Page 56 of The Goddess is Fierce
“They would try to arrest all three of us as heretics. If we usedanykind of magic around them or showed our strength, they were going to get hysterical with the Satanic Panic again and there probably would have been just as big of a massacre as there was on these grounds. I don’t have that much experience with gods when they are infants and if their little skulls are the same as mortal babies, but I’m half wondering if you got dropped on your head as a kid.”
“Fuck you,” Hedylogus spat. “I know what happens when gods die. It’s not like the one who came back defective and cleaned toilets. I’ll be back with my memories and magic in no time. The chances of you getting your hands on one of my arrows again are pretty slim and I overpowered you once. I could do whatever I want toallof you when I’m back.”
Azren let out this low, dangerous chuckle.
“I usually hate it when people form opinions about me without getting to know me first, but in this case, I’m a little offended my reputation doesn’t proceed me. Have you heard about my secret room in the Netherworld, Hedylogus? See, your superpower is words, but my domain is death. That means I have control over essences.
“If you hadn’t immobilized me, I would have ripped yours from your vessel. I had a theory about your arrow and the real reason it was so important they be destroyed. It paid off and you’re dead. See, if you want to go to the Aether and be reborn, I’m the only one who can take you there. Or, I can put your essence in this little jar that I’m going to hide away in my realm with the other gods I’ve put in time out. It’s up to me when you get let out and allowed to play with the living again. I really like a jar for you.”
Hedylogus was finally starting to realize what his giantfuck youto Freya and Death was about to cost him. I was pretty sure he figured he could overpower both of them and they’d never figure out his weakness. I’m pretty sure Hedylogus thought Azren and their god timeout were stories gods told their kids to get them to behave like my mom did with ghosts. He was starting to look a little panicked that if he wanted to get reborn and get a vessel again, that was all up to the fabulous god in the trench coat and scythe he just pissed off.
“No, wait?—”
“You bore me,” Azren said, pointing their scythe at Hedylogus’s ghost.
“Remind me not to piss you off,” Ren said as Hedylogus’s shrieking ghost got sucked into their jar.
Azren popped a cork in the bottle and tossed their hair over their shoulder. I should probably not find them sexy as fuck right now, but Oscar and Azren were both sexy as fuck right now.
My dads surrounded me and crushed me into a group hug.
“Maybe for the rest of college, you stick to classes, moon orgies, and winning dodgeball games instead of catching serial killers,” Dad said.
“Ah, fuck, can wepleasego back to dodgeball and moon orgies?” West moaned. “I nearly shit myself when Azren sent Oscar at the killer.”
“I should hit you in the face again because you didn’t know for sure that was his weakness,” I growled at Azren.
Freya started giggling.
“I think Azren likes it when you do that. Seriously, did he go on this whole elaborate killing spree because I didn’t remember his name, he was shapeshifted when he approached me again, and Azren tried to stop him from making a scene that probably would have started another witch hunt?”
“A man who thinks he’s the most powerful person in the universe going on a killing spree because a woman and her nonbinary friend tells him to calm down?” Matilda snorted.
“Ah, fuck,” Freya sighed.
“He only met you twice,” Baldur said. “I grew up around you. If you had wanted to disrespect him, you would have enunciated it like a fucking lady and would have done it in such a way that even ifyoudidn’t remember it, Azren certainly would have.”
“It’s true,” Azren said. “I barely remembered there was another god at the pub because it was such a small interaction. I came back from getting us drinks and thought it was a werewolf talking to you. I didn’t even get his name, just that he was a god and kept insisting you knew him, and you had a connection. I told him to calm down, stop making a scene, and leave because the pub was crawling with humans. He left, and I thought that was it. Clearly not.”
“Um, I am not okay,” Oscar said. “Everyone stopped signing when he froze everyone and then I got portalled behind a god with literallynoinstructions. My whole-ass life flashed before me when he came at me and it was just instinct I stabbed with the only pointy thing I had since my magic wouldn’t work. I’m only eighteen. I’d like to win the college dodgeball championships, see what it’s like to get fucked by Death and my girlfriend at the same time, and I’ve wanted Baldur to throw me around since I thought he was Sol in maintenance. I could havenotgotten to experience any of that because I got unalived by a fucking stupid powerful Cupid. Ren is usually balls deep in my ass after I win a dodgeball game. I can’t handle this shit. Am I being dramatic?”
Ren waggled his eyebrows at Oscar.
“I could still be balls deep in your ass while you’re balls deep in our girlfriend. It’s still a moon orgy. Ah, fuck. Please don’t smite, curse, bite, or eat me,” Ren said when he realized my dads wereright there.
My dad just laughed.
“She’s a god. It’s what we do. I’m not going to kink shame my own kid. The killer is dead, and we have our own moon orgy to attend. You all played a brilliant dodgeball game. Props to the pixie for making the winning shot. Have fun at the moon orgy, kids.”
My dad portalled everyone back to the library. Yeah, it was still pretty early. It was barely midnight. We could all go have fun at the moon orgy. I couldfinallyhave my wicked way with Baldur and Ren and Oscar could make their kinky fantasies with him come true.
But not all of us. If Azren was going to stay and teach history now that the killer was caught, they couldn’t participate with us. Azren loved teaching, and we had a thing. They could very well want to stay. Iwantedthem to stay instead of going back to the Netherworld.
“I know you aren’tsupposedto fuck inside during a moon orgy, but I’m not doing a moon orgy without Azren,” I said.
I was pretty firm on this. I was abigfan of moon orgies now that I was eighteen and could go to one, but I loved Azren. I didn’t like that I had to pretend I didn’t have feelings for them in class, but I wasn’t excluding them from orgies when there were workarounds.
Azren looked a little surprised, like they expected me to go off with the others and sneak back to them like I cared about them less. I grabbed Azren and pulled them down for a kiss.
