Page 35 of Poseidon's Trident
Thad jogs in with a bag slung over his shoulder and scans the room. When his gaze lands on the table, he slumps in relief and hurries over to us.
“I thought you guys left without me.” He flops into the chair next to Raven.
“We can’t,” Jayden says but there’s no anger or resentment in his tone this time. “The oracle was clear that you’re a part of this.”
“Okay then. When are we leaving?” He scans our little group.
“After we eat. We never leave the academy hungry. We never know when the next time is that we’ll be able to stop and get food.” I pop a spoonful of eggs into my mouth.
“That’s smart.” Thad nods.
“It’s from experience. We lost all our food in the underworld and starved and went half-insane.” I shake my head.
“You guys have lived a much more exciting life here than I’ve had.” Thad leans back in his chair.
“I don’t know if that’s the word I would choose,” I mumble.
There has been a ton of excitement, yes, but also a fair bit of danger and near-death experiences. I would take a boring life over that kind of excitement any day of the week.
“You went to the underworld. That’s exciting.” Thad crosses his arms.
Jayden raises a brow at him. “My father is Hades; I go to the underworld for family dinners. That’s not exciting.”
“You know what I mean.” Thad waves him off.
“Persephone would be super pissed if she heard you say that, Jayden. She might even look for ways to make the next one exciting.” I giggle.
Jayden’s face pales at the thought. Yeah, I don’t think anyone wants to challenge the queen of the underworld to make her family dinners exciting. They could end up complete with maiming and death.
We finish up our food and as we walk out of the dining hall, Raven nudges me with her elbow. I turn her way and she points to someone. Kira and Dax are together, walking side by side to breakfast. They are as close as they can get to each other without touching and I nearly squeal.
Jayden grips my hand and pulls me away before I can jump for joy like a total lunatic. “You’re gonna give yourself away if you react too strongly, Beth.”
“But look at them. They are freaking adorable,” I gush.
“I bet you they get together by the time we get back from this mission,” Raven says, still staring at her brother.
The last few days, Kira has been doing her hair and makeup just like we showed her and looks gorgeous. Dax says something I can’t hear because we are too far away and Kira laughs.
“They are definitely going to be together by the time we get back.” I let Jayden tug me away by my hand.
“C’mon, they won’t be if we don’t leave for this mission to save everyone,” Jayden reminds me.
“Way to be a buzzkill,” Raven grumbles.
“Let’s just go,” I say, waving Raven off.
We trudge to the dorms and grab our bags from the hall closet on the first floor. I didn’t want to carry it all the way to the cafeteria, and I wasn’t going up and down the twelve flights of stairs just to retrieve my things. It’s a waste of time and energy.
“How are we getting there?” Thad asks.
“Greyson has an SUV that will fit us all. He should be meeting us in the parking lot.” Raven bounces on the balls of her feet.
Even with Greyson at the academy, she still doesn’t get to see him much. No one knows what changes he may go through being god touched as a shifter. No one really knows what changes we will go through either.
It’s for his pack’s safety that Greyson stays at the academy. Monsters have gone after his pack before, but they could end up going after them more frequently if they sense a demigod there. That’s basically what Artemis said when she found the ichor on our skin.
When we reach the parking lot, Greyson is waiting for us. Raven squeals and jumps into his arms. Greyson spins her around and kisses her hard. A growl rumbles through him. Jayden squeezes my hand and tugs me to the front of the SUV to give them a minute.
