would blossom in my chest.
Even though I’d once marked him as my sworn enemy, a deep part of me denied my every thought of killing off the Demigod of Sea.
We entered the pathway lined with Angel Oaks. Muted, golden sunlight sifted through their pale green leaves and dropped on their twisted branches.
Peering at the classroom structure at the end of the path, I gathered my courage.
“Let’s see what shit those bitches are going to throw at us in the combat class today,” I said. “I hope they’ve let out One-eighth already. I plan to beat the crap out of her for dragging you by the hair.”
Demetra had torn a patch of Yelena’s hair out of her scalp as she yanked my friend to the ground by her hair last time. Yelena had had to cut her hair short because of that.
“Her ass is mine,” Yelena hissed. She was a gentle soul, but the Academy was turning her into steel.
Nat chuckled. “I like this new badass version of you, Lena.”
A chill unlike any other suddenly slithered up my spine—not from my anxiety over facing Paxton and being pushed into the ring to fight again, but from something worse.
It was the same déjà vu feeling from when I’d walked into Loki’s trap.
All the tiny hairs on my neck prickled, and my mouth went dry right away.
I couldn’t let them take my friends. I needed to get them away.
I shoved both Nat and Yelena ahead. “Run!”
“What’s wrong?” Yelena asked, and an alarming question appeared in Nat’s brown eyes.
“Run!” I hissed and pulled out a pair of wicked daggers from my boots.
These were the old daggers that I cherished. Axel had made sure all of the weapons that he and Marie had stripped off from me had been returned to their rightful owner.
Shadows moved out of the tree lines, and my friends broke into a dead sprint.
I twirled the daggers in my hands, ready to feed them my foes’ blood. I’d sensed a dozen life forms surrounding me, and one was extremely foul.
I would fight a way out as soon as my friends were out of range and safe.
I grinned viciously as the shadows took shapes and closed in on me. I planted my legs apart and wheeled about slowly, a dagger in each grip.
“Marigold!” My friends suddenly stopped running. “Why aren’t you running?”
“Run and get help!” I yelled at them.
“We’re not leaving you!” They ran back toward me.
Nat’s hands transformed into blades, and columns of waters formed in Yelena’s hands.
“Idiots!” I shouted. “They want me, not you. Get the fuck out! That’s an order.”
But my friends ignored my order. They shouted out for help as they ran toward me, but I don’t think their cries were heard by anyone outside the empty field. I could feel the sting of dark spells all around us, but I didn’t know how to diffuse them.
A mage in a dark, hooded dark cloak appeared in front of me. I was too busy to offer him free advice on how to improve his taste in fashion. I was so sick and tired, though, of seeing all the bad guys choose the same costume.
I sniffed. He didn’t smell like the mages Loki had brought with him, so he probably hadn’t come from Hell. Half of the mages served Lucifer, and the other half were under the command of Ares and the demigods.
He graded power seven plus, which was rare among mages. The most powerful mages could reach level eight. The ninth was reserved for the demigods and Lucifer’s heir.
So someone had sent a big gun to grab me. And they did it in the broad daylight, knowing my demigods would guard me tighter at night.
“Who sent you?” I asked. “What do you want from me?”
This time I didn’t shoot first since I needed answers.
The mage ignored me but barked a guttural order at the shadowy beasts. They leapt toward me.
“So, you’re what, a summoner mage?” I asked.
I wasn’t getting any answers, so I lunged at the mage. He threw over a dozen spells at me, and they weaved a net around me before I could reach him.
Behind him, the air rippled as a portal was torn open.
The mage was clever. He was trying to trap me and have his mutants drag me into the portal.
I glimpsed it quickly and noticed that the vista within the portal wasn’t Hell’s landscape. Two moons hung above a violet beach—which meant it wasn’t on Earth.
He was trying to abduct me to another dimension.
“If