Page 37 of The Goddess is Fierce
“Then, you’d have to have my balls in your mouth.”
“Touché, lion.”
Church’s phone rang, and he told us it was his grandfather. Freya wasn’t back yet, and my dad never ate breakfast in the dining hall. We were going to talk to him later. Church’s grandfather was the only other person who would know about any forges on campus. It wasn’t a person, and I was guessing it wasn’t magical. A locator spell was our next step just in case there was something magically significant about it. Church’s grandfather could cut that step out.
“You said you needed help. Sorry I missed the text.”
“I think we got invites to the campus speakeasy and the ghosts are finally trying to help us with the mystery. Do you know anything about a forge on campus?”
“There are two and the only reason I can even tell you about one of them is because Azren ran their big fat mouth when they shouldn’t have. Both of them haven’t been used in decades as far as I know. They converted the old stables to locker rooms whenthey built a sports field on that land. The old forge was preserved as a bit of history and it’s off the side of the dodgeball stadium.
“The other is in Shrieking Woods. The caretaker of the garden that grows out there needed to live off the grid while they were building up the mythology. No one could be seen coming and going so there was a place for them to make and repair tools. They don’t use it anymore. There’s Wi-Fi out there. If they need tools, they have a credit card and email the headmaster the invoice.
“I know the God of Death spilled the beans about Shrieking Woods but it’s still not safe to go in there unless Gabriel warns the groundskeeper you’re coming. The groundskeeper is usually a hedge witch or some type of Fae because of their connection to nature, but they only hire powerful supernaturals for this job. I’m talking, the kind of supernatural that could make college studentsthinkthere’s the ghost of a banshee serial killer living there. They are also dangerous enough to knock someone out and make them forget they found someone living in Shrieking Woods instead of deranged ghosts.
“The caretakers are usually hedge witches who tend to hate people or high-profile Fae refugees who are hiding in Shrieking Woods because they don’t want to get kidnapped back to their realm. It’s abigjob to take on and not everyone can do it. The Fae do it because they have to. Some of the hedge witches just like the idea of living in the woods surrounded by rare plants and terrorizing any teenagers that come close.
“Since this is a speakeasy quest and might have something to do with the killer, I’m guessing the ghosts don’t want you looking for the forge that’s right next to where you play dodgeball most nights. I’m serious about this. Don’t go looking for the other forge until Gabriel can let the caretaker know you are coming. George is the only one who wouldn’t get hurt. The caretaker might get spooked and plants could get damaged. The gardenhas some of the biggest crops of medicinal plants in the country. They’ve tried growing them in special greenhouses and they don’t flourish the same.”
“I’ll talk to my dad,” I said.
“I’d go with you, but I don’t know this caretaker. They were hired after I left. The board isn’t involved in secondary staff hiring. All I know is that they are an Unseelie refugee and really intense. I’m guessing they will show you the old forge and then want you gone.”
We could do that. Between Oscar, Mags, Azren, and me, we could just touch the forge and see if there were anything fishy about it. West, Ren, and Matilda all had the killer’s scent. They could tell if the killer had been out there and meddled with the caretaker’s memories like he had the students.
We hung up with Church’s grandfather and made a plan to meet in my dad’s office. Some Fae had been in this realm for generations and the Fae Court didn’t care. Some of the Fae that escaped that realm, they wanted back. They had to apply for asylum with the right supernaturals, but they were always worried soldiers from the Fae Court were going to swoop in and steal them back.
We could do this without traumatizing the caretaker.
west
. . .
At first, I thought it was weird the ghosts were including me in their little notes. After watching Bethany repeatedly assault Church’s nuts, I wanted the ghosts to pretend like I didn’t exist. Which was unusual because I was a very needy lion who needed everyone to notice me. I’d never admit that to a single soul, but I knew myself very well.
I didn’t want my beautiful balls punched by an angry spirit, but I was glad they included me on this now that I knew what they were. I wouldn’t have been able to join my people without getting that note. The ghosts would have known there were other people who were close to Oscar who could have signed for himwhile he was in the speakeasy. Church was not only picking up sign language superfast, he studied it over Yule break to get better.
I left the TV on in our dorm room before I shut the door when I left for breakfast and whispered a thanks to the ghosts for including me. I meant it. I would have felt left out if they all got to go and I couldn’t. And I figured showing gratitude would keep my dick safe.
We’d already gotten Grandpa Church’s story on the forges. Church was my boyfriend-in-law and he was in my pride, so Church’s grandfather was practicallymygrandfather at this point. He wasn’t as cute and cuddly as our Church and might bite my beautiful neck for calling him Grandpa, so I wasn’t going to do that to his face just yet.
We were all in the headmaster’s office to see what George’s dad knew about the forges and see if he could get in contact with the caretaker. Theonlyreason I knew George’s daddy was cute and cuddly and not some dark warlock who could ban my ass from campus for the unspeakable things I’d done to his daughter under the full moon was because I’d seen him with his family and knew he approved of us.
“I can email the caretaker, but the other forge is being used. I’m not sure how to tell you by whom.”
“Baldur,” George said.
“It was one of the reasons he was hired and they overlooked the whole lack of magic thing. There were a lot of things previous maintenance had to contract out if it broke. He knows how to fix alotof things. He can also make things on that old forge that plenty of people they interviewed can’t do. When he was just Sol, he saved this college a ton of money and kept her bones strong by fixing what was broken.”
“We cleared him though,” Ren said. “West figured it out. He might know how to work a forge, but he still doesn’t have magic.”
I didn’t get vibes from Baldur that he was a killer even before I asked if he had blackouts on certain dates. I might not have witchy-woo intuition with auras, but my vibes hadn’t let me down yet. Baldur might not be a criminal, but for a hot minute, I was. I didn’tkillanyone, I just vandalized or stole their shit, but we could smell our own. Baldur struck me as the kind of guy who had never just kind of slowed down at a stop sign at two in the morning because no one was coming. Nah, that big motherfucker always came to a complete stop.
“I haven’t thought he did this from the moment you told me he was Baldur and having blackouts. He could have learned to blacksmith once he came back. He’s been around for a while with no magic or memories and he’d have to learn skills to feed himself. It could be muscle memory. He might notrememberlearning to work a forge, but his body does.”
“Why is that important?” Church asked.
“Okay, I’m not a god, but I have plenty in my family and my wife is a librarian. A lot of the gods have a weapon associated with them that they use to focus their magic. All of them could have just waved their hands and made one, but they didn’t. All those magical god weapons were forged. Hephaestus made all of them for his family. Asgard has dwarves that make fantastic magical weapons. They made Thor’s hammer. I’m sure the other realms have similar weapons and blacksmiths.
