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“That was brutal.”
I jumped. “What? I wasn’t doing anything.”
A curly-haired, smiling guy moved between me and Alexander. “You don’t have to be to draw Sirena’s ire. Here’s a heads-up you got the hard way. She’s pretty territorial over Xander. They’re engaged to be engaged to be engaged.”
My heart stopped. “Did you just say engaged?”
“Not officially,” he breezed, unaware of my crushing chest. “But don’t tell her that.”
“I don’t want to tell her anything. She couldn’t care less about me. The feeling is mutual.”
“Then you’re my kind of people.” He threw an arm around my shoulders, giving me my second shock of the morning. “My name’s Theron Zervas. From Trono City. You?”
“I’m...” My brain stalled at the oddness of this random stranger touching and being kind to me after two years in a padded cell.
“Pausing to make something up?”
I laughed and was shocked I did. It had also been a while since I’d done that so freely. The last time was with Alex. “No. My name is Aella Vanda. I’m from... all over.”
“Nice. Named after an Amazon warrior. Mother had high hopes for you.”
My smile melted away as quickly as it appeared. Of course it couldn’t last long.
Theron guided me through the crowd of people idling on the lawn and steps. Part of me was curious to ask what we were all waiting for. The rest of me told that part to worry about something important. My mother did have high hopes, and those hopes were that I’d free her from this prison.
But how can a school be a prison? Kind of hard to hide a trapped goddess and her human captive in a place where hundreds of people tramp around every day.
“Over here. Let me introduce you to my friends.”
We found ourselves before a small group gathered under the cypress trees. A slim, pretty girl with short brown hair he introduced as Nitsa. The shaggy-haired guy who kept flipping his curls out of his eyes was called Tycho. And leaning against the tree between them was a long-haired girl with a stocky build named Ionna, gazing blankly at the sky. She could’ve been listening to our conversation, or she was in her own world.
“Nice to meet you guys. Are you all from Trono City?”
“Yep,” Nitsa replied. “We all went to the same school. Glad we can keep it up for another four years.”
“Cool.” I looked around. “So, do you know what everyone’s waiting for?”
Tycho jerked his chin at the entrance. “We can’t do anything until we’re placed in our class. Can’t unpack in our dorms. Can’t get our class schedules. So, they don’t even let us inside until it’s done. We’re to wait here until they get us for placement.”
“What’s placement?”
Ionna dropped her head to squint at me. Her friends all did the same.
“How do you not know?” Nitsa asked.
“I don’t know anything about this place,” I said, sweeping out over the colonnades. “I was locked away for years because people thought I murdered my mother, chopped her up, burned the pieces, and mixed the ash in the soil in our flower shop.” The truth was always easier to keep straight than lies. “Now I’m finally free, but I’ve missed a lot.”
I got open stares all around.
“I didn’t do it, of course.”
Nitsa laughed uncomfortably. “Course you didn’t. No one would ever do something so horrifyingly grotesque to their own mother?”
“Exactly,” I said brightly. “My mother is alive, well, and waiting for me.”
Ionna and Tycho shared a look. “But if she’s alive and well,” Tycho spoke up. “Why did they think you killed her?”
“Monsters made it look like I did it.”
