My whole body thrummed on the edge of a precipice. It was a delicate balance of my own screaming instincts to claim, to possess, and those more rational ones that told me wanting her was a bad fucking idea.

  She was too innocent, too pure. Still I could not deny that she called to me.

  I had to fucking deny it.

  I was her professor and, now, Olympic trainer.

  I slapped the leather against the palm of my hand. The sound resonated around the open training space. Four crumbling pillars erected at the corners of the large square we stood upon. The ceiling had long since fallen, so sunlight touched down against the marble, causing it to shine.

  We were far away from the Academy, in old ruins on the outskirts of the island on a cliff that overlooked the ocean and jagged rocks. Threads of golden and blue water pushed through the sand and poured over the edge in a glittering waterfall.

  My voice could be heard over the roar of it.

  “Each of you will receive a new arm band.” I held up the leather in my hands. It was a strip of white threaded through with golden rope. “These arm bands mark you as Elite students. Do not forget it is a symbol and an honor to wear these.” Mine seemed to burn on my bicep. Not in pain, but something else; a fierce sort of pride.

  I gestured along the long line of students to come forward and take their bands. I slapped one after the other into their awaiting hands. When Calliope—Miss Solandis—came up for hers, I tried not to linger on the lavender scent that emanated from her body as her fingers grazed along my skin.

  How was it that the simplest thing like a touch could make me ache for her? I avoided looking at her altogether, afraid that if I did, others would read what I was fiercely trying to hide.

  After every student filed down a line and tied the arm bands around their biceps, I got down to business. My hands clasped behind me at my lower back, I walked down the line of them. “If you think your classes thus far have been difficult, you’ve seen nothing yet.”

  I could feel a sliver of trepidation slide down the lot of them. Good.

  “As you’ve already been informed, there will be four stages of the Olympic competition. In each stage, only a handful of you will pass. For each round you win, a new arm band will be given to you to commemorate the moment. Right now, you are Elite students, but those of you who are chosen as Elite Sons will also have the honor of wearing triple arm bands to mark your rank.”

  In Atlantis, more specifically within the Sons, rank was everything. There’d been a time when I’d been the lowest of the low. A poor orphan from Atlas Island with nothing and no one to grieve over me. I fought for scraps of food and in that orphanage, like in life, it was only the strong who survived.

  And I’d survived by the sheer force of brute strength, will, and intelligence.

  They’d need all these things if they wanted to win the Olympic games.

  “If you want to win, you will have to leave behind everything you think you know about your training. From now on, everything will become even more brutal if you want to survive and impress. I will teach you how to do that. If you listen to me, then you will win. If you do not...” My smile flashed, and it was cold and cruel. “You’ll turn in your arm bands with shame.”

  I saw some of them stand firmer, some swallowed, and others schooled their expression into one of determination.

  “Every day you will learn something new, secret maneuvers and methods that the other students are not gifted with yet. Because you are Elites now, anything that transpires within this training area is bound by magic and secrecy. No one can know of it. Is that clear?”

  “Yes, sir!”

  The Academy had a lot of secrets and so did every sector, every God, and every acolyte. Some of them were so fragile, not even the most powerful priests and priestesses were allowed to know them. Some of that magic, the magic of warriors, belonged solely to us. That’s what I would be teaching them, what I would make them master. Magic, strength, body, mind, spirit…. It all tied together in the end.

  “I want you all to prepare a speech. Every day, write on a piece of parchment why you think the oracle chose you as an Elite. What do you have to contribute to the Empire? Don’t show them to anyone as these are for you only. By the time the competition is over and the winners announced, I want you to take out every scrap of paper and read what you wrote and remember.”

  Their murmurs of agreement rose up.

  A piteous, weak sound.

  I slashed a glare at them all. “What was that?”

  “Yes, sir!”

  I nodded. “For now, you are dismissed. Report here tomorrow after your classes so we can begin our training. Come prepared, for I will not tolerate the words ‘I can’t.’ This is a new league, and I expect the best from each and every one of you. Class dismissed.”

  They saluted in the regular gesture, fist against their hearts before they left, climbing down the slope of sand and rock to make their way towards the Academy. One person lingered. Even when I turned to face the crashing waves of the ocean beyond, I felt her presence sidle up behind me. Her footfalls were silent and graceful, yet I still felt her there. Every hair along my body rose at her proximity.

  I could almost feel her indecisiveness, her desire to place her hand on my shoulder.

  “Can I help you, Miss Solandis?” Saying her name like that was a cold reminder to us both of our positions. Professor and student. Nothing else.

  She was silent for so long, I turned to face her. It’s what I didn’t want, because she always looked so vulnerable and so strong, but I forced my features to harden.

  Professor. Student.

  Professor. Student.

  That’s what I had to look at her as. Not someone beautiful with so much emotion worn plainly on the features of her face, not someone I could get close to and hold, not someone who smelled like lavender and the salt of tears and the sea or who fit almost perfectly against my body. She had potential and pride within her in equal measure, and I wanted to see her blossom.

  As a student.

  My eyebrow rose in the same mocking gesture I used on everyone else. “Yes?”

