for my natural abilities to handle it.
The instructors only knew their set ways since there had never been a case like mine before. They followed the same script and formula that worked for everyone else but not for me. I was the unknown, the abnormality.
I had to figure out another way to communicate with my magic.
Also, I had a feeling that my magic didn’t want anyone to take a peek at it.
“I can’t practice my magic the way everyone else does,” I said. “You know I don’t belong to any house and my magic isn’t like theirs. So, no pressure. Why don’t we call it quits and let me figure it out myself—”
A tidal wave of icy wind slammed into me, like knives cutting into my face.
My eyes snapped to Paxton. “Fucker! You—”
I threw up my hands instinctively to fend off his attack, but I was too late. All of a sudden, I was in the center of a churning storm. It felt like the Demigod of Sea had dropped the entire ocean on me.
In a nanosecond, all around me, the waves of water turned to hard ice.
Layers of ice kept forming around me rapidly, leaving me trapped alone inside.
“What the fuck are you doing, Paxton?” Zak roared outside the wall of icicles.
Lightning flashed and thunder rocked the room, but the ice kept thickening until the barricade became impenetrable.
“This is not the way to train Marigold,” Theodore called in alarm. “She needs gentler care. We saw how it ended when she was pushed into a corner last time.”
I heard a few giggles from Demetra and her clique, then gasps from other students, then Yelena’s and Nat’s cries of outrage.
“Let her out!” Yelena shouted. “You can’t treat her that way.”
“Let Marigold out,” Nat joined her shouting.
They pounded on the ice wall to try to crack it. Metal hit the ice. I bet Nat had turned his hands into blades, since he was from the House of Metal and Blacksmiths.
My friends were risking their lives by angering Paxton.
Then, all the sounds faded except for Zak’s threatening. Not even a soundproof barrier could stop the voice of the Demigod of Sky.
“Remove the ice box, Paxton,” Zak raged. “I’ll have your head if she’s hurt!”
Lightning struck the exterior of the ice walls, seemingly bouncing off.
To my terror, unbreakable ice sealed the top as well.
All the voices and noises faded away until it was just me inside a tomb of ice.
CHAPTER 9
__________________
The motherfucker put me in an ice cage.
Rage burst in my veins, and I pounded my fists into the wall. With each piece of ice I managed to chip off, more of my blood dripped to the floor. That didn’t stop me from punching into the ice block again and again and again.
The room tilted. The ice tomb trembled from lightning strikes, yet Zak wouldn’t reach me in time.
The air inside the tomb became thinner every second.
Magic emanated from the ice. Paxton must have warded the tomb, so Zak couldn’t teleport in and get me out. He was now battling Paxton.
Something heavy fell onto the top of the ice tomb. I’d bet the ceiling was crumbling, a casualty to the brawling demigods.
Yet my coffin remained intact with me buried alive inside.
The Demigod of Sea had truly made me an example. Before long, I would become a living mummy.
My useless magic hadn’t aided me. It hadn’t stopped him.
Rage pounded in my blood, and something snapped in me, just like the last time when I’d crawled beneath Jack, beaten within an inch of my life.
Only this time, I was different.
I was stronger. And I had more to live for.
Héctor had come into my life.
And I wanted to kiss Axel again.
I also had a score to settle.
Those assholes wanted to see what I had. I would let them see, but they weren’t going to like it.
I didn’t need hellfire to beat them.
I searched within me. I raged inside. I laid myself bare to face my true self, to see what I was made of.
Purge the fear.
If I was a freak, so be it.
And if I wasn’t strong enough, the demigods were going to change me, forge me, and twist me into the shape they wanted. The sadistic sea demigod had started it.
I delved deep within me, searching, calling for the Marigold who had true magic, who had been shoved aside, who had been caged in the void.
No more chains. No more cage, I promised her.
And she rose, wearing two faces—the face of an angel and the face