Ronin pulled me farther behind the DJ's stand.

  And then she walked inside.

  Dominique.

  "Duck." He pushed down on my shoulders until we were staring at speakers and electrical equipment. The DJ himself, a regular dude, ducked underneath his desk and held his hands over his head.

  My heart raced. I breathed in, struggling to hold down my panic. “Wendy. Her friends. They brought them here.”

  “Stay down,” Ronin hissed. "I'll face her. Lend me your magic."

  I didn't have my weapon. I only had Ronin. Reaching out, I linked my hand with his. I could funnel his power, right? Already, nervous electricity raced up my arms.

  Dominique clapped, breaking my focus. “Where is the Chaos girl?” Her sandpaper words raked through the room. Fighting broke out. People hit each other and grunted. The table seemed to fall with a massive thud.

  And then the gym doors closed on their own with a final thud.

  The clouds above forked orange lightning. I held my breath. Our best chance of escape would be for me to give Ronin a boost. Then he could stand up and blast the Lower Order. I could do that among these Olympian students, right?

  But the ice of the void stirred within instead. I was feet from Dominique, who used the darkest of magic. Like attracted like.

  Ronin closed his eyes and flinched. "No. Not that. Focus, Giselle."

  “Well? Where is she? Nobody has to get hurt today.”

  “Back off!” Pamira shouted.

  Ronin flinched. He could feel my darkness growing.

  No. Not here. Dominique would turn me against the others. I could feel it.

  “Charge!” a guy shouted.

  Magic exploded on the other side of the DJ stand. Colors flared. People cried out. And Dominique laughed. The DJ curled into a ball, shaking. The icy plasma rushed down my arms, feeding on the darkness and destruction around me, begging for use. But Ronin squeezed my hand harder. This was the real exam. The real moment of truth I had never expected.

  “Please,” he mouthed, face inches away.

  I dug my fingernails into his hand. The black and orange swirled above, faster and faster. More magic flared and roared. Yellow light. Bolts. Even a rainbow flew overhead and vanished into the thick smoke. Dizziness overtook me. Now I could feel Ronin's power, mixing with my own. Taking a breath, I focused on pulling it into me, and just as electricity surged up my arm and raced to my heart, a bolt of orange struck from above.

  The DJ screamed as the world lit. An incredible force knocked aside the entire stand, guy and all, and threw me. I lost my grip with Ronin. His power snapped away. I slid across polished boards, coming to a stop among thrashing feet, skirts, and dresses. The whole world moved. Black robes fought suits and skirts. The air smelled of ozone, spilled punch, and smoke.

  Despite that, I had my own little space in the middle of the room.

  I pushed myself up. "Ronin!"

  "He's not here."

  Dominique. She stood ten feet away, in front of the now-closed back doors, in her own private bubble. The disco light bathed her in red and blue. Around me, over a dozen fights continued between students and Lower Order members. But none came to me. No magic invaded our private arena. Dominique had control over this bubble.

  It was just me and her. Where was Ronin? I turned my head. Over there, lying against the wall. He blinked, stunned, with a trickle of blood running down the side of his face.

  “Ronin!” I shouted.

  “Oh, do you really want a descendant of Zeus meddling in your business?” Dominique asked with a slowly growing smile. Her tattoos shifted. Already I felt her magical pressure settling down on me, throttling the darkness within. Ronin couldn't help me now.

  "Leave him alone," I shouted, balling my fists. But I was just Giselle. Dominique could make me smaller than Achlys had.

  "They're just going to use you and spit you out again," the witch said, pacing to the side. Dominique stopped. The pressure on me increased as she held me in her glare. "That's what they do. Join us and we'll develop your full potential. We'll--"

  "I know what you want me for." I dared to step forward. Could I use Dominique's powers? Harness the dark magic of Hecate for myself? It might make me mature, but I had no weapon.

  "Smart girl." Dominique held up her hand.

  I could barely breathe. My lungs felt as if they were collapsing.

  An orange glow flared to life around her palm.

  And with horror, I understood.

  She was about to mark me.

  When she did, I'd belong to the Lower Order.

