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

M y head was pounding, I was sweaty and shaking, and I couldn’t remember what happened. That usually happened after an incident with my blood sugar that made my father furious for embarrassing him, but I’d been so careful.

I cracked open my eyes and realized I was back in my dorm room and everyone was in here. I wasn’t thinking straight to even ask what had happened. It was so stupid, but instead of just asking and dealing with it, the first thing I did was burst into tears.

Khalid was on me in seconds. He picked me up and set me back down on his lap. He wrapped his arms around me, and I knew that whatever happened, he didn’t give a shit how it made him look.

Lucian just rolled his eyes. He handed me a Coke and a bag of jellybeans.

“Food first. Snuggles later.”

I actually needed both. Both were good right now. I couldn’t remember what had happened, but I was guessing it was bad. And based on previous experience, some people were assholes to me after they saw me have a low blood sugar incident, like it was contagious.

“What happened? Was it bad?”

“Girlfriend, you just had the most dramatic god reveal in the history of ever. I’m Elliot. People are going to be shitting themselves when they find out you’re back.”

Morgana elbowed him.

“Spoilers. She might want to figure that out for herself.”

There was a loud roar, and a fucking dragon flew by my window. Shit, this was my life now.

“Blaize just found out about Kira. He’s going to rage all night,” the man who must be Petros said.

“Sage, someone died. Whoever you are, you have banshee-like powers. I asked if you were the original banshee, and Headmaster Mykene said you were so much more than that. You felt Kira die and started screaming. Everyone knew what it meant but us, but we passed out, too. I met Kira and helped her cross over, but I still don’t know who killed her. ”

Three crows landed on the windowsill. I knew Iman was Iman and not an actual house cat, but she didn’t go after them at all. She just bowed her head in reverence to the crows.

“Your familiars are here,” Morgana said.

“I have three of them?”

“Three is sacred. Three familiars, three names, and three mates,” a voice said in my head.

“I’m sorry, I haven’t read much on Celtic mythology, so I still don’t know who Sage is,” Khalid said.

Lucian handed me his phone.

“Look or don’t, but I found who you were with the clues I have.”

I wanted to know, so I looked down. Thing was, I’d grown up so sheltered, I had a name, but I still didn’t know anything.

“Who was The Morrigan?” I asked.

“A complete badass,” Morgana said. “You have to go way back. From what we know, there used to be several portals between Fairy and this realm. No one knows for sure what happened in Fairy, but people started leaving. They make up the fairy population in other realms.

“Pretty soon there was only one portal between Earth and Fairy. When the fairies gave up their realm, they escaped through that one and ended up in what is now Ireland. History remembers them as an invading race called the Tuatha Dé Danann.

“The Fates eventually gave the Tuatha Dé Danann gods. The Morrigan was one of them, which is why the fairies sense you as kin. She was a God of War and Death, but not like Khalid is a God of Death. The Morrigan was also involved in fate and foretelling, so she was more of a keeper of death. She could influence battles and know ahead of time who was going to survive.”

Elliot held out his fist.

“She was also a shapeshifter like Loki, so wonder twin power. We can get into so much trouble with that.”

“Maybe don’t corrupt my roommate,” Morgana said, poking him.

Petros just yawned.

“Basically, if the Morrigan is back, we’re either all fucked, or whatever nastiness got reincarnated and brought here is fucked. It’s probably a combination of both until someone wins.”

“You’re telling me all of this depends on me?”

No pressure, because I wasn’t even sure how all this new magic worked, and the first time someone died around me, it completely knocked me on my ass.

“No,” Morgana said. “We all got reincarnated for a reason. It’s up to all of us.

The students on the supernatural side are going to help, too.

Some of them might not like us because you’re never going to be liked by everyone, but they will help.

The students on this side will, too, even the ones history might tell us were bad.

We weren’t around then, and there are two sides to every story.

We just have to figure out which ones are bad in this life. ”

Khalid was still holding me, so I couldn’t look up at him. I knew he had his suspicions about Mazen. I had mine with Lola. I just wasn’t voicing mine because I felt uncomfortable even having them because of how badly she’d been beaten.

Liam finally groaned and sat up.

“Why do I feel like I've been punched in the head?”

Petros started laughing.

“Because you stabbed a professor, and he punched you in the head.”

“That’s cheating. I wasn’t even aware I was stabbing him. They’d better not have taken Doris.”

“You stabbed the reincarnation of Ares,” Morgana said. “He’s not like how they portray him in the media nowadays. He’s not some asshole hothead who goes looking for a fight. He somehow got missed as a reincarnation and didn’t end up in a school like this.

“He enrolled in the military and nearly died saving his platoon. He just happened to end up getting saved by a medic who went to school here and saw the birthmark. The mission that went wrong wasn’t anyone’s fault but his commanding officer’s, but they pinned it on him to save face.

They kicked him out once he was healed, and Headmaster Mykene scooped him up.

She helped him awaken, and he’s been teaching us how to defend ourselves since.

He’s not going to hit you again, but he’ll probably fuck with you. ”

“What if I want him to hit me?” Liam challenged.

Elliot fell out laughing.

“I learned the hard way Professor Adamastus isn’t the one you want to fuck with. He’s not going to rise to a damned thing, but you’re still going to pay.”

“Challenge accepted.”

“I hope he does hit you again because I was awake for it and it was immensely satisfying,” Lucian said.

“I don’t know, mate, you just have this face that really makes me want to kick you in the kidneys.”

“Guys?” Khalid said. “We need to figure this out because if Sage is vital, then we are, too, if we’re connected. We need to figure out who is doing this while we figure out our magic.”

Except on this side of the school, most of us were strangers from different backgrounds.

We could give literally any story about our pasts, and it would be really hard to fact-check it because aside from Ivar and Ari, none of us knew each other from before.

Liam and I stayed at the same hostel, but we never spoke.

How were we supposed to tell who was lying and who wasn’t?