“Just having a smoke. Talking to Melany.”
He swung his head my way. “Hello, Melany.” He drew out every consonant in my name. “Your aura is funny. It’s black.”
“She died today.”
His eyes bugged out. “You did? How marvelous. What was it like?”
“Um, I don’t really remember it.”
He scrunched up his face. “Pity. I would’ve loved to hear all about it.” He crushed Demeter to his body. “Let’s go party. I made the most amazing hooch.”
“Last time I drank your hooch, I had a rash for two weeks.”
“No, this batch is good. Trust me. I already drank half of it and I’m fiiiine.”
Demeter looked at me. “I’m going to take this one back to his place, so he can sleep it off. You should probably get back to your dorm before curfew. Oh, and I’d really appreciate it if you kept all this to yourself.”
“Yeah, no problem. Good night.” I turned to go back to the main doors, when Dionysus grabbed my arm.
“Aren’t you coming with us, luv?”
Demeter pulled him away. “She can’t come with us. She’s a first year recruit and has to get back to her dorm.”
He nodded. “Riiiiiiiight. I knew that.”
They started to walk away when Dionysus swung back around toward me. “I know what it is about you. Your tattoos are dancing.”
“I think it’s just your eyes, Dion.” Demeter waved at me to continue on, as she guided Dionysus around to the back of the school.
Freaked out by the encounter, I ran back to the main doors. There was something about the way Dionysus looked at me that made me uneasy. Not like he was creeping on me or anything, but he saw something odd about me. Both Demeter and Dionysus spotted something different about my aura. I didn’t know much about auras, but I knew everyone had one, and different colors had different meaning.
I knew red indicated love and compassion and sometimes anger, yellow meant optimism and intelligence, green meant balance and nature, white, of course, indicated truth and purity. But black, black was not a color a person wanted in their aura. It could mean lots of things like pent up anger and grief, maybe some health problems. And death. Black was the color of shadow and darkness and the eternal abyss.
I hoped it was because I’d died but had come back, and whatever energy required for my resurrection still lingered over me. And not because Death hadn’t finished what he’d started.
Once inside the academy, I dashed up the stone staircase and down the long corridor toward the dorm. The lights along the wall appeared dimmer. Every one of them flickered as I passed by. Darkness seemed to be growing along the floor and up the walls. I heard whispering from the shadows.
I stopped and peered into the darkened corners. “Are you playing some kind of game, Erebus? You’re wasting your time if you are.” A shiver rushed down my back.
A form flickered in the shadows. Someone was moving inside the darkness. I took a step closer. “I can see you. You’re not scaring me.”
More whispers sounded in my ears, prickling the back of my neck. I spun around, expecting someone to be standing behind me, but there wasn’t anyone. I was still alone in the corridor. Except I didn’t feel alone. I was being watched.
I turned back to the deep shadows along the wall and swore they had swelled farther along the ceiling and the floor. It was like a slicker of oil slowly rolling toward my shoes. A voice in my head told me to run, but there was also another presence urging me to step into the darkness.
Like a siren’s song, I felt compelled to move forward. I stared even harder into the shadows, seeing a face forming from the ink. It was a nice face, a welcoming one. I smiled. Then I lifted my leg to take that step.
“Mel?”
I felt a tug on my hand.
“It’s curfew. We need to get to our room.”
There was another tug on my hand, and I was suddenly moving sideways.
The spell broke, and I turned to see Georgina leading me back to our room. Before she yanked me inside, I looked over at the shadows once more, and spotted a form standing in the dark, and he was smiling back at me.
Chapter Ten
MELANY
The next few weeks just floated by in a bit of a fuzzy haze. Ever since the accident in elemental class and the strange occurrence in the hallway, I’d felt different. Something had changed inside me, and I wasn’t sure what it was. The one thing I did notice was that some of the classes became easier.
I no longer missed the targets in archery. In fact, I hit the bullseyes often now, to the delight of Artemis and chagrin of Revana. She’d made her loathing of me known on more than one occasion, especially if I excelled at something she didn’t.
And I was getting the hang of metallurgy. It helped that I seemed to have an affinity to fire, which had showed itself in elemental class before I got electrocuted and died. The shield I was crafting in class looked the best out of the entire first years. Hephaistos had even gifted me with some praise in the form of a few non-guttural grunts and a hearty slap on the back that nearly toppled me over.
Spears and shield class still proved difficult, but I think it had more to do with the fact that Ares seemed to have it in for me. He took great pleasure in whenever I failed at something. I’d gotten stronger, though, so holding up the shield was a lot easier, and I was decent protecting myself with it. I still struggled a little with holding and maneuvering the spear. I suspected I was going to be much better at handling a sword, and was eager to prove that theory when we had swordplay class next term.
I also saw a jump in improvement with hand-to-hand combat training. Lucian had mentioned it during one class right after I flipped him over onto his back in one quick move that he hadn’t seen coming. Heracles had laughed with delight after that, which embarrassed Lucian. His cheeks had flared red.
I thought for sure he ‘d be all sulky after that and maybe even be a jerk to me, as most boys would after being bested by a girl, but to my surprise and pleasure, he asked me to show him how to do the move. We even practiced it a few times after class until Heracles kicked us out.
During that time, I’d been ultra-aware of everything about Lucian, especially when our bodies pressed against each other during the actual flip, and after when he wouldn’t release my wrist right away. His touch continually made my body tingle and my head fuzzy, which was why I avoided him at all costs outside of the classroom.
When we weren’t in classes, Georgina, Jasmine, and I spent our time together either in our rooms eating and playing cards, or down in the common room where once or twice Dionysus would show up with some new song he created and make us listen to it on repeat. Those were fun nights and made me forget about the odd sensation growing inside of me. Every now and then, I’d catch Dionysus looking at me funny, and I wondered if he still saw my tattoos dancing and a dark aura hovering around me. I never asked, though. I was too afraid to.
I yawned again, as we made our way through the academy to the Hall of Aphrodite for our transformation class. The word was that the Goddess never left her gilded hall. I knew that was a lie, as I’d seen her skulking around with Ares on my first night at the academy. But I kept that information to myself.
“Are you still not sleeping?” Georgina gave me a concerned look.
“I’m fine. Just woke up a little earlier than I wanted.”