Page 16 of Messenger of Death (Ouroboros Academy #2)

M usic and books were my escape before I left home.

My taste in both could be a little weird, so none of this was weird to me, not even the birth control spell.

I eventually moved on to much smuttier books, but I always dreamed of someone swooping in, telling me I was a magical fucking princess, and taking me away from my Da.

In all the fun books, that happened to the woman, and she’d meet powerful men there who adored her on sight or they’d eventually hate fuck.

Honestly, I wanted that, too. Pity were corgis ended up not being real, but it was actually happening to me.

I was taking it all in and just going with it.

Professor Gefn could have told me the birth control spell involved standing naked in the garden and whirling my cock in circles and I would have been out there doing it.

Shite, I hope those horny tree fairies didn’t expect me to do that because some previous incarnation of me liked to swing their dick in public.

We had potions next, and I was most excited about that.

Headmaster Mykene said not to figure out what got people high and put it in cookies, but that was before people started dying and getting their minds fucked with.

A good psychedelic might open Lola’s mind enough to cut through the compulsion, but it would also chill these bitches out so they didn’t attack Ivar, Ari, and Alexios and the rest of us for associating with them.

Professor Mykene couldn’t expel me for selling edibles if I figured it out. I was saving lives. I’ll bet even the Prince of Darkness might be tolerable with one. I needed to plan.

The potions lab was beautiful. There were jars everywhere.

Yeah, someone might look at that and see spell ingredients, but I didn’t want to make a big show of living big when I stole that money and ran and I hate being bored, so I got jobs.

I was good at baking. I saw herbs and spices I could cook with.

It didn’t look like there was anything nasty like frog eyes or bat entrails.

The birth control spell was exciting because it meant one day, Sage might agree to be with me and history was interesting because I’d just been thrust into my books and I needed to know what was true and what wasn’t. But yeah, I was most excited about potions.

We had to pick partners. I immediately snatched Sage and said she was mine.

Khalid was probably brilliant with chemistry as well as history and the Prince of Darkness was a bit of a nerd, so he was, too.

Lucian had a stick up his arse, and I didn’t think Khalid would help me figure out what got people high.

Sage probably wouldn’t, either, but she was currently my favorite company.

There was a big problem. Our group had four people, so we could pair off, but there were other groups with just three. They all had no problem splitting up and pairing with anyone except one particular trio, who hadn’t done anything wrong, but everyone thought they did.

Alexios was still learning sign language from Ivar, so Ivar needed to be with Ari unless Ari decided he was ready to speak again. Fuck me. I didn’t know why finding out I was a reincarnated ancient god made me nice.

“Sage, why don’t you partner with Alexios? Who wants to make potions with an ancient fertility god?” I said throwing my arms wide.

I thought it was going to be a party of no one since everyone was pissy with us, but shock me with a Taser and call me pretty because Lola wanted to partner with me.

Maybe it was a peace offering since she technically turned everyone against us.

Maybe whatever compulsion was done to her was wearing off, and she’d finally name who’d actually hurt her.

Our professor stood at the front of the class. He was a tall, thin man with glasses and a bit of gray at his temples, so I didn’t think he was a reincarnation.

“I’m Professor Thornheart. I’m a descendant of the sorceress Circe. If you’re thinking of cutting up in my class like you’re in high school instead of college, please know that the recipe to turn men into pigs has been passed down and I’ll slip it into your food.”

Savage. It could also be an adventure. I’d never been a pig before.

As long as everyone knew that pig was me and didn’t try to make a fry up with me until it wore off, it could be one of those experiences you only get in college.

I would make a glorious pig. So, yeah, if I ended up piggified in my attempts to bring edibles to the student body, I had no regrets.

“Whoever you’re paired with today will be your lab partner for the rest of the year, so I hope you chose well. I don’t do petty student drama, so don’t come to me if you broke up or had a one-night stand and got ghosted. You’re going to have to learn to play with other adults in the real world.”

