Page 28 of The Goddess is Fierce
“It’s possible, but not really our style. Like, IknewRipley was going to be my wife as soon as I laid eyes on her. I can see possibilities and she was my wife in nearly every one. There were a few scenarios where something went wrong and she rejected me. I wanted this woman more than anything I’d ever wanted, but if she didn’t wantme,I would have accepted that and left her alone.
“Some of the other gods aren’t like that when mortal women don’t want them. They think they are beneath us and should be grateful, so they take what they want or hurt them. It’s different when another god doesn’t want you. Those gods can fight back. They live long enough to figure out your weakness and kill you if you really pissed them off. Besides, how would this Erotes even know Freya would eventually end up at the Academy of the Profane to give the hearts to if he was butchering witches and collecting their hearts to give them to her?”
My dad understood godsmuchbetter than I did, so I always deferred to him when there was something I didn’t understand. I knew gods all had wildly different personalities just like mortals did. Some of them probablydidreact badly if another god rejected them.
But my dad was also right about a lot of other things. Most gods treated other gods differently than they did mortals because there were actual consequences with other gods. And unless there was some kind of connection we hadn’t pieced together yet,no oneknew Freya would be asked to guest lecture our history class because our headmaster got hexed by her own kid. I didn’t even know I was going to have a god teaching history until orientation.
There wasnoway in fuck an Erotes could have predicted that. I was related to two seers who always tried to give me a heads-up, andtheydidn’t see that. And if Freydis saw there weregoing to be two hot gods at the Academy of the Profane that I felt a connection to, she wouldn’t have just told me. She’d be blowing up my phone wanting details. The fact that she hadn’t, meant she hadn’t seen a thing about Baldur and Azren and I was a shitty cousin for not telling her yet.
We were missing something.
“Hey, Balthazar? Can you peek at the Paranormal Investigation Bureau database without getting caught?” I asked.
Balthazar gasped.
“I’ve been your dad for eighteen years and you think someone is going to catch me when I don’t want to be caught? Besides, the Paranormal Investigation Bureau knows I keep looking because I keep helping solve cases they don’t consult me on, so about three months ago, they created an account for me to look the legal way. What do you need, sweetness?”
“Seriously? Congrats. Can you see if there have been groups of unsolved murders of witches in different areas of the country that involve hearts? We’ve been trying to figure out the significance of the Academy of the Profane but maybe it’s just one of many places they hunt in when they want to kill.”
“They didn’t just give him access,” Bram said. “Two years ago, they hired him to completely rewrite their database. The old one was archaic. It took forever to search and sometimes, it didn’t connect all the dots. Balthazar can find this out in minutes. And don’t let him fool any of you. They know he’s been hacking them and they know he’s stealing from rich criminals. Proving it would be insanely difficult but they aren’t even trying because they all adore this motherfucker. He’s lovable, cuddly, andreallygood at what he does for them.”
“And I’m absolutely adorable. It was a good hunch, but the only case files related to a serial who was targeting witches and removing hearts were at the Academy of the Profane. It wasalways independent study witches and it would just stop with no one arrested.
“Some of the detectives put the pieces together that it happened before, but most of them assumed it was some coven who was ritually killing witches and using the hearts for dark magic. Some of them thought it was a guy in maintenance who made everyone uncomfortable. I’m guessing that’s Baldur.
“Most of the detectives were good cops who were frustrated with the whole situation because they couldn’t do their jobs and question students. I know you all said they were being dicks to Azren, but I’m pretty sure that’s all for show. The God of Death isn’t bound by the same rules they are and Azren is pretty important. The board wasn’t going to fire them for breaking the rules.
“There’s also a note from the most recent cases that they saw Azren over the body and waited to approach because they didn’t know if it was safe. They did the same thing at the second crime scene. Now that I know more about what’s going on, that’s detective speak for malicious compliance. They used any rule they could to let the God of Death do their thing because they knew the protocol about murders on campus.”
“Damn,” Church swore. “That doesn’t answer a damned thing. We know he tried when Drake’s mom was a student and no one died because he disappeared after he lost his arrow. There is something important about the arrows. I don’t think he killed Drake’s parents because of what’s on the camera. I think he wanted his arrow back.”
“Probably,” Dad said. “We are very possessive of our property, but there could be something special about it. There is a lot of mythology about getting hit by one of Cupid’s arrows and there are technically seven Cupids.”
“Which means back to the books,” Michael said.
I pulled my mom aside to stay back. I told my momeverything, butI still hadn’t told her Azren and I were together so I did that after everyone had left. She just fell out laughing.
“You’re my child and you’ve never been able to keep a secret from me. I knew you had a crush just from our video chats at night. You might have been able to keep that he returned your feelings a secret a bit longer, but he’s eaten at my dinner table. Azrenwas notfooling me when they pretended like they were inviting you to the Netherworld to celebrate Yule with Drake. A mother knows. Your aunt guessed, too.”
I groaned.
“Do my dads know and is one of them planning some kind of celestial beat down?”
My mom was laughing at me again like that wasn’t a possibility My dad could start a fist fight and I wasn’t all that sure Balthazar couldn’t hack Azren’s bank in the Netherworld and make all his money disappear.
“Your dads love all your guys. Your dad would have been happy if you ended up with a mixed bag of supernaturals, but he’s always wanted you with at least one god. The problem with that is that the ones he knows are either still happily married or he knows how they treated their ex-wives.
“Azren is an old friend and your dad is happy forbothof you that you ended up together. Your dad has wanted Azren to find their person for a long time, too. Everyone is reserving judgment on Baldur until he gets his memories back. We know he’s not killing anyone and your dads have been grilling Loki on how he treated his wife when they were married. It’s none of that and we trust you explicitly, but no one can predict what Baldur is going to feel when he gets his memories back.”
I sighed and leaned into her. My mom wrapped her arms around me and kissed the top of my head.
“I really like him. He’s like this giant teddy bear and he might notrememberbeing a light god or have the magic that goes with it, but he’s thoughtful and considerate like he still is one.”
“I know, sweetie. Just remember what I taught you. Keep sex and feelings separate until you have a full picture and you know theydeserveyour affection. Get to know him and be supportive because he’s obviously going through a lot, but don’t fall too deep until he gets his memories back.”
Baldur had basically told me the same thing in very different words. The problem was that we were constantly being drawn to each other whenever we were in the same room.
I could try to fight it until he got his memories back, but I really didn’t want to.
