“Come on, Cookie, let’s go to your class,” Axel said, holding my hand as if I hadn’t issued an opinion.
To my fury, every demigod excelled at brushing aside my protests. If I turned fierce, they’d just seal my mouth shut with their hot lips and wicked tongues.
The Demigod of War escorted Nat, Yelena, and me toward our Combat Class. Marie, who had just been reactivated to her duty as my guard, trailed behind.
CHAPTER 8
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We stepped into theclassroom. All eyes swept to me, many of them staring at my fingers interlinked with Axel’s. I’d thought that at this point, the students would have gotten used to seeing me and the demigods together. Evidently, that wasn’t the case. They probably expected the demigods to dump me any day now and were surprised when my demigods hadn’t done so.
There were about fifty or so first-year students. All of them were parrying with their partners. Demetra and her clique were in the class, too, glaring at me with loathing.
“I thought One-eighth and her evildoer followers were locked up,” I said.
“Obviously they’re out already,” Yelena said drily. “There’s no justice when it comes to the rich and privileged.”
So they hadn’t been onboard with Brittney selling me out to the demons, which was a bit surprising. Maybe Demetra wouldn’t sink that low to consort with demons.
No matter, she was still my nemesis.
I extracted my hand from Axel to flex my fingers, popping my knuckles. I needed a warm-up. I’d been practicing hand-to-hand combat with Axel and learned many tricks I needed to put to use. When it came to learning to fight, I could never practice with Héctor. He couldn’t see me hurt in the tiniest way.
So he’d been advised not to come to my class. If he saw anyone had left a bruise on me, even in a practice, he might go off and kill that person.
Everyone was terrified of him.
“Who are you looking at?” Axel snapped at the students. “Keep practicing!”
All the students turned away and resumed their parrying.
“They’re late,” Demetra murmured. “Shouldn’t they be punished?”
“Silence!” the instructor barked.
Demetra ceased complaining.
I’d never met this new instructor. Cameron had mentioned that the Dominion officers rotated to train the students when they weren’t on the battlefield.
This instructor looked a lot like Cameron, with the same military crew cut and a hard jaw, but he was leaner and meaner. He also stood straighter and taller than Cameron. I should tell the lieutenant about that next time I saw him so he could make some improvements in his stance.
The instructor pointed at us. “You three, get in line.”