Page 12 of The Goddess is Awakened
“Drake, how were your classes?” they asked.
“Fine. Fess up. Why are you here? I know it’s not to look after me. You’ve prepared me to handle myself.”
“Oh, I know. It has nothing to do with you. Don’t you worry about it.”
Azren never lied to me, but they would omit the truth until they thought I was ready to hear it. I crossed my arms and glared at Azren.
“Since youneverlie, you’re terrible when you are choosing not to tell the truth.”
Azren sighed and rolled their eyes.
“Children. Come to my office.”
It was only the first day, but Azren’s office wassoAzren. Old books were piled upeverywhere, andthey brought some of their art over from their realm. It was this creepy, surreal art by this reaper painter who was pretty famous there. Azren gave me a deep appreciation for the art. Of course, they didn’t turn the lights on. The windows were stained glass, and they waved their hands to light all their candles. Azren was all about ambiance.
“I see you’ve made yourself at home.”
“I like my comforts.”
Yes, they did. I spotted their espresso maker and tea kettle among all the book chaos. Azren alternated between downing various forms of caffeine and hardly sleeping. As soon as they sat down at the desk, they asked if I was hungry and conjured massive amounts of food. Azren was willowy thin, and graceful, but they could put away a ton of food.
Honestly, so could I. The food at the Academy of the Profane was beautiful, but I was really missing this pulled pork sandwich from Azren’s realm that we couldn’t get here. It was something about the sauce.
“I’m here for two reasons. One is that I promised an old friend that I’d tutor their child, and the other is that I have that feeling again. Be careful.”
“Those twins from history? Why?”
Was I jealous? Azren had always been my mentor. I knew the whole point of them being here was to teach, and they absolutely loved doing that, but I didn’t see why one of their old god friends wanted them to tutor their kid when they ended up a witch.
“That’s something George will have to tell you. Did you not hear me? Death is coming to the Academy of the Profane, and I didn’t get here too late this time. Whatever has happened in the past hasn’t gone down this time. It could be completely unrelated this time, but it could be what happened last time with your mum.”
“When were you planning on telling me all of this?”
“Well, I hadhopedI didn’t need to. I thought I could stop it this time. I’m pretty sure I can. I have a few theories.”
“I know how much you love sharing those.”
“Drake, you know I don’t like talking about them until they are more concrete. Focus on your lessons and music. I’ll bounce ideas off you like always, but I’m really starting to think George Bell might be the answer to several of my theories.”
I didn’t say anything and acted like I needed to return to my dorm to practice. I’d never spoken to George Bell. She was staring at me in class, and I didn’t like it. As a basilisk, any witch that stared that hard should be considered a threat. She was beautiful, but I wouldn’t be distracted by that.
Azren might. They’d been alone for as long as I’d known them. From what they told me, most of the other gods weren’t interested in a relationship with Death. Plenty of their reapers were, but Azren didn’t like the idea of being in a relationship with one of their creations.
Azren was a little too fascinated with George Bell, and I didn’t like it. Theyknewhow important finding out what happened to my mom was to me. They should have shared any theories with me way before they shared them with some witch they’d never met. I didn’t like how she stared at me either.
Maybe it was just jealousy. Or maybe George Bell was a threat to me, and I just needed to make Azren see that.
george
Ithought I didn’t have many classes with my twin, but magical combat was my last class of the day, and all the freshmen had it together. This class had me nervous. It wasn’t that I was worried about hurting someone. My dad trained me not to. I was invulnerable. A vampire could only bite me if I chose to let them. Balthazar never fed on me, but we practiced making myself vulnerable so his fangs could break the skin.
If someone threw magic at my back, it would be suspicious if I didn’t react. Especially if it was toward the end of the lesson when I should have exhausted a lot of my magic and wouldn’t be able to shield. Kaylee Krauss was the kind of bitch that would throw a hex at you while your back was turned. I knew when Minerva was teaching here, she had to break all the petty dick curses some of the witches handed out. Kaylee Krauss struck me as a dick curse kind of witch, even when the situation didn’t call for it.
Our professor was this ancient bear shifter named Zion Skinner. He really needed no introduction. I’d been watching dodgeball games with my dads since I was a baby. Zion retired before I was born, but my dads showed me the footage of his games because he was a forward like me. He was one of the best forwards to ever play dodgeball, and I was losing my shit that he was teaching magical combat in retirement.
I could tell who the cool people would be in my class because they looked like big fans too. A few people looked like they thought they were just here to learn magical combat from some rando, and I was thinking of calling the Paranormal Investigation Bureau on them.
“Zion Skinner must be new this year, too,” Matilda said. “Gabriel would totally be bragging about it to our other dads. He must have gotten here late because I didn’t see him at dinner. Headmaster Krauss didn’t even announce him.”
