Page 21 of The Goddess is Fierce
Apparently, their Team Warlock was a local celebrity because he was the best dodgeball player on their team. This stupid stunt was going to take him out the whole season. He also tore his rotator cuff in a few places when he tried to avoid breaking his face on the tree he hit. The healers weren’t sure if they could heal it properly so that he would play dodgeball the same again.
The other school said that if perhaps one of the many gods who were now on our campus could come heal their star warlock, they’d withdraw their complaint and we could just settle all of this on the field. Problem was, all the gods here adored George and didn’t want to do it. We weren’t about to tell George they were asking this, even though she would have done it without complaint.
I agreed to do it for various reasons. Freya had known George longer than I had and thought of her like an adopted daughter. If we sent Freya, she’d heal that boy and leave something nasty behind. He’d probably play dodgeball like he always did and his dick would never function right again. I wasn’t mad at that idea, but I didn’t want to give them any reason to make a big deal about George being a god again.
I wasn’t going to pull Odin away from Baldur and Odin didn’t really give a shit about a mortal dodgeball player. I wasn’t about to ask Reyson or Loki because they were both hotheads and a little short sighted when it came to George.
So, I went to heal the warlock who tried to take something from my girlfriend. I knew damned well when Loki found out about it, he was probably going to fuck up this kid’s life and he wouldn’t use a single drop of magic.
In fact, I was counting on it when I went to heal him.
george
. . .
College had gotten wild. I was ignoring everyone kissing my ass and my professors treating me differently. I’d gone from one of the best students in my witching classes because my family had been teaching me my entire life, to the literal worst student in class because I was taking classes for things I didn’t even know I could do and I was now a semester behind everyone else.
It was pretty awesome. I was having anormalcollege experience, and I was having to work my ass off to keep up. I had friends in all my classes who were trying to help me catch up. I was in class with nearly every magical species. My dadand Azren had decided not to put me in class with the species with sex magic. I’d probably only be able to use it at moon orgies when there were incubi and succubae around, but I was seriously curious about their magic and how it would heighten sex for everyone.
I’d have to stay curious about that because my day was full of a lot of classes I was now terrible at. I couldn’t really work on honing my animal senses and controlling my inner beast like the rest of my class because I hadn’t exactly figured out how to tap into that yet. I couldn’t shift at all. Matilda, Mags, and West were trying to help me and Bram told me to come home and he could try, too.
My vampire classes weren’t much better. They were teaching fang and feeding control. Vampires could also compel, but it wasn’t totally reliable. The compulsion didn’t last very long and anyone with strong mental walls could fight against it. While everyone else was being taught to put those walls up, the vampires were being taught to slip in the cracks. I hadn’t even figured out how to drop fang yet.
My Fae classes were small, but I was faring worse in those classes. There were multiple different types of Fae and they all used magic. My class just had Seelie, Unseelie, pixies, and one lone Brownie. Dexter was helping me, but I was still terrible.
My classmates were generallymuchbetter about it than most of my professors at first. The majority of them got I was just an idiot eighteen-year-old trying to figure my shit out like they were. My professors needed a little more convincing that I didn’t slide out my mom’s vagina as an infant knowing how to do everything and I didn’t go to college just for fun. I actually needed them toteachme.
It took a day, but I managed to get it through all my professor’s heads. History and magical combat were my only classes where my teachers didn’t treat me any differently. Zionpaired me with West like usual and I was distracted because this was my last class and this had been along-ass day trying to convince my professors to actually teach me.
So, West was kicking my ass.
“That’sembarrassing,”Paris scoffed, tossing her destroyed hair over her shoulder. “Imagine being a god and getting your ass kicked by a lion that didn’t even go to college.”
West gave her the biggest stink eye he could manage.
“You got some glitter on you when a pixie bested you.”
I hadn’t been paying attention to the rest of the class, but I would havelovedseeing Dexter kick her ass. Paris wasn’t just covered in glitter. It looked like Dexter gave her a black eye. Dexter’s green hair was messed up like Paris resorted to hair pulling in a magic fight.
Zion never acknowledged I was a god in magical combat and he rarely gave out compliments. He taught like Beatrix Halliwell intended for teachers to do their lessons. Zion never played favorites, and he mostly gave us all the same learning experience. I was kind of limited to really hot body contact with my boyfriend instead of sparring with other supernaturals, but I got why he was doing that.
I didn’t realize Zion was even paying attention until he strolled over.
“You’ve been trading barbs with George in my class all year. Which was pretty bold because we all knew she could whoop your butt when we thought she was a witch. I’ve been holdingherback and you’ve just gotten bolder. You’re going to settle this like supernaturals—with a magic fight. And I’m unleashing her on the rest of you. There are a lot of gods on this campus. You need to learn how to hold your own and she needs the full experience of my class. So, take your places. We’ve all watched you try to start something. We’re going to see if you can finish it.”
“I can’t fight her! She’s some butch dodgeball player and a god.”
“Excuse me, but we are nearly identical and neither of us are butch,” Matilda said. “Maybe you should have kept your stupid mouth shut after the first time a god fucked you up.”
“I would have stopped after my hair got trashed because girl, not even an exclusive lion’s only salon is going to fix that,” West pursed.
“Enough!” Zion roared. “Your generation likes bickering and trash talking, but you need to learn how to finish it. Paris, you had the lady balls to start something with someone everyone thought was the strongest witch in the school and decided to keep it going when you found out she was a god. You can either settle it in my class in a fair fight or you can wait until she’s good and pissed at you and you end up dead.”
Honestly? Up until recently, I would have said my mom and most of my dads had instilled such a sense of patience in me that it wouldn’t happen. I used to be a terror that caused all kinds of thunderstorms. That hadn’t happened in a long time and then Kaylee hurt Oscar. I caused another thunderstorm and if I hadn’t heard my dad and felt his hand on my shoulder, I actually might have killed Kaylee. She probably had it coming, but I’d never killed anyone before and I didn’t know if I’d be as cavalier about that as my dad was.
I squared my shoulders and faced Paris.
“He’s right. You can face me now when you’re just a minor annoyance or I can be the last thing you see if you keep this up like Kaylee did and my dad isn’t there to calm me down.”
