Page 15 of Ares' Shield
I never would have guessed Hecate was the mastermind behind all this, and I guess she really isn’t because she’s in Tartarus and now more students are going missing.
Dax waves at us from across the quad with a bright smile on his face. Jayden’s grip tightens on my arm as Dax gets up and races over to us.
“Hey, Beth,” he says, a little breathless.
“Um, hey, Dax. What’s up?” I ask, taking a step back, closer to Jayden.
“There’s a bonfire down by the lake tonight. You should come,” Dax says.
“Maybe that’s not such a great idea,” I say, and Jayden nudges me.
He shakes his head minutely. Right. We probably shouldn’t announce mind-controlling assholes to the general population of the school.
“We should go.” Jayden eyes me.
What the fuck is he thinking? There is a psycho mind-controlling people in the academy and he wants to go to a party?
“You’re not serious. You hate people.”
“There are going to be a bunch of drunk idiots,” he says, raising his eyebrows at me.
I cock my head to the side and my eyes widen when I realize what he’s saying. The idiots are going to have the party whether we like it or not, so we may as well go and keep an eye on things.
“No one’s talking to you, Jayden.” Dax crosses his arms over his chest.
Why do they all have to posture when I’m around? It’s exhausting.
“Stop. He’s convincing me to go.” I hold up a hand.
“Fine, I’ll see you later.” Dax turns on his heel and walks away.
Raven shuffles her feet. “This could be very bad. Why didn’t you tell him about the mind control?”
“Not trying to cause mass panic. Remember what happened with the Hermes students? They stopped going out to the wards because they were scared,” I say.
“Yeah, we don’t want to start a panic.” Jayden nods.
“What good will it do for us to go out there though? We can’t stop whatever is going on,” Raven says.
“Maybe we should just go to have some fun before we have to go after the mind-controlled students,” I say with a shrug.
“You’re already claiming the mission? I thought you didn’t want to be a hero.” Jayden chuckles.
“Whatever.” I stick my tongue out at him and his grin turns sultry.
My cheeks heat in embarrassment and he chuckles again.
“I just think we could use a little fun and keep an eye on things at the same time.” I glance away.
We aren’t in a good place yet. He shouldn’t be looking at me like that. Like he wants to push me up against the wall and devour me right here in front of everyone.
Raven bumps my shoulder with hers. “If we’re going to have fun, I’m in.”
“Of course, you are. You dragged me to the party on Halloween.” I stroll through the quad with them on either side of me.
“Yeah, that was a crazy night.” Raven loops her arm through mine. “Let’s go get ready for the party. My clothes are torn.”
“They tried to do more than tear your clothes.”
