Page 16 of Amateur Goddess (Morrigan University #3)

Andrew

“So you show up to your first class drunk—” I started.

Derek snorted. “Maybe hungover. Mostly just in a foul mood, but watch the video. I didn’t trip over anything or slur , so I wasn’t drunk. I needed to shave and style my hair. I didn’t have the energy and just showered.” He crossed his arms over his chest. “Fucking little shits.”

Yeah, saying he was in a foul mood was an understatement.

“Then you ditched your last class of the day.” I held up my hand when he opened his mouth. “And came back carrying your student. I heard enough, but tell me in your words and show me. I need to cover my ass here too, okay?”

“Sorry, Andy,” he mumbled, sounding like the kid I’d first met who was so beaten up by his fucked family that it had killed me.

“It’s fine, and I get paid the big bucks to deal with this as headmaster. So let me do my job, and you worry about whatever is going on with you.”

My heart hurt for him as he told me about being dumped, but it wasn’t even a relationship to be dumped from. How his friends told him he was being toxic and love bombing her and everything he hated about himself that he tried to do his best to not be like his family was now the reason she didn’t want to be with him.

“I just wanted to help, Andy,” he rasped as he wiped his eyes yet again. “I didn’t know she had all of this in place. She was a guppy all alone in my eyes. And fucking with me because there was no world she didn’t know she was a goddess witch. None of it fit, and I was trying to handle this all by myself.”

“That was your real mistake, Derek,” I said gently.

“I’m not always a fuckup,” he blasted. “I should have been able to handle this!”

“It’s not about being a fuck up or not. You’re a kid too .” I sighed when he glared at me. “Yeah, you’re reacting like a twenty-something kid right now, brat.” I waited until he chilled. “Yes, you’re probably too old for her, but you have problems connecting to people because of how you were—everything. The fact you connected is—fuck the age. In a few years, it won’t matter.”

“I hurt her by saying how much it mattered to me,” he mumbled.

“Well, you’re really good at apologizing. You’ll fix this. If you’re meant to be, you’ll fix this. Just stop trying to handle it all on your own and listen to her. She’s an adult too. Stop panicking now and listen to her.” I was glad when he seemed to accept that and nodded. “Now, tell me about today. Not this morning. I get that.”

He snorted, but then the fear in his eyes made my heart stutter. “It was Quinn. My phone was on silent and I didn’t see that she was calling or texting. Quinn felt it. Whatever bond or ability she has to be able to call familiars—her working with us and melding magic—he felt something was off with her. He was bothering me to call her, and he never misbehaves like that.”

I swallowed a snort. The fox misbehaved a ton , but Derek was right and Quinn never did when it was important or could hurt Derek.

“I told my class to hold on and pulled out my phone to call her and right then someone came bursting into my class saying that there was an emergency and she’d commandeered the circle desk to send her—the guy didn’t make sense besides she was in danger and we needed a better system than racing across campus. Which I agree with.”

So did I, but after talking to the students who worked the transportation circle desk, they hadn’t been prepared for that sort of situation either.

Something to think about for the future too.

“I circled to her and into madness , Andy,” Derek whispered, his voice freaked out. He pulled out his phone and unlocked it before handing it to me. “That’s what she received. She just went into danger—a possible trap like nothing to save him.”

“And killed one of the corrupt officers if what I heard is correct,” I muttered as I took the phone.

“She’s a mess. I would be too.”

I grunted in agreement. She was barely a legal adult and really still a kid and she’d killed someone. People were not going to be kind about that on top of everything she’d have to deal with emotionally and mentally.

I looked at the screenshots of what Bevin Millen received plus I snooped to his call log and saw she had been really trying to reach out to him… And how often he called and messaged her without much response from her besides professional.

Ouch.

He might have quite the battle ahead of him to win the woman over if they were even meant to be.

I listened to him tell me the rest, the crazy of the situation and different corrupt police factions showing up and starting trouble. Several trying to take Bevin into custody as a suspect for it all while the chief of police was right there.

Basically, to abduct her right in front of him and not even doing a good job of hiding it. There was that much corruption on the police force, and this whole situation was exacerbating it all.

He got her out of there and then I knew the rest. The healer helped her in her room and tended to the glass cuts on her knees and legs. Derek left her with Kelton Rose to keep her safe and so she didn’t spiral out while he handled what he needed to.

And I poured him a drink after he told me all of that.

Plus, one for myself.

“Are you okay?” he asked me after a few minutes of us lost in our thoughts. He reached over and refilled both of our glasses.

