Read Online Conspiracy Boy (Angel Academy) by Cecily White - Free Book Online

a loaded question? I mean, what was I supposed to say? Loyalty? Sanity? Not murdering your ex-boyfriend over some stupid prophecy, which may or may not be true?
    The only sound in the room was my pencil scratching at my notebook.
    I knew I was supposed to answer her. That’s what Jack would want me to do. Play the nicey-nice schoolgirl and go along with this utter crapfest. But I couldn’t. Maybe it was the sleep deprivation, or the attempted murder, or my classmates’ ignorance. For whatever reason, I just couldn’t do it.
    “No clue,” I said. “Sorry.”
    “Well, that’s disappointing, though not exactly a surprise. How about you, Miss Benedict?”
    Skye shifted uncomfortably in her seat beside me. “I’m not sure. Love?”
    Veronica’s hand shot into the air. “Actually, ma’am, it was glory. Love was important to Homer, but only by conquering in battle could a man show his true worth and win the affection of his woman. So war glory had to be the greater virtue.”
    “Yes, Veronica.” Hansen smiled. “Thank you.”
    Despite my lack of interest, I snorted. It wasn’t intentional, but quite loud, nonetheless.
    “You have something to add, Miss Bennett?”
    I shook my head, earning another tight-lipped glare.
    “Then maybe you should keep your uninformed noises to yourself.”
    My pencil continued scratching glyphs into the notebook cover. Silently. Hatefully. I despised that woman. Like, hated her. The kind of hate that made me want to dip her in honey and throw her on a demonic ant pile. The kind of loathing that made tar and feathers seem reasonable.
    Despite my best efforts, a tiny zip of power flared between my fingers. Angry power. “Actually, I do have something to say.”
    Hansen raised an eyebrow and waved a hand through the air. “Enlighten us.”
    My pencil quit moving.
    “In my opinion, both the Achaeans and the Trojans were a bunch of testosterone-saturated, sword-wielding idiots who could use a swift kick in the nuts. If they even had nuts.”
    Katie made a noise like a choked pigeon.
    “Veronica’s partly right,” I continued. “Homer did force his characters to choose between love and their quest for glory. And they always chose glory. Always. Was that the right choice?” I shrugged. “I don’t think so. War is about self-aggrandizement. It’s big and pompous and arrogant. Love— true love —is small, and it’s about self-sacrifice. Love is not a justification for war. Anyone who uses it as such doesn’t know squat about being human.”
    “Maybe Homer thought duty trumped love,” Hansen suggested, rather contemptuously. “Maybe he realized there’s a more noble path than simply following your heart.”
    “Or maybe he failed to realize that pride without compassion causes everyone’s downfall—that if people could just pull their heads out of their glorious asses and let go of their righteous indignation for five seconds, they might see what useless, brainless, glory-obsessed barbarians they’d become. You wouldn’t know anything about that. Would you, Ms. Hansen?”
    Dead silence. Not even crickets.
    “ Guardian Bennett. ” Everyone turned as Jack’s voice floated in from the back of the room, quiet yet doom-filled. “Are you trying to earn another incident report?”
    I half turned, just enough to shoot him a you’ve-got-to-be-kidding-me look.
    “No?” he said. “Then I suggest you apologize to Ms. Hansen and pack your things. Now. ”
    Duty?
    Loyalty?
    True love?
    They all meant diddly compared to the glory of an educational bureaucracy. I swallowed the rising bile in my mouth and turned back to Hansen.
    “My apologies, ma’am. I’m terribly sorry if I offended you or implied you’re an ignorant evildoer.” It came out nicely enough, though I’m pretty sure she got the hate-filled subtext. You’d have to be a blind moron to miss it.
    On second thought, maybe she missed it.
    My temper seethed quietly as Jack made his way to the front of the class and