  I backpedaled, reaching for the icy plasma--anything--but just a sputter of darkness struggled under my ribcage. The witch smiled, approaching like a wrinkly predator, and Ronin groaned from the wall. The sound reached me despite all the noise filling the gym.

  "You terrorist!" I shouted. I could run. I had to, but heaviness seized my limbs as Dominique held me with her stare. "You killed those people. Those innocent people. You're disgusting and I'll never--"

  "The world is not as simple as you think!" Dominique's eyes bulged, going from scary to terrifying. She closed the last few feet between us. My arm trembled. Slowly, and against my will, it extended towards her, palm up, as she lowered her hand towards mine--

  And the world in front of me exploded into green.

  The onslaught struck Dominique, throwing her back. Ghostly faces leered. Wailing cries filled the air. A figure in a humongous black skirt stepped up beside me, holding a green, glowing sword complete with skulls and a horrific thrum.

  Wendy.

  She brandished all the might of the Underworld.

  Dominique flew back into the wall, wispy green spirits clawing at her robes. The witch held up her hands, swatting at them as the orange sparks and the clouds above sputtered. At last the spirits scattered, merging with the dark at the witch's command.

  Wendy glowered at me. "You need this."

  She held out the fake Chaos Dagger.

  She had smuggled in weapons under that skirt?

  And she wasn't working with the Lower Order?

  This was what the vision meant. The Lower Order. Me. Wendy. We had to work together.

  I took the dagger. Yes. It was the fake but it beat nothing. Dominique's magical pressure lifted as she took her attention off me, and I could feel the icy darkness I'd been struggling to free spreading through my chest. It was nothing like the time I faced Achlys, but I made a few purplish sparks appear around the tip of the blade. Raising my arm, I pointed my weapon at Dominique, shaking.

  "Make her disappear!" Wendy shouted, pointing her sword. The green glow fizzled out as Dominique stared her down. She could suppress Wendy's powers, too.

  "Get out of here!" I shouted, advancing on the witch.

  Dominique straightened, staring me down. If anyone deserved oblivion it was this terrorist leader. I could eliminate her without going dark, right? I focused on opening a void. A small hole burst to life beside the witch, but as she stared me down, the pressure returned and the hole closed.

  "You don't know who I am, do you?"

  "Leave her alone." Wendy stepped forward, sword thrumming and glowing with renewed light, and as Dominique turned her attention on her, I charged.

  And collided, throwing Dominique back into the wall. Her eyes widened with shock.

  I stabbed into the witch's side and breathed in.

  Wendy held back. Warm blood flowed onto my hand as I dug the blade in, and instantly I felt the dark magic of Hecate. Almost as cold as my own, it glowed within me with a deep orange, and I seized it, growing it, turning it black and into my own. I could sense the roiling clouds above me. I could feel the cold marks on the palms of the Lower Order, binding them all together. The robed man fighting just feet from me. The woman off to the side. And Duncan. He stood beside Wendy, open-mouthed.

  He had been marked after all.

  And it was him who brought the Lower Order here.

  But before my power could flow back into Dominique, I pulled back, taking my dagger with me. It dripped with blood. Dominique clutched her side and eyed me, letting her jaw fall as if heartbroken. Wendy advanced on her, sword raised, ready to finish the job, but the power within me needed a place to go. I couldn't hold back. My skin glowed with an invisible light.

  "Wendy! Back up!" I shouted.

  Just as Wendy looked at me, I grabbed onto those clouds with my mind, shoving energy into them. Orange bolts crashed down, knifing into cold Lower Order marks, singling out the cult members. Power drained from me. Wendy screamed, backing off, as the whole room shook. The force knocked me off my feet. I snapped back to just Giselle as Wendy and I landed beside each other, on our backs, among other falling bodies. Olympian students crashed into each other, but the Lower Order people rose, caught in the maw of the orange bolts. Time seemed to slow as the black-robed men and women--and even the lion shifter I'd seen before--crashed into walls and party tables. And Duncan flew with them, flying towards the refreshments.

  Crashing and screams filled the room. Wendy blinked and grasped her sword, which she'd dropped. Another green glow burst to life around it.

