Page 7 of Messenger of Death (Ouroboros Academy #2)

I had questions. So many questions about Fairy and Saffron had been nothing but forthcoming so far. I just had this feeling in my gut that I shouldn’t ask questions about Fairy in public because it would paint a target on the backs on anyone answering my questions.

I still didn’t know what happened to the fairy during the trials. I didn’t feel it and scream and Khalid would have told us if he helped someone cross over for the first time. I didn’t think she was dead.

While we were putting our trays up, I finally asked. I had this feeling it was safe to ask as long as I worded it just right.

“Hey, did anyone ever find Star?” I asked.

“No, and we can’t figure it out. We went back out there and communed with nature, but all she will tell us is that something old and unnatural is back.”

Yeah, this was going into territory that we shouldn’t discuss out in the open. Something happened to Star, and she wasn’t missing because she left. She wasn’t dead, either, or Khalid and I would know. Something was going on and it wasn’t safe to talk about it in the open.

“I can ask the animals,” Liam said. “Just maybe ask the tree fairies not to ambush me. I didn’t like the way they were looking at my junk.”

Saffron started giggling. Liam wasn’t even my boyfriend, and I freaked out before I could even kiss him, but I didn’t much like that, either.

“Dryads are hedonists. No one alive today remembers this, but you used to have a lot of orgies with them in your previous life. They know you’re connected to Sage in this life, but I think they just assume she’ll be at whatever orgies you’ll be throwing in this life.”

“I think I’m possessive in this life. I know I’m a little stabby. I’m okay with Khalid touching Sage. I’d probably kick Lucian in the kidneys for touching her, but I wouldn’t stab him. I can’t say that for anyone else here.”

I didn’t even want to participate in any orgies with the fairies, but it was the point of it all.

“Excuse me, but if I want to have an orgy with the dryads, I don’t need your permission.”

“If you say that where they can hear it, they are going to start planning one,” Saffron said.

Liam’s eyes got hooded, and he got into my personal space.

“Tell me more about this orgy you want me to plan with the dryads.”

“I don’t want. I just don’t want to be told what to do now that I’ve escaped my father.”

“I wasn’t. I just don’t want you doing anything you feel forced to do, and I didn’t think that was your thing.”

“Um, thanks.”

“Okay, so now that we’ve gotten the dryad orgies out of the way, I need to take you on a tour of campus so you don’t get lost and I need to take you to get your textbooks,” Morgana said.

The campus was fairly massive. It was a castle, but it was almost like a little village onto itself.

The biggest building had the great hall where we ate with huge stained-glass windows and fireplaces.

It was also where all the professors had their offices.

Our history classes were in this building and so was the potions lab.

Morgana showed us the potions lab. I guess I was expecting something like my high school chemistry class, but I was completely wrong. There were no Bunsen burners, hot plates, beakers, or bottles of ethanol. There were cauldrons and jars of different things on shelves.

I couldn’t help it. I broke into this deranged laughter and couldn’t stop.

“Are you okay?” Khalid asked.

“If it’s funny, I want to know about it,” Liam said.

“I could probably give Blue Matthews a heart attack if I texted him a photo of the potions lab and said it was from my college overseas.”

“If you won’t let me stab him, you should definitely do that and let us read it if he responds to you.”

I just shrugged.

“Blue Matthews doesn’t deserve a quick death. He deserves to lose everything so he can wonder why his god abandoned him. He deserves to lose it in a way he can never get it back, either. Since that’s never going to happen, I’d rather just forget him.”

Lucian had this unreadable look on his face like he was up to something. He was buried in his phone again. He did that a lot. When he was present, he was present, but there seemed to be something on his phone he found fascinating and he said he hated social media.

“If we aren’t giving our father’s heart attacks, let’s move on,” Morgana said.

She took us through the courtyard to some kind of outdoor amphitheater. Morgana explained that Ouroboros Academy graduates had gone on to be famous performers, either in acting, music, or both.

“Is it true Sex Pest graduated from here? I know someone told me they did, but that’s just wild. I’m a big fan,” Liam said.

“Yes. I saw them perform when they were students when my brother was here. They are amazing.”

“You’ll have to show me their music,” I said.

Because even though I’d only seen him perform once and it was just The Devil Went Down to Georgia, I already knew Liam was an amazing musician and I wanted to hear the music he loved.

We moved to some kind of sporting field next.

I hated sports. Blue Matthews wanted a quarterback, and he got me.

He tried to compensate by putting me on basketball and softball teams, but he also did the bare minimum to keep me alive with my diabetes, so I kept having crashes trying to keep up with being the sports star he wanted me to be until he decided it was too embarrassing and stopped trying to force me.

I didn’t even know what kind of field this was. I was that mad about being forced into sports. I didn’t even enjoy watching it.

“A bunch of students have formed an intra academy rugby league and play every Sunday. This is technically Professor Adamastus’s classroom, though.

Don’t expect to go inside if the weather is shit.

If you complain about it, he’s going to tell you that if you’re fighting for your life, it’s going to happen in all types of weather conditions and you’re not going to get to pick any of them. ”

“I don’t stab people when the weather is shite. It makes me sweaty or my socks get wet. It’s enough to make someone homicidal. You should only start shite when the weather is nice.”

