Page 30 of Messenger of Death
Lola gasped and everyone flocked around her like Professor Theron had actually slapped her. Mazen was glowering at Professor Theron like he might hit her and that was a spectacularly bad idea based on everything I knew about the original Artemis. Radames looked like he was there for support, but might actually be questioning all of this, too.
I thought people were being a little unfair to Lola. Had anyone sat her down and explained compulsion to her? Maybeshe didn’t even notice her story kept changing. The rest of these peopleshouldhave.
Mazen and Radames seemed to have adopted her. Mazen was a lost cause. He looked like he was itching to avenge her. Radames at least seemedreasonableat that he was starting to question all of this.
Maybe Radames was the key to stopping violence against my friends until Lola could identify who really hurt her.
We didn’t have much luck sitting outside and trying to get in touch with our inner animals. Mostly because a badger showed up and started arguing with Liam. We couldn’t hear what the badger was saying, just Liam’s part of the conversation. One of the wolf shifters pissed on his hole and he wanted Liam to avenge him. He just didn’t know who the wolf was when they were human, so there wasn’t much Liam could do.
My care of familiar class was interesting. Like our shifting class, it had people with known familiars and people who didn’tknow who they were because if their familiar showed up, it would be a hint.
My guys weren’t in this class, but Ivar was. Apparently, Thor had two goat familiars who pulled his chariot and Ivar had already met his. The goats were in class with us and Ivar was already attached.
“I already asked and I can’t keep them in our dorm room. Headmaster Mykene said no and they don’t want to. The English names for the original goats were Toothgrinder and Toothgnasher. See those horns? If a stupid dragon thinks they are sexy and gets any ideas, they’ll fuck him up.”
Oops. I guess we hadn’t let Ivar, Ari, and Alexios in on that particular plot, so I quickly explained that Blaize wasn’t actually going to try to have sex with his familiars, he was just getting some punishment for his dick pics. Ivar roared with laughter.
“Did you know Thor was also associated with bears? I think that’s why I’ve always been so drawn to Ari.”
“The two of you are relationship goals.”
“He hates all this. Not all the magical stuff, but people thinking we hurt someone. It’s worse since his shifter senses are coming in. He’s going to shift any day now.”
The classroom had more people than animals in it. Some of us had more than one familiar. My three crows and Ivar’s goats were here, but that was about it. The goats kept gently head-butting the backs of my legs.
“Do your goats need something?”
“They like their heads scratched and they seem to like you.”
Lola was in this class. She had everyone pulled to the side whispering about me as I played with Ivar’s familiars. She was staring at the goats like they were diseased. Ivar’s goats weren’t the small, cute variety. They were pretty big with large horns, but they were still really sweet.
“We could add her to Liam’s revenge,”one of my familiars said.
I remembered Morgana said I could talk to them in my head. It wasn’t safe to talk out loud.
“Did you see who hurt her?”
I didn’t know why I hadn’t asked before.
“We were watching you, not her. The other animals don’t know, either. Animals avoid bigger predators. They won’t go near her.”
“Do you know who she is?”
“Dangerous. Watch your back around that one.”
Before they could answer, a beautiful, androgynous-looking person came in followed by a hare. They were ethereal.
“Hello. I’m Professor Medis. I was Medeina in my first life. Unless you’re Lithuanian, you’ve probably never heard of my original as our stories didn’t end up nearly as popular as other pantheons. My domain is forests, trees, and animals. We have a few new students with the rare gift to talk to animals, but I have that, too. If you’re abusing your familiar, they can and will tell me.”
Ivar and I looked at each other in horror. It took a sick person to abuseanyanimal, much less a familiar. Ivar’s hand shot up.
“I can’t keep mine in my room. I was told no by both peopleandmy familiars. How do I stop other people from hurting them? What if someone tries toeatthem?”
“Thor’s goats were magical. You can eat them and as long as you don’t lose the bones, they come back.”
“Yeah, but I bet that fucking sucks. I don’t want anyone eating my goats!”
“Well, it’s punishable by death to hurt someone else’s familiar, so you don’t have to worry about that.”
