Deadly Game: An Academy Bully Romance (Academy of the Gods Book 3) Read online

  Deadly Game

  An Academy Bully Romance

  River Ramsey

  Copyright © 2019 by River Ramsey

  All rights reserved.

  No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

  Disclaimer: This is a Reverse Harem story, and the third book should only be read after books 1 and 2. Contains MMF, all characters over the age of 18. Readers 18+ only!

  Contents

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  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Epilogue

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  About the Author

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  Chapter 1

  Kore

  “My dear Persephone,” the weird guy in a wizard coat said, his arms outstretched and his piercing red gaze fixed on me. “Welcome home.”

  For a moment that felt like forever, I just stood there staring at him, waiting for the punchline. Or to wake up. I knew for a fact that all of this was a dream, or at least it had begun as one, but it was making my fantasy of front row tickets to every Mets game seem realistic.

  “I’m sorry,” I said, once I trusted myself to speak anything other than gibberish. “Do we know each other?”

  “That’s Ares,” Hades said in a rushed voice, laced with irritation, like I was supposed to know. The news probably shouldn’t have taken me by surprise, but I still felt like I had just been stabbed in the chest as I stared at the man in front of me.

  “Seriously?” I blurted out. I really couldn’t be trusted around royalty.

  At least Ares didn’t seem offended by my bluntness. In fact, if I wasn’t mistaken, there was the slightest hint of a smile on his lips. He definitely wasn’t what I pictured of the God of war and chaos. “Yes,” he answered. “But you may call me father.”

  Father. It occurred to me only then that I’d never actually called anyone that. Not father, not dad, not pops. All my life, it had just been me and mom, and while I knew I had to have a father out there somewhere, knowing and realizing were two different things.

  I realized the other three were staring at me, waiting for my response. I wasn’t sure how I wanted to respond, but I knew I had to say something. “You brought me here, didn’t you?”

  The question seemed to come from nowhere. It certainly hadn’t been a conscious decision to ask, but it was too late to take back now.

  Ares watched me patiently, but I wasn’t about to let my guard down. He’d been banished for a reason. “I did,” he confessed. “I knew the opportunity would present itself during the Games. This is one of Odin’s favorite tricks.”

  “You know about the Games?” I blinked.

  He gave me a knowing look. “What father doesn’t watch his daughter’s performances?”

  I wasn’t sure how to respond to that. I was more hung up on the idea that he’d literally been watching me for who knew how long.

  “You’re close with my father?” Loki asked warily.

  “I was,” Ares answered. “Before he realized Cronus was planning on banishing me and turned away like the rest.”

  I could hear Loki swallow from across the room. “Yeah, that sounds like him. For the record, never really liked him much.

  Hades rolled his eyes, his arms still folded and a defiant scowl on his face. “So you wanted a family reunion. Why drag us into it?”

  Ares’ entire countenance turned icy as he directed his attention to Hades. To his credit, Hades didn’t shrink away the way most would have in his position. Then again, maybe that was idiocy rather than bravery.

  Always fifty-fifty with him.

  “You are her consorts, are you not?” Ares asked.

  For a few seconds, none of them said a word. Loki was usually the first to laugh, but Hades beat him to it. Then again, Loki still looked like he was tempted to bolt for the door and hope for the best.

  “Consorts?” Hades echoed. “Is that some kind of joke?”

  The blank look on Ares’ face made it clear it wasn’t.

  “Hades is the only one of us who’s gotten past first base,” Loki remarked. “I’m afraid you’re mistaken.”

  Irritation flashed in Ares’ eyes, and I couldn’t be sure if it was because of the mention of me fooling around with Hades or the young god speaking out of turn. Maybe both. “Being a consort has nothing to do with that. It’s destiny.”

  “Whatever it is, you’ve got it wrong,” I interjected. “We’re just classmates. And...I’m bound to Hades, but it’s more the other way around.”

  “Bound?” Ares raised an eyebrow.

  “I saved her life,” Hades answered before I had the chance. The scolding glare he shot me made it clear he was still touchy about the whole necromancy thing.

  Ares watched him through narrow eyes and even Hades seemed wary under the intensity of that gaze. “There is a magical link between you,” he said, looking between the two of us. I could see the wheels turning and wasn’t sure I liked where this was going. Hell, I didn’t like where we already were, but I doubted Ares was going to snitch on such menial drama. He had bigger issues to contend with, like the fact that he and his army were stuck in Nowhereland. His eyes widened and something about the shock in them worried me more than his anger had. “He brought you back…”

  “What?” I choked out in a less than convincing voice. “I don’t…”

  “Death,” Ares remarked, reaching out to brush his fingers across my cheeks. His touch was light but cold, sending a chill deep into my veins. “It clings to you.”

