Cursed Academy (Year One) Page 15

  His eyes, full of worry, squared off with my anger and I sighed.

  "I just wanted you not to get bitten by a lion shifter," Ronin said, pacing. "Guess I've got to be the hero."

  "No kidding," Maria said. She looked at me like, are you going to let this guy drag you back to the middle ages? Then she and Mikey exchanged a glance.

  No. I wasn't. "If we're going to figure out what I am, Ronin, it might not be completely safe no matter what we do."

  He let his jaw drop. Not like he was shocked, but like he was impressed.

  "How are you doing?" One of the healers, a dark-skinned girl with pretty, copper dyed braids stopped at my cot. "How's your—" She let her own jaw drop as she eyed my shoulder.

  "What?" I asked, daring to look for the first time.

  Someone had changed me into a tank top that revealed my bare flesh. My skin had a golden residue on it, like the healers had poured some of that sweet-smelling stuff all over my wound, and a bunch of pink, scabbed spots decorated my flesh. I rubbed it and loosened a couple of scabs, which had the same underneath. None of my wounds were open. In fact, they looked like old burn scars, like some of the ones I'd seen on Grandma's TV medical shows. I ran my other hand across the skin and felt smoothness, along with a little bit of heat.

  The healers had done a great job, considering what the lion shifter had done.

  "You are already mostly healed," the girl said, grabbing my shoulder in a very not-healer manner.

  "Ouch!" I shouted.

  "Shauna, give her a break," Ronin said.

  Oh, now he wanted to lay off.

  But Shauna ignored him. "Ambrosia is good, but not this good. Whatever you are, Giselle, you heal fast. Not even Ronin here heals that fast."

  "Well, that's good," I blurted, though that got my heart racing. "It couldn't have been that much of an injury, then." I wanted to feel like less of a freak, but it wasn't working. Maria and Mikey were both staring at me like I'd said I wanted to go back to Grandma and work in Gramp's Convenience Store.

  "That lion shifter dude crushed your shoulder," Mikey said at last. "As in, crushed. You should have bled out right there in Pamira's backyard playing Drunk Tag."

  Ronin pushed in front of Shauna. Now his eyes were caring, soft. This was a new side of Ronin.

  "Dominique didn't want you dead," Ronin said, "but she must have known you're not easy to kill or she wouldn't have let that guy injure you."

  Her words came back to me and I shuddered, reaching for the Chaos Dagger. But as if sensing I was looking for it, Ronin reached into his pocket and dangled it in front of me.

  "I need that," I said, despite the way it let me act stupid. Despite the fact that it woke my powers and made me somehow less human. Coming close to death had changed my relationship with my weapon—and possibly everything else—in an instant. This was somehow more real.

  "After that stunt, you don't," Ronin said. "Dominique is more dangerous than I thought. She was blocking my powers, too. None of us could touch her. Wendy's, too. But she has a weakness, and that's her ability to block only one person's powers at a time. I managed to blast her with a lightning bolt, and the cult fled after that."

  "Come on. We were all fighting," Maria said. "I nailed that guy with the board pretty good."

  "Okay. Some of you helped," he said with a grin.

  "Is Dominique dead?" I asked.

  Ronin shook his head. "Nope. Came off her feet, though. That woman has some magic. And that makes her dangerous. We have to get you back to Cursed before she comes back and launches another attack. Not to mention, the Olympian Guard is starting to crowd the place. They'll let people leave, but they'll want to talk to the girl from Chaos the cult was asking about. I've been playing stupid for you, and only a few of us know the truth, so you might get away clean."

  The mystery deepened. I flopped back down, grasping at the sheets. Why couldn't someone just tell me what was happening?

  Ronin appeared above me again. He nodded, but just that nod told me everything I needed to know. Despite my screw-up, we were still in this together. We were still going to get to the bottom of this.

  That was when his phone buzzed. Ronin pulled it out and eyed a text.

  And the word he uttered next told me what was happening.

