Page 2 of Amateur Goddess (Morrigan University #3)

We decided to do two different types of food trucks for my ice cream truck idea to distribute the familiar treats. One with raw ingredients like meat, fish—anything including blood or that could cause issues—and one without.

Simple.

Really simple, right?

Yes, but people were jerks and didn’t pay attention. So that was where the administrations of the colleges hopefully came in. They were smart enough to want this for their students and faculty . We were only offering this to current students with valid school IDs and anyone who worked for the schools.

Plus, the council.

We were going to have a morning there for them to buy their treats, but not every guard would be working then. Or even staff, so any High Council guard or staff was allowed to come to campus with their familiar and purchase a treat if they wanted.

That was the only exception.

Everything was simple and clearly outlined. Morrigan was going to be scheduled for the truck that didn’t need the fridge or freezers because it was all cookies or bird feed or—shelf-stable treats Fridays for two hours after classes. Students or staff had to come to the truck with their familiars and could only buy one treat for the week.

We would check their ID and list that they’d already bought one. If they gave the whole thing to their familiar right then, that was up to them.

Simple, right?

Yes, but people were jerks. The first asshole in line threw a fit because he said he didn’t have to bring his familiar and he knew what he needed.

“The fact you just threw a tantrum like a damn toddler in front of your headmaster and aren’t mortified is disturbing,” Tracey drawled. “And you’re about to be banned. We can sell it however we want. Follow the rules or don’t waste the time of everyone here.” She looked past him to the rest of the line. “Follow the rules or get out of line. I have no patience for fools.”

The jerk stormed off bitching that I better bring him the right treat later and for free or that I would regret it.

“I’ll talk to him,” Sergey promised. He shrugged when I sighed and shot him the look he deserved. If much more of this kept up, they were going to keep having to have talks with half of campus.

Maybe more.

“I understand you want to make sure that you’re being thorough, but this is too much hassle,” someone objected from off to the side by Tracey.

“It’s not, and it’s good for the familiars,” I said firmly as I faced them. I gestured to the line. “Watch the familiars. They’re excited and wondering what’s going on. They’re engaged, and this is something new for them. Plus, it’s a bonding moment for them and their witch or warlock. I’m sorry you’re so shortsighted to only see an inconvenience but—”

“ Headmaster of another college ,” Winter coughed, several people chuckling.

I shrugged. “The setup is my idea and it’s my magic. I get to be just as rude as the person calling it a hassle.”

“I find that fair,” Headmaster Kerwynn said after a moment. “Continue with what you were saying, Ms. Millen.”

I dipped my head to him before looking at the line. I found one overly excited fox and asked the warlock to step out of line, that we’d let them cut even. He came with me but seemed hesitant.

“Tell them. Tell them how excited your familiar is. He doesn’t know what’s going on, but he’s never waited in line before, and he knows it’s for him, right?”

Understanding lit up his eyes and he nodded. “He’s not normally this vocal. He’s been talking the whole time since I picked him up and said we had to go. He was looking around for other foxes and was shocked we were around such a mix of familiars.”

“Because he’s a curious and handsome boy,” I cooed at the fox. “You’re thrilled your warlock loves you so much to wait for you. He’s doing this just for one treat because you are that important to him.”

“Really?” the fox gasped. “Really? He’s been so busy with school, but he still really loves me like that? I love him. We barely get a chance to play and—can we play more? I want snuggles and pets.”

I chuckled and nodded for him to go ahead and get help at the food truck, thanking him before I turned to the group that I now understood was made up of headmasters we were going to schedule with next. “Familiar Treasures could make gobs of money selling all of this and people would buy it. It’s not about the money but doing things right, doing it better.”

“As anyone who buys our products knows, which is why this partnership with Ms. Millen was so important to us,” Tracey said firmly. “She’s of the same mindset as our corporate values, and unlike humans, we take that seriously. So we do it right, even if it’s a bit annoying.” She gestured back to the food truck. “We’re also making a registry of customers.”

“So they don’t always have to bring their familiars later,” Headmaster Kerwynn muttered.

“No, not after the first few times,” Tracey confirmed. “We wanted to make sure there wasn’t any bait and switch or problems. This week someone has an owl and next week a different familiar and it’s our mistake. We know people will cause problems—they always do. And you cannot give us the university information—nor should you.

