Page 6 of The Goddess is Awakened
Matilda was a princess but had a wicked sense of humor and could laugh at herself. My mom and my Aunt Ravyn said we’d get our dorm assignments in a dessert, but I guess we both thought it would be on a slip of paper at the bottom instead of everyoneloudlyburping blue spell text that announced their dorm and roommate.
We thought it was hilarious, and even funnier that some people were embarrassed about it. I was pretty sure it was a rite of passage to send your kids here and not tell them what would happen. It looked like the only parent who broke tradition and was meddling in things they shouldn’t was our headmaster.
Kaylee Krauss didn’t touch her pastry. She was the only one out of all the freshmen. She hated melongbefore Minerva left everything to me because she’d name-drop her famous aunt all the fucking time to sound important, and I corrected her once. She was my nemesis until her mom stole that spell, came into some money, and moved her to a private school.
Which meant Headmaster Krauss wasn’t just messing with twins when it came to roommates. Azren said something to stop her from mass meddling with how things were supposed to go, but I was guessing she let her precious crotch fruit hand-pick her roommate.
Bitch.
I’d worry about that later. Gabriel had snagged this mysterious god, and I had a lot of questions. They looked like they smelled like some kind of amazing perfume, but everyone up there except my dad was acting like they stunk. I’d been around enough gods to know something was up with that. My uncle was Loki. He had good reasons for all the horrible shit he did, but most people didn’t know that. The supernatural community didn’t even treat Loki like they were treating Azren.
Whowasthis god?
“The supernatural community loves a good shunning, but if that’s a primordial up there, they need to check themselves,” Matilda said.
“We need to wonder twin, and go investigate. If Gabriel is talking to them, they is probably not bad.”
“They are coming over now.”
Mags was shifted into her big, black dog. She’d have to be like that on campus unless we were in our dorm room or off campus. Her aura would read witch, but she technically wasn’t a student here. Mags would die defending my sister, but perhaps it wasn’t all that wise to jump between my twin and an unknown primordial and growl like that. Gabriel jumped into action and put himself between Mags and Azren.
“Relax. Remember when we all talked about Ezra? They go by Azren now.”
Oh. I never met them, but my dad and Loki talked about them a lot. They were supposed to be the smartest person either of them knew. Loki and Azren got together back in the day and really experimented with what their shapeshifting abilities were capable of. Loki told me if anything ever happened to my necklace and I needed to appear to be a witch in a pinch, I could do it by shapeshifting, but it would take ages to learn.
My dad said Azren was the only one who ever questioned who made the gods and had a working theory about it. The primordials created the universe and humans. Every living thing on this planet was created by one of the gods. But no one ever questioned who made the gods, and seemed uncomfortable that Azren was asking questions about it.
It explained why all the professors on the stage were uncomfortable around them, and Headmaster Krauss changed her mind really quickly when Azren whispered in her ear about the roommate changes she wanted to make.
Azren was the God of Death. Who knew death was so beautiful?
“Did your dad tell you I was to eventually come to this realm to tutor you?”
“My mom did. She said you’re the smartest person she knows, and my mom is pretty brilliant and knows a lot of smart people. That’s high praise from her.”
Azren gave me a slight nod of their head.
“There are a ton of things Idon’tknow. I’m still trying to figure them out. Maybe I never will. But in terms of teaching you, I can definitely prepare you. I was given one of the staffing cottages on campus near Shrieking Woods, but I have an office in the same building where you’ll have your history lessons. We’ll do theory in my office, and if we need to do anything magical, we’ll move it to the yard by my cottage since the students avoid Shrieking Woods.”
“Well, yeah. All the deranged ghosts hang out there.”
“Beatrix Halliwell was a good friend of mine. You’re perfectly safe by my cottage.”
Matilda’s eyes flashed amber, and she let out a little growl.
“You’d better keep my sister safe from that crazy ghost banshee who was a serial killer before she died and kills anyone who goes into those woods.”
Azren just chuckled.
“Beatrix always was prone to dramatics. Gabriel gave me your schedule. I can fit you in on Tuesday and Thursday after dinner. Don’t be late. Taa,” Azren said, turning in a flounce of skirt and leaving.
I was intrigued. I wasn’t worried about the whole God of Death thing. Loki and my dad said the other gods feared them because they could rip their essence from their vessels and put them in a bit of god time out, but they only did that in extreme situations. My dad and Loki had a ton of respect for Azren, and my mom didn’t call someone the most brilliant person she knew lightly.
“Azren isn’t just brilliant,” Gabriel said. “They are fascinating just to sit and chat with. They were probably off chasing a theory or caring for their reapers and forgot to text your dad they would be teaching here. Lindsay neglected to tell them about the faculty meeting, so I didn’t know. You should go check out your dorm and unpack. The Sigmis dorm is gorgeous and fire-themed. I know how muchbothof you hate mornings. I had to drag your asses out of bed myself a few times. Iwill notbe providing that service in college, and the professors here don’t tolerate tardiness. They won’t let you in class if you’re late and kick you out if you miss too much class.”
“Noted,” Matilda said.
We hugged Gabriel and set off to find our dorm.Wemight not like waking up early, but Mags woke up with the sun. She said it was because when she was alive the first time, that was when she had to wake up, and maybe that was still it. Mags was utterly devoted to us, but after she got her body back, she liked a little bit of alone time in the morning to drink a massive cup of black coffee, read the news on her phone, and not talk to a single person until everyone woke up.
