29. Quinn

29

QUINN

T he cheers were deafening.

Professor Lexington lifted his hand. "Silence." He stared towards the back of the hall, raising his hand higher, to the huge projector screen behind him. "Robin, if you would."

The spotlight swept to the side of the stage and dimmed, and the screen lit up with a series of images of all the contenders for the gods and goddesses. More cheers sounded again, and again when the photos faded away and were replaced with a video montage spliced together from pieces of footage from the campaign videos. As the montage played, there was movement to the side of the stage as the school secretary and two of the teachers carried six black cases onto the stage, placing them in two rows on a table next to the headmaster. They opened the cases before leaving the stage, and I caught the gleam of gold inside.

As the video finished, Professor Lexington spoke up again. "Your votes have been cast and counted." The screen lit up with an image of six empty gilt frames, which I knew would fill with the headshots of the chosen gods and goddesses, with their names below. As I watched, a photo began to appear on the screen, accompanied by a name. "Our first god…Tristan Smith-Chamberlain!"

Above the cheers, a loud whoop came from somewhere behind me, and the crowd parted to allow Tristan to strut his way through the hall and up onto the stage. He bowed theatrically and gave a regal wave, and Aria mumbled something next to me, which sounded suspiciously like "dickhead."

"Mr. Smith-Chamberlain."

Tristan shot our headmaster a grin and took his place on the stage, marked out by an X taped on the surface. There had never been any doubt who the gods would be—there was no contest.

Another name, another photo. "Our second god…Knox Ashcroft!"

When Knox had joined Tristan onstage, the headmaster waited for the noise to die away. When the hall was silent again, he continued. "Our third and final god…Roman Cavendish!" There was a small frown on his face as he announced Roman's name, probably due to the fact that despite Roman's overwhelming popularity with the student body, the same couldn't be said for a large percentage of the teachers. Our headmaster in particular, given how close his Bugatti had apparently come to going up in flames thanks to Roman's arson incident, not to mention all the fuel he'd been storing in the outbuildings.

As Roman sauntered up onto the stage, I drank him in, regret sitting heavy in my stomach as I realised that my lacklustre campaign efforts had probably cost me the chance of being there with him.

When he'd taken his place, his gaze scanned the crowd and found mine. The corner of his mouth curved into a tiny smile, just for me, and my anxiety melted away. Whatever happened, even if Freya did get her hands on him, he would never be hers. I trusted him, and that meant I could deal with whatever came next.

Another photo faded into view. "Our first goddess…Penelope Byron-Chopard!" I clapped loudly for my friend as she swept onto the stage, her head held high and her posture perfectly straight. She smiled out at the crowd, acknowledging them with a lift of her hand, before stepping over to her marked spot.

"Our second goddess—" I held my breath. "—Elena Greenwood!"

"Yes!" Aria punched the air as I cheered, clapping so hard my palms were stinging. We watched as Elena made her way onto the stage, her movements hesitant and her eyes wide. Had she really thought she wouldn't be crowned as one of the goddesses? Even if she hadn't been Knox's girlfriend, she deserved to be up there.

The headmaster cleared his throat again. "Finally…our third goddess is…"

" No fucking way ," Aria ground out as the image in the sixth frame began to appear. "What the actual fuck?"

"…Aria Harper!"

My head spun, disappointment and relief and excitement for my friend combining in a swirl that left me feeling faintly nauseous. Gritting my teeth through it, I nudged Aria, hard. "Get up there!"

"This has to be a joke," she hissed.

"Miss Harper?"

"Go," I said again, and she finally moved, stalking through the crowd and up to join the others, her eyes flashing with fire and her jaw set. She glared at the students below her, shock and disbelief clear in her gaze, and I couldn't help the laugh that fell from my throat. Maybe she really didn't have any idea just how popular she actually was.

The crowning ceremony began, the headmaster placing the gold laurel wreaths on the heads of the gods and the goddesses one by one. When they were all crowned, they bowed in unison to yet more cheers and applause. Roman's gaze kept finding mine, and every time, he gave me that tiny, secretive smile that warmed me from the inside out.

"Clear the dance floor for your gods-and-goddesses dance," Professor Lexington boomed.We all shuffled back to make a space as the gods and goddesses descended the stairs, and thenseveral things happened in quick succession.

Knox swept Elena into his arms.

Aria started towards Roman.

Roman stepped towards her.

Tristan held out his hand to Penelope.

And then…Penelope moved, cutting in front of Aria, and slid her arms around Roman's neck…at the same time as a hand gripped my wrist tightly and yanked me backwards.