Page 19 of Amateur Goddess (Morrigan University #3)

On top of everything else going on, Monday Coach Dunham came back from his suspension. I really needed that like I needed a hole in the head. Apparently, he made it like I was nuts and it had all been his aide and I was just too upset to tell who the fuck had been talking.

And the person who had reported it all hadn’t seen it, only heard his voice, so of course two witches couldn’t be believed. Awesome.

I didn’t even blame Headmaster Kerwynn. He’d gotten Director Hensley out, so he could only push so much so fast. I understood that.

It was just hard.

Especially since Dunham was now a named witness in my lawsuit against the Haddocks. So… That was fun. Lots of fun.

What I didn’t know was a replacement aide had been found already for the one Dunham threw under the bus.

And she was one of Taylor’s people.

“Alright, well, as some of you may have heard, there are going to be a few changes after the misunderstandings that happened and minor issues blown out of proportion,” Coach said as he addressed our class. He glanced around and did a double take when he saw steam practically come out of my ears. “Do you have something to add about that, Millen?”

Oh, this asshole. Seriously, what a fucker.

I slapped on my sweetest smile as my eyes basically told him to fuck off. “Not at all, Coach. I know how to keep professional and behave appropriately and to also get my information from the correct parties. Though I am sorry that I won’t see you at the treat truck with your familiar.”

Because he’d been banned. Tracey had called him out directly and basically dared the board of directors to test her on it after all we’d been doing for Morrigan.

It was hard not to smirk or bat my eyelashes as people around me tried to hide their responses to my jab.

But it was a jab that landed. Anger filled his eyes and he knew he couldn’t push, so he moved on. “As such, we now have a female aide who will…” He glanced over at the lady’s name that I’d already forgotten.

In my defense, Taylor had a lot of people, and I’d been meeting them left and right to repair their bond with their familiars.

“What can you actually do, Ms. Wagner?” Coach Dunham asked, smirking when a few of his aides chuckled. “I don’t know because I didn’t interview you. I didn’t hire you.”

“There’s no world where you would have hired a woman, so the board did, Coach,” she said easily. “And I’m here to prove a much-needed point. I’ll show you if you lend me one of your aides for sparring.”

“That you have good healing magic?” one of them snarked.

“You’ll do nicely,” she chuckled, waving him over. She raised an eyebrow when he didn’t move. “Are you afraid to spar with me?”

Oh, she pushed the right button there. His nostrils flared and he stomped towards her. “Of course not. I don’t want to get shit later or listen to you bitch when you’re hurt.”

“Could you try to keep professional?” she drawled. “I cannot imagine why there’s been such misunderstandings in this class.”

“I’d watch it, Ms. Wagner,” Coach muttered. “You still work for me.”

“I don’t actually, Coach. I’m an aide to this class, but Headmaster Kerwynn was very clear that I answer to him and the board after all of the issues.” She turned and pointed to a few areas which probably had cameras. “And there won’t be any more issues with misunderstandings.”

“You’re still new here and shouldn’t be so cocky,” the aide grumbled as he moved onto the mats with her.

She tilted her head. “Yeah, it’s because I’m new. You mean I’m a woman. If you’re going to be sexist, at least have the balls to say it clearly. Don’t be a coward.”

He launched for her, not even yelling “go” or anything most did to start sparring.

She easily deflected his attack and sidestepped him before using his own momentum against him to send him falling to the mats. She faced the women in the class while still paying attention to him as he got up. “I’m here to show you that while in general men are stronger than women, not every man is stronger than every woman.”

He came at her again and only at the last second did she turn to face him… And laid him out.

She blocked a few of his punches and then knocked him out with one clean uppercut. I could practically hear his teeth hitting together as his eyes rolled up into his head and he fell to the mat with a thud.

“But a well-trained woman can stand toe to toe with the average man,” she continued, not even blinking an eye at what she’d just done. “Are there men who can take me? Yes, absolutely, and I’ve had my ass handed to me. But I’ve won more times than I’ve lost. I’m here to balance the scales and teach you how to protect yourselves in a way others haven’t been taking seriously.”

All of the women—and even some of the men—of the class looked at the knocked-out aide.

