Page 52 of The Goddess is Angry
“Um, thanks.”
“I’d better get you back to George. She missed all of you during break and video chat really wasn’t the same. I know my kids.”
I moved to go back to George when someone caught my attention. There was a woman making her way up to the podium in the auditorium. She was much too solid and didn’t move like a ghost, but she looked like she was channeling a Victorian widow in mourning who ran through her haunted house in a gauzy nightgown with the requisite candelabra in her hands.
She was dressed from head to toe in black lace. Even her hands were covered. She had a wide brimmed black hat on with a black veil so no one could see her face. It was pretty extra, even for supernaturals. No one did that anymore and supernatural funerals were more a celebration of that person’s life than a big morbid affair.
Everyone stopped to watch because it was fucking weird. The woman in black made her way to the podium as slowly and dramatically as she could. I knew we were about to get a different god teaching history, but I could just tell this wasn’t a god. I was tall, but all the gods I’d met towered over me. They also didn’t move like they had a giant stick up their ass.
The woman in black took the podium, and it finally made sense. I didn’t know what Headmaster Krauss was doing outside a dark bedroom yet. Kaylee wasn’t a strong witch, so undoing her hexes and curses shouldn’t be too hard, but she’d also gotten on the internet to look up an advanced hex and wasn’t paying attention to a damned thing in class, so anything could have gone wrong with the hex she threw.
“It’s good to see all of your smiling faces again. While I’m not totally healed, the board and I decided this academy is in desperate need of capable, strong hands again. With a few modifications, I can run this academy again with minimal pain. There are definitely a few things that were done wrong in my absence.”
Seriously? Everything had been done right. We got a dodgeball team, cheerleading squad, people got expelled who needed to be gone, and everyone was warned about the killer on campus. This bitch decided to continue.
“I need to clear up some rumors that were started in my absence. No one was murdered on this campus. The idea is ridiculous. Two students approached me that they were having issues with the workload here. I tried to help them, but they weren’t suited to the pressures of college. They simply dropped out. There was no drama involved. The issue is closed. No one was murdered.”
Oh, damn. She just tried to gaslight the entire Academy of the Profane. Everyone was going to trust the God of Death over anyone else on this subject. Everyone was getting restless and starting to murmur. Fleur and Saffron’s covens weren’t having it.
“Saffronhatedyou. You were the one stressing her out. Demanded she find a cure for your hex when no one has done that before. She never would have left school and she never would have told you that."
"Fleur wouldn’t have left her coven. She loved this school and her independent study. She was handling her class load just fine. Sheneverwould have left!”
The rest of the student body started to chime in.
“Stop lying to us!”
“It’s your job to keep us safe.”
“You’re going to get us killed!”
Azren came to stand next to us with Loki and Church’s grandfather.
“This wasnotmy idea. I was against it,” Church senior said.
“You could have called and warned me,” Azren said.
“Me, too. I got up early for nothing. Think I should turn her into a donkey? I mean, I’m not teaching history anymore. What are they going to do? Fire me?” Loki said, yawning.
“I approve of donkey shenanigans,” West said.
“This wasn’t supposed to happen. The board vote was tied when I left yesterday. We weresupposedto meet again and vote. I’m guessing the board president staged a coup and overrode the people who voted no on this. Which means I need to deal with this. If you’re going to donkey the headmaster, wait until I leave so I can’t say I saw it.”
I really liked Church’s grandfather. Azren’s phone went off, and they looked down.
“Just got the email from the board president. Apparently, they want Loki and me to teach history together and then bring Freya in.”
“Oh, yes. Lindsay was making a stink about how Reyson treated her kid. The boardwantsLoki, but they know he’s George’s uncle and saw that video. The people who were for this wanted you teaching together because they thought you’d be a buffer and they’d still get to say they had three gods teaching here. They are also desperate to backtrack the whole deaths thing.”
Azren and Loki started laughing. I hadn’t spent that much time with Azren but something told me they could cut up just as much as Loki and Reyson could. Azren just shrugged.
“I hated being headmaster. If they want her back, more power to them. I fixed what I could, but eventually, she’s going to massively fuck up. I can protect the students better when I’m not trying to run the place.”
And we all needed to look out for George. The campus was mad at Headmaster Krauss because she got up there and tried to lie to us about two campus murders and act like the rest of us weren’t in danger. They were booing and catcalling. This was almost as bad as when she tried to cancel the moon orgy. If someone died again, their coven would come for her.
I was guessing Headmaster Krauss was blaming George for all this and anything that would happen in the future because she chose not to protect the students.
sol