  "What did you just do?"

  The doors to the gym crashed open.

  "Olympian Guard!"

  Men and women in uniform charged into the room, and I pushed myself up. Lower Order members cursed and pushed themselves up from where they'd landed. The lion roared a warning but retreated as he took a shock stick to the side. The clouds above thinned. The gym ceiling came back into view and the air cleared. Feet thudded towards the back door. The Lower Order was fleeing, squeezing through the back double doors like a raging black flood.

  I lifted my head, but Dominique had already vanished out the back exit. Two black-robed men--Alonso and another I'd never seen--seized Duncan's arms and yanked him to the exit as four members of the Guard closed in.

  "Duncan!" Wendy shouted, standing and squaring off with him. "Arrest him! He bombed the bathrooms and brought them here! I can't believe this." She turned away as the Guards chased Duncan and the last of the Lower Order out the back door.

  But as she did, she shot me a nod and smile.

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  The Lower Order and the Guards didn't return. I imagined they were fleeing, scared off by what I had done. The back doors to the gym stayed open to the outside.

  Without Wendy--

  I tried to face her, but she was gone, vanished into the crowd.

  Cheers erupted from the surrounding students. Just as I pushed myself up, arms wrapped around me, suits and dresses closing in from every angle. Wendy had vanished, and I searched through bruised and bloodied faces of god descendants--these were mostly Olympian students--and found her, getting lifted by a bunch of Olympian girls, including the Apollo descendant who had punched me the day of the China attack.

  Hypocrite.

  Hands seized me from every angle despite the bloody dagger I still held. "Let me down!" The glow had vanished from around my skin. I was still mortal. Even that move hadn't matured me into anything. But Ronin was right. There was another side of me.

  I rose, flailing, ears protesting from all the cheering. I found myself crowd surfing above everyone's heads, riding a sea of hands as if I were in a rock concert, and just feet away, Wendy did the same, beaming as they carried her closer to the refreshment table. She was in heaven. They were cheering for us. Both of us.

  Where was Ronin? The last I'd seen him--

  He stood to the side of the crowd, open-mouthed and waving. The blood still ran down the side of his face. He grabbed onto the edge of a still-upright table to steady himself.

  "Let me down!" I had to find my friends, too.

  "Break it up!" Prometheus shouted from the hall doorway. His immortal voice filled the room and overwhelmed the cheering. Until now, he and the other party had been shut out of this gym. "All of you! We need to secure the area!"

  "Come on. Our heroes deserve some recognition!" Pamira, the party girl, held a glass of punch and raised it, but no one followed her lead.

  The hands slowed.

  "We need to sort this out," the principal said. "Two remaining Olympian Guards tell me their comrades are pursuing the Lower Order deep into the farmland, but we can't rule out an agent who might have infiltrated the party. Close the doors and gather--"

  "He's gone!" Wendy jumped down from the stilling crowd, still holding her sword. "I know first years aren't supposed to have their weapons outside of class, but I thought something was weird, and you wouldn't believe me that something might happen today!"

  That I could believe. People let me down, but not fast enough for me to miss the titan's jaw dropping.

  One of his students had helped stage this attack. Now he had to deal with the fallout.

  I wanted away from the Olympian kids. They could attack us all again. But they didn't. We'd fought beside them and they'd seen the guilty party. Or the majority were keeping the nasty minority in line. For maybe thirty more seconds.

  Prometheus cleared his throat. "The party was secret and not officially planned with this facility. The Lower Order shouldn't have known about it unless...Wendy, follow me. Please explain what happened." Shock filled Prometheus's words. Shock, and maybe embarrassment. This had happened on his watch. The gods wouldn't be light on him.

  Some of the Olympian kids muttered.

  I had to come clean. Help Wendy not get all us Cursed kids destroyed.

  I got my footing on the other side of the crowd as Ronin. "It was Duncan," I shouted. "When I attacked Dominique, I felt that all her members were marked, and I felt the same thing on Duncan. No one else here has a Lower Order mark. He was the only one with them." As Dominique's attacker, I had clout, right?