  “You seem upset with me.” She almost sounded hurt.

  I tried to look careless. “Now why would I be upset with you, Miss Solandis?”

  “I just wondered if you were angry about what happened between us…”

  Rage built up in me. It wasn’t directed at her, and honestly, I wasn’t even sure why it was there. Perhaps it was the indecision on her vulnerable face warring against her own anger she should rightly feel.

  Maybe I was just pissed at myself for doing that to her in the first place.

  The feelings inside me came out in arrogant posture and words. “Between us? Miss Solandis, nothing happened.” It was better this way. To hurt her and push her away, lest she get too close and tumble down everything I’d ever built for myself: my position as a Son, as a professor here at the Academy. I had to let her down. She had to walk away from me because if she didn’t...I just might fall.

  At my words, her whole demeanor changed. She didn’t break down or roll over and take it. Something as cool as ice swept over her entire body. It was like an entirely new person stood before me. She was perfectly composed and demure. Nothing like the talented, fierce woman I’d come to know in my class, but a lady of high society.

  “Of course, Professor. I just wanted to make sure we were both on the same page.” Even her voice sounded different. Distant.

  I wanted to grab her by the arms and shake that tone out of her. She wasn’t biddable, so why was she acting like it?

  Because I’d pushed her into it.

  I hated myself right then.

  Still, I smiled with all of my teeth, and I was sure it looked more like a grimace. “We are. It’d be best if you retired with your classmates now.”

  She bobbed into a curtsy and tilted her head. “Of course.” She turned and walked away.

  I tore my gaze away before I could watch her walk away from me. Because if I didn’t have to watch it happen, I didn’t have to feel the ache of abandonment in my heart. I wouldn’t have to feel like I was the one being left behind when it had been my decision to leave.

  This was for the best.

  So why did it feel like I was making a mistake?

  Chapter Four

  Calliope

  The face of the perfect, demure Solandis daughter fell over me as easily as breathing. I was good at molding myself into the role everyone always thought I was meant to have. I just never imagined it would be something I’d wrap around myself around again. Not now when I was so obviously meant to be a warrior. I thought I’d put that facade behind me the moment I’d sailed past the statue of our God and into Triton’s Academy.

  Evidently not.

  It didn’t matter how hard I tried to run or swim away from that part of myself, it seemed to haunt me like a sticky shadow that clung to my body. A ghost, a phantom.

  And yet part of it was still necessary and comforting, however poisonous it may be. I was used to poison by now, used to taking it in the smallest of sips so my body grew used to the sensation.

  It was how I kept the heartbreak and disappointment at bay.

  Logically, I knew Professor Elara and I would have nothing, but my body still felt his kisses, his touch as vividly as it felt Rafe’s.

  Yet neither of them were speaking to me momentarily.

  The boat ride back, I’d tried, but the moment I stood next to him and reached for his hand, he’d pulled away with a glare.

  “I’m too tainted to touch in front of your family, but in private I’m at your beck and call?” Those were the only words he said before he’d turned and stalked away, leaving me staring at his back, ever the damn fool.

  I knew I’d hurt him. Such a simple action had such a lasting effect on such a big man. I knew his insecurities, his secrets, and even if I hadn’t told anyone, I’d still betrayed him with my actions. By pulling away, by leaning away from him, I’d broken him.

  Just when everything felt like it was piecing together, it now seemed to be falling apart in fractures, in fraying edges, and the only way to fold it back together again, to keep my heart whole, was to fall into the only role I knew how.

  Perfect.

  My fingers grazed along the outside of my thighs, grasping for imaginary cloth as if I would hold up the silk of my skirts from snagging against my feet. Instead, I dug them into my skin as I made the slow descent down the rocky slope and towards the beach, following the pathway that would lead back up to the Academy.

  The island was composed of cliffs, slopes, jungle, and golden rivers. It was like the very earth and water beneath my feet breathed with magic and pulsed with life. I tried to focus on that while my body emptied myself of the heaps of emotions inside.

  I pushed aside hanging leaves from palm trees, one after the other, until I came face to face with Maksim.

  I jerked back, a gasp rising in my throat, my hand pressing against my neck. “Triton, Maks. You scared the shit out of me.”

  He laughed, emerging from the trees with a mischievous gleam in his eye. “Not very lady-like, is it? Do you women even take shits?”

  I shook my head in disbelief. “I do not want to discuss female bowel movements with you.”

  He pulled me towards him, wrapping his arm around my shoulder and pulling me down the pathway alongside him with comforting familiarity. “Come on. It’s been a curiosity of mine for, like, ever.”

  I rolled my eyes. “You spend your days thinking about whether or not females shit?” Charming. And yet a smile still trembled at the edges of my lips.

  “Well, you all act so demure like it’s beneath you, so I just thought your bodies rejected fecal matter.”

  I pulled away to cover my palms against my ears. “Please, Maksim, please stop talking about this.”

  “Not until you answer the question!”

  “Yes, females shit, fart, piss, burp, fuck, swear, and all the things you males do. We’re just infinitely smarter and discreet.”

  Maksim burst into laughter, his shoulders rumbling. “I just really wanted to hear those words come out of your mouth.”

