“Honestly, a lot of peopledon’tbathe during the trials. They come back bloody ripe. You’ve got about a day per quadrant to find your crystal. There’s not really time to make it back to the beach to wash. Everyone stinks, so no one is judging. Just make sure you take care of your feet.”
“I can do that.”
“She’s going to be on my team,” Liam said. “Is there anything I can do to help?”
“I am?”
That was news to me. We hadn’t really discussed that when I was meeting with the headmaster, but we didn’t really have time for that. She had to tell me that my entire life was a lie and I had to make sure proper precautions were taken so I didn’t die getting into this school.
“Oh, yeah. We discussed the existence of were-corgis and teams. You’re on mine.”
“Were-corgis aren’t real,” Maya said. “I read a book once, but they don’t actually exist.”
“It was a five-star read, yeah? But were-corgiscouldbe real if someone gets unholy enough, right?”
“That hasn’t happened in a very long time.”
“Are you wearing your red flags?” I asked.
“Yes. Absolutely. Everyone should. What are you talking about?”
“Your shirt.”
He was wearing a shirt that had a heart with wings being pierced by a dagger that saidSex Pest.
“You were living in Amsterdam and you never heard ofSex Pest?They are this amazing band. It’s like Freddie Mercury is still alive and Queen is still together.”
“Sex Pestis a supernatural band,” Maya said. “It’s a mix of sirens and incubi. They are all graduates from Ouroboros and met doing karaoke at the tavern on campus. Word to the wise, if you want to get up and sing, make sure you’re good. This isn’t one of those things where you get pissed and have fun. It’s going to be like the debut ofRite of Springif you get up there and suck.”
“Eh. They’ve never been slagged by the Irish before,” Liam said.
“Several students on both sides of the school are Irish,” Maya pointed out.
“Of course, they are.”
“Any Americans?” I asked.
“Mostly on the supernatural side. The reincarnations generally come from the Native Americans and they handle that themselves. Sometimes, originals and gods pop up there, but it doesn’t happen that often unless one of the reincarnations went there and had a child.”
That still didn’t give me much of a hint who my father was or even a clue who I was supposed to be. Still, I guess I was in the same boat as anyone else who would be on my team.
Well, Sage knew my name now and knew I’d avenge her if someone wronged her. I wasn’t going to tell her about the dick in front of the healer because I didn’t know if she was a narc who didn’t carewhyI cut a dick off and got rid of a body. Context was important.
Maya warned me, but I wasn’t the kind of psychopath who would hurt her for doing her job. I didn’t even hurt people because they got my coffee order wrong and me and whole milk didn’t get along at all. I knew Maya’s job involved sometimes hurting people to make them better. Some of the arseholes in myfamily liked hurting people for no reason and that was one of the reasons I didn’t want anything to do with them. Sage didn’t even flinch when Maya set up the insulin pump.
Seems I wasn’t the only one who wanted to team up with Sage. The others came over to introduce themselves after she got the insulin pump put in. The Egyptian fellow who was supposed to be at Oxford would probably be an asset. He was a big lad for a scholar and his hands looked like he knew hard work.
The posh bloke was probably completely useless. He looked like he hated me, too, and I was fine with that. I didn’t need him to like me. If he wanted on the team, he’d better pull his weight and right now, I was getting vibes he was the kind of gobshite who thought he was allergic to work.
It looked like we weren’t the only people who requested to be on a team with someone because the cliques were already forming. Gross. That was my least favorite part of secondary school and if I couldn’t even bake edibles here, they’d probably frown on stabbing bullies.
I’d give it to Headmaster Mykene. She had this post kidnapping thing down pretty efficiently. Must be that wisdom god thing. By the time we’d eaten all this delicious food, she’d met with everyone and determined who would be paired.
She seemed to trust our gut. Like, I wanted to be paired with Sage because I could feel this pull to her and she seemed to think that was a clue. Hey, maybe I could use my gut as an excuse if I gutted the big braggart off to my left who didn’t even know which god he was yet, but already assumed he was the most important person at the school.
“So, we’ll be moving on to the ritual and then you’ll be stepping through the portal into different quadrants of the trial. You’ll be given rations as the trials typically take a week to do all four quadrants. We’ll also be giving you gear if you’re skilled enough to eat off the land. You’ll be getting your magic in tinyincrements, but you won’t get all of it until you know who you are.
“Some of you might be able to figure out how to eat with magic. Some people blow through their rations, can’t figure out either, and their stomachs get the best of them. They drop out of the trials and lose their place at school. If the danger you’re in without your full power and training isn’t an incentive, each of you has a trust waiting with the combined wealth of all your reincarnations. It’s more than any of you could spend in your lifetime, even if you set out to be really irresponsible and blow it all.”
