Page 124 of Blood of Hercules
When I was finally seated (kinda), I leaned my head back and closed my eyes with relief.
Please God, give me a sign that it’s all going to be okay.
“You think you belong here,” a muffled voice taunted. “You’re an abandoned mutt, a nobody. A defect. A daughter of aslutwho fucked her betters.”
Message received, God—things are not going to get better. I understand. Praise be.
I turned slowly to the left.
Titus sat a few chairs down and leaned forward threateningly. He sneered, his expression drenched in shadows, and in the muted firelight, his red hair spiked out like angry flames.
He opened his mouth.
I turned my head forward and sighed with relief as he disappeared in my blind spot.
Sharp feedback rang through my left ear as Titus spoke, and I easily ignored it.
Drex rolled his eyes across from me. “This sucks,” he said.
I waited.
Who is he talking to?
He waited.
We both waited.
Nyx made the snake equivalent of a heavy sigh. “He’s talking toyou, kid,” she said with exasperation.
Why?
I licked my lips and tried to find some moisture. “W-What?” I croaked out raspingly, throat burning like I’d swallowed glass.
“This entire crucible bullshitsucks,” Drex said. “Don’t ya think?”
I nodded jerkily.
Pages rustled and textbooks cracked as initiates opened them up throughout the quiet library. With shaking fingers, I did the same.
Vision blurring, I stared at the book for long minutes until an excessively long Thagorean math equation came into focus.
Sighing internally—it was too much work to continue breathing heavily out loud—I read the directions: “Assign the word problem to variables and solve.”
“I propose an alliance,” Drex said.
Hmm. The abstraction makes sense, if you divide the prime numbers by?—
“He’s still talking to you, kid.” Nyx interrupted my train of thought.
I looked up with surprise, and the movement hurt my neck.I’d know if it was broken, right?
Drex was staring at me, his expression expectant.
“What?” I repeated, chapped lips splitting open attractively.
Drex leaned forward and glanced around like he wanted to make sure no one was looking at us. “We’re the only two people who grew up in the human world,” he whispered. “There are only eight of us left. We need all the support we can get—I propose the two of us form an alliance.”
I squinted. “To do . . . what?”