“Sure, I love getting threats from more than Charles Shaw now,” I drawled, snorting when worry filled his eyes. “I knew it would happen. I published the proof that all of the top-tier families are liars. My phone has been ringing off the hook with threats. Most saying that they are going to pull their promised donations and never donate again.”

“And you said?” he hedged.

I shrugged. “A few I laughed at. Two said they were going to pull their promised donations and they hadn’t donated anything in years . I told them they never paid up anyways so what did their word matter? I did it to cover my ass because they also ran their mouths that I wasn’t using funds well. They want me out because I’m not a top-tier family ass-kisser.”

“Assholes. Serious assholes.”

“Your brother called me,” I warned him, nodding when he froze. “He’s up to something. He made it clear that the Wyatt family would be picking up the slack especially given you taught here. And as what we published showed, they did pay the amounts they promised.”

“He contacted me too, and it’s clearly about Bevin,” he worried.

I nodded. “I told him that we always accepted donations without strings, but I was the one who helped you get free of your family. So I knew firsthand exactly what the Wyatts did to you, and he should never, not ever bet on my siding with them on much and especially against you.”

Derek’s mouth dropped open. “You hate getting in the middle of things. Why would you do that?”

“Because you are not a fuckup, Derek. You were fucked over and a lot,” I said gently. “And yeah, I hate getting in the middle of bullshit and petty. You are neither and I never regretted going to the mat for you. I never will. You were worth the grief and I still believe that.” I waited until he looked at me. “Even if you don’t keep teaching.”

He swallowed loudly and looked away.

I let it go because he was overloaded already, but we both knew he didn’t really want to teach. He did it out of loyalty to me. He did it to show people he was more than a Wyatt and he was talented. It also offered him protection because there was a limit as to how much the top-tier families could influence things here as opposed to companies and politics in our world.

We talked for a bit more before he stood to leave.

“If I were in your shoes, I’d take some time to reflect on how not to make the same mistakes, Derek,” I said gently. “You chased her not knowing what she was. You’ve been caught up in her tsunami and trying to navigate it for her and protect her. You don’t need to. You know that now. You just need to figure out if you really want to ride it out with her.

“That means accepting her age and what she is. Really dealing with it so it doesn’t fester and become something toxic between you both. And maybe it’s something you couldn’t handle.” I ignored the anger in his eyes when he looked at me. “ I couldn’t. ” I nodded when he seemed shocked. “I would walk. That’s not a relationship I would want no matter how lovely she is.”

He sighed and scrubbed his hand over his head. “Yeah, okay, I hear you. It’s not about failing, but it’s just not the right fit. I get you.”

“Good.”

I was really glad because I wanted him happy.

Nothing surprised me more than who showed up at my office about twenty minutes later. The amused smirk she had on her face let me know she was enjoying my reaction.

I snorted. “You’re out of order. The Ghost of Christmas Past is supposed to come first. Present did.”

“Lovely to see you too, Andy,” Laura Reid chuckled as she came inside and closed the door behind her. She put up a barrier to block us from anyone who might be listening.

And I couldn’t hide my shock at what I’d felt.

She didn’t ignore it, simply shrugging. “Life happens. I always had to prove myself here, and that meant—things change. I mated. Had children and…” She shrugged again before gesturing to one of the chairs in front of my desk.

I snapped out of my surprise that she wasn’t brimming with power like the Laura Reid I remembered and focused on the present. “Yes, sorry, please have a seat. You want a drink?”

“Yes, but I won’t because I still have more to handle tonight,” she said as she sat down. She smiled at me. “You’ve come a long way, Headmaster Kerwynn. I remember the young recently-graduated Andy who was determined to prove to everyone that he had what it took and could be someone.”

I snorted. “I wish I’d told that driven little prick to sod off.”

She laughed. Not at me but at what I’d said and probably knew the feeling well. We got older and cringed at some of our younger behavior.

But also, it was laugh at how different we were or sob at how badly the world had beaten us down. We were both proof of how harsh life could be to beat the ideology and drive out of people.

“Why are you here, Laura?” I asked quietly.

“You know why, Andy,” she said easily as she glanced around my office. “She has to be protected.”

“So you’re in the loop,” I muttered, not making her say it. “Is this about her or the fact Charles Shaw is threatening your family?” Anger was in her eyes when she looked at me and that made me feel better. I didn’t let it go though. “We haven’t seen each other besides in passing or at events in—how many decades? We’re completely different people.”

