Page 50 of The Goddess is Awakened
Not even a god could stop the ghosts from fucking with Church. They may or may not have been able to get their revenge on the person who killed them, but they were going to be highly annoying to anyone who mildly offended them.
“You need to grovel like fuck because you don’t want them pissed at you on Samhain when the veil is thinner. Their revenge will be epic,” I said.
“You seriously shouldn’t have called them dicks, dude,” Ren said.
I groaned.
“Please tell me you didn’t.”
“I didn’t call the ghosts dicks. I said not telling a student about their mom was a dick move.”
Yup. That’ll definitely get your butter curdled. The only people I knew who could talk to ghosts like that were the gods and even my dad and Loki didn’t call them dicks if they didn’t want to cooperate. And my dad and Loki insulted pretty much everyone who didn’t do what they said except their kids. The only ghost Loki called a dick and insulted all the time was the one that put ancient dildos in people’s drinks if you left the lid off at my Aunt Ravyn’s museum.
“Even if you think that you have to beam that thought at them with mind control instead of saying it out loud. Aren’t you supposed to be smarter than me?” West asked.
“I’m sorry, but wereanyof you paying attention? I’m not going to ask if you don’t want to tell us, but Azren asked George to question the ghosts, too. They said no for the same reason they told us no. The spirits areafraidof something. Something tells me the God of Death didn’t get a bug up their ass to come teach a bunch of college students history because they are eccentric.”
I had to be honest. I might not be ready foreveryoneto know I was a god, but these guys? West and Church had been in the deep, dank corners of my social media and I’d posted some mortifying shit when I was a few years younger. West had also licked every inch of my body under the full moon and Church had taken two of my three holes.
I hadn’t even kissed Oscar or Ren yet, but Oscar was always slipping me drawings of me as an anime girl kicking ass all over campus. Ren’s fox was predisposed to care for the people he cared about. I’d joined Oscar for little Kitsune gifts. He was getting the lattes from the dining hall and the flowers from the gardens, but I was pretty sure he was a little klepto and was stealing the rest. Oscar confirmed it when I asked. Ren would always preen when we thanked him for the lattes, flowers, and stolen trinkets.
These guys should know.
“Come to my dorm room on Samhain. I need to tell you all a big secret. Azren isn’tjusthere to teach history. They promised my parents they’d tutor me before I was born. Azren has a feeling. They’ve had it before in the past. It might not mean anything. Before my dad got here, assholes would create revenants as pranks and they’d have to wait for a squad from the Paranormal Investigation Bureau to take them down.
“Azren wanted me to ask about cursed objects, so I did, but Minerva Krauss taught my mom, mentored my aunt, and I went to her house every day after school for tea and lemon cookies while she talked about her life and curses. She would have figured it out, broken it, and told me about it. Minerva kept extensive diaries and if I didn’t get them, my aunt did. Minerva and Azren are old friends, soshewould have told them when they reaped her. Azren would have come for Minerva personally.
“Someone would have to be really fucking stupid to try anything with Azren here. They could have shapeshifted and come here undercover so no one knew who they were. They aren’t hiding anything. They told everyone they are a primordial and Death the first day of class.”
“The ghosts were scared of someone hurting their descendants,” Church said. “The ghosts and their ancestors used to be so scared of my kind, they exterminated us. They aren’t scared of me. They fucked up my entire breakfast and even went after my butter. Homemade butter should be sacred. They are scared of something. What if it’s another god?”
“Maybe,” I said. “The other gods are all scared of Azren and I can’t see them being interested in college students. My mom has all kinds of dangerous shit in her library. Like, we allliveon the top floor, but my mom always stressed we couldn’t play outside our living quarters. You know how the library bans people who aren’t worthy of library cards? That would have happened to my whole family and my mom would have lost her job if we didn’t stay upstairs or in the lobby because of what’s downstairs.
“The Museum of the Profane has the stuff they let everyone see and then there’s this warehouse in the back that’s my Aunt Ravyn’s happy place. It’s full of all the dangerous relics they can’t put out until she figures out how to defuse them.
“Most of the gods have fucked off to their realm, but even if they came back, killing mortals directly has never amused them. They’ve always been more about introducing something that gets them to kill each other and get really devout to the god who caused the problem in the first place. Stealing something dangerous out of the library or the museum and giving it to college students is more their style, but everyone was pretty clear neither place had been robbed before and you didn’t want to be the one in charge if it went down under your watch.”
“Couldn’t a god just steal something and cover it up? I mean, I’m just a Kitsune, but I could probably pull it off.”
“You’re good, but not stealing from the Library and Museum of the Profane good, my love,” Oscar said.
“I could do it,” Ren sulked.
“Please don’t. My mom and aunt take their jobs seriously. They are both handfasted to gods that would ruin your life for years until they got bored, then horrifically kill you for upsetting their mates. You’re fun and sexy as hell. I’d like to keep you around and Oscar would stop talking to me, too, if my dad and uncle started punking you.”
“Plus, you’d go to jail,” Oscar said.
“Oh, no. My dad, Balthazar, is a computer genius and consults with the Paranormal Investigation Bureau a lot. He liberates funds from criminals’ bank accounts all the time. They depend on him a lot and he’s like their dirty little secret because what he does isn’t super legal. My dads are all crazy when it comes to my mom. Balthazar will pull strings to keep you out of jail so the rest of our dads can mess with you. It won’t just be Reyson. It’ll be all of them. And my sister likes both of you and it would ruin that, so my revenge will also be epic,” Matilda said.
Ren just laughed.
“No offense. I’m sure your dads are scary and one of them has cosmic powers. I’m more worried about pissing the two of you off. I’m not going to stop stealing from assholes, though.”
“We need to get to class. Come to my dorm room on Samhain night for a chat. And seriously, Church, if you think curdled butter was awful, you don’t want to deal with ghosts on Samhain. You need to do some serious groveling.”
Church stomped off to class muttering about homemade butter, but I was serious. I didn’t need a bunch of ghosts crashing my big reveal to beat Church’s ass because the veil was thin that night.
george