  I stepped back instinctively and looked over at Hades. The confusion on his face told me he was out of ideas and excuses, too.

  “You did this?” Ares asked, turning back to my unwanted fiancé.

  Hades didn’t answer for a moment, but he finally overcame his hesitation and said, “Yes.”

  “I see,” Ares murmured, studying him closely. I couldn’t read his expression, but I think I was nervous for Hades, and that wasn’t a position I liked being in. Hell, when it came to Hades, the positions I did like were far more of a concern. “That’s quite remarkable for one so young. Tell me,” he said, turning back to me. “Who hurt you?”

  I was reluctant to answer, but refusing seemed like a bad idea. “A siren,” I admitted.

  “A siren?” He raised an eyebrow and his voice took on a different tone. Disappointment. I’d heard it in my mom’s often enough, but coming from him, it just pissed me off.

  “She got in a cheap shot, okay?” I grumbled. “The point is, whatever you’re sensing, it’s probably just that. Hades isn’t my consort and the other two sure aren’t.”

  Fenrir made a discontented growling sound, reassuring me that his human side was at least somewhat present.

&
nbsp; “You’re mistaken,” said Ares. “If that were true, they wouldn’t be here.”

  For the first time ever, neither Hades nor Loki seemed quick to speak. I decided it was up to me. “What do you mean?”

  “I drew you to this realm through a portal,” Ares answered patiently. “Do you remember?”

  I thought back to the eerie swirling void and shivered. “Yeah, I remember. What does that have to do with it?”

  “Only those with the blessing of the Ether may pass through that portal,” he explained. “As my daughter, you are automatically granted safe passage.”

  “And those who aren’t authorized?” I asked warily.

  “Dissolution,” said Ares.

  I grimaced. I wasn’t sure exactly what that meant, but it didn’t sound pretty. “Then how did they make it through with me?”

  “Only closely linked beings may pass under another’s protection,” Ares said, watching the others with a cold, calculating gaze. “Consorts, thralls, blood servants… the list is short. But perhaps it’s one of the others.”

  “No. No, I’m good with consorts,” Loki said quickly. “Consorts is good.”

  I rolled my eyes. “I don’t understand. Isn’t that like, a formal agreement? I sure as hell never chose them.”

  Hades gave me a frosty glare, as if he wanted this any more than I did.

  “As I said, it is a bond of destiny, not one of choice,” said Ares. “The decision was made for you all before your births.”

  We looked at each other and even Fenrir seemed confused. “You’re saying we’re what, soulmates?” Hades finally asked in a flat tone. He was the only person who could be standing in front of Ares himself and still act bored. I had to admit, I admired his dedication to the careless bad boy schtick.

  “If you wish to call it that,” Ares said, not a hint of hesitation in his voice.

  I was starting to get lightheaded, but passing out was the last damn thing I needed to do right now.

  “You’re kidding,” Loki snorted. When the god of war showed no sign of amusement, he croaked, “Right?”

  A look of confusion suddenly came into Ares’ crimson eyes and he turned to me. “Where is the fourth?”

  “What?” I asked, caught off guard by the question. To be fair, I was still kind of reeling from the whole soulmates thing.

  “There are always four consorts,” he answered. “The soul of the protector split into four quadrants.”

  “Split?” I asked, blinking.

  Ares studied me for a moment. “There are far more pressing things we should be discussing,” he said, his expression softening once more. I wasn’t sure if I preferred this side of him or not. It was bizarre to have him look at me like that, when he was a stranger. “Come. Allow me to show you our home.”

  Our home. The words sounded as foreign as they did bizarre, but I wasn’t going to argue with him until I’d learned a little more about this place and gotten my bearings. Sure, he was playing nice now, but if he was anything like the other gods, that could change at the drop of a hat.

  Chapter 2

  Hades

  “Kore,” I gritted out as soon as I realized she actually planned on going with him.

  “Just stay put. I’ll be back,” she said dismissively. When Fenrir slipped alongside her, she made no attempt to push him away.

  I stewed in the doorway for a minute after they were gone, planning my next move. Before I could form half a thought, Loki interrupted me with, “What the fuck?”

  I gave him an irritated look. He wasn’t saying anything I wasn’t already thinking, but incredulity wasn’t going to get us out of here. “Come on,” I said, opening the door.

  “Where are we going?” Loki asked warily. “Ares told us to stay put.”

  “No, Kore told us to stay put,” I corrected. “Besides, since when do you do as you’re told?”

  “When I’m trapped in the nether realm with the god of war,” he hissed, looking around nervously as he followed me out of the room.

  I rolled my eyes and kept walking down the hall. “There’s gotta be a way out.”

