Magic Trials (Half-Blood Academy #1)- Meg Xuemei X Page 0,27

with my posture. There was no dignity in death.

“Go on then,” I said to the priest. “Cut me if you must. Carve whatever runes you like on my skin. But I’d rather die standing than—”

CHAPTER 7

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Before I finished my sentence, Theodore’s dagger shot a stream of flame toward me, hotter than imaginary dragon fire.

“What the fuck are you doing?” I cried.

That wasn’t what happened with any of the other initiates. Theodore must be so pissed he intended to burn me instead of carving the runes on my skin with care and skill.

Instinctively, I threw up my hands to fend off the fire, even though it was a pathetic, futile gesture.

The flame socked into my chest so hard I flew backward and rammed into the operating table. The table flew up and smashed into a splendid chandelier high up on the ceiling. A sharp crash of steel hitting glass sounded throughout the temple.

Crystals and diamonds rained down, and the initiates beneath them ducked.

The table flew across the room at an odd angle. It must have hit a few soldiers, judging from the curses and groans of pain.

“What the fuck?” Axel roared in rage, zooming toward me.

“I didn’t do that!” Theodore shouted. “I haven’t touched the girl. The dagger acted on its own. This has never happened in millennia. Something doesn’t add up. It must be the girl. No one has ever dared to ask questions during the ritual. She talked too much.”

Fury burst through me that they were trying to make the whole thing my fault when I was the one who’d gotten hit.

Nervous whispers churned through the hall as everyone seemed to have something to say.

“The Ritual of the Blood Runes is to weed out the weak, the unworthy, and the unfit. It leaves only the strong to defend humanity,” Demetra said, probably to her clique or anyone who was willing to listen. “That’s the unbreakable tradition of the first ceremony in the Half-Blood Academy. I knew that rogue would be incinerated.”

“Shut up,” Yelena hissed. “If you still have a thread of humanity left.”

“How dare you rebuke me, you stupid cow?” Demetra asked.

“Don’t you call her a cow, you viper!” Nat said. “And you aren’t a quarter as you falsely claimed. You’re but one-eighth. That’s a huge difference.”

“Yet I’m still far more advanced than any of you,” Demetra retorted.

I no longer heard their quarrel or was even concerned about it since I had to put out the fire on my person.

I refused to go down without a fight.

All the demigods surrounded me in an instant.

I looked down at my chest, expecting a burning hole, but it wasn’t like that. The flame had turned out to be runes writing themselves on my skin in shifting colors—crimson first, then black, purple, blue, golden...

The runes didn’t limit themselves to the space between my left shoulder blade and the top of my left breast, where they were supposed to go. They crawled all over my torso. Crimson, golden, and black runes formed shapes and lines and disappeared, then moved in shapes again on my shoulders, arms, and breasts, like a whole freak show.

Axel looked so awed. I stared at him and then back to the crawling runes in horror.

He pulled my robe down from my shoulders without my permission, and I was too freaked out and too busy watching the runes to punch him in the jaw.

“All twelve of the runes have imprinted on you,” Axel declared. “That’s incredible.”

“It’s impossible. She can’t be a descendant of all twelve major gods! No one can,” Theodore said, his silver eyes widening, but he was elbowed out of the way.

The demigods were in charge now.

The dagger in Theodore’s hand dulled, and the flame vanquished.

“My blade!” Theodore called. “Both the flame and runes are gone.”

“She absorbed all of them,” Zak said, lightning twirling in his royal blue eyes as he studied me like he’d just seen me, truly seen me. “She’s taken all of them as if they were her birthright.”

The runes still twirled all over my body as if trying to decide where they should settle down.

“Just make up your mind already,” I groaned.

Axel tore his gaze from the runes and smiled at me. “You live, Marigold,” he said. “Just as I believed that you’d prevail.”

He gave the impression he wanted to pull me into an embrace to congratulate me, but I was still so mad at him that I shoved him away, then I put a hand up to prevent him, or any of them, from