Yeah, I believed her. Seriously, she was… Awesome.

“I’m also going to teach you to play up your strengths,” she said loudly. “Women tend to be more flexible.” She kicked up her leg and held it against her body. “That makes us better at kicking, and given our wider hips, we have more lower-body strength compared to men who have upper-body strength. It also makes us harder to pin down if we’re trained.”

“Wait, I didn’t approve a different curriculum for some of this class,” Coach interjected.

She lowered her leg and looked over at him. “Any of the men who want learn what I’ll be teaching are more than welcome to. I’m sorry you weren’t filled in and you’re only learning this now because you had the sensitivity training this morning, but you can direct any issues to the headmaster.”

And then she turned her back to him and continued to talk to us. She had us move off to the side with other mats and we went over everything we’d learned so far.

She wasn’t happy. Not so much with the curriculum but the fact it was clear he hadn’t really taught us. At all.

“How come you can actually do any of this and the other women here can’t, Millen?” she asked me.

“There’s an odd number of women in class, so Nigel was my partner, and he taught me all of the lessons,” I explained. “He already knew all of this I think?”

“Which one is he?” she asked.

One of the other women snorted. “The one who watches Bevin like he wants to date her but also like he might eat anyone who upsets her.”

I couldn’t even get mad. That was fairly accurate. I glanced around and found him watching me, waving when I saw him.

He gave an awkward wave back, clearly embarrassed at being busted, and then focused on what he should be doing.

The rest of class went well and I grabbed my stuff after, not bothering to shower since I had to get going. Plus, I still had more of my run to do.

Ms. Wagner was waiting for me after class… And she wasn’t the only one.

Winter was there and so was Dr. Haskins.

Huh?

“Well, I hoped to catch you in private without anyone knowing before class tomorrow, but apparently that’s not possible,” Dr. Haskins drawled. “Do you have a moment, Ms. Millen?”

“Sure, of course,” I muttered, moving over to him after glancing at the others. They both nodded, so sure?

I flinched when he put a barrier over us, but he gave me a look not to worry. Sure, sure, nothing weird going on here.

“I apologize for this being out of the blue and clearly making you uncomfortable,” he hedged, studying me closely.

“There’s just a lot going on, Dr. Haskins,” I muttered, rubbing my arm. “What can I do for you?”

“I wanted to tell you that I approve you doing extra credit. If you look into the history of how spell circles started and how they were developed, which we don’t touch on enough, I’ll count that. A short paper.”

“Thank you, but I’m confused why this was done outside of class and you looked up my schedule to find me instead of just emailing me,” I admitted, wondering what was really going on.

“Yes, I suppose that would worry you,” he sighed and rubbed his cheek. “Professor Daly is a good person. She is always doing nice things, and—she was a great help when my aunt died a few years back. She’s always so fast to jump in to help, and none of us knew she was struggling. What you did to help her daughter was—you’re clearly not a spoiled top-tier brat.”

“No, I’m not, but she also wasn’t supposed to tell anyone,” I grumbled. “Can no one seriously keep a damn secret?”

He winced. “She didn’t actually tell me. I saw something off in her aura and then she took a call. I went after her because I was worried, and I heard her part of the conversation with her daughter. She broke down crying in relief after she hung up, so I honestly don’t know all of the details. Simply that she was glad you were in her class and forgave her for pushing.”

“And you put enough together,” I sighed, nodding when he did. “Well, I would appreciate it if you wouldn’t tell anyone. Not just because others would ask the same of me, but because she could lose her job.” I snorted when he seemed confused. “A teacher pressuring a student to help their family and go against their job for participation credit? Yeah, she’d be out—”

“I didn’t realize that part,” he muttered. “I’m shocked she would do something like that, but I suppose we all would if the situation were desperate enough.” He held up his hands in surrender when I shot him the look he deserved. “I wasn’t asking. I don’t want to know. I’m simply glad you could help her.”

“The owner is a good person who genuinely wants to help familiars. It’s just everything is complicated, and people try to take everything others have. Most of the campus saw that just from my treats and the spell I could do.”

“Yes, there is too much darkness in our society for sure. Well, at least today there is a bit of light now. I wish you the best and look forward to your extra credit, Ms. Millen.” He dipped his head to me and took down the barrier before heading off.