“This is how we handle this new magic on the market safely. The council appreciated the care we’re taking. And maybe we’ll sell one to eat now and one for later soon. We don’t know. We have always, always been careful. Nothing would be more detrimental to our society than harming familiars. That will never happen. Not when it involves Familiar Treasures.”

“You’ve made your point,” the original headmaster conceded before looking at me. “You as well, Ms. Millen. I’m glad you’re this passionate about your magic and able to stick up for yourself. We have too many passive witches who don’t push back. We need more like you.”

“I’m working on that,” I admitted, shrugging when he seemed confused. “It’s not easy in a society as sexist as ours. A lot of times it falls on deaf ears, but Headmaster Kerwynn wants fairness. It’s going to make our generation stronger—witches and warlocks.”

“Oh boy, you’re already rubbing off on her,” Headmaster Kerwynn chuckled, giving Tracey an amused look.

Tracey snorted. “I’m smooth, but I’m at a level you can’t teach. Ms. Millen is innocently blunt. Sometimes rudely so, but I think that’s part of her charm. I never doubt what she tells me—even when she tells me I did something stupid.”

I took the out when a few of the adults chuckled.

“We are a company that empowers witches, and we are hiring students for this,” Tracey continued as I moved away. “Like Ms. Millen, we’re looking for those who have talent or interest in working with familiars. This is a bit more than a snack stand as there’s a bit of a learning curve as well. But we’re also hiring support staff to prep ingredients and such.”

“Something you can trust the adults to handle and the kids not to mess up when it’s this important,” one of the headmasters muttered.

“They’re not teenagers since we’re not hiring freshmen for the role, so we’re not worried about that, but we want a good mix,” Tracey corrected. “It’s also training for their futures not to let magic be set in their minds or only controlled by the top-tier families. We need to break that cage if we’re truly to prosper as a society.”

I tuned out the conversation from there, knowing she would more than handle it. I focused on the line and mostly the familiars. I cleared most of them and promised we had product for them. It was about twenty people down that I stopped and frowned.

“What animal is this?”

The warlock did a double take, having been focused on his phone. “Oh, sorry, he’s an ili pika.”

“Can I hold him?” I asked, smiling when he nodded. “Well, hello there, handsome boy.” I chuckled when the adorable animal snuggled up to me. It was like a cross between a very large bunny and a mouse. “What do you eat? I’ve never even heard of a pika much less an ila pika.”

“Damn, I was worried about that,” the warlock sighed. “He’s a graminivore. It’s an herbivore that eats grasses—grass types not just like the lawn.”

“Well, if it’s a special class, you won’t be the only one, will you, handsome,” I cooed at the cute familiar. “Let’s have you guys step out of line and we can get your information. I’ll come up with something and we can test it this weekend, okay? Free like the other testers.”

“Yeah, that would be cool,” the warlock accepted.

I danced with the familiar over to Tracey and showed her the adorable guy. “You’re probably going to have to add greenhouses to grow hard to get specific ingredients for some of the familiars to that other expansion. I doubt the grasses this guy eats will be the only thing we need.”

She nodded. “Rita already suggested that, and it’s been added to the map.”

“Awesome.” I smiled as the warlock gave his information to Rita and went to give him back his familiar… But the little bugger wanted to keep snuggling with me.

Apparently, he really liked my breasts. Dirty boy.

Apparently , he learned the behavior from his warlock because the man was locked onto my chest and I wasn’t even wearing anything revealing for him to have the excuse. I cleared my throat and handed back his familiar.

Rita snickered as the warlock cleared his throat and hurried off. “Men.”

“Says the woman who has two sons,” I muttered, not sure what to say then.

“And they’re still men, but they’re better behaved and would at least apologize.” She huffed. “They better or I would beat them for a week.”

I chuckled. She was amazing and I adored her.

Even if Kelton and I didn’t work out, I could still be adopted by Rita, right?

Probably not.

We made the announcement that any graminivores should step out of line and we’d let them know when we had treats for their familiars.

Next was a greater bamboo lemur which did eat fruit, but we weren’t sure about what we had. I brought the witch over to Rita who Wyatt was now helping. I gave him a shocked look and he simply shrugged.

“You made another to—treat for Quinn. He’s the ultimate spoiled tester and we get it for free. I should at least help out. Plus, this is my field of study and it’s all fascinating.”

Fair enough.

