I leaned in the doorway. “Can I come in?”
She opened the door wider and gestured with her arm. I entered, my shirt starting to feel a bit constricting at the collar. I pulled at it and looked around. Everything looked the same as my dorm room. I wasn’t sure what I had expected. Maybe pink wallpaper and furry pillows, although Melany wasn’t the pink and furry type at all.
I sat on the floor; I didn’t want to be presumptuous and sit on her bed. She joined me, sitting cross-legged. She peeled off the cupcake wrap and took a big bite. Icing got on the tip of her nose, and I pressed my lips together to stop from laughing.
“What?” She gave me a funny look.
I reached over and wiped the icing off her nose, and then we ate in silence. It was nice to just sit with her and not have to make conversation. When she was done, she licked her fingers clean.
“That was delicious, thanks.” She gave me a small smile.
As she fidgeted a bit, I took the moment to take her in. All of her. She was so different than the girls I was used to. The ones who I grew up with were poised and polished, cultured and refined, raised from day one to be a perfect specimen, devout to the Gods, loyal to family. I saw nothing like that in Melany.
I reached over and touched the dark tattoo winding around her arm. “What does this one mean?”
“How do you know it means something?”
“Because you don’t seem like a girl who does things senselessly.”
“The snake. It means rebirth, an awakening. It reminds me that I can be whatever I want to be. I’m in charge of my destiny.”
“Says the girl invited by a mysterious metal box to train in an army for the Gods.” I chuckled.
“Hey, I chose to come here. I didn’t have to. The invitation is just that, isn’t it? An invitation. It’s up to every person whether to answer it or not.”
I frowned at her. I’d never thought of it that way. Although in my family, there was no question about me coming to the academy. I didn’t think I would’ve been allowed to say no.
I gestured to the others on her arms.
“It’s two ravens intertwined. They’re for my parents, who died when I was little. Some kind of accident I’m told.”
“Oh, I’m sorry.”
She shrugged. “It’s fine. I was like maybe three or four. I was taken to an orphanage. Bounced around from foster home to foster home, until my mother’s estranged sister, Sophie, discovered I existed. She adopted me when I was thirteen.”
“That must’ve been hard.”
“It is what it is. I try not to dwell on it.” She ran her fingers over the last markings on her forearms. “And the skulls… well, I just think they look cool.”
“That they do.” I laughed. “What did your adopted mom say about them?”
“She was fine with them. It was the Demos family that hated them.”
The name sounded familiar. “The Demos’s?”
“Sophie worked for them. We lived on their estate.”
“They have a daughter named… Callie, right?”
She gaped. “Yes. You know them?”
I shrugged. “A little. My father knew Mr. Demos. They did some business together.”
She shook her head. “Wow. Maybe we crossed paths at one of their huge parties.”
“I don’t think so. I would’ve definitely remembered you.”
She blushed a little, and I wanted to grab her leg, pull her closer, and kiss her. The urge raced through me like wildfire. I was surprised how potent it was, how potent she was.
Then another thought intruded. Something someone had said earlier in the dining hall.
“You lived in Pecunia?”
She nodded, her brow slowly furrowing. “Why?”
“It’s probably nothing. I don’t want to worry you.”
“Well, you already have, so you might as well tell me.”
“There’s a rumor going around that Pecunia and a couple other places had an earthquake.”
Her face paled, and I thought she was going to pass out.
Chapter Thirteen
MELANY
“Pecunia doesn’t have earthquakes.” I stared at him, hoping he had misspoke, and he was talking about some other town.
“I’m sure it was just a rumor.”
I jumped to my feet, my mind going a mile a minute. All I could think about was if Sophia was safe. Who would be there to protect her if something happened? “You need to tell me everything you heard.”
“Trevin said he overheard it from someone who had smuggled a phone in. That it was all over the news that Pecunia, New Athens, and Kios had suffered an earthquake.” His brow knitted together. “I’m pretty sure it’s not true.”
“It’s pretty random not to be true, don’t you think?” My heart raced. I didn’t know what to do, but I had to do something. There had to be a way to confirm the information.
Demeter. She owed me one.
“C’mon.” I slid on my boots, heading out the door.
“Where are we going?”
“To find out if it’s true or not.” I didn’t wait for him to respond.
He caught up to me as I pushed through the main doors to the outside and rounded the corner of the building on the cobblestone path. Demeter was exactly where I’d seen her last time, leaning up against the wall and smoking some weed.
She shook her head when she spotted Lucian and I. “Pretty soon, my secret isn’t going to be a secret.”
“I need your phone.”
She made a face. “Any particular reason?”
“I need to see the news.”
Her face changed; it was subtle, but I’d seen it in the slight downward tilt of her lips. She knew what I was after.
“Is it true?” I asked her.
She shrugged. “Don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Look, I know you’re a Goddess, and you could smite me in mere seconds, but I’m asking for you to be a human being right now and do me a favor.”
I felt Lucian tense beside me. He probably thought I was insane to talk to one of the Gods like this, but I didn’t feel like I had a choice.
“Besides, you do owe me one,” I said as a last resort.
Sighing, Demeter reached into her back pants pocket and pulled out her cell phone. She handed it to me.
When I pressed the main button, a news video was paused on the home screen. I pushed play.
“The damage here in Pecunia is devastating. In all my years of news reporting, I have never seen destruction like this…”
The news reporter walked past destroyed buildings, half a cement wall still stood in one lot, debris surrounding it. Behind him downed powerlines sparked. He neared a street sign that was bent in half. I could read the sign though—Homer Avenue. I knew that avenue; I knew that corner block he was moving past. It was just down the hill from the Demos Estate. Callie and I had been there countless times to get iced coffees and cappuccinos.
Lucian set his hand on my arm; he’d been behind me, watching the video over my shoulder. “Are you okay, Blue?”
A sudden coldness hit my core. Was I okay? I didn’t know.
I looked over at Demeter; she’d been watching me. “When did this happen?”
“Yesterday.”
“Would you have told me? Told any of us?”
She looked me dead in the eyes. “What would have been the point? You can’t do anything about it. It would have only interfered with your training.”
I slapped the phone back into her hand, uncaring that she was a powerful being and could destroy me with a blink of her eye. “How do I get out of here?”
She shook her head. “You can’t.”
“I don’t believe that. There has to be a way for us to leave.”
“If you leave the academy, you’ll be immediately expelled and have your memories erased, and you won’t ever be able to go back to your home. You’ll become one of the lost.”
I made a face. “According to the news, I don’t have a home to go to, anyway.”
“Blue… she’s right.” Lucian rubbed his hand over my shoulder. “There’s nothing—”