Page 28 of The Goddess is Angry
So, I was currently outside the Library of the Profane with everyone like I was a boyfriend.
The library was massive and imposing and there were three gods on the front steps. I knew Azren and Reyson. The redhead who looked like a seven-foot-tall adult Peter Pan and that he was absolutely going to give every single boyfriend and girlfriend here a hard time had to be Loki.
There were two women who were identical twins. One of them had to be George’s mom because George and Matilda looked just like them. One wore her hair in waves and the other had hers dyed red.
The witch with the black, curly hair was George’s mom. She introduced herself as Ripley and then introduced everyone else. Ripley was a hugger. She hugged all of us even me. And she squeezed me tight like she was happy to meet me and I actually was a boyfriend.
“So, I’m sure you’re all wonderful or my daughter wouldn’t be dating you and two of my husbands would have ratted you out since they are teachers at the academy. Icouldtake you straight up to the living quarters, but that’s not the kind of momma bear I am. Your first test of the night is going to be applying for a library card.”
“I’ve already done my tests,” Balthazar said. “None of you have anything nasty on your hard drives and your browser history isn’t super weird.”
What.the.fuck?
“I’m not a boyfriend,” I pointed out.
All the parents just started laughing like they knew something I didn’t.
“Oh, sweetie,” Ripley said. “Maybe notnow,but fate is meddling with you. Besides, Reyson has been translating a lot of our old diaries. There was a family of Basilisks that ruled the Persian Empire for several centuries. We have several diaries from their monarchs that Reyson translated and Felix formatted and converted to eBook form. You can’t check them out without a library card. So, get your ass inside and bleed for me.”
Did George’s mom just smack me on the ass?
The inside of the library was gorgeous. We walked through the lobby to the front desk. There was an ornate bowl in the center. Ripley pulled out a jeweled athame.
“I know there are three gods here, but it only takes a drop. There’s no need to be macho and slash your palm. I will judge if you bleed on my desk. It’s an antique.”
“Just do it,” Bram whispered to us.
“I’ll go first,” Mina said.
Of course, she would. Mina was pretty bold. She went first until it was just me. Everyone got approved for their library card. George’s dad Felix was standing behind me.
“It’s nothing. Fate wouldn’t have pushed you toward our kid if the library was going to deny you. I think you’ll really like those diaries,” Felix said.
“They sound fascinating.”
“Oh, they are. I’ve already read them. There was a Basilisk queen in that era who was fierce and powerful. I think you’ll like her diary.”
“I thought you couldn’t leave with books,” I said.
“For a while, you couldn’t,” Balthazar said.
“Ripley started getting together with other magical libraries and translating books that don’t have dangerous knowledge. We’re making them available in eBook form so people can borrow books from other libraries. My wife knows a lot of these books are dangerous and not everyone should have access to them, but Ripley also knows books have power and there’s a lot of knowledge here people should have,” Bram said.
“And I read the Basilisk diaries while Reyson was translating them,” Felix said. “They are fascinating and I think you’re going to love them.”
“As soon as George us told fate paired her with you, I started bugging her to bring you here so I could get you these diaries. One of the queens in particular was a fierce warrior who put all the men in their place. She was also brilliant, and she wrote down several potions that got lost in time. There’re also things about your venom that I think aren’t public knowledge anymore. So, you need to bleed for me because I’ve been harassing my kid so I could get you these books,” Ripley said. “I also have some Basilisk smut if you’re into that.”
George clearly told her mom about me, but she must have left out a lot because all of her parents were being really nice to me, even if her mom seemed really into the idea of me bleeding into that bowl.
And I didn’t feel left out because I wasn’t dating George. I loved reading and there wasn’t a lot out there about Basilisks. When Ketura and Azren were on this realm, they’d find them and bring them back for me. Sometimes, they were history books and sometimes, they were fiction. It was rarely fiction because the Basilisk was always the villain who met a bad end.
“Basilisk smut?” I asked.
Did I even want to know?
“Oh, yeah. Someone wrote a Basilisk love interest about seven years ago that went viral and it became a thing. Patrons started asking for it, so I started stocking it,” Ripley said.
“And Ketura knows you’re eighteen now, but she changed your diapers and didn’t want to picture you reading that, so she asked me not to buy it, either,” Azren said.