Weird. Seriously, my life was weird.

He could have just asked me to stay after class instead of this cloak-and-dagger crap that normally drew more attention.

“Let’s get you home since you have a packed schedule,” Ms. Wagner said as she glanced at her watch.

“I’m confused what’s going on here,” Winter muttered, gesturing between us.

“I’m all-around confused and fucking exhausted,” I grumbled, rubbing my head.

“I apologize for throwing you for a loop. I thought Taylor filled you in,” she told me.

“No, sorry, Ms. Wagner, and I’m—”

“Emma is just fine outside of class,” she chuckled.

I nodded. “I’m glad you’ll be in class, and clearly I need the buffer when Coach immediately took a shot at me in front of everyone, his lackeys ready to back him up.”

“Yes, he’s a petty man with very tiny-dick energy,” she drawled. “I really hope I get to beat him up.”

“I would pay to see that,” Winter muttered.

I snorted. “So would I. A lot.”

A few of the councilmen were waiting with their wives. I was glad they were the nice ones and were working with their familiars, so doing their sessions was actually worth my time and made me feel productive.

Link showed up when we were taking a break in between them with a grim look on his face. “Bevin, you need to come back to campus for a minute. There’s a courier waiting for you at the security office and it’s something he has to give you directly.”

“That doesn’t sound good,” I grumbled.

“I suggest you bring Jasmine,” he said gently.

“Am I being arrested?” I whispered in horror.

“No, you’re being served,” Councilman Moon muttered. “That’s the only reason you’d have to accept something from a courier directly and security would allow that. Something must have been filed and we didn’t have grounds to throw it out immediately. Or haven’t yet because it was just filed.”

“Sued for what?” I sighed, rubbing my face as if trying to wake from another nightmare. “Okay, let’s find out what’s fucked now.”

Jasmine was able to meet us there, and I showed up with Link and several other curious people.

“Bevin Millen?” the man standing with security checked, waiting until I nodded. “You’ve been served. The Rice family is suing you for the wrongful death of Curtis Rice along with slander, emotional distress, and other charges.”

I snorted as I took the envelope, shocking everyone there. “Tell Charles he should be a little less transparent.” I opened it and smirked at the man. “I’ve seen you at our house. You’re his gopher. You don’t just work for some courier service. You work for him. I’d bet it’s one of his attorneys on this case, right?”

The man’s eyes were dancing with amusement and victory.

I barely glanced at the papers before handing them to Jasmine. “Yeah, so this will be fun when there are witnesses to his corruption and—”

“What witnesses?” the man interrupted. “Kevin Rose? Funny, because he’s leaving the police department, so it’s obvious that he’s the corrupt one. He’s in league with you—”

“Oh please, that’s the stupidest crap ever, and the two other dirty cops were there, taken into custody, and confessed,” I drawled. “Their testimony—”

“I don’t think they’ll testify from the grave,” the man chuckled.

Link cleared his throat. “Both were killed in custody last night. It was reported just a bit ago.”

I snickered—again shocking people there. I met the courier’s gaze. “Tell Charles not to overreach again. I have a lot more in my possession than he would guess. If he gives me an excuse to, I will absolutely pull him into this and make him confess to having those two killed. There’s no way this isn’t all connected if this suit is filed hours after it’s announced they were murdered.”

“I have no idea what you’re talking about, and I’m just the—”

“The dog who fetches when Charles says so,” I drawled. “Yeah, you’re his dog. I know. Bring this here. Go pick this up. You’ve been doing it for him for years. He calls you his dog without bite when you’re not around. The guards laugh at you for being pathetic jumping at the chance to go fetch.”

The guy got pissed so fast that Link moved closer to me, making it clear not to be stupid.

“There are a lot of people who want to take Charles Shaw down,” I pushed. “All it takes is one person with proof he is attached to any of those three cops and it puts him in front of the firing squad. Can he handle that right now? Or should I just give the press the list of the cops the Shaw family owns? I mean he has it on the family’s cloud without even password-protecting it.”

The guy’s face went pale. Like went ghost white, and it worked because he couldn’t get out of there fast enough instead of gloating.

Good.