  I shoved my elbow into his side. “Jerk.”

  I suddenly felt more lighthearted with Maksim at my side, like all my worries were blown away by a tugging, playful breeze. He was his own special kind of magic, and I relished in every bit of it.

  He offered me his arm, and I slipped mine into it easily enough. “All joking aside, are you okay, Cal?”

  I almost slipped on a rock, but Maks righted me. I didn’t answer until we reached the bottom of the slope and my feet sunk into the sand. “I’m fine.”

  “Mhm. Is that why you looked so troubled on the boat ride back? And when you were listening to Professor Elara? And just now when walking down the hill?”

  Maksim’s insistence made it difficult for me to empty myself of emotions I didn’t want to feel. He made me feel them. They began slipping out of me suddenly, and I couldn’t hold them back. Not in tears, but in the trembling of my body, the tightness of my locked jaw.

  Maksim’s fingers kissed the inside of my wrist lightly, and the gesture was so, so comforting. Slowly, his fingers threaded between the spaces of mine, and I felt the subtle scent of magic wrap around me. It smelt like citrus and coconut and tickled my nostrils.

  It was surprisingly calming.

  Lights danced around us as bright as glittering gold.

  “I have an idea.” He dropped his voice to a whisper. The sound was almost conspiratorial. “Let’s have fun.”

  “I didn’t know that was possible at this Academy,” I retorted.

  He suddenly changed directions, hauling me back towards the jungle until we were swallowed up by the trees. He took so many turns that I lost count and didn’t know where we were until we burst from the greenery and into a grassy clearing. Sunlight filtered through the tops of tall trees and basked along the floor in its golden, buttery glow. Wildflowers grew along thick, slithering vines that twined around branches and trunks of the trees.

  My breath caught in my throat.

  “Awesome, right?” Maksim tugged me into the middle of the clearing. “I couldn’t sleep so I wandered around and found this place. It’s secluded and perfect for shenanigans.” He let go of me and twirled in a few circles before running and jumping towards the trunk of a tree, gripping onto a vine. His muscles flexed as he pulled himself up and swung his legs over a branch.

  I watched with amusement as he climbed higher and higher… And then he slid back down one-handed; in the other he held a hand of bananas.

  He lifted his findings up with a proud smile spread across his mouth. “Look! Free lunch!” He pulled two off as he walked towards me and handed one over, and then he took a seat in the grass and patted the spot next to him.

  With a smile, I sat next to him, tucking my legs beneath me. “We could easily get free lunch at the Academy,” I said, even as I began peeling the banana.

  “Yeah, but this is better. The noise can be drowning sometimes.”

  “Yeah.” It could be. I didn’t know anyone understood just how drowning all the noise could be. Sometimes it was just too intense.

  We finished our bananas in silence, basking in the warmth of the sunlight and shade, of the cool breeze tugging at our clothes.

  “Ready for an adventure?” He discarded the peels into the ground and helped me to my feet. “I know a fun place we can swim. Come on.” He tugged on my hand again and pulled me through a little open pathway of the clearing. Framed by trees on either side, he led me further and further into the jungle until a roar reached my ears.

  “Is that…?”

  We broke past the bushes and neared black cliffs. A huge golden waterfall rushed down into a pool below, bright and glittering on the shallower ends, converging into darker hues of blue on the deeper end as it spread out into the ocean. It was about twenty feet beneath us.

  “Woah.”

  I’d never seen anything so beautiful.

  Maksim released my hand, and I watched as he unclipped the brooch at his shoulder and slipped out of his chlamys.

  My face flushed. “What are you doing?”

  He flashed a smile at me and a wink. “Going on an adventure, Cal. Swimming. Without magic. Just two Atlanteans having fun. You up for it?”

  His joy was so contagious, I found my fingers slipping to my own brooch before he’d even finished his sentence. The material slipped off my body and pooled at my ankles.

  Maksim averted his eyes and we both bent down to untie the strings of our sandals and slip them off. When we stood in nothing but our undergarments, Maksim all but shoved his elbow into my side.

  “I thought you were afraid of the water.”

  “I’m afraid of boats and tight spaces.” His hand glided over my arm and reached for my hand.

  It was instinct to take it. There was always something comforting about having him near. It washed everything else away.

  He made me feel young and free.

  “Are you afraid to jump in?” he asked, a sudden serious expression on his face. His thumb traced against the pulse at my wrist protectively. “After what Vitas did…”

  It was sweet he was worrying about what I’d gone through. I looked down at the drop. It wasn’t far, it was deep, and there were no threatening rocks at the bottom.

  And there was the fact I wasn’t tied up and fighting for my life.

  “I trust you.”

  He squeezed my hand. “Then close your eyes and hold your breath.”

  I closed them and trusted.

  And he pulled us both into the water.

  Chapter Five

  Maksim

  The water swallowed us up in blue and golden arms. My hand held firmly to hers as we hit the water in a giant splash.

  We kicked our legs and broke the surface, drenched and gasping for breath. Laughter burst out of my throat and was drowned away by the slight roar of the waterfall.

 

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