Page 208 of Blood of Hercules
What we really meant was left unsaid.
It lingered between us, slow and poisonous, like nightshade.
Chapter 24
Suffering
Alexis:The beginning of December
I blinked and tried to focus my vision as we waited for the next class to start.
It didn’t work.
The early December temperatures were beyond punishing. Another week of the crucible (hell on earth) had passed, and I was starving and sleep-deprived.
At this point, it was just a normal day in my life.
The six of us sat silently in semicatatonic states as our breaths puffed frosty. Everything was a hazy blur of chattering teeth and hellacious suffering. Cold gnawed at my frozen bones.
Leo had been dead for a few weeks.
I held his hand while he died and his fingers spasmed in my grip.
My lashes fluttered, and white obstructed my vision where frost stuck to them.
Nyx was a heavy frozen block wrapped around my waist. She’d moved from my neck to my torso. She said it was slightly warmer beneath the loose fabric of my toga—now deep in brumation, she didn’t somuch as twitch.
I rocked back and forth, missing the summer heat, and fantasized about food.
This is officially worse than high school.
At this point, I’d sell both of my kidneys on the black market for a chance to hug Charlie and have Jessica tell me I smelled.
In the front of the room, General Cleandro wore a heavy black coat, and his hawk sat in the furry hood on the back of his neck. There were dark circles under his eyes, and he wore a permanent frown.
Everyone had been on edge since the Titan incident.
Voices whispered, and I snapped my head to the right (barely moved an inch). In my peripheral vision, a blurred skeletal monster flashed dagger-sharp teeth.
Eyes widening in horror, I gaped at the—empty space.
There was nothing there.
Just ice-covered rocks and Titus, who was trying to eviscerate me with his eyes. He’d resumed heckling me after Leo had been brutally murdered; apparently the death of his friend had inspired him to bully others.
The male mind was fascinating (horrifying).
“What the fuck are you looking at?” Titus sneered with pale-blue lips.
I blinked slowly. “A w-waste of oxygen.”
Wow—did I actually say that out loud? Holy crap. I’m amazing. I wish Carl Gauss was here to see me shine.
Titus was a blurry smudge of manic energy as he leaned toward me. “Say that again, bitch. I fucking dare you. See what happens.”
“You’re a waste,” I said slowly. “Of oxy?—”
The door slammed open, and Augustus barked, “Alexis, turn the fuck around and stop flirting with Titus or you’ll all run the crucible—again.”
