Wrath of the Gods (Magic Blessed Academy 3)

We all cleaned up and dressed quickly, then headed out into the halls of the palace. It was strange to call this place a second home, considering we’d spent a good part of a semester trying to sneak into this exact palace. There were changes I was still pushing for among the gods, but several of Omari’s staunchest followers had been imprisoned, and without their influence, things were already changing around here, even without my nudges.

When we reached the throne room, Ryker looked up from his seat on the dais.

“Daughter.” He smiled broadly.

It always sort of cracked me up when he addressed me like that. Something about it was so old-fashioned and formal sounding, but part of me just thought he liked the way it sounded—and maybe he was trying to make up for lost time. Now that he could call me daughter, he never seemed to want to miss an opportunity to do so, and it was hard to be mad about that.

We were still feeling out our relationship, but for a dominant, all-powerful god, Ryker was surprisingly patient with me. Maybe it helped that I was also a dominant, all-powerful god. There wasn’t much he could do to make me move faster even if he wanted to. But more than that, he seemed determined to build a real father-daughter relationship with me, and if that meant taking time to build the foundation, he was willing to do that.

“Father,” I shot back, echoing his words with a grin.

He chuckled lightly, then glanced over my shoulder at my men. “You four are headed to the earthly realm, I imagine? Today is the day, is it not?”

“Yeah.” I nodded. “We’ll probably stay for a few days, just to make sure everything’s going smoothly. Keep everyone from doing anything stupid around here while we’re gone, okay?”

His dark eyes flashed with amusement. “I’ll do my best, as always.”

“Good.”

I reached for Merrick and Lachlan’s hands, feeling Trace reach out to grip my shoulder. With a thought, I sent us all hurtling through the ether, and a second later, we stepped smoothly onto the lawn outside the large stone building I knew so well.

The cleanup from the fight against Omari and his minions had been time consuming. There had also been the matter of making funeral arrangements for those who had died in the fight—a number that was higher than I had hoped for, but much lower than it could’ve been.

Wesley had died in the fight, attempting until his last breath to help Omari and his followers. Dean Frost and the others who had been locked in the makeshift holding cells had survived. They had been passed on to the wider magical community to deal with, and as the truth of everything they had been doing was slowly revealed, public opinion had turned against them almost

completely.

“Looks almost good as new,” Trace commented as the four of us strode toward the school building.

“Yeah. Hard to believe someone threw a god through that wall,” I said dryly.

He huffed a laugh as Dean Wist stepped through the large double doors, obviously having seen our arrival on the lawn. As she walked toward us, I could practically feel the excitement coming off her in waves.

This was what she had always envisioned for this school, what she had hoped it would be and been horrified to discover it wasn’t under Dean Frost’s guidance—a place for people who suddenly developed magic to come and learn. To practice and train, to learn magical lore. And to reach their full potential.

“Everything is in order,” she reported by way of greeting, rubbing her hands together crisply. “Come, come. I’ll show you around. We’ve been working on a few new classrooms with more space for specialized spell work, we’ve expanded the library, and we’re working on turning the pavilion on The Hill into an outdoor sparring arena.” She smiled broadly, gesturing for us to follow her as she walked back toward the stone building. “A few students have arrived early. I’d love for you to meet them. Eden has been showing them around. She can’t wait to start teaching this semester!”

After everything that’d happened, everything the students had gone through, several of them had been allowed to graduate early—partly so that they could become teachers. It seemed important to have people who understood exactly what new magic users were feeling and experiencing guide them through their training, and Eden had been a perfect candidate for that. She was well-suited to the role of a teacher, and she’d leapt at the opportunity.

Wist kept up a running monologue as she led us inside, her excitement bubbling out of her in giddy words. As we stepped through the double doors, I looked up at the sign that hung on the wall in the entryway, the name of the school written in beautiful, swirling letters.

My heart expanded in my chest, and as Wist prattled on, I exchanged a glance with my three men. My lovers. My best friends. My partners.

“Not too shabby,” Trace murmured, draping an arm around my shoulders as his gaze followed mine, moving up to the sign above us.

Welcome to Wild Magic Academy.

Thank you so much for reading the Magic Blessed Academy series and sticking with Aria and her guys on this journey!

If you want a little peek into their future, I wrote a bonus scene that takes place two years after the end of this book. Click below to sign up to receive my author updates, and I’ll send you the free scene!

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And if you looking for some contemporary dark/enemies-to-lovers romance (there will be hate sex, lol), I have a new series coming out soon that I’m so excited about! Vicious Kings, the first book in The Dark Elite series, will release in March 2020. Turn the page to find out more…

They say the devil goes by many names, and I know four of them:

Ciro, Hale, Zaid, and Lucas.