Page 53 of The Goddess is Fierce
Something told me none of us were going to be prepared for what happened next.
oscar
. . .
This wasn’t how I liked celebrating dodgeball wins. Ren and I would always go home and have furious sex. Maybe it was fucking weird, but I really liked to bottom when my team won. It certainly wasn’t how I wanted to celebrate my first win at the college level when there was going to be a full moon that night and I had my coven now.
But I was part of a coven with responsibilities. Even if there weren’t three gods in it, I’d still want to do something about whoever was murdering witches. So, we were all creeping in the bushes at the moon orgy watching the warlock that tried to stab George. No one minded if you snuck a peek when you were therefucking, but if you were fully clothed, hiding in the bushes, and watching? Yeah, that was weird.
I liked yanking Ren’s tails becauseheliked it, feeling George between us, and I wondered what it would be like for Baldur to toss me around when he was just Sol in maintenance. Azren was older than the universe, so he could probably do things to me and teach me to do things to George and Ren that might have been outlawed in the Dark Ages. Some of the shit I wanted to do to George after a dodgeball game was probably perverse, but not as perverted as what we were doing right now.
Man, I didn’t know what was up with their warlock. He didn’t seem bisexual, which didn’t have to be a problem at a moon orgy. You just focused on the woman or many women you joined. He was a warlock, so he didn’t need an invitation to the moon orgy. His dodgeball team was here with their cheerleaders and a good bit of their students. The Academy of the Profane offered Halliwell Square to them for the moon orgy for comradery.
I had no idea why this dude was going forourcheerleaders and students and kept it up when they kept telling him no. He was persona non grata with our cheerleaders after going after George. He probably would have been even if Matilda and Belladonna weren’t co-captains. The girls that weren’t into dodgeball either wanted to be friends with a god or were into Michael. They kept hoping he’d see someone other than Dexter.Theyknew George was his sister and even if they were jealous of Dexter, they followed him on social media.
Basically, no one was letting that guy anywhere near their vagina after what he did to George.
I didn’t know why he kept trying to jump in on our girls when his school was here. You had to bereallybad at sex to not get laid at the moon orgy. Sometimes, if you had strong magic or good connections, they would just ignore that you couldn’t findthe clit for what you could do for them. No one in our group was like that, but some people were.
The warlock was furious no one from our school wanted him to join them, but I wasn’t sure why he didn’t just join someone from his school. We all started moving when he stomped out of Halliwell Square like a child. There weren’t many places he could go. The dining hall wasn’t serving food and he couldn’t get into the speakeasy. I was guessing he’d run into the same issue if he found anyone at the dorms who hadn’t been invited to the moon orgy, but most people were. I think our whole school was out on Halliwell Square fucking.
We all snuck out to follow him. It was dark, so Azren was cloaking us in their smoke. I expected the warlock to go back to their bus. He started heading toward Shrieking Woods. That wasn’t right. Even if he didn’t go here, these grounds were famous. The Academy of the Profane was one of three magical buildings built on the site of the biggest supernatural massacre in this country. Beatrix Halliwell wanted to reclaim the land because of the ley lines by giving the ghosts a purpose.
Everyone knew that. I grew up in California, but I learned about the massacre, the buildings here, and Beatrix Halliwell in my history classes in high school. I learned about Shrieking Woods then. Some of us at my high school never intended to go to college, but we told ghost stories about the banshee who lived in Shrieking Woods and killed anyone who set foot in there to scare the shit out of each other at sleepovers.
I didn’t know where this guy went to high school, but he would have learned about the history of Profane. He probably had one fucked-up teacher who told his class about the banshee to get them to behave. Supernaturals didn’t like dealing with ghosts. They started out mostly annoying with the haunting but eventually, they figured their shit out. They learned how to movestuff and punch vampires in the dick. The adults used toloveterrorizing us with ghosts.
This guyshouldn’tbe headed toward Shrieking Woods. We were all signing so shifter ears didn’t pick us up. I was a little surprised that everyone close to me thus far knew sign language except Church and he had picked it up pretty quickly. Odin and Freya knew it and they gave that knowledge to Baldur. Azren signed to grab onto them. They took us to the edge of Shrieking Woods where the warlock was heading.
A tall, thin Unseelie stepped out. I felt George’s hand tighten on mine. She knew him. I was guessing it was Hale, the caretaker, since I’d never seen him before. He could have been from their school, but he wouldn’t have known about Shrieking Woods. It was an Unseelie and not a god this whole time?
I saw him conjure an ornate golden bow. Baldur had his magic back and remembered how to use it now. He waved his hand and stole Hale’s bow from him. His eyes turned to where we were. West didn’t sign for me when he spoke. Westneverdid that. He signed everything.
I had no idea what Hale said, but everyone came stumbling out of the bushes. Azren shoved me behind them. I had no idea what was going on. I could see a flash of light. I peered around Azren’s shoulder and could see where Hale had turned into the god in the photo Drake’s mom took. I could see he was talking, but no one was signing for me.
I couldn’t read lips yet. I might never be good at that. I didn’t know what he was saying, but my party had several powerful supernaturals and multiple gods and they were all powerless around him. He couldn’t do a damned thing to me because I couldn’t hear him but my magic also wasn’t going to stop a fucking god.
Azren was supposed to be our ace. They were the god everyone feared. But they were right. You couldn’t kill words orideas. If this was Hedylogus, that was their magic. Before Azren was too far gone, I saw them summon the arrow we found behind their back. They shoved it at me and then grabbed me.
The next thing I knew, I was standing behind Hedylogus. What the fuck was I supposed to do now? I might be immune to him because I was deaf, but he was a god and I was a Brujo. I was a powerful supernatural, but I wasn’t a god. My magic would bounce off of him. Church couldn’t bite George unless she let him.
I was so coming back and haunting Azren when this was over. They sent me right behind this fucking evil god with just an arrow he’d already murdered Drake’s parents over. I wasdefinitelyfiguring out the dick punching thing. Maybe Bethany would teach me.
Hedylogus was so focused on the others, he didn’t notice me until I felt myself step on a stick. He whirled around. I didn’t think, I just reacted. All I had was an arrow and a giant will to live. I just stabbed with the arrow. I had no idea if it was going to do a damned thing, but it sank into his chest straight into his heart.
His aura started flickering and his skin started turning a pale color. Fuck, did I just kill a god? Did Azren know that arrow was his weakness when they gave it to me and shot me over here like a human sacrifice? I was still thinking about dick punching Azren.
Butfuck.I was pretty sure I just killed a god.
george
. . .
Mother fuck. That was intense. My family came out for the dodgeball game. Like, my entire family. My mom and aunt got my siblings and cousins home but some of my dads and uncles were here. We had alotof gods and some pretty powerful supernaturals and we were all powerless against Hedylogus when he started talking.
I heard the warlock who was supposed to try to stab me demand money from Hale, who was just Hedylogus shapeshifted this entire time. He conjured his bow to kill the warlock probably and then Baldur took his bow. As soon as heordered us out of the bushes, I lost complete control over my body. It was so fucked-up.
No one had ever been able to control me before unless I let them. It was the same for all of us because free will was a thing. It was like Hedylogus sapped all of it away from us. As soon as we heard his voice, we couldn’t do anything except what he told us to. We couldn’t even sign for Oscar, so he had no idea what was going on.
