Page 22 of Messenger of Death
“I get it!” Khalid said. “Alexios might be their weakness and Ivar could at least cause problems. Our magic seems to come in when it wants to, but sometimes, it’s a trigger. Triggering either of them if they came at them directly could be fatal. Discrediting Alexios if he has a vision and getting someone else to take them out is what I would do if I was awake and evil.”
“Well, that’s shite because so far, I’ve just had a migraine and one prophecy,” Alexios grumped.
“If Headmaster Mykene has Mjolnir, she hasn’t given it to me or told me where to find it.”
“It’s probably some fucked-up quest where you have to pull it out the arsehole of a magical squid,” Liam said, nodding like we were all supposed to know this.
“It’s probably in some special case and he’ll get it when Headmaster Mykene thinks he’s ready,” Lucian said.
“Nah, mate. I’ve prepared my whole life to get kidnapped and find out I’m magical. There’s definitely squid arsehole involved.”
“At any rate, what Sage said makes sense. It’s not the Dark Ages anymore. If it’s dark, you can just flip the light on. I don’t think that works on this thing, but I’ll bet the fucking sun would,” Khalid said.
“Yeah, but I’m not learning how to do that yet,” Alexios pointed out. “And I wouldn’t know how to figure it out.”
“It’s just a feeling, yeah? When that gobshite ate all our food, I could justfeelthere was something outside who wanted to help. It was the animals, and they talked to me. Lucian eventually figured out what he was hungry for and bit me without my permission. I think when you need it, it’ll happen and this Forsaken knows this.”
“Yeah, thanks, dick face, I don’t want to go up against one and risk it.”
Liam just beamed at Alexios like he was a complete moron.
“They don’t want to take you on. They are trying to get the other students to kill you for them.”
I mean, Liam wasn’t wrong, but I wouldn’t have phrased it like that.
“The professors all believe you didn’t do it,” Khalid said. “They seem to be trying to help a little.”
“Professor Gefn seems willing to avenge you if they come after you,” I said. “I’m not sure I’d want to cross her.”
“You really don’t,” Elliot said, rubbing his neck. “She at least understands the original Loki was both helpful and a menace, so she mostly just rolls her eyes at me, but you don’t want to piss her off if youaren’tme.”
“She’s going to drag you if you got the birth control spell wrong and didn’t mean to,” Morgana said. “It’s the time the spell takes that makes it difficult. You just have to follow the instructions and think about not getting pregnant. If youwantedto be pregnant in college and you tell her that, it’s one thing. If you just didn’t follow the instructions, it’s another.”
“Listen, our break is almost over,” Khalid said. “I don’t know why Lola wanted to partner with Liam, but it pissed Mazen off and he’s already angry at all of us. We need to travel in groups. No one goes anywhere alone. And Alexios, if you haven’t already, you need to share the prophecy you had with Headmaster Mykene.”
That was good advice for literally everyone at Ouroboros Academy. People were missing or dead. We didn’t know who the Forsaken Ones were or even who they were targeting or why.
No one was safe.
Our last class of the day was defense, and I wasn’t looking forwards to it. I didn’t see the point. Violence solved nothing. There were three massive goons standing with Professor Adamastus who looked like they broke things on purpose. They had to have standards on the other side of the academy, right? These peasants had to also be good at other subjects besides defense, right?
“Meet Blaize Vossen, Zander Morgan, and Dante Keeling. Blaize is a dragon, Dante is a vampire, and Zander is a fairy. They are at the top of their class for defense, so they are going to help me demonstrate. Dragons, vampires, and fairies are also fairly dangerous in a fight.”
Liam and Khalid came to stand next to me. So, this was the dick pic menace. I didn’t like him already. He just looked like the kind of miscreant to slide that into someone’s DMs because they smiled at him.
“I did my part. Did you do yours?” Liam asked.
“I did.”
I stayed up late to figure it out, passed out, and ended up naked in Sage’s bed again. And Ilikedit, which was confusing. I’d already sent Khalid a link. I hadn’t sent one to Liam because he said he had other plans. He swore he wasn’t going to mutilate anyone and the only reason I believed him was that he had an unhealthy obsession with Sage and he wouldn’t do anything to jeopardize that.
Khalid snuck his phone out and started furiously typing. I didn’t read over his shoulder because I had other plans. Professor Adamastus asked Blaize and Dante to demonstrate what it looked like when two supernaturals fought, but no shifting.
I waited for just the right moment and then I acted. Blaize’s phone was in his pocket, so I made it start playing that song from that noxious shipwreck movie that was all over the place where that rich girl fucks a homeless man and lets him drown, even though there was room on the debris, and then tosses a priceless diamond in the ocean after the people who were looking for it listened to that entire sordid tale.
Blaize faltered and Dante’s fist connected with his nose. Blaize stumbled back and glared at Dante. He fumbled for his phone to turn it off.
“Excellent!” Liam said. “Wecan’t hit him, but this works.”
