Page 33 of Fallen Gods

I slowly look down at mine.

It’s covered in fucking ice. Completely covered, as if I’ve just dipped it into water and frozen it.

I drop the candle immediately and stomp on it, breaking both the candle and the ice wrapped around it. The last thing I need is Odin’s daughter seeing it. “What’d I say? Dumb.”

Rey does the same and rubs her hands against her pants. “Yeah, weird. Mine didn’t even last. Guess I’m forgotten. Too bad.”

If I didn’t know better, I’d think she looks a little sad.

Reeve groans. “The stupid mist rolling in blew both of them out. You should go again.”

I level him with a hard look. “If you’re so obsessed, you go. I’m headed to bed. It’s been a long day.”

My hands shake the entire walk back to the dorm. It was just a stupid cold snap.

I repeat this in my head over and over again as I make my way to my room. I’m still muttering it as I change and get into bed. I’m still repeating it when I hear Rey’s door open and close and when she finally rustles herself into bed. I turn toward the wall and stare at it. She can’t get comfortable, either.

Annoyance hits long and hard when the sounds of her flipping over only to flip again drill directly into my brain. I’m half tempted to bang on the wall and tell her to lie still before I strap her to her bed. But then a flurry of visions ofactuallyholding her down in that bed and pressing my mouth against hers fills my brain.

I jerk to a sitting position and smack my face. “No. Nope. None of that. No.”

“Stop talking!” Rey yells from her side of the wall, banging with each word.

I bang right back. “I wasn’t talking to you!”

“Then stop talking to yourself! Some people need sleep!”

I’m going to kill both her and Reeve at this point. “You stop yelling.”

She pounds the wall again. “Sleep.”

She says it like a command, and I find myself lying down in obedience, staring at the stupid wall. Again.

“Ass,” I hear her say under her breath.

That’s it. I raise my middle finger toward the wall.

One whole semester.

Only one of us is going to survive.

I gave her a chance to run years ago.

Now I’ll feel zero guilt over a little blood spilled, because she was foolish enough to stay.

Chapter Fifteen

Rey

“Most of the Giants are sleeping, along with the Gods.”

“But why?” I ask.

My father’s grin is menacing.

“Because they have no choice.”

My alarm jolts me awake from my dream, and not for the first time, the familiar tune makes me want to hurl my phone across the room. Why I thought it would be a good idea to use Simon and Garfunkel as my wakeup call is beyond me. I mean, “The Sound of Silence”?