Something about Alexis made me lose all control.
She made me feral with rage.
If I stay in this library another second, I’m going to murder both those boys for touching her, then kidnap and handcuff her to my bed.
I stalked away.
Poco chittered in the hall as he climbed up my shoulders. His weight was familiar. Calming.
I walked out of the mountain into the warm night and bellowed with rage. A sea of stars sparkled above.
The Milky Way was streaked with yellow.
Punching stone, I breathed roughly.
Shaking my head with confusion, I headed down the path toward the mountain.
I needed to run the circuit to regain control.
A few hours later, my muscles burned from exertion, and a facade of calm was once again plastered across my face.
Cleandro announced to the library that the crucible was over, hit the buttons on his pager, then leaped away.
The initiates startled awake.
Patro and Achilles arrived first and grabbed a barely conscious Alexis.
My knuckles cracked.
Why the fuck are they touching her so familiarly, and why do I care?
I glared at them, and they looked at me with confusion, then disappeared with a loud bang.
I barely stifled the urge to follow them.
You need a distraction.
The rest of the mentors started arriving. I grabbed Alessanderand Titus by the front of their togas and dragged them behind a bookcase.
I threw them forcefully to the ground.
They yelped in pain.Good.
Agony exploded in my chest as I activated my powers, yanked them both up, and stared into their eyes.
Pressure burned my skull.
Their mental defenses were nonexistent—I stabbed into their pathetic Olympian minds.
Unlike Chthonics, who fought back, Olympian minds were soft and malleable.
They fell to their knees.
“If youever darehurt Alexis again, oranywoman, ever,” I bellowed straight into their skulls, “I’ll destroy you from the inside out.”
They cried out like babies.
I made it hurt.
