“Marigold, where are you going?” I heard Marie call after me, but I paid her no heed.
I had only one mission—catching the cheating demigod, shaming him, and kicking him in the nuts with my stiletto over and over...
I no longer regretted wearing these tortuous shoes. Everything happened for a reason, even wearing a pair of stilettos.
I balled my fists, rushed out the exit barefoot, and scoured the surroundings.
They vanished behind a low-rise building trellised with clusters of ivy and lilac. I hurried after them and rounded the building.
I was quiet, swift, and efficient. My years of hunting experience rushed back. Instead of flushing out game, though, I was tracking a cheater.
Their trail disappeared, then resurfaced on a curved path through the shade of bushes and a few orange trees.
Were they going to fuck in the open, just for the thrill of it?
My nostrils flared, and rage pounded anew in me.
I trekked down the same narrow path they’d traversed, closely following their trail.
The wind sent their giggles back to me.
“You make me shudder with desire, Demigod Axel,” Brittney purred throatily.
Slut!
At a certain point, I noticed that all of the noise, music, and voices from the party were muted. I’d strayed far away from the action.
The pair was leading me toward the south side of the pond where I’d once visited the elemental inside an ancient tree and had a brief, enigmatic, and unsettling conversation with it.
Magic pulsed around me, dark, thick, murky, and potent.
An alarm rang like hell inside my head.
A trap!
Fear washed over me, dimming my blind rage, and clarity started to regain its footing in me.
A chilly realization clicked.
I wasn’t following Axel. Whoever wore his face wasn’t him; they had different power signatures, though they shared the same power grade—the ninth grade.
I’d been lured into an ambush by a demon prince.
And he had brought a small army of powerful mages.
How had they breached the Academy’s wards?
“Hello, Marigold,” a male’s rich, dark voice purred.
Axel and Brittney appeared in my field of sight, his arm still snaked around the first-year student.
Terror and ice coursed through my veins. I tossed my stilettos at the fake Axel’s face and ran.
Only I didn’t get far. My face slammed into an invisible wall. Dark spells twirled in the air, smelling foul and enhancing the dark orb that encased me.
I conjured up my fire and tossed it at the barrier. I had only one urgent purpose—escape at all costs. Yet the barrier didn’t break at my onslaught.
Cold sweat dampened my armpits.