Seeing Ember beaten stirred the darkness that always lurked below the surface. Pushing down my anger, I moved to the desk at the foot of my bed and opened the laptop. Since I wouldn’t be going to class, I might as well get some work done. Zel and I owned a company that managed several different businesses dealing with software and security for both the humans and the paras. The company had done well and allowed us to live more than comfortably.
Plus I also liked to dabble in the stock market and was good at it. Then there was our side hustle—bounty hunters for the mage defenders.
The latter kept us from being bored and from getting into too much trouble most days.
“How bad is she?”
I worked my jaw at the sound Zel’s voice in my head. I considered lying, but as my twin he’d know. “Bad enough. She’s sleeping and healing herself.”
The thought of healing made me glance at her. She was still wearing that damned blazer that kept her magic contained. With a wave of my hand, I willed the jacket off her body. It vanished and then materialized over the chair at Zel’s desk.
Ember’s skin glowed then in a mix of orange and blue. I watched the colors and realized it was her two halves. The flames chasing after the ice as the two powers worked to heal her. It was beautiful and amazing. Just like Ember.
Ember
Everything hurt. The potion the four females hit me with made me feel drugged, only worse. It was like I didn’t have control over my body and my thoughts were jumbled, making it hard to figure out where I was. I vaguely remembered the females talking about putting me in a closet. But where?
I lifted one eye lid, then the other. Yep, I was in a closet. The view in front me was blurred and the dull light overhead made my head hurt. How long have I been in there?
Rolling to my side and cursing as wave after wave of piercing pain exploded on each nerve, I got my arms under me and pushed. Nothing happened. Did my muscles not work anymore?
I slumped on the floor, pressing my cheek against the cool title, and closed my eyes.
I wasn’t sure how long I’d been in that closet before I heard the door open, then click shut. The sound jolted me from sleep and fear burst inside me. Did the females return to finish me off? That could only be a blessing at this point. At least, my rebirth would take the pain away and get rid of the effects of the spell from the potion.
A familiar scent wrapped around me, but I knew it wasn’t Lucent. A male voice cursed softly, then hands touched my forehead. I flinched away and curled up into myself. Another curse made me open my eyes again. Through unfocused vision, I saw one of the twins but wasn’t sure which one.
I tried to speak, but nothing came out. I was completely vulnerable and weaker than an infant. No one should see me like this. Pushing at him, with no success on making him leave, I shook my head and mouthed, “Go.”
“Shh,” he cooed and lifted me in his arms. “I got you. You’re safe.”
Karn. It had to be because I didn’t see Zelphar being this caring.
Once he had me settled against his chest, warmth and a feeling of security washed over me. His ash and cinnamon scent filled my senses, comforting me. I was too tired and weak to analyze the feelings this demi-god stirred within me.
I closed my eyes again as he teleported us out of the closet.
The next time I woke, the pain was gone. Well, most of it anyway. It was no longer sharp and crippling. My muscles ached as I pushed myself to sit up on the twin-size bed while noticing the scents of pepperoni and cheese. Was that pizza?
Glancing to my left I saw Karn at a small desk typing on a laptop. Having computers and other devices were against the rules. The point being we were cut off from the outside world so we could focus on being reformed. Or tortured more like it.
How did the twins rank high enough to have special privileges?
He met my stare and smiled while turning his chair to face me. “Are you hungry? I have pizza.”
I eyed the pizza box on top of the other bed and my stomach growled. “They don’t serve pizza in the cafeteria.”
Chuckling, he picked up the box and rolled his chair over to her. “Who said I got it from the cafeteria.”
“You’re not an actual student here are you?” I picked up a slice and took a bite. The saucy, cheesy goodness made me moan. Extra cheese and pepperoni. My favorite.
“That depends on who you ask.”
I studied him while I finished off my slice of pizza. “Why are you here?”
“Zel told you. We tried to kill a mage.”
I glared at him. “I don’t believe you. Try again.”
He shrugged, unbothered by me calling him out on the lie. “We were sent to protect you.”
I wasn’t buying that. There were too many holes in their story. “Who sent you?”
He locked gazes with me and asked, “Why does someone want you dead?”
Instead of answering, I picked up another slice of pizza and took a bite. I didn’t know the answer. Not really. In fact I wasn’t sure I was on anyone’s hit list until the females attacked me.
But there were many possible suspects. Some people believed that I wouldn’t make a good leader but didn’t hate me enough to kill me. The gods had expressed their concern about me being part ice phoenix. But Mom had an agreement with them. She cut ties with Boreas, to keep me from his influence, and I was to check in with Hera on a monthly basis. There were still those who would go against the god queen out of spite. It would be stupid, but not all people have common sense.
At first my meetings with the god queen were a little shaky and there were times I thought I wouldn’t leave her temple alive. After a while, I learned that Hera was teaching me to control my godly ice magic in her own twisted way.
I’d like to think that Hera liked me enough to not kill me, but the god queen had never been very stable when it came to her temper and jealousy.
“Look,” Karn threaded his fingers through his hair, drawing my attention back to him. “We know you are Boreas’s daughter.”
I froze. Zelphar hinted to knowing while we sparred in PE the day before. But hearing the words come from his twin, confirming my suspensions, sent cold dread through my veins.
“He sent you?”
Karn nodded and I let out a soft curse. “Why?”
“All he said was that you are in danger and we need to make sure you graduate from reform school.” He drew his brows together as if in thought.
“And he didn’t tell you why? You and your brother just believed him?” There was something else to their story. “I’m calling bullshit because you and Zelphar don’t look like the types to just do what a god tells you to do. And I know you two are also demi-gods.”
Karn chucked. “We don’t exist to the Olympian gods. We are Zeus’s bastard sons and he does everything in his power to keep us off Hera’s radar.”
His word sent a shot of dread through me. My instincts that said the twins were mine, also told me I had to protect them from Hera as well. I’ll keep my connection to her to myself for now. At least until I figure out a way to keep her from losing her shit when she finds out the twins are my mates.
Shit keeps getting better and better.
I took another bite out of my pizza as Karn continued. “Boreas didn’t come to us. He went to the mage defenders. Caleb got the assignment and recruited us.”