that brought us together.
Reina arched a brow. “Now that surprises me.”
“Which part?”
“That he helped you.”
“Why?” I didn’t understand. All Xander had done was free me from the net.
“There’s a pact between seniors to force freshman to figure out those traps on their own. If another freshman helped you, that’s fine. But Xander would have caught hell for it. Our classmates would have set another trap for him, just to teach him a lesson.”
I swallowed, finding the tradition strange and barbaric. “Sorry, but I’m grateful he violated your pact.”
Several students had passed me that day, hardly bothering to glance up. Since I was new to magic, I never would have gotten out that tree if Xander hadn’t come along when he did.
Reina tilted her head to the side, as if she were trying to figure me out. “He must really like you.”
At the time, Xander thought he was sworn to protect me. That he happened to like me was a nice bonus, but it had nothing to do with his motivation for helping me.
“Tell me something, what do humans do for fun?”
Thank God—a change of subject. It was easier to answer this question. “Pretty much the same thing mages do. They go to parties, dance, play games and stuff.”
“Do they spar?”
I laughed once. “Not usually.”
“How boring. Good for you for escaping.”
If only she knew how literal of an escape it was. Had I stayed in Davidson, my sister and I would have torn each other apart until there was nothing left. Of course, now that Riley had enrolled at Arcadia, we were back at square one.
“Some parts weren’t so bad…” I sighed, thinking about the simplicity of my human life before everything blew up. “There are things I miss.”
“Like what?”
“Let’s see,” I tapped my fingers against the cushion. “Morning Starbucks runs. The variety of seasons, especially the way the leaves change in the fall. Oh, I definitely miss my cell phone—and good Wi-Fi.”
And my Dad, my friends, and sometimes even Connor, but all of those subjects were too sad to bring up to someone I’d just met.
“I’ve heard humans use their gadgets to avoid social interaction. Doesn’t sound appealing.”
That was a fair point. I tried to think of something else that didn’t involve technology.
“I miss poker night.”
Dad’s poker nights gave me some of my best memories. We’d laugh, steal each other’s money, and bet on things like chore duties or embarrassing dares. One time, I made Riley go to the grocery store in a purple leotard and a glitter top hat. She loved the attention though, and she wasn’t nearly as embarrassed as I would have been.
“Po-ker?” Reina emphasized each syllable. “Does it involve pointy objects?”
I laughed. “No, nothing like that. It’s a card game.”
“What’s the object?”
“To steal each other’s money.”
Cassius reappeared with a second mug in his hand, passing it to me. “Stealing money? I like the sound of this game already.”
“It’s probably not fun for anyone that can read minds, so I wouldn’t play with Hades or Athena descendants, but you guys might enjoy it.”
Reina stood up. “I have a deck of cards. You must teach us.”
“Right now?”
I looked between their faces, and they both nodded eagerly.
Xander came back with Reina’s ale, catching the tail end of our conversation. He shrugged. “Why not?”
“Okay.” I grinned, excited. “We’ll need a table and some coins.”
All of this was still hard to believe. They weren’t kicking me out, avoiding me, or tying me to an execution block. Instead, we were going to play poker—poker!
While setting up, a few other students saw us, and asked if they could join in. Some of them had already learned the game from their stints in the human world. For everyone else, I went over the rules, listing the winning hands in order of rank.
Two hours later, the music died down, and nearly the entire room surrounded our card table, entertained by the drama of it all. One player, Darius, became the chip leader for a while. He spent a summer in Las Vegas, and he was skilled at catching bluffs. Another player, Sasha, came from a rich family and got a thrill at gambling her money away. Cassius kept trying to cheat by peeking over Reina’s shoulder. She slapped him across the back of his head, and he laughed so hard, ale spit out through his nose. That was another thing I was learning about Ares descendants; violence wasn’t always seen as a bad thing, like it was in the human world. Some physical violence, little