Page 220 of Blood of Hercules
It was one more month until the Initiation Ball and graduation ceremony. One month until I turned twenty and was apparently immortal.
It didn’t feel real.
I’d almost survived, but the problem was I hadn’t even been alive to begin with.
No part of me felt like celebrating.
The days were getting harder to endure.
My spirit was deteriorating.
Ever since Augustus had knelt beside me while I slept in a bathtub, things had been strange between us. He still was a grumpy bastard, but every time I looked up during his lectures, he was staring at me.
It was weird.
Now, teeth chattering uncontrollably, I held my knees to my chest and rocked back and forth. My breath lingered in a frosty cloud.
Nyx’s scales were still icy beneath my toga.
The classroom was darker than usual; the only source of light was a single torch burning on the wall above the chalkboard.
All the candles had extinguished a week earlier.
Icicles hung off them.
Drex moaned beside me as he curled tighter in on himself. Maximum looked back at us and smiled—his lips were white, and there was a square patch of frostbite on his cheek.
I tried to grimace, but my face was frozen.
Someone groaned behind me.
The six of us who remained huddled low as we tried to conserve as much body heat as possible. Our breaths were loud and labored, skin unnatural shades of ice.
December was trying to kill us.
“Your teeth chattering is obnoxious,” Titus whispered behind me. “Do you nowsee why women should never do the crucible? You’re too weak.”
Since I’m still alive (against my will) and a bunch of dudes are dead, that makes zero sense.
Alessander laughed beside him, but it was a strangled pained sound.
Drex and I both rolled our eyes (our eyelids barely twitched, but we understood what we meant).
Maximum turned around at the noise and shuffled closer to me and Drex. “Guess what I heard?” he whispered conspiratorially.
Neither of us responded.
Unfortunately, he took that as an invitation to continue. “The Houses aren’t happy so many initiates have died this year.” Maximum shook his head and made a dramatic expression. “Aboutthree die on average, and they’re especially pissed about the Titan attack. Apparently, one hasn’t happened in centuries.”
Yeah, because someone did it on purpose. Also, they keep leaving me notes, which is not weird, unsettling, or concerning at all.
Neither Drex nor I reacted.
Maximum deflated.
Here’s a crazy idea—if they wanted people to live, they shouldn’t have held a massacre to begin with. Just saying.
Instead of turning around and letting us suffer in peace, Maximum turned his full attention to me and shuffled closer. “Are you doing okay, Alexis? I know you have less muscle than the rest of us.”
