Page 41 of The Goddess is Fierce
“Hi, Hale. This is Azren and my daughter, George.”
“I’m aware. The forge is this way.”
He was all business. Hale wanted to show us the forge and get us out of his forest. I got it.
“Have there been any signs someone was in this forest?” Azren asked.
“You mean aside from that unfortunate dead girl and the agents who were stomping around my forest? No. The night of the murder I was out of the forest taking in a movie. No offense, but I’m not interested in moon orgies with anyone. I went to one staffed by humans. The Paranormal Investigation Bureau confirmed me there on their cameras and with my ticket. The only cameras here are on the rare plants. Usually, the trees tellme if someone is trespassing, but I was too far away to hear them that night. Other than the night of the moon orgy, it’s been quiet.”
“Holy shit, is that Fogbane?” I asked, seeing it growing on a boulder.
“A girl knows her lichen. I’m impressed.”
I was kinda irritated this guy just called me a girl, but technically Iwasyounger than him.
“My grandparents own a magic shop just off campus. They moved here after my brother was born to be close to the grandkids. They have charms, potions, potion ingredients, and a little greenhouse my grandfather built in the back where they try to grow plants like this. My grandmother has been trying to get Fogbane to grow on these rocks by the creek because of its healing properties and because it’s so expensive. Any tips?”
“Mm. Have her pour orange juice on the rocks when the moon is full. Fresh squeezed is best with a lot of pulp. This is the forge.”
Orange juice? We used to always love visiting the magic shop. We all had jobs there in high school. My grandma was going to lose her shit if the orange juice worked. I took in the caretaker’s cottage. It was an old, charming place. It definitely gave off ‘fairytale hermit who terrorized teenagers’ vibes. I could tell someone had been updating the place as the centuries had passed as there were several modern amenities I could see. There was also an exit to the forest I didn’t know about. There was a truck parked on a gravel drive leading somewhere.
We all crowded around the forge. This one hadn’t been used recently. Baldur’s forge wouldn’t have burned me if I didn’t want it to, but it was uncomfortable to be around and I didn’t need to get close to get what I needed. Azren and I surrounded it and tried to figure it out.
There was no magic on this forge either but now that I was standing next to Azren, I had a stronger sense of essences. The killer’s essence had beennearthis forge, but it wasn’tinthe forge. Before we left Baldur, he told us one last thing that was a major help. He said with a forge that old and what he knew about the arrow, if it had been made on campus, a little bit of the killer’s essence would be left behind and trapped in the nooks and crannies of the forge.
The arrow wasn’tmadeon this forge. I didn’t even know if it had touched it. But I could sense the killer’s essence near it.
“Hale, do you leave the forest often like when you went to the movies that night?” Azren asked.
“Yes. I’m a cinephile. I know some of the older movies are on streaming services and the newer ones will get there, but it’s different when you see it in the theater. I see new movies I’m interested in and revivals of old ones all the time. The myths did their job. Everyone is too scared to come near Shrieking Woods at night. There are also motion sensors. If you trip one a recording of a banshee wailing plays. It wouldn’t scare a god, but it would terrorize a college student into getting the fuck out of Shrieking Woods if I wanted to see a movie.”
“Thanks, Hale. We’ll be out of your hair now. Gabriel, grab onto us. We’ll get out of the forest the god way so we don’t disturb anything.”
My dad wrapped his arm around me. I hoped Azren had a theory because I certainly didn’t. I also hoped this was enough for the ghosts and the hint with the forge played out a lot quicker than the help they gave Baldur over a hundred years ago.
ren
. . .
West was one of those guys who oozed confidence. He wore what he wanted and said what he wanted. One of our friends threw a costume party before we all went off to college and West showed up dressed like Marilyn Monroe for some reason not giving a single fuck what anyone thought.
Oscar and I knew he didn’t have a single bisexual bone in his body. West wasveryinto girls. I sounded like a broken record asking him if he was sure he was straight because I just kepthoping there was a tiny bit of bisexuality somewhere in that fabulous mane of hair that he’d find and decide he was also into guys. West would make anamazingboyfriend, alas, it wasn’t meant to be. He was going to treat George like a queen, though.
Still, even with all that swagger and confidence, we needed to talk West up a little. He always joked he wasn’t as smart as us, but I didn’t think he actually believed that. West was never going to write peer-reviewed papers on magical theory or cure diseases, but West wasclever.And as a fox, I had a deep appreciation of that.
I wasn’t shocked in theslightestit was West that figured out the right question to ask Baldur to figure out if he was the killer. He was also a big, sappy romantic.Of course,he saw that arrow and immediately jumped to Cupid and gave Azren a theory to work with.
But we needed to start talking West up because I was really starting to think he wasn’t just saying he thought he wasn’t as smart as us because he was fishing for compliments. I was pretty sure West actually thought that, or he thought we didn’t value his opinions. Which was stupid because West was one of us. And even if his idea was fucking someone’s shit up, that’s what I was for. Hello? Kitsune.
“You should have said something because you’re right,” I moaned. “Azren and George don’t have the killer’s scent.”
“I might threaten to bite your ass a lot, but I do actually like you. You’re really good for my sister and you’re right about this. My twin is powerful and so is Azren, but they don’t have the same gifts we do as shifters. My uncle Loki said when gods shapeshift, their senses aren’t as strong as ours, so even if Azren had, we’d still have a better read on the killer scent wise. George eventuallywillhave the same senses we do as a hellhound and lion but she hasn’t learned how to do that yet. We should be there.”
I briefly had a brain fart thinking about George’s superpowers. Because eventually, she’d figure out how to do the Kitsune thing too and could half shift like me. She would look hotas fuckwearing the men’s or women’s Academy of the Profane Uniform with fox ears and a few tails. Mm. That would be so sexy. I was pretty sure that was a new fantasy.
West just shrugged.
“I know you only threaten to bite my ass because you love me like a brother. Anyway, Iknowwe’ve got super smell. Mine kicked in on my eighteenth birthday when I was in a shitty bar full of sweaty humans who had been playing a sport thatwasn’tdodgeball. I’m pretty sure some of them had religious objections to deodorant and washing their assholes. Sometimes, I want to turn it off. Azren will think of something. They are the smartest person I know.”
