Page 215 of Blood of Hercules
I stared at him.
He stuck it back down his throat.
Apparently, everyone is struggling with their mental health these days. Who am I to judge?
Groaning, I staggered to my aching feet, then shuffled toward the door, leaving Fluffy Jr. to his own morbid devices.
I smiled and limped casually by Augustus, who was waiting for all of us at the door. He had a fluffy hunchback—Poco’s tiny hands were clutched together at the front of his neck.
Augustus stared down at my bloody knees.
Tan features turned purple, his hands fisted,and a vein pulsed on his forehead. His jaw was clenched so tightly I could practically hear his teeth grinding together.
Luckily, he said nothing. Just whirled around and marched back along the path as we all hurried to keep up with him.
Poco turned his head back and hissed at me.
“You have rabies,” I mouthed silently.
Poco showed hownot rabidhe was by shoving half of Augustus’s ponytail into his mouth and screeching at the top of his lungs.
“Real mature,” I said.
Drex looked over at me with concern.
Time shifted.
Hours later, I rocked back and forth as Pine lectured about the number zero.
“Alexis,” he said. “What did I say a month ago is a tenant of Thagorean ethics that allows you to divide fractions of zero?”
The rest of the class looked at me with panicked expressions.
“Unreal n-numbers,” I said numbly as my teeth chattered. The answer was so obvious I didn’t even have to think about it, which was good because at the moment, a lot of thought processing was not happening.
Pine beamed. “Correct—right again. Your mind is truly impressive.”
Carl Gauss would push me to be better, not praise me for answering stupid questions.
The class relaxed.
I remained tensed (half-catatonic).
Voices whispered behind me, and my neck prickled.The voices aren’t real. Pull it together, Alexis.
I blinked.
Drex was pulling me into the library. “Come on, we have four hours to study,” he said as he pushed me gently into my usual chair.
Time is strange.
I fell out of it and sprawled ontothe floor.
Alessander crawled past on his hands and knees, with blue lips and eyes bloodshot from sleep deprivation.
We nodded at each other.
Real recognized real.
