just duck so Lawrence doesn't see you," Ronin instructed. "The guy on the shed. He's an oracle, so be careful. They see everything."

  "Is that a perverted joke?" I asked.

  "Maybe."

  We crawled out of the vines, Ronin watching and leading the way. Maria laughed somewhere in the distance. Then Ronin stood and waved me to the back of the grape vines, to the very back corner which butted up against the woods. It was semi-dark inside, but enough to hide us.

  I should be getting used to darkness now. I was full of it.

  "We can't be long. If they figure out I've left the game, it won't be good," Ronin said.

  "It's just a game." I grabbed a tree trunk as he let a branch fall back into place.

  "My father will be furious if I let someone else win."

  "He's like one of those insane sports parents?"

  "But with lightning bolts," Ronin said.

  The seriousness of his words chased my anticipation away. Now was the time to say it, before I ruined a potentially amazing moment. "Ronin, after you went in the house, I got mad, and then I felt weird all over again, and my friends said they saw purple flecks in my eyes. Oh, and I opened a crack in the ground by accident."

  Ronin drew closer, mouth gaping. As he did, the air electrified, and not in a bad or threatening way. These tingles were warm. "Purple flecks?"

  He didn't know what it meant. Great.

  "Yeah. What do you think that means? I felt dark inside. Like I could pick someone up and just throw them. Ronin, what am I turning into?" Tremors racked my body.

  He scratched his head. "Giselle, I don't know, but I'm going to help you figure it out. You're not dealing with this alone. I should have worked harder at that. Now I promise you that I will. Screw the rules."

  Ronin placed his hands gently on my shoulders, and I gasped from the electricity that jolted into my bones and ran underneath my skin. Then he dug his fingers into my soft flesh, lowered his eyelids, and closed in.

  Sucking in a breath, I closed my own. It was happening.

  Ronin's lips were even more electric than his touch, and a soft moan, one I didn't think I could make, escaped from my lips. Ronin ran his hands down my arms, leaving tingles the whole way, and settled on the smallest part of my waist. My heart nearly escaped my ribcage, and I didn't dare move as he held me there. The darkness inside didn't dare intrude. And I loved it.

  Chapter Fifteen

  Ronin. Just. Kissed. Me.

  It was real. It was on. As we separated, I took a breath while Ronin grinned in that obnoxious way of his. "That was the best experience of your life."

  No words would form. Breathless, I didn't dare react. I wasn't sure how to react.

  "Oh, come on. Getting a kiss from a son of Zeus is a guaranteed high," he said. "You won't find
better. You can have some sort of reaction."

  "Um..."

  Ronin just face-palmed.

  And so was I, and it wasn't just the little bit of wine. "It was great," I managed.

  A scream from the direction of the winemaker's house jolted me. I jumped, stumbling over a branch on the ground. "What was that?"

  Shouts followed. And then, a loud crashing noise.

  Ronin cursed and appeared beside me. "These parties never get that wild."

  More shouts. More screams. Something fizzled. Though we stood in the dark, multicolored lights jabbed through the trees. Magic. And lots of it.

  "Giselle, we have a problem." Ronin faced me. "I shouldn't have brought you out tonight."

  Ronin, not looking back, reached under his leather coat for my dagger. "Take this, just in case. Defend yourself if you have to. But stay here."

  I took the Chaos Dagger.

  Stay here?

  But Ronin ran towards the action, vanishing through the trees.

  The shouts only got louder.

  And Mikey and Maria were out there.

  The Chaos Dagger sent that dark plasma through me. After stumbling again, I tightened my grasp on the weapon. I had a sense I knew who was attacking, and if their target was me, they'd go after my friends to reach me.

  I shouldn't do this. Backing off was a better idea. I couldn't even stand up to Wendy.

  A girl screamed.

  And an arc of greenish light sailed through the distance. Another girl whooped in victory. People swore. I couldn't see anyone near the house. Even the shed guy had jumped down. More girls shrieked in unison.

  But I could.

