“Listen, I know where you’re going with this, but none of you can imagine how fucked up my family is. They started grooming me to do that to someone by the time I was six. Lola didn’t do that to herself. Someone much bigger than her who knew what they were doing did.”
I didn’t think he would stab me with a spork, and he was done eating anyway, so I grabbed Liam and hugged him. My childhood was shitty, but his was worse. He grabbed me and squeezed me so hard I could barely breathe.
“Thanks,” he whispered.
“It’s not that,” I said. “I don’t think Lola did that to herself, either. Lucian smells magic in blood. Khalid is Anubis. He used to protect souls on their way to the underworld, so I’mguessingwhat he’s sensing around people is their soul. I don’t even know what I’m feeling but it’s something. We get nothing around Lola.”
“She doesn’t give off any scent,” Lucian said. “Like, not even other peoples’. I should have been able to pick up who hurt her and been able to place it to a person when I met them.”
“Me, too, to an extent. I agree with Sage. It’s probably souls I’m picking up on, but I also have jackal senses. I can’t smell blood like Lucian does, but it has a scent. Lola was covered in blood and dirt and I couldn’t pick up any of it.”
“I think that’s why someone hurt her,” I said. “Ivar and his team were around her the longest, so it makes sense it was them. None of themfeellike bad people, though, and when they joined us, I could tell they weren’t wanting to fight.”
“No, you’re right,” Khalid said. “Ivar just feelswholesome,but they were the only ones who could have done it.”
“What about the other two?” Liam asked. “I can sense everything about animals and nature, but people, not so much. Ivar did all the talking. It could have been them and he really didn’t know.”
“I didn’t help him because he might have beaten a tiny girl, but the massive one smells like the bears we met, so I’m guessing he’s their original,” Lucian said.
I blew out a raspberry.
“Since I don’t even know what pantheon I’m from, I can’t guess what anything means. They didn’t want to fight, and I don’t really sense violence from any of them. But that could just be because they aren’t feeling like thatright now.”
“And Iknowwhat pantheon I’m from and who I am, but I don’t know what I’m doing. If it was Ivar and his team, I don’t think they will bother us now that they know Liam will fight back. If it’s not, they are going to want to prove it wasn’t, so you’ve got their team, our team, and Radames’s team who know someone got hurt and are on the lookout for bad guys.
“We’ve got one crystal, and we need to focus on the other three. We don’t know enough about our magic, so we really need to focus on getting back to the castle and handing this off to people who know who they are and how to use their magic. If we all got reincarnated because of someone out here with us, wearen’t the ones to figure that out. And if someone dangerous is out here, then we need to finish as soon as we can,” Khalid said.
Yeah, I agreed. It was starting to feel much too open out here.
Iwas having an existential crisis. Good curry did that to me sometimes. It wasn’t about reincarnations beating the shit out of cherubic Welsh women. I could handle that. It was me and my new magic.
I felt a draw to Sage as soon as I saw her at the hostel. It was unreal, and I’d never felt that about a girl before. I thought itmeantsomething that we were reincarnations and both ended up here.
I was starting to have my doubts. Lucian and Khalid felt something, too, or they wouldn’t have asked to be on her team. Their magic complemented hers, even if we didn’t have any idea which pantheon she was from. My magic was insanely cool, andI loved it, but it was pissing all over my theory that Sage and I were destined because I didn’t see how it made any sense with what she could do so far.
And all we had to do was walk. There were no chargers out here and I wouldn’t have wanted to alert any psychopaths to our location anyway, so playing music was out. Putting my ear buds in would be rude and I needed to pay attention, anyway.
“You’re quiet,” Sage said.
“I’ve been known to do that sometimes. I’m just thinking.”
“Don’t hurt yourself,” Lucian said.
“Headmaster Mykene confiscated my switchblade, Doris, but I kept my spork and I didn’t get to stab anyone earlier.”
“Penny for your thoughts? My familiar did bring you curry earlier.”
I moaned. Her thieving familiar didn’t just steal anyone’s takeaway. They stole from someone who had excellent taste in curry.
“It’s cheating your familiar outed me that I can be bribed with proper curry.”
“You’re the only one with a line to my familiar. If they can talk to me, they won’t until they feel like I’ve earned it. I wouldn’t even know I needed to unless they passed the message to you through another one of the animals. I don’t think they would have brought us curry if I hadn’t left the Fae bread out and I only knew to do that because of you. So, it’s really more your fault you got outed. One of the animals you talk to may have passed the message my familiar should steal curry.”
“Well, fuck. I had been wondering how I fit on this team since my magic so far is different from all of you.”
“Her familiar is probably a huge hint as to who she is. Athena is associated with owls and Professor Mykene has an owl familiar. There are a lot of gods that share powers in different pantheons. There are multiple death, war, and love gods outthere. Sage’s familiar showing themselves is probably going to help her a lot more than figuring out what her magic is,” Khalid said.
“It’s not just that,” Sage said. “You’resupposedto be with us. I can feel a pull.”
