Page 56 of Messenger of Death
“There are multiple pools and there’s at least one in every country. We can just hop on a plane and travel anywhere. I’ve been camping with my Baba just about everywhere.”
“So, I’ve been thinking.”
I shrieked and whirled around. Lucian was standing there. Khalid looked rattled, too.
“Shit, wear a bell.”
“I’m not a cat,” Lucian sniffed.
Liam came running up panting.
“Shite, mate, using your vampire speed every time you sniff Sage is cheating.”
“You make it sound pedantic and gross. I could alsohearher and I have an idea.”
Morgana had taught us the spell if we didn’t want anyone listening in. I’d already cast it, but I pushed the boundaries to include Liam and Lucian.
“What’s your idea?” Khalid asked.
“Well, I was going to take the map Khalid has of the location of the pools not associated with schools. We’re under the theory someone was trespassing and didn’t get caught, right? If we haven’t found messages because they are using burner phones like Liam thinks, they wouldn’t have known they needed them before they were awake. I’m in everyone’s phones. I could write a program to run a scan to see if anyone was near the pools to accidentally discover them.”
I threw my arms around Lucian and squeezed him. He seemed to be okay with affection, butonlyfrom me. Lucian wrapped his arms around me and nuzzled my neck.
“Well, fuck. I want a Sage hug, too,” Liam grumped.
I hugged Liam and then I hugged Khalid for good measure. This was it. If it was Lola, I’d have my proof, but we’d also have her homicidal snake boyfriend, too.
We weresoclose.
Linkingmypotions grade with my lab partners was fucking stupid. Especially since I never asked for Lola to be my partner. I wanted Sage. Khalid would have done in a pinch and I was even starting to like Lucian, so even he would have been better than Lola.
There was atime and placeto shoot your shot and you should always back off when someone said they weren’t interested. There was a reason I’d been obsessing over the red-haired beauty at the hostel, but didn’t talk to her until we both got kidnapped. The timing had never been right.
But now we were talking, and I was shouting from the rooftop that I was hers. Even the horny tree fairies had backedoff and respected that. Lola had not, and it was gross. It made me uncomfortable.
Usually, if I saw a bloke making a lass uncomfortable by not accepting no was a full sentence, I’d pretend to be her brother or boyfriend until he got the hint. If he annoyed me after that or I was getting vibes, I’d find him later and stab him.
I didn’t kill women. And Lola had already been brutalized. But I was really wanting to stab her, and that was confusing me. I didn’t do that. I didn’t know why I wanted to do that now. Ouroboros had a school counselor, but my kind of issues weren’t exactly appropriate for therapy.
If I talked about my daddy issues, it was snitching and they’d probably call the authorities. Someone would get murdered. Probably a lot of people and therapists didn’t sign up for that shit.
I didn’t feel like I could talk about it with Sage and my group, either. I didn’t wantanyof them to think I’d eventually get violent with Sage. I worshipped that girl. She could rip my heart out and stomp on it and I wouldn’t feel like how I was feeling towards Lola.
It was confusing and I couldn’t just marinate on my new stabby feelings because Professor Thornheart suggested I tutor Lola so I didn’t flunk, too. Which was fucking stupid because she was dating Mazen and Mazen seemed pretty gifted in potions.
It was this whole arse-awkward scene when Professor Thornheart mentioned a tutor and Mazen said he would do it, but then Lola completely blew him off and said she would rather I do it. A whole thunderstorm started outside and then Mazen tore through his clothes as he shifted into this badass-looking, giant black dog. He bared his teeth and stormed out.
Yeah, if Mazen ever decided to come at me for how his girlfriend was acting, we’d most likely break this entire school.He was probably the one person here who could challenge me in a fight. But he didn’t seem mad at me.
I was supposed to tutor Lola, but I sought out Mazen first. He was in the library reading. Ishouldhave been meeting Lola in the library, but she wanted to meet in my dorm room. I refused because I didn’t want to be alone with her. She actually threatened my potions grade and place at this academy by not showing up unless we did it in my room. She would have gotten expelled, too, but she wascommittedto this.
Mazen looked up in surprise when I sat across from him.
“I’m not into your girl. I’d actually prefer she stay away from me, but I’m stuck with her as a lab partner. You’remuchbetter in potions than I am, so I don’t even know what game she’s playing.”
“She’s doing this to piss me off. You’ve heard Professor Gefn. She still hasn’t managed the birth control spell and her body burned through her shot. I didn’t exactly have the best upbringing andifI have kids, it’s going to be when I know I can give them the best life possible. I’m not remotely ready for that now. She keeps saying she hates condoms and doesn’t want to use them. She said it’s fine if she gets pregnant with my baby, but I don’t want that right now. She’s using you to make me jealous, so I just ignore my very strong feelings on the subject and don’t use condoms.”
“Gross. You can get out of that whole arrangement if she’s making you miserable, you know.”