  People stared at me. But no one attacked. Prometheus scratched his chin.

  "These Cursed kids fought Dominique," Pamira said, breaking the silence. "Don't punish them. Don't beat them up."

  "Or I'll egg all your dorms in July," Natalia added.

  And then chatter exploded.

  "They were awesome!"

  "They actually landed blows!"

  "I don't know what this one did, but it was amazing." A guy pointed down at the top of my head.

  Ronin wrapped his electric hand around my wrist and pulled me towards the other side of the gym. "Breathe, Giselle. I know I wasn't awesome during that fight, but now I'm going to be the hero and rescue you from this."

  "Please do. And where are Maria and Mikey?"

  As Ronin pulled me back, Prometheus eyed me for what felt like forever. "They're probably in the other gym. I saw Mikey following Cal in there earlier. That means they're safe. The attack all took place here." He finished by pulling me through a side door and into a narrow hallway. No one was here. The door swung shut, quieting all the excited chatter.

  "Thanks," I said, able to breathe. I held the fake dagger in front of me. "I was able to fight with this. I don't know how I did it. Instead of my dark powers, I was using Dominique's. It was like what happened with you, only I didn't, well, lend her the magic back. And I could sense the connection the Lower Order had with each other."

  Ronin blinked, struggling to focus. "You need to be around us beautiful people more. That helped. I know it did. But you did it without your birthright weapon, which is weird. I've never heard of this before."

  "And Wendy fought beside me. I guess because I didn't kill her yesterday?" Warm hope rose in my chest. "What if we're not enemies anymore?"

  Ronin shook his head. "Someone like Wendy won't let go of that easily. Things might not be that simple. And Duncan. The rat. Telling the Lower Order we'd have our dance here. We don't advertise our dances, ever, so someone must have tipped them off and exploded the bathrooms as a distraction. The boot fits."

  I gulped.

  What if Wendy could help us after all, and not because of blackmail?

  Was it possible Wendy could keep my friends from maturing for a while yet?

  Second Year at Cursed Academy might be very, very interesting.

  "I'll have to catch you up on what happened with Wendy's squad. I never got the chance to tell you the story about how we almost died," I said to Ronin. "I'm sorry I put myself in danger and didn't let you talk that night."

  Ronin grinned. "You'd better apologize." But then his smile faded and he turned away.

  "Ronin?" My chest tightened as he walked off. "Ronin. You're not going anywhere. Something's bothering you. I also have to say I'm sorry I said you had a hero complex."

  He whirled, face full of pain.

  I'd hit the nail.

  "Well, you're right. I do. And it's not just because I'm Zeus's son. Well, I'm a failed hero. I should have--" He leaned against the brick wall.

  "I managed on my own." Ronin's pain thickened the air. "Wait. Does this have to do with...your mother?" I could barely get out the words.

  "Maybe."

  Zeus had mentioned her the night of the party. That she'd been killed by the Lower Order.

  "I couldn't protect her. I should have. They broke in. I was ten and I hid under the kitchen table as...it was horrible."

  I balled my fists, relaxed them, and ran up to Ronin. "You were ten and expected to fight off a bunch of monsters? Lower Order monsters?" I wrapped my arm around his strong torso, feeling him take a sharp breath. "And then Zeus rubs that fact in your face?"

  "Well, he reminds me not to let it happen again. And sometimes I still do." Ronin pulled his face from the wall, pain flashing across his features. But then a tough mask went up and he forced a smile. "Come on. Prometheus will probably want to talk to you about your fight, and probably about how he'll want you to stay on campus all summer. You know what? Scratch that. We need to hatch an escape plan for you."

  * * * * *

  The rest of the dance consisted of people milling around, confused. It turned out Maria and Mikey had been unaware of the fight until after the fact, though they'd heard the explosion in the bathrooms. Olympian Guards had returned from the chase, and Ronin and I overheard radios as they came back, breathless. The Lower Order had escaped, and despite her injury, Dominique had summoned another cloud of dark magic which threw off the Guards' trail. She wasn't dead. Disappointment of the year.

 

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