Page 3 of Artemis’ Bow (Halfling Academy #5)

“ W hat if we can’t convince them that it’s not safe outside the wards?” I ask as I lay my head on Jayden’s shoulder.

“I think the Athena students standing behind you will go a long way with some of the others,” Jayden says, gripping my hand and pulling me along outside the cafeteria.

“I don’t know about all that.” Raven sighs. “Did you see Mia and her siblings staring daggers at them? Also, if they’re getting bullied, then it might make them more likely to take the wrong side or just leave altogether.”

“We need to find out what’s happening and who is bullying them for staying behind,” I say, turning to Raven.

“If I find out it’s any of my brothers, I’ll gut them. We need everyone we can get.”

“Agreed on the fact that we need everyone, but we have time to root out the crazy here.” I glance at the others as we make our way to the dorm building.

“We need to make a plan. There’s going to be a weakened god and I’m guessing it’s going to be Artemis.”

“That makes the most sense. She felt weak last time we saw her, and does anyone else get the feeling that the sun should have started setting already?” Adrian says, peering up into the crystal clear sky.

“Why would that matter?” I ask.

“Apollo is the sun and Artemis is the moon. If she’s weakening, this would make sense.” Adrian shrugs.

“That makes a lot of sense,” Thad speaks up for the first time since before the clusterfuck of an assembly. “We need to plan and figure out where her temple might be in relation to the country.”

“I was just thinking the same thing.” I nod.

“Well,” Jayden says, pulling me along, “we’re going to the right place to start the search.”

“One of the upcoming battles,” Raven mumbles. “Are we just speeding up the timeline? They need to be ready for when the time comes.”

“All we can do is hope that the others will take this seriously and start training instead of running.” I shake my head, exasperated.

“Maybe letting them experience the actual danger will make them realize what’s at stake,” Thad says.

“So, we are supposed to let them make stupid decisions and nearly get themselves killed to prove a point?” I ask, narrowing my gaze on him.

“Some people need to see to believe. I can’t help those kinds of people to understand what I’ve experienced because they think it’s an exaggeration.” He shrugs.

“He’s not wrong, Beth,” Jayden whispers. “When I first came to the academy, I had been in the underworld, but I still had some healed wounds and the other students didn’t believe that monsters were attacking me at every turn.”

“My own siblings didn’t believe me,” Raven says. “I didn’t have any wounds but when I got to the academy, I thought everyone experienced the same things I had. I was shocked when so few people spoke in my defense.”

“That Athena girl? She was one of a few who told similar stories about being attacked,” Jayden agrees.

“That doesn’t give me the warm and fuzzies about our chances against half the pantheon,” I say as Jayden opens the door for me.

“They’ll learn,” Adrian says. “I may not have seen it but outside factors are at play for many of them. Especially the Hephaestus and Hermes students.”

“Can you see anything about the upcoming task?” I ask.

“No, but I agree that it’s more than likely Artemis’ item of power that’s been stolen. I fear what my father could potentially do when Artemis is weakened. He could never raise a hand against his twin but if he’s stronger, I don’t know what he’s capable of.”

Silence fills the stairwell as we trudge up to the twelfth floor to my suite. It’s basically become our base of operations. Students hurry up the stairs ahead of us, dipping into the floor they live on with their siblings, and I sigh as Dax and Kira come into view.

“That went well,” Dax says.

“We didn’t plan that out. It was last minute.”

“I wasn’t being sarcastic. The best thing that could have happened did. The Athena students remaining are backing us. That’s huge.” Dax grins.

“Yes, exactly what I was saying,” Raven says. “From a strategic standpoint, that’s the best scenario we can hope for when the time comes.”

“Is what you said true?” Kira asks. “Do you think there are other battles to face before we all actually get to fight?”

“You sound like you’re waiting for battle, not dreading the fight like the rest of the students.” I raise an eyebrow.

“That bitch tried to take out our forge and blow the academy sky-high with the rest of us inside. Hell yeah, I want to make them pay.” She clenches her fists at her sides.

“I can respect that. Most of the students are forgetting that these assholes tried to destroy us all on multiple occasions.”

“Shortsighted idiots,” Dax grumbles.

