Page 59 of Keeper of Death (Ouroboros Academy #1)

I groaned as Liam strutted to the mic. I’d known him long enough that if he was going to fail at this, he was going to do it big and probably get banned from the tavern all together.

“I personally don’t mind if he gets knocked down a peg,” Lucian said.

“No, Liam is complicated, and he attached himself to Sage pretty early on. For all we know, it’s some sort of cosmic connection. He’s been a perfect gentleman so far, but he wants more. Liam wouldn’t have offered singing in exchange for a kiss unless he knew he was good at it and he wouldn’t have agreed to the terms unless he knew he could pull it off,” Khalid said.

“He’s an arrogant buffoon,” Lucian said. “It wouldn’t shock me if?—”

“So, you ever meet a beautiful redhead and just feel a cosmic connection? Because I did. And she promised me a kiss if I sang a certain song and did it well. Maestro, hit it.”

The fiddle started playing and Liam struck a pose. My mouth just fell open. Liam wasn’t just good, he was magnetic. It was a country song, but he was giving off total rock star vibes. Khalid had been right. Liam agreed to all of this because he knew he would win the wager.

I didn’t like being the center of attention. I wasn’t allowed to be growing up. That was supposed to be my father in every situation. Still, Liam was doing this for me. No one had ever done anything like that for me before. He was up there giving a riveting performance because I was joking when I said I’d kiss him after.

Yeah, I was going to give him that kiss, but I could also be the center of attention for once. I started hooting and clapping to encourage him. When the song went to the instrumental parts of the fiddle battle, Liam stepped away from the mic and would dance. Shit, he was an excellent dancer, too.

When the devil was playing the fiddle, Liam ripped his shirt off and slingshot it across the tavern so it hit Lucian in the face. Lucian hissed and threw it on the floor like it was on fire. Everyone seemed into his performance. The women and half the men looked like they would kiss him if I didn’t. And that kind of bothered me.

“Shit, he’s also a fertility god,” Khalid said. “If he doesn’t wrap up soon, I think someone is going to end up pregnant.”

“Fuck, I’m about to get pregnant from this,” a guy sitting next to us said, fanning himself.

“Um, I want to kiss him and maybe what comes after, but I definitely don’t want to get pregnant.”

“They teach you that spell in your first class, but if you’re rooming with Morgana, she sells charms until we learn it.”

Liam jumped off the stage when the song was done. Everyone, even the sirens, were clapping. He was stalking towards me like prey. Yeah, he wanted his kiss now, and I was going to give it to him. My mouth went dry. I didn’t think I’d ever wanted to kiss someone so much before.

Except I froze, and it was like I wasn’t in the tavern anymore. I didn’t know how I knew, but someone had just lost their battle. They were dead. They didn’t disappear, and they weren’t beaten this time. There was a dead body somewhere on campus.

And I couldn’t even help the scream that exploded out of me. I wasn’t a screamer. It wasn’t considered ladylike. I had no control over this scream and I couldn’t even stop it. It was over when it wanted to be.

I finally came back to myself at the tavern and everyone was looking at me in horror.

I blacked out.