  "I need to do more damage control," Ronin said, wide-eyed. "Zeus just heard about the attack on the party. He's coming here. Take Giselle back." He handed Maria a set of keys, probably to the Olympian van. If he knows she's been leaving campus, he might tell Prometheus or he might get angry himself."

  My heart dropped into the cot. I wanted to ask why he'd bother with that, when the two immortals seemed to hate each other, but Ronin crossed the basement and ran upstairs, pushing against a couple of drunk party-goers. He shoved the Chaos Dagger in his coat pocket as he did. What? Did he think he was my babysitter?

  "Total alpha male," Maria said.

  "Get up," Mikey said, extending a hand.

  No kidding. I rose off the mat. Being in Zeus's presence was intimidating enough and now Ronin had to hide that I'd actually fought a lion shifter—a descendant of a couple cursed by Athena for defiling one of her temples back in the day—and survived a bite that should have killed.

  But I held these thoughts to myself. Mikey pulled me up the stairs, and without the dagger, I didn't feel the strength to resist. I might have healed fast, but I must have bled a lot, because my stomach roared with hunger and my limbs trembled.

  People stood around the living room of the mansion, but no music played now and god descendants sat around, some with ice packs to their heads and others lying on the floor, eyes closed, trying to relax. I glimpsed Natalia among them, zoning out in a ring of people. Solo cups were lying everywhere, some spilled on the carpets. Even the funnel lay on the dining room table, forgotten. It was every parent's nightmare of wild parties.

  "Out," Maria instructed.

  Maria yanked open the front door. Cars still remained in the yard, but now there were a bunch of green vans parked on the side of the road. Olympian Guard vans. I'd seen them on newscasts, sent out to deal with the Lower Order's terrorist attacks on Zeus's power facilities and Athena's printing presses. Olympian Guards milled around everywhere in their green cammo uniforms, holding radios and electric rods. A shudder raced down my spine. None of the guards—they were always buff god descendants, usually from Zeus or Ares—paid us any attention. Party kids weren't their problem.

  Mikey pulled me past one that was looking at the trees, electric rod pointed into the ground. The weapon fizzled and made my hair stand up as we passed. Cal's van was parked near a single normal police car, which had its lights twirling, but the cop stayed inside like an afterthought. He had no role here other than to report this to the station. I had the sense he wouldn't stop us from ditching. Nor would the guards. They needed all their energy to find the Lower Order. In fact, a few party goers were leaving in their own cars. The fun was over.

  "Shit," Mikey said, freezing.

  A limo pulled into the well-lit driveway and my stomach dropped.

  Zeus. It had to be.

  "Incoming!" an Olympian Guard shouted.

  This was serious. Mikey and I, together, dove behind a yellow sports car with black stripes as the limo crunched gravel and came to a stop in the middle of the driveway. Maria casually joined us and ducked. The limo had stopped right next to us. Zeus wasted no time getting out. Though I couldn't see him—I could just hear the door and a pair of feet hitting the ground—I could sure feel the air charging.

  "Sir," a guard said respectfully. "We have swept the area and it appears that the Lower Order has long vacated."

  "Ronin!" Zeus boomed, ignoring the guard.

  I flinched. I'd thought Grandma was scary when she was mad. Then again, Grandma was usually teary-eyed and had a way of making you feel like human garbage.

  "Yes?" Ronin's feet hit the gravel as he ran towards Zeus. Brave guy.

  I held my breath for his sake. Maria
cupped her ear, trying to hear any possible, juicy news. Or our fates.

  "What is the meaning of this? You are supposed to be training Giselle in the evenings, not gallivanting around at parties."

  Silence.

  I tensed. The conversation had gone to me in less than five seconds.

  "Well, I told her I'd be out tonight. I had people to impress. Trophies to win."

  Zeus wasn't amused. "I gave you an important task and you shirked away from it. This is the result. The Lower Order must suspect you're training Giselle. You two haven't gone off campus, have you?"

  I went from tense to holding my breath. We were both about to get in trouble and were about to find out what it meant to get punished at Olympian Academy.

