Page 10 of Fallen Gods

One thing’s for sure. Rey Stjerne can burn in hell.

And maybe she will.

If I keep my distance. If I can stay in control.

Although, with my heart hammering like it already knows what’s coming, neither feels likely right now.

Chapter Four

Rey

My father’s car fades into the distance, but I don’t look back. I keep my eyes shut to center myself. I’m equipped for this. The air shifts, subtle but undeniable, and I can feel the charge beneath the surface. There’s a storm coming.

I open my eyes when a group of students walks past me. I need to get moving before more rain hits.

I grab my bags and start toward the dorms. I haul the trunk behind me, its wheels dragging over the stone like it resents being here as much as I do.

Just then, a breeze kicks up, lifting strands of hair across my face. The lake on my left doesn’t ripple. Doesn’t move at all.

I follow the shoreline with my gaze and finally take in the campus buildings, reallyseethem—and what stares back doesn’t belong in this world.

Endir’s campus rises out of the landscape like it was never built—justunearthed. It’s a mixture of buildings from the eighties scattered in between older-looking ones that aren’t even dated. Most of the questionable buildings are carved from some unnamable black stone, slick with age and myth, rumored to be the last thing the Gods or Giants shaped before the world tore itself apart. Behind them, the mountains loom, massive and unyielding, like sentinels keeping watch over something too old to name and too dangerous to forget.

My father says the oldest structure can’t be carbon-dated, but considering the source, I file that under maybe true, maybe propaganda. Either way, it doesn’t matter. The place feels ancient in a way that makes my skin itch.

This isn’t a normal campus.

And most of the students walking across it aren’t normal, either—even if they think they are.

A few, like Aric, are here for reasons they’ll never understand. The rest? For the most part, trust-fund humans pretending their bloodlines didn’t buy them a seat at something holy.

I walk along the stone pathway with my bags and almost trip when a wheel gets stuck in a groove. Looking down, I see that etched into one of the small cobblestones is a mark shaped like the rune Thurisaz. Wow, fantastic. I’m only a few minutes in and already I’m greeted by the rune that represents destruction.

My father always said there were twenty-six runes, each with different meanings and abilities. Humans, of course, are only aware of twenty-four of them. Regardless of the number, though, I’m really not a fan of running into this specific one.

It’s not like I needed a reminder of how dangerous this is.

I can’t help glancing around to see if I’ve triggered some sort of waiting trap, but no. Just another cool breeze hitting my skin greets me. Thank the Gods.

Is this how the entire semester is going to be? Wondering what’s safe and what’s not? Always looking over my shoulder, doubting everyone and everything? I didn’t expect even the air to taste different here, but it does. My father said the bag he gave me had all the information I’d need to complete my mission. Yet I’m only a few minutes in and already thinking he exaggerated.

Maybe that’s why he didn’t step foot on campus.

I wonder.

Is this school protected from him? From us?

I sidestep the rune and shake my head. I didn’t think to ask my father, but the question gnaws at me now. I grip my bags tighter, reach for my trunk’s handle, and start walking again toward the door to the dorms. Students are everywhere, smiling under the bright signs welcoming them to Endir like it’s going to somehow change their lives.

I’d laugh if my sense of humor still existed.

A lanky redhead bumps into me, and he pauses to mutter, “Oh, sorry.”

His eyes roam up and down my body. Nope. Not today.

I’d like to think that I’m good at keeping my emotions in check, so I merely tilt my head and do what I do best—I charm him. “Don’t worry about it. I wasn’t watching where I was going.”

His brown eyes widen. “Oh, um, right, okay. But I really am sorry. What’s your name? Are you new?”