Page 35 of Whiskey, Thieves, and Bastards
“You boys are going to want to focus your rage instead of just sitting here ranting about it because Medusa still has a lot to learn,” Megaera said.
“And I get your mate bond is new, but you’re going to have to realize it’s not an emergency if she gets a paper cut.”
“Yes, it is,” I growled. “I’ll set that piece of paper on fire for that.”
“Eat up because Medusa needs fury lessons while everyone else comes up with a plan for the Coalition.”
Yeah, I could do that. I was going to brutally murder Hannibal for starving her, but I had a vested interest in seeing the Coalition go down. They hurt me. They hurt Pax and Medusa.
They might have killed my parents. It was the not knowing that killed me. We’d been trying. Everyone in Cas’s network had been asked if they were kept with them, but I didn’t exactly have any pictures to pass around. I’d been holding on to the memory of their faces and someone had sketched something for me, but I was seven the last time I saw them.
Yeah, we all had reasons for wanting to take them down and my shit attention span was laser sharp when it came to the Coalition and my people. Medusa needed to learn.
And we needed to pool the resources of several powerful people to help her.
The valley Cas’s village was in was vast and I hadn’t really had the chance to explore it yet. Cas said there was a big clearing they trained the littles on. They might eventually have to build on it, but they hadn’t gotten there yet. He said it was beautiful and the perfect place for fury lessons.
But my lessons had already started. We couldn’t just walk there. Furies could portal and they told me I needed to learn that first. I could fuck up the masses with my mind, but they pointed out that could go several ways and I didn’t self-actualize myself any wings like they did. If shit went sour, I couldn’t fly out of there. I’d need to portal.
So, my first assignment was popping myself over to the clearing Cas told us about with just a photo. I never had a goodrelationship with my actual sister. I wanted one, but she was always jealous of the attention I got. She was jealous of literally everyone over every little thing and generally unpleasant to be around.
But the furies? This was the kind of sister relationship I always wanted. They were trying to help me, but there was a lot of good-natured ribbing so I was having fun, too.
“Girl, you are concentrating too hard. Do you want me to get some of that concoction Benji gave that fake priest? You look like you ate an entire block of cheese and can’t shit,” Alecto said.
“That drink is pure evil, and you’d have to be pretty stupid to drink it once, much less continue to drink it,” I laughed.
“Your boyfriend grew up around those people. He knew how to play to their weaknesses. But no deathly hot, half Korean distractions. Before you learn anything, you need to figure out portalling. If the Coalition is using some kind of drug to take supernaturals, you’d have a few seconds before you’re out. It would be enough time to get yourself to safety,” Megaera said.
“Just in case you needed a little more motivation. My therapist says proper motivation is vital to everything in life,” Tisiphone said.
“Oh, I’m completely motivated, but I’ve never done this before.”
“You’re forgetting how it was when you learned your green witch magic. This is easier than that. You don’t have to learn how to control it or worry about using too much magic and causing an earthquake. You just need to tap into it and figure out what it feels like. Then, you’ll be able to do it whenever you want.”
“Trapping people in their worst nightmares is a lot more complicated because we have to teach you how to sense they deserve it first. Your big bear daddy isn’t going to allow anyone like that in his village, so I’m going to have to arm wrestle all your mates so they let us take you out of it.”
Ooh! I had a great idea, and it was actually something I really needed.
“When Jezebel and I were stuck in the basement, we said if we ever got out, we were going to have a girls’ night out drinking doing mean things to stupid boys. That’s expanded to Kat, Calamity, and Persephone, but you should totally come and we can practice there! Tisiphone is mated to Kat, Jezebel, and Calamity and the rest of you are my sisters. Kat already said she’d kick their asses if they came and ruined Jezebel’s fun. She’s an original, so they know she’d win.”
“Ooh, girls’ night!” Megaera said, clapping.
I didn’t know what was going on with Alecto. The only time anyone was unhappy when someone found their mate was when that mate happened to be someone they were in love with. Alecto hadn’t met Tisiphone’s mates before. She still seemed conflicted over the fact that Tisiphone found hers. The three of them were close. I couldn’t imagine her not being happy for her sister.
Something was going on, but I didn’t think I could ask yet. So, I focused on trying to portal. They said it was a feeling, but I was so full of feelings right now. There were the ones from New Eden I was ignoring, the elation of all the new family and friends, I’d just found, and the pressure of finding out I was fated to be one of Athena’s heroes.
“So, I’m feeling all the feels right now and some of them aren’t good. I don’t know which one I’m supposed to be focusing on.”
They just laughed at me.
“This isn’t some deep emotion that your therapist drags out and then you ugly cry in their office. You just have to really want to go somewhere.”
“It can’t be that easy.”
“It really is. Is there a reason you don’t want to go to that clearing?” Alecto asked.
“Uh, no?”