Damn. I was hoping the compulsion would wear off, Lola would clear Ivar, Alexios, and Ari, tell everyone who really did this, and then I could snatch Sage back and we could make beautiful potions together that happened to get people high.

Lola pulled her chair up in my personal space.

She was cute and tiny, but she wasn’t my type.

I didn’t even know my type until Sage walked into the hostel.

I just loved a lot of people for a few nights and then moved on.

Sage was the first one who hit me like a punch in the gut and started some kind of obsession.

“Chemistry was my worse subject in school. You may have to tutor me,” Lola said.

Bold of her to assume I was any good at chemistry.

I was terrible at math, so I was bad at chemistry.

I didn’t know if a person could look like they were good at chemistry, but I didn’t really do that, either.

Lucian looked like he was good at chemistry.

I was covered in tattoos and lived in band shirts.

“You’re gonna flunk if you’re relying on me to be good at chemistry. This is potions, not chemistry.”

“Actually, this is alchemy,” Professor Thornheart said. “It’s similar, but different. You need this class to graduate and you’ll need it if you want to survive. So, you’ll want to study. There are plenty of books in the library.”

Excellent. The Ouroboros Academy library was sexy as fuck.

I could figure out my edibles there. Lola started stroking my arm.

What was this? Was everyone trying to hop on my cock?

There was only one person I was interested in.

I was going to have to come up with an entirely new plan to get her to kiss me.

“We can study together, right?” Lola said, batting her eyelashes at me.

“We can, but listen, I’m connected to Sage, so it would just be studying. You’re connected to someone here, you just have to figure out who.”

That was nice, right? I wasn’t rude about it, even though there was just something about her that I didn’t like being around.

I didn’t think she could help it any more than I could stop the horns from growing out of my forehead.

Sage didn’t scream and pass out because she didn’t want to kiss me. It was her magic taking over.

We were like wee magical babies. We were going to have a lot of accidents.

Sage’s roommate was stuck as a cat. Or at least, I thought she was.

I tried talking to her to help her and she threatened to shit in my shoes unless I laid off her.

Grumpy Cat was adorable and everywhere for a while.

I guess Iman was taking over that mantle.

“Don’t you feel like we should be free to choose who we are connected to? You don’t strike me as the type who does what they are told.”

Ugh. Good point. But also wrong. Thankfully, Professor Thornheart saved me from having to argue with that. I hoped the rest of the year wasn’t like this.

“We’re going to be making a basic protection potion and black salt your first class.

You’re going to want to take this back to your dorm.

It’s best to wash the floors with it and it’ll please the brownies, but you can also wipe down the mirrors.

You’ll want to sprinkle a tiny bit of black salt across the doorway and windowsills.

It won’t protect you outside of your dorm room, but it will keep anyone who means you harm from entering.

Since most of you are rooming with older students, they would have already done this, you’ll want to do it again just in case they aren’t keeping up with the basics. ”

I liked potions a lot better than I liked chemistry in high school.

We set the cauldron above a black candle and mixed salt, parsley, pine needles, and rosemary, and then we dropped a black crystal in.

Potions was like cooking and I could handle that.

The black salt just involved crushing salt and ash with a mortar and pestle.

Lola kept mucking it up, and she kept nearly fucking mine up, too. I had a proper protection potion and Lola put coriander in hers instead of parsley, even though I told her it wasn’t right. She insisted it was and tried to dump it in mine, too.

Professor Thornheart looked at the mess in her cauldron and shook his head.

“Did I mention you have to successfully make a potion together for your midterm? Might want to study together and learn the difference between basic herbs.”

I did. How did Lola not know the difference between parsley and coriander if she was an avid hiker? They weren’t common in the wild in a lot of places, but it was hard to hike and not know how to forage. She was tiny, so she’d be limited in how heavy her rucksack was.

I wanted to be here. I needed to pass my classes. Lola would eventually get the hint that I only had eyes for Sage, but I didn’t think I could deal with an entire semester of her not listening to me and insisting she was right.

I guess this is what I got for being nice.