Alexios said she had a problem with gay men. If she did, she wouldn’t have agreed to be on their team if they were the ones who asked. They would have agreed if she was the one who asked them if they didn’t know she was like that.
So, their team origin story was a lie. Alexios could be lying to make her look bad, but half the people I went to high school with would have wormed their way on their team to proselytize to them and tell them why they were wrong.
If Lola was the one lying, then we were all fucked. We were either dealing with someone who was able to plot some elaborate ruse in a brief time or Lola was the one we needed to be worried about. And she was willing to be beaten to the point of broken bones to fool everyone.
I needed to marinate on this. I was going to bring it up to my team, but not when we had so many people around. Mazen and Radames had taken Lola’s protection seriously and were practically cuddling her now that she was so upset to be around Ivar and his team.
My big question was that if this was all Lola’s plan, and she was awake, who was she working with? I knew Khalid had problems with Mazen because of Set, but I could just sense when Mazen got Ivar, Ari, and Alexios alone, he was going to get justice because he took hurting women seriously.
I was going to have to investigate to know for sure. Who did Lola know before all of this?
We were portalling through the quadrants and picking people up. There were all kinds of supernaturals I’d never heard of, and they were all taking sides. Some of them were very excited Vlad the Impaler was back, which just annoyed Lucian, others were big fans of Thor, but they all had one thing in common.
They all seemed to know exactly who Liam was, and they were most impressed over that. The Seelie we picked up were fawning over him. There were also something called dryads with us who kept giggling about orgies like back in the old days. Theywere all only a few years older than me, so unless their idea of ye olden days orgies was three years ago, they should probably shut up.
I was probably mad they were begging Liam for sex, which was stupid because we weren’t even dating. And I was just as mad as Lucian at the people flirting with him and I wasn’t dating him, either. I should probably throw Khalid in all of that because I’d be furious about it if someone was flirting with him, too.
Which was confusing as fuck because the only guy I’d been allowed to go on dates with in high school was the one my father picked as my future husband and I didn’t really do boyfriends when I was backpacking.
Lines were drawn, too, with Lola and her old team. Most of the supernaturals who had control over their magic seemed to think Lola’s mind had been messed with. They were looking at her with pity and trying not to make a scene of obviously supporting Ivar, Ari, and Alexios, but it was clear they thought whatever was going on, someone was trying to frame them.
It was the people like me who were sitting with Lola and looking like they were going to jump her old team when they got the chance. Things were probably going to be chaotic and violent when we got back and I was sure that was the intention.
And, of course, I was the asshole who thought Lola was the architect behind all of this. I had zero proof. I couldn’t read her. I could barely read anyone standing near her. It was more of a gut feeling. You couldn’t sense her unless you could see her. Shecouldhave snuck up on a fairy before they could portal away for help. I wouldn’t know how she made them disappear, but we could all see Erica didn’t like her when Mazen and Radames offered to protect her and she disappeared next.
I couldn’t voice any of this unless I was alone with people I could trust. The other teams weren’t just glaring at Ivar, Ari, andAlexios. They werepissedthe other students didn’t immediately side with Lola and do something about her former team.
And I got that, too. One of our youth pastors was a creep. He made me uncomfortable, and I was never alone with him. One of the other girls wasn’t so lucky. She told her parents what he did, and they told my father.
By the end of the whole thing, she was painted as a silly girl with a crush who made up a story after she was rebuked. She got shunned from the church and he got a cushy job with a different youth group.
The whole thing disgusted me and I swore I’d never do that to someone. I was disgusted I was doing it now. It was just thisfeeling.I couldn’t fight it and I couldn’t voice it because I had a feeling these people would get violent against me, too, just for speaking against her.
“Holy shite. Someone save me from horny tree fairies,” Liam said, plopping beside me.
“So, demons are real, but not like we think. They want to bond over being misunderstood,” Lucian said.
“The man I thought was my father would have a lot to say about that.”
“You know, I’m not violent, so if you don’t want to take Liam up on his offer of stabbing him, I’d be happy to ruin his life electronically.”
“Holy shite, did we just bond?” Liam said, holding up his fist for a bump.
“I’d rather eat drain hair.”
“I already said I don’t kink shame.”
“I hate you.”
“No, you don’t.”
“I really do. I’d write poetry about it because?—”
Tensions finally boiled over. We had one more quadrant to do to before we could get back to the castle. They’d gathered allof us looking for crystals in one area. A group of supernaturals stayed behind while their warriors went off to find everyone else.
Ivar, Ari, and Alexios all volunteered to go with them in case the shit hit the fan. They didn’t have magic and Ari didn’t know how to shift. Alexios had a migraine and I could tell he was in a ton of pain.
I didn’t even think they offered to go because of the stink eye they were getting. They really thought they could help in a magic fight when as far as we knew, they didn’t have any yet. And the #teamLola folks were mad the supernaturals were nice about it when they said they’d love to work with themwhenthey had their magic, but right now, they’d just be in the way.