I chuckled when Quinn jumped up onto my shoulder and said he would keep me safe as we moved along the line. We had to tell those with frog familiars to wait for the other treat truck since those would have the treats with bugs for them. Next, I found an angonoka tortoise that we didn’t have anything for and a saola… Which was known as an Asian unicorn.

It was really fucking cool and very skittish. I didn’t blame it; people were staring, and the witch looked uncomfortable as well since there was a lot of attention on her. I gave her a kind smile and asked her to step out so we could come up with something for her familiar.

Except her familiar didn’t speak English, so I wouldn’t be able to get anything from her.

Crap. That was a new one for me. I hadn’t really been listening to or trusting the witch or warlock but the familiar. How did we work this then?

“So Ms. Millen will be coming to all of our universities to work with the witches and warlocks who have familiars you don’t have treats for?” one of the headmasters asked nervously as if reading my mind.

“No, that wouldn’t be prudent especially with the threat she is currently under,” Tracey said firmly.

Headmaster Kerwynn snorted. “Yes, I’ve already received death threats from Charles Shaw.” He shrugged when people gave him shocked looks. “The news is reporting it. There’s no reason to deny it. I told him if he kept it up, Ms. Millen would be the last of his bloodline to attend Morrigan and his extended family wouldn’t be pleased with him.”

“What a psycho,” one of the other headmasters said under his breath. “The fact he’s the example of what we’re all supposed to aspire to as the most powerful top-tier family head is disgusting.”

I snorted without even realizing it, wincing when people looked at me. I simply shrugged. “Preaching to the choir on that. He’s completely delusional and acts as if he’s a god that people should worship and we’re all his property. I have much stronger descriptions than psycho for him.”

“It’s a blessing you were able to get free then,” the headmaster said as he dipped his head to me but clearly didn’t want to stay on the topic. That was fine, I didn’t either.

“Look, it’s not a big deal, I just forgot my ID,” someone said smoothly from behind me. “We waited all of this time, so just leave it be.”

“No, because once we break the rules, they’ve been broken,” I argued and went over to him. “And then it’s ‘you already did it last time, so what does it matter this time,’ right? That’s how you play the game? And you tell everyone that you’re special and got through the rules so we look like fools and other people won’t want to have to follow them then.”

“You’re being dramatic over an ID and—” the guy started.

“He always pulls this crap and it’s embarrassing,” his familiar grumbled. “It’s so sad that he was such a sweet boy and grew into this where he gets his kicks this way. He’s not even a student anymore, and he never was here.”

“You’re not even a student,” I blasted the guy, interrupting his rambling that I was drama and full of myself. “And you never went to Morrigan, right?” I smirked when his mouth dropped open, turning to the guy who was clearly with him but moving away. “You look related. Cousin who pushed you to bring him? Fess up or we’ll ban you.”

“Yes,” the guy blurted, showing me his ID. “He said he’d tell our grandma that when I accidentally hurt his familiar years ago it was on purpose if I didn’t bring him. It was an accident. I tripped and his familiar was fine.”

“I was,” the familiar sighed. “He tortures his cousin over one small accident, and—why was I assigned to this fool?”

I felt really bad for the familiar—lots of them who ended up in this type of situation.

“Escort him off campus and ban him, please,” I said to security who was already moving towards us.

“You cannot afford to keep making so many enemies, Bevin Shaw ,” the guy sneered. “There will be a line that comes for you and—”

“Shut up, asshole,” someone snapped and shoved the guy towards security. “It’s a fucking treat for your familiar, not her holding out on world peace. Yeah, we all hate her now because she called you on your shit. Much better to like you who threatens women.”

I was glad when several people chuckled and looked at the guy being led off by security with disgust.

“Thanks,” I said quietly.

He nodded. “No problem. People like him get off on bucking the system. Don’t take it personally.” He glanced behind me and smiled. “What’s the word, man?”

“Going well, going well,” Winter said as he reached over and bumped fists with the guy. “It cool if he skips the line and checks things out, Bev?”

“Nah, don’t make her get in trouble. I’m like ten back,” the man argued.

“It’s fine,” I said easily. “You guys are gonna talk a bit and the line’s moving.”

“It really is,” he praised. “I was worried two hours wasn’t remotely going to be enough, but things are cooking.” He thanked me and moved off to the side with Winter.

No one complained because we really did have our act together. We had a lot of help and that was the key. Four people with tablets taking the information and payment. They had a partner who went to the truck to get the treat and check the student or staff ID and that it was recent since we had to retake them each year.

