Magic Trials (Half-Blood Academy #1)- Meg Xuemei X Page 0,16

at the edge of the shockwave.

The next second, the van bumped an armored car in the right lane.

Marie moved to the left window, rolled it half down, and blasted bullets into three motorcycles approaching from behind us.

I had damn fast reflexes, yet I’d missed how a lightweight machine gun had appeared in her hands. The Dominions weren’t fools. While conversing with me, they’d stayed vigilant for any looming danger and reacted super fast.

The rest of the soldiers also moved into seamless action.

Bullets, lightning, spells, and fire exchanged between the Dominions and our attackers. Two of the motorcycles were tossed into the air by a soldier’s magic and Marie’s bullets, but more enemy forces were coming.

Cameron kept throwing lightning with a wicked grin on his face. He ducked back into the van every now and then to avoid the spell fires and the bullets that ricocheted off the armored body of the van.

The lieutenant was a descendant of Zeus, the God of Sky.

Luckily, he hadn’t thrown lightning at me when we’d fought.

I didn’t see the other van that held Circe and Jasper. They had less manpower, and my stomach twisted in worry for them.

The asshole demigod shouldn’t have separated my team from me.

“Give me a weapon,” I shouted. “I’m not going to be a sitting duck here.”

“Just sit tight and enjoy the show,” Cameron said while tossing another lightning bolt at a new car that chased us.

“You can’t just throw those fancy bolts of yours all day, can you?” I asked, planning to steal a firearm from either Marie or the soldier on my other side.

“Nope,” Cameron said, producing a shotgun and firing it with one hand. “You think I’m a god?”

“You’re obviously very far from a god,” I said.

Another enemy automobile slammed into a civilian vehicle after being hit by Cameron’s merciless bullets plus lightning bolts.

Our van sped onto a bridge made of steel, concrete, and cables. To my surprise, the attacks stopped abruptly.

“Why didn’t they follow?” I asked.

“We’ve reached our territory,” said the soldier on my other side. “This is the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge. In case you don’t know, Half-Blood Academy is on Staten Island.”

“Thank you,” I said. “That’s very informative.”

He chuckled. In addition to tattoos, he had a diamond stud in his left earlobe.

“Could you check my friends’ statuses in the other van, Cameron?” I asked.

“You think I take orders from you now?” Cameron snorted.

“Please,” I said. “I need to know that they’re safe.”

“The other van wasn’t attacked,” Cameron said. “It seems trouble follows only you. You know what? I changed my mind. Even if you survive the trial, I don’t want you on my team. You’re more trouble than you’re worth. Sticking around you for too long, you might get us all killed.”

“Thank you for the confidence,” I said.

Marie nodded in agreement. “We’ve never had an incident rounding up descendants until you. And none of the demigods ever supervised a recruit mission before.”

“I’m not bad luck,” I shouted. “I’m an asset. I took out several criminal lords and gangs in Crack when I was a few years younger.”

The soldiers traded an unconvinced look.

“You might not be the worst luck to yourself,” Marie concluded, “but you are to others, like the criminal lords.”

“I protect the innocent,” I protested. Like Jasper and Circe.

In no time, we crossed the bay and reached the other end of the bridge.

Soldiers wearing Dominion badges were posted at all the checkpoints. There were even air patrols above the lush, green island.

No one stopped us, and our driver no longer raced like a maniac.

Security seemed air-tight as I spotted heavily-armed soldiers on every few blocks on the island.

We passed by streets, buildings, stores, and a large park, which all looked nice. The demigod-controlled Staten Island hadn’t been tainted by the war between the gods and demons. This was probably what the old civilization had looked like before both types of assholes invaded our world.

The van cruised through a vast gate as it slid open from the middle. Etched into the left side of the reinforced red wall, giant letters of gold proclaimed this to be Half-Blood Academy. On the right wall, the school crest displayed an eagle above the waves piercing a lightning bolt with a blade that also looked like a key connecting the sky and ocean.

The eagle was the power sign for the God of War, the lightning bolt was the God of Sky’s birthright, the ocean was the God of Sea’s domain, and the blade was the Sword of Hades and Key to