“Not everyone feels that way, you psycho,” Lucian said. “What if we fight better without our fists?”

“Tough shit. There are certain classes you need to graduate and that’s one of them.”

“Any respectable bloke would learn to stop me from kicking him in the kidneys,” Liam said. “What if you give that stink face to a dragon and he eats you?”

Lucian gave him a withering glare.

“I’m going to fuck you up without laying a finger on you. I’m just still in the initial planning phase.”

“Looking forwards to it, Pookie.”

“Do not call me that,” Lucian seethed.

Yeah, Pookie was officially going to be Lucian’s nickname from now on. If he hadn’t reacted, it wouldn’t have stuck, but I could see the glee in Liam’s eyes that Lucian hated it so much.

“Anyway,” Khalid said. “I know we all have different magicks as gods, but is there magicks we all share that we’re going to be trained to fight with?”

“Score one of the hot nerd. Yes. I need to show you the laundry facilities, mail room, and then the rec room. Then, we’ll need to get your books.

Just so you know, the Brownies usually do laundry, but they organized several centuries ago.

They know exactly what they bring to the table.

If they think you’re ungrateful, you’ll be doing your own laundry and cleaning.

They love Petros, but Elliot pissed them off the second week. ”

“Sorry, what’s a Brownie?” I asked.

“They are household sprites. While you’re sleeping, they use their magic to do chores. They used to take payment in cream or cakes. They still want that. Petros was Hermes in his first life. Hermes was the God of Thieves and Speed, but he was also a God of Commerce and Merchants.

“One of Petros’s previous lives organized the Brownies and pointed out to them the people who typically have someone doing their chores for them have money to pay for that. He suggested they ask for wages in addition to cream and cakes since they were doing all the work people didn’t want to do.

“And honestly, it was right to do that. No one should work for free. Sprites are a type of fairy that can be both helpful or malicious. Brownies didn’t just help with chores.

They punished lazy servants. Modern Brownies are a little different, but still the same.

If they don’t feel appreciated, they’ll stop showing up at night to clean up after you.

They’ll still check in on you and if you aren’t picking up the slack, they’ll turn into a total menace until you do.

“They are also stubborn. Once you’re out with the Brownies, you’ll never be back in.

Elliot saw one once and asked her if she was a troll because he didn’t know.

They’ve hated him since. They love every reincarnation of Hermes, so Petros can do no wrong.

He might be the only one who could ever get them to forgive Elliot, but right now, he finds it amusing. ”

I grew up with servants, but they mostly waited on my father hand and foot.

My mother and I were also practically his servants.

I was supposed to be learning how to run a household for my future husband.

It was a little strange to have magical people cleaning up after me.

Even if I was warned they were easily offended, I never intended to treat them the way my father treated his.

The laundry facilities were expected. There were huge industrial machines, and it looked like there were enough that someone wasn’t going to dump your clothes before they were done because they didn’t want to wait their turn like at the hostels I was staying at.

“The laundry soap is made by witches, so it gets stains out and smells good. If you don’t like the scent, you can buy it from other magical vendors, but you’ll have to use the browser they installed on your phone. Regular mail carriers can’t find this place.”

I was planning to sit down and explore the supernatural web when I had a minute, but I hadn’t really had time. I had a feeling Lucian was going to be the best help with my new laptop.

I guess I was expecting something magical for the mail room, but it was just a giant room with lockers. We went to the front desk and were given a key to ours.

Khalid was like a kid in a candy store when we went to get our books.

It wasn’t like college in America where we had to spend three hundred dollars on just one text book and they’d buy it back for forty bucks at the end of the year.

Here, we just went to this absolutely massive library and checked them out.

It was beautiful. There was floor to ceiling shelves of books with a scrolling ladder to get at the ones on top.

It was like a fairy tale. It even smelled perfect.

You could smell the dusty books, but the librarian had her own espresso machine behind the counter and she was burning incense.

I already knew I was going to be doing all my studying here. I was just as excited as Khalid was.

“Hey, are there any smutty books in here? Like, with were corgis?” Liam asked.

“Liam, this kind of library is—” Khalid started.

“For everyone,” the library finished. “The succubae and incubi have certain needs and it’s best to keep the dryads distracted. We have a wide array of fiction by supernatural writers and some of it is filthy. If you’re looking for shifters that don’t exist, that’s section E12.”

“Is any of this online?” Lucian asked.

“No. You have to come in and deal with my sunny persona.”

I didn’t know what to expect with the rec room. We didn’t start there first, but it was in the same building as our dorm. It seemed to have something for everyone. There were cozy couches everywhere if you just wanted to sit and talk, but there were also a lot of games.

I recognized the dart board and the PlayStation in the corner, but there were a ton of games I didn’t recognize.

Before I could ask, the entire vibe of the rec room just plummeted.

I didn’t like it. It was unnatural and set my teeth on edge.

I was still trying to figure out what all these new feelings meant, but I knew this one.

Lola was here.