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It was true. I was failing every single class. Wasn’t a surprise since I knew absolutely nothing about this world, and the time everyone else was using to study, was devoted to searching the archives for records of what stood before Olympia was founded, or combing the forest for a single dryad who wouldn’t throw a pine cone at my head on first sight.
I couldn’t fight. I couldn’t identify monsters or how to kill them. I couldn’t dig shit pits, and I couldn’t save my mom.
So what else did a worthless loser like me have to look forward to?
Alex burst out of the water, gasping. “Is... Is she gone?”
I wrapped my arms around him, hiding my face in his neck. “Yes,” I said softly. “She’s gone.”
“Are you okay?”
“Yeah, I just... I realized you’re the only good thing in my life right now. I love you, Alex,” I said wholly and unreservedly.
Leaning back, I winked. “I mean, Orfeas.”
The most heart-trapping, beatific smile lit his face. “I love you too, Aella. I hope it doesn’t freak you out when I say you’re the only good thing that’s ever happened in my life.” He dropped the lightest kiss on the tip of my nose. “Ever.”
“That doesn’t freak me out.” Visions of the echidna tossing me and Mom around the room, Mom being taken, the world denouncing me as a crazed murderer, my friends abandoning me, and Selene holding me and Mom hostage—all flashed in my mind. “You’re the only good thing ever too.”
I SLIPPED OUT OF THEdorm last night, ignoring Daciana’s wolf whistle. Hiding from her that I was out all night with a guy was impossible. She smelled the sex on me the next morning. She hadn’t asked who I was with... because I had a sneaking suspicion that she already knew.
Daciana knew Theron was coming around the corner when he was still twenty feet down the other end of the hall. She must know that my secret guy was Alex. Even so, she didn’t question me or give me away.
I tiptoed to the foot of the Titan staircase, listening out for movement upstairs. Alex and I messed around in the baths for a bit until it got too obvious that the other girls were listeningand enjoying it too much. With the creep factor outweighing the sexiness factor, we broke apart so he could put an end to Sirena’s search, and I could spend the next two hours in the library—checking out more on the origins of Olympia.
“Is there nothing on the history of Atlantis?” I asked Madame Sharp, the librarian. “What was here before Olympia took its place?”
She shook her head. “Nothing here but ruins, child, and writings on walls that no one could read. Everything that was here before was destroyed to build our world on the one forgotten. As far as I know, our ancestors didn’t take the time to write or record before they did.”
Her reply, and the finality in it—jangled in my head. I believed the demigods of old didn’t spend any time documenting or preserving the relics of the lost civilization, but I didn’t believe they chose this spot for Deucalion Academy as a coincidence.
There was something unique about this spot, and someone somewhere—whether in a book or hanging off a tree—knew what it was.
I padded quietly up the stairs. “I wished you’d let me talk to Alex,” I murmured. “This would’ve been done weeks ago if you let him talk to the dryads. You keep saying I don’t care about my mom, but it seems to me you care more about your stupid secrets than you do your freedom.”
“As always, you’re wrong. I care about keeping my freedom, girl. When I escape, I shall not be put back. No one shall stand against me.”
“Who are you?” I hissed. “What are you the goddess of?”
Laughing, her voice faded away.
I let it go as I topped the stairs. No amount of yelling, begging, or pleading would make her say, which was answer enough. Selene wouldn’t have reason to hide it if she was the goddess of cuddly animals. She was clearly the goddess ofsomething wretched and evil, and with every passing day, I sensed the gods were right to lock her away.
But she has my mom. I’ll do everything I can to free Mom without freeing her, but I will not abandon Mom.
She was there for me every single day of my life, and the one time she needed me, I was more useless than pocket lint. A rare, life-changing power right at my fingertips, and monsters still abducted my mother right in front of me. I couldn’t fail her again. I just couldn’t.
Taking a breath, I sent good thoughts to Mom—wherever she may be.Don’t worry, Mom. I’ll never give up until I find you. No matter what it takes. No matter how long. Soon, we’ll be in our little apartment behind our flower shop—together and laughing in a room full of chrysanthemums.
I knocked on Alex’s door.
“There you are.” The door banged open behind me, spinning me around. “Sorry, love. I meant the fourth door on the left, not the right.”
Sebastian grasped my hand and snapped me to his chest. I didn’t have time to gasp before his lips were on mine.
Fingers curling through my hair, Sebastian pressed me up against the wall, and kissed the shit out of me. Bodies molded, tongues tangling, lip biting, thigh between my leg and rubbing in the least innocent way a thigh could rub. Sebastian kissed me like I was going off to war and wanted to give me a gift the next ten generations wouldn’t forget.
“Hmmpf!” I pounded his chest, fighting to shove him off.