  "Okay, Giselle," I said. Already the icy power coursed through me like the darkest river of the Underworld. This could push me over the edge or worse, I could humiliate myself. I would humiliate myself. Fighting beside these badass kids wouldn't end well.

  Ronin still didn't trust me to fight.

  But I couldn't leave him. What if he overextended himself and died?

  Pushing into the grape vines, I bolted down the row, alone, under the spotlights. The shouts got louder, making my heart race, but I kept going. With the living darkness flowing through my veins, the wine had no effect. It gave me a feeling like I could handle this. Was that confidence?

  I burst out of the crops.

  The Lower Order had arrived.

  I burst out of the vines to see a moving mass of people, some in white togas and others in plainclothes, and others in black robes and hoods. Magic sailed everywhere, lighting the yard in confusing colors. Swords gleamed and swung. To the side, a giant spider with yellow and black stripes leapt on a girl in a white uniform. More screams erupted.

  A burly man held up a smaller guy by the collar. "Where is the girl from Chaos?" he asked.

  "I don't...I don't know!"

  "Find her!" Dominique smiled in the middle of the action, clapping her hands. Wendy and Serena stood on the front lines, Wendy with an eerie green glow around her palms and Serena with a black whip in her hands. But Dominique didn't attack them. Instead, she turned towards Maria.

  Maria, just a few feet away, ripped a fence post from the field and brandished it like a sword, while Mikey had his dagger out, staring down a guy in the middle of shifting in a golden tan creature with a mane. A lion shifter. The creature tore his black robe as he finished morphing into a big, terrifying cat, and instead of falling to Mikey's charms, he roared in his face.

  "Mikey!" I shouted, pointing my dagger at the lion.

  The dagger thrummed again, reminding me that I wasn't useless. I needed to fight.

  Maria ran towards Dominique, only to strike an invisible wall and fall. Wendy shot green light from her hand, but that, too, struck the same invisible wall.

  And the big cat's hungry gaze fell on me, and my knees wobbled, despite the power the Chaos Dagger woke in me. I pointed the knife at the lion, which let his jaws fall open. Teeth. Lots of teeth. But the sense of strength returned. The rest of the battle faded into the background, and it was just me and the cat. I could fight. I was strong. Powerful.

  The big cat leapt.

  Time seemed to slow.

  Instinct propelled me. I drove the dagger between two ribs, jolting, and the purple lasso snapped into existence, wrapping around the creature and drawing an enraged roar. The lion fell back, ensnared.

  I was about to destroy someone.

  But then the pressure I'd felt in the presence of the Lower Order returned, and the lasso snapped. Dominique cackled. She was blocking my power.

  All the divine strength died with a whimper. The lasso snapped and the lion looked up at me, rage filling his dark eyes.

  He leapt.

  Impact.

  Spots flared in my vision. Claws dug into my flesh, drawing jabs of pain. The world turned into heavy tan and gold as the lion sandwiched me between him and the ground. I screamed, trying to rise, but I couldn't move. Hundreds of pounds pinned me.

  And then I dropped the dagger.

  I was once again an ordinary girl. A klutz. Now I would die from it.

  "Subdue her!" Dominique shouted.

  The lion raised one paw, freeing my shoulder, and swiped.

  I closed my eyes before my cheek, my neck, and my shoulder exploded into three lines of fire. Daring to open my eyes, I smelled blood. My own. The lion's deep brown eyes locked with my own. Someone shouted my name as the shifter opened his mouth, exposing two rows of nightmare teeth, and sank them deep into my other shoulder.

  The world turned to red and yellow explosions. I closed my eyes, not caring if I died. There was just pain. Maybe I had already died and gone to Tartarus, where my torment would be eternal.

  Someone shouted my name again, and the pressure on me jolted away to the smell of ozone. The world was noise, but it was far away, in another universe. I occupied my own bubble of agony. It rained blood there and showed no signs of stopping.

  So when a darkness opened up, a darkness almost as deep as Chaos itself, I welcomed it.

