Page 50 of The Goddess is Angry
“I agree. You’re a god, George. Never let anyone make you feel less than that, even with that necklace on. The only people who matter are the ones who care about you and I care about you a lot. That was amazing.”
“You’re going to have to show me how you did that with your smoke. And I believe you promised to throw me against the wall next.”
azren
Ihad been dying to get George alone where it was just the two of us for hours for months. She could have portalled in and out of my staff cottage on campus or I could have brought her back to the Netherworld before now. I was crazy about her and I needed her to know that, but I hadn’t come to the Academy of the Profane to find a mate. I was here to catch a killer.
But all the students had vacated campus, so I didn’t have to worry about someone murdering them. I wasn’t planning on pulling George away from her family during Yule, but then Freya got that gruesome delivery, and I decided to be selfish. I didn’t always need to be the better god, and I’d get her back before her family opened presents.
Our night was perfect. We were up well into the morning wrapped up in each other. I was going to have to call someone to repair the crack in my bedroom wall after we moved from my bed and she let me take control.
I woke up with her in my arms and I knew that was how I wanted to wake up for the rest of eternity like that. I even slept better than I usually did. I still woke up before she did. Drake had always been an early riser. His circadian rhythm was firmly set on morning person.
I portalled to Ketura’s to get Drake so we could spoil her. Ketura made damned sure Drake was domesticated and knew how to cook, clean, and be a partner. I barely needed to step in for that. Drake broke a lot of hearts in high school. He had the whole ‘goalie musician’ thing going on, but he didn’t want anything serious. Drake was pretty clear about that, but people thought they could change his mind.
It was different with George and I could tell it was getting serious for Drake. The fact that he thought she was a witch was pretty miraculous. Her getting through his thick skull that not all witches were evil was even more so because I’d known Drake since he was a baby and I hadn’t been able to do that.
“We need to make her proper Netherworld food,” Drake said.
“Aside from some fruits and vegetables that only grow here, it’s generally the same on her realm.”
“And the herbs. If we’re going to wake her up for breakfast, you’d better shove coffee in her hand right when her eyes open because she’s kinda crabby before she gets caffeine. George likes lattes with two shots of espresso with oat milk. Use the pumpkin spice syrup because George, Matilda, and Mags all go nuts for pumpkin spice. Let’s do eggs and savory muffins with the herbed butter you can only get here and the sausage that tastes different because you made animals here a little different. She’ll love that.”
Yeah, Drake was desperately smitten. Probably just as much as I was. There were only two people across two realms Drake paid enough attention to so that he could make them coffee just how they liked it—Ketura and me. Drake had a ton of friends in the Netherworld and had been hanging with them during Yule break, but he didn’t know those kinds of things about them.
“You do the eggs and sausage and I’ll do the muffins. You’ll have to teach me how to make coffee how she likes it because it’s weird eating in the dining hall since none of the other staff do except for lunch.”
“Only because I like you and you deserve to be happy. And she’snota morning person at all and neither is Matilda. Mags drags them both into the dining hall in the morning. Mags or Mina gets Matilda coffee and one of us gets George’s. She’s adorable first thing in the morning because she hates everything. One of us gets her coffee, Oscar slips her a doodle, and Ren usually steals something and gifts it to her.”
I groaned as I chopped veggies for the muffins.
“He didn’t happen to steal some really expensive sneakers from a legacy student, did he? That bear shifter has been harassing me about putting cameras in the dorm rooms so the rest of his shoes don’t go missing and then his roommate came to complain because he bought his own camera and stuck it in his dorm. Thankfully, the roommate found it before his girlfriend got naked.”
“That tracks,” Drake said. “Yeah, that was Ren. Ren’s Kitsune likes gifting stolen trinkets, and he only steals from people who are being stupid. That guy was sexually objectifying his friend because she’s Japanese and Ren promised he wasn’t going to fuck him up for her. Hewouldsteal his fancy shoes.”
I started laughing. I needed to find a way to learn all the little details about these men when we got back to the Academy of the Profane and let them get to know me. George was mine, but she was theirs, too. I might have cosmic powers and the other gods feared me, but my personality was what it was.
I knew enough about her men to know that I was never going to be as goofy as West or as weirdly obsessed as Church. I loved art, but I was useless at drawing. I’d never be able to brighten her day with doodles. Stealing was Ren’s thing. I’d buy her things or conjure them, but I wouldn’t be caught dead skulking around campus stealing from students who were annoying me.
“You never told me that. I have no knowledge of who actually stole those sneakers. If they are in anyone’s dorm room, you might want to move them because he’s demanding I toss everyone’s dorm. I’m not, but he’s a legacy student. If Daddy
makes a big deal about it, the Paranormal Investigation Bureau will.”
“Ren’s mind works in mysterious ways. Those shoes were Oscar’s size, but he gave them to George, who they won’t even remotely fit. He said it was because Oscar would wear them and get tackled by that bear shifter, but Oscar could wear them off campus. George can’t wear them at all. Sometimes, he steals earrings, but just one and rarely a matching set. I don’t know what she’s doing with them, but she doesn’t keep the shit he stole in her dorm.”
She was disappearing them to her bedroom in the Library of the Profane if I had to guess. That way, no one got in trouble if Ren stole something from the wrong person and the dorms got tossed. I might eventually have to order it and Lindsay Krauss definitely would.
“I’m not sure how I’m supposed to get to know all of them while I’m teaching. I can’t have anyone think I’m playing favorites and I can’t let anyone suspect George and I are a thing. I have to stay at the Academy of the Profane until the killer is caught and everyone will treat George differently. Not in a good way when it comes to certain people.”
They would while she still had her necklace on. When she took it off, no one would blink at her being with me and they probably wouldn’t even care I was her professor since we were both gods and she was related to the other two gods that made it public they were on this realm.
They absolutely would have accused her of using her body for better grades and the ones who didn’t would be ripping her to shreds because they thought an eighteen-year-old witch wasn’t worthy of a primordial. Her mom and aunt dealt with that to some extent, but they were older and had more time to pull off some amazing feats.
Honestly, the board was so desperate for gods and the prestige they’d bring, they’d probably just overlook the rule about students and professors. Everyone would be slapping me on the back for bedding a student, but they wouldn’t be congratulating her for landing a god. They’d trash her. I was playing it extra carefully to avoid that since the headmaster already had a petty feud.
“They’re all cool and they know you’re with her. Church and West have supernatural noses. Church waits for her in the common room and zips her to her dorm room using vamp speed so no one else figures it out. Ren also has a shifter nose, and he tells Oscar everything.
“They get why you aren’t treating them better than everyone else. Especially since they know about you and me now. You demystified gods a lot in your lectures and they just watched another primordial get super petty with the freshmen mean girls. I don’t think you have to worry about them kissing your ass. West is still complaining you made him sniff a dead body. His revenge is going to be epic.”