  "I was under the impression that you wanted to keep this under wraps, so I did. We might have gone a little bit close to the edge of campus to train, but that's it. And no, I haven't seen any significant powers from her yet. We might be wasting our time."

  Ronin was still covering me, still trying to keep me a secret.

  "It's possible," Zeus said. "But not likely." What was he saying? That I was best kept a secret, or that Ronin was wasting his time? I didn't like either. "How far out have you gone?"

  "To the old tool shed?" He was telling the truth.

  "My protection only extends out that far," Zeus said. "Do not go past that point, do you understand? Or the Lower Order will find her, and that will be a disaster the gods and all of human civilization must brace for. They will make Giselle develop her powers. And they will force her to do things she won't want to do. Dominique will try to mold her. We have to do that first so she goes in the right direction."

  Ronin sucked in a breath like he wanted to say something, but he remained quiet.

  Disaster.

  Me.

  It was the story of my life.

  "Yes, sir," he said at last.

  "Now go," Zeus ordered. "Remember my words, and remember how the Lower Order hates everyone and everything related to the gods and to law. Remember how they destroyed your mother."

  Chapter Sixteen

  I about choked.

  The Lower Order destroyed Ronin's mom?

  I crouched there, frozen, behind the sports car as Zeus walked in the direction of the house, taking the electrified atmosphere with him. But a faint rumble of thunder started, despite it being too cold for thunderstorms, and a few fat rain droplets fell on my head.

  Ronin must have stood there, too. How could I get up and face him after I just overheard this? Sure, I didn't ask to be hiding by the twin tailpipes of some rich kid's car, but I still felt like I betrayed Ronin.

  Maria tugged on the back of my tank top. Yeah, it was time to go.

  "Ronin's mom was killed by the Lower Order?" I asked once we were in Cal's van.

  Maria, of course, started it up.

  "Um, you had a wine shot," Mikey said. "I should drive."

  "Fine." She tossed him the keys.

  No one was answering my question. Mikey got in the driver's seat instead and we took off, heading back across the town of Marchamp and back towards Cursed Academy. The gate opened automatically for us and I scrambled to put on the blue second year robe Ronin had smuggled in for me. The werewolf guards stood outside, looking bored.

  The principal wasn't anywhere to be found when we got out. No disguise was going to fool him. One of the guards, in fact, opened the door for us as we approached.

  But my thoughts went elsewhere.

  Ronin. His mother.

  Dead, killed by rogue monsters and dark god descendants. By people like me. Now I knew why he'd been a total ass towards me and the other Cursed kids at first. And of course, the schools made him work with us. How did he do that and keep up such a professional face? The thought stuck with me as we went back down to the laundry room, discarded our disguises, and headed back up to our dorms, where the first years were supposed to be on Friday nights. No one said a word.

  In fact, we passed a few small parties happening inside dorms, where the uncool were hanging out tonight. People chattered and music played inside cramped spaces.

  "I had no idea," I blurted once the three of us got up to my room.

  "Me, either," Mikey said. "Zeus is Ronin's only parent? That's rough. I heard he has high expectations."

  "Clearly. Ronin can't make him happy," Maria said. "At least Zeus doesn't think you were out there. He and Prometheus might hate each other, but they both have the goal of keeping you out of the Lower Order."

  I stopped beside my door, not missing all the swirls carved into the heavy wood. "Are you saying what we did was dumb tonight?"

  "Of course it was. But we had a lot of fun and we needed that," Maria said. "Terrorists do what they do so they can change how you act. And letting them keep us trapped here all the time is not the way to go."

  She was brash. But I liked that.

  "The Lower Order wants me off campus so they can nab me," I said. "This is different. This isn't some blowing up a building to try to make Zeus stop building another power facility or whatever. And that never works, anyway."

  "But you can open holes straight to Chaos," Mikey said.

  "I know that. And I can heal fast. Dominique knows about me." My heart raced. The Lower Order knew more about me than anyone else.

  Unless...

  Grandma.

