Page 51 of Messenger of Death (Ouroboros Academy #2)

W e didn’t have time to regroup. Samhain was upon us and Khalid was still stuck as a jackal.

I’d brought him to Professor Theron, and she said it was an adrenaline thing.

Khalid wasn’t going to shift back until he thought the threat had passed.

And the threat wasn’t going to pass until we figured out who Harami was and dealt with both of them.

Liam and Morgana were translating since I didn’t speak jackal, but apparently, jackals were very vocal anyway. The fairies had made these elaborate masks for Liam and me, but since I was with Lucian and Khalid, they made some for them, too. Khalid just couldn’t wear his right now.

I’d been feeling the veil thinning for days and I was pretty sure that was why Khalid was stuck as a jackal as well.

It was fucked up. It was like the uncanny valley and diabetic retinopathy at the same time.

There were these floaters in my vision. I’d checked my blood sugar repeatedly, and it was normal.

It hadn’t been in any position to mess with my eyes. I was planning to go to the healer, but the floaters were getting more and more humanoid and it was making me uncomfortable. I at least had peace of mind that this was a Samhain thing and not a diabetes thing.

They weren’t in my dorm room or anywhere near the doors and windows that had protection spells, but they were crawling all over the grounds. And I knew if it was setting me on edge, then it was doing something to Khalid, too, because he was seeing things differently with jackal eyes.

Professor Gefn said we could hole up in our dorm rooms behind the black salt and protection spells, but she advised against it because shades had secrets and they used Samhain and similar celebrations to communicate them.

We wouldn’t meet our previous lives because their threads had been woven back into us but shades remembered all their lives.

You only forgot when you were reborn. We might get visited by someone who knew who Harami was before he was banished to Fairy or had some kind of theory on how to fight Lola that wouldn’t have been possible thousands of years ago, but was now.

And it wasn’t Halloween in America, which I was always desperate to participate in and spanked if I ever asked. But I got to wear a mask, eat good food, and go to a bonfire, which was close enough. Maybe the shades wouldn’t be too bad. Maybe they would actually be helpful.

So, we set out for the bonfire. I was holding Liam and Lucian’s hand while Khalid walked in front of us in his jackal form.

The shades looked less uncanny valley now and looked like actual ghosts.

I could tell what they looked like before they died.

Maybe that should have been more unsettling, but it actually made me feel better.

The bonfire was something. Blue Matthew’s head would have literally exploded. I loved it. The witches and fairies were dancing around it and not all of them had their clothes on. People were scattered around the courtyard and there were more than a few orgies going on.

“Did you change your mind, Horned One?” a dryad who was getting railed by a werewolf called.

The werewolf didn’t even skip a beat. He smacked her ass and grinned at Liam.

“Wolves are polyamorous. I don’t mind sharing.”

“Noted, but I still only have eyes for Sage. Sage, if you want to get naked and fornicate in front of the bonfire, I might have to stab anyone who checks out those glorious legs.”

“Empty classrooms are one thing. I don’t quite think I’m ready for public orgies, but this is nice.”

“Usually when I’m standing in front of a raging inferno, there’s some arson involved, but we can snuggle and see if any of the ghosts want to help.”

“Lay out the blanket and get comfortable. I’ll get us food,” Lucian said, shooting off.

Lucian was weirdly in tune with my diabetes.

He always knew when I needed to eat something and he always had a snack ready when I did.

He also knew how I took my coffee and which foods the dining hall offered that I liked to eat.

I never made a big deal about it, even though no one had ever done anything like that for me before and it was a big deal.

I also knew Lucian didn’t do things like that for anyone and I didn’t want him to feel weird about it.

Liam spread the blanket out, and that was when I was approached by my first ghost. I didn’t have to ask who he was here for. He had the same red hair as me and we looked similar.

“Hi, love. It wasn’t supposed to be like this.”

“Um, okay. What was it supposed to be like?”

“I was supposed to be raising you, not watching over you from the veil.”

I drew in a breath. This was my father. And I’d only ever get to talk to him on Samhain until the Fates wove his thread again. I’d been robbed of that.

“I’m confused. I thought my mother tricked you. What do you mean raise me?”

“She didn’t trick me. I wasn’t a dalliance. We were in love and she was planning on escaping that man. She was on a mission trip in Ireland. Ruth was just going to miss her flight and go missing. We were going to raise you together. I still don’t know how he found out.

“He was incensed, especially when he realized she was pregnant. I think he finally realized their problems conceiving weren’t her fault, it was all on him. Blue had these hang-ups. He could have let her go, remarried, and adopted. That would have been the logical thing to do.

“He thought it would make him look bad to his followers if they found out his wife cheated on him and they’d figure out he was sterile.

Quite literally, both of us just wanted Ruth away from him, so we never would have mentioned it.