  * * * * *

  "Dominique needs to die!"

  Ronin's shouts of rage pulled me out of the peaceful nothingness that had been my world for forever and for no time at all. I turned over on something soft. A bed.

  "If I knew the Lower Order was going to crash my party, I...I still would have thrown it," Pamira said.

  "Sheesh," Mikey told her from somewhere close. "That cult were morons for trying to attack a bunch of god descendants."

  The pain remained in both shoulders and on my neck. I groaned and felt scabs brushing against each other. Heard them, too. My nerve endings shouted in throbs and flames. But this pain was nothing compared to the sea of agony I'd been swimming in seemingly seconds before. I brushed my hand against fabric and a mattress.

  "I'm awake," I muttered, forcing my eyes open.

  I was lying in a large, concrete room lined with cots, as if Pamira expected people to hurt themselves at her wild parties. A few other people, two in white togas and another in plain clothes, occupied two cots beside mine. A guy had a bandage wrapped around his head and blinked while one of the healer girls I'd seen at my first Combat Training leaned over him, urging him to drink a golden liquid she poured out of a metal container. It smelled sweet and made me dizzy. But the guy lapped it up.

  Then I realized I was in a large basement. Well, the walls were gray brick and the floor was concrete, and the only windows were tiny ones near the ceiling.

  "Don't sit up yet," Maria said, leaning over me. She had a few scratches on her face, but nothing major. Mikey stood beside her, also with the same. My mind slowly put the pieces together. The fight had ended, and judging from the fact that the Lower Order was nowhere to be seen, the party had fended them off. For now.

  A bad taste rose into my mouth. I was responsible for this. My presence brought them here. Somehow Dominique knew, or suspected, that I'd be here tonight.

  But how?

  The thought sent a shiver of pan
ic down my spine. "I've got to leave," I said, sitting up. My right shoulder, the bitten one, protested, and so did a bunch of bandages that someone had wrapped around it.

  "No, no," Ronin said with a forced grin. "If you get up, Giselle, you'll tear off all the packing the healers did. I know you will."

  He appeared above me, dark hair spilling over his face. His leather coat was open and his tank top—yes, he was wearing a tank top—hugged his strong chest. Sweat was drying there. Ronin had exerted himself, judging from the sweat residue also on his temples. And he was shaking. Was he angry or just exhausted?

  Ronin worked his jaw.

  Both.

  My stomach turned. Everyone must have panicked when I tried to jump into the fight, knowing Dominique could block other peoples' powers.

  "You just couldn't stand aside, could you?"

  Yep. That was it.

  "Then what's the point of learning my powers?" I asked. "If I'm never expected to fight the Lower Order, why bother? And when I held my weapon, I felt like I had to fight." Now that it was gone, an incredible feeling of stupid set over me.

  Ronin didn't have a good answer to that one. And maybe the lingering pain of the lion shifter's bite was making me crabby. Yeah, that was it. Or maybe it was just all my frustration at people trying to keep me in a box.

  "Leave her alone. She just had her shoulder crushed," Maria told Ronin. "She almost stopped a frigging lion shifter, something I couldn't have done, and you're telling her to be some damsel in distress. Get out of here."

  "I never wanted to train Giselle," Ronin said, facing off with Maria.

  "I'm just a mistake?" I asked, sitting up. My shoulder yelled, but I held up against it. Ronin's kiss tasted bitter now. Was it fake like one of those prank candies that tasted fine on the outside but were actually horrible when you got to the middle. "I know you didn't want to train me at first, and you still don't?"

  Ronin softened. "Giselle, you need to know how to control your powers, but you also need to know when not to use them. You just gave the Lower Order more reason to come after you. And if my father finds out about all this, he'll want to put you in the middle of things even more."

  "Maybe I'm supposed to be there." Wow, that sounded whiny. And maybe Ronin was scared I'd outperform him. With a father like that, I could see why. I gripped the sheets of the cot, which I just realized were over me, and faced down Ronin. My glare, I hoped, told him that he needed to make up his mind.