Page 14 of Messenger of Death
“The elders might know, but we don’t. We all have theories, but no one knows for sure.”
“Headmaster Mykene has never heard of the blackness that surrounded Kira and took her dragon. Star is gone, but she’s not dead. Khalid or I would have known. No one could track anyone leaving with her or a portal. She’s justgone.My familiars can’t talk about who this is, but they did give me a hint. I think whatever made fairies leave is here at Ouroboros Academy with us.”
“My familiars aren’t saying much, but they are also different from other familiars. Hecate’s familiars were originally mortals that were either cursed or saved by turning them into animals. One was saved by Hecate and the other was cursed by another god and adopted by her. They chose to be reborn to guide future reincarnations of Hecate. Hecate was Greek. My grandparents immigrated to England before I was born. I grew up in the village next to the castle here. My familiars found me during the trials. I wouldn’t expect them to know much about Fairy.”
“Honestly, I’m a fairy and I don’t know much about it.”
“It seems weird modern fairies don’t know their history,” I said. “My country is mostly Muslim now with a few Coptic Christians. Most of us know ours. I still think something is up with Mazen, but even he could tell from his hints that he was Set.”
“I dunno, mate, it’s Radames that has my arsehole itching. No one is that calm or polite unless they are up to something,” Liam said.
“Uh, I try to be that calm and polite.”
Liam reached forward and pinched my cheeks like my Teta would do when I was small. I smacked his hands away because only she was allowed to do that.
“See? That was rude.”
“You pinched my cheeks without my permission. How was that rude? If anything,youwere rude.”
“Yeah, I was. And you were rude back. Radames doesn’t do that. Things were tense as fuck when they found the Prince of Darkness hovering over Lola with his chompers out when she was covered in blood and he wasn’t even rude to anyone then. Have you seen him look at Ivar, Ari, and Alexios the way Mazen is? Mazen is planning on gutting them in their sleep if he can figure out where to hide the bodies. Radames hardly looks at them.”
“He’s Coptic,” I argued. “His accent suggests he came from a wealthy area, so he probably went to a religious private school. Radames is probably having the biggest existential crisis of his life right now. I know you’re about to compare him to Sage, but two people can listen to the exact same sermon and have completely different reactions to it.”
“No, he’s right,” Sage said. “If I’d been the boy my father wanted, he would have treated me differently and I might be having a problem withallof this.”
“I’d be really confused if you had those legs and that arse on a man. Just saying. I’d be open to experimenting,” Liam said.
“Gross. Can you focus?” Lucian snapped.
“No, Liam is right,” Alexios said. “Radames is the only student right now who doesn’t look like he wants to murder us. Every time Lola sees us, she starts crying and flings herself at Radames or Mazen. If she’s changing her story, there should be malice when he looks at us, even if he’s not planning on acting on it. He?—”
Alexios’s eyes went completely white and his body seized. Ari and Ivar flew to him to hold him. I took a step forward, but Morgana put her hand on my chest to hold me back.
“Let it play out. This is a clue. I know who he used to be.”
If I knew what was happening, I might be able to figure it out.
“When the time comes that winter turns to summer, the Forsaken Ones shall usher forth an age of inhumanity,”Alexios said in a voice that didn’t sound like him at all.
We all looked at each other. Alexios’s eyes went back to normal, and he shook his head.
“Fuck. The migraine is gone. I’m guessing it was that prophecy trying to get out. Hi, I was Apollo in my first life.”
That was pretty handy. It could be this year or it could be in several, but it sounded like we at least had some breathing room to figure out who was doing this.
“Well, I don’t know who the fuck the Forsaken Ones are, but Apollo has the gift of prophecy and the Morrigan has foretelling. It gives us an edge on top of our other gifts since all of you at least know who you are now. It’s just a matter of learning to use your magic,” Morgana said.
“I haven’t, either,” Saffron said. “But someone has to know about them and what their names were in their first life or they wouldn’t have been reincarnated. Names have power. If your name is forgotten, you’re as good as dead when it comes to gods and originals.”
We were right that there were more than one person out there hurting people. Alexios’s prophecy saidForsaken OnesnotForsaken One.
We were going to need all our resources and wits because everyone had either forgotten them or were forbidden to speak about them.
Was this high school? Some girl saw us step out of Ivar’s room, gasped like we hit her, and then scurried off. You’d have thought we were the ones who beat Lola after that. Either that, or we smelled bad. Nearly everyone from our side of the school was avoiding us. I didn’t even remember who most of these people were, much less who they were in their first life, but they sure hated me.
I stopped to use the bathroom before we went to the dining hall and there was agiantman waiting for me. I didn’t leavethe doorway because someone was hurting people and all the students were looking at me like they wanted to hurtme.
“Can I help you?”