As long as it was a type of animal we were ready for, the system was pretty flawless.

I swallowed a wince when Mrs. Reid and several women arrived, probably wives of the councilmen that I didn’t know. People waited with bated breath to see how Tracey would handle the situation since they were against the rules we’d been going over.

“I apologize for intruding, but we were curious to see how it was going,” Mrs. Reid said easily as she shook Tracey’s hand. “We didn’t bring our familiars, and we’re not here to buy treats, simply see progress and offer our support.”

“Familiar Treasures appreciates that more than you know,” Tracey said with her winning smile. “Hopefully, once the launch goes well, we will be able to offer treats to your familiars soon—any family member of the council or anyone who works for the council.”

“Oh, that’s lovely to hear that’s the goal,” one of the other women replied, not hiding her shock well. “I didn’t know that.”

“We’re not saying it publicly yet,” Tracey explained. “Our focus is the students and helping the next generation. But yes, especially since we’re limiting the sales so no one lets their familiar overindulge, we’re going to be expanding our market base as much as possible.”

“That’s where I get a bit confused,” that same councilman’s wife pushed. “Forgive me if this isn’t the time or place and we can discuss it later.”

Tracey shot me a look saying it was up to me.

I went over and greeted Mrs. Reid and the rest of them. “The worry is mine, and I’ve spoken to the owner about this. Certain members of my family—they don’t have their familiars harvest as they need magic for something. They constantly harvest. They broke them to constantly harvest or they’re not fed.”

Understanding filled her eyes. “And what could someone like that do with a treat to push the energy of a familiar—and from what Marilyn Oliveria said—desire to harvest magic?”

“Exactly. This is meant as a boost and something nice for the familiars, just like a bubble bath and treat from a fancy bakery is for us,” I said for all the ears around us. “Not for any of us to become lazy and use as a crutch to get more magic. Or for the evil people who don’t see their familiars as anything other than a tool as a way to help break them.”

Someone snorted behind me. “‘Us’ like you’re included? You’re not a real witch when you don’t even have a familiar.”

I was going to ignore it, but Tracey couldn’t stand bullies more than she was protective over me.

“The amount of jealousy in your aura is grotesque,” Tracey said with a dark chuckle. “If you look so down on Ms. Millen, clearly you won’t want her magic touching your familiar.” She glanced over at Rita. “She’s banned. This is for adults, not petty kids who don’t know how to behave.”

I swallowed a sigh when I saw it was that same bitch who kept hassling me at every turn. Why was she seriously so obsessed with me? She kept being wrong after all, so someone smarter would have just let it go.

“Quinn, chill,” I muttered when I felt the fox tense and ready to fight. “We’re better than that.”

“Fine, but I’m peeing on her door the next time I’m in your dorm,” he grumbled.

It was really, really hard not to laugh sometimes.

Plus, I wanted to bask in the glory of the success. The total sales in the two hours was over twenty thousand. That probably sounded insane—and it was—but the cheapest item was five dollars, the most expensive of this type was eight.

There weren’t a ton of students at Morrigan like most people thought of universities, only a thousand freshmen incoming. But there were six years since the master’s program was included.

But not everyone made it until the end. People dropped out.

So there weren’t even six thousand students, and they didn’t all have the type of familiars for this treat truck. However, there was the addition of staff and council guards and staff, though we didn’t have all of them either. I think most were hesitant to swarm us the first time knowing they could show at other locations.

“We need more people,” Rita worried as we were wrapping up. “The other two stops today have more students and staff. One is double the size of Morrigan because it’s a normal level, not high-tier magic like Morrigan.”

The stop at Morrigan was from three to five, the next school five to seven, and then the last was seven until everyone was served because we knew it was bigger, but this was a bit ridiculous.

“I can get friends to be runners and hand out treats, Ma,” Kelton offered. “I know a few looking for a job. A couple who would do it just for a few treats since they’re short on cash.”

“Same,” Winter said. “Especially since they have big familiars that eat meat like mine.”

Meaning their treats were expensive. We couldn’t sell the treats that had fish and salmon for the same cost as bird feed.

“Do it,” Tracey accepted. “But people also know this is the first week of the launch and that there would be kinks.”

I shared a look with her. Yeah, just because we’d said that didn’t mean people really fucking listened to us about it. She could handle it though. She could more than handle it even with everything else going on.