“Oh, for the love of the gods,” Jasmine seethed.

“How bad?” I asked.

“They’re asking for everything under the sun including your magic to be bound . That’s not even an option in a civil case.”

“It’s not,” Councilman Moon confirmed before I could even panic over it. “I suggest we take this conversation elsewhere and start talking strategy.”

Lovely.

Jasmine handled that. I couldn’t even deal with it and had too much else to do. There was no point in me sitting there for the plotting.

Besides, the adults would be much better at it and coming up with ideas.

Taylor was waiting for me after I was done with the session and handed me his phone. I swallowed a sigh but took it and hit play.

“This should serve as a warning for other officers that once you’re bought, they will do whatever they want with you and you are disposable merchandise that they bought,” the chief of police said at a press conference. “No one talks about the corruption of the police as if it doesn’t happen then or isn’t a real thing.

“That people will ignore it and it’s just acceptable in our society. The problem is most don’t have any way to fight it and don’t know the depth of it. By my estimate, over a third of our officers are currently being bribed by top-tier families to help cover up their crimes or look the other way. I’ve been a cop for over twenty years and I had no idea it was that bad.

“Not until I took this job and was able to see the whole department and the pieces of it.” He gave people a minute to settle with that. “I also have access to the list of missing officers.” He stared down the camera. “The top-tier families do not give huge payoffs after jobs are done like the officer believed if he killed Kevin Rose.

“They disappear and are never found again. They are missing persons in the human world and their bank accounts and everything never touched again. Nothing closed out. Nothing handled and messes left for their families. They’re not living it up somewhere on a beach island dream life. They’re dead. They were witnesses and loose ends.

“So I really hope going forward people wise up and understand it’s not just money they’re taking but accepting their inevitable death. Those two officers were killed in jail, and it was so blatant that there wasn’t even an attempt to cover it up or make it like a suicide. They were murdered easily, checked off the to-do list of powerful people.

“They confessed to corruption and to being paid to kill a clean and honorable officer who now has to resign because he’s not safe in our corrupt police department. His father died in the line of duty to protect our people, and Kevin Rose wanted to do the same but instead won’t be there when someone needs him because of this.

“So for all of the people pushing this idiocy that the top-tier families make your lives better or will do more if they take back power—a third of our police force is bought by them to cover up their crimes. Please hear me on that and start seeing what is right in front of you. You might have jobs with them and they might pay you better than humans, but they are not on your side.”

Taylor took his phone back and let out a slow breath. “We’re at a tipping point, and it baffles me that one teenager seems to be the catalyst of all of this. I don’t say that to demean you, and it’s not even about you being female.”

I nodded. “It’s that you didn’t know the balance of our society was seriously so fragile.”

“No, no I didn’t,” he accepted, giving me a hard look. “This plays out next in four ways.” He waited until I nodded. “Charles Shaw is taken out. My dad is taken out. The chief of police is taken out. Or Charles Shaw wins and gets you back, and I cannot even imagine the outcome of that given what you are.”

“Your dad will probably get taken out after that if it happens,” I said honestly. “If he gets me and that power—people don’t think I know he’ll sacrifice me and take my power as a goddess witch. But I do.”

His eyes flashed shock, but then he swore under his breath. “They talk about it in front of their familiars who you understand.”

“Yeah, it’s been fun. I’m a fucking mess,” I chuckled darkly.

“I would be too and I’m not a kid,” he muttered. “The question is can you hang on a bit longer and send the bomb into their camp?”

I searched his eyes a moment. “This won’t stop even if you take out my dad. There’s still a list of evil who would come next for me and your dad. Hughes would step up immediately, the moment my dad is gone, and he doesn’t have to worry about their alliance. He would pick at the Shaw everything like a vulture.”

“I know. This is a war we’re fighting, not just one battle.”

“The question is are you in it, because you bailed before because you didn’t want to get into politics or any of this. Some of us have always been in this fight and risking everything. So I’m sorry, you shouldn’t be questioning my dedication to this. I should be questioning yours .”

That was the first time I saw Taylor laugh. He threw back his head and let out a full laugh.

I was a bit worried it was stress and I’d never see it again, but at least I knew we were on the same page… And it was time to go to war.