Page 27 of Messenger of Death (Ouroboros Academy #2)

I didn’t know what to expect when I reported for work study, but it certainly wasn’t having Radames working with me. I still couldn’t get a read on him. It wasn’t like Lola where there was just nothing there to get a read on. Radames was just so closed off, he wasn’t giving anything away.

He always looked like he was thinking really hard about something. Hopefully, it was the fact that Lola’s story kept changing. Some of the teachers kept putting her in her place, but I didn’t think anyone had explained compulsion to her.

We just stared at each other. We weren’t friends. Aside from the trials when they took Lola to separate her from Lucian after he gave her his blood, we hadn’t really talked much.

What were we supposed to say to each other? Radames was with Lola and I sided with the men she’d said hurt her. I knew how bad that looked. I wouldn’t be anywhere near Ivar, Ari, and Alexios if I didn’t believe them.

Headmaster Mykene breezed in and sat at her desk. She asked us to sit. Radames and I broke off our staring contest and took a seat.

“You might be wondering why I requested both of you. You’ve both picked a side, so you haven’t spoken much.

You’re both children of clergy. It’s not unheard of, but it’s rare to get two of you at once.

Sometimes, when this happens, students have trouble adjusting, and it takes them longer to figure out who they are. ”

I was guessing Radames’s father and Blue Matthews believed in the same god, but followed wildly different interpretations of the exact same book. I was just guessing here, but I was guessing Radames’s father didn’t swindle private jets and new cars from his parishioners.

Radames and I looked at each other, sizing each other up before I turned away.

“I have no problem with any of this, but my knowledge is limited because I couldn’t even read books like Percy Jackson growing up. We might be having a different conversation if I’d been a boy, but I’m glad I’m not.”

Radames just didn’t say anything. I got some people only shared when they had something to say, but Headmaster Mykene was giving him a chance to either unload about the unfairness of all this or tell her he was fine with it and ask for help.

Because I knew who I was now and I still needed a fuck ton of it.

I was behind on everything. Blue Matthews was obsessed with witches and I’d heard of werewolves, but thought it was fiction.

The only fairies I knew about was the one on a friend’s backpack that the elementary school told her she couldn’t bring again because the company that made the movie was evil.

I didn’t know anything about other gods.

When we were talking about what we saw in the pool during the trials, everyone went into a lot of detail except Lola and Radames.

They might not have seen very much, but he had a god known for her smarts here to ask and he wasn’t doing that either.

Headmaster Mykene stared at him for a moment and then just sighed.

“I’m going to have you both doing research, but what do you need?”

“Research should help me,” I said. “I don’t know about any of this. Morgana and Khalid are helping me. I’m going to ask Lucian to help me buy a new laptop and computer. Are they going to come with the apps you snuck on ours? Because Lucian is mad about that.”

“Tell Lucian he’s not as smart as he thinks and I’m not going to reveal his secret,” she said with a smile. “But yes, if you use your student discount, they’ll put the apps on there as long as you buy it from a supernatural company who can actually deliver it here.”

Yeah, Lucian was smart, but he wasn’t God of Wisdom smart. Of course, Headmaster Mykene knew he hacked her app, and we made everyone think Blaize was a goat fucker. She seemed to think it was funny and didn’t ask why we did it. Maybe Blaize had sent her a nude, too. She was an attractive woman.

“He’s going to take that as a challenge.”

“I hope he does. The battle of wits I’d be in with Lucian is the kind I prefer. I’m not sure I’m ready for whatever Liam O’Breen is going to bring to this campus. What about you, Radames? What do you need?”

“My baba raised me to fix my own problems. I have my methods that have always worked for me. I’ll find my own path.”

Men could be so stubborn sometimes. If there was any time to ask for help, it was now. I was finally getting some kind of read on him. He wasn’t refusing help because a woman was offering it. He honestly didn’t care. Radames really wanted to do this himself.

“I can accept that. For the rest of your work study hours for today, why don’t you go do that? The library has a pretty vast section on Egyptian gods and magical beings if you wanted to start there, but I’ll leave it up to you.”

When we were alone, I didn’t know what I was supposed to do for the rest of my work study. There were things I needed to say, though.

“Did Alexios tell you his prophecy?”

“No. Apparently, he’s terrified of me. Apollo and Artemis are opposite sides of the same coin.

Sometimes, they come back from the same mother and sometimes, it’s like it is now where they are just meeting for the first time.

They are always close no matter what. He told Phoebe, and she told me.

I gave her Apollo’s bow so she could start teaching him to protect himself. ”

“Ivar could use his hammer. Sorry, I wasn’t even allowed to watch the Marvel movies, so I keep forgetting what it’s called.”

“Giving Ivar Mjolnir before he’s ready could raze this entire town to the ground. Putting the word out Alexios can give diseases with his arrows should hopefully, calm some people down.”

“Oh! I have a theory. Alexios was the one who had the prophecy that we’re dealing with the Forsaken Ones.

He might eventually be the one who names them, too.

Someone is trying really hard to frame him and his team.

What if these Forsaken Ones have a way of seeing who we used to be?

We know one of them has some weird darkness power that can stop a dragon from shifting, but Alexios is a sun god.

What if they are trying this hard to incite violence against the one group who might be able to name them because Alexios’s light might hurt them? ”

“It’s an excellent theory that I think we need to explore more, but I don’t think you’re realizing something. You have some foretelling ability, too. You’re just as likely to figure out who the Forsaken Ones are.”

Well, fuck.