Ari started furiously signing. We were all trying to learn with everything going on, so I only picked up some of it. We were alltellingAdrian getting angry was the key to this and I could tell he heard us, but he was fairly irate right now and it wasn’t even warm on the field we were standing in.
“Does this planhaveto rely on me? We’re getting close to the deadline and I got nothing.”
“Yes. And we’re still going forward with it if you don’t. Bastet handled Apep numerous times in their first life. I’m not in that prophecy, but I’ll insert myself if you need motivation.”
“Gods, she perfect,” Ivar moaned.
Ari poked him in the side and I caught enough from what he was signing that he didn’t want Iman in the fight and that seeing Iman in danger would trigger Ivar’s battle lust. Mazen had, apparently, picked up a lot more sign language than I had.
“Mine, too, but something tells me Iman can handle herself in a fight. She only ran the first time because she knew he’d come back. Isn’t that right?”
“Well, that and I thought it was pertinent to tell all of you that I knew who Apep was. I could have shifted into a bigger cat and taken him if he would have stayed dead.”
“So sexy,” Ivar groaned. “I want to go to battle with you.”
“Do I get a say in this?” Adrian asked.
“Only if you find your phoenix, big guy,” Iman said.
That was such a Sage thing to do. She was already prophesized to be in that battle, but if she thought she had a chance of winning and needed to motivate us enough to trigger magic. I shifted for the first time because I thought Sage was in danger from Mazen.
We mighthaveto put Iman in danger to get Adrian to call his fire, but Iman was the one who volunteered.
And cat beats snake.
It was the day before Winter Solstice and everything was in place except for Adrian. The shiftersandmy familiars agreed that if Iman joined the fight, it should help trigger Adrian. I didn’t particularly like the change, but I also didn’tfeellike it was going to mess anything up if we did it like that.
There was supposed to be another big campus party for Winter Solstice and then we’d be going on winter break until next semester. They understood some of us didn’t have homes to go back to or would be going back to situations that weren’t all that great, so we could stay on campus if we wanted. Khalid and Lucian wanted me to meet their families, but we were waiting on that trip in case we failed and needed to regroup.
Professor Adamastus was our last class of the day and he decided to try to kill all of us. It rained pretty hard the night before and it was raining all through class. It was also freezing cold, so there was ice everywhere. I could usually use my new gifts and avoid landing on my ass in class, so Professor Adamastus decided to introduce giant, icy mud puddles.
Every inch of my body and including my hair was covered in mud. The locker room we changed in for Magical Combat had showers, but I usually waited until I got back to my dorm. I wasn’t tracking this inside. We had a decent relationship with the campus Brownies and I really didn’t want to risk that. Especially when I could shower here. I asked my guys to shower in their locker room, too.
“You’re the sexiest bog monster I’ve ever seen,” Liam said, swatting at my ass.
Liam thought everything about me was sexy, even when I had mud dripping from my hair. Lucian looked like he was about two seconds from using his vampire speed to get to the shower and then set all his clothes on fire afterwards.
“Go,” I said.
I didn’t need to tell him twice. He was gone before I could blink. My vampirehatedbeing dirty. Liam and Khalid looked like they intended on following me to the showers.
“Nope,” I said, pressing on their chests. “I’m not going to be the only one naked in there and most of them are either not shifters or haven’t shifted yet, so they aren’t comfortable with other people seeing them naked.”
“I won’t peek,” Liam said.
“Nope. Go shower. I’ll be fine.”
They sulked, but I eventually got them to leave. Seriously, they couldn’t go into the girl’s locker room with me. They were actually insane sometimes.
By the time I got to the locker room, a lot of students had already finished. There were maybe four people still showering. At least there were stalls with curtains so everyone couldn’t see me wash mud off my bare ass.
Peeling my muddy clothes off just felt gross because they were literally caked with mud. I finally had my witchy shower stuff to clean this mess off of me. I didn’t linger because I had this weird feeling in the pit of my gut.
When I reached for my towel, it was gone. What the fuck? I pulled the curtain back and my clothes were gone, too. I was alone in the locker room now. What were we, still in high school? I didn’t have a second set in my locker because I didn’t think I needed it.
I was also getting the sinking feeling Iwasn’tactually alone in the locker room. Someone was lurking, and they didn’t have good intentions. The only person who could possibly have a beef with me was Lola and Liam had her sweet. And I could always tell when she was in the same room as me.
Someone in this room meant me harm, and it wasn’t Lola.