  No. Going out there right now would be disaster. The Lower Order would descend on me within an hour, and getting answers out of her would take even longer than that. If not hours, days.

  But we had the vehicle...

  "Giselle? Don't think about going back out there," Mikey said.

  "I know. Dumb idea," I said.

  "That I agree with," Maria said. "Ronin should meet us in a while. He's got to do some damage control first."

  * * * * *

  Ronin didn't return for the rest of the night. It wasn't as if he didn't know where to find me. I stayed in my dorm with Mikey and Maria, and instead of playing some music Maria had brought up, we sat around, waiting. Ronin was a no-show as the clock crept past midnight and then towards one. At last, we all decided to split and go to sleep.

  The next day, Saturday, was a lazy day around campus with no classes and free reign around the place. I woke up late, with the sun streaming through the window, and showered. By the time I was done, I felt slightly better. So far, no one had knocked on my door and offered to chew me out. And I didn't feel sick from having the little bit of wine the night before, which I'd been dreading.

  Right as I had that thought, someone did knock.

  I jumped and sucked in a squeaky gasp. Good one.

  "Who's there?" I asked.

  "Ronin."

  I heaved out a huge sigh of relief, even if I was still sort of mad at him for trying to downplay my powers. Pulling my shirt down over my stomach, I opened the door for him. Ronin grinned and leaned against my door frame, and since Olympian was off today, too, he was once again dressed in tight jeans and leather.

  "So, last night," I said, cramming a ton of meaning into those words.

  "I know. It was weird," he said. "You know, I actually, unbelievably, enjoyed that kiss."

  Heat rushed into my cheeks. "You did?"

  Ronin leaned forward and gave me a second one. "Just stop putting yourself in danger and I can enjoy a whole lot more."

  He had no idea I overheard his conversation with Zeus last night. And now was not the time to bring that up to him. So I'd get something else out instead.

  "I was supposed to go to Olympian," I said.

  He surveyed me and lifted one eyebrow. "I know. Whatever you are, your place is with us. You know, I really hate Prometheus."

  He was changing his tune. A little. "I can tell. He's okay to us students here, but he treats you like crap."

  "I convinced Zeus that you were not at the party last night. Had to walk around and tell people not to talk about the girl from Chaos, and I think it worked. And I kept an eye on Wendy to make su
re she didn't try to get you in trouble."

  "Wendy?"

  Ronin didn't lose his grin. "I think her pride might have saved us there. She doesn't want to admit another first year is more powerful than her, so she kept her mouth shut while Zeus was walking around, asking everyone what happened. Man, I'm glad I have influence."

  I held up my right wrist, which still bore the outstretched green palm holding the flame. "Do you think there's any way to remove this?"

  "I honestly have no idea. Trust me, I've tried to get into Olympian's library for you, but Mrs. Allenson won't even let the son of Zeus inside without a note from one of the gods. And if I attack her, I get a visit from the Olympian Guard. Yeah, even my hotness falls under their jurisdiction."

  Ronin had been trying to get answers for me?

  Another wave of tingles swept over my body that had nothing to do with his powers.

  "Well, I guess I continue to go here until we figure out a way to remove this," I said, putting my arm back down.

  "Hey. You'll more than survive," Ronin said, leaning in for another kiss.

  But just then, out of all times, my phone buzzed with a text. I wanted to let it go and answer it later, but Carmen didn't text this early on Saturdays and Maria and Mikey would just march up to my room if they wanted to tell me something.

  "Sorry." I pulled out the phone and gulped.

  Grandma. For the first time in ages. She was ending her silent treatment.

  I sighed.

  "What is it?" Ronin leaned forward.

  "Didn't anyone tell you it's rude to look at other peoples' texts?" I turned, sweeping the phone from his view. Of course, it wasn't like Ronin hadn't seen how Grandma acted.

  Regretting it yet?

  I groaned. Her whole text was just that. "Typical." Then I turned back around to let Ronin see.

  His face fell. "Ignore her. She's trolling."