Page 4 of Messenger of Death (Ouroboros Academy #2)
I finally had time to really explore my dorm.
They’d brought everything from my hostel, including my insulin.
My clothes were all here, and so was my laptop.
I logged into the bank account they gave me, and the allowance was way more than generous.
My father didn’t believe in that. You had to work for your money, but he would only allow me to babysit.
We kept our dorm windows open for Iman because she apparently didn’t like to be cooped up. I was worried about that with the killer out.
“It’s someone from the freshman class. It sounds like they are awake, but not taking on other reincarnations. I’m pretty sure Iman is doing recon, and now your boyfriend can talk to her.”
Iman cocked her head at me and started purring. Yeah, I guess that was valid.
“Is he, though?”
“What?”
“My boyfriend.”
“Girl, they are all devoted to you. They are connected to you in this life, but Liam has it bad.”
“I was going to kiss him, but that didn’t happen.”
“Then, I guess you’ll have to work on that.”
“Yeah, but I really liked snuggling with Khalid, too. And I know he’s a lot, but there’s something about Lucian.”
“The supernatural world isn’t like the one you came from. Most of us have multiple partners. Elliot and Petros are my boyfriends, and I’ve got a third mate out there, but it’s complicated.”
“Really? Distract me with your drama.”
Morgana threw a pillow at me.
“Not so much drama as he’s a big, stubborn hunk of man who takes our age difference more seriously than he should.”
I gasped and threw the pillow back at her.
“A professor? I kind of love you.”
She started giggling.
“You aren’t what I expected when I was told I was going to be rooming with a pastor’s daughter. In a good way.”
“Thanks. Um, can we order anything we want and have it delivered here? I was thinking of upgrading my phone and laptop.”
Because my phone was kind of sluggish and my laptop was from high school. The only person who could take the parental controls off my laptop was my father, and he certainly wasn’t going to do that after he kicked me out.
“Yeah, but you’re going to want to use certain links. Human delivery drivers can’t find this place. It looks like ruins to them, so they don’t know to drop packages here. They should have been added to your phone.”
I was less upset about that than Lucian was, but I could understand why he was.
“Honestly, all of this is really cool. I just wish the murder stuff weren’t happening. You said you grew up in a witch family, right? Do you know what any of this means?”
“No. And I’m really good at history, too. Maybe not as good as Khalid since I needed to focus on magic, too, but I’ve never heard of this. My familiars haven’t, either. You could try asking yours.”
Oh. I hadn’t even thought about the three crows that were now living in my dorm room. I guess we did need the windows open. We were on the third floor, so unless someone could fly or were really good at climbing the tree outside our window, they’d have trouble getting in.
“What do I do?”
“You can talk to them out loud or in your head. You’ll learn more in your familiar class. Find out what they like. They are crows, so if you give them things, they’ll give you things back.”
The crows hopped over to where I was sitting on the bed. I held my hand out tentatively, and they danced closer. I stroked the one closest to me on the chest.
“Oh! You are so soft. Do you have names?”
“We are the Morrígna. Unique aspects of you and your magic. We were originally called Badb, Macha, and Nemain, but we’ve gone by many names in many of your lives.”
“What do you want to be called?”
“The only one ever to ask us this was the original Morrigan. Those were the names we chose then. There is power in a name, little one. We’ll have to think about it. I’m associated with the frenzy of battle. Patrick isn’t a fitting name at all, but I was given that once.”
“No, definitely not Patrick. Think about it, and I’ll call you whatever you like. Is there anything else you want or need?”
“A place to nest, scraps to eat, and your willingness to learn.”
“Done.”
“You haven’t asked about the evil that has arrived at Ouroboros Academy.”
“You said you couldn’t talk about it. I don’t want to be a bother.”
“You are correct, young one. But we can tell you that even though it’s older than you, the two of you are kin.”
I’d heard that enough to know by now that generally meant whoever was doing this was related to fairies. If the original Morrigan came about after Fairy fell and this thing was older than me, then it could have been the very thing that destroyed Fairy in the first place.
And either no one knew what it was or they couldn’t talk about it.