He could have gone back to America with a story about his missing wife and gotten so much sympathy.

“Instead, he told Ruth she was coming back with him whether she liked it or not. He shot me in the head and said he would shoot her, too, unless she did exactly what he said. She had no choice. You both would have died. I’m not excusing how she treated you, but Blue Matthews found out about our affair and that she was planning on leaving him from an entirely different country.

He’s rich and his reach is far. He would have found you and hurt both of you if you’d left and probably would have gotten away with it. ”

Well, shit. That gave me an entirely different opinion of my mother and made me hate Blue Matthews even more.

Lucian had already been back with food and, apparently, he heard all that.

He passed me a giant coffee from the cart, those fairy fries I liked, and a Cornish pasty, which I was also obsessed with and the kitchen did well.

Lucian didn’t stop there. He gave Liam a box with a curry in it. Liam would eat curry for breakfast if they served it. They also had raw meat for the people who chose to attend the bonfire shifted. Khalid wasn’t the only one, and he happily started gnawing on his lamb leg.

“So, I may have been plotting with a little help from Liam and Khalid. We were just waiting for you to say you’re ready.

All I have to do is press a button and the FBI would receive an anonymous care package full of airtight evidence and where to legally find it once they got a warrant and raided his mansion.

You’d be free, your mom would be free, and he’d go away for a very long time. ”

I looked at the ghost of my father. My entire life would have been different if Blue Matthews had just let her leave.

I’d have a father who loved me. My relationship with my mother would probably be functional.

I would have gotten to be a normal teenager.

All my classmates were behind because they had to sort through fact from fiction, but I was even more behind because I wasn’t even allowed to read the fiction.

“Do it,” I said.

“It’d be more satisfying to stab him myself, but I have enough underworld connections to order a beat down in the showers if you don’t want him outright shanked,” Liam said.

Khalid looked up from his leg bone and started making that haunting noise jackals made.

“I don’t speak jackal, but I’m pretty sure Khalid is agreeing with Liam,” Lucian said.

“He is. He said if I get to stab him, then he gets to shift and bite a body part off. I already got you a dick, and it’s so passé to copy gifts, so I think he should bite his nose and lips off. If they manage to save him after I stab him, he’ll have to walk around with his face fucked up.”

“He abused her. Never where it would show and she hid it from you, but if he was upset with literally anything or it was his fault, he took it out on her,” my father said.

“Do it. Do all of it. He deserves it.”

“I’m proud of you. You’re coming into your own. I have a message from another ghost. They were going to tell you themselves, but I asked to pass the message on since I’ll only be able to talk to you on Samhain until you figure out how to traverse the veil.

“I’ve been asking the shades about banished snake gods while I watched you try to figure it out.

I know who he was before he was banished, but this is important.

He can hypnotize people with his gaze, so you must never look him in the eye.

Your friend Mazen is the only one who is immune to it since Set was the only one immune to it.

It’s probably why Lola tried to keep him on their side. ”

Mazen was with us. Mazen had been staying close to us since he found out about Hemlock and Harami. He’d been avoiding Lola like the plague and wanted to tell everyone what she tried to do to Liam.

“What? Harami was Egyptian?”

“Yes. They couldn’t kill him before. They didn’t really think about what would happen to another realm if they banished him there.

He’s a demon and a void being, which is how he was able to create his mate.

They tried numerous ways to kill him and he’d always come back.

You’re going to have to figure out how to kill two void beings this time. ”

“I’m pretty sure I know, but who was Harami?” Mazen asked.

“Harami was Apep. Khalid mentioned Apophis when you were researching, but they are the same god.”

Mazen looked horrified, but none of us really knew what that meant. Mazen turned to look at us.

“Set could be helpful and was only villainized during a certain period of time. He used to be worshipped. Most of the old Egyptian gods were neither good nor bad, just complicated. Except Apep. Apep was just evil. Set was immune, so he joined the fight when Apep kept trying to eat the sun. We could use Iman’s help if she wants to give it because Bastet beat him a few times, too.

“I wouldn’t know how to kill either of them because it’s never been done before.

We can’t let them destroy another realm and if Fairy has recovered, then the fairies who can’t pass deserve a realm where they can be free.

We shouldn’t send them back to Fairy just because it’s convenient.

We need to figure out how to kill them for good and destroy their bones so they can’t come back. ”

Khalid was chatting up a storm, and he looked frustrated. This would be the part where he dropped some history and wisdom on us and he couldn’t because he was stuck as a jackal.

“Khalid said we’re totally fucked if Apep is back,” Liam announced.

There were several Egyptian students here since the Egyptian school had been closed for renovations for a few years. So, we knew Harami was Apep, but we still didn’t know who Apep was in this life.

And I didn’t begin to know who to kill one unkillable demon, much less his mate with the same power.