Descendants Academy: Young Adult Urban Fantasy, Belle Malory [motivational novels for students .txt] 📗

It’s funny how being his friend had gone from hard to pretty much impossible in the span of a few stolen moments. I hadn’t wanted to lose our relationship altogether, but it felt as if we just severed whatever remaining threads were tying us together.

Before Xander left, he touched the side of my face, his fingertips softly brushing down my neck. His voice came out choked. “I’m sorry, Sheridan.”

When I opened my eyes, he was gone.

34

After that night in my dorm room, Xander no longer tried to follow me. We both stayed as far away from each other as we could, never crossing paths, even in passing. It was painful, and I missed knowing he was there, but I was glad he was back to his normal, uncomplicated routine.

Or at least, that’s what I told myself anyway.

I poured through more books from Arcadia’s library. At first, I wasn’t sure what I was searching for, but eventually, it hit me. Maybe if I knew enough about magic, then I could figure out a way to break this curse myself. Maybe the answer didn’t lie in any potential cures, but in using my own knowledge, my own resources…I thought of Riley and sighed. Crazily enough, I wished she were here. I wished I could ask her to help me figure it all out. Even if we couldn’t find the answer, she always had a way of making me feel like she could handle anything the world threw at her.

Over the weekend, House Ares held a gladiator contest, and the whole school, along with hundreds of visitors from neighboring islands, went to the amphitheater to watch. According to Ione, this was no ordinary high school event; the contestants fought real, flesh and blood conjured monsters. Only seniors or mastery students were allowed to enter, the majority coming from House Ares, but every house was included. In past years, gladiators had been severely injured, scarred, and in rare instances, killed. The worst part? Xander was fighting.

As soon as Ione told me, I felt nauseous. I knew it was something he’d done hundreds of times, something he trained for on a daily basis, but this was different. There was a possibility he could die, and that was terrifying. I spent the entire morning pacing inside my dorm room, struggling to get a grip.

I needed to get out of there. I felt like, if I could just go and watch Xander, everything would be okay. Pure craziness, of course. Like I could offer some sort of magical protection—clearly, I had issues. But I was determined to go. Besides, he wouldn’t even notice me in the huge crowds.

“We’re supposed to watch from the Aphrodite box,” Ione said, curling her hand to inspect her manicure as we headed toward the amphitheater. “It’s tradition.”

I shrugged, not caring one way or another. “That’s fine.”

She dusted off the bottom of her toga, redoing her hair as we walked, first into a braid, then into a ballerina bun at the top of her head. For someone usually so poised, she seemed super fidgety. Now that I thought about it, she took an unusual amount of time getting ready back in our dorm. It drove me crazy because I was trying to hurry.

“Who are you trying to impress, Ione?”

“No one.” She spoke too quickly, and we both noticed it.

Ha. Slipping up that easily meant she was super nervous. “And will no one be sitting with us in the Aphrodite box?”

Her eyes flashed, and I just chuckled.

“Fine, keep your secrets.” I didn’t have the energy to pry it out of her anyway—I’d try later, when I wasn’t consumed by thoughts of Xander being chomped to death by fangs the size of hammers.

“You know all of my secrets,” Ione said, clearing her throat. “Come along, or we’ll miss the opening ceremony.”

I rolled my eyes. Like she cared about that or any other part of the fights. Ione was more of a champagne and party kind of a girl—she had mentioned more than once that fighting was not her thing. Even she couldn’t believe her own brother ended up house leader of Ares. Had I not been so focused on getting to the amphitheater on time, I might have mentioned that. Instead, I offered a peace token.

“Your hair looks nice when it’s left down. Flowy blonde locks are your best look. It makes you seem approachable.”

“I didn’t ask for your advice, Sheridan.” Straightening her shoulders, she walked ahead of me. Two seconds later, her hair shifted into the style I suggested.

I shook my head and hurried to keep up, making a mental note to watch who she interacted with inside the arena.

We climbed dozens of steps to get to our box, out of breath by the time we’d made it. The view was worth it though. Aphrodite students claimed the midcenter of the stadium seating, because apparently, it was tradition to throw flowers to the gladiators for good luck.

Flowers. I snorted. That was just the kind of thing they would put us in charge of.

Someone handed me a program leaflet, and I combed through it as Ione walked around the box, catching up with all of her friends. I glanced at all the names, trying to find Xander’s, along with the names of all of the monsters. I’d impressed a book from the library that gave my brain a detailed list of monsters, along with their strengths and weaknesses.

Hark Lillen was up against a red-tailed griffin. Not all griffins were mean, but the red-tails were vicious. They clawed out their prey’s eyes before delivering a killing blow. Next, Bartholomew Steep was fighting a Cerberus, a three-headed hound from the Underworld. Elaina Gyre would fight a hydras—yikes—snakes gave me the heebie-jeebies.

I skipped down the list, all the way to the bottom, to the grand finale. There.

Alexander Arius was fighting a…a graptor!

Rage boiled in my veins as I crumpled the program into my fist. As strong