Page 31 of Zeus' Spark
He already broke my trust once, and no matter how I may feel about him, it can never happen again.
“Hey, guys?” Raven cuts in. “Maybe now that that’s done, we should help with the fire before the entire academy burns to the ground?”
7
Rebecca races over with several of the teachers. “What is going on here?”
Thunderclouds begin covering the blue sky, and Cross’s hands glow green as thunder rumbles overhead and cool rain washes over everything.
So, that’s who Cross’s godly parent is. Huh. He’s a son of Poseidon. Never would have guessed that.
The flames hiss and spit their last bits of crackling embers, and acrid black smoke fills the air. The smell of rain drowns out the stink of smoke and burning wood.
The dryad runs up and shrieks something I can’t understand as she falls to her knees next to the tree and digs her fingers into the soil at its base.
The tree flares with a green glow when the dryad pushes healing magic into it.
Dryads are tree spirits, and if their tree dies, so do they. They also live in their tree, very seldomly venturing too far to protect it from possible harm.
The glow dims, and the poor dryad sobs softly. She wasn’t able to repair all the damage. Another dryad walks over, helps the girl up, and pats her back as they walk away.
Poor thing. I hope she can get her tree fixed.
Rage bubbles up inside of me at the people responsible for this. They are putting people’s lives in danger, and for what? Why is it so important to them that I die? It makes no sense.
“We have now been attacked twice today,” I say. “The wards were down this morning, and a Chimera attacked Raven and me while we were watching the wards before daylight.”
I’m still thankful we were there when the Chimera attacked.
If we hadn’t been, that would have been the worst.
“Why were you watching the wards before dawn?” Rebecca asks.
“We figured out what’s happening here. The Hermes kids are the ones going missing so they can’t restore the wards. We tried to find you to tell you what’s happening, but you were nowhere to be found. I was afraid the wards would be attacked again, and I was right. A fire-breathing Chimera attacked us.”
The healer from before walks up, raising a disapproving eyebrow at me. “Yes, and I told you no fighting monsters for a day.”
Jayden’s growl behind me tells me I’m going to get yelled at later.
I throw my hands in the air in frustration. “They are all after me. It’s not like I can just run away to let others fight and possibly die for me.”
“Okay, everyone just calm down.” Rebecca puts her hands up. “What monster did you all just kill while the forest was burning?”
“The sphynx was trying to kill me. She said that someone wants me dead.” I scrub a hand over my face. “I am monster enemy number one it seems.”
A dark chuckle escapes me, and Jayden growls again.
I could care less though. I’m still pissed at him for thinking he has any right to kiss me that way after the way he’s acted.
“We need to move,” Jayden says, taking a step forward up to my side. “We need to go find the missing students and fix the wards. These monsters are only going to get worse.”
“Agreed. Let’s go to my office and come up with a plan in private.” Rebecca nods and turns to leave.
“Headmistress, we think someone inside the school is doing this. That bomb or whatever that explosion was, I think it was strategically placed for the most damage,” Raven says, following behind the headmistress.
“Raven, I said let’s discuss this in private,” Rebecca snaps back at her.
Raven clamps her mouth shut and falls into step beside me. She raises her eyebrows at me as we pass through the empty quad. All the students who aren’t helping are clearly hiding in the dorms. The cowards.