“That may be true, but they’re scared. College students, no matter the powers they wield, shouldn’t have to fight in a war unless they choose to.” I sigh.

“I get that but at the same time, they have already faced one battle so they should be prepared,” Dax snarls.

I nod. The first battle he faced with us, he was turned to stone momentarily, so he knows more than anyone what’s at stake here.

Everyone fought hard for their lives in that battle, but it was also the first time any of them had seen anything like this and they were at the academy at the time.

That’s why they feel safer outside the academy. I can understand their reasoning too.

It doesn’t mean I have to like it, though.

“I can see both sides, but I hear you, Dax. We’re going to have to find some way to prove it to them that this needs to be done.” I pat his shoulder as I pass them.

“What’s the plan? How can I help?” Dax asks.

Kira elbows him in the gut. “We. How can we help?”

“Other than training, there isn’t much. The war isn’t immediate, but we have to search for the temple of the next god to be weakened.” I lean against Jayden for support.

Even though things are still strained between us because of my own stupid fears and memory of the island of the lotus eaters, he and Raven are my biggest support system right now.

“We can set up a new training schedule for the students who want to fight. My brothers and I can test them and put them in brackets based on skill level,” Dax offers.

“That would be incredibly helpful.” I grin.

I turn to Raven with a raised brow. I never expected Dax to have such helpful suggestions, but I shouldn’t be surprised. It’s something I’d expect Raven to come up with as the daughter of Ares as well.

“I have my mind on the possible mission ahead; we still have time to prepare the masses,” she says as she stomps up the stairs. “But she’s right. That’s a great way you can help.”

“If you guys can do that and get them started on more training that would take a weight off and maybe convince more students that this is the right place to be.”

Jayden puts a hand on the small of my back and guides me up the stairs. I turn and wave to Kira and Dax. Exhaustion weighs heavily on me as I place my hand on my door and push it open.

The locks on our doors only open for us—something about magic signatures. Though as much as my magic has shifted and grown recently, it still surprises me when it opens for me.

“I’m going to get the maps. Do we know where the temple of Artemis was in the ancient world?” I call over my shoulder.

“It was in Ephesus,” Adrian says.

“It was a port city,” Thad agrees. “The city was prone to flooding because it was surrounded by water. Not only the sea but a large river as well. Not sure if that helps. I just know things about the sea.”

“That does help a lot actually. It tells me we need to look at the coastal areas. The problem is that there are a lot of coasts.” I grab the maps and the book from the top of my closet and head back into the main room.

“As soon as we know about where it was, we should be able to narrow it down, B,” Raven says.

She grabs the US map from me and spreads it out across the coffee table. The temples of Ares and Poseidon are marked as well as where we found Delphi on our first mission to save the academy.

That feels like a lifetime. How can it possibly be less than a year? So much has happened since then. We have all changed and grown so much. We went to the damn underworld. We saved four gods and the world multiple times and it’s all leading to a final battle. I’m exhausted just thinking about it.

“You okay?” Jayden asks, squeezing my hip.

“Yeah, I was just thinking about all the things we’ve done.

I tap the marker for Delphi and grin, remembering the stupid rhyming battle. Jayden groans and shakes his head.

“Don’t remind me. Those rhymes were terrible.”

“We should have known then that Apollo wasn’t on our side.”

“What rhymes?” Thad asks.

He fits so well in our group now that it’s easy to forget he wasn’t there from the beginning sometimes.

“Just after the start of term, the Hermes kids went missing and we were tasked with going after them and the lightning bolt. When we were in the mountains of Arizona, we ran into a shifter pack that had some issues with weird magic,” I say.

“They found a fountain at the mountain base, but anyone who got too close would be stuck rhyming. They couldn’t say anything without rhyming. It was rough.” Jayden sits on the floor and pulls me into his lap.

“The alpha asked us to help him and when we realized it was the fountain of Delphi, we knew we were probably the only ones who could help them. We thought it would be easy and it would have been if it hadn’t been for the giant snake that protected the heart of Gaia.”

“A battle ensued and we got too close to the fountain. Needless to say, we ended up affected by the cursed thing.” Jayden wraps his arms around me.

“That was the funniest thing I have seen in my life. Three battle-worn warriors who couldn’t stop with the terrible rhymes.” Adrian laughs.