“Seriously? Because I haven’t figured out how to add that special ingredient that gets you high yet.”
“Leave it. It’s better without it. What did you find out?”
Liam said she kept nearly everything close to her chest, but between the magic we unlocked last night and the hints she dropped, he was able to piece it together.
We still didn’t know what went down in Fairy when Apep and Hemlock met, but when he changed her, he made her body incompatible with anyone else if she wanted a family. Liam figured out what they couldn’t in their first life and in this one.
“Do we think they are completely awake?” Morgana asked. “There could be a bunch of incest void beings in Fairy. Has anyone found out if Fairy was empty from the fairy who went digging for bones and caused all of this?”
“Saffron said Fairy is its own realm. They have continents and countries like we do. The gateways to Fairy are all over the place and there are different kinds of fairies scattered all over the globe. No one has copped to it, but the number of Elders who know the locations of the gateways to see which one was recently unsealed is less than the number of actual gateways. Right now, Scorpia and the rest of the Elders are trying to make sure this realm doesn’t end up like Fairy to actually have to pass through a gateway to see what’s going on with it.”
“Yeah, soIknow how to fix it so Lola can say she’s the mother of a new race of soul-eating babies and we’ve got that prophecy that we can stop them on Winter Solstice. Alexios also had another prophecy that if we don’t, they will most likely figure it out on their own in Spring and they don’t exactly have good intentions with their new family.”
“Sage’s plan should work,” Lucian said. “It already is. You figured out why they are doing this and why they killed all those students. The rest of us just need to bust our arses to make sure we’re capable of pulling the rest of it off.”
“You’re all counting on me summoning Eternal Flame, but so far, I’m just really good at dying, which is embarrassing because if I wasn’t here, I’d be trying to get on a professional rugby team back home,” Adrian said.
“Maybe stop doing ridiculous stunts to turn Iman on and get her in bed?” Mazen asked.
“I’ve never had to resort to ridiculous stunts before,” Adrian muttered.
“They are amusing, but not sexy. I’m not ready, so they are getting mildly annoying,” Iman said.
“Noted and heard. For now, we can focus on the Forsaken Ones.”
We were going to have to find another way to draw Adrian’s magic out because I wasnevergoing to tell another woman she had to do something she wasn’t comfortable doing for an agenda. I could justfeelwhatever was holding Iman back was pretty major.
Shifting lessons with Iman were great, but I hadn’t learned a damned thing about her the whole time she was helping us. We stepped up our lessons even more because of Adrian. In theory, he also had an animal, and we were sure unlocking it might help him find his fire.
Adrian was a goof, but he was taking this seriously. Radames killed him once and if they figured out Iman was the cat who saw him, she would be next. If Iman died, she’d stay that way, so their group was all taking this seriously.
Our group was mostly Mazen, Ari, Adrian, and me, but Ivar always showed up, too, even though Iman was fluent in eightlanguages and also knew sign language, so she could understand Ari just fine.
It was a week before Winter Solstice. We’d all gotten stronger. I was so in tune with my jackal now from all my lessons with Iman and I was progressing a lot further with Veil walking in my private lessons with Professor Gefn. I’d actually managed to successfully cross for about a minute before I was kicked back out, but I had a long way to go before I could have a foot in both worlds.
Lucian had been busting his arse and had Darian’s seal of approval that he would do the vampires proud if he ever got into a fight. He was ready to end this, even if he would have preferred settling this another way.
Liam’s part of Sage’s plan had two parts. He’d been working Lola so that she and Radames would be where we needed them to be on the night of Winter Solstice. He’dalsobeen spending time with the Sirens and his guitar because Sage figured out how Adrian could use his fire before their shades just came back from the void and started healing them before he could finish.
Sage wasowningMagical Combat, even if she was still terrible at running. Her magic was growing. No one could land a blow on her because she knew it was coming and could avoid it. She couldseeeveryone’s weakness and exploit it. Sage was quickly becoming Professor Adamastus’s favorite student.
In other words, she was an utter badass.
Adrian was the holdout, and it wasn’t from lack of effort. As soon as Iman asked him to stop with the antics to get her in bed, he did. He was completely respectful of her boundaries and we could all tell how hard he was working.
It just wasn’t happening and we kind of needed it to.
Adrian was generally perpetually in a good mood and easy going, but I was learning when he did get angry, he kind of justexploded. He’d bloodied his knuckles punching a tree when it didn’t happen again.
Iman just stared at him and didn’t look the least bit scared.
“Good. Get angry. All of us shifted for the first time because our emotions were overloaded. You’ve got fire and you’re also the most textbook Leo I’ve ever met, so you’re also a fire sign. Youneedto get pissed.”
“You believe in astrology?” I asked.
“My roommate is a witch. She got mad at me one day and accused me of being an Aquarius with a Scorpio rising. I didn’t understand the insult, so I looked it up. Morgana didn’t know my birthday, but she was spot on. I did some study on it and it has merit.”
“She’s right,” Mazen said. “My emotions were all over the place when I shifted for the first time and every time it happened when I wasn’t wanting it to.”
