Page 26 of The Goddess is Awakened
I wasn’t even planning ongoingto the moon orgy because only the witches wanted to play with me, and I was still mad it got canceled. It was some kind of fucked-up overreach of power. Azren didn’t even do that shit in the realm they created. It wasweird.
I’d been avoiding Azren because I was mad at them, but I found them in their office after class. I hadn’t found a damned thing about my mom. I discovered her school record, but it didn’t say a damned thing about why she left or what was going on at the academy at that time. Maybe Azren had better luck. I hoped they had at least been looking because the last time I talked to them, they were obsessed with their feeling and George Bell.
Azren was stress eating when I found them in their office. Azren ate alotof food for a thin person, but I’d been around them enough to know when it was a regular meal or a stress meal. We had junk food in their realm and fast food places, too. Azrenneverate that stuff unless something was bothering them.
“Drake. Come in. Want some nuggets? Have you finally decided to stop sulking?”
Mystery chicken was their go-to when they were stressed. They knew I didn’t like nuggets. It was a running joke that they offered them to me because they knew I’d rant about it. I didn’t trust chicken nuggets because chicken wasn’t nugget shaped. Yeah, I had alotof trust issues because of my parents, but I didn’t know what chicken parts went into those nuggets, and honestly, more people should question that.
“I’m never touching a chicken nugget, Azren.”
“How about your favorite burger?”
“You could have just led with that instead of trying to get a rise out of me.”
“You and your nuggets are adorable, Drake. If this is about the moon orgy, that insufferable woman doesn’t listen to me and apparently, didn’t even back down from a lawsuit against George with Lilith there showing support. If young Church hadn’t thought to call a family member who is on the board, this would have ended much differently. I don’t have a single board member’s number in my phone, but I’m pretty sure some of the other faculty do. We all got swept up in stopping that terrible woman and didn’t use our brains. Ishouldhave thought of that.”
“I don’t give a shit about the moon orgy, Azren. I didn’t trust a single witch at this academy, and those were the only people who wanted me to join them. I’m here about my mom. I got into the school records, and there’s nothing there about why she left.”
“You should play more, Drake. Sometimes, you have a giant stick up your ass. Not every witch is your enemy. Some of them are quite lovely, and think what was done to the basilisks is terrible. There have been alotof coverups over the history of this academy. A lot of people have been well paid to lie about it. I can’t pluck the truth out of their heads without killing them.
“As the God of Death, I have certain abilities in the Aether. I know your mom was here around the time I was sensing death, but got here too late. She might have seen something that made her leave. Locating an essence in the Aether takes alotof time, but once I do, I can go to the Aether and communicate with them. I’m theonlygod who can do this. I’m getting close to finding your mom. I can’t take you with me, but I canaskher more of what you want to know.”
“Why haven’t you told me this before?” I demanded.
They should have told me before now. This was pretty major. I knew I couldn’t go to the Aether without dying. I wasn’t Azren or one of their reapers that had that ability. Azren being able to talk to my mom should have been something they told me from the start.
“Because the Aether is vast and full of essences. The essences that occupy that space are constantly changing. They are evolving to be born again. Locating just one can take decades, and if it takes too long to find them, their memories can be gone. That’s what’ssupposedto happen in the Aether, but it’s a process. I’m close to finding your mom, but her memories will be fading. The big ones take the longest to go. If I can find her soon, I can ask. I didn’t tell you because if I failed at finding her in time, there wouldn’t be any memories left for her to answer. The academy wouldn’t even give outnamesof students who died when I had that feeling, so I couldn’t try to reach them and ask. Your mom is the only person whose name I know that might have information. And I desperately want to get you those answers.”
“I wouldn’t have been mad at you if you couldn’t find her in time. I’m not one of these idiots in your history class. I grew up in your realm and know even gods have limits. I can’t believe you thought I’d hold that against you.”
Azren gave me a sad smile.
“Drake, Iknow.I have this thing about disappointing people I care about when I’m supposed to be a god. I know damn well we all have limits, but that doesn’t mean I have to like it when I know how much this means to you.”
It meant a lot to Azren, too. I was just some baby that was never supposed to end up in their realm. Azren could have told Ketura to bring me back and make sure I ended up in the foster system. They could have washed their hands of me and let Ketura raise me alone. They didn’t.
“You’ve never disappointed me, and you never could. We’ll figure it out. Any news on your gut feeling?”
“I’ve ruled out my main suspect. There were a lot of people who had a problem with Beatrix Halliwell back in the day. She was an unknown witch gifted in spirit magic, and many people didn’t trust her because she wasn’t from a famous family. Some of them didn’t like the idea of a university where any student could reach their full potential. They thought it should be reserved for the famous families. It wouldn’t shock me if one of them left a cursed object somewhere on these grounds, causing students to get murdered. It could be buried in the ground. Icouldask the ghosts, but historically, they don’t cooperate with me like they do the other gods because they think I should be able to take them to the Aether when the rites haven’t been done. Some of them have taken to haunting my cottage pretty hard. I’ve tried explaining things to them, but they aren’t exactly listening.”
“Fucking ghosts,” I said, rolling my eyes. “Do you want me to ask?”
“I know you have some issues with George Bell, but she means you no harm. Eventually, I’ll have to be honest with her about why I’m really here. She’s the best option for talking with the ghosts.”
Iknewthat since she was a witch, she had a better connection to spirits than I did, but there were so many ghosts on this campus you didn’t need a witch with black salt and a protection circle to talk to them. Azren could have let me do it. This was supposed to beoursecret mission.
What wassoimportant about George Bell that they were letting her in on it?
george
Kaylee Krauss was such a bitch.Ididn’t like her because of our history, but I knew she wasn’t her mother and had nothing to do with the moon orgy getting canceled. That would be like people blaming me for things my dad did as the God of Chaos and whatever fuckery Loki was up to that day. I knew the other students wouldn’t see it that way.
Kaylee knew that damned well, too, so she was trying to make everyone mad at other people. Her targets were me and the trans pixie boy from our history class. She avoided doing anything too terrible in Azren’s class, but Dexter was in our potions class, and we had to eat in the dining hall with her.
It was so stupid because Dexter seemed to have made friends with everyone in his flying class, and they seemed to adore him. He had a lot more friends than I did. They stood up to her, and Dexter subtly sprinkled pixie chaos all over Kaylee and her crew. It was beautiful to watch. Kaylee couldn’t manage a single meal without getting food or drink on her uniform, and it still hadn’t sunk into her lizard brain she was getting revenge punked by a pixie.
I hadn’t used magic against her yet because it wasn’t really a fair fight, but I was tired of her shit, and it was making me look bad. We were in Arcane Magic right before the moon orgy. Professor Jinx always started class a little late because his nose was buried in his laptop. He wasn’t just a professor. My mom had several books he’d written in her library. He wasn’t just really good at teaching arcane arts. He was one of the leading historians of the Profane buildings.
