Page 15 of Dark Gods
"That's right, but it's never too early to begin training," she said, holding the door open as she waited for me to pass through.
"I'll think about it," I said, even though sporting events weren't exactly my thing. To be fair, I'd spent most of my time in high school running a business, however illicit.
"We meet at the courtyard entrance every Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday night at seven," she told me before walking off, clearing all the lingering students with her.
I'd say one thing for Artemis, she knew how to clear a room. Or a hallway, in this case.
I realized I had forgotten to return Dionysus' phone call and shot him a quick text on the way to my next class promising I'd speak with him over lunch. I was a couple minutes late, but Akron was by far the most laidback professor out of the bunch. He gave me an acknowledging glance and kept going with his lesson as I took a seat in the front row. Didn't want to try my luck walking all the way to the back when my classmates were in such a tripping mood. Besides, the closer I was, the easier it would be to ogle the cute prof.
There had to besomeupside to all this, didn't there?
I found myself chewing on my pencil eraser as Akron discussed what he had planned for the next few class sessions. This semester, we were going to move into the actual alchemy, calcination, distillation and all the fun stuff. Our equipment stations would be ready to go the next day, but we were invited to familiarize ourselves with them over the remainder of the class period.
I was familiar with most of the equipment, since my friends and I had something of our own alchemist's laboratory set up in the Brooklyn loft Jazzy had gotten as a gift from her father.
As I fiddled with the dials, it brought me back to old times, laughing and pumping up shitty nineties dance tunes on the stereo while we worked. We'd shared so many secrets those long nights when both our parents thought we were having sleep overs at each other's houses. I'd have given anything to go back to those times, but the truth was, the writing had been on the wall even before I received that letter announcing my acceptance to Olympus Academy.
About five minutes before the end of class, Akron cleared his throat and went back to the front of the class. "Alright, your attention, please, everyone. I'd like you to take these last few minutes to pair up in groups of three or so. You'll be working in these groups throughout the semester, sotryto pick folks who'll actually inspire you to work rather than chatter the whole time," he said pointedly, looking over his glasses.
It was a relief to have at least one professor who wasn't keen on singling me out from the others, even if I did deserve it. I'd never had trouble with group assignments since my friends and I paired off automatically, but I wasn't looking forward to it now that my extended walk of shame was in progress. I turned around, not surprised when everyone near me either looked away or darted across the room before I could get my ick on them.
Ariadne was in this class too, and I almost felt guilty for approaching the one person besides Dionysus who'd been pleasant to me before, but before I could reach her, the girl she'd already paired off with stood in front of me, folding her arms over the plaid bow in the center of her chest.
"Our group's full," she said flatly.
"Oh, really?" I raised an eyebrow. "Looks like there's just two of you."
"I said it's full," she said, slowing down her words like she was intent on making each one bite.
"Vespa," Ariadne whispered, her shoulders hunched uncomfortably.
"It's fine," I said stiffly. "I work better alone anyway."
I went back to my station as the bell rang and grabbed my things. This time, I was able to get out of the room before the stampede behind me. When I glanced down at my phone, there was another half a dozen calls from Dionysus and a few texts, one of them a picture attachment I couldn't see from my homescreen.
"Damn, that boy's intense," I muttered, opening up the text message thread that had begun the night before.
Holy hell, Kory! You hit him?!
I don't know whether to be impressed or scared.
K I'm both.
Hey, I know you're in there.
Fine, we'll talk in the morning. Just don't off yourself or anything, he's not worth it.
It's morning, bitch. Call me.
Where the hell are you? We need to talk. Now.
Fuck. Please tell me you didn't get a flower that looks like this.
I opened up the attachment and the last message, a simple picture of a white rose just like the one the white flower had turned into made my stomach churn.
So it did mean something. And I couldn't help but think the flower was connected to the group text that was obviously linked to the fact that everyone in this school had gone full-on cannibal on me in a matter of minutes.
With a trembling hand, I dialed Dionysus' number, never more relieved to hear someone's voice than I was when he finally picked up. Even though his first words were, "ARE YOU OUT OF YOUR DAMN MIND?!"
