Page 38 of The Goddess is Awakened
“I’m sorry. What is your name?”
“Bethany.”
“Bethany, between Azren and me, we can—”
“You can’t do anything. Both of you are stuck on these grounds and we know the truth about gods. You can’t keep our descendants safe. Don’t ask again.”
“I’m sorry, Bethany. Azren can’t do anything to bring you to the Aether, but is there anything I can do to make your eternity more bearable?”
Bethany bowed her head.
“Thank you. Keep leaving the television on and we are following your feud with Kaylee Krauss with great interest. We knew Minerva Krauss’s secret. That girl is a disgrace to her legacy. You give her hell. It’s entertaining. We appreciate what you did for that pixie boy, too.”
“Will do.”
Bethany disappeared through the floor. How was it that a Puritan ghost was more accepting of Dexter than Kaylee was? I was going to have to get creative with Kaylee. I was already getting there, but I had a feeling my answer to getting Bethany to talk was to just be really entertaining for the ghosts. They were clearly scared of something.
I could definitely do that. Kaylee Krauss was awful.
oscar
It was official. Every single person in my dorm roomandmy ancestors were up the ass of a certain witch at the academy. She roped my boyfriend into it now. If I didn’t know any better, I’d swear she was half succubus. Ren and I experimented together with girls in high school. It was good, but not as good as Church and West were making it out to be. I had no idea how she’d gotten to Ren and Chantico.
I’d known Ren my entire life and Chantico came to me when I was thirteen. I trusted their opinions on everything. If they said she was cool, she probably was. My Abuela always told me that my stubbornness was both an asset and was eventually going to lose me something important. It was what kept me going after all my pro offers went away and it was also why I didn’t want to talk to George Bell. Too many people wanted me to, so I just didn’t want to now.
“She wants topayyou to paint her mom’s Yule present. She said she’d pay you whatever you wanted because she liked the sketch she saw you doing. She said Professor Morningstar is an amazing magical painter, but they won’t let him do a seminar. George said she can’t draw, but she probably has a better appreciation for art than most of the other freshmen at this schoolandshe’s willing to write you a blank check.”
It was that part. The current generation of tattoo artists were all artists in their own right. They wanted to do custom work they drew themselves, even the flash. I wanted to apprentice and eventually work for one of those shops. There were a few shops back home that mostly catered to humans that would buy my drawings and had a waiting room full of walk-ins waiting to get tattooed. There were probably multiple people walking around with the same drawing I did tattooed on their body.
I hadn’t really found anything like that here in Profane. I had a lot of money saved up, but I needed more money coming in because I’d eventually run out. I didn’t particularly want to talk to her, but I also didn’t want to end up broke asking my family for money.
So, I agreed to hear her out.
Chantico draped herself around my neck and trilled at me in my head. My ancestors were totally fine with me being bisexual and in a relationship with a man, but brujos formed covens just like witches did and they wanted me in a powerful one. They just kind ofdecidedon George Bell. I was willing to listen to them about everything but my love life.
Ren went to get her when we got to the dining hall. He looked like he was about to burst. I knew that look. I was about to get sprinkled with some Kitsune fuckery and I was guessing George wasn’t aware of it.
I was certain Ren was fucking with her when she sat down and signed what she wanted herself. I don’t know what she told Ren she wanted to be painted, but he taught her something utterly ridiculous in sign language.
“I’m sorry. My boyfriend must have fucked with you when he taught you what to sign. You’ll have to forgive him. He’s a kitsune and can’t help it sometimes.”
Ren was just sitting there with this shit-eating grin like he was innocent of all charges. George laughed and started signing again.
“No, I actually do want a painting of a curly-haired, blond vampire railing the shit out of a blowup sex doll of a Pegasus from behind. It’s a scene from a book my mom read in her book club with my aunt and uncle. She’ll think it’shilariousand hang it in the living room. You’d have to meet my family to get why it’s a totally perfect Yule gift. If you aren’t comfortable doing it, I totally understand, but I’dloveit if you painted it for her.”
I just sat there. Apparently, she was fluent in sign language. West didn’t feel the need to tell me that andIwas the one Ren was pranking, not George. He knew exactly what I was going to think when she signed that to me and that’s why he acted like he didn’t know what she wanted me to paint.
“I tried to give you that book for your sixteenth birthday. We were out of tape, so I went to your house to borrow some. Your Abuela hasfilthyreading habits. She took one look at the cover, beat me over the head with the book, and told me I wasn’t allowed to give it to you until you graduated high school. I kept it in my closet for two years and I guess I forgot to pack it when we came,” Ren said.
Ah. So, that was what sucked my boyfriend in. I had sports and my art. Ren loved disappearing into books. He was at every dodgeball practice for support, but his nose was buried in a book. He was cheering for me at every game, though. Drawing wasn’t a group sport like dodgeball, but Ren would bring a book and we’d just do our thing in silence just to be in the same room together.
Ren gave me books he really loved so we could talk about them later. He favored the really smutty stuff, and Idid notneed to know that my Abuela was also reading that shit. Ren wanted to try a few kinks he discovered in his books. My Abuela was a fucking saint. Maybe she didn’t read that book and had just heard about it. I was going with that. Why did Ren have to do this to me?
MaybeGeorge Bell wasn’t terrible. She knew sign language and clearly had a twisted sense of humor if she wanted me to paint that for her mom’s Yule gift. And she could laugh at herself when I thought the request was so ridiculous she had to be getting punked by a Kitsune.
“This has to be the most insane thing I’veeverbeen asked to paint and I’m not sure anything is ever going to top it. I’ll do it. And someone needs to get me a copy of that book because now I need context,” I said.
George pretended to wipe a tear from her eye.