“That’s fair,” she accepted, letting out a slow breath. She nodded. “That’s fair. And we weren’t friends on the same level, so you didn’t—you were a good kid and I’m glad you grew up well—are smart enough to question what you should.” She met my gaze head-on as she always did. “She healed Taylor’s fractured bond with his familiar.”

I almost dropped my glass. I managed to recover, but my hand was shaking as I set it down on the desk.

I didn’t know the man well, but no one had a bad word to say about Taylor Reid… Aside from those who thought there wasn’t anything besides being a witch or warlock. He’d served in the human military and for a decade instead of riding on his councilman father’s coattails and became his own man.

But our whole world knew what the cost of that was. He was almost a null of magic because his bond was shattered with his familiar being apart that long. He couldn’t hide that type of animal in plain sight, and the military wasn’t—the familiar would have died.

Plus, he couldn’t do magic while under all of that scrutiny.

“How?” I asked when I could find my voice.

She shrugged. “I don’t know, but she did it as easily as this conversation. The magic she put out was ridiculous, but—we felt it. I could feel the bridge between them reform, Andy. She basically fused one with her magic.”

“By the gods,” I whispered, sitting back in my chair heavily. “Shaw would sacrifice her and steal her power if he gets her. Screw Alex, he’ll take it for himself and take over everything.”

“My mate and I are of the same opinion,” she said firmly as she studied me. “Luckily, Bevin hasn’t realized that. She thinks Charles will use her as a workhorse and want the money.”

Poor girl. No, Charles Shaw was greedier than that.

“He’ll take her out if he can’t have her,” I worried.

“Again, we agree on that, and I don’t think she’s realized that either. She—maybe she would, but she knows her father better and he’s never failed, so she keeps saying he won’t understand he could fail here.”

I grunted. That was fair and pretty accurate when it came to that bastard.

“Give me the authority to take over as her power assessor and advisor. We cannot risk anyone getting their hooks into her.” She held up her hand when I went to object. “Derek Wyatt can keep working with us. He’s done a fantastic job so far and Bevin says that. It’s not a slight on him. At all.”

“He’s a kid too,” I sighed.

She nodded. “She needs more. She’s talked about a magical theory not knowing what she was referring to because her perspective is different, and Wyatt wasn’t well-versed enough to catch that. Again, I am not looking down at him. He is the perfect partner for this given he is talented with familiars and his focus is there. But—she needs more.”

“She is not the only one,” I grumbled. I snorted when she looked at me. “Our society was always sexist, but it’s gotten worse , Laura. You know that. It’s worse here . I’ve seen the decline. There used to be an advocate for witches. Instead, it was just Director Hensley trying to keep witches out and doing everything he could to get them to quit.

“You have no idea what it took for me to get him out. It was a fight when it shouldn’t have been. Even with the board who wants the top-tier family influences out. That doesn’t mean they want the sexism out. They want—Morrigan standards have fallen. We say it’s the best. The top-tier families say it’s the best because it’s where they all attend. It’s not .”

“As I’ve heard,” she confirmed.

I spent the next several minutes ranting how other magical colleges were pushing further with their magic and what we thought of as possible. They were equally matched between their witches and warlocks and it was impressive—this generation was impressive and making huge strides.

While I had a bunch of fucking bullies constantly targeting freshmen in the Wicked Challenges because they were easy and rich shits were lazy. Or now they all targeted Bevin Millen to score something in their circles and it was pathetic.

And I felt pathetic being in charge of it all.

Worse, I felt dirty being party to it, but it would be so much worse if I wasn’t in charge of this train wreck most days. The ones who would step up would set everything back and it would be even more toxic.

“I’m not in charge, but if I was, I would start having failed attempts against freshmen be a huge deduction of points because if they can’t even handle something like that, going after who they think easy targets, they really should be penalized,” she said, a twinkle in her eyes. “When I taught here, we would kick the ass of the little shits who targeted only freshmen.”

I opened my mouth but then closed it, blinking at her for several moments. “Fine, you can help Millen, but you also have to help all of the witches here. You’re their advocate and advisor they can directly contact for whatever. I need people to go on the record. I need ammo , and I need it to not always come from me to do more.”

“You need to respond more, not instigate,” she said, nodding that she understood. “Done. Wonderful.”

I blinked at her and felt like a kid again.

Because I’d just gotten played and that pissed me off.

She’d wanted that role, not to just help Millen, but if she’d come in demanding to advocate for witches, it would have ruffled the feathers of most men in our society. Instead, she focused on the special one and I demanded more and for her to be fair.

