Page 38 of Wild Hunt
I glared at him. So he was really going to make me come out and say it. “He said you were fighting over me.”
“Then there’s your answer.”
I rolled my eyes. “What the hell is it with you two? You treat me like shit, spend all semester bullying me and humiliating me, and yet you’re willing to kill each other because Hades fingered me on the rooftop?”
His face went blank. For a second, I thought I was telling him something he didn’t already know, but there was a note of hope in his voice as he asked, “That’s all that happened?”
I frowned. I didn’t like the cavalier way in which the Triad discussed my sex life, or lack thereof, but at least he was giving me some straight answers. “What did you think?”
“Nothing,” he sighed.
“Why does it matter what I do with him, or anyone else, for that matter?” I demanded.
He held my gaze and didn’t answer for a long moment. There was more in that silence than I cared to decipher. “I think deep down, you know the answer to that, too.”
“What the hell was that supposed to mean?” I asked as the song stopped. Fenrir stepped away, giving me a knowing look and nothing else before he disappeared into the crowd.
“Hey!” I called after him, to no avail.
Stupid mysterious fucking werewolves. I stalked over to the refreshments table to grab myself a cup of punch. It was almost sickly sweet, but I drank it down for lack of a better option.
I shrank back a bit to watch the crowd, taking in the competition. Everyone was in a good mood tonight, but we’d all be at each other’s throats come morning. I raised my drink to my lips, but something solid hit them along with the slosh of liquid and I looked down. My punch was teeming with slick black worms I allowed a startled cry as I threw the cup into the grass.
I looked up to see who was responsible and immediately caught sight of Helle, standing next to one of her minions. She smirked at me and gave me a little wave.
Guess someone was over her grief. After the way the semester had gone, I really wasn’t sure why I had thought this night would go any differently.
Chapter 20
Fenrir
When the first day of the Games finally arrived, weeks of giving Hades the cold shoulder had to come to an end. That didn’t mean I had to like it.
We hadn’t trained much at all, but I wasn’t worried. The Games would be a clean sweep, even without us being on the same page.
It was the third time we’d competed, and like the others, we were all but guaranteed a win.
It was still going to be amusing to see what the underclassmen managed to do. One in particular.
There were various events scheduled for the first day, most of them meant to weed out the first and second years. It was rare for any of those groups to make it through to the finals, and while the stands had been packed the night before, they were notably sparse that morning.
There was one familiar face in the crowd that drew my attention. Demeter was easy to recognize, from her thick brown curls to her regal profile. She was seated in the parents’ area alone, and I couldn’t help but look for similarities between her and Kore.
They had similar features, to be sure, but energetically, they were nothing alike. Demeter was poised and reserved, but Kore… Well, she was hellfire on two feet.
Looking at her now as she stood with her group, waiting for the first round to begin, she seemed to have shaken off what had happened last night. It was a petty little trick, and certainly not the worst Helle had thrown at her, but I felt myself fighting the urge to intervene all the same.
All I could do was hope that once the Games were over and Hades had gotten the need to conquer her out of his system, all this Rabbit nonsense could be put to an end. It had stopped being fun a long time ago.
Artemis announced the start of the first event. It was a simple dash, unlike the one from preliminaries. This time, the other students would be wary of Kore’s power, so I hoped she had another trick up her sleeve.
When the gun fired, all the contestants took off at a clip. Ice began to form on the track. Ingrid was a one trick pony. The ice caught up to a few of the others, but most of the contestants managed to dodge it. Dionysus and Daphne leapt over the ice easily enough, but Kore’s left foot got caught.
I watched as Demeter’s hand flew to her mouth. If she thought this was bad, she really wasn’t going to like the battle royale. I had a bad feeling Kore was going to make it that far, and I wasn’t looking forward to having to fight her.
I thought it was over for her this round, but when I saw greenery sprouting through the ice, cracking the frozen pieces away, I realized otherwise. Kore broke away and began to catch up with the others.
Ingrid was in the lead. No surprise there, and the fact that she kept glancing back over her shoulder suggested she knew she had a target on her head. A vine slithered out when she wasn’t looking, and I watched curiously to see if another Valkyrie would be taken off guard in the same way.
