Page 17 of Messenger of Death (Ouroboros Academy #2)

A lexios was less prickly now that he didn’t have a migraine. He had a very dry, sarcastic sense of humor, but I liked him. I had so many questions after potions. Out of all of us, Liam was the most likable if he liked you. There was something magnetic about him since he was a fertility god.

I didn’t think he would have a problem finding a lab partner when he sent me to partner with Alexios.

I even got why he did it. What I didn’t get was Lola.

The majority of the class wanted to partner with her.

I didn’t know if they had the same connection, but Mazen looked at her like Liam looked at me. I still couldn’t get a read on Radames.

Mazen looked furious when she wanted to partner with Liam. I kept sneaking glances. Lola kept touching and flirting with Liam and Mazen was getting angrier and angrier.

It reminded me of this girl I didn’t like in high school. She had a very dramatic relationship with our quarterback. Any time he did anything she didn’t like, she’d be all over the captain of the baseball team to make him jealous.

From what Morgana told me, we were generally bonded to more than one person, which was an issue Mazen was going to have to deal with. Problem was, Liam was bonded to me and he’d pretty much announced that to the entire tavern before he launched into his song.

I wasn’t jealous. Liam and I weren’t together.

We probably would be one day, but I already knew Liam only had eyes for me.

And I’d known him long enough to know he was annoyed and trying not to be mean.

He didn’t do that often, but Lola was the Queen Bee at the moment.

She either had a crush on Liam or she was using him.

At any rate, if we handled her until she named who really did this to her, no one might get stabbed in their sleep.

We had a two-hour break after potions. I knew it was supposed to be for eating and studying, but we could do our reading for history later.

We immediately went back to our dorm rooms with the black salt and protection potions just in case anyone got any ideas.

Morgana insisted she was religious about that in our room and Elliot and Petros tended to piss people off, so she made them do it in theirs, too.

She did say it wouldn’t hurt to add to it since there were more people in the rooms and Lucian was in a single, so he definitely needed to do his. She recommended Ivar, Ari, and Alexios refresh theirs every full moon.

We met back in their room after we were done in ours.

“Red, we need to stop meeting like this. Lola threw you a flag and you should take it,” Ivar said.

“Ugh,” Liam said. “I get her mind was messed with when it comes to who hurt her, but she’s a complete bellend when it comes to potions.

I told her a million times that wasn’t parsley and she wanted to argue with me.

She tried to dump it in my potion. We had servants growing up, but after I ran, I found out I enjoy cooking.

There’s something calming about baking. I know my herbs.

I don’t know how she doesn’t if she made her money on hiking videos. ”

“That’s pretty easy to check,” Lucian said, whipping out his phone.

He was buried in his phone for a few minutes before he came back to us.

“All her accounts on human social media are set to private. Not sure if she did that, or they did that when they invaded our private space and molested our phones.”

“It makes sense,” Khalid said. “If she’s internet famous, then she has fans.

They wouldn’t want them looking around here for her.

There’s also the issue that eventually, people are going to ask questions about why we aren’t aging.

My family would accept the answer, but seeing them back home would be difficult because of the neighbors. ”

I hadn’t thought of that. I had no problem leaving my old life behind. Liam didn’t, either. Lucian didn’t speak about his family much, but Khalid was close with his.

“Listen, she did seem to know how to pitch a tent and help out, but that wasn’t why she was on our team,” Alexios said. “She practically begged us and we felt bad for her.”

“No, I believe you, but I figured something out. It’s why Lola is still alive and Kira isn’t. I think someone figured out who Alexios was before he did and Ivar was pretty out and proud of being Thor.”

“I’m listening,” Alexios said.

“One of the Forsaken Ones has some darkness power. If Ivar finds his hammer, I know it’s associated with lightning. Alexios is a sun god with the power of prophecy.”

“I get it!” Khalid said. “Alexios might be their weakness and Ivar could at least cause problems. Our magic seems to come in when it wants to, but sometimes, it’s a trigger.

Triggering either of them if they came at them directly could be fatal.

Discrediting Alexios if he has a vision and getting someone else to take them out is what I would do if I was awake and evil. ”

“Well, that’s shite because so far, I’ve just had a migraine and one prophecy,” Alexios grumped.

“If Headmaster Mykene has Mjolnir, she hasn’t given it to me or told me where to find it.”

“It’s probably some fucked-up quest where you have to pull it out the arsehole of a magical squid,” Liam said, nodding like we were all supposed to know this.

“It’s probably in some special case and he’ll get it when Headmaster Mykene thinks he’s ready,” Lucian said.

“Nah, mate. I’ve prepared my whole life to get kidnapped and find out I’m magical. There’s definitely squid arsehole involved.”

“At any rate, what Sage said makes sense. It’s not the Dark Ages anymore. If it’s dark, you can just flip the light on. I don’t think that works on this thing, but I’ll bet the fucking sun would,” Khalid said.

“Yeah, but I’m not learning how to do that yet,” Alexios pointed out. “And I wouldn’t know how to figure it out.”

“It’s just a feeling, yeah? When that gobshite ate all our food, I could just feel there was something outside who wanted to help.

It was the animals, and they talked to me.

Lucian eventually figured out what he was hungry for and bit me without my permission.

I think when you need it, it’ll happen and this Forsaken knows this. ”

“Yeah, thanks, dick face, I don’t want to go up against one and risk it.”

Liam just beamed at Alexios like he was a complete moron.

“They don’t want to take you on. They are trying to get the other students to kill you for them.”

I mean, Liam wasn’t wrong, but I wouldn’t have phrased it like that.

“The professors all believe you didn’t do it,” Khalid said. “They seem to be trying to help a little.”

“Professor Gefn seems willing to avenge you if they come after you,” I said. “I’m not sure I’d want to cross her.”

“You really don’t,” Elliot said, rubbing his neck. “She at least understands the original Loki was both helpful and a menace, so she mostly just rolls her eyes at me, but you don’t want to piss her off if you aren’t me.”

“She’s going to drag you if you got the birth control spell wrong and didn’t mean to,” Morgana said.

“It’s the time the spell takes that makes it difficult.

You just have to follow the instructions and think about not getting pregnant.

If you wanted to be pregnant in college and you tell her that, it’s one thing.

If you just didn’t follow the instructions, it’s another. ”

“Listen, our break is almost over,” Khalid said.

“I don’t know why Lola wanted to partner with Liam, but it pissed Mazen off and he’s already angry at all of us.

We need to travel in groups. No one goes anywhere alone.

And Alexios, if you haven’t already, you need to share the prophecy you had with Headmaster Mykene. ”

That was good advice for literally everyone at Ouroboros Academy. People were missing or dead. We didn’t know who the Forsaken Ones were or even who they were targeting or why.

No one was safe.