“Don’t play games with me like I’m the enemy and just be straight with me. We’ll get more done in the future if you do,” I warned her as I adjusted my neck. “I’m not a kid anymore.”

Her eyes flashed shock and then they filled with regret. “Sorry, Andy. Truly. It’s how—it’s not a reflection of you. It’s what I’m used to now. Not my mate, but—you have to understand the waters I swim now. The council can be just as sexist at times.” She nodded when I snorted. “Well, I hate some of the council a little less to hear that at least, but it’s not good.”

“I’ll try to keep that in mind, but I want equality, and I’m on the right side of it all. More than that, you don’t want me as an enemy, and I don’t like to be left holding the bag of shit.”

“More than fair. Tell me about this situation with Director Hensley. We heard it was a done thing after the attack.”

I wasn’t a fan of her brushing over the “apology” and jumping into giving me orders, but she might be able to help, so I didn’t have a problem with that.

I told her it was more than the attack and what she already knew. During the review, we learned that he was hiding when “boys behaved badly” as he put it, but in reality it was adult men being monsters. Gregg Haddock’s name came up specifically and a student reported him attempting to rape her and apparently Director Hensley lectured the witch about her behavior.

Because ladies didn’t go to parties like that, and she should know better than that if she didn’t want to be treated like a whore by men. But since she’d already lost her purity, that was all she was. Her words.

And she’d had no one else to report it to. No advocate or anyone willing to listen. She’d called him a pig and stormed out, and he’d followed up demanding an apology or he’d put her on probation.

I was disgusted. I was beyond disgusted, and there were piles of cases like that before I became headmaster.

“I bet there were less of them last year and that’s what you need to focus on, Andy,” Laura said gently.

“Right now, all I can focus on is that I had all of that proof to bring to the board and they fucking dug in their heels,” I admitted, quickly wiping up a tear that fell. “They didn’t want to acknowledge it after the school had been breached and that was where our focus should be. I shot right back that we should be competent enough to handle both.

“Especially after they didn’t let me toss out Coach Dunham. The fact that piece of shit got a suspension only and will go right back to teaching is—they keep tying my hands, Laura. He was caught laying into Millen about being a slut—which she’s not—and trying to harass her to take back her claims against Haddock and learn her place.”

“How did he worm his way out of that?” she asked.

“Throwing one of his aides under the bus,” I answered, nodding when her mouth dropped open. “His suspension was because he admitted he should have stopped all the aide said and promised to do better but it all shocked him . The other aides backed him. So it was Millen’s word versus the witness who didn’t see it and was eavesdropping. Another witch.”

“Bastards,” Laura seethed. “You didn’t stop there, right?”

“No, I took the loss because it was clear it was going to be a loss but pushed for changes so there couldn’t be any more misunderstandings. I played this one like I understood that asshole’s position and I was protecting him too.” I rolled my eyes. “He’s got a camera in his office now, and all his interactions with students need to be recorded. No more—”

“Pulling witches into meetings with all his male aides,” she muttered, bobbing her head. “We’re lucky all they’ve done is talk .”

“That we know of,” I warned her. “They were all fast to throw the youngest and newest aide under the bus and they’re a tight group.”

“Something to work on later then,” she purred, an evil glint in her eye.

Thank the gods she was coming in to help more than just Millen.

I also told her that I pushed the board to replace the aide with a female and they basically laughed at me and said sure, if I could find a witch who was useful. So they agreed because they assumed I would fail.

And I was a bit worried that I would, but Laura seemed confident and said she would handle it.

What magic did she have to pull out of her ass for that?

As long as we were already talking and since she was being such a supportive ear, I told her all about publishing the donations and the backlash from that. But how it was covering my ass since most of those assholes were such a problem. Except now the board was divided if it was the right decision.

Yeah, great after the fact.

Oh, and they expected me to fill in the void for donations this year since I’d done it. Awesome, but like… Assholes.

Especially when the High Council had ordered for all colleges to do it.

She asked about the new large familiar housing and I told her how that was going. How as much as I hated the trouble Millen brought, she might be a blessing because other students were pumped to try and publish, and that meant grants for the school. If we could bring Morrigan back to its former glory, we wouldn’t need the fucking donations.

I felt better for getting it all out but also like I wasn’t the right person for the job. Laura seemed confident that it was something doable and like she could have a plan ready to go by lunch the next day and implement it.

She would have made a much better headmaster than me. If this fucked society allowed witches to rise that high instead of forcing them to mate and pop out babies, this would never have happened to Morrigan .

That was my first thought after she left… Which was why I poured myself another drink.