Page 54 of Messenger of Death
“Fill me in when you feel comfortable? I know all of this is new and scary, but your particular group is very powerful and so is your roommate’s.”
“So, I don’t think Iman is stuck. I think shewantsto be a cat.”
“Oh, I’ve been aware of that for months. Iman is a prodigy and had a hard life before we brought her here. Plus, she’s acat.We’ll see her again when she’s ready.”
Someone knocked on the door and Headmaster Mykene’s secretary came in. He handed her something and then she handed it to me. I looked down at my palm and it was a flash drive.
“Is this…?”
“The files you asked for. I never gave you these. I’m guessing there’s a file in particular you want to look at and you’ll tell me when you’re ready.”
Before someone else died or was consumed by the void. She didn’t have to say it. I needed one more thing.
“Is there somewhere I could find the location of all the pools like the one here?”
“Talk to Professor Kane. She’s gathered all of them in her research to find potential gateways to other realms. She thinks they are connected.”
I could do that. I knew it wasn’t much, but if I could pinpoint Lola near one of those pools, I’d feel comfortable saying she’d had time to be awake longer than all of us and had sought out her mate to wake him up, too.
And I could begin the process of trusting my own feelings.
Sage was clearly working off some kind of theory she didn’t feel comfortable sharing yet. Since we were mated now, I could feel her stress and determination. Lucian had started a blood bond with her and was working up to it, but he was starting to be able to feel her, too. Liam had some crazy cosmic connection with her where he justknew.
We were dying to know, but weren’t asking. None of us were like that. We were helping as we could. She’d tell us when she was ready. She’d given us all a copy of a flash drive she’d gotten from Headmaster Mykene to help narrow it down, but she specifically had me looking into the location of the pools around the world.
Ireallyliked Professor Kane. I knew some people thought she was eccentric, and I didn’t really like how Lola and her friends made fun of her. She was brilliant and funny. I was pretty sure her research was going to be groundbreaking if we could prove it. At the least, it might help us catch Hemlock and Harami in this life.
I showed up to my work study with a bottle of water and a cupcake Liam made. He was pretty talented in the kitchen, even if he was annoying everyone else there. I was pretty sure the only reason they hadn’t demanded he be transferred was that the students and most of the teachers like his food.
I slid the water bottle and cupcake over to Professor Kane. She’d probably worked through lunch again and hadn’t gone to refill her thermos when she ran out of water. I didn’t mind making sure she ate and stayed hydrated because she was brilliant to work with.
“Thanks. Did Brian make this?”
“Liam. And yes.”
She was stillterriblewith names. She got mine wrong all the time. I didn’t think it was a disrespect thing. She just had so much information in her head at any given time, there wasn’t much room for names, too.
“That boy is talented. I got your email before class that you wanted my information on the pools. I have the location on all of them, even the ones closed off because they are on tribal lands. Ihonestlythink the pools are what’s left of the gateways to the God realm. It’s a little piece of home that calls to your magic and allows your magic to wake up. There’s plenty of magical water in this realm, but it doesn’t do the same thing.”
“I’m confused. Magical water?”
“Oh, yes. You’re new to this, but water and the full moon tend to do amazing things. Witches leave water out for spells. Sirens, water fairies, merfolk, and shifters love going swimmingafter the full moon has been over a body of water. Humans have a similar concept. Holy water is useless against vampires and demons, but the ritual and intent that goes into making itdoesgive it magical properties.”
“I know you have a reason you’re about to tell me about why you think they are old gateways and not the moon that’s waking us up.”
She beamed at me.
“I was. None of the gateways that we know about are out in the open. It’s a safety thing. If someone could easily walk through one, it could cause chaos when they reacted badly. If they found their way back, they could come back with an army. People fear what they don’t understand.
“All thegateways we’ve found are underground in caves, just like the pools. The moonlight can’t get to them to infuse them with magic. There’s no magical ritual at these pools to refresh the magic, it’s justalwaysthere. No one is powerful enough to put magic that lasts that long on anything. Your friend Brian is probably the only one who can come close, but even the Horned God is not that powerful.”
“Yeah, Liam. What do other people say about those pools?”
“They don’t. They are a big secret. I know about them because I teach on this side of the school and Headmaster Mykene talks theory with me. A few people ask questions, but most of them just take them for granted.”
“It seems like everyone would be trying to figure it out. A pool with never-ending magic that unlocks reincarnations? I’m shocked everyone isn’t out there with scientific tools.”
“Well, the supernatural community knows gods are real. We’ve met the reincarnations. We all have magic of our own. Even the reincarnations aren’t immune to putting blind faith in religious objects and not wanting to know how they work. I’d love to get my hands on Artemis and Apollo’s bows or Thor’shammer, but once they get their hands on them again, they won’t let them out of their sight. They are basically kept in a mausoleum while they wait for their owner to be reincarnated.”
