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“Hell Boys,” he called, strolling off. “We’re done.”
With that, Sebastian, Dimitri, Castor, and Jason walked out in the middle of class, leaving a red-faced shouting Hondros and dumbfounded me behind.
Of all the stomach-twisting things Sebastian said, only one thing stuck in my brain.
“Dad...”
“NEXT IS HISTORY, THENself-mastery,” Ionna said. We left battle strategy and molded into the crowd of novices shuffling to their classes. “Afterward, the mess hall opens for two hours. Once it’s closed, it’s closed and we don’t eat again until it opens after the day’s lessons. The class we missed was field medicine, then we have combat training in the afternoon.”
I barely heard her. Selene was shouting too loudly in my ear.
“Kill him. Why are you still here? Kill him! I will not allow that Hades spawn to interfere with my freedom. Too long I’ve waited,” she screeched, making my ears ring. “Find him. Kill him!”
“No!”
Ionna jumped, clutching her chest. Nearly everyone in the hall stopped and stared at me.
“What the hades? What’s wrong, Aella?”
“I’m sorry,” I rushed. “I uh— I saw him try to grab that girl’s ass.” I flopped my hand too fast for them to point out anyhimorgirl. “No, you asshole,” I barked at the crowd. “Keep your hands to yourself.”
“Too right.” Ionna bumped my shoulder. “Good catch.”
I forced a tight smile and continued with my friends to history. Selene had finally shut up, but my mind was still clamoring. What did this mean? What do I do? What would Sebastian do?
As much as it burned my gut, he was right that I didn’t know enough about this world to know who I should fear, who I should trust, and who I should run from.
Selene claimed she only wanted her freedom, but by her own words, she’s suffered more than even the monsters have. Monsters wanted to slaughter all the demigods, break free from Olympia, and bring hell on earth as their fuck-you to the gods. How much more hatred did someone who’s stewed alone in the dark for centuries have for them?
Did I trust Selene? Hell, no.
As for who I should fear? Alex says it’s the council. His own father was the Zeus councilman, so I deferred to his experience on that one. If he said his father was someone I never wanted to meet... I believed him.
But where did that leave Sebastian Barba and his Hell Boys? He didn’t make any threats or do anything that anyone with his power wouldn’t have done. The dead came to him. If the ghostly remnants of a paranoid, stabby klepto came to me, telling stories about the half-mortal girl sitting right next to me, I’d be curious too.
Especially if death hadn’t made Trixie honest, and she was currently whispering in his ear all the horrible things she’d done over the years and blamed on me. The girl once announced in a group therapy session that we robbed a gas station attendant when we were thirteen, and she drove the getaway car. Nevereven met the fucking chick before the hospital, and she had us as lifelong partners in crime.
He can be as curious as he damn wants! He can’t get in the way or involved.I twirled my bracelet.Selene could be in someone else’s ear right now, ordering them to kill Sebastian. I don’t want anyone hurt. I don’t want to risk Mom. I just want all of us to get out of this safely without triggering any doomsday plans.
The question is... how?
My brain sputtered and died on that question. How did I convince Sebastian to back off? Why should he do it just because I ask him to? I didn’t exactly endear myself to him. I damn sure didn’t like the last girl who called me a pathetic, bitter, pillow-humping virgin.
“Bathroom,” I blurted, seizing on the sign above a door down the hall. “I’ll catch up with you guys in class. Save me a seat.”
“Will do,” Daciana said as I darted into the bathroom.
Mercy smiled on me because no one else was inside. Falling on the water basin, I opened the tap, filled my hands with cool, soothing water and splashed my cheeks. I heard the door hinges creak.
“Aella.”
My head shot up. I locked on to Alex, the mirror showing him closing and locking the door.
“Good,” he said. “I thought you didn’t notice me signaling you in class.”
“Signaling me?” I spun around, droplets flying across the marble and down my uniform. “Why would you be signaling me? You don’t know me. Never met the desperate Twelve groupie before. I’m just some weirdo who asked for directions.”
“Aella, come on,” he whispered, hands out as he closed the distance. “You know I didn’t mean any of that. I had to say it.”
