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He didn’t need to say more. The commander would be a twisted person indeed to send him out there to fight with animated corpses.
Nitsa just shrugged. “How many famed battles do you know that involved a cow? For once, I don’t think they’re being cruel. They’re just being realistic. Sisypheans are destined for positions in the army that don’t see a lot of combat. The medical battalion, messengers, sentries, border watchers, trackers, and weapons makers. We’ll still do our part, Aella. But not right now. Not today.”
“I still say it’s messed up,” I muttered.
My pocket warmed, veering my thoughts away from injustice.
“Let’s sit over there,” Daciana said. “There’s a little shade.”
We followed after Daciana, skirting the groups of Titans unleashing on practice monster dummies. They were all roughly the same size, even though they were modeled after manticores, typhons, hydras, gorgons, and griffins.
Something hooked my ankle, holding fast. We fell flat on our faces—foreheads bouncing off the ground.
Raucous laughter went up around me.
“Shit!” Theron erupted. “What was that?”
“Are you guys okay?” Daciana ran to us, helping us up.
“I’m okay.” A blunt ache pounded my temple. I’d have a lump there within the hour. “What happened?” I asked, twisting my neck. Roots jutted out of the ground. “Were those there before?”
“No.” Anger leached into Daciana’s voice. “They weren’t.”
I glared at a pack of laughing Titan girls.
“What?” one shot back. “You should be thanking me. You Sisypheans almost got in the way.”
I didn’t know what they were talking about until a hush fell over the grounds.
The imperial heirs crossed the lawn. Gorgeous, powerful, unstoppable, and led by the pinnacle of all three—Alexander Damien. It was wild. I used to think those slow-mo movie scenes on the popular kids were silly. In real life, and in real high schools, no one gave half a shit about the self-named cool kids, and they definitely didn’t stop everything just to watch them walk down a hallway.
But then, none of those people were Alex. Everyone cared what he said, what he did, and when he bent over, and we all damn sure stopped what we were doing to watch him walk down a hall.
Alex halted, stopping all the Twelve in their tracks. He bent and held out a hand to Nitsa. “Are you okay?”
She blinked at him from the dirt as if not understanding what he was doing with his hand. “What? Oh—! Yes, I’m fine.” She laughed nervously, letting him help her up. “Thanks, Alex. You didn’t have to do that.”
“Course I did. After all those times you made faces at me during Kiri Stavros’s boring lectures, making me laugh out loud.”
Nitsa blushed. “You remember that? We were six.”
“No one could forget you.” He turned to the now-silent Titan girls who’d laughed and tripped us. “Thank you, ladies, for wanting to keep the way clear for me, but I still know enough from my etiquette lessons to say excuse me.” He smiled that heart-stopping smile. “I’ll take care of it next time.”
“Of course, Alex.”
“Sorry, Alex.”
“Whatever you say, Alex.”
I was watching and I still didn’t know how he did that. A few words and a smile and our bullies go from pushing Sisypheansaround to apologizing, and the Sisypheans go from bursting to fight to gazing adoringly at Alex.
As much as the Sisypheans were coming to hate the Titans—and they were giving plenty of reasons—no one hated Alex.
Sebastian loudly scoffed. Rolling his eyes, he and the Hell Boys blew past us all and continued to the green.
Almost no one.
Alex zeroed in on one of the girls. “Chara, would you be so sweet and heal my friend Nitsa and her friends?”
