“Do your thing, friend.”
“I’m going to the bathroom to shift. I’m not ashifter-shifter, so I’m less cool with everyone seeing my bits.”
I gave the Prince of Darkness a hard time, but I was happy he found his animal. It wasn’t just because his bat superpowerscould save the world. It was a part of him and I didn’t like it when they were fighting. Sure, Astrid shredding her thong, becoming a giant dragon, and killing Adrian again terrified his bat into taking over to save him, but they seemed copacetic now.
Cleo’s bat was smaller than Lucian’s, but Lucian was the big daddy vampire. He’d bite me for saying that, so I kept it to myself since he wasn’t bi.
Lucian was a smart guy, but he was also a perfectionist. He’d never stab anyone in the neck and dispose of their corpse for Sage, but he always protected her in his own way. I didn’t know if it was easier for him since he was the original and never let anyone see him as anything less than perfect before he got kidnapped, but all this vampire stuff seemed to come a lot easier to him than the rest of us and our magic.
I’d never be the smart one of this group. That was Khalid and Lucian. I’d just be there to make music and gut someone with Doris. My magic was instinctual since it was nature. So was Sage’s.
I could understand every single word of the bat speak. Flying and echolocation was broken down logically and precisely, exactly how Lucian needed it. He caught on stupid easy before he admitted his wings were tired and landed on the bed.
“That was good for a first try. You’ll need to shift and fly every night, at least just around the room. It’ll strengthen your wings and the bond with your bat so there’s less uncontrollable shifting. Plus, flying is just fun.”
Lucian agreed. I felt him. He was exhilarated the first time he got up and stayed there. I was so happy for him. There was something lighter about him since he called home.
Now, we just had to figure out how to change him back.
It was time. Lucian’s tech was here, and he wasn’t stuck as a bat anymore. We still didn’t know what Elliot and Petros had planned, just when we saw them in class, it was game on. They would not even drop a single hint like which class we should expect them in.
I considered they might be in Arcane Magic since Professor Gefn was the reincarnation of Freya and in the same pantheon as Loki. She’d been Team Ivar from the start since he was the reincarnation of Thor and hadn’t made any secret she didn’t care for Lola after she pointed the finger at him. Professor Gefn’s disdain grew when she found out Lola’s mind hadn’t beenmessed with and she’d done it on purpose. She was also the one helping dead students cross if they didn’t go to Khalid.
I was pretty sure if Elliot and Petros wanted to get up to something in her class, she would have personally held Lola down while they did it.
Except it didn’t happen in Arcane Magic. Lola asked a million questions about healing, but nothing directly about getting pregnant, which was stupid because Professor Gefn was a love and fertility god among other things and could probably help if she wasn’t actively planning to kill her with the rest of us.
The only class we had left today was Magical Combat, and Ireallydidn’t want to run laps again. They did say a dingus owed them a favor and Professor Adamastus was technically supposed to be part of Morgana’s group, but had hang-ups about the age difference and power dynamic since he was a teacher.
Maybe if Elliot and Petros caused complete and total mayhem in combat class,theywould run laps and the rest of us would be left out of it. Though technically, I was a co-conspirator, so maybe not.
I was right. They were both flanking Professor Adamastus dressed identically in black tank tops and black sweatpants. They were standing with their feet spread and their hands behind their backs like they were waiting for orders. Professor Adamastus had that tick above his eye that he got right before he made us run laps because he probably knew this was about to be a shitshow.
“These two chuckle fucks won their lottery their first year. I could lie and say it was because they are mated to a brilliant woman, but they were motivated to master their magic, too. They both took magical combat seriously so they could defend themselves because they love to fuck with people. We’re going to have a lesson in fighting someone magically stronger than you today.”
“Can I try?” Edmund asked. “One of them stole from me and the other gave me a wedgie like we’re still children.”
Edmund wasn’t any more likable than he was before. His nose was healed and hecouldhave been in potions when Liam broke everyone’s enchantment, but he was in Headmaster Mykene’s office demanding Liam’s expulsion and Professor Gefn’s reaction when he asked for justice.
Quite literally, everyone tried to tell him he was being drugged and to stop drinking in Lola’s dorm room, but he wouldn’t listen. Then, she decided to dump him since the rest of her minions were gone. He wasn’t getting dosed anymore, but he kept trying to cling to Lola like a fart. Morgana said any potion should be out of his system by now, so he was siding with her instead of everyone else by choice.
Which was why he got a wedgie from a trickster. Petros stole indiscriminately.
“Edward, you can barely run two laps and you’re wholly unremarkable in the rest of your classes because you’re focused on the wrong shit. You’re also one of the biggest whiners on either side of this university and no one wants to listen to it when you get your arse kicked. If you want revenge, you have to make sure you’re capable of it first,” Professor Adamastus said.
“My name is Edmund,” he muttered.
“Then be your own person so people learn what your name is. Everyone, come grab a flag out of this bag. You’re going to spend the rest of this lesson trying to keep it away from Elliot and Petros. If you’ve figured out how to shift, you’re welcome to do that. Though you should try not to kill anyone. And if you died in potions class, you should be as careful as possible, even if you don’t stay dead.”
We were pretty sure Lola tried to kill Adrian in potions class. She accidentally knocked hers over, and it got all over him. Hedied again and based on the stink eye Professor Thornheart gave her, the potion wasn’t supposed to be fatal, even if mixed wrong.
We knew it was on purpose and I could just feel it was for deeper reasons that Adrian talking about who killed him. Adrian had to be the key, but unless they could find a basilisk, they couldn’t kill him. Radames was a giant snake with a hypnotic gaze, but from what I understood, he was different from a basilisk.
Ivar and the guys knew something was going to go down when Elliot and Petros showed up, but they were barely containing their rage. At this point, both LolaandRadames had killed Adrian. Ivar was pissed for like, five minutes that Astrid had killed him, too, but he was also in a relationship with a bear shifter, so he understood it was an accident.
“Think they’ll make it hurt?” Ivar growled.
“Hermes and Loki were both considered tricksters. They might not leave a single bruise on her physically, but it’s definitely going to hurt,” Khalid said.
