Page 18 of Messenger of Death (Ouroboros Academy #2)

O ur last class of the day was defense, and I wasn’t looking forwards to it.

I didn’t see the point. Violence solved nothing.

There were three massive goons standing with Professor Adamastus who looked like they broke things on purpose.

They had to have standards on the other side of the academy, right?

These peasants had to also be good at other subjects besides defense, right?

“Meet Blaize Vossen, Zander Morgan, and Dante Keeling. Blaize is a dragon, Dante is a vampire, and Zander is a fairy. They are at the top of their class for defense, so they are going to help me demonstrate. Dragons, vampires, and fairies are also fairly dangerous in a fight.”

Liam and Khalid came to stand next to me. So, this was the dick pic menace. I didn’t like him already. He just looked like the kind of miscreant to slide that into someone’s DMs because they smiled at him.

“I did my part. Did you do yours?” Liam asked.

“I did.”

I stayed up late to figure it out, passed out, and ended up naked in Sage’s bed again.

And I liked it, which was confusing. I’d already sent Khalid a link.

I hadn’t sent one to Liam because he said he had other plans.

He swore he wasn’t going to mutilate anyone and the only reason I believed him was that he had an unhealthy obsession with Sage and he wouldn’t do anything to jeopardize that.

Khalid snuck his phone out and started furiously typing. I didn’t read over his shoulder because I had other plans. Professor Adamastus asked Blaize and Dante to demonstrate what it looked like when two supernaturals fought, but no shifting.

I waited for just the right moment and then I acted.

Blaize’s phone was in his pocket, so I made it start playing that song from that noxious shipwreck movie that was all over the place where that rich girl fucks a homeless man and lets him drown, even though there was room on the debris, and then tosses a priceless diamond in the ocean after the people who were looking for it listened to that entire sordid tale.

Blaize faltered and Dante’s fist connected with his nose. Blaize stumbled back and glared at Dante. He fumbled for his phone to turn it off.

“Excellent!” Liam said. “ We can’t hit him, but this works.”

“What the fuck, Blaize?” Zander asked. “Why do you have all these social media posts about how sexy the goats on campus are? Those are food.”

Yeah, that was all Khalid. Liam held his fist out and Khalid bumped it. This was just so satisfying, but it wasn’t over yet.

“What the fuck?” Blaize said. “I didn’t?—”

Before Blaize could finish a massive flock of birds flew over and at least three of them were crows. They just unloaded and covered Blaize in shit. Blaize shrieked and tried running off. The birds kept pace and just kept shitting on him.

“That’s going to happen every time he goes outside,” Liam said proudly.

“It’s going to be the poop apocalypse. I even got Iman in on it.

She got mad I was asking about her being stuck as a cat and threatened to shit in my shoes, so I told her if she really wanted to violate someone’s shoes, she should do Blaize’s.

She was totally on board because she got an unwanted dick pic, too. ”

“That’s disgusting,” I said. “And I actually think he deserves it.”

It wasn’t my style, but I found it satisfying to watch the look on Blaize’s face when a flock of birds shat on it.

“Did we just bond?” Liam asked.

“Yes,” Khalid said.

I didn’t answer because I didn’t want to like Liam, but I was starting to. His first reaction to everything was violence, but he’d shown he was capable of other things when he needed to be.

No one would ever be able to trace Blaize’s social media posts about being a goat fucker back to us and his phone would be doing some strange things no one would be able to figure out, but there was one person who was smart enough to figure all this out, and she was stomping towards us.

“Was that you?”

“Depends. Are you mad or did you love it?” Liam asked.

Because yeah, Sage didn’t want him mutilated, but she also didn’t say she wanted us to get revenge. We just decided that for her. She refused to give us a name. I saw red and got his name.

Sage just flung herself at Liam and he finally got that kiss he plotted out. He looked like he wanted to keep going, but she stopped and turned to us.

“Was this a group effort?” she asked.

“Yes, and I won’t be mad if you kiss me, too,” Khalid said.

So, she did. Then, she turned to me.

“I’d like to kiss you, too, if you’re okay with that.”

I liked that she asked first, but I was also spooning her naked every night because something just took over as soon as my head hit the pillow, so we were probably past all of that. Whatever issues I had with other people touching me clearly didn’t apply to Sage.

“I’d like you to kiss me, too.”

Sage just squeezed me so tight when she kissed me. She was essentially obsessed with the coffee bar in the dining hall and she was wearing some kind of mocha-flavored lip balm. I pressed my tongue to the seam of her lips and she parted to let me in.

My breath caught. I had no shortage of people who wanted to kiss me because of my title, but I didn’t think there was anyone I’d wanted to kiss as much as Sage. Her scent was amazing this close—Lavender, amber, and honey.

I could feel the magic pumping in her blood, so I pulled away before my fangs came out. She offered, and I knew if I ever had her blood, it would be potent. I just wouldn’t until I learned how to control my bite.

“I don’t know what the fuck is going on in my classroom, but you’re all running laps!” Professor Adamastus yelled.

Worth it.