Yeah, but gods sucked. Power hungry bastards.
“So … we just live our normal lives again?” I asked.
Louis and Princeps Jones both nodded. “Yes. Go to class, learn as much as you can,” Jones said.
“Keep your head down and keep strengthening your powers,” Louis added. “Don’t be heroes though. Tell me the moment anything odd happens, I don’t care how big or small it is. The gods are powerful, but they have weaknesses. Together, we have a shot.”
He leaned down closer to me, eyes only a few inches from mine. “I’m going to pick up your training until Jess and Brax get back. Tee is staying in Stratford because I need to know she’s safe. I’ll go back and forth between the two places to keep it all managed.”
I nodded, my throat tight as I tried not to let all my worry and panic flood up. “What days are training?” I finally choked out.
Louis held out a hand to Princeps Jones, and when he took the paper offered, I realized it was my schedule. “Monday, Wednesday, and Friday afternoons,” he finally said. “You look to be free all of those days. We will meet at 3:00 P.M, outside in the grassed area by the fey dorms.”
I wanted to argue but I couldn’t bring myself to show unease when the Atlantean-five were here. The expanse of outdoors near the fey dorm was too close to the Atlantean mansion for my liking, but it really didn’t matter. I needed to learn.
“Okay, sounds good,” I said.
He dropped the paper back on the desk and leaned down very close to me. I wasn’t sure Louis had been this close before, and just as I was freaking out wondering what he was going to do, he murmured right at my ear, “Keep an eye on Asher. Something is not right with him. Not just the way he’s acting, but with his energy.”
That rumble started in the room again, but before it got out of control, Louis straightened and moved to lean back on some shelves. It was clearly time for us to leave. His warning, though, was blaring through my mind. I already knew there was something up with Asher, but I hadn’t been close enough to him yet to feel his energy. Had it changed as well?
And was that change just because he’d died and was now reborn stronger and more godlike? Or was it a manipulation by his mother?
I stood and joined Ilia and Larissa, my stomach growling at the reminder that I needed to eat. “Since it’s Friday, you all should just pick up classes on Monday,” Princeps Jones called after us. “Rest this weekend.”
Classes. The concept was almost foreign after all the time off. Normally, I’d be so excited to get back to learning, but with everything on my mind I couldn’t comprehend just being a student again. But for lack of anything better to do, I would follow his instructions.
Larissa spent another minute quickly chatting with her father—they were arranging their regular father-daughter breakfast, so she wouldn’t be joining us. Before I’d started at the Academy, Larissa had been lonely, eating most of her meals with Princeps Jones. She didn’t fit with the vampires because she would not feed like them. Finding her mother with her throat ripped out, covered in blood, would do that to a young vampire. Princeps Jones did his best at holding them together, but in the end, Larissa had to save herself.
And she had. This year she was a different supe. Strong, confident, feeding willingly, and even wanting to fall in love. Rone, of course, was a clueless fuck who didn’t seem to realize what he could have. One day soon, Larissa was going to move on, and then he’d kick himself.
“Bye, girl,” Ilia called. “We’ll see you in the library after breakfast.”
Larissa gave us both a wave. In the brief time we’d lingered inside, Asher and the guys had gone—not an Atlantean in sight.
Ilia linked her arm through mine and tugged with a little urgency, even though her face looked relaxed and calm. “Just act natural,” she murmured from the side of her mouth. “We’re being watched.”
I couldn’t see anyone in the immediate vicinity, but I knew her senses when it came to this sort of thing were so above and beyond my own. She was one of the top trackers for the Academy for a reason. So along we strolled, both of us chatting about nothing, while Ilia did whatever she was doing. Just when we were about to step out of the covered pathway and into the commons, she paused, and then fast as a whip, dove to the side and disappeared behind two rose-covered pillars. There was a scuffling, and I dashed after her just in case it was something serious.
“Axl!” I gasped, seeing the Atlantean on the ground, Ilia’s boot on top of him. “What are you doing?”
His reply was inaudible, and it was probably because Ilia was crushing the air from his lungs. I playfully shoved her a little. “Get off him, you big meanie.”
Ilia’s grin was broad; she was impressed with herself. “Didn’t even see it coming,” she replied. When she moved, I helped him up.
Axl unfolded his long limbs, standing a good head and a bit over my five-foot-ten frame. Had he been better prepared, Ilia wouldn’t have taken him down so easily. He wasn’t like the other Atlanteans—fighting just wasn’t his thing—but he could hold his own.
“You o—?” Before I could finish, his arms were around me and he was hugging me tighter than I think anyone had ever hugged me before. A rumbling sob escaped from his broad chest and my own chest tightened. Between that and the tight hold, I could barely breathe.
“It’s okay, Ax,” I said softly, patting his back, all the while relishing the feel and energy of one of my guys being close to me again. It felt like a million years since I’d hugged them, and my soul wept.
After many minutes he pulled back, eyes red, hair disheveled. The slashes of gold in his pupils were deep today. “For days I believed you were dead,” he said softly. “When the guys contacted me, I refused to accept it even though my tracker on you was black. So I traveled to the site as well. I traveled all night, and … your energy was gone and there was no movement on my tracker at all.”
My own eyes filled with tears at the palpable pain in his voice and on his face. “I’m so sorry,” I said softly. “I promise, if there was any way I could have let you all know I was okay, I would. But … I must have been transitioning or pulling my millions of cells back together, because I have no idea where I was for all of those days my energy was gone.”
Axl nodded, taking a few deep breaths.
Pain lanced through me again; it was almost starting to feel familiar. I barely even flinched.
