“Who’s a good boy?” Professor Woolly said. “Just don’t give your Elementai too much trouble. Had you truly eaten those mushrooms, you’d be a goner for sure! No one has ever ingested amacrulosa fungorumand survived. They melt your organs from the inside out.”
Oh, yes. I felt that as I was dying, but it’s all better now,Oberi quipped.
My blood turned to ice.
“If they’re so dangerous, why are they growing on prison property?” Ava asked.
“Oh, the guards spray the grounds every year, but Darke Island is their natural habitat, so one or two always manage to pop up on school grounds. The same goes for you, kitty,” Professor Woolly said to Rishi. “Magical fae mushrooms grow around here, and they’re very toxic.”
“Rishi won’t go anywhere near those, thank the Goddess,” Marcus said.
Professor Woolly’s tone brightened. “His name is Rishi? Like the mushroom! How creative.”
“What? No. Like the— it’s just a name,” Marcus stammered. “It’s not even spelled the same.”
Professor Woolly ignored Marcus’ response and walked over to the patch of mushrooms, which must’ve been in pieces after I stomped them. “Let’s see, what do we have here? Ah, yes. Poisonous indeed. Thank you very much for bringing this to my attention. We’ll have to eradicate them immediately. We can’t have these growing in the prison yard. In the meantime, you’ll want to take your animals back inside. Just the smell can be intoxicating to them. We wouldn’t want to tempt them to eat a piece.”
“Thank you, Professor,” I said. All I wanted was to get Oberi far, far away. He licked his lips loudly, like he was ready for another serving of poison.
“Come on,” Ava said, and we started back toward the building.
Kallie lowered her voice as we walked. “What just happened? Professor Woolly said Oberi would be dead if he ate one of those mushrooms. I saw him swallow it.”
“Oberi came back,” I said dryly. I still couldn’t make sense of it.
“Back to life?” Marcus hissed.
“We don’t really understand it,” Ava said. “We’recertainhe died, so mutabeecha must reincarnate. This is weird, even for the supernatural community. We can’t tell anyone.”
“Cross my heart and hope to die,” Marcus said.
“I won’t tell a soul,” Kallie agreed.
For the ancestors’ sake, it was just a mushroom!Oberi bellowed.
“Apoisonousmushroom,” Ava shot back.
Okay, Mom, Oberi said sarcastically.What are you going to do, ground me to my room?
“If we have to,” I said. “At least you’ll be safe.”
“What’s going on?” Marcus asked.
I sighed. “Oberi’s being a dick. He thinks it was no big deal.”
I’m not going back to the room, Oberi insisted.No way, no how. I’ll spend the day with people who won’t judge me for my life choices.
“With who?” I challenged. “Rishi? He’s a cat.”
A non-judgmental cat, Oberi said matter-of-factly.
“We’re notjudgingyou, Oberi,” Ava said gently. “We’re worried. You made a big mistake. You can’t just do whatever you want without consequences. What if you can only die and come back so many times, or—”
La la la la la,Oberi sang, ignoring us.I don’t need to be around overdramatic pansies. You two are acting as if someone died.
“You did!” we shouted.
For like, five seconds. By the gods, getoveryourselves.Oberi sprinted ahead of us, and Rishi let out a meow as he raced behind him.
