Total pages in book: 74
Estimated words: 69923 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 350(@200wpm)___ 280(@250wpm)___ 233(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 69923 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 350(@200wpm)___ 280(@250wpm)___ 233(@300wpm)
Alexander laughed so hard, he wheezed. It was an adorable sound that made me want to slap him.
“Goodbye, Alexander.” I took his hand and shook it. “I hope we never meet again.”
“Oh, sweet Aella,” he crooned. “What is it I told you? The fact that you want it makes me disinclined to give it to you. I’m not going anywhere.” His voice reached me over a dull ringing in my ears. “We’re spending the next four years together.”
“Xander? Hey, Xander, over here.”
“You would do that?” I croaked. “Post yourself outside my room for four years just to make sure I don’t run? Does everyone in the army have your dedication to stopping deserters!”
“I’m not in the army. Not yet anyway. I’m a novice just like you.” My sluggish brain recounted his age, placing it smack next to mine. “But it’s cute you think I care about you that much.”
I tossed my head. “Wait. No. If you’re only eighteen, why were you riding with the watchers? Why were Jason and Castor obeying your orders, and how do you have the authority to dismiss him? More than that, what gives you the right to change my sentence and bring me here?”
“Goodness, did you reign as queen of the cave people? I have every right and all the authority. My father is the Zeus councilman, Maximos Damien. He’s leader of the twelve, the most powerful demigod alive, and heads the only high-governing body in Olympia.”
My sluggish mind did more recounting, more adjustments, and did not like what it concluded. I did know of Maximos, but I never heard of his son. The man standing before me.
“Xander!”
“As the one set to take his seat one day, tell me who would dare disobey me?” A slow grin curled those lips. “Or call me a jackass?”
“Xander, did you hear me calling you?”
I looked up as a cloud of rose scent hit my nose, heralding the arrival of the most glamorous woman I’d ever seen. Her flowy, bloodred dress billowed behind her—marking a path through the people stopping and staring. Hair the color of roasting chestnuts fell around her shoulders, framing big brown eyes, an upturned nose, and a small mouth twisted in distaste.
“What’s this?” She raked me up and down. “Go away.”
“Wow. Nice to meet you too.”
She rolled her eyes. “Of course it’s nice to meet me, but I couldn’t give a shit who you are. I said go away.” She shoved my forehead, nearly popping me off my feet. “Come on, Xander. Everyone’s here already.”
She led him off, leaving me the one standing there in shock and confusion. What the hell was that!
I fumed for a full minute. The length of time it took me to peel my eyes off her, and glance toward the gates. The open gates.
My anger faded. Was it that simple? Did I just have to walk back out?
I took a step. Then two. No one called out or stopped me.
Three steps.
Five.
Four—
Grinding to a halt, I spun on my heels as those twenty guards snapped to attention and converged on the gates. The answer was no. It was not that simple.
My gaze drifted to Alexander on its own power. He was standing within a group of three guys and that horrible girl, and he was staring right at me. He saw exactly what I tried to do.
“That was brutal.”
I jumped. “What? I wasn’t doing anything.”
A curly-haired, smiling guy moved between me and Alexander. “You don’t have to be to draw Sirena’s ire. Here’s a heads-up you got the hard way. She’s pretty territorial over Xander. They’re engaged to be engaged to be engaged.”
“I could not care less about Alexander Damien.”
“Then you’re my kind of people.” He threw an arm around my shoulders, giving me my second shock of the morning. “My name’s Theron Zervas. From Trono City. You?”
“I’m...” My brain stalled at the oddness of this random stranger touching and being kind to me after weeks on the run.
“Pausing to make something up?”
I laughed and was shocked I did. It had also been weeks since I made that sound. “No. My name is Aella Galanis. I’m from Port Delphin.”
“Nice. Named after an Amazon warrior. Mother had high hopes for you.”
My smile melted away as quickly as it appeared. Of course it couldn’t last long.
Theron guided me through the crowd of people idling on the lawn and steps. Part of me was curious to ask what we were all waiting for. The rest of me told that part to worry about something important. Who cared about the customs of a school I wouldn’t be attending for long?
“Over here. Let me introduce you to my friends.”
We found ourselves before a small group gathered under the cypress trees. A slim, pretty girl with short brown hair he introduced as Nitsa. The shaggy-haired guy who kept flipping his curls out of his eyes was called Tycho. And leaning against the tree between them was a long-haired girl with a stocky build named Ionna, gazing blankly at the sky. She could’ve been listening to our conversation, or she was in her own world.