Page 37 of Messenger of Death
“Aren’t you a God of Storms?” Sage asked. “If there’s a drought or a forest fire, then a God of Storms is going to come in handy.”
“You’re kind. I don’t know why Lola hates you so much.”
Sage just grunted like she didn’t give a shit, but I didn’t like that at all. The majority of the reincarnations were under Lola’s sway until the compulsion wore off. We didn’t need her targeting Sage.
“The trees say the same thing. They said the predator came to the clearing angry. She screamed in fury and things went black again. Unlike with the other predator, there was no blood on the ground or fight. The blackness came and when the blackness left, there was no one in the clearing. The only trace anyone had ever been there was the sickness that was infecting them, but it’s a slow rot, so none of us noticed it during the trials.”
“Other predator?” Mazen asked.
“Lola makes the animals uncomfortable,” Liam said. “Whoever she is, it’s some big predator and the animals are avoiding her. It’s why only the trees saw what happened. Has she said anything about what she might be?”
Mazen shrugged.
“She hasn’t been all that interested in finding out. Radames is out of our dorm room at all hours looking into it, but he doesn’t want any help.”
“Well, we have more questions than we did when we started. Whatever this blackness power is, it poisons nature, can stop a dragon from shifting, it can disappear someone, it can make people think what it wants, and the person who wields it is extremely strong and violent. Sorry, Mazen, I know what Lola is saying, but Ivar, Ari, and Alexios all know who they are and they didn’t have that power in their original life,” Sage said.
I was gladsomeonebrought it up. The last thing we needed was an out-of-control Set loose on the world and he looked like he was two seconds from doing something stupid when we found him in the clearing.
Mazen ran his fingers through his hair and looked pissed again, but not at us.
“Iknowall that. I pay attention. It’s kept me alive and out of prison. I’m not tellinganywoman her memories of her assault are fake, much less my girlfriend. I’m trying to help her find the right memories without calling her a liar like some of the professors are doing. She can’t help someone fucked with her mind.”
No, she couldn’t and I felt terrible for her, too. But enough professorshadsuggested that her memories might not be entirely accurate for her to at least ask about the possibility.
“Listen, I’ve gotten all I can from the trees and they are telling me they need help where Star disappeared and Kira was killed, too. Are you going to be okay, mate?”
“I don’t like feeling powerless. If magic wasn’t involved, I already would have found who was hurting girls here and killed them.”
We left Mazen pacing the clearing. Everything he said made sense, but Set was a violent god, and I just wasn’t sure I believed any of that.
We were quite a team. Khalid was open about the fact that he didn’t trust Mazen and thought he was lying. He might not be wrong, but I also didn’tfeellike Mazen was a bad person. I had all these feelings that I wasn’t voicing that Lolawasa bad person and Mazen deserved better.
We were back in Arcane Magic with Professor Gefn. History was just as fascinating as the first class. Professor Kane had a sound theory of how the world came to be. She taught us theaccepted supernatural version and then she told us howshethought it happened.
Moment of truth in Arcane Magic. Professor Gefn only said to bury the jar when the moon was waning and the moon happened to be waning the night of our first class. Morgana was the one who told me to get my ass outside and bury my jar because checking the moon cycle was a test.
In hindsight, I probably shouldn’t have had shower sex without a condom until Professor Gefn told me for sure I wasn’t going to get pregnant. I wanted my spell to work because I wanted to be good at college and be able to have sex, but also because Professor Gefn slightly terrified me.
She was sitting on her desk swinging a shapely leg as we took our seats.
“I see most of you actually checked the cycle of the moon like you were supposed to and are protected. You. You have no protection against pregnancy. Did you not think to check the moon cycle or do you just not care about getting pregnant?”
She was looking right at Lola, who just tossed her hair over her shoulder haughtily.
“I’m on the shot. I got my latest one two days before I got kidnapped. No offense to your magic rock, but I’ll take actualscience.”
Damn. Even if I thought that, which I didn’t, I’m not sure I would have told Professor Gefn that. Professor Gefn broke into this music laughter and Lola was dumb enough to smile. I had a feeling that laughter was about to proceed some kind of physical or verbal smack down.
Morgana said the vampires were technically allowed to bite us without our consent in magical combatonlybecause we were supposed to be learning how to fend them off. Something told me if Professor Gefn wanted to magically zap someone in the ass, it wouldn’t be a problem, either.
“As soon as you stepped into that pool and unlocked your magic, your bodies changed, even if you can’t feel it. Your body burned through any hormones you might have been taking. You might want to stop by the healer for a test.”
I looked over. Mazen was visibly green. I didn’t know if Radames was with her like that, but he didn’t really look worried. Lola didn’t seem like she cared all that much.
“I’ll get you pregnant, love,” Adrian said.
Yeah, that guy wasdefinitelynot the reincarnation of Jesus.
