The Hidden Princess At All-Boys Alpha Academy novel Chapter 571

“Nope,” Tony says instantly, staring at her warily, holding his hands up as if to protest his innocence. “I’m…good.”

The Goddess laughs then, the sound somewhere between the tinkling of bells and the soft shush of ocean waves. “My boy likes a mystery, then.”

“Your boy?” Tony asks, shocked. “But I thought you said my magic –“

But the Goddess just laughs again, wrinkling her nose at him like she thinks he’s cute, and begins to fade.

And quite suddenly, as if she was never here…

The Goddess is gone.

Silence rings between us for a long, long moment, each of us processing our wonder and our fear, all of the information we got that will, I’m sure, be keeping us each up at night wondering how to deal with this.

“Well, that was sufficiently stressful,” Tony murmurs, crossing his arms and staring down at his desk as he tries to make sense out of the Goddess’s cryptic words.

“What happened?” mom whispers, turning towards Cora even as she moves to Rafe, who hasn’t looked up from his own desk. Mom wraps her arms around Rafe’s shoulders and he rests his head against her, eyes shut. “What did she say?”

Jesse and Cora move to mom and Rafe, filling her in, while I turn to Jacks.

But he’s already there at the side of my desk, reaching for me. A desperate little groan breaks from me as I reach for him, wanting him close. I stand so I can wrap my arms around his neck. Jackson instantly takes my meaning, lifting me up off the floor so that I’m pressed against his chest, one arm solid under my ass as the other wraps me up tight.

I rest my head down against the soft space between his neck and his shoulder, my face turned in towards him.

“Are you okay?” he whispers, anxious. I can feel his heart pounding against me and I press my right hand to his chest, willing it to slow, to rest.

“I’m okay,” I whisper back, assuring him. “I just…it was so much at once, wasn’t it?”

“What happened?” he asks, even as I feel him start to relax down the bond now that I’ve assured him I’m okay. “Why were you…why did your chair fall down?”

“Goddess stopped time,” I murmur, suddenly exhausted. “We had a…private chat.”