  “So what? Even if we get out of this place, you heard what he said. That portal could blast us back to Olympus.”

  I shot him a silencing glare and continued down the hall. He had a point, but I wasn’t in the mood. If we couldn’t leave, I at least wanted to know the layout of our prison.

  “You think there’s any truth to what he said?” Loki asked, slinking alongside me. “The consort thing?”

  “Of course not,” I snapped. “He’s probably lying about everything. She’s his daughter. For all we know, she’s in on it.”

  “I don’t know. She seemed pretty disgusted by the idea,” he said with a snort.

  A fair point. I didn’t really think Kore was plotting against us, but it made more sense than any other explanation, which wasn’t much.

  “What are you looking for?”

  “I told you. A way out,” I snapped, opening up the nearest door only to find myself confronted with a void even more bleak and piercing than the one we’d come through. I slammed it shut, feeling myself in danger of losing my sanity if I looked too long, and it took a second to get my bearings.

  “What the fuck was that?” Loki cried.

  “How should I know?”

  “Excuse me.”

  The unfamiliar voice came from further down the hall and I turned around to find a tall elven woman with two gray horns sticking out of either side of her forehead, watching us through unnaturally blue eyes. “May I help you with something?” she asked in a softly accented voice.

  “Who are you?” Loki demanded, raising an eyebrow as he looked her up and down. “The ghost of Bambi?”

  She tilted her head but her expression didn’t change. Come to think of it, she didn’t have much of an expression at all and there was something about her pale white skin that didn’t seem natural. The slight shift in her head’s angle made me realize she was wearing a solid porcelain mask.

  At least, I hoped it was a mask.

  “I am Legis,” she answered, her sinewy hands folded in front of her. “Guests of Lord Ares must stay in the residential wing of the castle.”

  “Of course,” Loki said, plastering a fake smile on his face. “We just got turned around.”

  I resisted the urge to call him out on his cowardice, but if this creepy fawn lady was going to lead us somewhere without doors that led into the blackness of space, I wasn’t about to complain.

  When she finally came to a stop in front of a large wooden door, the runes carved in the post above made me wary of going in. “Here are your quarters,” she announced. Without her moving a hand, the doorknob turned and the door slid open, revealing a large room filled with lavish furnishings, including a great four-post bed at the center.

  “Our quarters?” Loki echoed. “As in, there’s only one room?”

  That blank face just stared at us and the only sign of life in it were the piercing blue orbs behind the eye holes that seemed just as unnatural in a different way. I couldn’t see irises or pupils, just...blue.

  And here I thought the Underworld was creepy.

  “You are the princess’ consorts, are you not?”

  Loki opened his mouth to answer and I grabbed his arm, digging my thumb into the meat before he could. “We are,” I said, ignoring his pained hiss as he struggled out of my grasp. “Thanks. We’re good from here.”

  To my relief, Legis turned and walked off, her robes rustling across the stone floor. The sound of her footsteps sounded more like hooves than shoes, but I was trying not to think too much about it.

  “What was that for?” Loki snapped, rubbing his arm.

  “We’ll get more information if we play along, for now,” I told him. “We need to get Fenrir.”

  “If you haven’t noticed, he’s Kore’s loyal hound now, and he’s not much use if we can’t even talk to him.”

  “We’re stronger together,” I muttered. No matter
how long I’d tried to fight it, I could no longer deny that reality. If we were getting out of here, it was as a group.

  Loki shrugged and walked into the room. I followed him, taking in the over-the-top surroundings. Everything was gilded or made of some thick, richly hued wood. It was nothing like the dour catacombs I’d expected the Ether to be, if it was anything comprehensible at all, and I was starting to second guess what my father had told me.

  Not just about this, either.

  “This place isn’t half-bad for nowhere,” Loki said, flopping down on the edge of the bed. “Guess Ares has done alright for himself.”

  “Apparently,” I scoffed. “And from the looks of things, he’s building an army.”

  Loki’s gaze glinted with curiosity, and he didn’t have to voice it for me to know exactly what he was thinking. “Hades...don’t.”

  “Don’t what?”

  “You know what don’t,” he snapped, rising to stalk over to me from across the room. “We’re not teaming up with the damn god of chaos.”

  “He is also the god of war,” I reasoned. “If we’re planning a coup, there are worse people we could have on our side, and if you haven’t noticed, we’re missing an army.”

  “A coup is supposed to be subtle,” he hissed. “An inside job, with a scalpel, not a hatchet. You’re talking about going against your father head to head, with the help of the biggest wildcard who’s ever set foot in Olympus.”

  “History is written by the victor.”

  He scowled. “What the fuck is that supposed to mean?”