“What all did everyone see?” I asked.
I already knew who I was because I knew my history. The hint was glaringly obvious unless I was completely wrong, and I doubted it.
“I could feel myself running through the forest, but never likethat.It was like the forest was alive. I could see, smell, and taste the dew on the leaves. I could sense all the animals and I wasn’t afraid of them. It was rather lovely,” Liam said.
Which was odd. I had him pegged for a trickster, too. He said that didn’t feel right to him and maybe it wasn’t. Honestly, he still could be. It seemed like a very trickster thing to me to fuck with your own reincarnation by sending them the wrong vision.
“I saw three of me,” Sage said. “Like, identical triplets, but dressed for different occasions. I don’t actually know what it means. I wasn’t allowed to have that phase where I got into tarot cards and I couldn’t even read Percy Jackson because it was too pagan for my father.”
“You all got good visions,” Lucian shuddered. “I don’t know who I was, but they weren’t a good person.”
“What did you see?” Sage asked.
“I can’t talk about it. It was disgusting and violent.”
“That doesn’t mean you have to be in this lifetime,” Sage pointed out.
“I hope not,” Lucian whispered.
He didn’t seem like the type that talked about his feelings much, but we were also dealing with ancient deities here and some of them weren’t all that great, so he very well could have seen something truly awful. We could just be there when he was ready to talk about it.
“What about you? What did you see?” Sage asked.
“Well, I’m Egyptian and my vision was pretty straight forward. I saw a jackal. Unless I’m completely mistaken and there is an older god we don’t know about, I’m pretty sure I’m supposed to be Anubis.”
“So, like God of Death?” Liam asked.
“God of funeral rites and protector of the dead. The original Anubis guided the souls to Duat and protected them on that journey.”
“So, that’s pretty badass, but Headmaster Mykene is all about the gut. We’re a team because we requested someone. If you’re Anubis, that means something for the rest of us,” Sage said.
“I requested you because you seemed cool when you sat with me and it seemed like the right thing to do,” I said.
“Pretty sure we’reallon this team because we requested you,” Lucian said, rolling his eyes. “I could do without being on the same team as someone who whips their dick out without my consent.”
“Sorry, but you peeked.”
“I absolutely did not.”
“Focus. Even if we know who Khalid is, we still don’t know who the rest of us are and none of us have any magical powers yet. We don’t knowwherewe are and we have to find those crystals,” Sage said.
“I studied the maps Headmaster Mykene gave us. Based on the position of the sun, they dropped us in quadrant two and we only have four hours of daylight left,” Liam said.
Interesting. My father had taught me how to find my way by the stars. Something told me if Liam didn’t know how to do that before, it was part of his magic. He kept rubbing his forehead like he was trying to get something off it.
“You okay?” I asked.
“Anyone get itchy after that dip in the pool? It’s like they were bitey bugs in it and they got me on the forehead.”
“Let me see,” Sage said.
I got a look. His forehead was red from where he was constantly rubbing it, but I didn’t see any bites. None of us were scratching, and I didn’t think there were any pests in the magic pool.
I was pretty sure it meant something, but we didn’t have time to talk theories. We had four hours to explore this quadrant and then we were going to have to find a safe place to pitch the tents for the night.
Iwas glad Liam and Khalid seemed to know what they were doing because I didn’t. I was allowed to go on youth group camping trips, but it was on property the church owned. We stayed in cabins and we ate in a cafeteria with a staff cooking for us. There was also a softball field so we could play against other youth groups if they were there.
This was a completely different ball game. Khalid and Liam seemed to be taking charge and working together. I let them do their thing. I got the feeling Lucian was someone important back where he was taken from, but I could also tell he was very intelligent.
